Forever Curious: An Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Podcast OLLI - UW

In the first half of this episode, our host Charlene and Dr. Heather Price, Chemistry Faculty and Climate Scientist at North Seattle College and co-PI of a National Science Foundation Climate Justice in Undergraduate STEM Incorporating Civic Engagement (C-JUSTICE), discuss the arc of climate justice as a focus of climate activism and why people who are retired or heading into retirement should care about climate change. 
Dr. Price explains that climate justice is both intra and inter-generational. Elders now, as part of the intra-generational equation, have significant power to alter the course of climate change by supporting organizations, letting elected officials know they care, and discussing climate change with friends and family. 
To find ways to support both climate change and climate justice, Dr. Price suggests advocating for the electrification of systems and supporting organizations such as Front and Centered and 350 Seattle – two examples of climate activists who work on climate action through a lens of social justice. 
In the second half of our episode, Dr. Price outlines actions individuals can take to reduce their carbon footprint in daily life that address both climate change and climate justice, such as transportation choices, choosing different appliances, composting, supporting climate action litigation, and voicing support for improved building standards.  
These actions support both an individual’s need for an improved climate as well as the collective needs of the rest of the world.  
Dr. Price offers listeners a list of organizations that are taking on climate action and that listeners can learn from, get involved with, and support. 
Dr. Price is a climate scientist, climate justice activist, chemistry professor and researcher. She did her postdoctoral research with the UW Program on Climate Change. Dr. Price’s current research focuses on improving undergraduate STEM education through the integration of climate justice, equity, and civic engagement across the college curriculum. She is co-founder of TalkClimate.org and on the leadership team for Seattle's 500 Women Scientists organization. 
Links: 
NSC Awarded $300,000 STEM Grant | News Center (northseattle.edu) 
Climate Justice Project | North Seattle College 
Heather Price, PhD | LinkedIn 
Seattle 500 Women Scientists (sea500womensci.org) 
Front and Centered 
350seattle.org 
Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility (wpsr.org)
Climate Changemakers 
Juliana v. United States — Our Children's Trust (ourchildrenstrust.org)
Institutional Climate Action (ICA) - Action Network
Climate Action Families – Protect the People and Planet We Love!
This Is Zero Hour
Fridays For Future 
Sunrise Movement - We Are The Climate Revolution
Talk Climate

The Hebrew phrase “tikkun olam” translates to “repairing the world” and is a fundamental value to Bernard Osher, leader of the Osher Foundation.
In the first half of this episode, Kelly Jane Rosenblatt, Program Director at the Bernard Osher Foundation, and Steve Thaxton, Executive Director at the National Resource Center for Osher Institutes, talk with our host and OLLI-UW Director, Natalie Lecher, about the foundation at the center of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) network.
There 125 OLLI programs all over the United States, with at least one in each of the 50 states. The program began in 1977 when Bernard Osher decided to practice tikkun olam — not for the first time, nor the last — in a major way. 
As Kelly Jane Rosenblatt tells us, Osher has always been a supporter of education, first giving away scholarships. When this wasn’t enough to satisfy his philanthropic leanings, he and his wife began establishing lifelong learning programs. To keep the many scattered OLLI programs linked, they also created a National Resource Center which connects the many Osher chapters and provides them with resources.
At 95, Bernard Osher is still an active participant in OLLI. Though a modest man, Osher believes it’s important to encourage others to be involved in philanthropy, so he speaks often on the subject of giving back.
The National Resource Center is now located at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois. Director Steve Thaxton, who moved with the center when it moved to Chicago in 2014, says the Osher NRC is about helping the chapters thrive and grow. 
With over 150,000 people taking courses with Osher programs, the world repair is ongoing. And the Osher Foundation does more than OLLI  — but you’ll have to listen to the episode to hear about their other endeavors.
In the second half of our episode, students of an Osher class in podcasting give their thoughts on why OLLI is so valuable to them. We hope you’ll take a listen and consider enrolling in a course that’s of interest to you! Learn more about the University of Washington’s OLLI program at https://www.osher.uw.edu/. 

In this very special episode of Forever Curious, we’re giving you a “taste” of OLLI! 
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute truly is for the forever curious, and that’s on both sides of the teacher’s desk. What curiosity drives our instructors to gain the knowledge and life experience they share with their students? 
Hosts Charlene and Murray are chatting with several instructors in this “flight,” so get ready to swirl ideas around in your head, sniff the rich bouquet of knowledge, and choose which flavors you might want to experience more deeply!
David Fenner is the winner of the University of Washington’s 2021 Distinguished Contributions to Lifelong Learning award and is an affiliate faculty member at the Jackson School of International Studies. An expert on the Middle East, David has been a traveler and teacher his entire adult life. He shares his adventurous spirit with students, further inspiring a love of learning and curiosity about the lives of others.
If you want to understand a place, Deborah Leblang can give you the full picture, inside and out. With a double interest in art history and architectural history, and an understanding of teaching via storytelling, Deborah’s classes give students insight into all the works of art, but also the 
“frames” they sit in and the choices the artists and exhibitors make.
Ellen Berg has taken sociology “around the world,” as she says to host Charlene. With a fresh PhD in her 40s (as well as a recent divorce), Ellen found herself ready to start a new life. She began teaching, helping students find the connections between literature and film and sociology. Her low-pressure classes are a great way for students to learn more about their own culture from a new and creative perspective. 
Art historian Rebecca Albiani has been giving lectures at the Frye Museum for more than two decades. Rebecca is passionate about world art masterpieces, and her enthusiasm and expertise bring students in, giving them new ways of looking at art and deeper understanding of the pieces, the artists, and the contexts the works exist in. 
Sean Taylor started teaching with OLLI in 2010 — with Beowulf. Nothing like starting slow and easy, right? Telling and critiquing heroic stories are something of a theme for Sean; how do we define heroes? Who is a hero, and is that role appropriate for everyone? There’s still so much to learn, even from legends that are hundreds of years old, and Sean is a terrific tour guide through the “heroes” journeys. 
If you’re in the Western Washington area, be sure to check out these instructors and others at UW-OLLI and hear more episodes of Forever Curious at www.osher.uw.edu.

