Washington Post reporter Robert G. Kaiser exposes the protocols, players, and politics of the House and Senate, revealing the triumphs of the system and (more often) its fundamental flaws.
Media Library
Robert G. Kaiser: How Congress Really Works—and Doesn’t
Monday, May 20, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Gary Greenberg with Philip Cushman: An Exposé of Psychiatry’s ‘Bible’
Thursday, May 16, 2013, 6:00 – 7:30pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5. Double feature!
Gary Greenberg, a psychotherapist and author of The Book of Woe, offers an exposé of The American Psychiatric Association’s fifth edition of the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” revealing what he calls the deeply flawed process by which mental disorders are invented and uninvented.
Mario Livio: Brilliant Scientific Blunders
Wednesday, May 15, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5. Double feature!
Astrophysicist Mario Livio, author of Is God a Mathematician and the new Brilliant Blunders, explains why mistakes are a necessary part of the scientific process, and how the blunders of five preeminent scientists, collectively, dramatically furthered our knowledge of the evolution of life, the Earth, and the universe.
Elizabeth Becker: The Exploding (and Destructive) Business of Travel
Wednesday, May 15, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm
The Pub at Town Hall; enter on Eighth Avenue. $5.
Journalist Elizabeth Becker, author of Overbooked, uncovers how the onetime hobby of travel has become a colossal enterprise with profound impact on countries, the environment, cultural heritage, and humans.
Richard Haass: Foreign Policy Begins at Home
Tuesday, May 14, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Arguing that the United States is underperforming at home and overreaching abroad, Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations and author of Foreign Policy Begins at Home, proposes a new American foreign policy for restoring our power, influence, and ability to lead the world.
Daniel Dennett with George Dyson: Thinking About Thinking Itself
Monday, May 13, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5. Double feature!
THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT. A limited number of standby or limited-view tickets may be available on the day of the event, at 7:15 pm.
Illustrious, witty, and somewhat-controversial philosopher Daniel Dennett not only speaks his mind, but now opens it up for tours: In Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking, Dennett shares the “imagination-extenders and focus-holders” that he and others have developed for addressing life’s most fundamental questions, from evolution and meaning to mind and free will.
Evgeny Morozov: The Moral Consequences of Digital Technologies
Sunday, May 12, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Arguing that we need a new post-Internet way to debate the moral consequences of digital technologies, Evgeny Morozov, a rising star in the Internet-democracy world and author of To Save Everything, Click Here, says we need to consider what happens when we delegate much of the responsibility for society-defining areas to technology.
Eric Drexler: How a Nanotechnology Revolution Will Change Civilization
Thursday, May 9, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Eric Drexler, the founding father of nanotechnology and author of Radical Abundance, says the atomic precision of this science of engineering on a molecular level promises to change the way we make things, the way we buy things—and the very foundations of our economy and environment.
Paul Anastas: Designing a Sustainable Tomorrow
Wednesday, May 8, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Paul Anastas, director of the Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering at Yale University, is credited with establishing the field itself while working for the EPA. He is also the author of Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice, which takes a broad view of the subject and integrates a wide variety of approaches.
Temple Grandin: ‘The Autistic Brain’
Monday, May 20, 2013, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Great Hall; enter on Eighth Avenue. $5.
Time Top 100 Hero Temple Grandin, one of the world’s most accomplished and well-known adults with autism, weaves her experience with new discoveries, introducing the neuroimaging advances and genetic research that link brain science to behavior, and even sharing her own brain scans.