Fridays at Five 2026 Schedule

• July 10  —  Jennifer Breheny Wallace with Ina Garten
• July 17  —  Elaine Sciolino
• July 24  —  David Reynolds
• July 31  —  Alejandro Saralegui and Kendell Cronstrom
• August 14  —  Michael Clinton
• August 21  —  Drew Nieporent with Glenn Raucher
• September 4  —  Patrick Radden Keefe

July 10 — Jennifer Breheny Wallace with Ina Garten

Mattering: The Secret to a Life of Deep Connection and Purpose

From award-winning journalist and bestselling author Jennifer Wallace comes Mattering - a groundbreaking book that introduces a transformative new framework to confront the loneliness, burnout, and lack of purpose so many of us face today.

Jennifer Breheny Wallace is also the author of Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic — And What We Can Do About It — an Amazon Best Book of the Year.

Wallace is the founder of The Mattering Institute, whose mission is to create cultures of mattering in workplaces and communities, and co-founder of The Mattering Movement, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating cultures of mattering in schools.

July 17 — Elaine Sciolino

Adventures in the Louvre: How to Fall in Love with the World’s Greatest Museum

Blending journalism, travelogue, history, and memoir, former New York Times Paris bureau chief and bestselling author Elaine Sciolino demystifies the Louvre and shows how anyone can forge an intimate connection and be transformed by its seductive power.

Elaine Sciolino is a contributing writer and former Paris bureau chief for The New York Times. She began her journalism career at Newsweek, then moved to The New York Times, where she has held several posts, including chief diplomatic correspondent, CIA correspondent, United Nations bureau chief, and New York City metro reporter. In 2010, she was decorated with the Legion of Honor, the highest distinction of the French state. She is the author of five previous books, including the bestsellers The Seine and The Only Street in Paris, which were also published by Norton. She and her husband have lived in Paris since 2002.

July 24 — David Reynolds

Two Ships: Jamestown 1619, Plymouth 1620, and the Struggle for the Soul of America

David S. Reynolds, a Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, tells a revelatory history of American division through the prism of two ships, The White Lion and The Mayflower, once widely used as symbols in the war of ideas between North and South.

David S. Reynolds is a Distinguished Professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of Walt Whitman’s America: A Cultural Biography, winner of the Bancroft Prize and the Ambassador Book Award. His other books include Beneath the American Renaissance, winner of the Christian Gauss Award; John Brown, Abolitionist; Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson; Mightier than the Sword: Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the Battle for America; and Lincoln’s Selected Writings. His most recent book is Abe: Abraham Lincoln in His Times, the basis of the documentary Lincoln’s Dilemma and winner of the Gilder Lehrman Abraham Lincoln Prize.

July 31 — Alejandro Saralegui and Kendell Cronstrom

Madoo: The Making of an American Garden

Alejandro Saralegui, executive director of the Madoo Conservancy and Kendell Cronstrom, former editor in chief of Hamptons Cottages & Gardens, together paint a portrait of an iconoclastic garden created by painter, poet, and self-taught horticulturist Robert Dash. Madoo appeals to readers infatuated with American culture and the gardens of artists.

Alejandro Saralegui started his career at the Metropolitan Museum of Art after receiving an undergraduate degree in art history from SUNY Purchase. He worked for art galleries, magazines, and fashion and gardening companies before becoming the executive director of the Madoo Conservancy in 2009.

Kendell Cronstrom attended Cornell University and the University of Minnesota, where he graduated with a degree in journalism. A longtime magazine editor, he has worked at a host of publications ranging from Vanity Fair to Elle Decor and was the editor in chief of Hamptons Cottages & Gardens for fourteen years.

August 14 — Michael Clinton

Longevity Nation: The People, Ideas, and Trends Changing the Second Half of Our Lives

Discover how individuals and institutions are redefining the second half of life through science, reinvention, and purpose, proving that living a centenarian life is no longer a distant dream—it’s today’s reality, brought to you by the author of Roar and the founder of Circle of Generosity.

Michael Clinton is the author of ROAR into the Second Half of Your Life (before its too late). Former President and Publishing Director of Hearst Magazines, he is currently the special media advisor to the CEO of the Hearst Corporation.

Clinton is the Founder of Circle of Generosity, a nonprofit that grants random acts of kindness to those in need and serves on multiple nonprofit boards.

August 21 — Drew Nieporent with Glenn Raucher

I’m Not Trying to Be Difficult: Stories from the Restaurant Trenches

Drew Nieporent is a legend in New York City’s food world–known as “one of the people who changed American restaurants” (Ruth Reichl). In his latest book, I’m Not Trying To Be Difficult: Stories from the Restaurant Trenches, Nieporent—the founder of Nobu, Montrachet and Tribeca Grill—tells the dramatic story of his own rise to power, from waiting tables to leading a culinary empire alongside partners like Robert DeNiro, Robin Williams and Francis Ford Coppola. This “startlingly honest” autobiography is not just a memoir, but the portrait of an evolving industry, as Nieporent “takes you behind the kitchen door to show you how the business really works” (Reichl).

September 4 — Patrick Radden Keefe

London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth

A spellbinding account of a family devastated by the sudden death of their nineteen-year-old son, only to discover that he had created a secret life which drew him into the dangerous criminal underworld that lies beneath London’s glittering surface, from the bestselling, prizewinning author of Say Nothing and Empire of Pain.

Patrick Radden Keefe is an award-winning staff writer at The New Yorker and the bestselling author of five books, including Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty, Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, and Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels and Crooks.