What we’re about
Profs and Pints brings professors and other college instructors into bars, cafes, and other venues to give fascinating talks or to conduct instructive workshops. They cover a wide range of subjects, including history, politics, popular culture, horticulture, literature, creative writing, and personal finance. Anyone interested in learning and in meeting people with similar interests should join. Lectures are structured to allow at least a half hour for questions and an additional hour for audience members to meet each other. Admission to Profs and Pints events requires the purchase of tickets, either in advance (through the link provided in event descriptions) or at the door to the venue. Many events sell out in advance.
Although Profs and Pints has a social mission--expanding access to higher learning while offering college instructors a new income source--it is NOT a 501c3. It was established as a for-profit company in hopes that, by developing a profitable business model, it would be able to spread to other communities much more quickly than a nonprofit dependent on philanthropic support. That said, it is welcoming partners and collaborators as it seeks to build up audiences and spread to new cities. For more information email profsandpints@hotmail.com.
Thank you for your interest in Profs and Pints.
Regards,
Peter Schmidt, Founder, Profs and Pints
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Profs & Pints DC: Assisted Suicide for Mental IllnessPenn Social, Washington, DC
Profs and Pints DC presents: “Assisted Suicide for Mental Illness,” on a growing practice that raises huge ethical questions, with Mark Komrad, M.D., a psychiatrist and medical ethicist on the teaching faculty of Johns Hopkins and Tulane universities and the University of Maryland.
[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/euthanasia/ ]
In several European countries, physician-assisted suicide by oral prescription and euthanasia by lethal injection is being made available to psychiatric patients. Sometimes it’s even administered by their own treating psychiatrists.
Closer to home, Canada, which now offers euthanasia for some people who are chronically ill, plans to expand eligibility to those dealing only with psychiatric disorders in March 2027, and in some of its provinces church-based healthcare centers cannot refuse to offer euthanasia services. Here in the United States, assisted suicide, available in twelve U.S. states to the terminally ill, has already been provided in one state to some psychiatric patients with anorexia.
[Dial 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, which provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress as well as prevention and crisis resources.]
Legal permission for doctors to help kill certain patients—or provide them with the means to kill themselves—represents a profound change in the fundamentals of 2300 years of medical ethics. Learn how professional medical organizations around the world have been responding, and become familiar with the ethical arguments for and against these practices, with Dr. Mark Komrad, a longtime medical ethicist who has published widely on the topic and helped craft the American Psychiatric Association’s position statement on it.
We'll look at specific data from Belgium, Netherlands, Canada, and the US, and see the way these practices have accelerated over time, profoundly altering these societies' attitudes towards mental illness, disability, and what lives are "worth living."
Among the vital questions we’ll explore: Are mental disorders ever truly terminal and their treatment ever really futile? Could failures in the mental healthcare system and social safety net push people to choose this way out? Does it undermine suicide prevention efforts to sanction suicide as a medical "treatment"?
What does it mean to be a psychiatrist if suicide can be provided and not just prevented? (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: Photo by Zachary Nelson / Stocksnap
- Profs & Pints DC: Medical Research's WhistleblowersHill Center at the Old Naval Hospital, Washington, DC
Profs and Pints DC presents “Medical Research’s Whistleblowers,” a look at abuses in medical studies and how they get exposed, by Carl Elliott, M.D., a bioethicist at the University of Minnesota and the author of The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No.
[ Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/researchwrongs/.]
When abuses occur in the course of medical research the institutions involved generally deny even the most glaringly obvious wrongdoing, and doctors and other staff members often remain silent for years. Whistleblowing is the exception, not the rule, and rarely is there any real justice for unwittingly victimized research subjects or members of their families.
What is it that enforces such a code of silence when it comes to medical research that violates the basic ethics of that field? What is it that leads a rare individual to say no to practices that are deceptive, exploitative or harmful?
