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This leader of NYC Health + Hospitals cites an inspiring figure: "Everything that he did was related to what he thought was the right thing to do. He had a very clear North Star, which was not self-centered." The President? Good one! Sam from Lord of the Rings. Hobbits and health at the Fund for the City of New York. Music: Duo Kayo—Edwin Kaplan, Titilayo Ayangade

Sought-after accompanist, artistic director of the New York Festival of Song, purveyor of beauty tips: "I don't recommend a coma as a way of looking good, but if you are ever in a coma, trust me, you're going to look your best." What the music teaches. Produced with the Kaufman Music Center. Plus pianist Winnie Zheng, singers Nicoletta Berry and Sophia Baete.

Former artistic director of the Alvin Ailey company, current choreographer with the Paul Taylor company, his early love wasn't dance but singing. "I was really good at home, but in front of people my voice would crack. Dance was the only thing I could muscle through the nerves." Highly specific stage fright. Presented with the PTDC.

This former principal with the New York City Ballet is a resident choreographer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, a daunting transition. "If I'm not a little bit scared, a little bit uncomfortable, I'm not living or growing the way I want to." I tried to make her scared and uncomfortable, but now I realize she meant professionally. Presented with the PTDC.

Conductor and Music Director of the Paul Taylor Dance Company, he began in the eighties as rehearsal pianist for the Dance Theatre of Harlem. It was another era. "There were more difficult personalities and diva-type behavior." The good old days. For the divas. Presented with the PTDC. Music: the Orchestra of St. Luke's.

"One of the great strengths of being a standup comedian," he says, "is that the person most likely to use things that will embarrass me, is me." That's self-reliance. And my kind of Judaism. Presented with Littlefield, the first in our series of Conversations with Comics. Music: Taylor Ashton.

The president and CEO of the New York Philharmonic describes their task: "It's about the creation of those incredible moments that lead up to probably the most important moment in a concert, which is the silence before the first note." Almost Zen. Presented with the Viñoly Foundation. Music: violist Edwin Kaplan, cellist Titilayo Ayangade.

This authority on artist Frederic Church notes his confidence in America. "He's saying we in the United States are worthy of occupying a place on the world stage." Church died in 1900. He didn't see what we've done to the place lately. Presented with the Hunter College Office of the Arts. Music: Jenny Rroji.

The head of Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group for cyclists, pedestrians, and transit, says traveling by bus or subway is egalitarian, less polluting, and this: "A reading commute is one of the great luxuries of a city where you don't have to drive." The rolling reading-rooms of New York. Produced with P&T Knitwear.  Music: Christopher McBride.

If this historian could go back in time and attend any of Lincoln's speeches, he'd pick the Cooper Union address rather than the one you (I?) think: "Why go to Gettysburg and stand around for hours for a two-and-a-half minute speech?" Plus Lincoln's choice of weapons when challenged to a duel. Presented with Roosevelt House. Music: Hubby Jenkins.

This social scientist and policy advisor finds hope in local resistance to data centers. "These are our neighbors saying we thought we had no power, but we know where AI sits in our lives, and we can say something about it." I'm still uneasy about my toaster-oven. Presented with the Park Avenue Armory. Music: Hubby Jenkins.

"Eye surgery now is so marvelous," says this ophthalmologist. "I'm amazed." At age 97, he's one of the innovators who made it amazing, and he found time to go out for beers with Wernher von Braun and perform Shakespeare (not simultaneously). Produced with New York's Amateur Comedy Club with the sponsorship of Thomas Campbell Jackson. Music: Ray Lustig.

Gilbert Stuart's portrait of George Washington does not convey his actual appearance, says the Jewish Museum's director. "It's the way Washington wanted to present himself." The dubious task of the society painter, plus 3,500 years of Jewish life expressed as art. Listen quickly. Music: Pete Rushefsky, Jake Shulman-Ment.

They note that the leaders of the Irish rebellion of 1916 "wrote plays and poems and were well known in Irish literary circles." I'd be happy to have leaders who went to a play or read a poem. The curators of Risings: The Irish Literary Revival and the Making of a Nation, presented with the Grolier Club. Music: Cashel Day-Lewis.

These historians note that our Revolutionary War was also a civil war. "In New York and Philadelphia and Charleston, it really was neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother." Not what I learned in cold-war high school. But what is? Produced with the Gotham Center for New York City History, and without the Ultimate Fighting crowd. Music: Anne and Ridley Enslow.