| September 20 | Kike Calvo, Photographer, Author, Bi-Lingual Educator
The Power of Creativity |
| October 4 | Mohan Gurunathan, Engineer, Entrepreneur, Activist
The Earth on Your Plate: How Diet Change Can Transform the Earth and Your Health |
| October 18 | Robert Hartwell, Music Department Head and Professor of Music, Author, Lecturer, Foothill College
Secrets, Rumors, and Lies: The Life and Death of Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky |
| November 1 | Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, Marine Biologist, Author, PhD
The Blue Mind: The Many Benefits of Being In, On, or Near Water |
| November 15 | Deanne Fitzmaurice, Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographer, Photojournalist
Luck is a State of Mind |
| December 6 | Katie Antypas, National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center Division Deputy
Supercomputing For Science: Los Altos Native Works on Big Iron |
| January 17 | Heidi Kuhn, CEO and Founder – Roots of Peace
Turning Mines to Vines Worldwide for 25 Years |
Author: paula
Winter/Spring 2022
| February 1 | David McLain, Photographer
The Search for Longevity |
| February 15 | Dr. Sylvia Earle, Underwater Explorer
Creating Hope Spots in the Blue Heart of our Planet |
| March 1 | Tim Farrell, Retired Teacher, Hogarth Collector
Gin, Sin, Sex in the City: William Hogarth’s London |
| March 15 | David Kennedy, Stanford Professor of History, Emeritus; Founder, Bill Lane Center for the American West
How the West Was Won and What It Has to Lose |
| April 5 | Norman Naimark, American Historian, Robert and Florence McDonnel Professor of Eastern European Studies, Stanford University
Putin and Ukraine |
| April 19 | Michael McRay
Storyteller and Conflict Resolution Consultant Conflict and Emotions: What Are They Trying to Tell Us? |
| May 3 | Dr. Elizabeth Ward, Executive Director, Los Altos History Museum
The Use and Misuse of Medieval History |
| May 17 | Akilah Carter-Francique, PhD, Executive Director – Institute for the Study of Sport, Society, and Social Change, San Jose State University
Sport: A Platform for Social Change |
| June 7 | Dr. Richard Kogan, Concert Pianist and Psychiatrist
Beethoven’s Deafness: Psychological Crisis and Artistic Triumph |
Fall/Winter 2021-2022
| September 21 | Caroline Cocciardi, Author: Student of all things da Vinci
Leonardo’s Knots |
| October 5 | Elizabeth Cobbs, Melbern G. Glasscock Professor of History, Texas A & M University
Defender of the Nation: Harriet Tubman and the Civil War |
| October 19 | Pete McBride Photographer, Filmmaker Kevin Fedarko, Writer
Into the Grand Canyon: A 750 Mile Exploration |
| November 2 | Carl Raymond, Professionally Trained Chef, bringing together the worlds of food, history, literature and opera
From Dickens to Downton: The World of Victorian and Edwardian Food |
| November 16 | Michael Kodas, Photojournalist and Educator. Senior Editor, Inside Climate News
Living With Megafires |
| December 7 | Sean Hartley, Playwright, composer and lyricist. Director of the Kaufman Music Center Theater Wing
Four Musicals that Changed Broadway |
| January 18 | Tina Rivers Ryan, Assistant Curator of contemporary art at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York
What’s the Deal with Contemporary Art? |
Winter/Spring 2020
| February 4 | Bruce Pittman, Director of Commercial Space Development; Chief System Engineer, NASA Ames Research Center, Silicon Valley
How Billionaires Are Changing the Space Program |
| February 18 | Mark Lapadula, Playwright and Screenwriter, Film Producer and Senior Lecturer, Yale University Film Studies Program
The Greatest Romantic Moments in Movies |
| March 3 | David Troxel, Worked in Dementia Care for over 30 years
The Art of Dementia Care |
| March 17 | Caroline Cocciardi, Author, Student of all things da Vinci
Leonardo’s Knots NOTE: this lecture is cancelled due to COVID 19 |
| April 7 | Sean Hartley, Leading Authority on the History of the Broadway Musical
Four Musicals That Changed Broadway NOTE: this lecture is cancelled due to COVID 19 |
| April 21 | Michael Kodas, Author and Photo Journalist
Living With Megafires NOTE: this lecture is cancelled due to COVID 19 |
| May 5 | Elizabeth Cobbs, Melbern G. Glasscock Professor of History, Texas A & M University
Defender of the Nation: Harriet Tubman and the Civil War NOTE: this lecture is cancelled due to COVID 19 |
| May 19 | Carl Raymond, Professionally Trained Chef, bringing together the worlds of food, history, literature and opera Foothill College From Dickens to Downton: The World of Victorian and Edwardian Food NOTE: this lecture is cancelled due to COVID 19 |
