Town Hall Seattle Science Series

It’s only human to project the notions we already hold onto the world around us. We want to feel connected, and we start from what we know – categories, similarities, rules, expectations. But nature is endlessly expansive, at once wildly different from the societies we are used to and yet surprisingly similar to the nuances we hold as individuals. In her debut book Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature, author Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian invites readers to wander off the prescribed trails and embrace the full range of what we can take away from unexpected corners of the natural world. Growing up, Kaishian felt most at home in some of these less-traveled pockets – namely, the swamps and culverts near her house in the Hudson Valley, studded with wildlife and odd creatures. As a child who frequently felt out of place – too much of one thing or not enough of another – she found acceptance in these settings, mainly among amphibious beings. In snakes, snails, and especially fungi, she saw her own developing identities as a queer, neurodivergent person reflected back at her – and a personal path to a life of science. Equal parts lyrical memoir, academic exploration, and a love letter to the vastness of identity, Forest Euphoria introduces readers to the queerness, literal and otherwise, of all the life around us. In this richly observant and insightful study, Kaishian presents myriad examples of nature defying human dichotomies. Fungi, we learn, commonly have more than two biological sexes, and some as many as twenty-three thousand. Some intersex slugs mutually fire calcium carbonate “love darts” at each other during courtship. Glass eels are sexually undetermined until their last year of life, which stumped scientists once dubbed “the eel question.” Forest Euphoria aims to illuminate that nature is filled with lessons stemming from the unusual, the overlooked, and the marginalized, so long as we have the curiosity to learn. Dr. Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian is a research scientist, author, speaker, and educator who specializes in the biodiversity of fungi, ecology, and exploring how scientific disciplines are informed by our sociopolitical landscape. She is the Curator of Mycology at the New York State Museum, as well as teaching faculty with the Bard Prison Initiative. She is a co-founder of the International Congress of Armenian Mycologists. She has been featured in the documentary Queer Planet and her publication, The science underground: mycology as a queer discipline, appears in the journal Catalyst: Feminism, Theory & Technoscience. Taha Ebrahimi is the author and illustrator of Street Trees of Seattle: An Illustrated Walking Guide [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/716161/street-trees-of-seattle-by-ebrahimi-taha/] (Sasquatch Books, 2024). She serves as a member of the council for Historic Seattle [https://historicseattle.org/] and has been named “Seattle’s Coolest Street Tree Expert” by The Stranger [https://www.thestranger.com/]. https://www.elliottbaybook.com/item/FNxdntz3CzxcTmnsJ5k_YA Buy the Book [https://www.elliottbaybook.com/item/FNxdntz3CzxcTmnsJ5k_YA] Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature [https://www.elliottbaybook.com/item/FNxdntz3CzxcTmnsJ5k_YA] Elliott Bay Book Company [https://www.elliottbaybook.com/item/FNxdntz3CzxcTmnsJ5k_YA]

Explaining how and why our world works the way it does touches on so many fields of science: biology, chemistry, physics, and, of course, technology. However, according to researcher Blaise Agüera y Arcas, computation should also be part of the understanding of life on all levels – and going back further than one might think. In What Is Life? Evolution as Computation, Agüera y Arcas uses computation as a means of examining the complexities of our own universe. Inspired by the work of quantum mechanics pioneer Erwin Schrödinger, he revisits the question that has showcased the divide between biology and physics: what is life? How can life and all its attendant complexities come to exist in a random universe, governed by simple laws, whose disorder only increases over time? What Is Life? aims to provide surprising answers, reframing core concepts of self-reproduction, complex growth, and symbiotic relationships as inherently computational. Agüera y Arcas draws on decades of theory and existing literature from figures like Alan Turing and John von Neumann, as well as recent endeavors in the field of artificial life. From evolution and symbiogenesis to thermodynamics and climate models, What Is Life? explores computation as a tool beyond raw calculation to understand intricate phenomena. This volume serves as a first installment of an ongoing body of work, with his larger book What Is Intelligence? further developing this perspective on intelligence from simple organisms to brains and from societies to AI. What Is Life? is richly illustrated and studded with examples, recontextualizing computational concepts and applications for a general audience curious about diving deeper into the machinations of our living world. Blaise Agüera y Arcas is a researcher and author focused on artificial intelligence, sociality, evolution, and software development. He is a VP and Fellow at Google, where he is the CTO of Technology & Society and founder of Paradigms of Intelligence (Pi). He is a frequent speaker at TED and has been featured in the Economist and Noēma, and has previously published the books Who Are We Now? and Ubi Sunt. Charles Tonderai Mudede is a Zimbabwean-born cultural critic, urbanist, filmmaker, college lecturer, and writer. He is the Senior Staff writer of the Stranger, a lecturer at Cornish College of the Arts, and has collaborated with the director Robinson Devor on three films, two of which Police Beat and Zoo, premiered at Sundance, and one of which, Zoo, screened at Cannes, and the most recent of which, Suburban Fury, premiered at New York Film Festival. (Police Beat is now part of MOMA’s permanent collection.) Mudede, whose essays regularly appear in e-Flux and Tank Magazine, is also the director of Thin Skin (2023).

