Profs and Pints Metro Baltimore

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “Doing Well When Unwell,” on drawing from philosophy to cope with what ails us, with Drew Leder, M.D., professor of both western and eastern philosophy at Loyola University Maryland and author of The Healing Body: Creative Responses to Illness, Aging, and Affliction.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/baltimore-doing-well-when-unwell .]

It’s part of the human journey that sometimes our body “betrays” or challenges us and we can no longer take our health fully for granted. Such setbacks, as well as chronic conditions, can disrupt our relationships to our body, to others, to our experience of lived space and time, and to even to our identity and sense of meaning.

Explore how to deal with such bodily challenges existentially as well as medically with Dr. Drew Leader, an internationally known scholar who has written several books on bodily experience and its implications for philosophy.

He’ll discuss 20 different strategies for coping creatively with bodily challenges—falling under broad categories such as “escaping the body,” “embracing the body,” or “remaking the body”—and their benefits and drawbacks. You’ll get a better understanding of which ones you are employing already and which ones might work better for you.

His talk will deeply engage with the legacies of continental philosophy while also drawing insights from the traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Both your mind and your body might be better off for your having attended. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Bar doors open at 5 pm. The talk starts at 6:30).

Image by Canva.

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “The Science of Curiosity,” on understanding and cultivating your desire to learn more, with Todd B. Kashdan, professor of psychology and founder of The Well-Being Lab at George Mason University and author of Curious?

[Doors open at 5. The talk starts at 6:30. The room is open seating. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/baltimore-curiosity ]

We’ve all heard that curiosity killed the cat, but in reality, curiosity is the secret sauce behind human achievement, vitality, deep connection, and resilience. Often given minimal attention and regarded merely as one of many useful personality traits, it actually represents a complex, high-octane psychological strategy that can be harnessed to live a life that is happier, richer, and more meaningful.

Move beyond the clichés about curiosity to explore the true mechanics of the “hungry mind” with Dr. Todd Kashdan, whose laboratory at George Mason University serves as an incubator of scientific knowledge on how people can live better and reach their potential.

He’ll begin with a provocative look at how curiosity functions. Then he’ll dive into a discussion of curiosity’s diverse dimensions and its benefits as well as its costs.

From there he’ll explore a few strategies to cultivate this psychological strength and look at the downstream benefits of doing so.

Harnessing the power of curiosity is not just about asking "why?" It’s about understanding the trade-offs we make when we choose where to invest our limited time and energy.

You’ll walk away with practical, science-backed strategies to boost your own curiosity and channel it for success in your career, your relationships, and your daily life. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID.)

Image: Studying the comet NEOWISE in August 2020. (Photo by Palonitor / Wikimedia Commons.)

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “Fake News and War of the Worlds,” a look at an infamous Orson Welles broadcast as an early lesson on mass media’s dangers, with Daniel H. Foster, associate professor and chair of liberal arts at Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/baltimore-war-of-worlds .]

On the evening of October 30th, 1938, somewhere between 6 and 12 million Americans tuned in the radio version of New York City’s experimental Mercury Theater. It was a decision that some, no doubt, came to regret. What they heard was an all-male chorus of talking heads—scientists, journalists, politicians, and military experts—repeatedly telling them that New Jersey was being invaded by Martians.

The ensuing hours were alarming ones for those who did not realize they were listening to Mercury Theater on the Air’s adaptation of the classic H.G. Wells science fiction novel War of the Worlds. The performance, directed by and starring Orson Welles, pushed the still young medium of radio drama further than many had pushed it before. Its masterful use of music, sound effects, and especially silence showed how radio could ignite the imagination and make listeners fear the worst.

Revisit that classic moment in media history, and learn what lessons it holds for us today, with Professor Daniel Foster, who over the years has taught the “War of the Worlds” broadcast as part of courses in radio, theater, and sound studies at several universities.

His talk will go beyond the trivia and urban legends surrounding the broadcast and focus on the broadcast itself, to reveal what really happened and why it mattered. He’ll look at the broadcast not just as a moment of public panic, but a daring work of art.

Aired during a period of rapid modern change, marked by the rise of dictators in Europe to the recent fiery destruction of the Hindenburg, the “War of the Worlds” broadcast tapped into widespread anxiety about new technologies and invading forces. Often labeled as an early case of “fake news,” it exposed deep questions about the institutions listeners trusted: education, the media, government, and the military.

To emphasize the mischief radio can bring to the world, Orson Welles, at the end of the broadcast and in person, compared the radio to a jack-o-lantern and warned us to beware this “invader of the living room.”

Answering questions about the performance, its historical context, and radio as a medium—new, blind, and global— isn’t merely an academic exercise. It can help us better understand how fake news works today and how to detect such lies before they cause irreparable harm. ( Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Bar doors open at 5 pm. The talk starts at 6:30).

Image: A Henrique Alvim Corrêa illustration from a 1906 edition of War of the Worlds (Wikimedia Commons).

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “What We Know About Snow,” a meteorologist’s take on the science of snow and snowstorm prediction, with Jeffrey Halverson, professor of geography and environmental systems at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and author of An Introduction to Severe Storms and Hazardous Weather.

[Doors open at 5. The talk starts at 6:30. The room is open seating. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/baltimore-know-snow ]

Will the weather outside be frightful? Get answers where it’s delightful. Guilford Hall is the place to go to learn of snow, learn of snow, learn of snow.

Regardless of whether you’re a winter sports enthusiast who welcomes blizzards or someone who spends the season dreaming of an escape to the tropics, you can gain a much deeper understanding of the white stuff with the help of Dr. Jeffrey Halverson, a severe storm expert with the Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang who gave an excellent Profs and Pints talks on hurricanes in the fall.

A seasoned meteorologist and snow forecaster, he’ll discuss how and when snow is formed, describe the different types of snow out there, and tell you what determines whether the atmosphere generates snow as opposed to sleet or freezing rain. You’ll learn the difference between a nuisance “Alberta Clipper” snow event and a blockbuster East Coast snowstorm, and why some winter seasons feature memorable—if not historical—snowstorms while others have just small snow events or experience “snow drought.”

You’ll gain an appreciation of how the science of snowfall is nuanced and differs markedly in the Mid Atlantic compared to other notoriously snowy regions such as the Great Lakes “snowbelt” or the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada. You’ll learn the pitfalls and common traps that people fall into in trying to predict snowfall using the data from numerical weather prediction models readily available today to casual users.

Dr. Halverson will tackle the debate over whether the American or European weather prediction models do a better job and discuss Artificial Intelligence’s entry into the forecast game. Accounts of the Baltimore region’s most historic snowstorms will be sprinkled in for good measure. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID.)

Image: A bright moment in the aftermath of the infamous 1928 Knickerbocker Snowstorm (Library of Congress photo).