2023 Speakers

Dr. Sara Hendren

What Can a Body Do?

Monday, January 9
Underwritten by: Maria & Patrick O'Hare

Due to contract restrictions, this presentation will be available to view through January 9, 2023.

Sara Hendren is an artist, design researcher, writer, and professor at Olin College of Engineering. She also considers herself a humanist in tech—creating collaborative public art, social design, and writings that reframe the human body and technology.

Monica Guzman

Reclaiming Curiosity in Divided Times

Tuesday, January 10
Underwritten by: The Howard Miller Company

Due to contract restrictions, this presentation will be available to view through February 10, 2023.

Mónica Guzmán is a bridge builder, journalist, and entrepreneur who lives for great conversations sparked by curious questions. She’s a senior fellow for public practice at Braver Angels, the nation’s largest cross-partisan grassroots organization working to depolarize America. Guzmán also hosts a live interview series at Crosscut and co-founded the award-winning Seattle newsletter The Evergrey.

Nate Mook

The Urgent Pursuit to Nourish the World

Wednesday, January 11
Underwritten by: Holland Litho

Due to contract restrictions, this presentation will be available to view through January 11, 2023.

Nate Mook served as CEO of World Central Kitchen, a not-for-profit organization that provides meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises. Having already worked alongside chef José Andrés for years, Mook joined World Central Kitchen to launch and lead food relief efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane María in September 2017.

Note: this speaker will be joining us virtually.

Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap

Following Jesus in a Warming World

Thursday, January 12
Underwritten by: Miller Johnson

Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap is the Vice President of the Evangelical Environmental Network. He holds an undergraduate degree in religious studies from Calvin University (B.A. '12), a Master of Divinity degree from Western Theological Seminary (M.Div. '16), and is ordained in the Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRCNA). For the last 10 years, he has educated and mobilized Christians around the world to address the climate crisis as an act of discipleship and neighborly love. 

Dr. Amy Kenny

My Body Is Not A Prayer Request

Friday, January 13
Underwritten by: Friend of the January Series

Amy Kenny is a disabled scholar and a Shakespeare lecturer who hates Hamlet. Recently, she was appointed the inaugural associate director of the Disability Cultural Initiative at Georgetown University, a role that seeks to celebrate the diverse disability community and cultivate a culture of access intimacy across campus.  

Dr. Gregory Thompson

To Stick with Love: King’s Vision for Today’s Movement

Monday, January 16
Underwritten by: Mary & Larry Gerbens

Gregory Thompson is a pastor, scholar, writer, producer, and amateur cook whose work focuses on racial healing in America. He currently serves as the executive director of Voices Underground, an initiative to build a national memorial to the Underground Railroad in southeast Pennsylvania. Thompson is also a research fellow in African American Cultural Heritage at Lincoln University and the visiting theologian for mission at Grace Mosaic Church in Washington, D.C.

Kaia Kater

Song Selections

Tuesday, January 17
Underwritten by: Friends of the January Series

Due to contract restrictions, this presentation will be available to view through January 17, 2023.

Kaia Kater is a Grenadian-Canadian singer-songwriter and tradition bearer. Her musical career began as a search to discover the roots of her identity and became a physical and emotional exploration of history, which ultimately led her to bold new heights of imagination and creative expression. 

Note: Kaia will perform a FREE concert in the evening.

Dr. Noah Toly

Learning Together, Living Together: What the World Needs from Christian Liberal Arts Education

Wednesday, January 18
Underwritten by: Shirley and Jeff Hoogstra

Noah J. Toly, PhD, is the ninth chief academic officer at Calvin University. A '99 graduate of Wheaton College with a bachelor of arts degree in interdisciplinary studies and Spanish, Toly earned a master of arts degree in theology from Wheaton College in 2012. He earned both a master of arts degree in urban affairs and public policy in 2005 and a doctor of philosophy degree in urban affairs and public policy in 2006 from the University of Delaware. 

