Other Lectures
Lectures sponsored wholly or in part by the Department of Education but which fall outside the normal 10:45 a.m. Amphitheater format will be posted as they are scheduled.
Contemporary Issues Forum: Edward Humes
Edward Humes is a journalist and author of 17 nonfiction books, the latest of which is Total Garbage: How We Can Fix Our Waste and Heal Our World. In a presentation titled “Want to Save the World? Start By Being Less Trashy!,” Humes will discuss how fixing our waste not only helps save the world, but is the secret sauce that turns helplessness and anxiety into opportunity and unity. When waste is the common enemy, fixing the planet stops being about giving up things we love. Instead, it’s about upgrading to stuff we’ll love better.
Humes’ other books include The Forever Witness, Mississippi Mud, and the PEN Award–winning No Matter How Loud I Shout: A Year in the Life of Juvenile Court, which led to him being called to testify about juvenile justice reform before the U.S. Senate and a joint session of the California Legislature. No Matter How Loud I Shout also earned Humes the Investigative Editors and Reporters book prize. His true-crime murder mystery, Mississippi Mud, is being developed as a series by Immersive Pictures. He received the Pulitzer Prize for his newspaper reporting on the military, and his 2019 book, Burned, help free a wrongfully convicted woman from a life sentence.
Total Garbage is the follow-up to his earlier work, Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair With Trash, which has been a “One Book” community read at 30 campuses, cities and towns across the country.
The Contemporary Issues Forum is programmed by the Chautauqua Women’s Club.
The Last Bumblebee
The Last Bumblebee: a solution-based documentary featuring interviews with scientists and environmentalists discussing the importance of bumblebees as pollinators and the various threats they face. With filmmaker Janice Overbeck.
July 6 @ 3:00 pm Week Two (June 29–July 6)
Contemporary Issues Forum: Cady Coleman
Hall of Philosophy
Contemporary Issues Forum: Cady Coleman
Cady Coleman is a former NASA astronaut and a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel with more than 180 days in space, accumulated during two space shuttle missions and then, in 2010, when she boarded a rocket and blasted off into space for her third NASA mission, a six-month expedition to the International Space Station as the lead robotics and lead science officer.
After years spent overcoming obstacles in high-performance environments, including grappling with her own doubts and training in a spacesuit that was much too big, Coleman became a success story in a role that wasn’t built with her in mind — a mother who is also an astronaut, Air Force colonel, scientist and leader. She’ll discuss her journey in a presentation titled “Sharing Space: An Astronaut’s Guide to Mission, Wonder, and Making Change.”
Coleman has served in a variety of roles within the Astronaut Corps, including chief of robotics and lead astronaut for integration of supply ships from NASA’s commercial partners. Before retiring from NASA, she led open-innovation and public-private partnership efforts for NASA’s chief technologist.
A popular public speaker and media consultant, Coleman also serves as a research affiliate to MIT’s Media Lab. She is a regular contributor to ABC News and co-hosted Arizona State University’s “Mission: Interplanetary” podcast. Coleman serves on several boards, including the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Greenfield Community College and the ISS National Lab Education Advisory Group.
Coleman and her family were recently featured in two documentaries, PBS’ “The Longest Goodbye,” and “The Wonderful: Stories from the Space Station.” Her book, Sharing Space: An Astronaut’s Guide to Mission, Wonder, and Making Change, about her NASA experiences and the insights she gained as an astronaut, is due out this summer.
The Contemporary Issues Forum is programmed by the Chautauqua Women’s Club.
July 13 @ 3:00 pm Week Three (July 6–13)
Contemporary Issues Forum: Sylvia Farbstein
Hall of Philosophy
Contemporary Issues Forum: Sylvia Farbstein
Sylvia Farbstein is on a mission to widen the lens through which people see their world. Her transition from the structured world of private banking to navigating the unknown with her son Brandon, diagnosed with a rare form of dwarfism, reshaped her entire perspective. In a presentation titled “How to Embrace Uncertainty in All Seasons of Life: A Journey of Shattering Barriers to Boundless Opportunities,” she will share how mother and son broke free from societal limitations, leading to a successful entrepreneurial path that has touched millions. With Brandon now a celebrated speaker and Gen Z activist, their story is one of refusing to be confined or defined by adversity. Farbstein will inspire you to view uncertainty with curiosity and harness life’s inevitable twists as catalysts for profound, exciting change.