Dr. Bruce Balick’s long and distinguished history at the UW doesn’t go back quite as far as the Big Bang, but his impact on the University’s astronomy program is nearly as significant!
In this episode of Forever Curious, we have the enormous pleasure to present Bruce Balick, Professor Emeritus in Astronomy at the University of Washington. In the first part of the episode, he chats with host Charlene about his path to a career that meant spending his life with his head in the stars.
In the second part of the episode, we hear Dr. Balick’s lecture on the James Webb telescope and how our knowledge and expertise has increased since the early days of the Hubble. Be sure to listen to this fascinating discussion on telescopes, astronomy, and the power and joy of scientific curiosity. 
Dr. Balick joined the UW Astronomy Department in 1975. He eventually served as its chair, became active in faculty governance, and participated in the design of new instrumentation for Hubble. 
Since his retirement in 2014, Dr. Balick continues to publish research papers using data from the Hubble Space Telescope and to supervise astronomy undergraduates in research and public outreach. He is a coauthor on a research paper based on one of the newly released images from the James Webb telescope.
And fortunately for us, he also gives lectures for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Washington!
Learn more about the UW’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at our website, www.osher.uw.edu. If you’re not in western Washington, there may be an OLLI near you. Find an OLLI on The Bernard Osher Foundation website: osherfoundation.org. 
 

What do you do with a kid who tries to capture every tiny animal that crosses his path? You take him to the Natural History Museum. A LOT.
Fortunately for the critters, graduate student and OLLI instructor Jordan Ray Claytor quickly discovered that paleontology was more his passion, so he switched to fossils. 
As a paleontologist, Jordan studies at the intersection of a bunch of different sciences, he says, including biology, geology, and ecology. They’re trying to answer questions about life in “deep time.” What can fossils tell us about Earth’s organic past, and how can we apply those learnings to modern-day life?
So, what CAN the fossil record tell us? Jordan’s fossils were living in Hell Creek in the Badlands of Montana, 66 million years ago. The planet was warmer then, and land masses were differently shaped than they are now. And this area hosted a whole lot of dinosaurs, including the T-Rex and triceratops. There were small mammals in the area as well, making the Hell Creek region one of the richest for study. 
Hell Creek isn’t famous just for its fossils. In fact, a rock layer discovered by a father and son in the 1980s indicated that the existing theory that dinosaurs had simply slowly gone extinct was probably wrong. Really wrong.
Hear Jordan’s fascinating presentation about the discoveries of paleontology and how the study of the past can have genuine impacts (pun intended) on life today. 
Learn more about Jordan Ray Claytor here: https://www.biology.washington.edu/people/profile/jordan-claytor
If you love hearing about dinosaurs, digs, and DAWGS, be sure to listen to the amazing story of how UW professor Greg Wilson and his DIG team discovered a T Rex in Hell Creek, Montana, and how that T Rex currently resides at the Burke Museum on the Seattle campus of UW: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1y08ZmXw3dqqEhB6HZtpH7.
Learn more about OLLI/Osher at the University of Washington here: https://www.osher.uw.edu/

Master birder and nature author Constance Sidles has (no exaggeration) an encyclopedic knowledge of birds. She’s written for 65 different publications and is the CEO and Founder of Constancy Press, and she can answer questions about the ascending or descending call of the Swainson’s thrush at a moment’s notice and off the top of her head.
Connie has taught many classes for the University of Washington’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), and she shares that expertise with students and with us, in this fascinating conversation.
Oddly enough, Connie initially disliked birds thoroughly (a story that needs to be heard to be believed), but a bird feeder gifted to her started her lifelong love for and fascination with the birds of Seattle and beyond. The whole family embraced birding, and it quickly became a family obsession. 
This led to writing books and to nearly daily trips to an area called the Montlake Fill which was particularly good for birding. It was initially a landfill that closed in 1971 when it was returned to the University of WA. It’s a really interesting and unexpected discussion about a path that can take four minutes (for runners) or four hours (for birders).
We hope you’ll take a listen to this conversation, then check out her books on Constancy Press (constancypress.com). Find out more about the OLLI program (and hear more episodes of Forever Curious) at our UW website: www.osher.uw.edu.