Town Hall Seattle Science Series

Today’s information (and misinformation) overload is difficult and confusing to navigate.

Post-truth politics and conspiracy theories abound. Science and scientists are under growing suspicion, causing even more confusion and unrest. At the same time, we need science to survive today’s biggest threats like pandemics and climate change. To bridge this gap, acclaimed physicist and New York Times bestselling author Jim Al-Khalili wants us all to start thinking like scientists.

Al-Khalili believes that the practice of science can offer us a way of thinking and understanding our complex world. He’s created a guide to leading a more rational life, inviting people to engage with the world as scientists have been trained to do. He defines the “how” and “why” behind science, as well as what science is (and what it’s not).

With today’s scrutiny over science, Al-Khalili admits that scientists need to do more to communicate how they work to build trust and credibility in the public eye. One way to do that is for everyone to adopt the scientific method in our daily lives. Science may not only solve today’s biggest problems, but it can be a way for everyone to make everyday decisions for themselves and their loved ones.

Jim Al-Khalili is an Iraqi-born theoretical physicist at the University of Surrey, where he holds a Distinguished Chair in physics as well as a university chair in public engagement in science. He has written 14 books on popular science and the history of science, between them translated into twenty-six languages. His latest books include The Joy of Science and The World According to Physics, which was shortlisted for the Royal Society Book Prize. He is a regular presenter of TV science documentaries, such as the Bafta-nominated Chemistry: A Volatile History and he hosts the long-running weekly BBC Radio 4 program, The Life Scientific.

Deep in tropical jungles around the world are birds with a dizzying array of appearances and mating displays: Club-winged Manakins who sing with their wings, Great Argus Pheasants who dazzle prospective mates with a four-foot-wide cone of feathers covered in golden 3D spheres, Red-capped Manakins who moonwalk. In his thirty years of fieldwork, Yale University ornithologist Richard Prum has witnessed numerous such display traits that seem to contradict a classically upheld scientific dogma—that Darwin’s theory of natural selection explains every branch on the tree of life and accounts for the evolution of every trait we see in nature.

Prum joined us to share findings from his book The Evolution of Beauty and dusted off Darwin’s long-neglected theory of sexual selection, in which the act of choosing a mate purely for aesthetic and pleasurable reasons is an independent engine of evolutionary change. He explored how, according to Darwin, mate choice can drive the formation of traits that are ornamental rather than purely adapted for survival, and how the sexual autonomy of the female evolves in response to male sexual control. Prum showed us how this framework grants us insight even into the evolution of human sexuality—how female preferences have changed male bodies, and even maleness itself, through evolutionary time. Join Prum for a unique scientific vision of nature’s splendor that has the potential to contribute to a more complete understanding of evolution and of ourselves.

Richard O. Prum is William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology at Yale University, and Head Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. He has conducted field work throughout the world, and has studied fossil theropod dinosaurs in China. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2010.

Recorded live at PATH by Town Hall Seattle on Monday, June 11, 2018. 

Can the choices you make on a daily basis transform society? Sociologist and Princeton professor Dr. Ruha Benjamin thinks so, and has the research to support the idea.

Dr. Benjamin’s groundbreaking research on race, technology, and justice spanned years and focused primarily on larger, structural changes. But the scourges of COVID-19 and anti-Black police violence inspired Dr. Benjamin to rethink the importance of small, individual actions. Her new book Viral Justice offers a sweeping, deeply personal exploration of how we can shape our world through the choices we make on a daily basis.

Part memoir, part manifesto, Dr. Benjamin vividly recounts her personal experiences and those of her family, showing how decisions that might otherwise go unnoticed can have great impact — even on an exponential scale. Through stories about her father’s premature death, her brother’s experience with the criminal justice system, and her own challenges as a young mother navigating an inequitable healthcare system, Dr. Benjamin shines a light on both the devastating impacts of chronic racism and the passions and strengths of communities driven to demand justice.

Born of a stubborn hopefulness, Viral Justice offers a powerful and practical vision of how small changes can add up to large ones, transforming people’s relationships and communities while inspiring them to build a more just and joyful world.

Ruha Benjamin is an internationally recognized writer, speaker, and professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, where she is the founding director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab. She is the award-winning author of Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code and editor of Captivating Technology, among many other publications. Her work has been featured widely in the media, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, The Root, and The Guardian.

Vivian Phillips, Founder and President of the non-profit organization ARTE NOIR, is a communications professional and arts leader. Vivian’s professional history includes service as the Director of Communications for a Seattle Mayor, Director of Marketing and Communications for Seattle Theatre Group, Seattle University Adjunct Professor (MFA Arts Leadership), television, radio, and live performance producing, public speaking, and numerous arts and strategic communications projects. She served as the Chair for both the Seattle Arts Commission and 4Culture, and co-founded The Hansberry Project and the Historic Central Area Arts and Cultural District.

Jazmyn Scott, ARTE NOIR Executive Director, comes to Arte Noir as a long-time advisor and community organizer. For the past six years, she led programming and community partnerships for LANGSTON Seattle, where she was the organization’s first employee. Her leadership at LANGSTON catalyzed the development of new programs that engaged a wide range of local and national performing artists. Jazmyn is also the co-curator of 50 NEXT: Seattle Hip-Hop Worldwide interactive experience, which includes music from Seattle and Northwest Hip-Hop artists displayed at the Museum of History and Industry. Jazmyn’s community connections are extensive, and she currently serves as board vice president for Earshot Jazz and The Residency and sits on several community arts advisory boards.