The March 3 WorldCanvass program will be part of a three-day interdisciplinary Obermann Center symposium on the Anthropocene which will examine how humans have shaped our present energy culture and what other energy cultures are possible. Four keynote speakers will tackle this question from very different angles.

On February 3, 2015, Joan Kjaer and her WorldCanvass guests discussed the the complicated and controversial issues surrounding the legality and use of tobacco and marijuana with a special focus on the tension between personal liberty and the public good. This is a "ReCap" of the event with access to see and hear the full program.

Host Joan Kjaer and her guests on the next WorldCanvass will explore the age of the Anthropocene through the lens of energy, investigating the global environmental transformation effected by humans’ astonishing technological achievements in the search for greater creature comfort. WorldCanvass begins at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 3, at FilmScene, 118 East College Street. Admission is free and open to the public.

In 2014, major airline crashes killed more than 760 people and, understandably, raised concerns over safety issues and the risks of flying. Less understandably, tobacco use prematurely killed 480,000 people in the U.S. and about 5 million people worldwide but engendered little debate. People hear these figures, shrug and turn away — tobacco death fatigue?

On January 20, 2015, Joan Kjaer and her WorldCanvass guests kicked off the University of Iowa's first theme semester "Food for Thought" with a discussion on food and its relationship to community, heritage, and identities. This is a "ReCap" of the event with access to see and hear the full program.

The next WorldCanvass will explore the complicated and controversial issues surrounding the legality and use of tobacco and marijuana with a special focus on the tension between personal liberty and the public good. Host Joan Kjaer will moderate the conversation with guests from the fields of dentistry, psychiatry, pharmacy, public health, and law. The February 3 program begins at 5 p.m. at FilmScene and is free and open to the public

The University of Iowa’s Food for Thought Theme Semester is a program that will launch Tuesday and run throughout the spring semester. It will connect academics, local communities and individual Iowans through something we can all relate to: food.

The UI’s “Food for Thought” project—its first ever theme semester—offers a platform for engagement on campus and throughout the state around one of life’s constants…food. Join host Joan Kjaer at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, January 20 at FilmScene in downtown Iowa City as she and her guests discuss the ways in which food affects us as individuals and binds us as members of communities.