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This is Part Four of a four-course political philosophy ensemble extending over four academic periods starting Fall 2024 and concluding Winter 2026. Its primary focus is on issues of inequality and their relationship to capitalism and liberalism. The primary text, Thomas Piketty's Capital and Ideology (Part Four for this course), is divided into four parts of roughly 200–250 pages each. The course will generally follow the chapter structure with additional readings and videos augmenting and critiquing Piketty's arguments. The Winter 2026 course will generally focus on Piketty's thinking regarding the political-ideological conflicts on the question of "just inequality." The text provides a foundation for thinking about inequality as well as a point of departure for considering contemporary capitalism, liberalism, illiberalism, and democracy. The previous courses, Parts 1 through 3, are not necessary prerequisites for Part 4; however, participants will be expected to be familiar with the key concepts introduced in the Piketty text.

Required text: Thomas Piketty, Capital and Ideology. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2020. Available in hard copy, EBook, and Audio Book.

This will not be a discussion, debate, argument, or continuing complaint about current problems with health care. Deliberation is a well-known process called a "reasoning exchange" where members examine several "frameworks" or sections of a public problem. This keeps the group focused on only one piece of the issue and not bogged down on a more global view. It will include 15-20 OLLI members, hopefully various health care professionals, citizens who have no involvement in health care, and perhaps leaders in the community from business, education, and nonprofits. Luckily, perhaps a local political leader. Each framework will call for the "considered judgment" of each participant, not a vote up or down. This process is more personal, with respect for each person's opinions. The first class will be a brief presentation on the process. Each session will present a specific framework to engage: the standing of health care in a modern society, what is universal care, financing health care in the state, governance and its specific services, cost containment, service delivery, evolution of malpractice, and funding and development of professional manpower in the state.

Quantum mechanics is arguably the most important invention of the human mind. Our standard of living has increased significantly due to applications of technology in computers and communications, education, entertainment, medical devices, navigation, energy production, travel safety, and other advancements, yet many mysteries remain. Experiments show that the quantum world is weirder than science fiction. Scientists cannot agree on how to interpret its seemingly illogical predictions, despite the theory's continued success in explaining the world of the atom and its components. This class will present the history of quantum science, its key personalities, and a non-technical explanation of its guiding tenets, what is and isn't understood, and the exciting future it offers in computing and communication security. Professors usually say "Shut up and calculate" to students who want answers about the foundations of quantum mechanics. We will expose those shadowy areas and offer the best current explanations.

Great Decisions is a course on United States foreign policy. Each week, we will focus on a specific topic related to that policy from a U.S. perspective. Other perspectives on that policy topic are valued and encouraged. In addition, each week the class will watch a video, prepared by the Foreign Policy Association, to further define the week’s topic. Students are encouraged to provide their thoughts and opinions on the presented materials and be ready to discuss with and learn from their classmates. Topics included are:

• America and the World: Trump 2.0 Foreign Policy
• Trump Tariffs and the Future of the World Economy
• U.S.-China Relations
• Ruptured Alliances and the Risk of Nuclear Proliferation
• Ukraine and the Future of European Security
• Multilateral Institutions in a Changing World Order
• U.S. Engagement of Africa
• The Future of Human Rights and International Law

Required text: Great Decisions Briefing Book 2026 available from the Foreign Policy Association.

Explore the foundations of music in this fun and accessible course designed for lifelong learners. We’ll cover the basics of rhythm, melody, harmony, and musical form, using familiar examples and interactive exercises. You'll also have the chance to try your hand at simple composition, with guidance and feedback in a supportive environment. No prior music experience is necessary—just curiosity and a love of music!

Participants should have a laptop with the ability to run musescore (a free program that needs Windows 10 or higher, Mac OS 11.5 or higher, or recent Linux distributions). The facilitator prefers that participants load musescore before the first class.

The origin of Judeo-Christian values that cemented the foundation of Western Civilization must be studied and understood in order to preserve these values for the future. This series of lectures will cover Jewish history, addressing the major points of positive and negative intersections with Christianity and their complex relationship. The series will emphasize that Judaism and Christianity have more commonalities than divisions. The topics will cover Biblical and post-Biblical Jewish history through the First and the Second Temples, the history of the diaspora, the birth of Christianity, the interplays between the Church and Synagogue in antiquities, Renaissance, Middle Ages through Reformation up to the Enlightenment and finally, modern times. The goals of this series of lectures are to build a better understanding of the shared history and shared values within the Judeo-Christian world in order to construct bridges to a common future for many generations to come.

