In the early 1980s, when Susan Engel was starting out as the director of the adult division at the 92nd Street Y, the vaunted cultural and community center on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, she was asked to “make magic on Sunday nights.” So she created a weekly lecture series that became the institution’s marquee event, 92Y Talks.

Now Ms. Engel, 59, is the executive producer of the series, which still takes place on Sundays, as well as on other nights. She invites public figures to converse with notable interviewers, such as Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind. and a Democratic presidential candidate, who recently spoke with Jonathan Capehart, from The Washington Post. A native New Yorker who also lives on 92nd Street, Ms. Engel, in her 37th working for the only employer she’s ever had, is never far from work, physically or mentally, even on Sundays.

GROUNDS FOR RESEARCH I get up around 7:30. I don’t do anything until I have my perfect cup of coffee. I’m a bit of an obsessive, so I usually have Stumptown, and I alternate between an AeroPress and an electric drip pour over. I have these high energy, Paleo bars that I make with almond butter and have with plain Stonyfield yogurt on top, and then I open the front door for The New York Times.

I scout the Times for ideas. What’s coming out, who has books out. I’m always looking at the Book Review and Arts & Leisure. I have my notepad handy, and my coffee, I sit at a table and write down ideas.

I scour the paper until about 9 when I turn on the Sunday morning shows to get more ideas, but also to be on top of things myself. This is the time when I can rejuvenate and mull over what’s in the zeitgeist. And then I go to yoga.

CLEAR THE CHATTER I go to an 11:15 class at Pure Yoga on 86th Street. I take a basics class. It clears the chatter in my mind. That’s really it. Because my job is so much about ideas and people, I need a space where I’m not on the phone and I’m not thinking about who I am going to get to the Y next, but I’m just allowing things to be, allowing my mind to just flow.

What’s interesting about this is that sometimes then new ideas come, and people I haven’t even been thinking of come to mind because I’m not forcing it.

FAMILY At home, I have a little something to eat and then FaceTime with my 97-year-old mother and her caregiver in Florida. Around 3, weather permitting, I want to go for a walk around the reservoir with my daughters, Shira, 27, and Eva, 23. Shira comes in from Brooklyn and Eva lives in the same building as I do. The three of us will go for a walk around the reservoir or along the East River Promenade together. Afterward, the girls might go for coffee and catch up while I make dinner.

EARLY BIRDS Shira and Eva typically come over for dinner. I raised them mostly as a single mother, and it’s very important that we spend time together. Sunday is really our only time to do so, and I make an early dinner for us because I have work on Sunday nights, just like I did when they were little, but now I no longer need to hire a babysitter. I keep it simple and get their favorite foods, which are salmon, string beans almandine, and couscous. I pick up fresh fish at Whole Food on the way home from yoga.

THE SHOW I get to the 92Y at 6:30 to prepare for that night’s event, where I will introduce the moderator and the guest to the audience around 7:30. From there, I’m in the green room watching the show on the monitor; and also curating some of the audience questions written on cards that are collected by ushers. I pick out six to eight questions to bring out to the moderator, all the while listening intently to make sure questions I planned to bring out haven’t already been covered in the talk. Around 9 the show wraps up, and I stay around for any book signings we might have in the adjacent art gallery.

UNWIND I go home and have a glass of red wine. I might read a novel or a short story or I may have a snack, and I do get on email and respond to things because I’ve been disconnected. I also text with my mother’s caregivers. I’ll catch up on shows I’ve missed during the week, typically, “This Is Us.”

I go to bed around midnight. It’s hard to just kind of go to bed right away. I still get excited by the events. The live event experience has a certain feeling, an intimacy, that you don’t get online or onscreen. When an audience gives a standing ovation, there a certain feeling of people coming together, and that’s very gratifying.

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