Michael hebb

Michael's second book Let's Talk About Death (Over Dinner) - An Invitation and Guide to Life's Most Important Conversation - will appear on shelves in October 2018. Published by Hachette Book Group in the U.S., U.K., and Australia. 

Of the many critical conversations we will all have throughout our lifetime, few are as important as the ones discussing death–and not just the practical considerations, such as DNRs and wills, but what we fear, what we hope, and how we want to be remembered. Yet few of these conversations are actually happening. Inspired by his experience with his own father and countless stories from others who regret not having these conversations, Michael Hebb cofounded Death Over Dinner–an organization that encourages people to pull up a chair, break bread, and really talk about the one thing we all have in common. Death Over Dinner has been one of the most effective end-of-life awareness campaigns to date; in just three years, it has provided the framework and inspiration for more than a hundred thousand dinners focused on having these end-of-life conversations. As Arianna Huffington said, “We are such a fast-food culture, I love the idea of making the dinner last for hours. These are the conversations that will help us to evolve.”

Let’s Talk About Death (over Dinner) offers keen practical advice on how to have these same conversations–not just at the dinner table, but anywhere. There’s no one right way to talk about death, but Hebb shares time- and dinner- tested prompts to use as conversation starters, ranging from the spiritual to the practical, from analytical to downright funny and surprising. By transforming the most difficult conversations into an opportunity, they become celebratory and meaningful–ways that not only can change the way we die, but the way we live.

Order the book here.

www.deathoverdinner.org

An interactive web platform that has inspired and provided the tools for over 100,000 dinner hosts to gather close friends and family members to discuss end of life preparedness, mortality, and more importantly how we want to live. The project was developed in partnership with the University of Washington Graduate School of Communications and design firm Civilization. Built for a mere $11,000 via a crowd fund, DOD has operated since its 2013 launch with a $0 annual budget and no staff, yet has been covered extensively by the New York Times, USA TODAY, Forbes, Bloomberg, TEDMED, Huffington Post, LA Times, NPR, The Guardian, and hundreds of regional papers and radio programs. 

Deathoverdinner.org was designed by CIVILIZATION

WTF IS WTM?

It’s simple. Women Teach Men is the opportunity for men to learn from women. There is much to learn about the world and ourselves, and through retreats and digital storytelling WTM will aim to provide a learning platform where men can learn from diverse, insightful female teachers, and let the rest unfold.

WOMEN TEACH MEN / OJAI

July 20th - 22nd, 2018  

For our inaugural Women Teach Men event, we chose one of the most beautiful places in the world, Ojai, California; held at the gorgeous Ojai Valley Inn. Ojai is home to lush hot springs, blooming cactus, endless hikes, and is a short drive from LAX. This event will bring together a group of remarkable men who are ready to learn from brilliant and dedicated female leaders.

Our speakers: Azita Ardakani, Dr. Reverend Joanne Coleman, Laurel Holding, Guru Jagat, Angel Grant, Mia Maestro, Molly Maloof, Tracy McMillan, Esther Perel, Vicki Rox, Gina Rudan, Shauna Shapiro, Mari Carmen Sierra, Noa Tishby.

In addition to main stage talks and conversations there will be skill-learning sessions, men’s circles led by brilliant male teachers, hikes, a trip to Ojai hot springs, collaborative feasts, and a serious deep dive and reflection on the state of manhood. What will emerge is a community of men, deeply connected to each other and with a clear understanding of the path ahead. 

Women Teach Men is a very simple project, being held during a very complicated and confusing time. We are creating experiences where a large group of men can come together and learn from brilliant women. Our aim is to demystify the new gender terrain we have entered, by creating a platform for women to teach, and for men to reflect and join together to build an equitable and vital future.

All proceeds from Women Teach Men will benefit female empowerment charities chosen by our teachers. 

As part of the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Summit; a group of global leaders gathered to discuss how we could end genocide in our lifetime. Attendees included: President Mary Robinson, President Paul Kagame, Chelsea Clinton, Clive Owens, Dikembe Mutumbo, Laurene Powell Jobs. 

