Lecture Series 2026-2027

"Information & Inspiration for the Inquisitive Mind"

Tickets are sold a few weeks before the start of each series. Lectures are at 10 a.m. Thursdays, in-person at the Bayshore Centre and/or live streamed, and available as replays afterward until the end of our season.

 

1.  Optimal Aging - Living Well Later In Life  - Sept. 17 - Oct 22, 2026

How do we navigate our senior years in a way that maximizes our enjoyment and minimizes the challenges? In this series we will explore options for living in community, legal issues relevant to aging and how palliative care is not just about dying.  We will also learn how to exercise when our bodies may be compromised, seek the benefits of participating in music, and learn how our brains age, including promising new research in countering dementia.

1. Sept 17, 2026  - A Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly: A Pilot Program for our Nation
2. Sept 24, 2026   - You Don’t Have to Be a Musician: How Everyday Music-Making Supports Healthy Aging
3. Oct 1, 2026   - Elder Law, Rights, Wills, LTC and Legal Issues in MAID
4. Oct 8, 2026 - Hope for the Best…Plan for the Rest
5. Oct 15, 2026 - The Search for the Fountain of Youth
6. Oct 22, 2026 - Mind Matters: Unlocking the Latest Secrets to a Healthy Brain

1. Oct 29, 2026 - The Viking Age 
2. Nov 5,  2026 - The Golden Age of Sweden
3. Nov 12, 2026 - The Grand Duchy of Finland and Royal Denmark  
4. Nov 19, 2026 - Emigration to North America
5. Nov 26, 2026 - Art and Literature, Science and Exploration
6. Dec 3,  2026 - The Second World War and the Nordic Nations in the Modern World

Come and hear some of your favourite speakers from past lectures.  Get updates on farming and global food security and find out about the latest AI developments. Has our pandemic preparedness improved in the wake of COVID? What is Mother Earth telling us about the advances of climate change? Learn about the history of religion and politics in India and get a global perspective on what is happening in our world since our Geopolitics series.

1. Jan 7,   2027 -   The fast-changing nature of food and farming in Canada
2. Jan 14, 2027 - The Religious and Political History of India
3. Jan 21, 2027 - Pandemic Prevention in the Wake of COVID
4. Jan 28, 2027 - Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency: How goes the struggle?
5. Feb 4, 2027 - NOW….What in the World is Happening?
6. Feb 11, 2027 - Critical Thinking, Ethical Reasoning, and Artificial Intelligence

4. Classic Thought in our Contemporary World - Feb. 25 to April 1, 2027

This series of interactive presentations explores the ideas of seminal thinkers over the
ages and their applications to contemporary issues. In the midst of Athens’ cultural
decline, Plato developed an educational system to reform people’s desires. What would
he say about sex education today? In the 19th century, Karl Marx recognized a
contradiction between capitalism and the environment. Does that mean that we should
overthrow the government to save the planet? Women of distinction have long asserted
themselves against gender biased systems of oppression. What are their challenges
and triumphs today? These are some of the themes and questions we will undertake in
an engaging and interactive series of lectures.

1. Feb 25, 2027 - Plato’s Theory of Love
2. Mar 4, 2027 - If God is Dead, does anything go? 
3. Mar 11, 2027 - Ecologists and the Political-Economy of Climate Change
4. Mar 18, 2027 - Walking through Media Ecologies with Marshall McLuhan 
5. Mar 25, 2027 - Animal Communication and Humans 
6. April 1, 2027 - Contemporary Feminism in Politics and the Environment