Talks & Entertainment

At this in-person event (with a virtual attendance option), masks and proof of vaccination are required. Please review our health and safety protocols here.

All books will be pre-signed by the author. A book signing will follow the event for those who would like their book personalized.

Planning to ride a fire pole from the moon back to Earth? The hardest part is sticking the landing. Hoping to cool the atmosphere by opening everyone’s freezer door at the same time? Maybe it’s time for a brief introduction to thermodynamics. For the answers to the rest of the weirdest questions you never thought to ask, “xkcd” creator and former NASA roboticist Randall Munroe is back with What If? 2: Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions.

The millions of people who read the #1 New York Times bestselling What If? still have questions, and, unfazed by absurdity, Munroe consults the latest research on everything from swing-set physics to airplane-catapult design to clearly and concisely answer them. Filled with bonkers science, boundless curiosity, and Munroe’s signature stick-figure comics, What If? 2 invites us to appreciate the wilder side of science.

Munroe will be in conversation with Derek Thompson, a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he writes the “Work in Progress” newsletter, host of the weekly news podcast “Plain English,” and author of Hit Makers: How to Succeed in an Age of Distraction.