From Silent Spring to Erin Brockovich, people have been captivated — and devastated — by stories of harmful chemicals and the many ways that they have altered and even ended human lives. From investigative journalist Mariah Blake comes a new book that recounts a small town being poisoned, a corporate cover up, and a grassroots movement to fight back. In 2014, after losing several friends and relatives to cancer, an insurance underwriter in Hoosick Falls, New York, suspected that the local water supply was polluted. When he tested his tap water, he discovered dangerous levels of “forever chemicals” (synthetic chemicals that are resistant to breaking down and can lead to adverse health and environmental effects). This set off a chain of events that revealed at least 100 million Americans’ drinking water was tainted. The discovery of bad water was a shock to some, but perhaps more shocking was the discovery that the United States government and the manufacturers of these toxic chemicals — used in everything from cookware to lipstick to children’s clothing — had known about these hazards for decades but had hidden them from the public. In her new book They Poisoned the World, investigative journalist Mariah Blake tells this story, tracing its roots all the way back to the Manhattan Project and through the postwar America. Drawing on years of reporting and tens of thousands of documents, Blake weaves the history of forever chemicals with the story of how a lone village took on the chemical giants all the way to the nation’s capital — and won. Mariah Blake is an investigative journalist whose writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Mother Jones, The New Republic, and other publications. She was a Murrey Marder Nieman Fellow in Watchdog Journalism at Harvard University. Mónica Guzmán is author of I Never Thought of it That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times; founder and CEO of Reclaim Curiosity [http://moniguzman.com/]; Senior Fellow for Public Practice at Braver Angels; and host of A Braver Way [https://braverangels.org/abraverway/] podcast. Mónica serves on the Board of Directors for the Institute for Multipartisan Education [https://www.multipartisaned.org/]. She received an honorary doctorate degree from Wheaton College, and completed study and research fellowships at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard, the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, and the University of Florida. A Mexican immigrant, Latina, and dual US/Mexico citizen, she lives in Seattle with her husband and two kids and is the proud liberal daughter of conservative parents. https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book/9781524760090 Buy the Book [https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book/9781524760090] They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals (Hardcover) [https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book/9781524760090] Third Place Books [https://www.thirdplacebooks.com/book/9781524760090]

Overnight, Dori became her parents’ caregiver – a labor of love that lasted for seven years. Her mom was suddenly a partially paralyzed wheelchair-bound amputee and her dad was declining due to increasing dementia. She wasn’t ready. This event is to help prepare anyone – those who have been, are now, or will be a caregiver – in other words, all of us! Whether it is navigating the health care system, working with dementia, speaking about dying, or considering how to accept care if and when you need it, you will learn from Dori’s experiences. Dori Gillam is a speaker and writer, inspiring people to age creatively and intentionally. She was born and raised in Seattle and has a BS in Psychology from the University of Washington. She has worked for the Bayview Retirement Community, AARP, and Sound Generations. She writes for 3rd Act Magazine and the UW Website. Currently, she is the Board Chair of the Northwest Center for Creative Aging and helped found the King County Coalition on Aging. Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Northwest Center for Creative Aging.

Artificial intelligence is reshaping our world – but what does that mean for healthcare, scientific discovery, and human potential? In Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit, co-authors Craig Mundie, Henry Kissinger, and Eric Schmidt explore the profound implications of AI on society. In this collaborative event between Town Hall Seattle and the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), Craig Mundie joins Dr. Jim Heath, President of ISB, for a thought-provoking conversation about the future of AI. They will discuss insights from the book, the opportunities and challenges AI presents, and what it means for the way we live, work, and care for our health. Co-author, Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit, Craig Mundie is a leading technology executive and former Chief Research and Strategy Officer at Microsoft. Over his decades-long career, he has played a pivotal role in advancing artificial intelligence, computing, and national security initiatives. Alongside Henry Kissinger and Eric Schmidt, he co-authored Genesis, a deep exploration of AI’s impact on society and the future of humanity. Mundie has served as an advisor to the U.S. government on technology policy and was a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. President and Professor, Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) Dr. Jim Heath is a pioneering scientist in systems biology, cancer research, and precision medicine. Since 2018, he has led ISB, driving interdisciplinary research in cancer and immune system dynamics while advancing innovative approaches to complex diseases. An internationally recognized scientist, Heath has received numerous honors, including the Irving Weinstein Award from the American Association for Cancer Research and the Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences. Before ISB, he was the Elizabeth W. Gilloon Professor of Chemistry at Caltech and a Professor of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at UCLA. Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Institute for Systems Biology. https://www.elliottbaybook.com/item/2-gUryvjjJ9u2y5vMsKAvg Buy the Book [https://www.elliottbaybook.com/item/2-gUryvjjJ9u2y5vMsKAvg] Genesis: Artificial Intelligence, Hope, and the Human Spirit [https://www.elliottbaybook.com/item/2-gUryvjjJ9u2y5vMsKAvg] Elliott Bay Book Company [https://www.elliottbaybook.com/item/2-gUryvjjJ9u2y5vMsKAvg]