Nassir Ghaemi
92YTribeca ; 8/9 at noon; 200 Hudson St., nr. Canal St.; 212-601-1000
The director of Tufts Medical Center’s mood-disorders program lectures on the connection between mental illness and leadership, which is the subject of his book, A First-Rate Madness. Interestingly, he argues that mood disorders can actually benefit leaders in times of crisis.
Norah Vincent
The Corner Bookstore ; 8/9 at 6 p.m.; 1313 Madison Ave., nr. 93rd St.; 212-831-3554
Vincent, whose much-discussed 2006 book, Self-Made Man, documented the year she spent living as a man, reads from her first novel, Thy Neighbor, an account of grief, stalking, and the unending strangeness of suburban life.
Robert Anasi
Word; 8/14 at 7 p.m.; 126 Franklin St., at Milton St., Greenpoint; 718-383-0096
The longtime Williamsburg resident — Anasi lived there from 1994, when he rented an apartment for $300 a month, through the late aughts — talks about watching his Brooklyn neighborhood transform into a hipster playground, an experience he recounts in his memoir, The Last Bohemia.
Richard Morais and Phil Roosevelt
Young Guru Presents: Sound and Vision
92YTribeca ; 8/14 at 7 p.m.; 200 Hudson St., nr. Canal St.; 212-601-1000
Give your brain a workout when Jay-Z’s sound engineer and D.J. discusses how technology is changing the entertainment industry, with guests including social media thought-leader Dr. Sinan Aral; BitTorrent’s executive director of marketing, Matt Mason; and Maxell’s director of technology and new product planning, Rich D’Ambrise.