Science On Tap: Becoming Earth – How Our Planet Came to Life
One of humanity’s oldest beliefs is that our world is alive. Though once ridiculed by some scientists, the idea of Earth as a vast, interconnected living system has gained acceptance in recent decades. We, and all living things, are more than inhabitants of Earth—we are Earth, an outgrowth of its structure and an engine of its evolution. Acclaimed science writer Ferris Jabr reveals a radical new vision of Earth where lush forests spew water, pollen, and bacteria to summon rain; giant animals engineer the very landscapes they roam; microbes chew rock to shape continents; and microscopic plankton, some as glittering as carved jewels, remake the air and sea. Humans are one of the most extreme examples of life transforming Earth. We have altered more layers of the planet in less time than any other species, pushing Earth into a crisis. But we are also uniquely able to understand and protect the planet’s wondrous ecology and self-stabilizing processes. Jabr introduces us to a diverse cast of fascinating people who have devoted themselves to this vital work. Ferris Jabr is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine. He has also written for The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Atlantic, National Geographic, and Scientific American. He is the recipient of a Whiting Foundation Creative Nonfiction Grant and fellowships from UC Berkeley and MIT. Jabr lives in Portland, Oregon, with his husband, Ryan, their dog, Jack, and more plants than they can count. Get 15% off the book and your ticket when you buy them together! (see ticket options on the Get Tickets link) Tickets:$46.70 Book + Ticket (15% off each!)$35.00 VIP: Premium seating in the front several rows of the center section$25.00 GENERAL ADMISSION$15.00 DISCOUNT (senior, student, it’s your birthday, just can’t afford the GA price right now) Minors ok when accompanied by a parent or guardianReview our venue FAQ here
Science On Tap – The Mystique of Terroir: Geology and Wine
This show has been rescheduled from Feb 23rd.ter·roir/tɛrˈwɑr;nounDefinition: the environmental conditions, especially soil and climate, in which grapes are grown and that give a wine its unique flavor and aroma. The Willamette Valley has a certain je ne sais quoi, no? What special quality of the region’s terroir yields such exceptional wines? How do the soil, climate, and conditions lend themselves to lovely Pinot Noirs, but not Cabernets or Merlots? How does the region’s geologic past affect where and how to grow grapes? How do Washington and Oregon compare to other wine-growing regions in the United States and other countries around the world? Join us as Dr. Scott Burns, professor of geology and past chair of the Department of Geology at PSU, and wine enthusiast, tells us about all this and more about what makes a vineyard successful. Tickets:$45.00 SUPPORTER: Premium seating, pint glass, and good feelings for supporting the program$35.00 VIP: Premium seating in the front several rows of the center section$25.00 GENERAL ADMISSION$15.00 STUDENT COVID POLICY Verbal vaccine confirmation required; masks encouraged. Review our Health & Safety Policies HERE
Science On Tap: Partial Truths – How Fractions Distort Our Thinking
Science On Tap presents a talk by and a talk with Dr. James C. Zimring, board certified in Clinical Pathology, a diplomate of the American Board of Pathology, and an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation. A fast-food chain once tried to compete with McDonald’s quarter-pounder by introducing a third-pound hamburger—only for it to flop when consumers thought a third-pound was less than a quarter-pound because three is less than four. Separately, a rash of suicides by teenagers who played Dungeons and Dragons caused panic in parents and the media in the U.S. They thought D&D was causing teenage suicides—when in fact teenage D&D players committed suicide at a much lower rate than the national average. Errors of this type can be found from antiquity to the present, from the Peloponnesian War to the COVID-19 pandemic. How and why do we keep falling into these traps? In his new book Partial Truths, Dr. James C. Zimring argues that many of the mistakes the human mind consistently makes boil down to misperceiving fractions like percentages, probabilities, frequencies, and rates. Zimring also explores the counterintuitive reason that these flaws might benefit us, demonstrating that individual error can be highly advantageous to problem-solving by groups. Blending key scientific research in cognitive psychology with accessible real-life examples, Partial Truths helps readers spot the fallacies lurking in everyday information. James C. Zimring has a Ph.D. in immunology and an M.D., both awarded from Emory University. He is board certified in Clinical Pathology, a diplomate of the American Board of Pathology, and an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation. He currently holds the Thomas W. Tillack chair in experimental pathology at the University of Virginia. Dr. Zimring has maintained an N.I.H. funded laboratory for over 20 years, has published over 170 research articles, and pursues research in diseases of the blood. His previous book is What Science is and How it Really Works (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Tickets:$45.00 BOOK + GA TICKET: 15% off each individually$35.00 VIP: Premium seating in the front several rows of the center section$25.00 GENERAL ADMISSION$15.00 STUDENT COVID POLICY Verbal vaccine confirmation required; masks encouraged. Review our Health & Safety Policies HERE
