Mary Cappello, Award-Winning Author. An illustrated reading that brings together writing about self in the form of “rituals in transfigured time” and writing about the other in the form of lyric biography. Cappello will discuss her entry into cancer t

Paul Campos, Professor of Law, University of Colorado Law School. America is in the grip of a moral panic about fat. The “obesity epidemic” is the “reefer madness” of our time, and the sooner we recognize this fact the sooner we will stop demonizi

Ellen McLaughlin, playwright and actress, will read excerpts from several of her plays, including Infinity’s House, Iphigenia and Other Daughters, Tongue of a Bird, Helen, The Persians, Oedipus and Ajax in Iraq. She is most well known for having origina

L. Randall Wray, Professor of Economics, University of Missouri–Kansas City. Relying upon the theories and assumptions of Hyman Minsky, Wray will explore and expound upon the factors that contributed to the current economic and financial crisis.

David T. Johnson, Former Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. For the last decade, Mexico, and especially its border regions, has suffered skyrocketing murder rates and a breakdown in public safety driven by a surg

Tamara Metz, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Humanities, Reed College. As the issue of same-sex marriage wends its way to the Supreme Court, Metz claims that state control of marriage conflicts with basic liberal principles and threatens fami

The wave of Arab protests sweeping through Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and Yemen caught American policymakers by surprise, posing the dilemma of choosing between apparently reliable autocratic allies and democratic principles. Panelists: Edward Webb

Paul Robbins, Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. The presentation will provide an overview of gene therapy and how it is being used to treat different types of diseases, i

Major General John D. Altenburg, Jr, U.S. Army, Retired, In the context of the Obama Administration’s upcoming review of its policies in Afghanistan, a panel of experts will address the following questions: What are the intensity and depth of U.S. inter

Michael Ableman, Author, Educator, and Urban Agriculturalist. Food may be the dominant issue of our time. The industrial system that brings it to us is unraveling, and the cost of that system, ecologically, socially, and personally is enormous. But ther