Consider This: Our Place in the World with Ben Rhodes
A conversation about geopolitics, American power, and public service with Ben Rhodes, a former national security and diplomacy advisor to President Barack Obama and host of the Pod Save the World podcast. How much should the general public know or understand about global affairs and foreign policy? How do the US government’s actions on the world stage respond to public interest? How do people who work on those policies respond when their understanding of the public interest differs from the majority of public opinion? Ben Rhodes is a writer, political commentator, and national security analyst. He is the author of After the Fall: The Rise of Authoritarianism in the World We've Made and The World As It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House. From 2009–17, he served as a speechwriter and Deputy National Security Advisor to President Obama. Rhodes is currently cohost of the podcast Pod Save the World; a contributor for MSNBC; and chair of National Security Action.
Consider This: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century with Danielle Allen
A conversation about the failings and challenges of democracy in the United States and what we can do about them with Danielle Allen, director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center. How can we find common purpose to build a stronger democratic society amid today’s complex political climate?
Consider This: Our Place in the World with Ben Rhodes
A conversation about geopolitics, American power, and public service with Ben Rhodes, a former national security and diplomacy advisor to President Barack Obama and host of the Pod Save the World podcast.
Consider This: Stories of the Hood River Watershed
Join us at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, December 5, at Columbia Center for the Arts in Hood River for a conversation with city manager Abigail Elder, media creator Sarah Fox, and orchardist Lesley Tamura on the intersections of place, storytelling, and the public in the Hood River watershed.
Consider This with Dahlia Lithwick
Join us for a conversation about law, justice, and the public interest with Dahlia Lithwick, senior legal correspondent at Slate and host of the Amicus podcast about law and the Supreme Court.
Finding Common Ground Speaker Series: Peter Walker
Join Harney County Library to learn about the many ways communities of diverse perspectives collaborate to solve the complex challenges we face here in frontier rural America, from natural resource management to economic development. This month's speaker is Peter Walker a professor of geography at University of Oregon.
Stephanie Craig discussion on “Fear & Belonging”
Creswell Public Library present an evening discussion with Stephanie Craig, a Kalapuya woman on traditions, the loss of those traditions, and reclaiming or continuing them. What is more terrifying than watching cultural traditions move from the active world to a museum? And do cultural artifacts belong in museums, and if so, which museums do they belong to? Stephanie is an expert on Kalapuya weaving who makes replica baskets for museums and works to pass her knowledge on.
This event is supported by a grant from Oregon Humanities
Consider This Discussion Group: Eli Saslow
On Wednesday, April 10, join people from across the state for a free online conversation about Consider This with Eli Saslow, facilitated by Rozzell Medina. The discussion will take place on Zoom from 11:00 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. Register for this conversation here. If you have questions about this event, please contact Rozzell.
Consider This Discussion Group: Father Greg Boyle
On Wednesday, March 20, join other viewers across the state for a free online conversation about Consider This with Father Greg Boyle, facilitated by Rozzell Medina. The discussion will take place on Zoom from 11:00 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. To register, click here. If you have questions about this event, please contact Rozzell.
Consider This Discussion Group: Getting Older and Staying Connected
Oregon Humanities invites you to a discussion on the themes and ideas from our November 6 event Consider This on Getting Older and Staying Connected at AllCare Health in Grants Pass.
Oregon Humanities Program Manager Rozzell Medina will facilitate the group discussion in English through Zoom.
Consider This on Getting Older and Staying Connected
Aging is a life-long experience that is both universal and different for everyone. Some people join new communities and friendships in old age, while others experience profound isolation. Generational divides, both real and perceived, can add to a sense of not belonging. Join Andrea Cano and Fred Grewe for a conversation about aging and belonging: What are our fears around aging? How can we collaborate across generational divides? What can we do to ensure people are fully included in our communities as they age?
CANCELED: Consider This with John Lee Clark and Jelica Nuccio
Due to late-breaking circumstances beyond our control, this event is canceled.
Jelica Nuccio and John Lee Clark are DeafBlind trainers in Protactile language, which emerged within the DeafBlind community. Nuccio is the founder of a Protactile training center in Monmouth, and Clark is an author and educator from Minnesota. In their teaching, writing, and community-building, Nuccio and Clark work toward full presence and deep connection.
Consider This: Redrawing Borders
Join us for an onstage conversation on borders and divides. Why are our borders in the places they are, and when should they be redrawn? Our confirmed guests for this event are Matt McCaw, spokesperson for the Greater Idaho movement; Alexander Baretich, designer of the Cascadian flag; and Carina Miller, chair of the Columbia River Gorge Commission.
