Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
Courses
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Courses & Events
A Family, Freud and Friendliness-The Menninger Clinic in Topeka
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
Brown v. Board of Education: The Untold Stories
This course contains no sessions
Click here to be notified about the next scheduled program.
Don't Have a Heart Attack
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
Flavors of Germany: Culinary Delights, Beer Heritage, and Holiday Magic
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
From Front Porches to Rallies: Presidential Campaigns Through History-Brewster Place Residents
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
Health Care in the United States-Tallgrass Creek Residents
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
Nature Wars - Brewster Place Residents
"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
Nature Wars - Our Battles with Vegetation, Wildlife, and Water
"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
On the Road: Highways, Cars, and Vacations of a Bygone Era
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
Rajah Rabbits, Culture Farms, and the Kansas City Shuffle
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.
This course contains no sessions
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Six Drinks That Changed the World: The Historical Geography of Tea, Coffee, and Soda, (Part II) - Clay County Residents
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
Smartphone Filmmaking
November 18, 2024 to December 2, 2024, Zoom Facilitated Sessions
The Great Struggle for World Dominance
October 30, 2024 to November 6, 2024, KU Edwards Campus, 163 Regnier Hall, In Person and Online
The History of the U.S. - Mexico Border
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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Today's Military - Clay County Residents
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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Top 10 Ways to Live Longer
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.
This course contains no sessions
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Unusual Places
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.
November 19, 2024 to December 3, 2024, Zoom Facilitated Sessions