Based on their critically acclaimed podcast of the same name, Keegan-Michael Key and Elle Key are excited to share their new book with the Chicago Humanities audience: The History of Sketch Comedy: A Journey through the Art and Craft of Humor. This book will take readers on a delightful and hilarious journey through the evolution […]

A botanical journey of beauty and botany, myth and mayhem: Bestselling author Jonathan Drori takes a gloriously illustrated trip across the globe, bringing to life the science of trees by revealing how their worlds are intricately entwined with our own history, culture and folklore. His journey includes self-mummifying monks, entrepreneurial resin diggers and the Venetian […]

From the author of Steve Jobs, Leonardo da Vinci, Einstein and more, Walter Isaacson returns to Chicago Humanities with the astonishingly intimate story of the most fascinating and controversial innovator of our era—a rule-breaking visionary who helped to lead the world into the era of electric vehicles, private space exploration, and artificial intelligence—and took over […]

Oliver Jeffers is an acclaimed storyteller and visual artist. His latest picture book, How We Got Here and Where We Might Go - Our Human Story. So Far., is written for adults and is an artistic exploration of humankind’s impact on itself and our planet. The renowned artist and writer takes Chicago Humanities audiences of […]

In her long career in literature and teaching, Sandra Cisneros has shared her passion for creative writing and expressing her experience as a Mexican woman. After a 28 year break from poetry, she returns to her roots with her most recent collection of songs, elegies, and declarations that chronicle her pilgrimage toward rebirth and the […]

Academy Award-winning movie Don’t Look Up and the big-budget streamer Extrapolations tell us that humanity is incapable of addressing climate change, even in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence. But is that true? Are human beings incapable of changing our ways to help the planet? Join astronomer and physicist Marcelo Gleiser (The Dawn of a […]

What constitutes a meaningful life in a violent world? Join celebrated author and essayist Teju Cole (Open City) as he considers this question through his most recent work of fiction, Tremor. This poetic exploration continues Cole’s masterful examination of colonial atrocities, casual racism, and “history’s own brutality.” Don’t miss this Chicago Humanities experience with one […]

Throughout history, museums and other cultural institutions have too often acquired their artifacts through conquest, imperialism and colonization. Today, these institutions are re-evaluating this “colonial looting” and facing increasing calls to return these artifacts to their rightful owners, aiming to rectify historical injustices and foster cultural healing. Join Chicago Humanities for a presentation on these […]

A Cicero native, Erika Sánchez grew up in a Mexican American household and is a self-described pariah, misfit, and a foul-mouthed, melancholic rabble-rouser. She returns to the literary world with her witty, raunchy, insightful, unapologetic honest memoir, Crying in the Bathroom. She covers everything from white feminism to debilitating depression, and finding a life rich […]

Over the past year, language models have entered the popular consciousness as new apps like ChatGPT attract hundreds of millions of users. Bold claims have been made about the capabilities and future impact of such products. Researchers in the field of natural language processing (the scholarly field in which language models originated) have been somewhat […]

Join leading intellectual Farah Jasmine Griffin (Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature and In Search of a Beautiful Freedom) to talk about why book bans so often target Black literature. Griffin discusses the censorship of Black authors like Toni Morrison and the effort to preserve and share Black stories. […]