Farbstein has spent the last two decades learning how life presents us with unexpected twists and turns that can shake us to our core and stop us in our tracks. It is a matter of having a growth mindset, one that she adapted, to utilize the challenges as a catalyst for an exciting change. Her professional world took a leap from the predictable and defined realm of private banking in New York City to one of few answers and no blueprint when her son, now 21, was diagnosed with a rare form of dwarfism at the age of 2. Farbstein and her son’s experiences navigating a world not built for somebody like him prompted them to seek ways to neither be confined nor defined by limitations, perceived or otherwise.
Farbstein helped Brandon launch his professional speaking career when he was 17 years old, advocated for anti-bullying legislation at the Virginia General Assembly, collaborated on Brandon’s two books (Ten Tall and A Kid’s Book About Self Love), and has advised hundreds of families how to leverage curios turn obstacles into opportunities. She proudly works as Brandon’s “Momager” as they spread his universal message to elevate global empathy. Most recently, Farbstein contributed to the new book 100 Diverse Voices on Parenthood with her message of “Combatting Comparison.” She strongly believes in honoring our children for their uniqueness rather than focusing on how they compare to others, including siblings.
The Contemporary Issues Forum is programmed by the Chautauqua Women’s Club.
Contemporary Issues Forum: Sarah Gamble
Sarah Gamble is a registered architect and educator with a passion for the public realm and community projects. An assistant professor in the University of Florida School of Architecture, Gamble will discuss how architects are engaging the climate crisis through their work and present a call to action for her profession and the broader public. Environmental education will be a focus, including the opportunities it creates for architects and the public to engage with each other and the environmental challenges present in their communities. A series of architectural projects along the Texas Gulf Coast designed and built by University of Texas at Austin students will provide tangible examples of activism at work. Her talk is titled “Environmental Activism: Opportunities for Architects and the Public to Engage in the Climate Crisis.”
Gamble teaches architectural design for graduate and undergraduate students at the UF School of Architecture, following teaching at the University of Texas at Austin from 2011 to 2018. Gamble’s academic research focuses on context and how design is catalyzed by the surrounding environment and our understanding of it, including physical, cultural, social, and ephemeral facets. This focus feeds her architectural practice, residing in public interest design, a field incorporating elements of urban planning, architectural design, the arts, social work, community engagement, and education.
In 2018, Gamble served as the State Architect for the Texas Historical Commission’s Main Street Program. From 2011 to 2017, Gamble co-founded and co-led GO collaborative (Gamble Osgood Collaborative), a design and planning firm connecting people with place with clients and grantors including the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), City of Calgary, and ArtPlace America. From 2009 – 2011, Gamble served as architect of the Austin Community Design and Development Center, a nonprofit community design center focused on affordable housing. From 2007 – 2009, Gamble was a designer at Specht Architects (formerly Specht Harpman Architects) in Austin working on projects at St. Edward’s University. There, her focus was the award-winning Doyle Hall, a renovation and addition to a 1950’s mid-century dormitory to the home of the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. The project received a AIA Austin Design Award and was featured in Metropolis and Architect magazines. From 2006 – 2007, Gamble co-founded and served as coordinator of the CITYbuild Consortium of Schools, based at the Tulane University School of Architecture. The organization served more than 17 national universities to assist in New Orleans’ rebuilding following Hurricane Katrina. In 2008, Gamble received a ACSA Collaborative Practice award for this work.
The recipient of a Young Alumni Award from the University of Florida School of Architecture, Gamble was featured by Austin(its) Magazine as one of 21 Austinites making a difference. In 2013, she was featured in Texas Architect magazine as one of “4 Under 40” architects and named one of Austin’s “10 to Watch” in 2011 by Tribeza Magazine for her positive impact on the city.
The Contemporary Issues Forum is programmed by the Chautauqua Women’s Club.
