If you are looking for details about our summer 2024 courses, you have come to the right place. All of OLLI's summer course descriptions are detailed below. Registration for summer 2024 opens on June 1.
Summer 2024 Course Descriptions
*Please note: recorded courses are available only to OLLI members enrolled in the specific course. Access to the recorded content will be available through the end of the Summer 2024 Session, August 30, 2024.
Tuesdays | July 9 – July 30 | 10 – 11:40 a.m. | Zoom, Recorded*
Well-known San Francisco talk show host and authority on the US political landscape John Rothmann discusses the fascinating events in the US political world. John’s comments in every session are absolutely up-to-date and always allows ample time for questions from participants.
Thursdays | July 11 – August 1 | 10 – 11:40 a.m. | Zoom, Recorded*
America was bursting with brilliant singers, dancers and popular entertainers early in the 20th Century. Largely forgotten today, colorful tap dancers, gifted bandleaders and charismatic movie stars sustained American spirits through a depression and world war. Iconic careers blossomed from modest origins when raw talent met golden opportunity and hard work. Offering a cavalcade of images, each class presents more than a dozen audiovisual clips, many created expressly for the course.
Fridays | July 12 – August 2 | 10 – 11:40 a.m. | In-person, Not Recorded
A series of four in-person lectures centered around wellness and health.
- July 12, Meditation and Wellness
Dr. Dunlea explains what meditation is, presents 10 research documented health benefits of meditation practice and teaches a simple flexible meditation style to try in class and use at home. - July 19, Pets’ Contribution to Health
CEO of the Marin Humane Society explains the health benefits of owning a pet. - July 26, Energy and Tapping
Yoga and Tai Chi teacher Charlotte Ottley provides a brief overview of Chi, or energy, used in various complementary health traditions. - August 2, Metabolism and Neurodegeneration
Dr. Madhavan will present his latest research at The Buck Institute on the brain.
Summer 2024 Special Lectures
Lectures listed below are unique, one-day offerings.
Monday | July 8 | 10 – 11:40 a.m. | Zoom, Recorded*
Retired attorney Oak Dowling presents an experience of Civil Rights and Rosa Parks; the Montgomery bus boycott; the Equal Justice Initiative; and the Edmund Pettis bridge conflict in Selma, Alabama.
Wednesday | July 10 | 10 – 11:40 a.m. | In-person, Not Recorded
A practical guide to why meaning matters and how to cultivate it in your life to expand your sense of fulfillment, contentment and happiness. Meaning and purpose are key to thriving at any age and especially later in life when many of our early objectives have already been attained. This time in life requires us to refocus and practice the elements of life that give us energy, joy and meaning. Let meaning be your guide to an extraordinary life.
Monday | July 15 | 10 – 11:40 a.m. | Zoom, Recorded
Oak Dowling focuses on Civil Rights and marriage, examining the famous US Supreme Court case of the Lovings’ miscegenation in Virginia.
Wednesday | July 17 | 10 – 11:40 a.m. | Zoom, Recorded
Shows set in and characters from Italy have peppered Broadway throughout its history. Join James Sokol to learn about and experience (with audio & video clips) some of the musicals that transport us, even if only for a little while, to Italy.
Monday | July 22 | 10 – 11:40 a.m. | Zoom, Recorded*
Franklin's genius is a puzzle. Born the tenth son of a humble family of puritan candle-makers in Boston in 1706, Franklin's rise to the front ranks of science, engineering, and invention was as unexpected as it was meteoric. Here is a man with only two years of proper schooling who later received honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, Oxford, and St. Andrews as well as the eighteenth-century equivalent of a Nobel Prize for Physics. Like his hero Isaac Newton, Franklin's great genius lay in optimizing, in tinkering, in improving, and in never being satisfied with the world as he knew it. In this talk we will examine many of Franklin's ideas to make life simpler, cheaper, and easier for himself and everyone else. It turns out that those ideas encompassed not only natural science and engineering, but also all sorts of public works, civic improvements, political trail-blazing, and fresh, new business ideas.
Wednesday | July 24 | 10 – 11:40 a.m. | Zoom, Recorded*
Dr. Sen will present her latest research at The Buck Institute on the brain.
Monday | July 29 | 10 – 11:40 a.m. | Zoom, Recorded*
America has Hamilton-mania! With Disney+ now streaming the show, everyone’s talking about Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-winning musical. Its crafty lyrics, hip-hop tunes, and big, bold story have even rejuvenated interest in the real lives and true histories that Hamilton: the Musical puts center stage. In this talk, which is aimed at people who know the soundtrack or who’ve seen the show, University of Maryland historian Dr. Richard Bell explores this musical phenomenon to reveal what its success tells us about the marriage of history and show-business. We’ll learn what this amazing musical gets right and gets wrong about Alexander Hamilton, the American Revolution, and the birth of the United States and about why all that matters. We will examine some of the choices Hamilton’s creators made to simplify, dramatize, and humanize the complicated events and stories on which the show is based. We will also talk about Hamilton’s cultural impact: what does its runaway success reveal about the stories we tell each other about who we are and about the nation we made?
Wednesday | July 31 | 10 – 11:40 a.m. | Zoom, Recorded*
Celebrate friendships with a journey through delightful songs from an array of shows from Broadway’s “Golden Age” classics to contemporary gems on “The Great White Way!” Join James Sokol to learn interesting tidbits about the shows and to experience songs that celebrate friends and friendship via audio and video performance clips.