To celebrate the Dalai Lama’s 80th birthday Peak Mind gathered 500 leaders to honor His Holiness with a resplendent lunch cooked by five of the countries leading chefs, a meditation led by Angel Grant, performances by Aloe Blacc and an introduction by Forrest Whitaker - HHDL graced the gathering with an hour discussion about the need for open hearted love and the importance of vigorous discourse - calling our time the "century of conversation". 

Photography by Jacqueline Koh, Kristin Burns and Nick Onken 

A dinner series designed to bring together global leaders working at the forefront of Biotech, Wellness, and IT - in an effort to develop a shared language and culture and ensure powerful collaborations for the betterment of humanity. Dinners have been held in NY, Boston, London, and SF and featured conversations with Dean Ornish, Jonathan Bush, George Church, Vinod Khosla, and many others. 

www.arcprograms.net

www.drugsoverdinner.org

Launched in June 2015, DrugsOverDinner has already inspired thousands of dinners in the US. https://vimeo.com/131935139

In America, more people die from drug and alcohol addiction than in car accidents. 1 in 10 people over the age of 12 abuse drugs or alcohol, while only 11% of those needing addiction treatment actually receive it. Over 50% of inmates in federal prisons are imprisoned for drug offenses. The war on drugs has failed – it’s time we break the stigma of addiction and have a compassionate conversation.

Co-founders Angel Grant, Michael Hebb and Jamison Monroe Jr. of Newport Academy have teamed up with leading addiction experts worldwide including Dr. Gabor Mate, along with Huffington Post as a media partner, to create Drugs Over Dinner. The mission: to move the needle, change the numbers and create awareness by fostering conversation. The result: a 5-step guide that helps you plan, host and moderate this conversation with a variety of unbiased text, audio and video resources.

Until now, society’s approach has been to paint the issue of addiction in black and white. In creating the identity and interactive website for Drugs Over Dinner, Civilization took inspiration from this cultural oversight and styled a stark black and white table setting. The platform has been launched and localized to the US, Canada, and is set to release in the UK shortly – the website is available in both English and French. It’s time to remove the blame and stigma, and spark an honest conversation about addiction.

Drugsoverdinner.org designed by CIVILIZATION

Currently at work with the Obama Foundation to produce the inaugural dinner event for this remarkable gathering. 

Have you ever thought . . .

about how great it would be if we celebrated people while they were still very much alive? Have you ever thought what it would be like to be at your own funeral or wake?

www.livewake.com

A living wake is a familial ritual where a community of loved ones are able to speak out loud how much someone means to them and express the impact that person has had on their lives. If you have ever sat during a funeral and thought, “Too bad s/he doesn’t get to hear all of this,”  we imagine you will be able to appreciate what we have built. A living wake might even be an opportunity to clear up unfinished business or clear long-held resentment. The toolkits give you very clear guidelines to follow, and allow you the space and creativity to craft your own experience.

As part of the Clinton Global Initiative we worked with Mastercard Foundation to hold three very different annual gatherings of global leaders to focus on increasing educational opportunities and financial independence for African citizens and youth.  A short film about one of the dinners can be found here: https://vimeo.com/51245566

Graphic design and Microsite by CIVILIZATION 

Photography by Wayne Price 

www.seder2015.org

A partnership with the University of Washington and many of the country’s Jewish leaders to create a digital platform to reinvigorate the most celebrated Jewish holiday of Passover. In its first year Seder2015 attracted over 20,000 active users and garnered international media attention.  

Seder2015.org designed by CIVILIZATION

A 3 day event to gather next-gen WEF leaders to share wisdom and explore the nature of family business. Held at the Gale Hotel in Miami during Art Basel. Creative direction and event execution by CONVIVUM. 

AOFB microsite designed by CIVILIZATION

CONVIVIUM developed the creative direction and content for the 2015 Trustee Summit in Washington, D.C. Our work included full website development and design, branding and theme for the gathering, programmatic content, speakers, musicians, and photography. A 400 person Jeffersonian Dinner at the Natural History Museum. 

Part II of a series called the Corridor Project focused on looking at the I-5 as a possible convivial environment;  commissioned by the Pomona College Museum. 

