Mar 21, 2023 | Events
Invisible Warriors: African American Women in World War II
Sunday, April 23rd, 2:30 pm via Zoom
Invisible Warriors: African American Women in World War II is a feature-length documentary illuminating 600,000 Black women — Rosie the Riveters — industrial and government employees who triumphed over racism, sexism, and classism to help win the war. Their wartime service and patriotism ushered in a new era and expectations for African American women. In Invisible Warriors, Professor Gregory S. Cooke, filmmaker, and historian, uses HD interviews and archival photos and film to document eight Rosies and their lives during the Great Depression, including their education, social, and economic conditions. The documentary explores the Rosies’ patriotism, their jobs and working conditions, racial violence and resistance, and the larger political context that created their employment opportunities. Ultimately, the African American Rosies’ wartime employment was a positive economic, political, and social experience. Arguably, Black Rosies are the most significant group of African American women of the 20th Century.
Register for this presentation at tinyurl.com/bdfpx93b. You must register for each lecture with an email address associated with your Zoom account. If you don’t have one, you can sign up for a free Zoom account at zoom.us/signup.
Theodore Talks take place on Zoom the fourth Sunday of each month at 2:30 pm Central Time (3:30 Eastern, 12:30 Pacific, 7:30 GMT). A list of future Theodore Talks can be found on the Mensa National Events Calendar at www.us.mensa.org/attend/calendar.
Questions? Contact Brad Lucht at [email protected].
Feb 18, 2023 | Events
The Societal Foundations of National Competitiveness
Sunday, March 26, 2:30 pm via Zoom
Nations rise and fall, succeed or fail in rivalries, and enjoy stability or descend into chaos because of a complex web of factors that affect competitive advantage. One critical component is the package of essential social characteristics of a nation. The ultimate story of the Cold War is that the United States was simply a more competitive society than the Soviet Union: more energetic, more vibrant, more innovative, more productive, more legitimate.
The RAND Corporation undertook a 15-month study, supported by the Office of Net Assessment in the Pentagon, to search for shared qualities of nations which enjoyed success in the international system. Through analysis of comparative studies of historical eras and trends, historical case studies, and the findings of issue-specific empirical research historical case studies, the resulting report explores how seven characteristics of a society determine its competitive standing and distinguish dynamic and competitively successful nations.
If the history surveyed in this report provides an accurate guide to the future, fate of the United States in today’s rivalries will not be determined solely, or even in significant degree, by the numbers of its weapons or amounts of defense spending or how many proxy wars it wins but by the basic characteristics of its society.
Dr. Michael Mazarr, Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation, applies the seven leading characteristics that affect national standing to the United States to create a snapshot of where the country stands. That application provides some reason for optimism. The United States continues to reflect many of these characteristics, and the overall synergistic engine, more than any other large country in the world. However, multiple trends are working to weaken traditional U.S. advantages. Several, such as the corruption of the national information space, pose acute risks to the long-term dynamism and competitiveness of the nation, raising the worrying prospect that the United States has begun to display classic patterns of a major power on the far side of its dynamic and vital curve.
Register for this presentation here: https://tinyurl.com/mvwuppjj. You must register for each lecture with an email address associated with your Zoom account. If you don’t have one, you can sign up for a free Zoom account.
Theodore Talks take place on Zoom on the fourth Sunday of each month at 2:30 pm, Central time. A list of future Theodore Talks can be found on the national Events Calendar. For more information or questions, contact Brad Lucht: [email protected].
Jan 28, 2023 | Events
Cabin Fever 5.0
Join us February 10-12, 2023
Are you still on the fence about attending the KC RG this February? Check out our speaker line up! These are the speakers we have scheduled. But there may yet be more surprise speakers. It’s not final until it’s over!
FRIDAY:
Check in early enough on Friday to enjoy some KC BBQ, a beer tasting hosted by LocSec Curt Krambeck, and a poker tournament.
SATURDAY:
Catiara Marie, Tarot card reader — Catiara will give a presentation on Saturday. She will set up a table to do more readings if needed.
Kevin Winer, Director, Kansas City Police Crime Laboratory
Robert & Kelly Pascuzzi, [Editor’s note: CANCELED!] authors of the book The Ravine, which was made into a movie in 2021. The authors recommend you read the book or watch the movie before you attend. It will make their presentation much more meaningful to you. And if you bring the book, they will autograph it for you.
Dr. Russell Kohl will share first-hand experiences, knowledge, and stories gained across multiple large-scale disasters, giving a human perspective of the responders and victims while also gleaning lessons to prepare us for future events.
Soup Contest and sandwiches for lunch.
Tim Marks, KC Improv — Tim will put on a short class on the art of improv.
Theresa Maze, Belly Dancer — She will have a short class and demonstration on the art of belly dancing.
Nick Padgett, Executive Director, Padgett Productions – Nick will talk about the shows his company puts on and how he got into the business.
Jodi & Kitty Solbrig will teach Modern Swing, also called West Coast Swing. Modern Swing gives both dance partners the opportunity to take speaking and listening roles in the dance, much like a conversation that you have with your bodies. They teach using a system called Body Language Curriculum which focuses on the structure and grammar of the dance so that you learn Modern Swing in the same way you learn a language. Instead of learning dance moves (like speaking from a phrase book), you learn the basic building blocks of Modern Swing so that you can create your own dance sentences. After one class, you’ll be able to apply what you learned and dance Modern Swing in the wild.
SATURDAY EVENING:
Daisy Bucket & Tajma Stetson, Drag Queens extraordinaire – Daisy was voted Best Drag Queen in Kansas City, 2019. In addition, she is a member of the internationally famous Kinsey Sicks Dragapella Quartet. Tajma won Miss Gay Missouri America 2022. They will provide some after dinner entertainment!
After the dinner and dancing there will be a wine tasting led by a local sommelier, our own Arnie Millan.
SUNDAY:
Racquetball tournament, awards ceremony.
Jan 21, 2023 | Events
Comedy is a Funny Business
Sunday, February 26, at 2:30 pm via Zoom
We all like to laugh (or at least most of us do). From class clown to comedy kingpin, Dustin Kauffman has been making people laugh, one way or another, for most of his life. He first appeared in front of a crowd at an open mic night in 1999. Within six months he was performing professionally. He started touring in 2003, appearing in clubs in New York, Chicago, Seattle, and Los Angeles. Tired of the life on the road, he returned to Kansas City in 2014, where he sold flooring. Which he was very good at. But still, it didn’t carry the same thrill as entertaining people. So, he began thinking about his own comedy club. In the summer of 2018, he signed a 5-year lease on what used to be a Waid’s Diner, and before that a small four-screen movie theatre. In April of 2019 the Comedy Club of Kansas City opened. At least for a while, until Covid shut it down. Dustin will talk about what it is like to run a comedy club. From obtaining a liquor license to booking comedians like Andy Dick, Andrew Dice Clay, Emo Philips, Margaret Cho, Paul Rodriguez, and Marsha Warfield, and this work may not be as funny as you think.
Register for this presentation here: https://tinyurl.com/3v7ejms5. You must register for each lecture with an email address associated with your Zoom account. If you don’t have one, you can sign up for a free Zoom account: https://zoom.us/signup.
Theodore Talks take place on Zoom on the fourth Sunday of each month at 2:30 p.m., Central time. A list of future Theodore Talks can be found on the national Events Calendar: https://www.us.mensa.org/attend/calendar/. For more information or questions, contact Brad Lucht.
