Lunch, Listen and Learn Speaker Series Fall 2026

Lynn Croft: Falls - How Can We Reduce Our Risks?

Did you know that more than 1 in 4 Americans aged 65 and older experience a fall each year? As we age, falls become more common—and more serious—but the good news is that there are steps we can take to reduce these risks.  In this talk, you’ll discover why falls happen more frequently with age and how to protect yourself by “fall-proofing” your home. You’ll also learn simple daily exercises that can improve balance and strength, helping to lower your chances of serious injury in the event of a fall.

Erika Reitshamer: Maria Callas

The new MARIA biopic film depicts only the last months of the life of Maria Callas. The whole life story of this renowned and influential, but controversial opera singer will be presented. This new film MARIA never makes clear what was distinctive about her. We actually only see one dimension of Callas, an ultra-sad, depressed, aging has-been diva, longing for her heyday and still weeping over Aristotle Onassis, who jilted her.

Regis, ISB, and FUAS Students: International Sustainability Shark Tank

Students from Regis College, the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, and the International School of Boston will present their business ideas to a panel of judges. The businesses must address a pressing social or environmental problem in a profitable way.

Gloria Greis: Destruction of the Tea

On the night of December 16, 1773, a group of thinly-disguised Sons of Liberty swarmed onto the ships in Boston harbor and threw the chests of tea overboard, in protest to the new British tea tax. The Crown responded with a series of new laws, reviled in the Colonies as the “Intolerable Acts,” that soon touched off the Revolution.  Come learn about how the events that started in Boston had far-reaching consequences.

Mike Pojman: American Clockmaking  

It is often assumed that Henry Ford originated the concept of the assembly line to produce his Model T “horseless carriage,” when in fact inventive American clock makers like Eli Terry, Chauncey Jerome, and Seth Thomas had developed and implemented mass production practices to produce affordable timepieces by the thousands much earlier

Amy Shroff: Let’s Save the Strays

Myanmar is a country of extraordinary beauty, rich traditions, and resilient people. It is also one of the poorest countries in Southeast Asia and is caught in one of the world’s longest-running conflicts. The current civil war has taken tens of thousands of lives, displaced millions, and continues to claim lives. Amid the violence and instability, access to food, healthcare, and other essentials has become very limited—for people and animals alike. Countless free-roaming dogs live alongside people in Myanmar’s neighborhoods, markets, monasteries, schools, and hospitals. Without access to sterilization, vaccination, or basic veterinary care, their numbers continue to grow and preventable diseases spread. Rabies presents a particularly grave danger: it is almost always fatal once symptoms appear, dogs are responsible for nearly all human transmission, and children bear a disproportionate share of the risk.

Amber Siegel: Charles River Watershed Association (Dam Removal)

Kara Torres-Kilgannon: The Complete Story of Anna Waller: A Survivor and Witness of the Holocaust

Born on December 11, 1938, in Tarnazsadány, Hungary, Anna Waller moved with her family to Budapest after the Second World War began. From the summer of 1944 until January 1945, she and her two sisters survived the war living in the Budapest Ghetto. Her parents also survived, and the family was reunited after the war. Although Dr. Waller had shared her testimony with organizations such as Yad Vashem, the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and the Shoah Visual History Foundation, she had remained silent for many years. It was only in the 1980s, through the support of a child survivor group on Long Island, that she began to speak publicly and start healing.

Eric Peterson: E.D. Leavitt Jr and the Saving of Boston, Not Once, Not Twice, But Three Times!  

In the mid-19th century, Boston was an industrial powerhouse on the rise—but it was also on the brink of disaster. Rapid expansion and massive waves of immigration completely overwhelmed the city’s primitive infrastructure, leaving many citizens without clean drinking water and trapped in a public health nightmare of raw sewage. Desperate for a solution, leadership turned to local engineer Erasmus Darwin Leavitt Jr. With bold ingenuity, Leavitt designed and deployed the largest, most sophisticated steam-powered machinery the world had ever seen. This presentation celebrates the heroic legacy of an unsung engineer who rescued Boston from a crisis and paved its way into the modern era.