Casual Conversations

On Tuesday, December 20 at 4:30 pm Eastern Time (US), Jennifer Rauch will join us for a Casual Conversation.  Ms. Rauch is Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Massachusetts Amherst.   Our Class President Jim Staros asked her to spend time with us, and she has generously agreed.  Here is Jim’s email to me from October 21 placing the importance of her work in a context we can all appreciate:
 

“Where did I come from?”
 

Time to sharpen our reading skills and get ready to discuss Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.   Classmates David Abbott and Tex Talmadge will be our docents on this tour through history, but as David writes, see below, the goal is to get your views in reacting to the book and at looking at the future of our species.
 
The date is January 17, 2023 and the time is 4:30 pm Eastern.   You have plenty of time to obtain the book and read it.
 

Getting back on track(s) with a Casual Conversation after a short hiatus, on Sunday, November 20 at 3 pm Eastern Time, Bill Coulson will speak with us about passenger rail in the United States.  Here is Bill’s outline and background.  Get your old Lionels in tip top shape for the discussion and to circle your Thanksgiving turkey, Chanukah menorah, and Christmas tree.

From Bill...

"The Renaissance of Passenger Rail in the US"

Topics for discussion can include -

Brown Professor David I. Kertzer won a Pulitzer Prize for his book The Pope and Mussolini: The Secret History of Pius XI and the Rise of Fascism in Europe (Random House 2014), and on June 7 his new book will be published: The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini, and Hitler (Random House).   His new book is already (as of May 29) ranked as #90 of all books on Amazon.com.