Author Wade Graham of American Eden explores the birth and career of the modern garden in California between 1920 and the 1960s.

California and the Birth of the Modern Garden

Damian Duffy and John Jennings, the award-winning team behind the #1 bestseller Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, discuss their new graphic novel adaptation of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower.

President's Series: Parable of the Sower, A Graphic Novel Adaptation

Karen R. Lawrence

Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence speaks with Drew Gilpin Faust, former president of Harvard and Civil War scholar, about the importance of the humanities.

Why It Matters: Drew Gilpin Faust and Karen R. Lawrence

Civil War scholar and former Harvard president Drew Gilpin Faust explores the ways The Huntington's collections have served as a critical resource for our understanding of the Civil War for this 2020 Founders' Day Lecture. Although the collection started with Henry Huntington, it has expanded since the library's founding, bringing new insights about the war's causes, motivations, and consequences.

Making History

Peter Stallybrass, professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, examines a single letter that Elizabeth Barrett Barrett wrote to Hugh Stuart Boyd, a scholar with whom she was passionately in love long before she met her fellow poet and future husband, Robert Browning.

The Materiality of Love

Carla Hayden

Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence speaks with Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress, about why archives and libraries exist and why the work they do continues to be important.

Why It Matters: Karen R. Lawrence In Conversation with Carla Hayden

Hui-shu Lee, professor of Chinese art history at UCLA, reflects on two recipients of the Pritzker Architecture Prize—I. M. Pei and Wang Shu—and their instrumental reinterpretations of Chinese garden design for the modern and post-modern worlds.

Transformations of the Chinese Garden

Mae Ngai, professor of history at Columbia University, explores The Huntington's collections on the history of the American West, which includes some scattered references of the Chinese people, who were integral to California's history but were not always visible through historical records.

The Chinese in The Huntington Archives

Thomas Cromwell

Sir Diarmaid MacCulloch, emeritus professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford and Fellow of St. Cross College, introduces his ground-breaking biography of the self-made statesman who married his son to King Henry VIII's sister-in-law, reshaped Tudor England and Ireland, and set the kingdom on a Protestant course for centuries.

Thomas Cromwell: Getting Past the Myths

Sally Gordon (University of Pennsylvania) and Kevin Waite (Durham University) explore the role of the Mormon Church and the spread of slavery across the continent in the mid-19th century through the life of Bridget "Biddy" Mason.

The Trials of Biddy Mason

The Huntington hosts approximately twenty public lectures each year on themes related to its collections. Subscribe to the podcast to be notified every time a new lecture is released.

Subscribe to The Huntington Lectures Podcast

Benjamin Franklin

Joyce Chaplin, James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History at Harvard University, revisits "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin," which was one of Henry Huntington's most prized manuscript acquisitions. Franklin tells a tantalizingly open-ended story about his life because the manuscript was left unfinished.

Benjamin Franklin: The Never Completed American Founder

Andrea Wulf, the New York Times bestselling author, discusses her new illustrated book "The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt"—her second work about the intrepid explorer and naturalist.

The Adventures of Alexander Von Humboldt

Peter Moore, writer and lecturer at the University of Oxford, discusses an 18th-century coal collier from a small port in northern England came to define an entire age.

Endeavour: The Ship that Changed the World

Henry Huntington acquired one of the rarest books in the history of English literature: the so-called "bad quarto" of Hamlet. Zachary Lesser, professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, discusses how this book's discovery in 1823 transformed our ideas about Hamlet, how it made its way to The Huntington, and what can we learn through this book's history about modern libraries.

Hamlet and Other Ghost Stories

Dennis Kruska, a noted authority on the Yosemite Valley, discusses the literature that enticed sightseers to experience the Yosemite's scenic wonders following the first tourist party to the valley in 1855.

Lore and Lure of Literature on Early Yosemite Tourism

Bill Esparza, author of "L.A. Mexicano: Recipes, People &amp; Places," and Elisa Callow, author of "The Urban Forager: Culinary Exploring &amp; Eating on L.A.'s Eastside," join award-winning journalist and L.A. chronicler Val Zavala in a Q&amp;A about L.A. food culture.

