From Page to Stage

“Grief is just the receipts for love,” Scott Galloway told a sold-out Arlington Theatre during an evening that began with masculinity and modern America, but ended somewhere more personal.

Presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures, the NYU professor and New York Times bestselling author joined Talk Easy Host Sam Fragoso for a conversation inspired by Galloway’s bestselling book, Notes on Being a Man.

The packed house heard Galloway on AI, politics, young men, work, emotions, and rejection, but some of the most affecting moments came when he turned to his own life as a young man. During his second year at Berkeley, his mother, recovering from a second mastectomy and chemotherapy, called and told him to “come home.” Arriving with about $60, he realized “I could not afford the care she needed” – the moment, he said, when he stopped “sleepwalking through life” and began working with greater purpose. This book is part of that purpose.

Before the program, Galloway (Prof. G) met with students from the UCSB Healthy Masculinities Program and later told the audience how impressed he was with them.

Enjoying the reception were A&L Word of Mouth Lead Series Sponsors Geof and Laura Wyatt, Associate Director Caitlin O’Hara, and Miller McCune Executive Director Meghan Bush, along with Crystal and Cliff Wyatt, Monica Wyatt and Mark Horowitz, Jillian Muller, Deann and Milt Zampelli, Lisa and Andrew Primack, Jen and Max Drucker, Bruce Heavin, Eric Spivey, and UCSB faculty members Susannah Scott and Jeffrey Stewart with his wife, Anissa.

The evening’s coda returned to Galloway’s mother. Even years after his mom’s death, he said his instinct after something good happens is still to call her.

“I hope you’ve had a decent amount of grief,” his voice thick with emotion, “because that means you’ve had people in your life that you loved – immensely.”

For an evening centered on Notes on Being a Man, the final lesson was really about being human.