Inspired by the research for her #1 Apple podcast, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra, Rachel Maddow returns to the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Cultural Center stage to discuss the far-right plotters who launched a campaign of disinformation to destroy America’s confidence in our leaders and undermine our democracy during World War II – and how committed journalists, activists and ordinary citizens thwarted their treasonous schemes.
Upon the release of her new book, Prequel: An American Fight against Fascism, she will chart the rise of a wild American strain of authoritarianism that has been alive on the far-right edge of our politics for the better part of a century – and the lessons history offers as we navigate our own disquieting times.
The host of the Emmy Award–winning The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, Maddow is the #1 New York Times best-selling author of Drift and Blowout, and the New York Times best-selling co-author of Bag Man.
Maddow will be in conversation with actor, writer, director and producer Ben Stiller.
Ben Stiller is one of Hollywood's most successful and acclaimed multihyphenates. He is an actor, director, writer, and producer. Films he has appeared in include Meet the Parents and Night at the Museum, the animated Madagascar films, critically-acclaimed arthouse hits; The Royal Tenenbaums, Meyerowitz Stories and While We’re Young, his legendary sketch television series The Ben Stiller Show, and the Oscar-nominated Tropic Thunder, which he starred in, directed, co-wrote, and produced, to massive acclaim under his production company, Red Hour.
Stiller is the Emmy-nominated director and executive producer of the critically acclaimed Apple TV+ workplace thriller, Severance, which will soon return for its second season. Written by Dan Erikson, Severance is set at Lumon Industries, a company whose employees have undergone a medical procedure which surgically divides their memories between their work and personal lives.
The series earned 14 Emmy Award nominations for its first season. It won the WGA award for best new series and best drama, and is the recipient of an AFI Award for TV Program of the Year.
In 2019 he won a DGA Award for directing all seven parts of Escape at Dannemora, a limited series for Showtime which he also produced, starring Benicio del Toro, Paul Dano, and Patricia Arquette. Based on the infamous 2015 true crime story, Escape at Dannemora boldly traces the prison break and subsequent manhunt for two convicted killers who escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, NY.
As a director, Stiller's body of work includes the critically acclaimed hit comedy Tropic Thunder, which won the Broadcast Film Critics' Award for 'Best Comedy' and the Hollywood Film Festival Award for 'Comedy of the Year', in addition to Academy Award, Golden Globe, SAG, and BAFTA nominations for Robert Downey Jr.'s inspired performance. His other feature directorial credits include the cult comedy Zoolander and its sequel, in which he also starred; the iconic indie Reality Bites starring Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke; the dark comedy The Cable Guy starring Jim Carrey; and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which was named one of the 'Top 10 Films of 2013' by the National Board of Review.
Tropic Thunder, the Zoolander films, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty—as well as Escape at Dannemora—were all produced by Stiller at Red Hour, the production company he launched in 2011, producing a wide range of film and television projects in collaboration with major studios and networks including Netflix, Disney, Apple, Amazon, NBC and YouTube, to name a few. As a vanguard in the industry, Stiller founded Red Hour in 2001 as an incubator for emerging writers and filmmakers, with an emphasis on embracing new platforms.
Stiller's breakthrough came in the early 90s with the sketch comedy program The Ben Stiller Show, which he directed, produced, starred in, and wrote, eventually winning an Emmy Award for 'Outstanding Writing in a Variety or Music Program'. The show is credited with launching the careers of some of the most dynamic comedians of Stiller's generation, including Judd Apatow, David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, and Bob Odenkirk.
Since then, Stiller has enjoyed a prolific acting career, from the aforementioned movie franchises Night at the Museum, Meet the Parents, and Madagascar; to modern classics like Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums, David O. Russell's Flirting with Disaster, The Farrelly Brothers' There's Something About Mary, and Neil LaBute's Your Friends & Neighbors; plus Tower Heist, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, Permanent Midnight, and Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun, among countless others.
In 2017, Stiller's gifts as a remarkable actor were on full display in two critically acclaimed independent features: Mike White’s Brad’s Status; and Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected), in which Stiller starred opposite Adam Sandler, Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson.
Stiller’s memorable television appearances include multi-episode stints on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm and FOX's Arrested Development; the late Garry Shandling's seminal The Larry Sanders Show; and Ricky Gervais' Extras, for which Stiller received an Emmy Award nomination for 'Best Guest Actor in a Comedy Series'.
For his remarkable career—both onscreen and behind the camera—Stiller received BAFTA’s Charlie Chaplin Britannia Award for Excellence in Comedy in 2011; and an American Cinematheque Tribute in 2012 which cited him as a “comedy icon whose wide-ranging talents include acting, directing, writing and producing.”
Over the last decade, Stiller has also focused on another one of his great passions: philanthropic and humanitarian work. Inspired by a visit to Haiti in 2009 alongside the organization Save the Children, Stiller founded The Stiller Foundation, a non-profit that—amongst other charitable activities—provides funds, resources and support in the rebuilding of schools and educational programs in Haiti.
Stiller has also personally been involved with and supported innumerable charities and foundations over the course of his career, including Project ALS and Artists for Peace and Justice, to name just a few. Over the last several years, he has partnered with the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, to become a Goodwill Ambassador. He has met refugees around the world, in Berlin Jordan, Guatemala, and most recently in Poland and Ukraine.
For his considerable philanthropic work amid an illustrious career, Stiller was recognized in 2010 by Time Magazine as one of the TIME 100, a list of the world's most influential people.
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