Science On Tap: Under Alien Skies – A Sightseer’s Guide to the Universe
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel the universe? How would Saturn’s rings look from a spaceship sailing just above them? If you were falling into a black hole, what’s the last thing you’d see before getting spaghettified? While traveling in person to most of these amazing worlds may not be possible—yet—the would-be space traveler need not despair: you can still take the scenic route through the galaxy with renowned astronomer and science communicator Philip Plait. At this Science on Tap, Plait draws ingeniously on both the latest scientific research and his prodigious imagination to transport you to ten of the most spectacular sights outer space has to offer. In vivid, inventive scenes informed by rigorous science—injected with a dose of Plait’s trademark humor—Under Alien Skies places you on the surface of alien worlds, onto a two-hundred-meter asteroid, stargazing from the rim of an ancient volcano on a planet where it is eternally late afternoon. For the aspiring extraterrestrial citizen, casual space tourist, or curious armchair traveler, Plait is an illuminating, always-entertaining guide to the most otherworldly views in our universe. Philip Plait, PhD, is an astronomer, sci-fi dork, TV documentary talking head, and all-around science enthusiast. The author of Bad Astronomy and Death from the Skies! he writes the Bad Astronomy newsletter and lives in Colorado. Tickets:$46.75 BOOK + GA TICKET: 15% off each individually$35.00 VIP: Premium seating in the front several rows of the center section$25.00 GENERAL ADMISSION$15.00 STUDENTReview our Health & Safety Policies HERE
Science On Tap – Living with Wildfire: Perspectives From a Former Firefighter
What’s it like to work on the front lines of a wildfire? How and why are wildfires changing in the Northwest? This talk will jump into both of these topics, while also expanding on how you can prepare for a future of fire in the Northwest. Amanda Monthei spent four years working as a wildland firefighter—including two years as a US Forest Service hotshot (a highly-trained team) based in the Mt. Hood National Forest. Her work gave her a first-hand glimpse at the way PNW ecosystems are shifting and how both wildfire and climate change play a critical role. This talk will give you an inside glimpse at what this unique job entails, as well as the challenges facing wildland firefighters right now. She’ll also address why our temperate rainforests no longer feel like the wildfire-safe haven they once were. Believe it or not, fire belongs in these “wet side” ecosystems! But while infrequent, these fires tend to be catastrophically large and fast-moving – take the Labor Day fires of 2020 as an example of how these ecosystems can burn. Explore why this relationship is expected to grow more tenuous as climate change brings more extended drought and other climactic changes to the Northwest. Amanda Monthei left firefighting in 2019 and found a niche career in writing about wildfire, including for outlets like The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Deseret News, Patagonia and NBC News. She also produces and hosts a podcast, Life with Fire, which examines our relationship with wildfires and how we can better coexist with them. She lives in Bellingham, WA. Tickets:$15.00 DISCOUNT (senior, student, it’s your birthday, just can’t afford the GA price right now)$25.00 GENERAL ADMISSION$35.00 VIP: Premium seating in the front several rows of the center section$45.00 SUPPORTER: Premium seating, pint glass (beer not included), and good feelings for supporting the program Minors ok when accompanied by a parent or guardianReview our Health & Safety Policies HERE
Consider This with Omar El Akkad
Ticket sales for this show have been suspended.This show is transitioning to an online event. More details will be announced very soon. Thanks for your patience and understanding.Oregon Humanities presents an onstage conversation with novelist and journalist Omar El Akkad, author of American War and What Strange Paradise. This program is part of Oregon Humanities’ series American Dreams, American Myths, American Hopes, and Akkad is a writer who has devoted considerable thought to all three. American War, his debut novel, takes place in a near-future nation riven by climate change and civil war, where shared ideals have given way to factional identities. His second novel, What Strange Paradise, explores the lives and desires of displaced people seeking safety. About Our Guest Omar El Akkad is an author and journalist. He was born in Egypt, grew up in Qatar, moved to Canada as a teenager and now lives in the United States. The start of his journalism career coincided with the start of the war on terror, and over the following decade he reported from Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and many other locations around the world. His work earned a National Newspaper Award for Investigative Journalism and the Goff Penny Award for young journalists.
