National Osher Online Courses   

Instructor: Andrew Fraknoi                                   Course Tuition: $70.00    

Schedule: Tuesdays, 1/28/2025 - 3/4/2025, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM

Location: Remote, Zoom

For more than two years, the James Webb Space Telescope, orbiting a million miles from Earth in the deep freeze of space, has sent back remarkable information and dramatic images of the faint heat rays that come from objects in the universe. The Hubble Telescope continues to observe some of the same stars and galaxies with visible light. Never before have we had images of the cosmos so rich in color and detail. In this profusely illustrated course, we will be taken on a guided tour of the wider universe as astronomers understand it today. Fraknoi will cover this information in everyday language and without any math. We will look at star birth and star death, the organization and structure of the Milky Way, cosmic mergers and collisions, and the great web of galaxies that gives us clues about the beginning and development of our cosmos.

Instructor: Eileen Goddard                                   Course Tuition: $70.00    

Schedule: Tuesdays, 1/21/2025 - 2/25/2025, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM

Location: Remote, Zoom

This course introduces the key philosophical concepts (meditation practices, and rituals) that have defined Buddhist traditions in India and beyond. We will analyze central Buddhist teachings and their relationship to these three important domains, which interweave theory and practice. First, we will explore the historical figure of the Buddha. We will then examine the three phases of Indian Buddhist traditions: (1) Theravāda, which emphasizes ascetic ideals and monasticism; (2) Mahāyāna, which prioritizes compassion, wisdom, and the ideal of the bodhisattva; and (3) Vajrayāna, the tantric tradition that claims the human body as central to enlightenment and explores the relationship between each living being and the cosmos. We will explore the contrasts among the meditative and ritual practices across these three traditions and analyze how these practices reflect varying philosophies. We will discuss Buddhist iconography, ritual objects, and art.

Instructor: Eleanor Schrader                                   Course Tuition: $70.00    

Schedule: Mondays, 1/27/2025 - 3/3/2025, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM

Location: Remote, Zoom

Artists use color to create an array of symbolism, emotions, and sociopolitical meanings within the context of the time period in which they created their works of art. Additionally, within these works, artists utilized their knowledge of color to portray mood, light, depth, and point of view. Progressing through the colors of the rainbow each week, we will discuss a variety of paintings throughout art history to understand the artists’ intentions and the stories behind the paintings within their respective color spheres. We will also discuss the histories of color, their meanings in various societies and cultural contexts, and the materials and processes used to make colors.

Instructor: Caroline Nappo                                   Course Tuition: $70.00    

Schedule: Tuesdays, 1/14/2025 - 2/18/2025, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM

Location: Remote, Zoom

What comes to mind when you think of the post office? Is it the unique beauty of a stamp, the thrill of an awaited delivery, or an iconic blue collection box? Do you equate the post office with obsolescence or do you think of recent coverage of controversial austerity measures? As the country's second-largest employer, the US Post Office has a fascinating history that showcases the best and worst of American society. In this course, we will explore what precipitated the creation of the Post Office, its role in fostering and hindering democratic communication, and numerous examples of innovation over the centuries up to the present-day USPS. We will conclude by considering what the future of the post office might look like, with a renewed appreciation for the democratic ideals for which it stands.

Instructor: Jeffrey Walker                                   Course Tuition: $70.00    

Schedule: Mondays, 1/27/2025 - 3/3/2025, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Location: Remote, Zoom

Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is often misunderstood as a boy's adventure book or merely a dialogue on race. Instead, this classic novel addresses youth violence and bad boys, schools and parents, and civil rights and minstrel shows. The novel, banned in New England, needs to be read and discussed anew for a better understanding of America, then and now. Join this course for a new and fresh analysis of this highly criticized and misunderstood novel.

Instructor: Emanuel Abramovits                                   Course Tuition: $70.00    

Schedule: Mondays, 1/27/2025 - 3/3/2025, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM

Location: Remote, Zoom

In this course, we will document the fertile interaction between minorities that transformed not only 20th century music but the entire entertainment industry. We will examine how minorities significantly impacted American popular culture and explore their contributions to various musical genres, record labels, booking agencies, venues, innovations, and production. With strong support from audiovisuals, anecdotes, and the instructor's decades of experience as a concert promoter working with some of the biggest names in the industry, we will learn about Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Benny Goodman, Stan Getz, Norman Granz, Bob Dylan, Milt Gabler, Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, Al Kooper, Adam Sandler, Avishai Cohen, Kiss, and many more.

Instructor: Jeff Rice                                   Course Tuition: $70.00    

Schedule: Tuesdays, 1/28/2025 - 3/4/2025, 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM

Location: Remote, Zoom

Vietnam, viewed by many as a turning point between old and new approaches to war, raised many questions about the role of superpowers, asymmetrical resources, and counterinsurgencies on the world stage. In this course, we will look at the wars in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Gaza. All of these wars are asymmetrical, but what else do they have in common, and how are they informed by Vietnam? We will discuss how superpowers are central players in these conflicts by way of their supplies and support. In this course, we will examine human ways of evaluating the politics and strategies, particularly what happens when three vectors cannot agree: the public, politicians, and the military.