Kerri Arsenault

Family and Environmental Legacies

Thursday, January 19
In Partnership with: Calvin Center for Faith & Writing

Due to contract restrictions, this presentation will be available to view through February 19, 2023.

Kerri Arsenault is a literary critic, co-founder of The Environmental Storytelling Studio at Brown University (TESS), contributing editor at Orion Magazine, and author of Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains. Mill Town won the Rachel Carson Environment Book Award from the Society of Environmental Journalists and the Maine Literary Award for nonfiction, and shortlisted for the Eric Zencey Prize in Ecological Economics and the National Book Critics Circle Leonard Prize.

Dr. Moo Cooper

Diversity in STEAM from a Real Life Guardian of the Galaxy

Friday, January 20
Underwritten by: GMB Architects + Engineering

Due to contract restrictions, this presentation will be available to view through January 20, 2023.

Moogega “Moo” Cooper is a real-life “Guardian of the Galaxy.” As the planetary protection lead of the famed NASA 2020 Mars mission, she’s responsible for keeping the red planet safe from any of Earth’s contaminants. Her work with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is integral to the ongoing mission to discern whether Mars could be habitable for humans and that we don’t harm what’s already there.

Ken Jennings

And the Answer Is: Why Is It Better to Be a Generalist?

Monday, January 23
Underwritten by: The Peter C. and Emajean Cook Foundation

Due to contract restrictions, this presentation will be available to view through February 23, 2023.

Ken Jennings is known for his trivia prowess after setting (and continuing to hold) the record for the longest winning streak on Jeopardy! In 2004, he successfully auditioned for a spot on the show and went on an unprecedented 74-game victory streak worth $2.52 million. He then went on to appear in several special tournaments, including the ABC special, “The Greatest of All Time,” which he won. Later that year, he joined the game show as a consulting producer, and in early 2021, he guest-hosted the program for six weeks after the passing of long-time host Alex Trebek. In July 2022, Ken Jennings was announced as a permanent host sharing duties with Mayim Balik.

Peter Wehner

How Christianity Can Be a Healing Force in American Society

Tuesday, January 24
Underwritten by: Holland Home & the Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity & Politics

Due to contract restrictions, this presentation will be available to view through February 24, 2023.

Peter Wehner is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, contributing editor for The Atlantic, and an in-residence senior fellow for Trinity Forum. He has written for numerous other publications and appeared frequently as a commentator for various television news outlets. Wehner worked for three Republican administrations and is a leading conservative critic of Donald Trump and his effect on the Republican Party.

Dr. Esau McCaulley

What is African American Biblical Interpretation and Why Does the Whole Church Need It

Wednesday, January 25
Underwritten by: The Stob Lecture Series

Esau McCaulley is an associate professor of the New Testament at Wheaton College and theologian in residence at Progressive Baptist Church, a historically black congregation in Chicago. He is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. His writings have also appeared in places such as The Atlantic, Washington Post, and Christianity Today.

Efosa Ojomo

The Prosperity Paradox and the power of market-creating innovation

Thursday, January 26
Underwritten by: Howard Miller Company and Calvin Center for Innovation in Business

Efosa Ojomo is the director of the Global Prosperity Research Group at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, an innovation-focused think tank based in Boston. He focuses his research and writing on how innovation can transform organizations and create inclusive prosperity for many.

Dr. Kate Bowler

Life After Perfect

Friday, January 27
Underwritten by: The Center for Excellence in Preaching

Due to contract restrictions, this presentation will be available to view through January 27, 2023.

Kate Bowler is a New York Times bestselling author, podcast host, professor at Duke University, and incurable optimist. She studies the cultural stories we tell ourselves about success, suffering, and whether (or not) we’re capable of change. At 35, she was unexpectedly diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, causing her to think in different terms about the research and beliefs she had been studying.

Note: this speaker will be joining us virtually.