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Beginning Oct. 21, Pasadena residents will have rare opportunities to hear directly from global leaders and public figures as the Distinguished Speaker Series opens its 29th season at the historic Civic Auditorium.
The 2025–2026 subscription-only season features six high-profile speakers: National Geographic Explorer Ella Al-Shamahi (Oct. 21), former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin (Nov. 19), Yale professor Laurie Santos (Jan. 14), former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (Feb. 11), sportscaster Bob Costas (Apr. 6), and Dr. Anthony Fauci (May 4). Events begin at 7:30 p.m. and include a one-hour presentation followed by a 30-minute moderated Q&A.
Founded in 1996 by sisters Kathy Swan Winterhalder and Sue Swan, the Manhattan Beach-based Swan Productions LLC has hosted over 200 speakers across four Southern California venues—Pasadena, Redondo Beach, Thousand Oaks, and Long Beach—drawing more than 7,000 attendees monthly. Winterhalder said the planning process is rigorous, with speakers committing to four consecutive nights and logistics requiring a nine-month coordination cycle.
“Most of the time, if you watch these people on TV or some other type of event, you get CNN’s snippet or Fox News’s little snippet,” Winterhalder said. “They decide how and what you get to hear. But when somebody comes live, you get to hear it. You get to decide.”
Tickets range from $270 to $660 for the full six-speaker package, with a $10 service charge. Individual event tickets are not sold. Premium subscribers receive a complimentary copy of Marin’s memoir, Hope in Action. The series is sponsored by Rusnak Autogroup and LAist.
Audience feedback plays a major role in shaping each season’s lineup, Winterhalder said. “We want diversity in what everyone’s talking about. That’s why we have somebody who’s going to talk about politics, somebody who’s going to talk about sports in the Olympics, somebody who can talk about health and medicine, and, a National Geographic explorer.”
The season opens with Al-Shamahi, a paleoanthropologist and stand-up comic, setting the tone for intellectually rich and engaging evenings. Winterhalder said attendees often discover unexpected value in unfamiliar names. “They’ll find the ones they know the least about are the most fun nights, and they learn the most from them. We will guarantee that.”
The Pasadena Civic Auditorium, a 3,000-seat Mediterranean Revival venue built in 1932, has hosted the Emmy Awards and countless cultural events. It remains central to the series’ mission of “educating, enlightening, and entertaining” through community connection. “Seeing all your friends and neighbors there—often different ages, different political persuasions—is just really something special that there really isn’t anything like it,” Winterhalder said.
Subscriptions are now on sale for the 2025–2026 Pasadena season here.
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