When it comes to taste, it’s Paul Holdengräber’s job to be all over the map. With his New York Public Library program, LIVE from the NYPL, he’s created a venue where writers, artists, philosophers, and other luminaries are encouraged to think out loud—about literature, the death penalty, fame, erotic art, the brutality of boxing, psychoanalysis, the role of religion in America, you name it—in front of a live audience. One night he’s discussing the cultural renaissance of Vienna in 1900 with Eric Kandel; the next he’s eagerly learning about amyl nitrates from John Waters or mapping the origins of Def Jam Recordings with Rick Rubin and Russell Simmons. His goal, he says, is “to make the lions roar and shake the foundations of this massive institution.”

Since joining the library as the director of public events, in 2004, Holdengräber has shared the stage with such icons as Christopher Hitchens, Elizabeth Gilbert, Brian Eno, Patti Smith, Errol Morris, Werner Herzog, Zadie Smith, Jay-Z, Rebecca Mead, Bill Clinton, Al Sharpton, and Junot Díaz. When asked about his approach to speaking with people, he quotes Laurence Sterne, who argued that “digression is the sunshine of narrative.” In his public talks (and throughout our interview), Holdengräber repeatedly lays claim to the idea that people don’t make much sense, and his conversations often underscore that dichotomy by contrasting hard-nosed analysis with unscripted moments of spontaneity. In a sold-out show with Mike Tyson, for example, he had the former heavyweight champ go from extolling the virtues of inner peace to championing the brutality of the Frankish kings within a span of minutes. While discussing Pepin the Short, Tyson turned to the audience and whispered, with more than a hint of envy, “That guy knew how to kill.”

Before coming to New York, Holdengräber was the founder and director of the Institute for Art and Cultures at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. In 2012 he kicked off The Paul Holdengräber Show on YouTube’s Intelligent Channel, a loose counterpart to the LIVE series. I met with Paul at the NYPL’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, on Forty-Second Street and Fifth Avenue, a handful of times over the past couple of years to talk about what it means to be a curator of public curiosity, the expanding role of libraries in the smartphone era, and why everyone’s priority should always be to “read, read, read, read, read.”

—Lane Koivu

I. CHOPPED LIVER

THE BELIEVER: I went to your recent conversation with Werner Herzog, and you two spoke as if you’d known each other your entire lives.

PAUL HOLDENGRÄBER: We’ve spoken many times, and each and every time it’s a wonderful occasion for me. It’s a great discovery,...