Consider This with Mónica Guzmán
Join us for an onstage conversation on creating connection across political divides with Mónica Guzmán, author of I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times. Guzmán is a bridge builder, journalist, and author who works to get people to talk across thier perceived divides. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased here.
Deadline: Consider This Mini Grants for Rural Libraries
Oregon Humanities will award $25,000 in funding to enable rural and rural-adjacent Oregon libraries to create and host events in their own communities, in partnership with our Consider This program. Events should reflect the theme "People, Place, and Power." Read more about this opportunity.
Consider This with Kiese Laymon
Join us for an onstage conversation with Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy and How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America.
This event is part of our Consider This series on People, Place, and Power. In his writing, Laymon engages with the personal and the political: race and family, body and shame, poverty and place.
Consider This: Black Political Power in Oregon
Join us for a conversation 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.
This program will take place in-person and will be streamed live, for free, on YouTube. Read more about this event.
Oregon's Black History: 450 Years in 45 Min
Friends of Seaside Public Library welcome Zachary Stocks, public historian and Executive Director of Oregon Black Pioneers. Stocks will trace the history of people of African descent who have lived and worked in Oregon since before the founding of the earliest English-speaking settlements in the Americas. This presentation will bring new light to the historic legal and social marginalization of African Americans in Oregon.
This event was made possible by a grant from Oregon Humanities. The event will be held in the Community Room of the Seaside Public Library.
Consider This with Jelly Helm and Nataki Garrett
Join us on Wednesday, June 8, 2022, for a conversation about storytelling and yearning with Nataki Garrett, artistic director of Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Jelly Helm, founder of the branding agency Studio Jelly. We’ll talk about how stories shape culture in advertising and theater alike. This program is part of our 2022 Consider This series, American Dreams, American Myths, American Hopes.
Doors will open at 6:00 p.m, and the event will begin at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $15. Click here to purchase a ticket.
No-cost tickets are also available for this event. Click here to register for a no-cost ticket.
Newport's Diverse Paths to an American Dream: Join the Conversation
The theme of this program is American Dreams, American Myths, American Hopes, which will provide framework to explore the origins and aspirations of Newport and how these have changed for different segments of our community, affecting us all. This program will be an opportunity for meaningful conversations and community engagement.
Consider This with Mónica Guzmán - La Grande Screening
Join Oregon Humanities staff in La Grande for a live screening of our Consider This conversation with Mónica Guzmán, author of I Never Thought of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times. Guzmán is a bridge builder, journalist, and author who works to get people to talk across thier perceived divides.
Consider This: How Do You Reconcile a Lynching?
Join Forest Grove Public Library for a live-streamed Consider This conversation with Taylor Stewart, founder and executive director of the Oregon Remembrance Project. This program will broadcast live on the Forest Grove City Library’s YouTube channel starting at 6:30 p.m.
Consider This with Laura Kipnis
Join us for a conversation with Laura Kipnis, author of Love in the Time of Contagion and Unwanted Advances, on love, marriage, and capitalism. Kipnis is a cultural critic and essayist whose work focuses on sexual politics in the United States. This program is part of our 2022 Consider This series American Dreams, American Myths, American Hopes.
Discussion: Robin Wall Kimmerer's "Speaking of Nature"
Join us on Tuesday, March 15, at 7 p.m., for a 90-minute discussion (via Zoom) of Robin Wall Kimmerer's essay, "Speaking of Nature." This piece invites readers to reflect on how we speak about our more-than-human relations and what this says about our connections with them. Coinciding with Oregon Humanities' Consider This conversation with Kimmerer, this discussion will allow participants to connect with each other over some of the themes of her work.
Consider This with David F. Walker and Douglas Wolk
Our 2022 Consider This series, American Dreams, American Myths, American Hopes, continues on March 16 with a conversation about comics. Comic books, and especially the superhero comics of Marvel and DC, have embodied the hopes and fantasies of many Americans for nearly a century, and the myriad media arising from them have come to comprise a uniquely American mythology.
Our guests for this conversation are David F. Walker, a comic book writer, filmmaker, journalist, and educator whose work includes Bitter Root, Naomi, and The Black Panther Party: A Graphic Novel History, and Douglas Wolk, a pop culture critic and author of Reading Comics and All the Marvels, for which he read some 27,000 Marvel comic books. Writer Courtenay Hameister will moderate the program.
UPDATED: Consider This with Omar El Akkad
Join us for an onstage conversation with Omar El Akkad, author of American War and What Strange Paradise. This event is part of our 2022 Consider This series, American Dreams, American Myths, American Hopes.