Four of us set out early one morning to walk 32 miles - from Pomona to the intersection of 1-5 and the Santa Ana river, aka as Disney land - with a translucent orange resin table strapped to our backs. We carried pots, pans, a stove, four chairs, plates - and gathered food from the public right of way; kumquats, oranges, meyer lemons, dandelion greens, rosemary, and engaged many private home owners - asking to harvest food from their gardens. The goal was to understand the Los Angeles hinterland from a Neolithic Hunter Gatherer perspective - what would it mean to understand the concrete wasteland while searching for the makings of a great feast. We occupied a median strip when we arrived at our destination - and cooked a gorgeous candlelit feast. 

A series of topic based dinners held at Trefethen Vineyard that is now in development as a TV show. Table designed by Kate Bailey / www.free-time.us. The table utilized wood from the original Trefethen oak tree that was struck by lightning in 2000. Cameras are skillfully and unobtrusively integrated into table and candelabras - to capture table conversation without interrupting the experience at the table.

Letterpress art by Kate Fernandez

Part I of a series called the Corridor Project focused on looking at the I-5 as a possible convivial environment;  commissioned by the Reed College Museum. This installation took place on Ross Island, and was exhibited at Reed. 

The Cloud Room is a private members club for creatives and entrepreneurs in Seattle. The charter members include the 60 Stranger Genius Award winners from the past ten years; filmmakers, artists, writers, musicians. The goal of the project is to fundamentally shift the way the Seattle creative community engages, thinks together and collaborates. The dinner table has acted as the entry point and the heart of the project, each prospective member is invited to a Sunday supper, to break bread and exchange ideas - going forward Sunday suppers will evolve to explore a variety of cultural issues. Michael Hebb is currently the Creative Director of the Cloud Room. 

http://cloudroomseattle.com/

Nine month project working with Summit content and culinary team to produce "the world's pre-eminent ideas festival" - creative producer, moderator, speaker. 

www.songsforeating.com

Get a bunch of insanely talented musicians together, and let them share songs, food, and drink. Many a musical career starts with small audiences, impromptu performances, late night mutterings; and then the lucky end up on large stages and tucked deep inside recording studios – often vastly disconnected from those that love their music. Our friends in the music industry have bellyached that industry folk hardly ever share food in a meaningful way – or rarely just get together and f’in chill. So we decided to create these evenings for our musician friends built around long tables, remarkable locations, sturdy drinking food, and bottles of wine and whiskey – with the hope that throughout each night songs would rise up from the table.

This project is a collaboration between table guru Michael Hebb, and renowned photographer/director Chase Jarvis. Hatched from Hebb’s underground one-pot dinners, and documented with Jarvis’ unmistakable eye. 

In the fall of 2009, to celebrate the Sorrento Hotel’s 100th anniversary, Michael Hebb and Barbara Malone created a year long series of cultural happenings that ended up redefining the beloved hotel and making it an international destination. The hotel overflowed with the leading intellectuals, musicians, artists and writers of our time. It was such a profound success that Night School continued for a total of three years. In 2013 the Penthouse Symposium, Chamber vs. Chamber, Drinking Lessons, 12 Books, Hip Hop and Poetry Church and the various other manifestations of Night School went quiet, while the Silent Reading Party continues to bring lines of readers to the fireside room.

Featured participants included: Atul Gawande, Chris Cleave, Lauren Bush, Bill Mckibben, Michael Lewis, Wallace Shawn, dream hampton, Mark Bowden, Cameron Sinclair, Kimya Dawson, Lesley Hazleton, Sean Nelson and many many others… 

Learni.st: Night School

Building upon the success of Night School at the Sorrento, we partnered with the digital encyclopedia Learnist to host dinners around the US on a variety of critical topics; capturing the lessons from the night via Learnist and broadcasting it widely. 

The dinner topics included: What is the future of the human body? Wealth and wisdom in indigenous culture. Can Hollywood have a positive impact? Can we cure cancer? What is the future of our oceans? Will marijuana be legal and how?

A Digital Cookbook, available Dec. 2015. Photography by Annie Musselman

Featuring Tom Colicchio, Ina Garten, Tim Ferriss, Ben Ford, Jasper White, Jose Andres, Amanda Hesser, Jody Adams, Michel Nischan, Naomi Duguid, Gordon Hamersley, Kathleen Flinn,  Jeffrey Zurofsky, Roger Berkowitz, Steve DeFillippo, Kathy Gunst, Marc Forgione, Ellen Goodman, Michael Hebb, Chris Kimball, Roberta MacDonald and Kurt Timmermeister

Do you know the most important conversation that Americans aren’t having? It’s about dying, or rather, how we want to live at the end of our lives. Today, the reality is that too many of the people we love are not dying in the way they would choose. Seventy percent of us want to die at home and yet seventy percent die in hospitals and institutions. We need to close that gap and shatter that taboo for the people we love. 

