Life is about constant discovery. Never staying static in your understanding. Always looking for new sources of insight and inspiration. And that’s why the January Series was created. The January Series is a lecture series that takes place each year at Calvin University that nurtures curiosity and knowledge, creates lifelong learners, and builds conversations that create better global citizens in God’s world. An educational outreach on behalf of Calvin University, containing brilliant speakers, fascinating topics, enlightened conversation, and surprising discoveries. By promoting education, civic engagement, and open inquiry, we’re growing a community of lifelong learners who don’t want to be passive observers but active participants in creating a better, more inspired, more inclusive world.
More recent recordings are available with closed-captioning on YouTube.
Submissions from 2002
Biotech Century: The Harnessing the Gene and Remaking the World (audio), Jeremy Rifkin
The Authority of Narrative (audio), Marilynne Robinson
Freedom and Framework, Spirit and Truth: Recovering Biblical Worship (audio), N.T. Wright
Terrorism in an Age of Globalization (audio), Fareed Zakaria
Submissions from 2001
The Majic Bus: An American Educational Odyssey (audio), Douglas Brinkley
Democracy Derailed: Initiative Campaigns and the Power of Money (audio), David Broder
Dying Well: Reclaiming the End of Life (audio), Ira Byock
God's Name in Vain: The Wrongs and Rights of Religion in Politics (audio), Stephen Carter
The American Athlete as American Hero (audio), Frank Deford
The Shadow of a Dead God? (audio), Tomas Halik
The Human Embryo: Diagnosing Disease, Cloning, Stem Cell Research: We Can, But Should We? (audio), Mark Hughes
Left Behind: A Century of Failed School Reform (audio), Diane Ravitch
My First White Friend: Confessions on Race, Love, and Forgiveness (audio), Patricia Raybon
The Age of Access: The New Culture of Hypercapitalism Where All of Life is a Paid-For-Experience (audio), Jeremy Rifkin
A Democratic China? Will Internet Trade and Capitalism Transform China? (audio), Orville Schell
Disciplined Zeal: Being a Christian Student at Calvin College (audio), William Stevenson
Submissions from 2000
That Peculiar Modern American Institution: School Sports (audio), Frank DeFord
Voices of Calvin: A Celebration of Community (audio), Robert Hubbard and Calvin Community Drama
Death: Enemy or Friend? (audio), Gilbert Meilaender
Faith and Science (audio), Alvin C. Plantinga
Jefferson's Legacy: A Call to Civic Responsibility (audio), Rebecca Rimel
God vs. Gangs: Resurrecting Hope for Our Children (audio), Eugene Rivers
Submissions from 1999
Presidents in Trouble: What Does History Tell Us? (audio), Michael Beschloss
The Future Face of Russia (audio), James H. Billington
Genes, Medicine, and Your Future (audio), Francis Collins
Color Blind: Seeing Beyond Race in a Race-Obsessed World (audio), Ellis Cose
The United States is Born to Die (audio), Robert D. Kaplan
An Abecedary of Poetry (audio), Garrison Flint Keillor
W.H.O. WARNING: Preventing Tribal Wars Reduces Risk to Health (audio), Stuart Kingma
How to Win the Culture War (audio), Peter Kreeft
The Economist on the Playground: What My Ten-Year Old Daughter and I Taught Each Other About Economic Justice (audio), Steven E. Landsburg
The Church and the Challenges of Contemporary American Culture (audio), Gustav Niebuhr
Of Duchesses and Sin Eaters: The Pattern of Story (audio), Gary Schmidt
When Father Disappears.. (audio), Barbara D. Whitehead
Submissions from 1998
Whatever It Takes: The Real Struggle for Political Power in America (audio), Elizabeth Drew
Race Rules: Navigating the Color Line (audio), Michael Eric Dyson
Feminism is Not the Story of My Life (audio), Elizabeth Fox-Genovese
From Marxism to Christianity (audio), Eugene D. Genovese
