Lecture Classes in NYC, New York

Profiled seeks to dispel the myth that talking about race has to be uncomfortable by featuring comics who humorously discuss their experiences with racial profiling while your host Marcela Onyango also entertainingly share statistics about difficult topics like mass incarceration and the war on drugs. Featuring: Keisha Zollar  Zubi...

"Desire" comes from Latin “desiderium”, which refers to a nostalgia, or a lack of a constellation of stars. We often desire what is beyond our reach - but also beyond our needs. If we are lucky enough to have the means to do so, we can get what we desire to fulfill it - but we could also change our desires. Why do we desire things that are out...

Beginning at the end, in the long shadows cast by the death of art and the decline of humanities, let's observe and rethink the relationship between art and man. It's a fraught relationship. After introducing himself in the first of the Ten Commandments, god turns against art, at least “graven images” in the second. Today we live in an age where...

In this long-running monthly show, two short, entrancing science lectures inspire sets of hilarious, never-to-be-seen-again improv comedy. Featuring veteran improv team Thank You, Robot, whose members’ credits include Veep, This American Life, The Onion, SNL Weekend Update and more. Plus a different special guest team every month, and lectures curated...

Full Course Name: Masters of Social Gastronomy: Diners, Diners and Diners! Each month, the Masters of Social Gastronomy take on a curious food topic and break down the history, science, and stories behind it. This month, that all-American institution: THE DINER. Together, we'll uncover the history of the diner and its original definition of a diner...

“Marry or don't marry, you will regret it either way,” Soren Kierkegaard once wrote pseudonymously. Was he right? Why do people marry? Should they? In marriage, people promise ‘till death do them part, but can marriage make love stay? Or is it actually the fastest way to cure lovers? Is marriage a good way to organize families, or is it a tool...

A Yale professor of Christian theology wrote “The Holy is too great and to terrible when encountered directly for men of normal sanity to be able to contemplate it comfortably.”  Join us for a look at some clips (no previous knowledge required! At all! I promise!) — from Much Ado about Nothing, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hal Ashby’s 1979...

Discuss the first seven of Ben Franklin’s virtues — Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity — and answer two questions: How can we improve ourselves and how can we improve our world? In regular small group discussions, Circle members use Franklin’s classic 13 civic virtues to spark discussion about members’...

The Happier Hour is a monthly event series bringing philosophy out of the ivory tower of academia and into our modern day agora: the bar. It’s like the self-help section– only way funnier, smarter, and with booze. And now it’s a podcast too! 

This workshop demonstrates the role of the death midwife from the final breath, through the 3-day home vigil and funeral until final disposition. Open to professional and non-professional end-of-life caregivers and anyone wishing to care for their loved-one naturally, at home, according to personal, religious and cultural traditions. Topics explored...

A world-renowned novelist, poet, and singer/songwriter who inspired generations of writers, musicians, and artists, Leonard Cohen (1934-2016) was an extraordinary poet of the imperfection of the human condition, giving voice to what it means to be fully alert to the complexities and desires of both body and soul. Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything,...

Every creation begins as a thought and in this workshop Dawson will show us how our minds create matter. You’ll learn how to use your mind to create bliss neurotransmitters in your brain, anti-aging hormones in your body and even change molecules in the physical world around you.  You’ll also practice 7 precise methods for generating the...

Full Course Name Uncovering the Lost Lives of Workers: The Archaeology of Labor The New York we know today was profoundly shaped by workers. Not only did workers build and maintain the physical city, but their struggles over pay, power, and inclusion have made and remade the city many times over and, in the process, left a physical record for archaeologists...

ANYBODY: An Improvised Historical Hip-Hopera with North Coast North Coast, New York City’s premier hip-hop improv team, has long been known for their seamless melding of freestyle rapping and improv comedy. Now in the wake of Lin Manuel’s smash Broadway hit Hamilton, North Coast is here to help quench the people’s thirst for historical raps....

On his first day on the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, Jackie Robinson changed history, paving the way not only for the desegregation of the sport but also the launch of the modern civil rights era.  Join Robinson's daughter Sharon Robinson, Vice Chair of the Jackie Robinson Foundation; historian Jonathan Eig, author of Opening...