Monday Courses   

Explore how digital technologies and artificial intelligence affect the brain, behavior, and mental health. This course examines the impact of modern devices on attention, memory, emotions, and decision-making, while addressing ethical concerns like privacy and tech-based addictions. We will learn how neuroscience and psychology offer tools to support well-being in a rapidly evolving digital world.

This Osher Online course, offered through the Osher National Resource Center, lets you learn with fellow lifelong learners nationwide, guided by a world-class expert. After enrolling, you’ll receive and email inviting you to a Member Orientation on January 7 at noon to review course materials, access your Zoom classroom, and prepare for your first class.

The music of Broadway and Hollywood musicals is an art form in and of itself. It takes a team of multi-talented performers and an orchestra to produce these entertainment extravaganzas. At the heart are creative geniuses who set the whole thing in motion: the songwriters! In this multimedia course, we will cover Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter, Alan Jay Lerner, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jerome Kern, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Leonard Bernstein, Jule Styne, and George Gershwin. Much attention will be paid to their collaborators as well. The facilitator will share many videos to demonstrate the songs as they appear on stage and screen.

Sicily has been a mythic crossroads of heroes, conquerors, and culture for over 3,000 years. From Odysseus and the Arabo-Norman Golden Age to the Mafia and modern mythmakers like Garibaldi and Coppola, Sicily’s story is rich, complex, and central to Western history. This course explores its pivotal role in shaping civilization—and why Goethe famously said, “To have seen Italy without having seen Sicily is not to have seen Italy at all.”

This Osher Online course, offered through the Osher National Resource Center, lets you learn with fellow lifelong learners nationwide, guided by a world-class expert. After enrolling, you’ll receive and email inviting you to a Member Orientation on January 7 at noon to review course materials, access your Zoom classroom, and prepare for your first class.

"Film Noir," as the French called the American movies that emerged from World War II, implies dark film or black movie. It refers not only to the fact that movies were in black and white but also to the plot, actors, and film production. This time we meet a murderer for hire, a lonely professor and a femme fatale, an actress helping Scotland Yard, a gang that commits the perfect crime, a jaded ex-con, a party girl who wakes up with a corpse, a bride who loses her husband on an ocean cruise, and an Army officer who rescues a soldier from East Germany. Along with our movies we will have weekly action-packed serial episodes. We will have a short discussion before and after each movie to discuss the stars, plot, and why the movie was successful. Due to movie lengths, the class will start at 12:30.

Experience for yourself the accumulated wisdom of centuries with the timeless exercise of T'ai Chi. According to the Harvard Medical Health Publication, "Tai chi is often described as meditation in motion, but it might well be called medication in motion." Designed to be hands-on, this class will explore the principles and basic exercises in T'ai Chi and the growing body of evidence of its value in treating or preventing many health problems. This introduction to T'ai Chi Ch'uan is both practical and participative. These exercises can powerfully complement medical intervention. Modern studies have reported positive effects of Tai Chi on balance, hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, osteoporosis, cancer, COPD, heart disease, and depression. Many more studies are underway to explore the medical benefits of this mind/body exercise. Topics include global health care implications and applications in daily life.

Recommended text: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Tai Chi: 12 Weeks to a Healthy Body, Strong Heart, and Sharp Mind (Harvard Health Publication)

No class 1/19 for MLK Day.

The Bible is considered the foundation document of Western thought and is often taken as absolute truth. Modern scholarship views the Hebrew Bible as an anthology that expresses diverse ideas through stories rich in ambiguity. Join us to see if you agree. This class will take a fresh look at the Hebrew Bible. By closely examining biblical narrative, we are challenged regarding motive, moral character, and psychology. Robert Alter gives us tools to address those challenges in The Art of Biblical Narration (not required). We will dig deeply into selected material alongside 30-minute lectures from Professor Amy Jill Levine (The Old Testament, a Great Courses series). She is a widely sought-after speaker who has delivered talks on biblical subjects to academic and non-academic audiences, many of which are available via YouTube. Each week we will watch two lectures and struggle with selected texts.

This engaging, video-rich course tells the story of American television—from its 1920s origins to today’s streaming era. We will explore decades of iconic shows, genres, and cultural moments that shaped the medium and its audiences. From sitcoms and dramas to news and sports, we will rediscover how TV evolved, adapted, and transformed American culture—one broadcast, cable channel, and streaming service at a time.

This Osher Online course, offered through the Osher National Resource Center, lets you learn with fellow lifelong learners nationwide, guided by a world-class expert. After enrolling, you’ll receive and email inviting you to a Member Orientation on January 7 at noon to review course materials, access your Zoom classroom, and prepare for your first class.

Money. We work for it, chase it, save it, spend it, win it, and lose it. But do you know what money really is, how and why it was invented, who controls it, how it affects history and the economy, and what the future holds? This is the Story of Money. Depending on time and class interest, we will explore what money really is, early forms of currency, paper currency, the Gold Standard and fiat currency, the banking system, the Federal Reserve, inflation, and the future of money, including cryptocurrency.

No class on 2/16, President's Day.

Money. We work for it, chase it, save it, spend it, win it, and lose it. But do you know what money really is, how and why it was invented, who controls it, how it affects history and the economy, and what the future holds? This is the Story of Money. Depending on time and class interest, we will explore what money really is, early forms of currency, paper currency, the Gold Standard and fiat currency, the banking system, the Federal Reserve, inflation, and the future of money, including cryptocurrency.

No class on 2/16, President's Day.