IN PERSON Analyze a different topic in depth each week. The topics may currently be in the news while others are more eclectic and focus on timeless issues. American domestic politics as well as foreign policy are constant themes running through many of the topics. Classmates and guest speakers contribute regularly, ensuring a wide variety of points of view.

ONLINE Analyze a different topic in depth each week. The topics may currently be in the news while others are more eclectic and focus on timeless issues. American domestic politics as well as foreign policy are constant themes running through many of the topics. Classmates and guest speakers contribute regularly, ensuring a wide variety of points of view.

NOTE THE DATES HAVE CHANGED. THE CLASS BEGINS ON 10/7 AND ENDS ON 10/28. OTHER DETAILS REMAIN THE SAME.

NEW The stories of Samson, one of the favorite characters in the Hebrew Bible, appear in the Book of Judges, chapters 13-16. Take a look at various topics in the stories, such as historicity, style and genre, and humor. Is the saga of Samson a parody on demigods, an idea that was current in the ancient world (Gilgamesh, a Sumerian king, was 2/3 divine and 1/3 human, a mathematical combination I cannot figure out)?

Via keyboard accompaniment, let’s take a trip back in time when your only worry was what show to watch on TV or listen to on the radio. When Sunday nights belonged to Ed Sullivan, Lucy ruled Mondays and Tuesdays meant Uncle Miltie! When we were “Stuck on Bandaids” and drank that “Heavenly Coffee."

NEW You know about Bloody Sunday in 1965. Visit lesser-known episodes in the long fight for Black voting rights, a rescinding of those rights, a Philadelphia assassination, the Reconstruction-era bloodbaths, the unpunished killings of 20th Century activists, and the recent gutting of the Voting Rights Act. This story is full of heroes and villains, terrible setbacks and inspiring victories. And it's not over. Sara Rimer, Journalist

NEW Explore the people, places and moments that defined the Continental Army's fight for survival in the fall of 1776. Join Main Line School Night’s favorite historian, Maj. Larry Swesey (USA-Ret.) for a captivating, two-day guided journey retracing the battles of the New York Campaign from the bruising Battle of Brooklyn and dramatic overnight escape, through Manhattan, White Plains, Fort Lee, and the pivotal turning point at Trenton.  Excursion includes a private lunch and museum visit at the historic Fraunces Tavern, comfortable overnight accommodations and buffet breakfast. See Maj. Swesey's Trying Times lecture on 9/23/26. (3 Feet: Extenisve Walking and Lengthy Periods of Standing.)

NEW A new environmental issue has grabbed public attention: microplastics! Amazingly, each of us ingests a credit card’s worth of plastics weekly, to unknown effect, and microplastic particles in the ocean now outnumber the stars in our galaxy by a factor of 500. What do we know about them? What do we do now?

NEW Why do Iranians and Americans hate and distrust each other to the point of going to war? Perhaps surprisingly, the hostility does not stem from cultural or religious differences, but from the Cold War. In 1946, 1953, and 1979, the U.S. wanted stability from an oil-rich country on the edge of the Soviet empire. Iranians wanted all sorts of things that clashed with U.S. aims. For 47 years, the clash has been open and acrimonious.