Tuesday, April 24, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Historian Olivier Zunz, author of Philanthropy in America, explores the 20th-century growth of this unique phenomenon— from the Red Cross to Bill Gates— chronicling the connections between private giving and public affairs, and showing how this union has enlarged democracy and shaped history.
Monday, April 23, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Great Hall; enter on 8th Avenue. $5.
The “American Dream” always has been our national ethos—but today, says former White House Green Jobs Czar Van Jones, it’s an illusion. Outraged by the escalating attacks on America’s middle class and working families, and grounded in tough-minded American idealism, Jones has launched a new national movement in response: Rebuild the Dream.
Monday, April 23, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
In the wake of the terrorism of the last decade, legal historian Sadakat Kadri corrects Western misconceptions about shari‘a, or Islamic law. Kadri, also a human-rights lawyer and author of Heaven on Earth, says that even as “shari‘a” became a loaded word, most of us remained ignorant of its true meaning—at our peril.
Thursday, April 19, 2012, 9:00 – 10:30pm
The Pub at Town Hall; enter on 8th Avenue. $5.
Jennifer Griffiths, a Ph.D. candidate in the UW’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, uses the rich heritage of freshwater salmon research in Alaska and the Northwest to examine the impacts of increasing temperatures on different species
Thursday, April 19, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Great Hall; enter on 8th Avenue. $5.
E.O. Wilson, the preeminent biologist and author of Social Conquest of the Earth shows that group selection, not kin selection, is the primary driving force of human evolution, and that the sources of morality, religion, and the creative arts are fundamentally biological in nature.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
The world lost an exceptional journalist with the Feb. 16 death of New York Times and Washington Post reporter Anthony Shadid. We remember and honor Shadid’s life’s work with three short talks about him, from his brother Damon Shadid, Resat Kasaba (Director of the UW Jackson School of International Studies), and Egyptian journalist Marwa Maziad …
Saturday, April 14, 2012, 4:00 – 5:30pm
Great Hall; enter on 8th Avenue. $5.
Maddow, author of Drift, explores how the national-security sector has shape-shifted and grown—favoring the priorities of the war machine over those of civilian life—to the point of financially unsustainability, a confused mission, and a weaker and less secure country. Maddow will be interviewed on stage by two-time Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist David Horsey, of the Los Angeles Times (and formerly Seattle Post-Intelligencer).
Wednesday, April 11, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Buddhist priest and meditation teacher Lewis Richmond offers a users’ guide to aging well and making every year fulfilling and transformative, explaining how this transformation can bring new possibilities, appreciation, and gratitude—while maintaining a healthy body and healthy relationships infused with an active spiritual life.
Monday, April 9, 2012, 7:30 – 9:00pm
Great Hall; enter on 8th Avenue. $5.
Jonah Lehrer, author of the bestsellers Proust Was A Neuroscientist and How We Decide and the new Imagine, explores the science of creativity—brainstorming meetings are a terrible idea, for example, and the color blue can double your creative output—to reveal the deep inventiveness of the human mind and its essential role in our increasingly complex world.
Future of Health: A.J. Jacobs: My Quest for the Perfect Body
Thursday, April 26, 2012, 6:00 – 7:15pm
Downstairs at Town Hall; enter on Seneca Street. $5.
Having already achieved enlightenment (The Year of Living Biblically) and sharpened his mind (The Know it All), A.J. Jacobs had one feat left in his self-improvement trinity: bodily perfection. Jacobs, a self-described “mushy, easily winded, moderately sickly blob,” vowed to retool every part of his long-neglected body, and over two years, the experiential journalist, author of Drop Dead Healthy, subjected himself to a regimen of exercise, diets, and experiments, from pole dancing to “chewdaism.”