Osher Lifelong Learning Institute

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Courses & Events

Beginning in a Topeka farmhouse, the Menninger Clinic became a psychiatric hospital that treated patients and trained clinicians from across the globe. We'll review the clinic's founding family who directed it for 75 years, until its move to Houston. We'll also examine how patients were treated and what the clinic contributed to Topeka and vice versa.

Instructor Bio: Karl Menninger retired from a legal career in federal and state government, mostly dealing with issues concerning persons with disabilities. He teaches courses on disabilities and the law and the insanity defense at the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Law.


November 18, 2024 to December 9, 2024, KU Edwards Campus, 163 Regnier Hall, In Person and Online
Seventy years ago, in 1954, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren delivered the unanimous ruling in the landmark civil rights case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. This course dives deeper into the case, exploring the often-overlooked narrative that shaped this fight for educational equality. You will go beyond the Supreme Court decision to discover the experiences of a student who was at the forefront of this movement and a KU professor who has thoroughly studied this movement.


This course contains no sessions
Click here to be notified about the next scheduled program.
Preventative measures continue to be the best way to control or prevent heart disease. Join us to learn about the various common and less common risk factors contributing to coronary artery disease. Individual topics on hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, will be presented covering causative factors and treatment options, both pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic. 

Keith Jantz, a retired internist, enjoys speaking to the public about preventative measures to improve one's health. He earned undergrad and medical degrees at the University of Kansas. He completed a 3-year residency at Baptist Hospital in Memphis and practiced internal medicine in Kansas City for 35 years.


Monday, December 9, 2024, KU Edwards Campus, 163 Regnier Hall, In Person and Online

Join historian Anette Isaacs for a three-session course exploring German culture through its cuisine, brewing traditions, and Christmas festivities. Enjoy a journey through regional specialties and holiday treats, celebrate Germany's brewing legacy, and discover the magical traditions of German Christmas celebrations. 


Instructor Bio: German born and raised, Anette Isaacs is a historian and public educator who has been presenting hundreds of programs on more than 40 different topics (all pertaining to her native country's history, politics, and culture) all over the United States. She holds master's degrees in American studies, political science, and history and is currently serving as the director of OLLI at FIU (Florida International University) in Miami, Florida.



November 21, 2024 to December 12, 2024, Zoom Facilitated Sessions

George Washington didn't make a single speech before his election as the first U.S. President. The office sought the man and not the other way around. Find out how we got from Washington to today's campaigns with ads, robo calls, debates, and rallies.



This course contains no sessions

This class looks at the emergence and transformation of the American health care system as it faced challenges such as shifts in the nature of disease, unequal access to medicine, and escalating medical costs. We'll examine medical and scientific discoveries of the 19th century and study the challenges to organized medicine that began in the 1960s as well as discuss contemporary health care issues.



October 29, 2024 to November 12, 2024, Tallgrass Creek Retirement Community In Person

"And God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the Earth and subdue it." This course examines our efforts to subdue the Earth in North America. From removing the forests east of the Mississippi River for giant monoculture farms to having perfect suburban lawns, which attract deer and geese, subduing the Earth has been a constant battle. In the West we will learn "water flows uphill to money." One in nine Americans depend on water from the Colorado River. But with the current 20+ year drought, significant changes in water usage will be necessary. 


Instructor Bio: Thomas Luellen recently retired after 31 years in hospital administration and 14 years as an adjunct instructor at Washburn University. He has a master's degree in geography from the KU. His personal interests have always been his native state and its history


November 19, 2024 to December 3, 2024, Brewster Place In Person

"And God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the Earth and subdue it." This course examines our efforts to subdue the Earth in North America. From removing the forests east of the Mississippi River for giant monoculture farms to having perfect suburban lawns, which attract deer and geese, subduing the Earth has been a constant battle. In the West we will learn "water flows uphill to money." One in nine Americans depend on water from the Colorado River. But with the current 20+ year drought, significant changes in water usage will be necessary. 


Instructor Bio: Thomas Luellen recently retired after 31 years in hospital administration and 14 years as an adjunct instructor at Washburn University. He has a master's degree in geography from the KU. His personal interests have always been his native state and its history.



November 19, 2024 to December 3, 2024, Brewster Place In Person
Although federal highway construction started in 1916, the U.S. became a car-oriented nation after World War II. Some of us recall tourist travel on Route 66 or the Lincoln Highway when they were two-lane roads, eating homemade sandwiches or food from roadside diners, spending the night at modest tourist courts while on the way to the Grand Canyon, Mt. Rushmore, or lesser-known travel destinations. Then came the interstate highways, Howard Johnsons, and Holiday Inn. We will recall the years when gas was cheap and cars were large through film clips, historical accounts, travel music and our own memories.

Instructor Bio: Carl Graves, Ph.D., holds a master's degree in US history from KU and a doctorate from Harvard. He taught at the university and community college levels, and at Kansas City's Pembroke Hill School.


November 20, 2024 to December 4, 2024, Jayhawk Area Agency on Aging In Person

P.T. Barnum never said, "there's a sucker born every minute," but the enduring success of Ponzi, pyramid, and similar schemes proves the point. Charles Dickens wrote about these ruses in "Little Dorrit" in 1857, and Bernie Madoff fleeced investors out of billions until 2008. We'll discuss various scams, including the Ladies Deposit, the Prosperity Club, the Kansas City Shuffle, multilevel marketing, and lotteries, some ongoing today. Notable Kansas schemes include 'Rajah' Porter's 1930s rabbit-raising con in Wichita and the Culture Farms grift in Lawrence, which promised profits from refrigerator cultures for cosmetics testing until the Kansas Securities Commissioner intervened.


