Overview The Los Angeles Times Ideas Exchange is the paper's conversation series, putting an author, artist or public figure on stage with a Times columnist, critic or editor, and it has run from Julie Andrews at the Orpheum Theatre to Lionel Richie at USC's Bovard Auditorium. Most sessions are built around a new book, often with signed copies sold through an independent bookseller partner. The series has run in Los Angeles theaters, online, and as ticketed installments inside the L.A. Times Festival of Books on the USC campus. On site The rooms change with the guest: the Orpheum and the Los Angeles Theatre downtown, the Alex Theatre in Glendale, the Paley Center in Beverly Hills, the Autry, the California African American Museum, and a lunar dome at the Rose Bowl for a 2019 Apollo 11 panel on the 50th anniversary of the landing. At the Festival of Books the sessions sit in Bovard Auditorium, where Richie's 2026 conversation sold orchestra seats with a signed copy of his memoir and balcony seats without. From 2020 into 2021 the series ran as live virtual conversations, and the recordings stayed up on YouTube. Talent and Influencers The 2019 run brought Ken Burns to the Autry with musical guest Austin McCutchen, Patti Smith, Ronan Farrow, Gail Collins with Patt Morrison, and Julie Andrews with Mary McNamara. The virtual years carried Masha Gessen, Erin Brockovich, Guy Raz, former CIA director John Brennan, Jeff Tweedy, Gabrielle Union and Rebecca Carroll, Isabel Allende, Michael Eric Dyson and Amanda Gorman with Tracy K. Smith. Nikole Hannah-Jones sat down with executive editor Kevin Merida in 2021. The Festival of Books installments have included Janelle Monae in 2022, Matthew Perry and Laura Dern with Diane Ladd in 2023, RuPaul in 2024, and Lionel Richie, Sarah Jessica Parker and Larry David among the 2026 ticketed events. Brand presence Partners come in as co-presenters. The L.A. Times Book Club co-hosted Farrow and Andrews in 2019, Hulu screened a preview of the first episode of its Looking for Alaska series at the John Green session, the Apollo 11 immersive live show partnered on the moon-landing panel, WriteGirl partnered on Amanda Gorman, and PEN America ran a 2022 virtual series with the Times on book bans and censorship. Skylight Books, Eso Won Books and {pages} a bookstore have been the bookselling partners.