Webinars   

In this session, Doug Bradley places popular music at the heart of the American experience in Vietnam. He’ll explore how and why U.S. troops turned to music as a way of connecting to each other and the world back home and of coping with the complexities of the war they’d been sent to fight. The vets’ testimonies tap into memories—individual and cultural—that capture a central, often overlooked component of the American war in Vietnam. Rolling Stone named We Gotta Get Out of This Place, the book upon which the talk is based, the Best Music Book of 2015.

In this session, Doug Bradley places popular music at the heart of the American experience in Vietnam. He’ll explore how and why U.S. troops turned to music as a way of connecting to each other and the world back home and of coping with the complexities of the war they’d been sent to fight. The vets’ testimonies tap into memories—individual and cultural—that capture a central, often overlooked component of the American war in Vietnam. Rolling Stone named We Gotta Get Out of This Place, the book upon which the talk is based, the Best Music Book of 2015.

What was it like to live in WW2 Los Alamos NM, where the world's first atomic bomb was built? What were the considerations that went into using the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, exactly 80 years ago? Based on research for her historical novel, author Galina Vromen will bring alive that monumental period and discuss its impact on the state of nuclear proliferation today.

RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READINGS (optional):  Hill of Secrets by Galina Vromen  

What was it like to live in WW2 Los Alamos NM, where the world's first atomic bomb was built? What were the considerations that went into using the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, exactly 80 years ago? Based on research for her historical novel, author Galina Vromen will bring alive that monumental period and discuss its impact on the state of nuclear proliferation today.

RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READINGS (optional):  Hill of Secrets by Galina Vromen  

After introductions to the clinical definitions of psychopathy, to its neural signatures, and to the law of insanity, the balance of the talk will be devoted to a recent neuroimaging experiment that may shed light on the long-debated question of whether psychopathy should be considered a form of legal insanity.

RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READINGS (optional)

1. Frontline, Insanity FAQ, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/crime/trial/faqs.html

2. Lurigio & Carabell, Psychopathy: A Primer for Correctional Professionals, https://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/2024-12/88_1_4.pdf  

After introductions to the clinical definitions of psychopathy, to its neural signatures, and to the law of insanity, the balance of the talk will be devoted to a recent neuroimaging experiment that may shed light on the long-debated question of whether psychopathy should be considered a form of legal insanity.

RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READINGS (optional)

1. Frontline, Insanity FAQ, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/crime/trial/faqs.html

2. Lurigio & Carabell, Psychopathy: A Primer for Correctional Professionals, https://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/2024-12/88_1_4.pdf  

Do maps still matter in our digital age? In this webinar, we will explore the dynamic world of interactive, modern mapping, exploring mountains, population change, ecoregions, river systems, and other topics to understand Colorado and the wider world. We will discuss how these maps are created through Geotechnologies and how those technologies evolved from ancient Babylonian clay tablet maps to today’s maps on our phones and in our lives.

Do maps still matter in our digital age? In this webinar, we will explore the dynamic world of interactive, modern mapping, exploring mountains, population change, ecoregions, river systems, and other topics to understand Colorado and the wider world. We will discuss how these maps are created through Geotechnologies and how those technologies evolved from ancient Babylonian clay tablet maps to today’s maps on our phones and in our lives.

About 15 years ago, scientists developed techniques that allowed them to sequence the entire genome from ancient human remains. Today, scientists have genome-wide DNA data from more than 10,000 ancient humans. This data, together with studies by archaeologists, anthropologists, and linguists have allowed researchers to reconstruct the past with incredible detail—especially with regard to the movement of human groups.

For example, we now know that the population of northern Europe was largely replaced by a mass migration from the eastern European steppe after five thousand years ago. And we can answer the riddle of why Native Americans are more closely related to Europeans than they are to East Asians

About 15 years ago, scientists developed techniques that allowed them to sequence the entire genome from ancient human remains. Today, scientists have genome-wide DNA data from more than 10,000 ancient humans. This data, together with studies by archaeologists, anthropologists, and linguists have allowed researchers to reconstruct the past with incredible detail—especially with regard to the movement of human groups.

For example, we now know that the population of northern Europe was largely replaced by a mass migration from the eastern European steppe after five thousand years ago. And we can answer the riddle of why Native Americans are more closely related to Europeans than they are to East Asians

Art looting is commonly recognized as a central feature of Nazi expropriation from Jewish victims of the Holocaust, in the Third Reich and occupied territories. But what happened to looted art that was never returned to its rightful owners? In France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, postwar governments appropriated the best unclaimed works for display in museums and other public buildings. Elizabeth Campbell will share her groundbreaking research on this important topic, and her new book, Museum Worthy: Nazi Art Plunder in Postwar Western Europe. She will also address current legal cases involving museums and other entities in the United States.

RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READINGS (optional) Elizabeth Campbell, Museum Worthy: Nazi Art Plunder in Postwar Western Europe (Oxford University Press, 2024). Audiobook is available on Audible.

