An Evening with Jared Diamond

An Evening with Jared Diamond discussing his book, "Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings: (When) Do Leaders Matter?"
About this Event

Please note:

-- Tickets cannot be re-sold on re-seller platforms. Re-sold ticket will not be honored.

-- Tickets are non refundable and are not transferable.

-- All ticket holders should be ready to show ID at the event.

-- The name(s) you provide during registration will be on a will-call list at the event, where you will check-in and get your ticket to enter the theatre.

----------------------------------------------------------

Join us for an in-person and virtual* Live Talks Los Angeles event:

Tuesday, September 8, 2025, 8pm

*Virtual event airs on September 15 at 6pm PT/9pm ET

An Evening with Jared Diamond

discussing his book, "Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings: (When) Do Leaders Matter?"

TICKETS:

• $25 General Admission
• $50 General Admission ticket + signed book
• $85 Reserved Section ticket + TWO signed books (Profits, Prophets, Coaches, and Kings: (When) Do Leaders Matter? & Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis
• Additional signed books available for purchase at event

• The virtual version of this event airs on September 15, 2025, at 6pm PT/9PM ET and is available on video-on-demand for five days. Tickets include a signed book.
• Tickets for the virtual event can be purchased here (includes the signed book).
• ASL interpreter provided upon request.
• Free parking at the venue
  

From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning, multimillion-copy bestselling classic Guns, Germs and Steel, a landmark study of leadership across politics, religion, business, and sports—seeking to decode how and why leaders matter..
Jared Diamond is the author of the international bestselling books Guns, Germs, and Steel (which has sold over seven million copies), Collapse, The Third Chimpanzee, The World Until Yesterday, and Upheaval. The many prizes that these books have won include the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-fiction, Britain's Science Book Prize (twice), Japan's Cosmos Prize, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He is is a professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Among his many awards are the US National Medal of Science, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, and election to the US National Academy of Sciences. He has published over 200 articles in Discover, Natural History, Nature, and Geo magazines, plus 400 articles in technical scientific journals.
"Democracy is in crisis. At this critical point, we need leadership, not just from charismatic hucksters looking after their own interests, but from those with a vision for the future and moral clarity. But where do leaders come from how and when do they matter? We know surprisingly little on this question, but Jared Diamond's erudite, engaging and thought-provoking book takes us a huge step forward toward understanding how circumstances and individual talents, determination and strategy make leaders that have the potential to change our world (hopefully for the better)."- Daron Acemoglu, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economics and New York Times bestselling co-author of Why Nations Fail.
Can one person change the world?
In his acclaimed and influential books, Jared Diamond transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, in Profits, Prophets, Coaches and Kings, he studies leaders throughout time to answer the question: do the actions of individuals truly influence history? Or is humanity subject to larger historical, technological, cultural, geographical forces, far beyond the influence of individuals, no matter how powerful they may seem?
Drawing on his deep study of the life and career of a diverse cast of leaders famous and obscure– from Botswana president Seretse Khama, to environmentalist Rachel Carson, to legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden–Diamond reveals how leadership effectiveness is determined by a range of complex interrelated factors. Understanding these successes and failures and the opportunities leaders did (or did not) seize illuminates the influence of today's leaders and helps us to reflect on the value of our votes, our faith, our passions, and the people who happen to steer our ship.
.
With the same remarkable scope of Diamond's classic bestsellers, Profits, Prophets, Coaches and Kings takes readers on a rich journey through the lives of humanity’s most well-known characters to reveal how time, place, and person can come together to change the course of history.