Instructor: Olivia Espin                                   Course Tuition: $70.00    

Schedule: Fridays, 1/24/2025 - 2/28/2025, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Location: Remote, Zoom

Using Dr. Espín’s memoir of childhood and adolescence, which was the recipient of the San Diego Book Award in 2021, we will discuss the Cuban political landscape in the mid-20th century. This memoir recreates a world that no longer exists: pre-revolutionary Cuba in the 1940s and 50s. Cuba’s fraught history and political instability are interwoven with a personal story to create a web of history, family, and cultural analysis. This is a young woman’s individual struggle for identity and independence against the background of the country’s national struggle. Family photographs and site photographs will illustrate the details of the story. We will also explore the process and meaning of memory and memoir for authors and readers. Reading some excerpts will illuminate the narrative. It is not necessary to have read the memoir in advance.

Instructor: Matt Jennings                                   Course Tuition: $70.00    

Schedule: Wednesdays, 1/22/2025 - 2/26/2025, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM

Location: Remote, Zoom

This course will explore Native American history in the late 19th and 20th centuries, a time punctuated by the violence of American expansion and consolidation, the boarding school systems that sought to erase Native cultures, and the effects of imperialism, which conspired to keep Native people in a subordinate status compared to their white neighbors. Yet, at this time, Native Nations began to rebuild and reclaim the United States as Native ground, drawing on ancient traditions to revitalize communities and fight for their rights in the American court system, the political system, and the court of public opinion. Together, we will explore how, in this history, Native peoples have proven themselves to be resilient and powerful.

Instructor: Kjir Hendrickson                                   Course Tuition: $70.00    

Schedule: Thursdays, 1/30/2025 - 3/6/2025, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM

Location: Remote, Zoom

Evolution. Vaccines. Global Warming. Regardless of one’s choice of news media, it is nearly impossible to navigate today’s information-heavy world without coming across stories on evolution, vaccines, and global warming. Each of these topics is the subject of various conspiracy theories and misinformation campaigns. How do we make sense of what we hear on the news when so much information comes from unvetted and non-neutral sources, such as the Internet and the media? This course is a non-technical introduction to these three critical matters in modern science. We will examine what scientists know, how they know what they know, how certain they are, and why there is such a disconnect between scientific understanding and the public’s perception of the science.

Instructor: Ruth Wade, Joy Wolfe Ensor, Rita Benn                                   Course Tuition: $70.00    

Schedule: Thursdays, 1/23/2025 - 2/27/2025, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM

Location: Remote, Zoom

How does one honor the legacy of parents who survived the Holocaust while at the same time recognizing the ripples of the inherited trauma they experienced? Growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust, the adult children of survivors are striving to find ways to keep their parents’ stories alive. Using their unique intergenerational lens, authors of the recent award-winning anthology, The Ones Who Remember: Second Generation Voices of the Holocaust, will reveal the variety of ways in which their parents' history of survival seeped into their souls and affected their lives as children and adults.

Instructor: David Misch                                   Course Tuition: $70.00    

Schedule: Wednesdays, 1/29/2025 - 3/5/2025, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM

Location: Remote, Zoom

Satire is one of the oldest forms of humor. Adding music seems to make it even more powerful. In early Germanic and Celtic societies, people who were mocked in songs would break out in boils and even commit suicide. In this course, we will explore the art of musical satire in a variety of genres, cultures, and eras, especially America since 1950. This multimedia course covers Yankee Doodle, Gilbert and Sullivan, the Gershwins, the Marx Brothers, Monty Python, Saturday Night Live, South Park, and Key and Peele. We will also cover a bountiful bevy of B’s: Leonard Bernstein, the Beatles, Bo Burnham, and Bugs Bunny. Because satire is often dependent on social and historical events, this course is as much cultural history as music appreciation. And while words are preeminent in musical satire, we will also discuss the music and its interactions with lyrics. But please—no students who are prone to boils.

Instructor: Anthony Antonucci                                   Course Tuition: $70.00    

Schedule: Tuesdays, 1/14/2025 - 2/18/2025, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Location: Remote, Zoom

Transcendentalism is an umbrella term that refers to a complex and profoundly influential philosophical, spiritual, and literary movement that emerged in the 1820s and 1830s. The intellectual, social, and political ideas generated by Transcendentalist thinkers, writers, and activists transformed Americans’ understandings of nature, God, and the rights and responsibilities of the individual to themselves and to society in ways that continue to reverberate across US politics and culture in our own times.

Instructor: David Smith                                   Course Tuition: $70.00    

Schedule: Thursdays, 1/23/2025 - 2/27/2025, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Location: Remote, Zoom

Wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge in the real world in a constructive way—to enrich our individual lives and to make the world a better place. Wisdom is often found at the intersection of theory and experience. How does modern expertise benefit all of us, and how can we convince the general population to value it? How does life experience create wisdom? In this course, we will explore the biological, philosophical, social scientific, and experiential aspects of wisdom and analyze what ancient and contemporary sources have to say about it.