Cool NYC Events

Scientific Controversies: Extra Dimensions
2019-11-15 20:00 (America/New_York) | Pioneer Works, 159 Pioneer Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11231, United States
Pioneer Works’ Director of Sciences, Prof. Janna Levin, invites renowned theoretical physicists Prof. Gregory Gabadadze and Prof. Cumrun Vafa to reflect on our dimensionality, string theory, reality, and the multiverse.

Madison Square Park Conservancy’s Horticultural Symposium
2019-11-15 09:00 - 13:00 | Eataly, 200 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10010, United States
For its second annual Horticulture Symposium, Madison Square Park Conservancy will gather experts in the fields of landscape design, horticulture therapy, and forest therapy to discuss the significance of access to public green spaces in our city. With a diverse lineup of speakers and a keynote presentation by Amos Clifford, founder of the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs , the symposium will explore the role green spaces play in our mental health and physical well-being, initiatives that build restorative landscapes in our communities, and what the future holds for horticulture therapy programs in the face of the climate crisis..
Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in collaborative activity led by Black Urban Growers (BUGS). The event will conclude with an optional, guided Forest Bathing session in Madison Square Park, led by author and keynote speaker, Amos Clifford.

Understanding Your Brain: Q&A with Neuroscientist Dr. David Rock
2019-11-14 21:00 | Bon Courage, 82 Reade St, New York, NY, 10007, United States
We know more about our cars than our brains. David Rock wants to fix that. He believes that learning about your brain can have similar benefits to practicing mindfulness, without the sitting quietly part.

In this session, he will answer questions about how to create the right conditions for yourself or your team to do your best work, based on how the brain works. Explore how to have more breakthrough insights, how to collaborate better and how to stay sane amidst the noise with this insight-rich talk.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

David Rock is the author of four books, a researcher, and the CEO of the NeuroLeadership Institute, whose vision is to make organizations more human through science.

Life Isn’t Everything: Mike Nichols, as Remembered by 150 of His Closest Friends
2019-11-14 19:30 - 20:30 | The Strand, 828 Broadway, New York, NY, 10003, United States
Join us for a searching conversation all about the life and work of the prolific and influential filmmaker, theater director, and comedian Mike Nichols, with editors Sam Kashner and Ash Carter and Nichols’ collaborator Candice Bergen.
Ash Carter and Sam Kashner offer an intimate look behind the scenes of Nichols’ life, as told by the stars, moguls, playwrights, producers, comics and crewmembers who stayed loyal to Nichols for years. A mosaic portrait of a brilliant and original director known for his uncommon charm, wit, vitality, and genius for friendship, this volume is also a snapshot of what it meant to be living, loving, and making art in the 20th century.

Yogishri and Bijan Sabet: Investing in Letting Go
2019-11-13 19:00 - 20:30 | Rubin Museum, 150 West 17th St., New York, NY, 10011, United States
In the business world, success is equated with material gain. The premise of venture capitalist Bijan Sabet’s business is to invest in order to earn more, and his early investment in digital platforms like Twitter and Tumblr could be described as prescient. But does this type of success yield happiness? In their first time meeting together, the whizz investor Sabet and the Himalayan spiritual master Yogishri will search for what happiness we can hope to find beyond cashing in.

Food Artisans of Japan
2019-11-13 19:00 | 92 Y, 1395 Lexington Ave, New York, NY, 10128, United States
Nancy Singleton Hachisu shares an in-depth knowledge and understanding of Japanese locales, the foods and the artisans who work there. Learn more about chefs and artisans who go beyond courting media exposure or Michelin stars, but who represent the country’s soul. Learn more about the artisans’ genuine connection to local ingredients, unwavering desire to give back to the community, and common dedication to craft, and understand how to translate their recipes into a blueprint for approaching seasonal dishes at home.

What’s a Brain For? A Moving Story
2019-11-13 18:30 - 20:00 | Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, 2950 Broadway, New York, NY, 10027, United States
Neuroscientist Daniel Wolpert, PhD, is fascinated by how the brain controls our every movement. The ease with which humans move our arms, our eyes, even our lips when we speak masks the true complexity of the control. While computers can now beat grandmasters at chess, no computer can yet control a robot to manipulate a chess piece with the dexterity of a six-year-old child. Join Dr. Wolpert as he discusses what makes control so hard, especially in the face of incomplete or rapidly changing information about the world.
This conversation will be moderated by Shreya Saxena, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute.

