Bestselling Author Peter Biskind Book Release Celebration

Spencertown Academy Arts Center Conversations with Neighbors Presents
Author Peter Biskind in Conversation with David Nasaw

Spencertown, New York–Spencertown Academy Arts Center Conversations with Neighbors, in collaboration with The Chatham Bookstore, presents bestselling author Peter Biskind in an event celebrating his new book, Pandora’s Box: How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV (William Morrow, 2023), on Sunday, November 19 at 2:00pm. He will be joined in conversation with acclaimed historian David Nasaw. The book will be for sale and the author will be available for signing after the conversation. While admission is free, advance reservations are requested via www.spencertownacademy.org. 

“Peter Biskind is a fixture in our community and has been a longtime friend, neighbor, and supporter of the Academy. We are thrilled to host this event and celebrate the publication of his new book,” says Wayne Greene, Academy board member. “We look forward to a lively conversation between Peter and his friend and fellow bestselling author, David Nasaw.”

With Pandora’s Box, cultural critic Biskind turns his eye toward the new golden age of television, sparked by the fall of play-it-safe network TV and the rise of boundary-busting cable, followed by streaming, which overturned both. Television, in its various guises and formats, has seized the entertainment mantle from movies and dominates our leisure time. How and why this happened is the subject of this book. Through frank and shockingly intimate interviews with creators and executives, Biskind investigates the dynamic interplay of commerce and art through the lens the game-changing shows they aired—not only old warhorses like The Sopranos, but recent shows like The White Lotus, Succession, and Yellow– (both –stone and –jackets)—as windows into the byzantine practices of the players as they use money and guile to destroy their competitors.

Biskind is the author of five previous books, including Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock ’n’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood. He is a contributor to Vanity Fair and was formerly the executive editor of Premiere magazine. He lives with his family in Columbia County, New York and is executive director of the annual FilmColumbia Festival held in Chatham, New York.

David Nasaw’s latest book is The Last Million: Europe’s Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War, a sweeping new history of the one million refugees left behind in Germany after WWII.

Spencertown Academy Arts Center Conversations with Neighbors is an occasional series designed to spark neighbor-to-neighbor conversations and celebrate the richness and diversity of the Columbia County community. Housed in a landmark 1847 Greek Revival former schoolhouse, the Academy is located at 790 State Route 203 in Spencertown, New York. For more information, please contact info@spencertownacademy.org.