Art looting is commonly recognized as a central feature of Nazi expropriation from Jewish victims of the Holocaust, in the Third Reich and occupied territories. But what happened to looted art that was never returned to its rightful owners? In France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, postwar governments appropriated the best unclaimed works for display in museums and other public buildings. Elizabeth Campbell will share her groundbreaking research on this important topic, and her new book, Museum Worthy: Nazi Art Plunder in Postwar Western Europe. She will also address current legal cases involving museums and other entities in the United States.

RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READINGS (optional) Elizabeth Campbell, Museum Worthy: Nazi Art Plunder in Postwar Western Europe (Oxford University Press, 2024). Audiobook is available on Audible.

America is “freedom” and “rights” – or so most of us say.

If pressed, we say we have “civil rights,” a ubiquitous category of entitlements going back to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, or even the Magna Carta.

The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) gives this discussion its constitutional foundation. It expresses Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address that “this country was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

The broadest and longest Civil War Amendment, the Fourteenth is the platform of many of today’s culture wars, as its framers intended.

RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READINGS (optional)

FIXING THE FRAMERS’ FAILURE: THE 13TH, 14TH, AND 15TH AMENDMENTS AND AMERICA’S NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM (2022).

America is “freedom” and “rights” – or so most of us say.

If pressed, we say we have “civil rights,” a ubiquitous category of entitlements going back to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, or even the Magna Carta.

The Fourteenth Amendment (1868) gives this discussion its constitutional foundation. It expresses Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal” and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address that “this country was conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

The broadest and longest Civil War Amendment, the Fourteenth is the platform of many of today’s culture wars, as its framers intended.

RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READINGS (optional)

FIXING THE FRAMERS’ FAILURE: THE 13TH, 14TH, AND 15TH AMENDMENTS AND AMERICA’S NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM (2022).

You might be used to thinking of astronomical objects like stars and planets as long-lived and unchanging, at least compared with timescales you’re familiar with. But recent advances in instrumentation reveal a highly dynamic Universe, filled with changes and cycles that are fast enough for us to observe directly. Learning about these new developments can inspire us to seek out ways to experience human-scale variations in the heavens, reconnect to our cosmic environment, and view the dark sky as a vital part of our earthly ecosystem and cultural heritage.

RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READINGS (optional)

Exercises in observing the sky:

• Astronomical Mindfulness: Your Cosmic Guide to Reconnecting with the Sun, Moon, Stars, and Planets, Christopher De Pree and Sarah Scoles

Other books that have recently shaped the way I think about science and society:

• The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy's Vanishing Explorers, Emily Levesque
• The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking), Katie Mack
• The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy, Moiya McTier
• The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
• Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, Margot Lee
• Shetterley Life on Other Planets: A Memoir of Finding My Place in the Universe, Aomawa Shields
• The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars, Dava Sobel
• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer
• An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden World Around Us, Ed Yong

You might be used to thinking of astronomical objects like stars and planets as long-lived and unchanging, at least compared with timescales you’re familiar with. But recent advances in instrumentation reveal a highly dynamic Universe, filled with changes and cycles that are fast enough for us to observe directly. Learning about these new developments can inspire us to seek out ways to experience human-scale variations in the heavens, reconnect to our cosmic environment, and view the dark sky as a vital part of our earthly ecosystem and cultural heritage.

RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READINGS (optional)

Exercises in observing the sky:

• Astronomical Mindfulness: Your Cosmic Guide to Reconnecting with the Sun, Moon, Stars, and Planets, Christopher De Pree and Sarah Scoles

Other books that have recently shaped the way I think about science and society:

• The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy's Vanishing Explorers, Emily Levesque
• The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking), Katie Mack
• The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy, Moiya McTier
• The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
• Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, Margot Lee Shetterley
• Life on Other Planets: A Memoir of Finding My Place in the Universe, Aomawa Shields
• The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars, Dava Sobel
• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, Robin Wall Kimmerer
• An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden World Around Us, Ed Yong

We all dream at night. Webinar participants will be introduced briefly to an approach to understanding dreams that was pioneered by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl G. Jung, who asserted that our dreams, when explored in depth, can serve as guides to assist us in navigating our own unique life journey, in all of its twists and turns, with the ultimate goal of living into our best version of who we are meant to be, which Jung identified as the “Self” (with a capitol “S”). Interested participants will also learn about helpful resources for further exploration of this topic.

Also joining Dr. Christine M. Chao, in this presentation delivery will be Dr. Arthur C. Jones, a licensed clinical psychologist and frequent OLLI at DU instructor. He also has a background in Jungian Psychology.

RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READINGS (optional) Will be included in the presentation for those interested in further exploration.

We all dream at night. Webinar participants will be introduced briefly to an approach to understanding dreams that was pioneered by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl G. Jung, who asserted that our dreams, when explored in depth, can serve as guides to assist us in navigating our own unique life journey, in all of its twists and turns, with the ultimate goal of living into our best version of who we are meant to be, which Jung identified as the “Self” (with a capitol “S”). Interested participants will also learn about helpful resources for further exploration of this topic.

Also joining Dr. Christine M. Chao, in this presentation delivery will be Dr. Arthur C. Jones, a licensed clinical psychologist and frequent OLLI at DU instructor. He also has a background in Jungian Psychology.

RECOMMENDED ADDITIONAL READINGS (optional) Will be included in the presentation for those interested in further exploration.