Secret Science Club: Brain Lecture with Neuroscientist Nim Tottenham
2019-11-12 20:00 | The Bell House, 149 7th St, Brooklyn, NY, 11215, United States
At the next Secret Science Club, neuroscientist Nim Tottenham explores human brain development and its relationship to emotional behavior, stress, and well-being. She asks:
–How are early-life experiences linked to emotional functioning in adulthood? Why do some early experiences matter so much?
–How is brain development affected by relationships with parents and primary caregivers.
–Can childhood stress rewire our brains?
–How does brain plasticity in childhood relate to psychological resilience and vulnerability?
Nim Tottenham is a neuroscientist, professor of psychology, and director of the Developmental Affective Neuroscience Lab at Columbia University.

Foodtalk: Jewish Food
2019-11-12 19:30 | Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway, New York, NY, 10025, United States
Two of the most influential authorities on Jewish cooking today, Leah Koenig, author of Modern Jewish Cooking and the new The Jewish Cookbook, and Adeena Sussman, bestselling author with a new cookbook, Sababa, discuss the intricacies of Jewish food identity, from Israeli cooking to the diaspora. In conversation with food journalist Gabriella Gershenson.
Member $20
Non-Member $25
Thirty and Under (with ID) $15

History Behind the Headlines: Socialism
2019-11-12 19:00 | Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th St., New York, NY, 10011, United States
Embraced by some, deplored by others, misunderstood by many, socialism is back and it’s a hot topic in presidential politics. With younger voters increasingly supporting socialism, the growing movement is changing the national conversation and potentially, the Democratic party. But when a recent Gallup poll asked Americans what socialism actually is, answers varied wildly. Columbia Journalism School Director of Academic Affairs, and former Editor-in-Chief of The Forward Jane Eisner sits down with an all-star panel to discuss socialism today, its complicated past, and how New York’s predominantly Jewish socialist movement paved the way for change a century ago. She is joined by University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor of American Jewish History, Tony Michels; Washington Post columnist, Catherine Rampell; New York Post columnist, Karol Markowicz; and former Deputy Director of the Democratic Socialists of America, David Duhalde.

AMNH Presents: Past Earthquakes, Present Hazard
2019-11-12 18:30 | American Museum of Natural History, 175-208 79th Street, Central Park West, NY, 10024, United States
How do scientists understand earthquakes that occurred before the invention of modern seismometers? Join geophysicist Susan Hough as she describes the science around understanding past tremors and what they can teach us about present-day earthquake hazards.

The Making of a Masterpiece: Gustave Courbet, Woman with a Parrot, 1866
2019-11-12 11:00 | The Met, 1000 5th Avenue, New York, NY, 10028, United States
In a continuation of this hit series, each talk focuses on a single, iconic painting in The Met collection, framing it in the context of the artist’s work and its contemporary resonance and legacy. This season, Kathryn Calley Galitz, author of The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings, looks at work by Courbet, Monet, Cézanne, and Warhol.
Tickets start at $30; $100 for the series
Tuesday, November 12, 11 am
Gustave Courbet, Woman with a Parrot, 1866
Tuesday, November 19, 11 am
Claude Monet, La Grenouillère, 1869
Tuesday, November 26, 11 am
Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire and the Viaduct of the Arc River Valley, 1882–85
Tuesday, December 3, 11 am
Andy Warhol, Nine Jackies, 1964

The Seine: The River That Made Paris
2019-11-11 19:00 | 92 Y, 1395 Lexington Ave, New York, NY, 10128, United States
Voyage down the Seine with journalist Elaine Sciolino as she explores the history of the beloved Parisian river and the lives it shapes.
In the spring of 1978, as a young journalist in Paris, Elaine Sciolino was seduced by a river. In The Seine, she tells the story of that river through its rich history and lively characters—a bargewoman, a riverbank bookseller, a houseboat dweller, a famous cameraman known for capturing the river’s light. She patrols with river police, rows with a restorer of antique boats, discovers a champagne vineyard, and even dares to swim in the Seine. Sciolino’s keen eye and vivid prose bring the river to life as she discovers its origins on a remote plateau of Burgundy, where a pagan goddess healed pilgrims at an ancient temple. She follows the Seine to Le Havre, where it meets the sea. Braiding memoir, travelogue and history through the Seine’s winding route, Sciolino offers a love letter to Paris and the river at its heart and invites readers to explore its magic.
A book signing follows the event.

