Curiosity Never Retires

In this episode of "Curiosity Never Retires," one of our founders, Tina Fried Heller, talks about the beginning and we discuss the OLLI of today with Tina and new member Scott Otteman.

In this episdoe, Jeff Porter, chair of the social committee at OLLI at American University, talks with two of his committee members, Kris Taylor and Barbara Rosen, about the importance of community to seniors and the role it plays at OLLI.

Ellen Stanton talks about her class in which she explores Canada’s diverse regions, their distinctive characteristics, and the historic events that helped shape them. The class will explore Canada’s natural resources, stunning landscapes, favorite sports, and notable people. Ellen Stanton served as an educator at the US Capitol Visitor Center and as lead historical interpreter at George Washington's Mount Vernon. For several years, she was chair of the Historic Alexandria Resources Commission. For more than ten years, she has facilitated classes at the OLLI programs at the University of Denver and American University. Ellen is a graduate of Manhattanville College and received an MSW from the University at Albany, SUNY.

The pursuit of truth often forms the backbone of some of the most gripping narratives. This curated list of films delves into the heart of human curiosity, where characters navigate through layers of deceit, personal dilemmas, and societal issues, to uncover the truth. These stories not only entertain but also challenge us to question what we accept as reality. Class members will see eight highly acclaimed films about truth, prior to our weekly meetings. Rita and Bill Hadden love leading film discussions with OLLI members. Bill is a sociologist with a career at the CDC and NIH. Rita has done management and culture change consulting for 35 years, and has led OLLI study groups for a dozen years. Both have lived and traveled widely around the world. They thrive in different cultures and speak multiple languages.

Donald Trump is not the first president to launch a project to attempt government reform. These efforts have reoccurred since the Keep Commission in 1905. Trump, however, is the first whose project, DOGE, left the government in much worse shape. This study group will examine some chronic problems of government performance such as wasteful spending and inefficiency, and the consequent efforts to meet these performance challenges. We’ll also confront the possibility that these issues may not originate with the bureaucracy, but that, as Pogo said, "We have met the enemy and he is us." We’ll also examine innovative alternative approaches, sometimes called "tools of government," to achieving policy goals. Mark Nadel was a political science professor at Cornell University and ended his academic career as a professor at Georgetown’s public policy school. In between those two academic stints he took a 20-year detour at GAO dealing with government performance issues and then at the Social Security Administration as an Associate Commissioner. He has long been an active member of OLLI, and has led study groups on politics and public policy.

In episode 1 of season 2 of Curiosity Never Retires, a podcast from the OLLI program at American University, Greg Munford describes his new class that debuts this fall. He will take students on a rapid tour through the history of classical music and talk about how even the great geniuses were working with frameworks that they inherited - sometimes to perfect and sometimes to break free from.

In this episode of "Curiosity Never Retires," David Hensler continues his examination of major architectural schools by focusing on Mid-Century Modernist architecture in the Washington, DC area. David's last class covered Art Deco.

In this episode of "Curiosity Never Retires," Leonard King talks about a course he will be presenting in the Spring of 2026 on non-violence along with his wife, Betty. Leonard has taught a range of courses at OLLI at American including very popular studies of film.

In this episode of "Curiosity Never Retires," Leslie Frantz talks about the Bronté sisters. Between them, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronté wrote seven books, including 'Jane Eyre', 'Wuthering Heights', and 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall' respectively. Leslie talks about how their childhood greatly influenced their writing and explodes some of the myths surrounding them.

In this episode of "Curiosity Never Retires," long time OLLI favorite, Penny Hansen, talks about her fall 2025 course on the Supreme Court and touches on the legacy of the Roberts court, the way the functioning of the court has changed radically in recent years, and the "shadow docket."

Don Ross received his bachelor's degree in philosophy from Wake Forest University in 1970, his master's from the University of Iowa in 1972, and his doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1979. His publications include articles on ancient and medieval philosophy. He has also done work in Asian and modern European philosophy. This semester he is teaching a course that will cover the late dialogues of Plato as well as a second course which covers Aristotle's Metaphysics, Psychology, and Epistemology.

Magazine writer Dan Moskowitz has, for more than a decade, tapped his avocational interest in American popular music to lead study groups in the subject at the OLLIs at American University and George Mason. The Library of Congress maintains a national registry of recordings that show the "range and diversity of America," reaching from Edison recordings to the original cast album of Hamilton. We'll hear selections from the 600 titles now in the registry, discuss the role they played in shaping our country, and perhaps add a memory of the impact the piece had on our own lives. Each session will be devoted to a specific genre—pop, jazz, folk, classical, etc.—with the emphasis on recent additions to the registry.

Christina Fleps is a retired lawyer who has served as a docent at the National Gallery of Art and art lecturer at the Woman’s Club of Chevy Chase. This course examines Renaissance art from Giotto and Masaccio to Caravaggio and Gentileschi. Embarking from Byzantine icons, our Renaissance tour explores: how artists developed new techniques for realistic depiction of space, form, and emotion; how private powers like the Medici came to rival the Church as art patrons; and how artists changed from anonymous guild members to renowned "rock stars" like Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian.

Linda R. Freeman, PhD, retired after teaching for 15 years on the College Park campus as a University of Maryland lecturer in Victorian literature. She has also taught for Smithsonian Associates, Montgomery College, and for 26 years, at OLLI. This class will cover two well-known but totally different Hardy novels. Published in 1878, Far From the Madding Crowd was Hardy's first major literary success. Bathsheba Everdene, its brave, bold heroine, despite her confidence and high spirits, makes serious mistakes in love among the three men in her life before she finds true happiness. Sober and remorseful Michael Henchard, mayor in The Mayor of Casterbridge, is the hero of this flawed but tragic Hardy masterpiece of 1886. He makes one awful mistake as a young man and pays a high emotional price for it throughout the novel in terms almost as dire as those of classical Greek drama. Some of Hardy's engaging poetry will be read throughout as forms of relief.

For the past 13 years, Jack Dalby has lectured on the topics of Christian Origins and the Historical Jesus with OLLI programs at George Mason University, the College of William and Mary, and American University. In this episode, "St. Paul and Early Christianity", Jack talks about how Christianity’s origins remain mysterious. Historians debate what happened at the "big bang" moment 2,000 years ago when some of Jesus’s followers came to believe he had risen from the dead after his crucifixion. How did this tiny group of 1st-century Palestinian Jews start a religious movement that would one day grow to include over two billion adherents? Some of the topics for discussion will be: What are our sources for understanding Christian origins? Who was St. Paul? What was Paul’s mission to the gentiles? What do we know about the 12 Apostles of Jesus? Who was James, the Brother of the Lord? Was there one Christianity or many? Did Rome persecute Christians? What were the earliest Christian rites and prayers?

Howard Spendelow earned a PhD in history and East Asian languages from Harvard University, taught history at Georgetown University from 1979 to 2023, and from 1980 to 2014 he also served as Contract Chair of the Advanced Area Studies Seminar on China at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute. In this episode, Howard previews his two upcoming courses for the fall - "Japan’s Early History to the 1868 Meiji Restoration", and, "China’s Early History."

David Flaxman is a musician and computer scientist who has been teaching classes at OLLI since 2017. He is president of the City Choir of Washington and the Georgetown Chorale and is a co-founder of the Washington Douglass Chorale. In this episode, David talks about his upcoming class on Mozart and the challenges of teaching a class in hybrid mode.