Big Ideas for Strange Times

What is curiosity? How do we know how words were pronounced in Old English? And why is there something rather than nothing?


Big Ideas for Strange Times was first introduced in 2020 to feed our need to engage with ideas that transcended the immediate crisis of the pandemic. The series is back and will continue to tackle life’s bigger questions with short lectures from Penn Arts & Sciences experts.

 

Featured Lectures

What is Curiosity?

What is Curiosity?

Peter Struck, Professor and Chair of Classical Studies
What Makes Music Sound Like Music?

What Makes Music Sound Like Music?

Jairo Moreno, Associate Professor of Music
Where Does Poetry Come From?

Where Does Poetry Come From?

Herman Beavers, Professor of English and Africana Studies
Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?

Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?

Mark Trodden, Fay R. and Eugene L. Langberg Professor of Physics
How Did Human Cooperation Evolve?

How Did Human Cooperation Evolve?

Coren Apicella, Associate Professor of Psychology
Why are we drawn to the morbid?

Why are we drawn to the morbid?

Sara Ray, Ph.D. Candidate, History and Sociology of Science
Big Ideas for Strange Times on Vimeo
View all of the Big Ideas for Strange Times lectures here.