At Town Hall, we often invite folks to feed their curiosities, and for Homecoming Festival, we’re asking: what is your curiosity craving? In this series, Town Hall staffers will turn their own curiosity cravings into custom festival itineraries. Interested in sharing your own craving and the Homecoming lineup that satisfies it? Write us at communications@townhallseattle.org for the chance to be featured here. If selected, we’ll give you free tickets to your custom itinerary!
Missy Miller, Town Hall’s Communications Director, shares her itinerary:
My curiosity is craving an exploration of our changing understanding of a changing world. With this itinerary, we’ll gain new ways to think about topics from death, to digital existences, to our relationship with dogs. If you’re interested in diving into the origins of our mathematical understanding of nature, the “art of logic” in an illogical age, and want to hear first-hand experiences of how the self is impacted by factors outside of our control—these events are for you. Join prominent scientists like Gina Rippon and Alexandra Horowitz as well as some of today’s best science writers, including Caitlin Doughty and Jonathan Safran Foer.
Eugenia Chang balances the values and limitations of logical thinking alongside vital “alogic” approaches like emotion. Amir Alexander tracks the philosophical, political, and social uses of geometry throughout history.
9/16 Caitlin Doughty: Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? And Other Questions About Death
Mortician Caitlin Doughty answers questions about keepsake skulls, Viking funerals, mummified dogs, and what will happen (to our bodies) after we die.
9/18 The Body Lives its Undoing
Researchers, patients, and caregivers share unique artistic perspectives about the experiences of people living with autoimmune diseases.
9/20 Gina Ripon: The Myth of the Gendered Brain
Gina Rippon debunks the concept of the “gendered brain,” drawing on research at the intersection of science, society, and gender identity.
9/20 Brad Smith: Promise and Peril in the Digital Age
Microsoft President Brad Smith confronts cybercrime, privacy problems, and big tech’s relationship to inequity.
9/22 Clyde W. Ford: Think Black
Clyde W. Ford, son of IBM’s first black software engineer, presents a heartbreakingly honest story of the parallels between his father’s and his own experiences as black engineers at IBM.
9/25 Jonathan Safran Foer: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast
Author Jonathan Safran Foer offers us a new approach to saving the planet from climate change: breakfast.
9/26 Isabella Tree: A Farm’s Return to the Wild
Travel writer Isabella Tree recounts the unique and wild process of reviving her 3,500 acre farm by letting it return to nature.
9/28 Alexandra Horowitz: Our Dogs, Ourselves
Author Alexandra Horowitz explores our perplexing, contradictory, and delightful relationships with dogs.
Want to find more? Check out our full Homecoming Festival lineup!