Consider This with David F. Walker and Douglas Wolk
Oregon Humanities presents an onstage conversation with comic book writer and filmmaker David F. Walker, cocreator of Naomi and Bitter Root, and pop culture critic Douglas Wolk, author of All the Marvels. This program is part of Oregon Humanities’ series American Dreams, American Myths, American Hopes, and we’ll discuss how comic books, and especially superhero comics, have embodied the hopes and dreams of many Americans and become a national mythology in their own right. Writer Courtenay Hameister will moderate the program. General Admission: Price: $15 Conversation Starter: Price: $30 Ticket sales do not cover the full cost of presenting Consider This events. When you buy a Conversation Starter ticket, you help us keep ticket prices low for everyone. Oregon Humanities uses income from Consider This ticket sales to pay for venue rental and honoraria for our guests. Conversation Starter tickets convey no special benefits beyond good feelings and our gratitude. No Cost: To make sure as many people as possible who want to attend are able to, we make a portion of tickets available at no cost. (More information below) If you’re able to pay for a ticket, we ask that you do so to help keep this program accessible to all. Please click the link below to register for no-cost tickets. Click here to register for no-cost tickets to Consider This. David F. Walker is an award-winning comic book writer, author, filmmaker, journalist, and educator. Walker is an adjunct professor at Portland State University. Douglas Wolk is a pop culture critic, teacher and writer, and the author of All of the Marvels, Reading Comics and 33 1/3: Live at the Apollo. Currently, he teaches at Portland State University and hosts the podcast Voice of Latveria. Courtenay Hameister is the former host and head writer for Live Wire Radio. Her debut book is Okay Fine Whatever. The Alberta Rose Theater will no longer be requiring masks for entry in alignment with the recent announcement from Oregon Governor Kate Brown.While face masks are no longer mandatory, our staff will continue to wear them and we highly encourage that you wear one as well. Mandatory COVID-19 vaccine requirements remain in place until Sunday, March 20th. Please bring your proof of a full course vaccination with a matching ID to this event. We will continue to monitor the CDC, state and local guidance to set our policies and some artists and events may have specific policies that ticket holders must adhere to. Please do not attend the show if you are feeling sick in any way. This information is provided so each patron can make a well-informed decision based on their own personal comfort level. These guidelines may change prior to performance. MORE INFORMATION HERE These policy changes will be in effect until further notice.
Consider This with Laura Kipnis
Oregon Humanities presents an onstage conversation with cultural critic and essayist Laura Kipnis, author of Love in the Time of Contagion, Unwanted Advances, and Against Love. This program is part of Oregon Humanities’ series American Dreams, American Myths, American Hopes and will explore love, marriage, capitalism, and sexual politics in the United States.General Admission: Price: $15 Conversation Starter: Price: $30 Ticket sales do not cover the full cost of presenting Consider This events. When you buy a Conversation Starter ticket, you help us keep ticket prices low for everyone. Oregon Humanities uses income from Consider This ticket sales to pay for venue rental and honoraria for our guests. Conversation Starter tickets convey no special benefits beyond good feelings and our gratitude. No Cost: To make sure as many people as possible who want to attend are able to, we make a portion of tickets available at no cost. (More information below) If you’re able to pay for a ticket, we ask that you do so to help keep this program accessible to all. Please click the link below to register for no-cost tickets. Click here to register for no-cost tickets to Consider This. Laura Kipnis is a cultural critic, essayist, and former video artist whose work focuses on sexual politics, aesthetics, shame, emotion, acting out, moral messiness, and various other crevices of the American psyche. She is the author of seven books, including Love in the Time of Contagion: A Diagnosis (Pantheon, 2022). Kipnis has published essays and reviews in the New York Review of Books, the Guardian, Slate, the Atlantic, Harper’s, Playboy, the New York Times Magazine, the New York Times Book Review, Bookforum, and New Left Review. She is professor emerita in the department of radio/television/film at Northwestern University, and she has taught previously at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Michigan, NYU, Columbia University, University of British Columbia, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Kipnis has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Michigan Society of Fellows, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Yaddo. She has a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Kipnis’ books are available from Broadway Books and other independent bookstores.Review our Health & Safety Policies HERE