Recommended texts: 1) Max I. Dimont. Jews, God, and History. 2)Paul Johnson. A History of the Jews. 3) A.N. Wilson. Jesus: A Life. 4) James Carroll. Constantine’s Sword.

While movies, documentaries, and books may seem to portray the German population meekly falling in line with the Nazi agenda, a small percentage stood against the Nazi threat, unaffected by the populist pipe dream. Students such as the White Rose, military officers such as von Stauffenberg, newspapers like the Munich Post, and Jews such as the Herbert Baum Group, Niuta Teitlebaum (Little Wanda), and Roza Robota all stood bravely in the face of death. This class examines the courage needed to stand against mindless tyranny.

In this course, we will survey the lives of seven modern geniuses who profoundly altered their fields but who remain largely anonymous in the public eye: Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (astronomy); Stanley Miller (chemistry); George Cantor (infinity); Vernon Smith (economics); Robert Trivers (biology); V. S. Ramachandran (neuroscience); and Kurt Gödel (truth). When we're done, we'll get a glimpse of the surprising connections across some of these seemingly disparate fields of study, and perhaps also a glimpse of the sometimes-porous boundary between genius and madness.

Take the mystery out of digital photography and start creating images you're proud of. This interactive, hands-on course introduces you to the fundamentals of using your digital camera (point-and-shoot, mirrorless, hybrid, DSLR—this is NOT a smartphone camera course), selecting lenses, and mastering light with portable flash units. Whether you're new to photography or seeking a creative refresher, you'll gain confidence, technical understanding, and an artistic eye through guided instruction and practice on the University of Denver campus.

Required materials: Point-and-shoot, mirrorless, hybrid, DSLR type camera– this is NOT a smartphone camera course. Recommended materials: Portable or attached flash unit.

How low can a family go? For Faulkner’s Compsons it is alcoholism and child abuse, mental impairment and mutilation, promiscuity and incestuousness, madness and suicide, warped time, and raging revenge. Then, rinse and repeat!

“The Sound and the Fury” is a recondite telling and re-telling of the coming of age of four children amidst this dissolution and the decay of the South’s Lost Cause mythology. But there is a Black family deeply entangled in this story, and the voices and actions of “the help” stand in muffled but meaningful contrast to the surrounding disintegration. Join us in taking on the book that made Faulkner’s reputation and explore whether the past is, indeed, ever really past.

Required text: William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury, with an Introduction by Casey Cep, Vintage International Edition (2025), ISBN 978-0-679-73224-2

No class on 1/28.

Virginia Woolf is considered one of the most important writers of the twentieth-century because of her modernist “stream of consciousness” technique and because of her feminist essays. She was also at the center of the Bloomsbury Group, a group of artists, writers, and philosophers who came to define the intellectual life of England between the two world wars.

In this novel, published in 1927, a large family and their guests spend summers in a house in the Hebrides, just as Woolf and her family spent summers in St. Ives in Cornwall in the Southwest of England. The novel presents the personalities and tensions among this large cast of characters. Additionally, Woolf raises issues of gender, change, bereavement, finding meaning in artistic creation, and the ways that memories and the past continually impinge on the present. Join us as we explore To the Lighthouse.

Required text: To the Lighthouse, the Virginia Woolf Library Annotated Edition. ISBN 978-0-156-9073922. (Please obtain this edition so we can all be, literally, on the same page.)

"The Yanks Are Coming!" The Allies on the Western Front were exhausted. Three years of hard and bitter fighting drained the countries of their finest men. Casualties were appalling. Poison gas, machine guns, and artillery caused a stalemate that resulted in trench warfare. "Over the Top" was the cry, but it meant walking into a hail of bullets and shells. New blood and new ideas were needed. Could the Yanks supply both? With Russia now out of the war, the Germans could move their troops from the Eastern Front to the West and attack one last time. Battles such as Meuse-Argonne, Belleau Wood, and others led to the final collapse of the German forces. We end the class with a look at the Versailles Treaty. It was supposed to solve the problems that caused the war and prevent another from ever happening again. How did it fail?