Tensions during the Yalta Conference in February 1945 threatened to tear apart the wartime alliance among Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin. Learn about the untold story of the three intelligent and glamorous young women, Sarah Churchill, Anna Roosevelt, and Kathy Harriman, who accompanied their famous fathers to the Yalta Conference in February 1945, and of the conference's fateful reverberations in the waning days of World War II. Situated in the political maelstrom that marked the transition to a post- war world, this is a remarkable story of fathers and daughters whose relationships were tested and strengthened by the history they witnessed and the future they crafted together.

How a three-day trip transformed relations among three major countries and laid the foundation for a new world order.

This class will focus on the top dozen cases, both civil and criminal, heard by the Court during the past year.  Special emphasis will be placed on evolving trends and voting blocks on the Court based on its new composition. As always, issues related to important criminal decisions will be discussed in depth.

It’s hard to think of any other poets who have this much impact, let alone 13th-century poets from the other side of the world. Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī, (1207-1273) and Xāja Shams-ud-Dīn Moḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī, (1315-1390), better known as Rumi and Hafiz, were both Persian Sufi Muslims who brought a bracing, down to earth, and everyday mysticism to their spiritual poetry. Their revelatory work leaps across all boundaries and speaks to the longing within each of us. Join us as we swim through the deep waters of their poetry, and catch glimpses of the divinity shimmering everywhere in plain sight.

July, 1916: At the height of WWI, the German U-Boat Deutschland evades the Allied blockade of Europe, makes a remarkable journey across the Atlantic, moves up the Chesapeake, and docks in Baltimore. Why Baltimore? Why a German merchant U-Boat? What happened to the Deutschland after its Baltimore position became known to the Allies? What happened to the Deutschland after the U.S. declared war on Germany?  This presentation will also explore the dark side of German wartime ambitions taking place at the same time as Deutschland's historic voyage.

The Cloisters in New York City, a division of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, houses the finest collection of medieval art in America. In this virtual tour, we’ll survey a range of objects, from life-like statues and stained-glass images of biblical figures and saints, to golden reliquaries and jeweled Gospel books. We’ll step inside, so to speak, the chapels and monastic cloisters – whose stones were transported from Spain and France to New York in the early 20th century – to gain an experience of the architectural and spiritual setting for much of medieval art.

Join us for this brief history of cryptology in the United States from the Revolutionary War through the 20th century; from the Culper Spy Ring’s invisible ink to solving the German Enigma; from the Native American Code Talkers to supercomputers, learn how America protected its secrets and exploited their adversaries’ communications. Presented by the Director of Education at the National Cryptologic Museum.

The LEGO Foundation provides educational support to refugees and host communities in crisis settings around the world.  What pushes a successful company to invest millions of dollars in education programs for kids living in refugee camps?  LEGO's "Play to Learn" program is an innovative new program from Sesame Workshop and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) that harnesses the power of play to deliver critical early learning opportunities to children and caregivers affected by conflict and displacement.  What kind of impact is it having?  (For other Destination programs, see:  Class #616, #650, and #664) 

The Revolutionary War started as a conflict when English colonists in the New World demanded better representation in the British Parliament. The First Continental Congress organized by the colonists in 1774 issued a statement seeking reconciliation with the British crown and led to a fierce war pitting the colonists against the British superpower. The colonists won the American War for Independence and set in motion a new way of thinking which encouraged ongoing reforms for women and minorities throughout Europe, changing the course of world history.

Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945) was a German Expressionist painter, printmaker, and sculptor who witnessed and portrayed working-class people without portraiture, but instead through the empathetic and often stinging gaze of social and political criticism. For almost 150 years, Käthe Kollwitz’s art has never lost its power to stay relevant and to move people with her humanist and expressionistic gaze that witnessed two World Wars and worldwide economic Depression. A highly skilled artist, it is Kollwitz’s heart that touches viewers, still.

Join us for Friday Reflections with Peter Bolland as we go deeper to reveal the wisdom hidden just beneath the surface of our everyday lives. New themes, questions, and readings every week. (For more Friday Reflections, see class #620, #654, and #667)

Scientist, writer, publisher, diplomat, inventor, businessman – in his 84 years Franklin did it all. He contributed to the Declaration of Independence and played a key role in convincing France to join the United States in the Revolutionary War. When the Articles of Confederation proved too weak, he helped craft the compromise that spurred the Constitutional Convention to success in producing the Constitution.  Blaine Davies examines the life of the witty, brilliant and at times irascible Benjamin Franklin who as much as any Founding Father shaped our national identity.