Consider This with Jelly Helm and Nataki Garrett
Oregon Humanities presents an onstage conversation about storytelling, dreaming, and yearning with Nataki Garrett, artistic director of Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Jelly Helm, founder of the branding agency Studio Jelly. This program is part of Oregon Humanities’ series American Dreams, American Myths, American Hopes and will explore how stories shape culture in advertising and theater alike.General Admission: Price: $15 Conversation Starter: Price: $30 Ticket sales do not cover the full cost of presenting Consider This events. When you buy a Conversation Starter ticket, you help us keep ticket prices low for everyone. Oregon Humanities uses income from Consider This ticket sales to pay for venue rental and honoraria for our guests. Conversation Starter tickets convey no special benefits beyond good feelings and our gratitude. No Cost: To make sure as many people as possible who want to attend are able to, we make a portion of tickets available at no cost. (More information below) If you’re able to pay for a ticket, we ask that you do so to help keep this program accessible to all. Please click the link below to register for no-cost tickets. Click here to register for no-cost tickets to Consider This. About Our Guests Nataki Garrett is the artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, one of the largest theater-producing organizations in the US, and is widely recognized as an innovative and influential arts leader. Across her career, Garrett has fostered and developed new work—having directed and produced the world premieres of vital contemporary playwriting voices, including Katori Hall, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, and Aziza Barnes—and has been at the vanguard of adapting and devising new ways of performing the classics. Jelly Helm is the founder of Studio Jelly, a Portland-based brand insight and creative agency that has worked with companies like Nike, Starbucks, Wikipedia, and Dr. Bronner’s and helped engineer a highly successful marketing campaign for the Portland Timbers. Prior to opening his own studio, Helm worked as an executive creative director at Wieden+Kennedy and founded Wieden+Kennedy 12, the company’s in-house education program. Review our Health & Safety Policies HERE
CONSIDER THIS on Black Political Power in Oregon
Oregon Humanities presents an onstage conversation about on the state of Black political power in Oregon with Joy Alise Davis, executive director at Imagine Black; Keith Jenkins, director of Southern Oregon Black Leaders, Activists, & Community Coalition; and Marcus LeGrand, vice-chair of Bend-La Pine Schools. Journalist Bruce Poinsette will facilitate the conversation. General AdmissionPrice: $15 Conversation StarterPrice: $30 Ticket sales do not cover the full cost of presenting Consider This events. When you buy a Conversation Starter ticket, you help us keep ticket prices low for everyone. Conversation Starter tickets convey no special benefits beyond good feelings and our gratitude. No CostTo make sure as many people as possible who want to attend are able to, some tickets are available at no cost. (More information below) If you’re able to pay for a ticket, we ask that you do so to help keep this program accessible to all. Click here to register for no-cost tickets to Consider This. About Our Guests Joy Alise Davis has consulted on urban planning, urban design, and racial equity projects with government bureaus in Oregon for over five years. She is the founder of the award-winning Design + Culture Lab, a research-driven, urban-social enterprise that works at the intersection between identity and place. Currently, she serves as the president and executive director of Imagine Black, where she works to help our Black community imagine the alternatives they deserve and build political participation to achieve those alternatives. Keith Jenkins was the deputy field director for We Count Oregon and is currently leading community outreach and political strategy for Southern Oregon Black Leaders, Activist, & Community Coalition (SOBLACC). Marcus LeGrand is the Afrocentric Program coordinator and a professor of business and human development at Central Oregon Community College. He serves on the board of Bend-La Pine Schools and volunteers for numerous organizations. He is a Navy veteran who fought in the Persian Gulf and the father of a daughter and son. Bruce Poinsette is a writer, educator, and community organizer whose work is primarily based in the Portland Metro Area. He hosts “The Blacktastic Adventure: A Virtual Exploration of Oregon’s Black Diaspora.” In addition to his professional writing work, Poinsette volunteers with Respond to Racism LO, a grassroots antiracism organization in his hometown of Lake Oswego. Review our Health & Safety Policies HERE
