Profs and Pints - Philadelphia

Profs and Pints Philadelphia presents: “Brain Stories,” a crash course on the basics of neuroscience interspersed with surprising tales from research in the field, with Stuart McCaughey, who teaches courses on neuroanatomy, neuropharmacology, and neurological disorders as an assistant professor at the University of Delaware.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus processing fees. Available at https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profs-and-pints-black-squirrel/philadelphia-brain-stories .]

Gain insights into how our brains work, and learn what research tells us about the causes of our behavior and the links between our brains and those of animals, with brain expert Stuart McCaughey of the University of Delaware.

Using an approach that wins him and his courses rave reviews from his university’s students, Dr. McCaughey will discuss the basic principles of his field and illustrate them by telling remarkable stories related to the history of neuroscience and the workings of the brains of human beings and animals.

He’ll start by taking you on a tour of the nervous system, explaining the functions of its different parts and how various drugs alter neurochemical events.

We’ll look at neurological syndromes with bizarre symptoms, at the results of fascinating science experiments, and at the unusual effects of psilocybic mushrooms on the brain.

We’ll consider some of the many strange questions that have arisen as scientists have pursued their quest to understand how the brain works. Among them: Was the French Revolution triggered by a fungus with psychedelic properties? Does Parkinson’s disease cause a unique body odor? Should you eat your experiments on neural development when you finish collecting data on them?

Your brain will thank you for bringing it to Philadelphia’s Black Squirrel Club for this talk. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Doors open at 3:30 pm. Talk starts at 4:30.)
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Profs and Pints Philadelphia presents: “Medical Ethics and ‘The Pitt,’” an interactive discussion of how physicians navigate tough questions, with Sean Aas, associate professor of philosophy at Georgetown University, research scholar at its Kennedy Institute of Ethics, and author of the innovative textbook Bioethics: 50 Puzzles, Problems, and Thought Experiments.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus processing fees. Available at https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profs-and-pints-black-squirrel/medical-ethics-and-the-pitt .]

Nothing has higher ethical stakes than the field of medicine, where decisions can be life-or-death. And nowhere are the stakes of medicine more evident than in the emergency department, where split-second decisions can forever alter the course of the lives of patients and, sometimes, practitioners.

Life-or-death decisions drive the drama of the blockbuster HBO Max television series The Pitt, which has explored a host of ethical issues associated with medical triage, surrogate decision-making, the distribution of scarce resources, the role of medicine in society, and the intersection of clinical care and social justice.

Such decisions have long been the focus of Sean Aas, a philosopher who teaches medical ethics at all levels—to undergraduate and graduate students as well as medical professionals—and advised researchers about the ethics of ongoing clinical trials in his previous capacity as a fellow at the National Institutes of Health. He recently began using The Pitt in teaching bioethics at Georgetown.

Learn the basics of medical ethics—and have a blast being involved in interactive discussions of how to apply them—when Dr. Aas comes to Philadelphia’s Black Squirrel Club to give a talk prescribed for fans of The Pitt and anyone who simply loves to think.

He’ll start buy reviewing basic concepts in medical ethics. Then he’ll give his audience a chance to apply such concepts by reviewing and discussing some of the most dramatic dilemmas presented in The Pitt in its first two seasons.

Audience members will have a chance to judge for themselves how well characters handled decisions, and then they’ll take part in both small-group and large-group discussions of whether and how these judgments can be justified. They’ll learn how to think more philosophically about ethical dilemmas in medicine and in everyday life. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Guests are welcome to arrive any time after 5:30. Talk starts at 6:30.)

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Profs and Pints Philadelphia presents: “Travel like an Anthropologist,” an exploration of the cultural complexities of tourism and a guide to ensuring your visits to other places benefit all involved, with Melissa A. Stevens, principal at CultureSnap Consulting and adjunct professor of cultural anthropology at the University of Delaware.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus processing fees. Available at https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profs-and-pints-black-squirrel/travel-like-an-anthropologist .]

Mark Twain once famously remarked that “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” Indeed, it can open our minds to new ideas and possibilities, positively contribute to local communities, and help us establish lasting relationships with people across the world.

At the same time, however, our travels can be harmful to the people and places we visit and to our world as a whole. We can end up exploiting vulnerable populations, worsening global and local inequalities, accelerating climate change, and forever altering the places and cultures that we visit.

How are responsible tourists supposed to navigate these contradictions without ruining their vacation?

Explore the cultural complexities of what it means to travel, and find ways to ensure your conscience rests easy after full travel days, with the help of cultural anthropologist Melissa Stevens.

She’ll start by discussing how her own field has not always been a positive force in other parts of the world, and historically has committed some of the same sins as the tourism marketing industry when it comes to shaping Western perceptions of Non-Western cultures. Popular anthropologists such as Margret Mead and Napoleon Chagnon contributed to the “exotification” and exploitation of indigenous peoples and local communities in ways that cast a shadow on their work.

In confronting the ethical implications of its early history, anthropology developed a perspective known as “cultural relativism,” which called upon anthropologists to build awareness of their own cultural assumptions as a means to engage more ethically and responsibly with the people and places they visited. Anyone, including tourists, can learn to have a culturally relativist mindset in their travels.

Dr. Stevens will discuss how anthropologists use cultural relativism to gain a deeper understanding of people and places. She’ll also talk about how anthropologists look at tourism through a cultural lens, diving into the politics of representation, of performance, and of authenticity, and also examining gendered experiences of tourism. We'll take a tour through the history of travel, from early pilgrims to digital nomads, and we’ll explore different types of tourism, including cultural tourism, ecotourism, sex and romance tourism, dark tourism, backpacking, and “voluntourism.”

We’ll consider the environmental and cultural impacts of tourism on tourist destinations. Drawing from her experiences conducting ethnographic research on cultural and sustainable tourism in Tanzania and Vietnam, Dr. Stevens will share immersive stories about what she learned in researching how tourism was perceived and experienced by the people who live with it.

What you learn at her talk will help ensure that you keep learning every time you pack your bags. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Guests are welcome to arrive any time after 5:30. Talk starts at 6:30.)

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