With a reputation for faultless prose and profound insights, Tracy Kidder's mesmerizing profiles include Mountains Beyond Mountains, the Pulitzer Prize-winner The Soul of a New Machine and his forthcoming work, Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People.

A talk by Vince Burns and Stephen Bates

In 1875, the decomposed corpse of John Norton was uncovered in a shallow grave at Rincon Point. Learn the details of the sensational trial as well as other true tales that have given Rincon Point a reputation both famous and infamous as told by Vince Burns and Stephen Bates in Murderers, Bootleggers and Surfers: Rincon Point, Then and Now.

The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum (SBMM) presents “Global History and the California Missions: A Sea Story” with author, artist, educator, and native Californian Janet Dowling Sands on Thursday, March 16, 2023 at 7:00. This beautifully illustrated presentation will explain how the missions were inextricably linked to global maritime history and prehistory, including the latest research on the origins of California’s indigenous people, whose ancestors came to the Americas thousands of years before the first European soldiers and missionaries arrived. Cost is free for SBMM’s Navigator Circle Members, $10 for all other members, and $20 for members of the public. There will also be a pre-lecture reception for members only from 6:15-6:45pm. Register at: https://sbmm.org/santa-barbara-event/ and become a member at https://sbmm.org.