Instructor Bio: Jerry Harper is a retired lawyer. He taught as an adjunct instructor at the KU Law School and taught western civilization in the KU humanities program. He has an ongoing interest in Kansas's more colorful characters.


This course contains no sessions
Click here to be notified about the next scheduled program.

This course examines the origins and geographical diffusion of the three most popular caffeine drinks. Although containing the most widely used psychoactive drug, these drinks are seemingly so innocuous they are sold without legal age restrictions and with limited regulations worldwide, yet they have left a legacy of cultural and environmental destruction in the wake of their widespread adoption during the process of globalization. For example, we will learn of the role of tea in the Opium Wars of China, coffee's contribution to slavery in the Americas and the detrimental health effects of sugar in sodas-or "pop" if you are from Kansas. This course can be taken independently of the previous "Six Drinks" course on wine, beer and spirits, the alcohol drinks that changed the world. 


Instructor Bio: Tom Schmiedeler, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of geography at Washburn University.


October 29, 2024 to November 12, 2024, Northland Innovation Center In-Person
With the help of an inexpensive app, we can shoot and edit film-quality videos with our smartphones, easily up to the standards of social media, commercial and brand video work, and documentary and narrative film work. Gain the control and capabilities of professional cinematographers and design the look, color, lighting and framing of every single shot in a smartphone film. This course is suitable for aspiring filmmakers, entrepreneurs, video storytellers, social media content creators and content producers. Note: Students will be required to purchase and install the Filmic Pro app on their phones. You can purchase it directly through your mobile device or on your home computer, through either the Google Play Store (Android) or through the App Store (iPhone). 

Instructor: Stephen Knifton is an Emmy-award winning TV news producer, credited for creating and producing engaging and highly rated news programming. Steve moved onto the digital content world and created work for museums, engineers, architects, designers, hospitality + tourism and business development clients. For the past few years, Steve has (remotely) taught video storytelling and smartphone filmmaking at a number of colleges. Steve lived and worked in both New York and Toronto and teaches in both Canada and the U.S.


November 18, 2024 to December 2, 2024, Zoom Facilitated Sessions
Following WWII the US became the world leader promoting the values of democracy, the rule of law, and human rights. Now China is challenging this, asking the question, "Why should the U.S. be the arbitrator of human rights?" Besides using slave labor, China also wants control of Taiwan, the South Pacific Ocean, and steals USD technology. This is coupled with the fact that the U.S. is dependent of Chinese goods and China's economy is dependent on selling goods to the U.S. Other issues such as the Ukraine war and climate change further complicate the U.S./China relationship. 

Instructor Bio: Charles "Chick" Keller is a retired senior executive and retired professor. He worked 15 years each at Sprint, and Black and Veatch in strategic planning and strategic marketing rising to VP level both times. In 2000, he began a career as a professor in KU's engineering management program where he taught finance and strategic planning.


October 30, 2024 to November 6, 2024, KU Edwards Campus, 163 Regnier Hall, In Person and Online
This course will explore the historical development of the U.S.- Mexico border from the perspective of both Mexico and the United States. Together, we will explore how the border evolved and hardened through the creation of the Border Patrol, the Mexican Revolution and the effects of Prohibition. We'll review personal accounts, photographs and songs of "borderlanders," along with government officials providing crucial context to today's current debates. Finally, we will examine how to negotiate the border in the age of nationalism.

Instructor Bio: Aaron Margolisreceived his doctorate in history from the University of Texas at El Paso where he concentrated on Latin American and Borderlands History. He is currently an associate professor of history at Kansas City Kansas Community College.


This course contains no sessions
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So, your relative is in the military; what does that mean? How is the Department of Defense organized? What are the responsibilities of the military services? What do they mean when they say "joint service"? What is a combatant command? This course attempts to make some sense of today's Department of Defense and the missions of the maritime, land, air, and space components. We'll discuss how they are organized and what they do as the military instrument of national power.


Instructor Bio: Thomas Gray, one of the Army's first nine space operations officers, is a retired educator and training specialist who served in the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command teaching at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth as well as other institutions across the country.


This course contains no sessions
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This course provides 10 easy to understand steps that an individual may employ in everyday life to improve their overall health and extend life expectancy. suggestions are medically oriented and provided by a board certified internal medicine specialist.


Instructor Bio: Dr. Keith Jantz, a retired internist, enjoys speaking to the public about preventative measures to improve one's health. He earned undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Kansas. He completed a three-year residency at Baptist Hospital in Memphis and practiced internal medicine in Kansas City for 35 years.


This course contains no sessions
Click here to be notified about the next scheduled program.

Many places on Earth have historic and appropriate names, but there are also places that acquired their names for unusual reasons. We'll armchair travel to such sites as Calico, California, Tahiti and its islands, Valley of Fire, Nevada, the Mojave Desert, Oatman, Arizona, and Area 51, Nevada.


Instructor Bio: Stephenie Slahor holds a doctoral degree and juris doctor degree and is retired from her law practice and university and law school teaching. She now creates informative and enjoyable OLLI courses for universities around the nation, primarily in the natural sciences, and about places in the world with unique geological or human history.


November 19, 2024 to December 3, 2024, Zoom Facilitated Sessions