OLLI members and campus colleagues are invited to join us on Monday, January 24, at 3 PM (PT) for a revelatory interview with Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of Berkeley Law, about his most recent book, Presumed Guilty, which methodically exposes how the Supreme Court has enabled racist policing and sanctioned law enforcement excesses through its decisions over the last half-century. Chemerinsky will be in conversation with William Sokol, a Bay Area labor and employment attorney. The link to RSVP has been posted in the Member Dashboard, and in emails to members and colleagues.

OLLI members and campus colleagues are invited to join us on Friday, January 28, at 10:30 AM (PT), for an important conversation about how we as individuals, as communities and as a society can chart a better path to diversity and social justice. The panel discussion will be moderated by Berkeley professor Darren Zook. He will be joined by author Tamim Ansary and Sandra Bass, Associate Dean of Students and Director of the Public Service Center at Berkeley. The link to RSVP has been posted in the Member Dashboard, and in emails to members and colleagues.

Join us on Friday, February 4, at 10:30 AM (PT) for a conversation with community leader and lawyer Zach Norris, who will lay out a radical way to shift the conversation about public safety away from fear and punishment toward growth and support systems for our families and communities. Norris is the Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, which creates campaigns related to civic engagement, juvenile justice, and police brutality, shifting economic resources away from prisons and punishment and towards economic opportunity. This online event is free and open to all. RSVP to attend.

As human technologies take on more of the characteristics of nature, nature becomes a better teacher. The field of Biologically Inspired Design is becoming a leading paradigm for the development of new technologies. Geckos climbing with hairy toes has resulted in new adhesives. Insects running and squishing through cracks led to new search-and-rescue robots, as well as inspiration for children’s movies such as Pixar's A Bug’s Life. Join us on Friday, February 11, at 10:30 AM (PT) for a fascinating presentation by Berkeley professor Robert Full, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor of Integrative Biology, who will reveal how a diverse set of minds is required to invent the future. This online event is free and open to all. RSVP to attend.

Please join us on Friday, February 18, at 10:30 AM (PT) for a presentation by Abdi Soltani, Executive Director of the ACLU of Northern California, who will discuss the attacks on voting rights nationwide as states pass voter suppression laws. These laws lead to significant burdens for eligible voters trying to exercise their most fundamental constitutional right. Soltani is a nationally-recognized civil rights leader who has dedicated his adult life to social justice and equal treatment for all. This online event is free and open to all. RSVP to attend.

The ACLU is actively considering litigation challenging bans on inclusive education that have been introduced or adopted in dozens of states and localities. These laws and policies claim to target "critical race theory," but their implications are far broader than any particular scholarly discipline or school of thought. On their face, and as applied by local officials, many bans on inclusive education violate the First Amendment. Join us on Friday, February 25, at 10:30 AM (PT) for a presentation by Emerson Skyes, attorney with the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, who will discuss how to fight bans on inclusive education. This online event is free and open to all. RSVP to attend.