Villains of History: On Adolf Hitler with Dr. Benjamin Hett and Dr. Gail Saltz
2019-11-11 12:00 | 92 Y, 1395 Lexington Ave, New York, NY, 10128, United States
Behind the infamous deeds of history’s most notorious figures lie complex and mysterious human minds. Dr. Gail Saltz, the author, psychoanalyst and television commentator, invites experts and brings her own expertise to bear as she examines the psychology of the villains of history, including Adolf Hitler.
Why did democracy fall apart so quickly and completely in Germany in the 1930s? How did a democratic government allow Adolf Hitler to seize power? What personally drove Hitler to become a dictator and architect of mass genocide? Join Dr. Saltz and Dr. Benjamin Hett for this conversation on how Hitler used populist insurgencies to bring the Nazis to power and how the misguided confidence of conservative politicians resulted in a failure to recognize that their efforts played directly into Hitler’s hands. Hett, a scholar and gifted storyteller, will share how Hitler was able to take hold of the government, the failures of the Weimar Republic and the shortsightedness of German politicians who allowed it to happen.

Drug Test: Psychedelics & Family
2019-11-10 19:00 | Caveat, 21A Clinton St, Manhattan, NY, 10002, United States
Come learn how to come out of the psychedelic closet to your parents! Come out to your children! Heal intergenerational trauma. Suggest psychedelic therapy or medicinal marijuana for sick relatives. And for the advanced class: Navigate how to trip with the fam.

Festival Albertine: How Do We Get People to Care
2019-11-10 16:30 - 18:30 | Albertine Books, 972 5th Avenue, New York, NY, 10075, United States
Artists and activists will be called upon to discuss how to change people’s minds and amplify the call to action.

Literature, music, drama—these are key resources for societies trying to come to grips with new realities. In recent years we’ve seen them begin to grapple with climate change, but that engagement must now grow. The arts have traditionally engaged with what seemed the most dramatic questions: the struggles of one set of human beings with another. That struggle is still underway, of course, but now we’ve added something different: the terrifying drama of people with a suddenly angry natural world. How does this new moment redefine what we think about when we take up brush or pen, camera or keyboard? What is the work of a poet in a world on fire, or an orchestra in a city where the seas are rising?

With Irina Brook, Lauren Groff, Fabrice Hyber, and Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky. Moderated by Bill McKibben.

Cornel West Matters: Book Talk with Mahamadou Lamine Sagna and Cornel West
2019-11-09 16:00 - 18:00 | The Africa Center, 1280 Fifth Ave., New York, NY, 10029, United States
Join The Africa Center and Teranga as we present a conversation between Mahamadou Lamine Sagna and Cornel West about “Cornel West Matters”.
The book Cornel West Matters is a review of the titular philosopher’s seminal texts by Mahamadou Lamine Sagna, who has long been interested in the way West analyses politics, democracy, religion and race, and their intersections in America. It is also an analysis of the way West brings religion and music – particularly blues and jazz – into philosophy.

Lincoln Center White Light Conversation: Let’s Talk About Religion
2019-11-09 15:00 | Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY, 10023, United States
God was declared dead in 1966, no longer relevant to an increasingly secular society. Today, people around the world ardently seek religious and faith-based experiences, at times with an intolerant fervor. How did we vacillate between such extremes in the span of only half a century? In modern society, few topics are as subject to ignorance, misunderstanding, and manipulation as religion. Although it is a central building block of human consciousness, we possess surprisingly little knowledge about religious traditions—both of others and our own. From a more generalized “spirituality” to intersections with science and art, religion has continued to powerfully resonate in our current challenging climate. Join WNYC’s John Schaefer and a group of leading thinkers for a spirited panel discussion exploring the many contradictions inherent in our understanding of religion and the evolutionary pathways of religious belief.
Seating is limited, and is available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Speakers:
John Schaefer, moderator
Kelly Brown Douglas, dean of the Episcopal Divinity School, Union Theological Seminary
Marcelo Gleiser, theoretical physicist and astronomer
James MacMillan, composer
Stephen Prothero, author, Religious Literacy

Scandals, Scalawags, and Murder Most Foul
2019-11-09 10:30 - 12:30 | Green-Wood Cemetery, 500 25th Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11232, United States
The Green-Wood Cemetery is the final resting place of many famous and heroic figures in American history, but some of its deceased denizens have a more blemished reputation. Veteran tour guide Ruth Edebohls leads a thrilling exploration featuring the lives of murderers and the murdered, sullied adulteress Elizabeth Tilton and famed courtesan Lola Montez, as well as gangsters (Albert Anastasia and Joe Gallo), conmen, and schemers who count among Green-Wood’s most notorious permanent residents.