The Endless Table asks us to thoughtfully remember those who are no longer with us, cook the food they shared with us and share their legacy with our friends and family. In their honor, let us sit around the table and talk about our own wishes. Food connects us to the past. Recipes from people we love represent one of the most powerful ways we can honor and remember departed loved ones.

We asked our country’s leading chefs and food writers to share recipes, memories, and stories about someone who had major impact on their lives. We also asked them to tell us about the end of their lives, and even what they might change. 

This ecookbook of 25 remarkable recipes is the beginning of a journey to bring people together to break bread and taboos. It marks the launch of an interactive website for everyone to publish recipes and stories. By 2015 our little ebook will grow to include a beautiful printed book of nearly 100 recipes from the most thoughtful chefs and writers of our time. We bring comfort and food to this conversation. 

In 2010, Summit Series ambitiously gathered 800 leading young entrepreneurs to connect and deepen their global perspective. 60 attendees received a mysterious and provocative invitation to dinner.  The invitation included a letter-pressed version of the Declaration of Independence set in helvetica, a razor blade, and a prompt to consider whether we should write a new charter for the country, keep the existing one, or choose parts to cut and/or repurpose. The dinner and conversation that resulted was passionate, unforgettable, and created lifelong friendships. 

Once upon a time Jermaine Dupri called and asked us to create and host a 20th anniversary feast for every So So Def recording artist. The fete was held in a palatial loft in Atlanta, and represented the first gathering of JD’s entire musical family. We researched deeply and produced a custom canvas tablecloth that graphically  identified every major milestone in SSD’s influential history - the guests were asked to add a layer of their own history to the tablecloth at dinner; the items not told in the media, the event was a gorgeous moment in time, tears, laughter, and untold stories surfaced from the table and were captured in ink. 

clarklewis opened in 2004, as a 90 seat restaurant built by Morgan Brownlow and Michael Hebb in Portland, Oregon. For its first 2 years of operation clarklewis exclusively featured “whole” foods; all butchery and charcuterie was done in-house, all ingredients came directly from the farmer or fisherman, whole pigs, lamb, goat, chicken, fish - all vegetables were delivered directly from the farm. clarklewis was awarded “restaurant of the year” by the Oregonian 1 month after it opened and received media attention from around the globe. In 2006 Brownlow and Hebb ended their involvement with the restaurant. 

Gotham Bldg. Tavern was a short-lived restaurant opened by Naomi Pomeroy, Tommy Habetz, and Michael Hebb. Hebb and artist’s James Harrison, Chris Bleiler, and Andi Kovel designed and crafted nearly every element in the restaurant.  Gotham closed in 2006.

A dinner series to connect leading architects, humanitarians, aid organizations, and global citizens more deeply to the work and challenges at the core of Architecture For Humanity. 

Developed and produced three salons and dinners for TEDMED and the RWJF in the Bronx, SF, and Palm Springs focused on instituting a large scale #cultureofhealth. 

A global series of dinners held on coffee farms in Guatemala, Brazil, Ethiopia, and Sumatra; developed to establish Caffe Vita's Farm Direct buying relationships and to capture and broadcast the stories of specific coffee growing communities. 

Part II of a series called the Corridor Project focused on looking at the I-5 as a possible convivial environment;  commissioned by Reed College Museum; Michael Hebb, Hannes Wingate, and Michael McManus spent 3 days living a creating work on an I-5 Median. 

Global climate change awareness project developed in collaboration with GOOD and the UN Foundation, sparked 500 dinners on one night in all 7 continents. 

Working with Jeffrey Inaba and Simon Batiste we designed and produced six custom tables, each table design responded to a unique set of circumstances with the goal of investigating how design can elevate human connection. 

