Friday, Jan. 17, 2025
Each of us has a unique set of challenges brought on by aging, which may entice us to stay home more and avoid excessive exercise and activity. However, I humbly suggest that the opposite is a healthier option. It has been for me.
Wednesday, Jan. 08, 2025
Hilary Roberts is a writer and editor who has taught at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, and Contra Costa College. She holds an M.A. from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. She is teaching “Great Literature in Miniature” with us this winter.
Tuesday, Jan. 07, 2025
It isn’t often that one gets to touch history, so when it happens, especially to a historian, it is noteworthy. I recently came across some old notes about the Hungarian General Béla Király, who died in 2009 at the age of 97. He had been active in saving Jews during World War II and had spent several years in prison in the early 1950s, awaiting execution in Hungary, under the country’s then Stalinist government.
Monday, Jan. 06, 2025
Within the past few days, Jean-Marie Le Pen, former leader of the Front National, now the Rassemblement National, in France, died at age 96. Le Pen was leader of the Front National beginning in 1972, when he helped create it, together with François Brigneau, a wartime collaborator with Nazi Germany. Le Pen led his political party until he retired in 2011.
Wednesday, Jan. 01, 2025
In my mind, this mantra reflects the most critical aspect of getting old, which is one’s attitude about getting old. Finding that happy middle ground between accepting the reality of physical and maybe even intellectual diminution on the one hand and retaining and enhancing one’s youthful attitude and curiosity on the other is central to enjoying these latter years of our lives. It is important to live in the present and to resist dwelling too much on the future. I, for one, am determined to be in the here and now.
Thursday, Dec. 05, 2024
It should come as a surprise to precisely no one that OLLI members love to read (and read and read and read.) Here are just some of the books they couldn't put down in 2024. Enjoy!
Wednesday, Dec. 04, 2024
Pete Elman is a musician, an author, a journalist, a historian — and a star educator. He has performed, recorded and produced popular music since 1962, authored four books, been a sportswriter, taught K-12, and, since 2015, has wowed OLLI members with more than a dozen courses on American music. He’s teaching “Turn, Turn, Turn: A Rock ’n’ Roll Road Trip” with us this winter.
Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024
Here's an election result we're thrilled to share ...
OLLI @Berkeley has just been voted "Best Continuing Education Option in Oakland and the East Bay in 2024" by readers of Oakland Magazine!
Monday, Nov. 25, 2024
Recently OLLI members visited the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historic Park in Richmond, CA. The park offers one of the most beautiful vistas of the San Francisco Bay. Joggers, bikers, and parents with babies in strollers following the Bay Trail passed by as we listened to OLLI member and Rosie docent Simone Adair provide us with an overview of the history of women and the bay.
Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024
The older we get, the faster time seems to speed by, often magnifying our concerns about what may be around the corner. Our minds muse with comparisons and projections as we weigh the health and life spans of our parents and siblings with our own. At the end of a calendar year, we may even ponder whether we’ll be alive to see another.
Friday, Nov. 15, 2024
Groucho Marx once said, “From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Someday I intend reading it.” As an avid reader, I think Groucho got cause-and-effect wrong. Even so, he has inspired me to propose the creation of a book list in his honor.
Friday, Nov. 01, 2024
Aaron Colverson is a postdoctoral fellow at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center and is affiliate faculty at the UF Center for Arts in Medicine. He earned his BM from Berklee College of Music and his MM and Ph.D. from the University of Florida. He is teaching "Neuro-ethnomusicology for Aging Brain Health" with us this winter.