Curiosity Never Retires

OLLI at American University

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Courses

By celebrating the diverse experiences and interests of the Study Group Leaders and members who make up OLLI at American University, this podcast’s goal is to provide information about the wonderful courses and people at the heart of our OLLI at AU, while sparking curiosity and maybe a conversation or two.

Feb 18

Curiosity Never Retires - David Hensler on Modernist Architecture

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.

13 min
Jan 2

Curiosity Never Retires: Leonard King on Non-violence

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.

14 min
11/14/2025

Curiosity Never Retires: Leslie Frantz on the Bronté Sisters

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.

12 min
10/27/2025

Curiosity Never Retires: Penny Hansen on the Supreme Court

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."

18 min
09/27/2025

Curiosity Never Retires: Don Ross on Plato and Aristotle

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.

21 min
09/01/2025

Curiosity Never Retires: Dan Moskowitz on "The Music That Made America"

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.

14 min
08/29/2025

Curiosity Never Retires: Christina Fleps on "Renaissance: Not Just Pretty Faces"

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.

11 min
08/26/2025

Curiosity Never Retires - Linda Freeman on "Thomas Hardy: The Sweet and the Strange"

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.

13 min
08/22/2025

Curiosity Never Retires - Jack Dalby on "St. Paul and Early Christianity"

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?

14 min
08/22/2025

Curiosity Never Retires - Howard Spendelow on China and Japan

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."

12 min
08/22/2025

Curiosity Never Retires - David Flaxman on "Mozart"

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.

13 min

11 Episodes

5

out of 5

2 Ratings

By celebrating the diverse experiences and interests of the Study Group Leaders and members who make up OLLI at American University, this podcast’s goal is to provide information about the wonderful courses and people at the heart of our OLLI at AU, while sparking curiosity and maybe a conversation or two.

Creator

OLLI at American University
Years Active

2025 - 2026
Episodes

11
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© 2026 OLLI at American University
Show Website

Curiosity Never Retires