What we’re about
Profs and Pints (https://www.profsandpints.com) 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, literature, law, economics, and philosophy. 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. Your indication on Meetup of your intent to attend an event constitutes neither a reservation nor payment for that event.
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
Upcoming events (2)
See all- Profs & Pints Richmond: When Zeus Met ShivaTriple Crossing Beer - Fulton, Richmond, VA
Profs and Pints Richmond presents: “When Zeus Met Shiva,” on the flow of goods, ideas, and culture between the Far East and ancient Greece and Rome, with Georgia Irby, professor of Classical Studies at William and Mary.
[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/zeus-shiva .]
The ancient world was a much smaller place than often assumed. Despite lacking today’s means of rapid travel and communication, the inhabitants of ancient Greece and Rome were deeply incorrected economically and culturally with the people of ancient India, Sri Lanka, and China.
Gain a new understanding of how distant ancient civilizations helped shape each other’s fates with Georgia Irby, a scholar of ancient Greek and Roman science who recently gave excellent Profs and Pints talks on ancient beliefs in sea monsters.
Going back to the 14th Century B.C.E., she’ll discuss what Greeks and Romans knew about the Far East and examine the first evidence of cultural and material exchange between them. You’ll learn how the Persian Empire obstructed the flow of good and ideas, but ancient Greece and India nevertheless found ways to influence each other’s mythology and art and secure the flow of silk, peppers, and other goods from Far East suppliers to Western buyers.
Dr. Irby will discuss how nations such as India and Sri Lanka sent embassies to ancient Rome, and how advances in science and broader understanding of the world came from travelers’ observations of phenomena such as geography-based differences in the behavior of shadows. We’ll look at a third-century text detailing Chinese observations and misconceptions about ancient Rome.
The bottom line is that the people of distant civilizations were intensely curious about each other, with the legacies of their interactions still shaping our world today. You’ll emerge from the talk better able to spot the influence of various ancient cultures all around you. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: From a scene depicting Dionysus in India carved onto a Roman sarcophagus from about 190 C.E.
- Profs & Pints Richmond: The Psychology of Conspiracy TheoriesTriple Crossing Beer - Fulton, Richmond, VA
Profs and Pints Richmond presents: “The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories,” with Brian A. Sharpless, licensed clinical psychologist, former faculty member at Penn State University and Washington State University, and author of Psychodynamic Therapy Techniques: A Guide to Expressive and Supportive Interventions.
[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/psychology-conspiracy2 . Please note that to attend a talk you must buy a ticket, independent of your registration on Meetup.]
What exactly is a conspiracy theory? Are people who believe in conspiracies fundamentally different from those who do not? Are there any ways to protect yourself from buying into false theories? How often do conspiracy theories actually turn out to be true?
These are just a few of the fascinating questions that will be tackled by Brian Sharpless, a favorite of Profs and Pints fans, in an encore of a talk that earned rave reviews from a Richmond audience in August.
Dr. Sharpless will discuss conspiratorial thinking throughout history, define what "conspiracy theory” means to psychologists and psychiatrists, and summarize what the field knows about the people who buy into conspiracy beliefs.
You may be surprised to learn that there are ways to predict who will believe in conspiracy theories, with some very common “cognitive biases” leaving people more accepting of them. Conspiracy theories also can provide short-term psychological benefits to the believer. Furthermore, a number of psychological traits and disorders – both common and rare – have been associated with conspiratorial thinking.
Perhaps most surprising, there are relatively few big differences between those who are predisposed to believe in conspiracy theories and those who aren't. It's small differences that sometimes have a huge impact on worldview.
The good news is that there are ways to evaluate – and even “inoculate” yourself against – conspiracy theories, and Dr. Sharpless will offer you practical tips on this front. You may walk out with a different perspective on what you read in the news and on the internet, with new knowledge that may help you maintain a more realistic and accurate worldview. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)
Image: An Airbus A340 jet emits contrails, the subject of conspiracy beliefs. (Photo by Adrian Pingstone / Wikimedia.)