Contemporary Issues Forum: Andrew Meier
In a presentation titled “Morgenthau: The Making of a Dynasty — And an Epic,” join Andrew Meier for a behind-the-scenes tour of his acclaimed new book Morgenthau: Power, Privilege, and the Rise of an American Dynasty. Hailed as a modern masterpiece and named a Book of the Year by The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, and numerous other outlets, Morgenthau spans four generations and offers a panoramic account of an exceptional family across more than 150 years of U.S. and world history. The sweeping portrait reveals their power and influence in the most consequential presidencies of the 20th century — including, of course, that of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
In addition to Morgenthau, Meier is the author of two previous works of award-winning investigative nonfiction: Black Earth: A Journey Through Russia After the Fall, and The Lost Spy: An American in Stalin’s Secret Service. A former Moscow correspondent for Time Magazine, he has contributed to The New York Times Magazine, among numerous other publications, for more than two decades. His work has been recognized with fellowships from the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library and the Leon Levy Center for Biography, as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C. A frequent commentator on CNN, NPR and the BBC, he’s also a documentary film writer and director, now at work on a new film on Russia.
The Contemporary Issues Forum is programmed by the Chautauqua Women’s Club.
July 29 @ 3:30 pm Week Six (July 27–August 3)
The 20th Annual Robert H. Jackson Lecture on the Supreme Court of the United States — Kate Shaw
Hall of Philosophy
The 20th Annual Robert H. Jackson Lecture on the Supreme Court of the United States — Kate Shaw
Kate Shaw is a Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. A constitutional law scholar, her academic work and writing focus on executive power, the law of democracy, the Supreme Court, and reproductive rights and justice.
Her scholarly writing has appeared, among other places, in the Harvard Law Review, the Columbia Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, and the Northwestern University Law Review, and her popular writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, Time, and The Atlantic. Shaw is a contributor with ABC News, a contributing opinion writer with The New York Times, co-host of the Supreme Court podcast “Strict Scrutiny,” and a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States.
Before joining the Penn faculty in January 2024, she spent over a decade on the faculty of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she was also co-director of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy. Earlier in her career she served as an associate counsel in the Obama White House Counsel’s Office and served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and the Honorable Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
Shaw received her Bachelor of Arts from Brown University, and her Juris Doctor from Northwestern University.
Chautauqua Institution’s Robert H. Jackson Lecture is named in honor of the former Chautauquan, Jamestown lawyer, New Dealer, Solicitor General, Attorney General, Supreme Court justice, and Nuremberg chief prosecutor. Every summer the Jackson Lecture is a leading expert discussing the Supreme Court, the Justices, signal decisions, and related legal developments.
Chautauqua’s previous Jackson Lecturers have been Geoffrey Stone (2005), Linda Greenhouse (2006), Seth Waxman (2007), Jeffrey Toobin (2008), Paul Clement (2009), Jeff Shesol (2010), Dahlia Lithwick (2011), Pamela Karlan (2012), Charles Fried (2013), Akhil Amar (2014), Laurence Tribe (2015), Tracey Meares (2016), Judge Jon O. Newman (2017), Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella of Canada’s Supreme Court (2018), Donald B. Verrilli, Jr. (2019), Ruth Marcus (2020), Melissa Murray (2021), Reva Siegel (2022) and Justin Driver (2023).
August 3 @ 3:00 pm Week Six (July 27–August 3)
Contemporary Issues Forum: Amy Herman
Hall of Philosophy
Contemporary Issues Forum: Amy Herman
Amy Herman, a lawyer, art historian, and president of The Art of Perception, uses works of art to sharpen observation, analysis and communication skills. By showing people how to look closely at painting, sculpture and photography, she helps them hone their visual intelligence to recognize the most pertinent and useful information as well as recognize biases that impede decision making. Herman will present “The Art of Perception: Seeing What Matters” — an eye-opening and thought-provoking discussion of how The Art of Perception trains leaders around the world and across the professional spectrum to use works of art to enhance observation, perception, and communication skills.
Herman developed her Art of Perception seminar in 2000 to improve medical students’ observation and communication skills with their patients when she was the head of education at The Frick Collection in New York City. She subsequently adapted the program for a wide range of professionals and leads sessions internationally for the New York City Police Department, the FBI, the French National Police, the U.S. Department of Defense, Interpol, the U.S. State Department, Fortune 500 companies, first responders, retailers, and the military.
In her highly participatory presentation, she demonstrates the necessity for astute visual literacy and how the analysis of works of art affords participants an innovative way to refresh their sense of critical inquiry and skills necessary for sharper performance and effective leadership. The program has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, “The CBS Evening News,” and Smithsonian Magazine, among others. Her TED Talk, “A Lesson on Looking,” went live in December 2018.
