Skip to listings

Upcoming Lectures & Talks

Lectures on Tap

rotating bars · various bars, Boston/Cambridge/Somerville · lecturesontap.com

15 upcoming lectures and talks from Lectures on Tap, with dates, venues and ticket links taken from the organization’s own pages and refreshed weekly. All lectures in Greater Boston →

Production art for Lectures on Tap — What Is a Number? A History of a (Seemingly) Simple Idea

Tue Oct 6 · 6:30pm

Lectures on Tap — What Is a Number? A History of a (Seemingly) Simple Idea

· · ·

Andy Schultz, Professor of Mathematics at Wellesley College, traces how the idea of number has changed through key moments in mathematical history, from counting to the abstract structures behind modern science, and asks what a number is, what rules it must obey and who decides them. Schultz has taught and researched for nearly 25 years, working on Galois theory, algebraic combinatorics and the mathematics of voting.

Production art for Lectures on Tap — Nature's Nemeses: The Epic Battle Between Ants & Termites

Wed Oct 7 · 6:30pm

Lectures on Tap — Nature's Nemeses: The Epic Battle Between Ants & Termites

· · ·

Harvard-trained biologist Kat Angier describes the evolutionary arms race between ants and termites, two insects that independently evolved colonies of queens, workers and soldiers numbering in the millions. She covers cement-hard termite mounds, soldiers that spray acid from nozzles on their faces, raiding Singing Ants with their own field medicine, ants that defend termites for food and shelter, and the pangolins, anteaters, aardvarks and aardwolves that eat both.

Production art for Lectures on Tap — How We Read People: The Psychology of Social Cues

Thu Oct 8 · 6:30pm

Lectures on Tap — How We Read People: The Psychology of Social Cues

· · ·

Developmental psychologist Sarah Lynch looks at how the mind turns small, ambiguous social cues, such as a delayed text, an odd look or a strange tone, into stories, emotions and actions, and how attention, memory, expectation and attribution bias let two people leave the same moment with different versions of it. Lynch holds a PhD in developmental science from Boston University and has taught at Harvard.

Production art for Lectures on Tap — Playing God: Who Gets To Decide Who Lives Or Dies?

Mon Oct 12 · 6:30pm

Lectures on Tap — Playing God: Who Gets To Decide Who Lives Or Dies?

· · ·

Aditya Pawar, a transplant nephrologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School faculty member, traces how authority over life-and-death decisions has moved, from gladiatorial arenas and absolute kings to juries, the “God Committees” and today’s transplant selection teams. He then examines organ transplantation now, where scarcity forces choices between fairness, utility and compassion. His own work concerns patient participation, transparency and trust in medical decision-making.

Production art for Lectures on Tap — Neuroscientist Explains: The Modules of the Mind

Tue Oct 13 · 6:30pm

Lectures on Tap — Neuroscientist Explains: The Modules of the Mind

· · 255 Elm St · · ·

Michael Cohen, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at Amherst College and a research scientist at MIT, argues that the brain is less a general-purpose computer than a set of specialist modules, each with a narrow job. He draws on cases where one fails after a stroke, accident or disease, leaving people unable to recognize faces, even their own, or without fear while every other emotion stays intact.

Production art for Lectures on Tap — Neutrinos: The Origin of Everything?

Wed Oct 14 · 6:30pm

Lectures on Tap — Neutrinos: The Origin of Everything?

· · ·

Joseph Howlett, a senior reporter at Scientific American who spent a decade as a particle physicist at Columbia and Stanford, describes the DUNE experiment, the largest underground science project attempted in the United States. Its $5 billion “tin-can telephone” runs from Chicago to a detector in a former gold mine beneath South Dakota’s Black Hills, built to catch neutrinos that may explain why matter exists at all.

Production art for Lectures on Tap — The Existentialist Guide to Living Authentically

Thu Oct 15 · 6:30pm

Lectures on Tap — The Existentialist Guide to Living Authentically

· · · ·

Jeremy Evans draws on Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Sartre to ask what living authentically means when so much pushes toward conformity, and how a brief, finite life can be given meaning on purpose. The talk sets the Existentialists' demands of freedom, responsibility and autonomy against the need for social belonging, alongside psychological research linking meaningful pursuits to well-being. Lectures on Tap holds its talks in bars.