Hear such questions tackled by Dr. Carl Elliott, who formerly held the Cary and Ann Maguire Chair in Ethics and American History at the Library of Congress and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in support of his efforts to draw attention to medical research’s ethical lapses.
Dr. Elliott will discuss his experiences at his own university, where for many years he fought for an external inquiry into a psychiatric study in which an especially vulnerable patient lost his life. He’ll also discuss six other case studies in which patients were deceived into participating in studies that were risky and often lethal.
Beginning with the Tuskegee syphilis study and ending with the scandal surrounding experimental synthetic trachea implants at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, he’ll tell the stories of medical insiders who spoke out against abuses and often paid a terrible price for doing the right thing. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: A doctor injects a test subject with a placebo as part of the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study (Center for Disease Control and Prevention photo).
- Profs & Pints DC: The History Behind BridgertonPenn Social, Washington, DC
Profs and Pints DC presents: “The History Behind Bridgerton,” a look at British life at the time depicted in the hit Netflix series, with Amy Froide, professor of history at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and scholar of British and women's history.
[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/regent/ .]
The Netflix series Bridgerton was a breakout sensation when it debuted in December 2020 and its popularity shows no sign of waning. While the show makes no claims of historical accuracy in its depiction of Britain during the Regency period, it's only natural that viewers might wonder what things were like then and how closely what they’re seeing reflects reality.
Profs and Pints has good news: While Lady Whistledown is not available to advise us, Professor Amy Froide, an expert on British and women’s history, certainly is. Come join her for an exquisite evening in which you’ll learn a ton.
Dr. Froide will give us a crash course on the Regency Period, discussing the dynamics of Britain’s monarchy at a time when King George III suffered mental illness and his son was declared Prince Regent to oversee the nation’s affairs. Among the key figures you’ll learn about in depth is Queen Charlotte, a fascinating figure who bore little resemblance to the socialite depicted on the show, actually being quiet and bookish and prone to retreat to her palace at Kew.
You’ll also learn how the show accurately depicts fashion during that time, including eighteenth century court dress, flimsy muslin garments popularized by the French and made from cotton imported from India.
Professor Froide also will talk about the show’s racial dynamics, and how in the Regency period peoples from other places in the empire, including India, began to be allowed into high society.
For Season 3 viewers, she’ll give us some insight into Regency norms of beauty and body size and discuss why we cannot apply our modern obsessions with thinness to the past. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: From “Highest Life in London,” by George and Robert Cruikshank. New York Public Library / Creative Commons.
- Profs & Pints DC: District of CoyotesPenn Social, Washington, DC
Profs and Pints DC presents: “District of Coyotes,” with Megan Draheim, professor of practice at Virginia Tech’s Center for Leadership in Global Sustainability and founding director of the District Coyote Project.
[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://profsandpints.ticketleap.com/roadrunner/ .]
When you hear the word “coyote,” do you envision howls through the darkness of Western landscapes? While coyotes likely evolved in the Western part of the country, they are incredibly flexible in their behavior and ability to adapt, and now claim the entire continent as their home. Having learned to live in cities as well as rural areas, they even call Washington D.C. home. The first official coyote sighting in Rock Creek Park occurred in 2003.
So how did they get here and what are they up to? How should we feel about this?
Join us for a discussion of all-things coyote: Who they are, how they live, how they interact with other animals and humans, and how people tend to react to them. Dr. Draheim will talk about their pack life, what they eat, and their seasonal behavior. You’ll hear about local coyote projects, get tips on what to do if you see one, and gain a newfound appreciation of this truly adaptable and intelligent native predator.
Dr. Draheim, a conservation biologist, specializes in urban biodiversity and human-wildlife interactions. She’s been working with coyotes since 2003, and her District Coyote Project has the twin missions of researching coyotes and educating the public about their ways. Her proceeds from the talk will go to the District Coyote Project. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: National Park Service photo / Creative Commons.
