Mondays, 5:00 - 6:10 pm (PT) • 5 weeks • April 3 – May 1
Join us online!
We are very pleased to bring back our traditional “Stanford Saturday (now Monday) University.” In this year’s edition of the course, five Stanford faculty members will present talks on critically important trends shaping our society—trends that have often accelerated during and after the pandemic. What’s the future of working from home, and how will remote work affect the economy of the United States? Why have addictions—including to devices and screens—skyrocketed in the US, and how can a dopamine fast help bring them under control? Why has the modern economy left behind so many working-class communities in America, and how can investment in these communities help address the wealth inequalities in our country? Our course will examine these critical questions and more. You can find an overview of the topics and speakers below. We hope you will join us for an engaging series of lectures and Q&A sessions, each taking place on consecutive Monday nights.| Register Today! » |
SCHEDULE
Session 1: Restoring Youth Mental Health
Denise PopeSenior Lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Education; Co-Founder, Challenge Success
In recent years, young people have experienced mental health struggles in growing numbers. These numbers only increased during the pandemic, placing ever greater pressure on schools, parents, and families. Denise Pope, a senior lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, has spent her career focusing on students' mental and physical health. She is also the founder of Challenge Success, an organization dedicated to implementing research-based strategies that promote student well-being and engagement with learning. In her talk, Pope will highlight current research on youth and how they are experiencing school and home life. She will also offer specific strategies for parents, caretakers, and educators to implement immediately—and in the long run—to improve the well-being of young people in their communities.
Session 2: Reimagining Discarded America
Michelle Wilde AndersonLarry Kramer Professor of Law; Professor, Doerr School of Sustainability; and Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford
Decades of cuts to local government have wreaked havoc on communities left behind by the modern economy. These discarded places vary in terms of urbanization, racial demographics, and politics, but all are routinely scorned by outsiders for their poverty and governance. During her lecture, Stanford law professor Michelle Wilde Anderson will share a study about this strand of wealth inequality and describe solutions for the dismantling of local government in four working-class towns in California, Oregon, Massachusetts, and Michigan. Collectively, her study argues for reinvestment in people-centered leadership. A professor of law and senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Wilde Anderson writes and teaches in the areas of poverty and inequality. Her new book, The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America, focuses on the dismantling and rebuilding of local government in high-poverty communities.
Session 3: Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence
Anna LembkeProfessor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford; Author of Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence
New York Times bestselling author of Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence, Stanford psychiatry professor Anna Lembke decodes complex neuroscience into applicable strategies that explain why the relentless pursuit of pleasure can lead to pain. An expert in treating addictions of all kinds, Lembke discusses the biology and psychology of why people become addicted to certain substances and behaviors and the key role our dopamine balance plays in creating addiction. Drawing on lessons from research, students will learn how conducting a dopamine fast can help curb our innate desire to overindulge, be it drugs, alcohol, food, work, the internet, or sex, and find contentment and connectedness by keeping our dopamine in check.
Session 4: The FBI and White Christian Nationalism
Lerone MartinMartin Luther King, Jr. Centennial Professor and Director, Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, Stanford
In 2021, the FBI labeled white supremacists a “top terrorism threat.” This lecture will examine how the FBI under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover aided and abetted this rise. The author of The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism, Professor Lerone Martin, draws on thousands of newly declassified FBI documents and memos to describe how, under Hoover’s leadership, FBI agents attended spiritual retreats and worship services, creating an FBI religious culture that fashioned G-men into soldiers and ministers of Christian America. These partnerships not only solidified the political norms of modern white evangelicalism, but they also contributed to the political rise of white Christian nationalism, establishing religion and race as the bedrock of the modern national security state, and setting the terms for today’s domestic terrorism debates.
Session 5: The Future and Impact of Working from Home
Nicholas BloomWilliam D. Eberle Professor of Economics; Senior Fellow, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research; and Professor, by courtesy, of Economics, Graduate School of Business, Stanford
Working from home has changed everything, from employment to housing, rent, and even investing. But is working from home here to stay, or will the world drop this trend by the end of 2023? Nicholas Bloom, the leading expert exploring this specific question, has surveyed thousands of employees and interviewed hundreds of CEOs, managers, and leaders. In our lecture, he will discuss what the future holds for working from home—a future that could have broad implications for technology, property markets, investing, and the future of work more generally. The explosion of working from home after the pandemic was possibly the largest shock to labor markets since World War II. To understand the future of the US economy, it is critical to understand what drove this shift and where it is heading.