Innovators: Start-Ups Fueled by NASA Technology
2019-11-08 19:30 - 22:00 | Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, Pier 86, W 46th St, New York, NY, 10036, United States
As NASA explores further and further into space, its innovations have impacted and transformed life on Earth. Join Steven González as he discusses the NASA roots of everyday innovations and how NASA continues to share technology with the world.
Curious about launching a new venture using NASA technology? Hear from local companies that have licensed NASA tech, such as Thornton Tomasetti, who applied rocket technology to prevent swaying in a new prefab building in Brooklyn and CapCell Biologics, who are using NASA tech for a novel drug delivery system.

Simons Foundation Presents: The Math Puzzle That Spawned 100 Philosophy Papers
2019-11-08 18:00 - 19:45 | Simons Foundation, 160 5th Ave, New York, NY, 10010, United States
At first glance, the Sleeping Beauty problem appears to be a simple question about probability. But since being proposed 19 years ago by philosopher Adam Elga, the problem has incited passionate debate in the philosophy community.
In this talk, Peter Winkler will describe the famous thought problem about a dozy princess being awoken once or twice depending on the toss of a coin. Can it really be that the laws of probability do not provide a unique correct answer? Winkler will take a mathematician’s point of view while at the same time trying to elucidate the philosophical principles that the puzzle calls into question. He’ll describe the various camps in the controversy and examine their arguments. In the end, you’ll have to decide for yourself where you stand.
Winkler is the William Morrill Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Dartmouth College and is currently serving as Visiting Distinguished Chair for Public Dissemination of Mathematics at the National Museum of Mathematics (MoMath).

Built and Never-Built Brooklyn: An Exploration
2019-11-07 18:30 - 20:00 | Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont St, Brooklyn, NY, 11201, United States
Join Cornell professor and urbanist Thomas Campanella for an unprecedented journey through the history of our beloved borough via its built environment. In his book Brooklyn: The Once and Future City, Campanella brings us from sleepy colonial settlements, to the electric playground of Coney Island, and everything built in between. In addition to sharing what we’ve built and what we’ve lost, this epic story highlights some of the never-realized dreams of Brooklynites through time, from abandoned plans for the world’s tallest building to failed designs to make Jamaica Bay the largest deep-water seaport on Earth. Editor at Curbed Amy Plitt joins Campanella for this urban exploration.

Stoicism or Epicureanism? Let the Discussion Begin
2019-11-07 18:00 - 20:00 | New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 W 64th St, New York, NY, 10023, United States
Stoicism and Epicureanism have been around for more than two millennia. Surprisingly, they are being proposed in the 21st century as philosophies to adopt in order to live a life worth living (a eudaimonic life, as the ancient Greeks called it).
Join us for a conversation between Prof. Catherine Wilson, author of How to Be an Epicurean, and Prof. Massimo Pigliucci, author of How to Be a Stoic, and decide for yourself whether you are a follower of Epicurus or of Zeno (or neither, that’s okay too).
The authors will be signing books (for sale at the event) after their friendly discussion.
$5 suggested donation.

Why Skill Matters: From Bronze Age Metalworking to the Future of Crafts
2019-11-07 16:15 - 18:00 | Columbia University Fayerweather Hall, 1180 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY, 10027, United States
What do we consider valuable knowledge, and why? In this presentation, Professor Maikel H. G. Kuijpers intends to explore the connections between craft, science, and technology through the notion of skill.
Maikel H. G. Kuijpers is Assistant Professor of European prehistory at Leiden University. He holds a Ph.D. in archaeology and anthropology from Cambridge University. Specializing in the Bronze Age, his work concerns the formulation of knowledge over time, cognitive archaeology, craftsmanship, and skill.

