Talking Code with a Secret Weapon: Navajo Code Talkers Speak with Laura Tohe

Fountain Hills Community Center 13001 N La Montana Dr, Fountain Hills, AZ, United States

During WWII a group of young Navajo men enlisted in the Marines unaware that they would develop a secret code against the Japanese military. This select group of Code Talkers devised a Navajo language code that was accurate, quick, never broken, and saved many American lives. Excerpts from live interviews with the Code Talkers tell […]

FREE

Hiking into the Past: The Sierra Ancha Cliff Dwellings with John Mack

Good Shepherd of the Hills Episcopal Church 6502 E. Cave Creek Rd., Cave Creek, AZ, United States

This presentation examines the remarkable living structures built by the people who first lived in the canyons of the Sierra Ancha wilderness during the early Middle Ages. The architectural dwellings reflect the culture and history of these people and help us understand their contributions to life in the Arizona desert. The presentation includes numerous photos […]

FREE

Seeing the Desert with Gregory McNamee

Cochise College Benson Center 1025 S. Highway 90, Benson, AZ, United States

  Most Arizonans are not originally from Arizona, and most come from places that are far greener and milder of climate than our desert. For many of us, it takes a shift of eye and of attitude to appreciate this hot, dry place—but once it gets into one’s soul, there’s nowhere like it. This talk […]

FREE

The Vanishing Trading Posts with Christine Glenn and Sandy Sunseri

Phippen Museum 4701 N Hwy 89, Prescott, AZ, United States

The stories of trading posts in the Southwest are a unique snapshot of life almost one hundred years ago. In the early 1900’s, trading posts in the Four corners flourished. There were over one hundred trading posts on the plateau, but today only five remain. Why did they vanish? The challenges and unexpected gifts of […]

Flying through Arizona: The Story of the First National Women’s Air Race with Natalie J. Stewart-Smith

Agave Library 23550 N. 36th Ave., Phoenix, AZ, United States

In 1929, the first national women’s air race from Santa Monica, California to Cleveland, Ohio passed through Arizona. Stopping in Yuma, Phoenix, and Douglas, the intrepid fliers solidified their determination and sisterhood along these Arizona waypoints. Who were these aviators? What were their planes like in 1929? What challenges did they encounter along the way? […]

FREE

Dr. Pearl Tang: Path Breaker in Public Health with Mary Melcher

Dorothy Powell Senior Center 405 E 6th St, Casa Grande, AZ, United States

In 1960, Dr. Pearl Mao Tang became chief of the Maricopa County Bureau of Maternal and Child Health. A Chinese American, who had fought to obtain a medical license in Arizona, Tang was instrumental in lowering the infant mortality rate in the state’s most populous county. Working in the Phoenix metropolitan area and rural Maricopa […]

FREE

Cochise, Geronimo, and the Apache Wars with Gregory McNamee

Pima County Public Library - Oro Valley Library Branch 1305 W. Naranja Drive, Oro Valley, Arizona

Their names resound in Arizona history and pepper the of the state map, but few people know well the tangled history that surrounds the so-called “Apache Wars”, when fully half of the active U.S. Army descended on the territory to combat a relative handful of Indigenous warriors. Ironically, the Apache peoples of the Southwest had […]

Era of Artificial Intelligence: What Is Research, and How Is Knowledge Created? with Dr. Andrea Christelle

Pima County Public Library - Salazar-Ajo Branch 15 W Plaza ST #179, Ajo, AZ, United States

In today’s digital world, anyone can publish their writing. Anyone can make a movie. The democratization of knowledge or content creation has given a voice to untold stories. But there is a flipside. Who, or what, gets to create knowledge? Can AI systems create knowledge? When Chat GPT writes a student’s paper, is that original […]

Archaeology’s Deep Time Perspective on Environment and Social Sustainability with Allen Dart

Glendale Public Library - Foothills Library 19055 N. 57th Ave., Glendale, United States

The deep time perspective that archaeology, geology, and related disciplines provide about natural hazards, environmental change, and societal development is often ignored when societies today make decisions affecting social sustainability and human safety. Studies of ancient peoples and natural events can help modern society deal with problems of environmental and social change, overpopulation, and sustainability. […]

Jewish Women’s Resilience, Resistance, and Survival of the Holocaust with Dr. Björn Krondorfer

Sedona Public Library 3250 White Bear Road, Sedona, AZ, United States

This presentation traces the lives of two women Holocaust survivors who both grew up in traditional Jewish families in Bedzin, Poland and later became residents of Arizona: Jane Lipski (Tucson) and Doris Martin (Flagstaff). They managed to survive the Nazi onslaught as adolescent girls. While Jane was able to escape the ghetto and join the […]

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