Profs and Pints Baltimore

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “Queer Country ,” on the long, often-hidden presence of LGBTQ+ performers in country music, with Tanya Olson, lecturer in English and scholar of gender and sexuality studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/baltimore-queer-country .]

Although country music is often thought of as conservative, rural, and straight, queer artists have always been part of its story.

Learn about the important role that queer artists, their ideas, and their experiences have played in country music with Tanya Olson, a cultural critic whose recent work explores the intersection of country music, identity, and tradition.

She’ll talk about queer artists across generations, describing how they are hidden and what it means to stand in the circle of tradition without being seen. She’ll explore how queerness shows up in the songs, stories, and sounds of country music even when it isn’t named, and also what’s at stake when those threads are left out of the history we tell.

You’ll leave with a deeper understanding of country music’s past, as well as a sharper eye for who’s been missing from the picture all along. You’ll gain an appreciation for why inclusion in country radio and the Grand Ole Opry matters, as well as an understanding of how a queer presence might strengthen, rather than threaten, country music's legacy.

Olson’s latest book of poetry, Born Backwards, builds on the language and imagery of country music to ask who gets remembered and why. Learning from her will make for a memorable evening. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: Country artist k.d. lang performs in 2008 as part of the Cambridge Folk Festival (Photo by Bryan Ledgard / Creative Commons).

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “Understanding Psychedelic Experiences,” with David B. Yaden, associate professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research and co-author of The Varieties of Spiritual Experiences: Twenty-First Century Research and Perspectives.

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

What happens during a psychedelic experience? How does it compare to other intensely altered states of consciousness, such as those triggered by meditation or dreams, or the ‘spiritual’ experiences that some people report?

Join Professor David Yaden, a leading scholar of psychedelics, as he shares insights from scientific research on them, highlighting key findings from psychology, neuroscience, and psychopharmacology.

Dr. Yaden will explore how these substances produce transformative effects on perception, emotions, and well-being. You’ll learn about recent studies examining the therapeutic potential of psychedelics and their role in triggering profound shifts in consciousness, and about psychedelics’ risks and benefits.

He’ll draw connections between psychedelic experiences and other altered states, citing examples drawn from different cultures throughout history and discussed in his book. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: Fractal artwork by Gert Buschmann / Creative Commons

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “The Cosmic Imagination,” a look at thinkers who have changed our conception of reality, with William Egginton, professor of humanities and director of the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

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

Twentieth-century science was turned on its head by the discoveries of relativity and quantum physics. But what if you were told that those discoveries weren’t uniquely the product of the field of physics, but also sprang from centuries of efforts by artists, mystics, and thinkers to probe the extremes of human knowledge and challenge our very conception of reality?

Come learn the long, hidden history of such endeavors from Professor William Egginton, who teaches literature and intellectual history at Johns Hopkins, created that university’s Program in Medicine, Science, and Humanities, and has wowed Profs and Pints audiences with his captivating past talks on multiverses, zombies and philosophy, and dark winter folklore.

In a riveting lecture filled with gorgeous images from both art history and modern cosmology, Professor Egginton tells the sweeping story of the poets, physicists, and philosophers who upended our most basic notions of what is real.

His talk will deal with the problems of time and space on a cosmic and microcosmic scale, spanning from quantum fluctuations to the curvature of the cosmos. The collection of great thinkers that he’ll touch upon includes Plato, Kant, Dante, Borges, Einstein, and Heisenberg, among others. The science will be accurate, but both it and the philosophy covered by the talk will be geared toward a general audience.

You’ll end up looking at the universe through a different lens, with plenty to think about and a newfound respect for the expansiveness of the human imagination. ( Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: “The Nights Long Moments,” by Jordan Condon (Wikimedia Commons).

Profs and Pints: Baltimore presents “The Weaponization of Generative AI,” on the manipulation of artificial intelligence to harm others and how it can be countered, with James Foulds, associate professor, and Philip Feldman, adjunct research assistant professor, from the Department of Information Systems at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/weaponization-of-generative-ai .]

On May 14th Grok, a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI Corporation, began talking about “White Genocide” in South Africa. Officials at xAI blamed a “rogue employee,” but on July 8th the AI chatbot was at it again, calling itself “MechaHitler” on the X platform and posting there antisemitic content and praise of Adolf Hitler—comments echoing opinions previously voiced by Musk.

These incidents weren’t just offensive but also alarming, because they demonstrated how generative AI technologies can be intentionally manipulated to produce misleading, ideologically motivated, or otherwise harmful content—or, in word, weaponized.

Join Dr. James Foulds, an expert on the responsible use of artificial intelligence, and Dr. Philip Feldman, an expert on AI’s misuse, for a look at the weaponization of AI and how it can be stopped.

Dr. Foulds will begin with a primer on the technology underlying AI and how features intended to prevent AI behaviors like those in the recent Grok incidents were instead harnessed to cause them. He’ll help you gain a basic understanding of the large language model (LLM) technology that underlies generative AI chatbots such as Grok and ChatGPT and the methods used to align AI with human values. He’ll discuss how AI alignment was misused to steer Grok to produce propaganda, and how this illustrates how AI chatbots can be weaponized to try to influence and control society’s institutions.

From there, Dr. Feldman will talk about how generative AI has created new opportunities for information warfare. He’ll describe how chatbots have already manipulated people to commit violent acts accidentally, and he’ll discuss how deliberate “weapons-grade” manipulation could inflict significant damage on individuals, organizations, and even nations. We’ll examine the possibilities of large-scale AI-driven psychological manipulation (PSYOPS).

The speakers will conclude by discussing strategies and interventions to counter the emerging threat of AI weaponization and steps you can take to protect yourself. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image by Canva.