Due to the current rise in COVID cases, we have canceled the in-person portion of this event. The conversation will be streamed live on YouTube. Click here to watch.
Consider This with Robin Wall Kimmerer
Join us for an online conversation with Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of Braiding Sweetgrass and Gathering Moss. Kimmerer is a mother, scientist, decorated professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. This event will be streamed live as part of our series American Dreams, American Myths, American Hopes.
Consider This with Mitchell S. Jackson
Join us for a live virtual conversation with the author of The Residue Years and Survival Math and winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing.
Consider This: Why Does Housing Cost So Much?
Join us for a conversation with people who are working in different ways on making housing more affordable for Oregonians: Kim McCarty, executive director of Community Alliance of Tenants; Lorelei Juntunen of ECONorthwest; and developer Eli Spevak.
Consider This with Astra Taylor
A live conversation with filmmaker and writer Astra Taylor, director of the documentary What Is Democracy? and author of Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone.
Consider This on the Klamath Basin
A discussion on the history and future of settlement and water use in the Klamath Basin with panelists Russell Attebery (Chairman, Karuk Tribe), Mark Bransom (CEO, Klamath River Renewal Corporation), Don Gentry (Chairman, Klamath Tribes), Becky Hyde (Klamath Basin rancher), and Joe James (Chairman, Yurok Tribe).
Consider This with Eric K. Ward
Our 2020–21 Consider This conversation series is all about democracy and civic engagement—how it works, who gets to participate, and how it can break down. We're hosting live conversations with journalists and scholars with insight into how our democracy is working and the threats it faces. On April 7, join Eric K. Ward, director of Western States Center, for a conversation on democracy, participation, and justice.
Consider This with Leah Sottile
A conversation with Leah Sottile, an Oregon journalist who has done in-depth reporting on extremist right-wing movements in the western United States. We'll talk about how fringe religious and political movements have grown and gained political power in the western United States.
The Fire is Upon Us
On February 18, 1965, an overflowing crowd packed the Cambridge Union in Cambridge, England, to witness a historic televised debate between James Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., a fierce critic of the movement and America’s most influential conservative intellectual. The topic was “the American dream is at the expense of the American Negro,” and no one who has seen the debate can soon forget it. Forest Grove Public Library presents this online program featuring Nicholas Buccola, Elizabeth and Morris Glicksman Chair in Political Science at Linfield University and author of The Fire Is upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America, in conversation with Dr. Paul Snell, Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics and Government at Pacific University. This event will stream live to the library's Facebook page and YouTube channel starting at 6:30 pm and will include a Q&A session at the end of the evening. This program is made possible with support from Oregon Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Oregon Cultural Trust.
Consider This with David French
Our 2020–21 Consider This conversation series is all about democracy and civic engagement—how it works, who gets to participate, and how it can fail. On February 2, join us for a conversation with David French, author of Divided We Fall: America's Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation.
Consider This with Hahrie Han
Our 2020–21 Consider This conversation series is all about democracy and civic engagement—how it works, who gets to participate, and how it can fail. On February 16, join us for a conversation with Hahrie Han, director of the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
Consider This: Anti-Racism
Pick up your dinner and refreshments, then join this panel of local experts to discuss anti-racism, minority representation, and how to combat systemic injustice.
Think & Drink: Why Voting Matters
Jackson County Library Services presents a panel discussion with Jackson County Clerk Christine Walker, Associate Professor of Political Science William Hughes from Southern Oregon University, and Cathy Shaw a successful campaign manager, three-time mayor of Ashland, and President of the Jackson County Library District Board of Directors. This program is sponsored by Oregon Humanities.
Consider This with Jamelle Bouie
One week before Election Day, New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie will talk with Oregon Humanities about democracy, moments of transition, and the significance of this particularly charged political moment. Bouie has been an observer of political culture and someone whose work has shaped culture—in print, on television, on twitter, and even through his photography—and as we talk about the political moment, we'll also explore the relationship between politics and culture.
Consider This with Anis Mojgani, Demian DinéYazhi', and Sharita Towne
While art is always political, the rancor and unrest of US politics in recent years have moved many artists to engage with politics more directly. In this online conversation, we'll talk with three artists whose work often deals with political themes about the intersections of art and politics: Oregon Poet Laureate Anis Mojgani, poet and visual artist Demian DinéYazhi', and multidisciplinary artist and educator Sharita Towne.
Consider This
Consider This sparks provocative conversations about big ideas.
Consider This Archive
Did you miss one of our Consider This conversations? You can find audio and video from past events here.