Herman holds an A.B., a J.D., and an M.A. in art history. Her book, Visual Intelligence: Sharpen Your Perception, Change Your Life, was published in May 2016 and was on both the New York Times and Washington Post best sellers’ lists. Her second book, Fixed: How to Perfect the Fine Art of Problem-Solving was published in December 2021. Her third book, smART: Use Your Eyes to Boost Your Brain, was published in October 2022.
The Contemporary Issues Forum is programmed by the Chautauqua Women’s Club.
August 10 @ 3:00 pm Week Seven (August 3–10)
Contemporary Issues Forum: Berwood Yost
Hall of Philosophy
Contemporary Issues Forum: Berwood Yost
Berwood Yost is the director of the Center for Opinion Research and the Floyd Institute for Public Policy at Franklin & Marshall College. He is also the director of the Franklin & Marshall College Poll, which tracks public attitudes toward public policy issues and political campaigns. His scholarship is multidisciplinary and has appeared in journals that health. In his presentation on “The Tipping Point State: Public Opinion and Political Preferences in Battleground Pennsylvania,” he’ll discuss how the rearranging of ideological and partisan identities within key demographic subgroups and geographic regions in Pennsylvania have created increased polarization and intense political competition.
Yost will show how these changes have created the conditions for competitive statewide races, particularly in races for national offices, at the same time that those changes have moved the state from Republican-leaning to Democratic-leaning. In this context, he will discuss how voters are thinking about current issues and candidates and how those beliefs may shape the outcomes of the presidential race given what is known about the state’s polarized electorate.
Yost frequently writes about the results and implications of political campaigns in the state and has closely followed changes within the state’s electorate. His recent work has attempted to identify ideological and partisan patterns among the state’s voters and his recent book, a co-edited volume from Temple University Press, Are All Politics Nationalized? Evidence from the 2020 Pennsylvania Campaigns, explores how political campaigns communicate with voters about the issues that are most important to them. Yost publishes a newsletter, available at www.fandmpoll.org, about state politics and regularly writes about state politics, polling, and public policy for a general audience.
The Contemporary Issues Forum is programmed by the Chautauqua Women’s Club.
August 17 @ 3:00 pm Week Eight (August 10–17)
Contemporary Issues Forum: Robin Radin
Hall of Philosophy
Contemporary Issues Forum: Robin Radin
Robin Radin has enjoyed a diverse career as a historian of Japan and China; an international lawyer, mainly in financial transactions and regulation; and a business entrepreneur. He is the editor, with Wang Youfen, of Mao’s Hijacked Generation, and in his presentation on “Mao’s Hijacked Generation: What Can We Learn?,” Radin will discuss his partnership with a leading Chinese dissident intellectual on his final life’s project to publish a book about what was one of Mao Zedong’s most extreme social engineering programs, which exiled a generation of urban young people to remote corners of China and deeply affected the way Chinese people think and behave today.
As a member of the history faculty at the University of Miami, Radin created and served as the director of the Japanese Studies Program from 1974 to 1976. After changing his career path from academic history to law, and graduating from Harvard Law School in 1979, he practiced law in New York City for eight years and another eight years in Tokyo and Hong Kong, where he was head of legal affairs for the Asia-Pacific Region for Morgan Stanley and then CSFB.
He returned to Harvard in 1996 as a senior associate of the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations; he then moved over to Harvard Law School where, from 1998 to 2003, he served as associate director of the Program on International Financial Systems. In 1998, he co-founded the program’s Japan-U.S. Financial Symposium, the premier annual bilateral forum for the past 26 years.
Radin is a graduate of the University of Chicago, the University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard Law School. He was a Visiting Foreign Scholar at Kyoto University from 1969 to 1971 under both Fulbright and Ford Foreign Area Fellowships.
As a business entrepreneur, among other projects, Radin was founder and CEO of the biotech company CropTech; a founder and senior executive of the mobile app technology platform company Toura; and a founder and senior executive, from 1997 to 2002, of the minerals distribution company White Gold Mountain Partners, a unique business joint venture between a small U.S. group and North Korea.
The Contemporary Issues Forum is programmed by the Chautauqua Women’s Club.