Production art for Lectures on Tap — The Possibility of Democracy: A Mathematical Argument

Mon Oct 19 · 6:30pm

Lectures on Tap — The Possibility of Democracy: A Mathematical Argument

· · ·

Ismar Volić, Professor of Mathematics and Director of the Institute for Mathematics and Democracy at Wellesley College, uses the 18th-century Condorcet Jury Theorem and modern social choice theory to argue that democracies work best when citizens take part directly in decisions. He covers citizens’ assemblies and participatory budgeting, and how artificial intelligence and algorithmic design might scale them up. He is the author of Making Democracy Count.

Production art for Lectures on Tap — Making Food for Mars

Tue Oct 20 · 6:30pm

Lectures on Tap — Making Food for Mars

· · · ·

Food is the limiting resource for long missions to places like Mars, and Taylor Lanosky, a chemical biology PhD student in George Church’s lab at Harvard, works on one answer: closed-loop biomanufacturing, in which yeast and bacteria grown on recycled resources produce nutritious, palatable food. She covers the particular problems of bioengineering for space. Lanosky is an aspiring astronaut working toward a private pilot license.

Production art for Lectures on Tap — How Scientists Identify What Neurons Do in the Brain

Wed Oct 21 · 6:30pm

Lectures on Tap — How Scientists Identify What Neurons Do in the Brain

· · · ·

Biophysicist Didar Ciftci, who holds a Cornell PhD and co-developed light-based molecular barcoding for visualizing RNA as a postdoc at Harvard, explains how scientists move from seeing a neuron “light up” to knowing what kind of cell it is. The talk centers on MIDAS, a new method that matches neurons imaged during behavior with their molecular identities afterward, linking what a neuron is to what it does.

Production art for Lectures on Tap — Can Nationalism Be Inclusive? The Case of Scotland

Thu Oct 22 · 6:30pm

Lectures on Tap — Can Nationalism Be Inclusive? The Case of Scotland

· · · ·

Aubrey Westfall, Professor of Political Science at Wheaton College in Norton, uses Scotland as a case study in whether nationalism can be inclusive, looking at how the country handles immigration, belonging and national membership, and at the identity behind the “Tartan Army” of traveling Scotland fans. She is the author of The Politics of Immigration in Scotland and co-author of The Politics of the Headscarf in the United States.

Production art for Lectures on Tap — Cold War Pen Pals?: American and Soviet Women

Mon Oct 26 · 6:30pm

Lectures on Tap — Cold War Pen Pals?: American and Soviet Women

· · ·

Historian Alexis Peri draws on her book Dear Unknown Friend, about letters American and Soviet women exchanged in the late 1940s and 1950s, only recently found in a Moscow archive, in which they shared their lives and began to question why their countries were so divided. Peri is an associate professor of history at Boston University and the author of The War Within: Diaries from the Siege of Leningrad.

Production art for Lectures on Tap — Gold & Greed: One of Wall Street's Greatest Scandals

Tue Oct 27 · 6:30pm

Lectures on Tap — Gold & Greed: One of Wall Street's Greatest Scandals

· · ·

Dan Breen, Professor of Legal Studies at Brandeis University, recounts the September 1869 attempt by Jay Gould, “The Mephistopheles of Wall Street,” and “Jubilee Jim” Fisk to corner the U.S. gold market through their influence with President Ulysses S. Grant. He follows the scheme’s collapse on the day remembered as “Black Friday” and its lasting effect on American finance. Breen’s book on Boston’s public monuments is due in 2027.

Production art for Lectures on Tap — Three Chords and the Truth: The Story of the Blues

Wed Oct 28 · 6:30pm

Lectures on Tap — Three Chords and the Truth: The Story of the Blues

· · · ·

Delvyn Case, Professor of Music at Wheaton College, traces the blues from its origins in the Jim Crow South into the jazz, country, gospel and rock ’n’ roll it gave rise to, and on into heavy metal, punk and hip-hop. A classical composer and musicologist specializing in popular music, Case has taught its history for 25 years, and songwriting students he mentored have earned two Grammy nominations.

Production art for Lectures on Tap — Bias in Medicine: A Crusade Against "Normal

Thu Oct 29 · 6:30pm

Lectures on Tap — Bias in Medicine: A Crusade Against "Normal

· · · ·

Liz Co, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at Boston University and Director of Inclusive Pedagogy in her department, examines the historical roots of implicit and systemic bias in clinical care, from medical education to diagnostics, and how assumptions about a “normal” human body have excluded and harmed many communities. Co wrote Anatomy and Physiology by Co, described as the first A&P textbook written with diverse representation as a primary goal.