History & Current Events   

This class will explore the varied styles of beer, from lager to bitter, gruit to porter. We will cover the style criteria, history, and brewing techniques of various styles. No background is necessary, just an inquiring and inquisitive mindset – and a love of beer, of course.

This class includes short presentations (talks, slides, videos) followed by discussions on all sorts of current US and world topics involving history, government, policy, science, technology, literature, education, culture, and many more. Participants are welcome to make presentations, suggest topics, discuss, or just listen. Special guests are also welcome to present.

We will examine current controversies about federal government initiatives reported in popular media. In general, these issues relate to provisions in the US Constitution called the separation of powers. Why did the founders design this? How is it supposed to work? Our sources will be news articles, opinion columns, and letters to the editor. We will use the learning through conversation method to understand these public policy issues. We will not attempt to propose solutions.

We will examine current controversies about federal government initiatives reported in popular media. In general, these issues relate to provisions in the US Constitution called the separation of powers. Why did the founders design this? How is it supposed to work? Our sources will be news articles, opinion columns, and letters to the editor. We will use the learning through conversation method to understand these public policy issues. We will not attempt to propose solutions.

In For the Time Being, naturalist Annie Dillard explores how the sacred reveals itself in our modern, scientifically-oriented world. Her protagonists are the Baal Shem Tov, an eighteenth-century Hasidic rabbi, and Teilhard de Chardin, a twentieth-century Jesuit paleontologist. She brings the mystery of birth, the Chinese Emperor Qin's ten thousand terra-cotta soldiers, and an extended visit to modern Israel into her quest. Dillard asks, "Given things as they are, how shall one individual live?" Join this learning through conversation seminar to explore with her.

This introductory class will provide an overview of Hinduism, the religion of India that originated about 3000 years ago. It will include a brief history about the origin of Hinduism and the contributions to it from different sources, the religion of Hinduism and its many components, the different philosophies that underpin the religious practices, including the non-dualism of Vedanta; and the interactions between Hinduism and Judaism, Christianity, Islam. Also covered in the class are the rituals, practices, customs, and festivals related to Hinduism.

W.B. Yeats, in his essay "The Celtic Element In Literature," spoke of visions of a world expressed by people who "believed that trees were divine, and could take a human or grotesque shape and dance among the shadows." Once a powerful people who dominated much of Europe, the Celts were reduced to a few small groups after the Roman invasions. However, their mythology survived, thanks largely to the efforts of medieval Irish and Welsh monks who wrote down the stories.

Socrates spent his life "examining" men in public places: the agora (marketplace) and Lyceum (a gymnasium). He became a celebrity and was, at the age of 47, rudely caricatured by the comic poet Aristophanes in Clouds. In his 60s, Socrates met a handsome young nobleman, Plato, then in his late teens, and convinced him to give up poetry in favor of philosophy. In 399 BC, Socrates was convicted of impiety and corrupting the youth and sentenced to death. After the death of Socrates, Plato wrote some 26 dialogues, four of which touch on the last days of Socrates.

The Cousins' War, as it was called contemporaneously, that ripped apart the ruling Plantagenet family in England affords some insights into competitions for leadership, control, and alliances, even in the present day. Join us as we dissect the complicated relationships that played out in 15th-century England and ended with the throne occupied by the first Tudor king, Henry VII.