AMNH Presents: SciCafe: Climate Change and Rising Sea Levels
2019-11-06 19:00 | American Museum of Natural History, 175-208 79th Street, Central Park West, NY, 10024, United States
The ongoing pollution of our atmosphere with an invisible odorless gas called carbon dioxide is trapping heat at the Earth’s surface and causing temperatures to rise on land and in the ocean. The polar regions are warming fastest of all and the melting ice sheets are causing sea levels to rise around the globe. How fast climate changes in the future will depend on our collective actions as individuals, families, communities, and governments. In this presentation, paleoclimatologist Maureen Raymo will review evidence for climate change, natural and manmade, and explore how ice sheets and sea level changed in the past.

Math Encounters: “Tales of Impossibility: The Problems of Antiquity” with David Richeson
2019-11-06 16:00 - 20:00 | National Museum of Mathematics, 11 E 26th St, New York, NY, 10010, United States
“Nothing is impossible!” While it is comforting to believe this greeting card sentiment — it’s the American dream, after all — there are impossible things. Ancient Greek geometers and future generations of mathematicians tried and failed to square circles, trisect angles, double cubes, and construct regular polygons using only a compass and straightedge. Join David Richeson, Professor of Mathematics at Dickinson College and Editor of Math Horizons, to try your hand at some of these unusual geometric construction techniques. But get ready to fail — after two thousand years, all four of these “problems of antiquity” have been proved to be mathematically impossible!
4pm and 7pm sessions.
Light refreshments will be served after the 4:00 pm session and at 6:30 in advance of the second session.

The Roots of Disagreement
2019-11-05 20:00 | Subject, 188 Suffolk St, New York, NY, 10002, United States
We all live in the same world, but interpret it differently. In this talk, NYU Professor Pascal Wallisch will use perceptual illusions to explore why different people experience our shared world in distinct ways and discuss how disagreements can be resolved and common ground can be restored. We will discuss – in particular – the specific impact of diverse experiences and expectations.

Pascal Wallisch serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor at NYU. His research interests are at the intersection of Psychology and Neuroscience, specifically Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience.

Special Preview: Investigation Discovery's In Memoriam
2019-11-05 19:00 | Paley Center, 25 West 52 Street, New York, NY, 10019, United States
In the United States, there is an active shooter incident every twelve days.
The Paley Center is offering a preview of In Memoriam, an Investigation Discovery documentary that explores the emotional impact on the survivors of three recent mass shootings. In this film we experience the wrenching perspective of wounded survivors, grieving relatives, and heroes of the horrific attacks at the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest Music Festival, the Sutherland Springs Baptist Church in Texas, and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Afterwards in a discussion moderated by Sunny Hostin, our panel will discuss issues raised by the documentary, concentrating on how we must go beyond the polarized gun control debate to examine the permanent emotional scars mass shootings create. In Memoriam will premiere on Investigation Discovery in January 2020.
IN PERSON
Ben Steele, Director, In Memoriam
Sandy & Lonnie Philips, Founders, survivorsempowered.org
Moderator: Sunny Hostin
Additional guests to be announced.

Carmen C. Bambach: Leonardo da Vinci Rediscovered
2019-11-05 18:00 - 20:00 | Italian Cultural Institute, 686 Park Ave., New York, NY, 10065, United States
On the occasion of the publication of Leonardo da Vinci Rediscovered, the Italian Cultural Institute welcomes Carmen Bambach, internationally renowned Leonardo specialist and author of the prestigious monograph. Carmen’s four-volume work is a groundbreaking contribution of original scholarship that continues the long legacy of Leonardo studies, while simultaneously reexamining the multifaceted artist’s life and work from the ground up. Through her comprehensive research, and original new narratives, Leonardo emerges as a figure who both embodies his era and completely transcends it, enduring as one of history’s greatest artists, scientists, and inventors.
Carmen Bambach, is curator of Drawings and Prints at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

AMNH Presents | Frontiers Lecture: The First Seconds of the Universe
2019-11-04 19:00 - 21:00 | American Museum of Natural History, 175-208 79th Street, Central Park West, NY, 10024, United States
Theoretical astrophysicist Dan Hooper explores what scientists know and what they are still struggling to understand about the very first seconds—and fractions of a second—after the Big Bang. Hooper proposes in his new book At the Edge of Time that it is in studying these initial moments that we will unlock great truths about the universe. A book signing follows.
