Learners in the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Duke (OLLI) turn their attention to practical matters this week as the Conscious Aging Series begins its seventh year of lunchtime offerings. The free lecture series, which is open to the public, addresses issues older Americans face.
This year’s talks, held on nine Wednesdays through early December and again from January through March at the Judea Reform Education Building, 1933 W. Cornwallis Road, cover topics as diverse as gluten-free diets to the impact of our news reading habits.
“People like the variety,” says Patti Rieser, an OLLI member who co-chairs the series organizing committee with Susan Schaffer. “And some of the lectures turn out to be seeds, actually, for a complete course offering in a subsequent session.”
At a talk on Oct. 14, titled “The Battle of the Blues: The Duke/UNC Rivalry,” Duke insider Johnny Moore and Chapel Hill author Art Chansky will help kick off basketball season by discussing their new book, “The Blue Divide.” They will relate several tales covering new details of long-forgotten stories, as well as explain the roots of the passion between these two rivals.
Here’s the full schedule:
Sept 16 -- The Civil War Comes Home to the N.C. Piedmont, local historian and OLLI member Fred Kiger
Sept 30 -- The Roadmap from a Box of Memories to a Published Book, OLLI member Myron Miller, author of “Walking in My Father’s Footsteps: His World War I Service and the Remarkable Hospitality of the Citizens of Redon, France.”
Oct 7 -- If You Feel OK, You Probably Are OK -- What is Wrong with Screening Tests, Anyway?, Dr. Larry Jackman
Oct 14 -- The Battle of the Blues: The Duke/UNC Rivalry, Art Chansky and Johnny Moore
Oct 21 -- The Gluten-Free Diet: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You, OLLI member Dr. Diane McGrath
Nov 4 -- Medicare 2015 Update, Barry Mowbry, Seniors Health Insurance Information Program, a service of the N.C. Department of Insurance
Nov 11 -- The Spiritual Alphabet Soup of Death and Dying and the Rhine Research Center, Dr. Larry Burk, co-founder of Duke Integrative Medicine
Nov 18 - Social Security 2015 Update, Brian Simpson, public affairs specialist, Social Security Administration
Dec 2 -- From Linotype to Twitter: How We Get Our News and What It Means to Our Democracy, John Burness, visiting professor of the practice in the Dewitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy at Duke's Sanford School of Public Policy.
Rieser says the programs are meant to have practical use for participants. She said one woman who attended a lecture on healthy feet reported “she was enjoying walking again” after adjusting her gait and buying the right shoes.
All of the talks will be held from 12:45 to 1:45 p.m. in the Commons Room at JRC. For more information, call 919-681-3476.