Our Common Table: A Journey Through L.A.’s Flourishing Culinary Communities

Paul Haaga Jr

Featuring Paul G. Haaga Jr., Huntington Trustee emeritus, chair of the board of NPR, and retired chair of Capital Research and Management Company, in conversation with Meg Whitman, CEO of Quibi, former president and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and eBay Inc., and 2010 Republican nominee for governor of California.

Centennial Paul Haaga Jr. Program on American Entrepreneurship

Rose hybridizer Tom Carruth, the E. L. and Ruth B. Shannon Curator of the Rose Collections at The Huntington, discusses how he developed his newest floribunda, 'Huntington's 100th', named in honor of the institution's Centennial Celebration.

The 'Huntington's 100th' Rose

James Brayton Hall, president of the Garden Conservancy, examines what America's gardens say about our culture and how new approaches pioneered by the Conservancy are helping to protect and document these landscapes for the future. Several examples of West Coast gardens are highlighted, including remarkable successes—such as the gardens surrounding the former prison on Alcatraz Island—and one near failure.

Outstanding American Gardens

Rob Iliffe, professor of the history of science at the University of Oxford, discusses two little-known documents that reveal how Isaac Newton's approach to prosecuting contemporary counterfeiters as a warden of the Royal Mint was closely related to his strategy for revealing the corruption of Christianity.

Counterfeiting Science

Dympna Callaghan, William L. Safire Professor of Modern Letters at Syracuse University, considers Shakespeare's complaints about the limitations on what he could say and how he could say it.

Shakespeare's Freedom of Speech

An esteemed panel of astronomers, historians, and engineers explore astronomy's fantastical theories and fascinating discoveries with moderator and Caltech university archivist Peter Sachs Collopy. Panelists include Tracy Drain, JPL Psyche mission deputy project systems engineer; Eun-Joo Ahn, astrophysicist and graduate student in history at UCSB; W. Patrick McCray, professor of history at UCSB; and John Mulchaey, Crawford H. Greenewalt Chair and Director of the Carnegie Observatories.

Strange Science of Astronomy: Past and Present

Tyrus Wong

PAPER

Author Julie Leung and illustrator Chris Sasaki discuss the inspiring true story behind their children's book, Paper Son. Li Wei Yang, curator of Pacific Rim Collections at The Huntington, introduces the program and offers historical context. A book signing follows the talk.

Paper Son: The Inspiring Story of Tyrus Wong, Immigrant and Artist

Henry Huntington

William Deverell, director of the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, explores the life of Henry E. Huntington (1850-1927) against the backdrop of American history. This program is a Haynes Foundation Lecture.

The Founder and the Future: Becoming Henry Huntington

Richard Schultes

Noted ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin and cartographer Brian Hettler of the Amazon Conservation Team discuss the work of Richard Schultes, the 20th-century ethnobotanist, and share their new interactive map, based on the explorer's journals, that tracks his Amazon travels and offers insights into his role in the development of the field of ethnobotany in the US.

Life and Times of Ethnobotanist Richard Schultes in the Amazon

Researcher T.J. Stiles describes the last year of Custer's life through the eyes of teenager Bertie Swett. Swett came to know Custer and his wife Libbie at Fort Abraham Lincoln and in Manhattan while America approached a historic turning point. Swett bared witness to the notorious soldier's life as he pushed his career and fortune to the brink of disaster.

Locked in his Private Room: A Teenager's View of the Last Days of George Armstrong Custer

The best philosophy podcast episodes. Asking questions about how to live a better life, what it means to be and do good, to the idea of God. This topic includes episodes that bring about important questions that everyone should be asking themselves. Add episodes you're interested into your queue below!

Best Episodes on Practical Philosophy & How To Live

The best podcast episodes on physical health. Episodes talk about your diet, sleep, exercise and all the things that people do to improve their physical health and live a healthier life. This topic is for everyone, with applications in all of our everyday lives. Add episodes you're interested into your queue below!