Memoirist Marpheen Chann shines a light on his search for truth and compassion growing up in working-class Maine. Adopted into a majority white community, Chann must reconcile his fears and secret longings as a young gay man with the devoutly religious beliefs of his new family.

A white-haired couple walks on the beach or sits around a table talking excitedly about life insurance. But these images do not define author Ann Dávila Cardinal’s generation. In this talk, Cardinal explains how the media’s depiction of older people must be modernized to properly reflect who we are.

Focusing on the 2024 election, Political Science professor Dr. Shannon McQueen describes “gender frames,” the state of women in politics, and the partisan gender gap. McQueen combines original research with existing studies to explore the impact of gender on electoral outcomes.

Boston University professor Brooke L. Blower discusses how, for her most recent book, she reconstructed the backstories of seven Americans whose plane crashed in Lisbon in 1943. She learned about their personal histories and their politics, and discovered how their wartime movements upend common American World War II narratives.

Underdog is the curiously optimistic tale of Doug Butler—a hardscrabble Vermont dairy farmer who risks losing the only home he’s ever known to chase his dreams of dog mushing in Alaska. Director Tommy Hyde joined Lucinda Walker from the Norwich Public Library to discuss creating the documentary.

In 1974, when Vermont Humanities opened its first office, Vermont was still solidly Republican. Journalist and historian Chris Graff traces the transformation of Vermont and its image over the past 50 years from “red to blue,” from Silent Cal to Bernie, from Robert Frost to Julia Alvarez, from “Moonlight in Vermont” to Phish and Noah Kahan.

Vermont Cartoonist Laureate Tillie Walden presents a look at the intersection of indie comics with queer identity through her many graphic novels—from science fiction to memoir to historical retelling. She explores the process and power of visual narrative and shares why comics are relevant to Vermonters and everyone else.

Award-winning actor and playwright J.T. Turner inhabits the role of Robert Frost in this historical representation of the poet and his work. Frost welcomes you in to share in heart-breaking and humorous stories of his life, along with some of his most popular poems like “Mending Wall,” “Birches,” “Desert Places,” “The Road Not Taken,” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.”

Poet and educator Naima Wade unpacks how personal narrative can create meaning and belonging for individuals and in society at large. Drawing on her own experience of “living with visible melanin in Vermont,” and using poetry and historical examples, she invites participants to reflect on how we can create our own healing legacies and nurture a more just and equitable society.

The podcast and video series “Deep Dish Conversations” unpacks the issues shaping our world today, especially as it impacts our local communities. Join host and author Jerome Moore as he takes us on a dynamic journey toward becoming “an explorer of social change.”