| June 2 | David Kennedy, Stanford Professor of History, Emeritus; Founder of the Bill Lane Center for the American West
The Transcontinental Railroad at 150: Reflections on the History of the American West NOTE: this lecture is cancelled due to COVID 19 |
Fall/ Winter 2019-2020
| September 17 | Leslie Dewan, National Geographic Emerging Explorer; CEO of Tailfin, a conservation technology company
A New Approach to Nuclear Power |
| October 1 | Dolores Davison, Professor and Chair, Departments of Women’s Studies, Foothill College
Celebrating 100 Years of American Suffrage |
| October 15 | Thomas Fingar, Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center Scholar
Getting US China Policy Right |
| November 5 | Carol Berkin, Former Presidential Professor of History, Baruch College
Myths of the American Revolution |
| November 19 | Patrick Hunt, National Lecturer for the Archeological Institute of America’s Stanford Society
Hannibal’s Secret Weapon |
| December 3 | Michael McFaul, Former Ambassador to Russia
An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia |
| January 14 | Victoria Johnson, Associate Professor of Urban Policy and Planning, Hunter College, City University of New York
Founding America’s First Botanical Garden |
Winter/Spring 2019
| February 5 | James Dixon, Architect and expert on architectural styles in San Francisco and the Bay Area
Victorian/Edwardian Residential Architectural Styles in San Francisco |
| February 19 | Steven Burchik, Veteran, Author, Photographer
Compass and a Camera: One Soldier’s View of the Vietnam War |
| March 5 | Brian Merchant, Technology journalist and author of The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone
The World Inside the iPhone |
| March 19 | Caroline Winterer, Anthony P. Meier Professor in the Humanities and Director of the Stanford Humanities Center The Remarkable Genius of Benjamin Franklin |
| April 2 | Elliot Engel, Emeritus English Professor, University of North Carolina, North Carolina State, and Duke University
Shakespeare 400 Years Later: More Alive Than Ever |
| April 16 | Tomas Jimenez, Associate Professor of Sociology and Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Stanford University
Making Sense of Immigration Hysteria in the Nation of
|
| May 7 | Megan Smolenyak, Genealogist and Author
No Man Left Behind (Bringing our Soldiers Home from WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam) |
| May 21 | Andrew Fraknoi, Emeritus Chair, Astronomy Department, Foothill College Celebrating Stephen Hawking: His Amazing Life and Scientific Work |
| June 4 | Richard Kogan, Julliard-trained concert pianist and Harvard-educated psychiatrist
The Mind and Music of George Gershwin |
Fall/Winter 2018-2019
| September 18 | Janine Zacharia, Carlos Kelly McClatchy Lecturer, Stanford Department of Communication, former Jerusalem Bureau Chief for the Washington Post
The Era of Noise: From Fake News to the Future of Journalism |
| October 2 | Chris Bliss, Tonight Show comedian, TED speaker, and Bill of Rights advocate
Comedy is Translation |
| October 16 | Allison Hobbs, Associate History Professor and Director of African and African American Studies at Stanford University
A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life |
| November 6 | Joseph Luzzi, Author and Professor of Comparative Literature at Bard College
The Presidential Library: Books That Shaped Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Other Commanders-in-Chief |
| November 20 | Thomas Sanger, Author and Journalist
The Athena Story: The Forgotten Tale of a Passenger Ship Torpedoed on the First Day of WWII |
| December 4 | Gregory Boyle, Founder, Homeboy Industries, the largest gang-intervention, rehabilitation. and re-entry program in the world
Lessons from the Field: Kinship as an Intervention |
| January 15 | Laura Ling, Award-winning journalist and co-author of Somewhere Inside: One Sister’s Captivity in North Korea and the Other’s Fight to Bring Her Home
Journey of Hope |
Winter/Spring 2018
| February 6 | Robert Lustig M.D., M.S.L., Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics, Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco
The Hacking of the American Mind |
| February 20 | Katherine Jolluck, Senior Lecturer in the Department of History, Stanford University
Enslavement in the 21st Century: From Labor and Sex to Organ Harvesting and Petty Crime |
| March 6 | Blye Faust, Academy Award-winning producer of Spotlight
Truth in Storytelling: Bringing Real Events to Life Onscreen |
| March 20 | Chuck Underwood, Founder and principal of Ohio-based generational consultancy The Generational Imperative, Inc.
