Profs and Pints Metro Baltimore

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “The Happiness Workshop,” a look at what recent research and centuries of wisdom tell us about bringing more joy and contentment to our lives, with Eric Zillmer, professor of psychology and the director of the Happiness Lab at Drexel University.

[Doors open at 3. The talk starts at 4:30. The room is open seating. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/baltimore-happiness-workshop ]

Are you happy? If not, how do you get there?

Gain insights into happiness with Eric Zillmer, an award-winning teacher who leads a creative think tank that investigates the ingredients for happiness among individual people and communities.

You’ll learn how the study of happiness is a growing, evidence-based field known as positive psychology, which aims to find solutions to happiness challenges that can bring positive change to our lives and environments.

Dr. Zillmer will discuss the meaning of happiness and its place in our lives and society. He’ll draw from recent science and great thinkers in discussing how we can increase our own happiness and well-being, throwing out a few practical tips as well.

He’ll talk about whether happiness can be measured and where in our brain happiness is located. We’ll look at the influence of socializing and social media on our happiness and about the roles that music, humor, adversity, and regret have in happiness research.

Dr. Zillmer will discuss what we learn about happiness from competitive sports, and he’ll suggest ten actions that you can engage in that will make you happier.

Among the questions he’ll tackle: What is the happiest day of the week? Can a specific place make you happy? What can we learn about happiness from travelling the world? (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID.)

Image: Happiness in the face of a Tibetan Buddhist monk. (Photo by Wonderlane / Wikimedia Commons.)

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “Facing Fascism,” on the history, hallmarks, and lingering power of a deadly ideology, with Kevin Matthews, professor of history at George Mason University and teacher of courses on early 20th century European history.

[Doors open at 5. The talk starts at 6:30. The room is open seating. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/baltimore-facing-fascism ]

Few political movements have aroused as much anger and fear as fascism. But despite its legacy of violence, persecution, and genocide, fascism continues to hold a strange attraction to many.
Join historian Kevin Matthews for an in-depth look at an ideology that brought death to millions in Europe and yet continues to deeply influence our politics and culture.

Dr. Matthews will start by discussing how the ideology of fascism arose in the aftermath of the First World War and took hold in Europe in the 1920s and 1930s.

To give you a better grasp of what exactly fascism is, he’ll discuss its central themes: Anti-democracy. Extreme nationalism and anti-communism. The use, or threat, of violence in politics. Rejection of established values such as scientific objectivity. Denial of equal rights, especially for women. The assertion of power where a power vacuum exists.

We’ll examine the rise and fall of two notorious fascist dictators, Adolf Hitler of Germany and Benito Mussolini of Italy. For a time it was believed that fascism died in the ashes of the Second World War, but it clearly didn’t, and we’ll look at where it remains a political force today.

Finally, we’ll examine how fascism continues to permeate popular culture in ways that trivialize it, popping up in music from punk to Madonna, with its latent eroticism making it the subject of films such as The Night Porter. Having been called “the most self-consciously visual of all political forms,” it enlisted fashion leaders to produce uniforms and continues today to inspire a look known as “Nazi chic.”

Dr. Matthews previously has given fantastic Profs and Pints talks on Ireland’s fight for independence and on World War II German submarine attacks off our coasts. He’s sure to leave you with a much better understanding of fascism and a recognition that is has hardly gone away. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID.)

Image: Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler during Mussolini's 1940 visit in Munich (photographer unknown / public domain).

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “How Pirates Changed the World,” with Joshua M. White, associate professor of history at the University of Virginia and author of Piracy and Law in the Ottoman Mediterranean.

[Doors open at 5. The talk starts at 6:30. The room is open seating. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/baltimore-pirates-changed-world ]

Piracy has existed for as long as humans have taken to the sea. Between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, however, maritime violence flourished across the globe as never before, with the Mediterranean Sea being its epicenter.

Gain a deep understanding of the piracy of this period—and why it mattered so much—with Professor Joshua White, a scholar of Mediterranean history who teaches courses on Mediterranean pirates and on the ethics of piracy.

He’ll discuss what caused the explosion of piracy in the Mediterranean and talk about how those engaged in it operated. He’ll talk in depth about how small-time pirates infested the islands and coves, lying in wait for prizes, while seasoned, licensed professionals known as corsairs prowled the seas for cargo and captives on behalf of kings, sultans, and their respective religious faiths.

What did they do with their booty? What was life like on board a pirate galley, both for the crew and for the men chained to the oars? We’ll tackle those questions.

You’ll learn the origin stories and exploits of some of the most notorious corsairs—like Hayreddin Barbarossa, John Ward, and Alonso de Contreras—and how corsairing turned Algiers and Malta into massive centers of human trafficking. They became notorious as places where Christian, Muslim, and Jewish captives awaited ransom or lives of servitude.

Professor White will talk about how piracy left its mark on the political geography of the coasts, drove the development of international law, and provided the pretext for imperial expansion by Spain, the Ottoman Empire, Britain, and France. Maritime violence also mobilized the rhetoric of intractable religious conflict, popularized new genres of literary expression, transformed trade networks, and led hundreds of thousands into lives of captivity. So profound was its impact that its legacy is still with us today. ( Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID.)

Image: Fighting between Algerian pirates and British sailors as depicted by John Fairburn (National Maritime Museum of Britain / Wikimedia Commons).

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “The Twister Talk,” on tornadoes and advances in our understanding of them, with Jeffrey Halverson, professor of geography and environmental systems at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and author of An Introduction to Severe Storms and Hazardous Weather.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/profsandpints/baltimore-twister-talk .]

Springtime brings tornado outbreaks and devastation across the United States. The good news for those of us who anxiously eye the skies: Tornado science is rapidly evolving and improving, as are the means by which we detect funnel clouds and warn of their approach.

Get up to speed with what’s known about tornadoes with the help of Dr. Jeffery Halverson, a severe storm expert with the Washington Post Capital Weather Gang who previously has given excellent Profs and Pints talks on hurricanes and snowstorms.

He’ll describe how, with the help of research conducted by tornado hunters, meteorologists are using ever more sophisticated computer simulations and datasets to try to “crack the code” when it comes to how and where tornadoes form.

We’ll look at how science teams wielding Portable Doppler Radars on small trucks are learning that tornado wind speeds are much stronger than once presumed. We’ll consider how decades of data are changing how we think about “Tornado Alley,” and we’ll review what’s known about the relationship between tornadoes and climate change.

Professor Halverson will conclude by discussing the technological strides being made in terms of tornado warning and detection, and how tornado scientists are teaming up with social scientists to gain a better understanding of what leaves us vulnerable to natural hazards. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Bar doors open at 5 pm. The talk starts at 6:30.)

Image: An F5 tornado over Elie, Manitoba in June 2007 (Photo by Justin Hobson / Wikimedia Commons).