Dating preferences sound simple in theory. Real life is messier. 🧠💘
UA social psychologist Will Hart will break down psychopathy and sadism, what research suggests about first impressions, and what a speed-dating study found about attraction, perceived meanness, and second dates. 📊🗣️
📅 May 21st at 7pm
📍 Monday Night Brewing
🎟️ Tickets in bio
Whales are mammals, but almost everything about them looks like an evolutionary dare.
Huge thanks to Dr. Winston C. Lancaster for a fascinating night on how whales became whales, and for making deep time feel vivid.
Next up: May 21 – Are Psychopathic and Sadistic People Appealing as Dates? A psychologist breaks down what people actually respond to in speed dating.
Whales weren’t always whales 🐋 Millions of years ago, their ancestors walked on land—hooves, legs, and all.
This Discourse traces one of the most extraordinary evolutionary transformations in the natural world: how a land-dwelling mammal became the largest animal to ever live. We’ll explore the fossil evidence behind their surprising origins, how their bodies adapted so radically to life in water, and the sensory breakthrough—hearing—that helped make it all possible.
Led by Dr. Winston C. Lancaster, a vertebrate paleontologist and anatomist whose research focuses on hearing in whales and echolocation in bats, this talk brings deep expertise and a lifetime of fieldwork to the story.
📍 Rojo
🗓 May 7 at 7pm
🎟 Link in bio for tickets
Come curious. Leave smarter.
Our last Discourse was archaeology with a plot twist. 🐍 Huge thanks to Dr. Shane Miller for the kind of talk that leaves you thinking on the drive home.
Next up: May 7 at Rojo – The Very Strange Evolution of Whales with Dr. Winston C. Lancaster. You will not look at whales the same way. 🐋
What can giant pythons teach us about Ice Age humans? 🐍
This Discourse uses the Everglades python invasion as a surprising lens on one of archaeology’s biggest debates: when and how people first settled the Americas, especially the Southeast.
Featuring Dr. Shane Miller, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alabama, whose research focuses on the peopling of the Americas and early life in the Southeast. 📆 April 16, 7pm
📍 Monday Night Brewing
🎟️ Tickets in bio.
Film first, then questions.
Thanks to everyone who came out for Mission Recompense and to Erica Sandifer for a moving screening and a great post-film discussion.
Next up: April 2 – Youth sports, concussions, and what we actually know.
This week’s Discourse is a documentary night. 🎥
We’re screening Mission Recompense: Love Letters to a Mississippi Delta (45 min), which traces the Delta’s deep cultural and historical roots where music, memory, and struggle intertwine through the firsthand account of Sylvester Hoover. 🎶
From the legacy of Emmett Till to the mythology of Robert Johnson and the lasting impact of the Civil Rights Movement, the film brings to life stories that are too often flattened or forgotten.
After the screening, stay for a conversation and audience Q&A with director Erica Sandifer. 🎙️
📍 Monday Night Brewing
🕖 7pm
🎟️ Tickets in bio
Last week was politics without the hot takes.
Thanks to George Hawley for a clear, historically grounded look at the dilemmas shaping the modern American right.
Next up: 🎥 A documentary screening about the deep cultural and historical roots of the Mississippi Delta on March 19th
American conservatism is at a crossroads.
On March 5, political scientist George Hawley breaks down a core dilemma on the modern right: populism wins, but it does not fit neatly with conservative political philosophy.
7pm at Avondale Brewing. Tickets in bio 🎟️
Come curious. Leave smarter.
Last week’s Discourse was a reminder that math learning starts early, and it’s shaped by environment, not just ability.
Huge thanks to Dr. Alexa Ellis for a clear, practical look at how kids build math skills and confidence.
Next up: A Conservative Crossroads: Dilemmas Facing the Modern Right, March 5th
If math feels “natural” to some kids and hard for others, it’s not just talent. 🧮
On Feb 19, Dr. Alexa Ellis explores what early math development really looks like and how home and school experiences shape it.
7pm at Rojo. Tickets in bio. 🎟️
Your brain is more flexible than you think.
Thanks to Allison Davis for a fun, hands-on look at neuroplasticity, and to everyone who came ready to learn (and play).
Next up: Feb 19 – How Kids Learn Math 🧮