Five Generations. One America |
| April 3 | Elizabeth Cobbs, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution; Melbern Glasscock Chair at Texas A&M; author of The Hello Girls
“The Hello Girls”: World War One and America’s First Women Soldiers |
| April 17 | Jim McClintock, Endowed University Professor of Polar and Marine Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham
From Penguins to Plankton: The Dramatic Impacts of Climate Change on the Antarctic Peninsula |
| May 1 | Larry Gerston, Political Science Professor Emeritus, San Jose State University; political analyst on NBC Bay Area
The Trump Election in Perspective: A Turning Point in American Politics |
| May 22 | Robert Hartwell, Professor of Music and Media Studies, Foothill College
Mozart and Mythology |
| June 5 | Robin Wright, War correspondent, best-selling author; joint fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Global Hotspots: Where’s the Next War? |
Fall/Winter 2017/2018
| September 19 | Adam Johnson, Phil and Penny Knight Professor of Creative Writing, Stanford University
Imagining North Korea |
| October 3 | Robert Wittman, Former F.B.I. special agent; founder of the F.B.I. Art Crime Team
THE DEVIL’S DIARY: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich |
| October 17 | Denise Erickson, Professor of Art History, Canada College; lecturer at the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University
Americans in Paris: Impressionism and the American Experience |
| November 7 | Joel Pett, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist
Real Cartoons in the Age of Fake News |
| November 21 | Jessica Yu, Author; Academy Award-winning filmmaker
Sowing Hope: Stories from”The Garden of the Lost and Abandoned” |
| December 5 | Chris McKay, Senior Scientist, NASA Ames Research Center
Life on Other Worlds |
| January 16 | Rudy Maxa, Travel journalist; Emmy Award-winning host of “Rudy Maxa’s World”
The Transformational Power of Travel |
Fall 2016
| September 20 | Nizar Ibraham, PhD., Lead author of a study on the creatures who lived 100 million years ago in North Africa and could swim
Spinosaurus: Lost Giant of the Cretaceous |
| October 4 | Chef Roland Mesnier, Executive White House Chef, 1979-2004
All the Presidents’ Pastries |
| October 18 | Rob Kapilow, Composer, conductor, author, NPR music commentator, along with the St. Lawrence String Quartet, ensemble-in-residence at Stanford University
Hayden and the Detective Novel: Does Music Have a Plot? |
| November 1 | Mark D. Smith MD. MBA, Founder and CEO of California Health Care Foundation; Clinical faculty member, University of California, San Francisco
Making America’s Health Care Great (Again?) |
| November 15 | Brigid Barton PhD., Professor Emerita, Art History, Santa Clara University; Lecturer, Stanford University Continuing Studies
Paris and Impressionism, the history of a new city and a new style; how Impressionist artists looked at Napolean III and Hausmann’s renovated Paris |
| December 6 | Gary Griggs, Director of Marine Sciences, Distingished Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz
Climate Change and the California Coast |
| January 17 | Marc Lapadula, Playwright, screenwriter, and award-winning film producer; lecturer at Yale University on screen writing since 1992
Four Films that Changed America |