2015 marked the 40th anniversary of the seminal music documentary, HEARTWORN HIGHWAYS, a film that explored and captured the nascent roots of the Outlaw Country movement in the mid-70’s. HEARTWORN HIGHWAYS REVISITED (a new feature length documentary by Wayne Price) celebrates the authenticity and expresses the feelings of the legendary original, via a community of contemporary “outlaws” living and creating music in Nashville, Tennessee. 

http://heartwornhighways.com/revisited/

Wayne Price and Michael Hebb created a dinner for the final scene of the movie with Guy Clark, Bobby Bare Jr., Deer Tick, Nikki Lane and a couple dozen other brilliant Nashville musicians.

Heartworn Highways Revisited Directed by Wayne Price.  

The back room, founded by Matthew Stadler, Michael Hebb and Stephanie Snyder in 2004, was a symposium replete with food, drink, music, and general boisterousness garlanding the central pleasure of bright intellects voicing their excellent texts, winging it in conversation, and screening or presenting various textual and visual delights. Each featured guest joined us to celebrate the release of a chapbook published for the evening: Gore Vidal, Walid Raad, Marc Joseph, Wayne Koestenbaum, Gregory Crewdson, Sutapa Biswas, Joshua Berger, Tiffany Lee Brown, Jon Raymond, and Darius Rejali were among the many. It resulted in a gorgeous 495 page compendium of chapbooks featuring the new published at each gathering. 

What is Slumber Party?

A simple affirmation of joy.

And the joy implicit in gathering remarkable human beings and learning together. This is not a conference. This is part of a continued experiment in sharing knowledge. 

Slumber Party began in Seattle in 2011, when Michael Hebb and Nicole Patrice filled the grand Sorrento Hotel with 100 amazing people. It continued in Miami with SP #2 when we took over the Gale Hotel and our new partner www.learnist.com gave us the tools to share our knowledge with the world (and several of our friends gave us the tools to fill a pool with fifty naked bathers). SP #3 included an entire take-over of the Souwester on the Washington Coast. SP#4 was hidden away on an expansive farm in Mendocino. SP#5 went even further afield, San Miguel De Allende.

Not much I can say here, but a small group of us did spend months on a spectacular top secret project for Apple. Perhaps I can share about it some day. 

In 2013, Summit acquired Powder Mountain in Utah’s Wasatch Mountain Range–the largest ski mountain in America on 10,000 acres–with the vision to build a public mountain town focused on innovation, entrepreneurship, arts, and altruism. 

I served as Summit's initial Creative Director for Powder Mountain and have continued on as a Senior Advisor to the founders. 

In 1998 architect Mark Lakeman and architecture student Michael Hebb created a non-profit organization called City Repair and a for-profit design firm Communitecture. Together with hundreds of activists we started repairing Portland in whatever manner we saw fit, without permits, or permission.

City Repair continues to this day as a robust organization facilitating artistic and ecologically-oriented placemaking through projects that honor the interconnection of human communities and the natural world. City Repair has accomplished many projects through a mostly volunteer staff and thousands of volunteer citizen activists. We provide support, resources, and opportunities to help diverse communities reclaim the culture, power, and joy that we all deserve.

“In summer 2000, a young couple in Portland, Oregon, Michael Hebb and Naomi Pomeroy, built a table in their rented bungalow on Northeast Failing Street. It was a clever contraption with long, hinged pieces of plywood that unfolded from the wall to rest on old wine crates. It took up their whole front room and seated about twenty. They invited twenty friends to dinner, which Naomi and Michael made from whatever ingredients were fresh that day. The friends who came to eat left something in return. The first night they left chairs, but after that they usually left money. Michael and Naomi called their gathering “family supper.” Family supper was a lot of fun. There was no advertising, so you only went if you knew someone who’d gone before. Like many small-scale diy projects, it was lively and storied. Dishes were washed by drunk guests in a plastic kiddie pool in the front yard. The five Weber grills Naomi used caught the back porch on fire once. One night, Benicio Del Toro came; he was down the street filming The Hunted and wandered over, wondering what the noise and laughter was all about. Michael and Naomi’s newborn daughter, August, slept on the table during supper and got passed around to make room for the salad, or some other platter of food. Some of this is true, and all of it was exciting, and family supper quickly grew into a food business called “ripe.” “

Matthew Stadler, Ripe - Where we come from…