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Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 06-26-2023 to 06-26-2023Day(s) of the week: MondayTime: 09:30 AM-11:00 AM Central TimeInstructor: John McCarthyTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro OasisProsecutors are public servants and are expected to behave ethically in accordance with accepted standards. At what point does their misconduct have an impact on the lives they are sworn to protect, and what should the penalty for misconduct... read more -
Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 08-11-2022 to 08-11-2022Day(s) of the week: ThursdayTime: 09:30 AM-11:00 AM Central TimeInstructor: Dan ShermanTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro OasisAlthough some might think classical music is removed from the world of politics, there has long been a political overtone to how classical music is presented and its performers received. This (non-political!) class will discuss fascinating history of how classical music has interacted with larger political history in the two world wars and in particular the... read more -
Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 08-11-2022 to 08-11-2022Day(s) of the week: ThursdayTime: 12:00 PM-01:30 PM Central TimeInstructor: David LindauerTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro OasisTo promote the success of the Allied landings on D-Day, British and American planners organized an enormous array of deceptions to distract the Germans and draw their attention away from the real landings. This presentation looks at those plans, how they were conceived and the many ruses, plants, and false information used to protect the plans'... read more
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Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 08-12-2022 to 08-12-2022Day(s) of the week: FridayTime: 09:30 AM-11:00 AM Central TimeInstructor: Steven Gimbel, Professor of Philosophy, Gettysburg CollegeTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro OasisIsaac Newton created the most important scientific theory in history. This theory not only accounted for the falling of apples and the motion of planets, but gave rise to a scientific worldview that many thought could explain everything. But that result bothered Newton, who thought it squeezed God out of the picture. We will explore Newton's life, science,... read more
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Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 06-07-2023 to 06-07-2023Day(s) of the week: WednesdayTime: 12:00 PM-01:30 PM Central TimeInstructor: Richard BellTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro OasisThe Siege of Yorktown in October 1781 was a decisive win for George Washington’s Continental Army. Yet it was also a triumph for the unlikely wartime alliance forged between patriot revolutionaries and the French King Louis XVI. University of Maryland historian Dr. Richard Bell explores the inside story of this essential alliance as it evolved from... read more
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Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 06-13-2023 to 06-13-2023Day(s) of the week: TuesdayTime: 09:30 AM-11:00 AM Central TimeInstructor: Dan ShermanTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro OasisA brilliant and charismatic physicist, J. Robert Oppenheimer became one of America's best-known scientists for his work leading to the creation of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos. Oppenheimer soon became a highly controversial figure, caught up in the politics of nuclear weapons policy in the 1940s and 50s. This talk will the discuss career and personality of... read more
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Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 06-15-2023 to 06-15-2023Day(s) of the week: ThursdayTime: 12:00 PM-01:30 PM Central TimeInstructor: Barbara Paulson, European Travel SpecialistTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro OasisHampton Court? Greenwich? Been there, done that, but still looking for what to do outside London for a day or two? Check out Queen Victoria’s private train cars at York's railroad museum, the Roman Baths Museum at (of course) Bath, Winston Churchill’s birthplace (Blenheim Palace in Oxford), Jane Austen’s grave at Winchester Cathedral, and paintings by... read more
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Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 06-22-2023 to 06-22-2023Day(s) of the week: ThursdayTime: 09:30 AM-11:00 AM Central TimeInstructor: Steven Gimbel, Professor of Philosophy, Gettysburg CollegeTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro OasisPierre Curie was a French physicist doing groundbreaking work exploring the effects of magnetism on crystals. When he accepted Marie Sklodowska into his lab as an assistant, he had not realized he was starting a new experiment exploring her magnetism on his heart. The two would go on to become the first married couple to win the Nobel Prize. This lecture... read more
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Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 06-22-2023 to 06-22-2023Day(s) of the week: ThursdayTime: 12:00 PM-01:30 PM Central TimeInstructor: Bonita Billman, Art History LecturerTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro OasisThe Baroque era was a watershed era for Spanish art. Several outstanding painters dominated the century, including Murillo, Zurbaran, Cano and Velazquez. Spanish painters of first rank stood with other European masters like Rembrandt, van Dyck and Rubens in portraying the court, genre and religious subjects so in demand. Not until Francisco Goya would... read more
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Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 06-26-2023 to 06-26-2023Day(s) of the week: MondayTime: 02:00 PM-03:00 PM - Central TimeInstructor: Nina Kraus, Professor of NeurobiologyTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro OasisMaking sense of sound is one of the hardest jobs we ask our brains to do. Dr. Nina Kraus, Northwestern University professor, and author of recently published, Of Sound Mind: How Our Brain Constructs a Meaningful Sonic World examines the partnership of sound and brain, demonstrating that the processing of sound drives many of the brain’s core functions and... read more -
Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 06-27-2023 to 06-27-2023Day(s) of the week: TuesdayTime: 12:00 PM-01:30 PM Central TimeInstructor: Richard BellTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro OasisBetween 1779 and 1782, Spanish rangers from Texas herded 10,000 cows over 500 miles to Louisiana to help feed Spanish soldiers fighting the British in the American Revolutionary War. Spain had joined the war on the patriots’ side in 1779 and would spend the next four years contributing a deluge of fresh soldiers, sailors, ships, and cows to the war... read more
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Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 06-28-2023 to 06-28-2023Day(s) of the week: WednesdayTime: 12:00 PM-01:30 PM Central TimeInstructor: Judy Scott Feldman, Ph.D., Art Historian/National Mall CoalitionTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro OasisIn 1792, President George Washington announced America’s first official architectural design competition – for the future U.S. Capitol Building. He rejected a series of uninspired and even bizarre proposed designs before enthusiastically embracing William Thornton’s distinctive submission. That competition effectively established an official... read more
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Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 07-11-2023 to 07-11-2023Day(s) of the week: TuesdayTime: 09:30 AM-11:00 AM Central TimeInstructor: Richard BellTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro OasisBorn the tenth son of a humble family of Puritan candle-makers, Franklin's rise to the front ranks of science, engineering, and invention was as unexpected as it was meteoric. In this talk we’ll examine many of Franklin's ideas to make life simpler, cheaper, and easier for himself and everyone else. It turns out that those ideas encompassed not only... read more
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Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 07-11-2023 to 07-11-2023Day(s) of the week: TuesdayTime: 12:00 PM-01:30 PM Central TimeInstructor: Dan ShermanTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro OasisThe Galapagos are perhaps best-known for the variety of wildlife that Charles Darwin observed which formed the basis of his theory of evolution. The course will discuss the history of the islands, including their formation, their early settlement, their role in Darwin's life and career, and subsequent history balancing tourism and conservation. The course... read more
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Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 07-12-2023 to 07-12-2023Day(s) of the week: WednesdayTime: 09:30 AM-11:00 AM Central TimeInstructor: John McCarthyTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro OasisThis class will focus on the top dozen cases, both civil and criminal, heard by the Court during the past year. Special emphasis will be placed on evolving trends and voting blocks on the Court. As always, issues related to criminal decisions will be discussed in... read more
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Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 07-13-2023 to 07-13-2023Day(s) of the week: ThursdayTime: 12:00 PM-01:30 PM Central TimeInstructor: Barbara Paulson, European Travel SpecialistTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro OasisDone the Freedom Trail? Seen Faneuil Hall? Instead: Check out a library with ancient cookbooks and Julia Child’s personal papers, explore Boston Harbor’s island nature parks, enjoy a cocktail of white rum infused with Cape Cod cranberries at a small-batch distillery, walk INSIDE a 3-story tall stained-glass globe, or visit the site of one of the most... read more
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Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 07-18-2023 to 07-18-2023Day(s) of the week: TuesdayTime: 09:30 AM-11:00 AM Central TimeInstructor: David LindauerTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro OasisThe Battle of Kursk, in Russia, in 1943 was the largest tank battle in history. This course will not only analyze the battle and the events leading up to it but will also examine how the literature about the Eastern Front in World War has been evolving, so that, although the events themselves took place eighty years ago, our perspective on those events is... read more
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Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 07-20-2023 to 07-20-2023Day(s) of the week: ThursdayTime: 09:30 AM-11:00 AM Central TimeInstructor: Steven Gimbel, Professor of Philosophy, Gettysburg CollegeTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro OasisThe heart of French existentialism is radical freedom, but for two of its leading figures Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre their hearts were less free, connected to each other. They considered the institution of marriage to be bourgeois construction designed to dehumanize, but love was a different matter. We will examine the life, love, and... read more
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Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 07-20-2023 to 07-20-2023Day(s) of the week: ThursdayTime: 12:00 PM-01:30 PM Central TimeInstructor: Bonita Billman, Art History LecturerTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro Oasis2023 is the 300th anniversary of the birth of Devonian portrait painter Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792). Reynolds rose in his art world to become a founder of the Royal Academy and its first President. Reynolds was a portrait painter who worked for the highest echelons of British society including the royal family. Admiring the ancients and the Old Masters,... read more
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Sessions: 1Class Date(s): 07-25-2023 to 07-25-2023Day(s) of the week: TuesdayTime: 12:00 PM-01:00 PM Central TimeInstructor: Gary CahnTerm: OELocation: Zoom - Washington Metro OasisGenerative AI is the new artificial intelligence that can create original content. Millions of people are already using programs like ChatGPT to write books, create art, and develop code. Many believe it’s a once-in-a-lifetime technological breakthrough that could impact virtually every aspect of society and disrupt industries from medicine to law. In... read more