Building on the Peace: Bosnia Two Years After the Dayton Accords (audio), Richard Holbrooke
Questioning the Media (audio), Neil Postman
China Today and the Shadow of the Emperors (audio), Jonathan Spence
Silicon Snake Oil: A Skeptical View of Computing (audio), Clifford Stoll
Can Science Survive in a Post-Modern World? (audio), David Van Baak
Cloning and the Question of Ethics (audio), Ian Wilmut
Submissions from 1997
Scripture, Feminism, and Faithfulness (audio), Elizabeth Achtemeier
An End-of-the-Century Appraisal of our Politics and Government (audio), David Broder
Teaching Tolerance (audio), Morris Dees
Technology: Things that Think (audio), Michael Hawley
Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation (audio), Jonathan Kozol
The Divided Society and the Democratic Idea (audio), Glenn Loury
How Central is Central Asia--3,000 Years of Asia in 50 Minutes (audio), S. Frederick Starr
Submissions from 1996
Africa Today: Democracy, Factionalism, and Brain Drain (audio), Deborah Ajakaiye
The Entrepreneur as College President (audio), Gaylen Byker
Professional Athletics: Mania, Money, and Morals (audio), Richard M. De Vos
Challenges of Peace in the Middle East (audio), Khalil Jahshan
Managed Care for the 21st Century (audio), L. Everett Koop
The Myth of Repressed Memory (audio), Elizabeth Loftus
Violence as a Public Health Problem (audio), Reed Tuckson
God Plays Piano Too: The Spiritual Lives of Disabled Children (audio), Brett Webb-Mitchell
Lament as Part of Life (audio), Nicholas Wolterstorff
Submissions from 1995
After the Cold War: Global Peace or Global Pieces (audio), David Aikman
Contemporary Preaching: Loss of Memory, Failure of Nerve, Recovery of Voice #1 (audio), Thomas Long
The President and the Press (audio), Tony Snow
A Distant Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (audio), Ronald Takaki
Submissions from 1994
Uncommon Decency: Christian Civility in an Uncivil World (audio), Richard J. Mouw
From Story to Stories (audio), Katherine Paterson
Does America Exist? (audio), Richard Rodriguez
Race Matters (audio), Cornel West
AIDS 2001: The Odyssey of an Expanding Tragedy (audio), Brian Wispelwey
AIDS 2001: The Odyssey of an Expanding Tragedy (audio), Brian Wispelwey
Submissions from 1993
Ethics, Education, and Civic Life: Dealing with Diversity (audio), Jean Bethke Elshtain
Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America (audio), James Davidson Hunter
The Marriage of Health and Education (audio), C. Everett Koop
Back to the Future: The United States and the New World Order (audio), Luis Lugo
The National Scene: Through My Eyes (audio), Clarence Page
The Bloody Flag: Post-Communist Nationalism in Eastern Europe (audio), Juliana Geran Pilon
Fashions in Folly: Sin and Character in the 90s (audio), Cornelius Plantinga Jr.
Submissions from 1992
Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus (audio), Dinesh D'Souza
Let There Be Light: Modern Cosmogony and Biblical Creation (audio), Owen Gingerich
On the Eve of the Medieval: The Middle East as Starting Point and Destination (audio), John Hockenberry
Christians in a Time of Greed (audio), Henry Holstege
The Decline and Fall of American Liberalism (audio), Christopher Lasch
The Democratization of our Cold War Enemy (audio), Jack Matlock
The Politics of Rich and Poor: Wealth and the American Electorate in the Reagan Aftermath (audio), Kevin Phillips
Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night: Should Doctors Kill (audio), David Schiedermayer
Athletics in the 90s: A Decade of Change (audio), Richard Schultz
Free Market and a Free Society (audio), Thomas Sowell
Resident Aliens? Being Christian Today (audio), William Willimon
Submissions from 1991
Will the American Melting Pot Survive: Multicultural Education and the New Tribalism (audio), Linda Chavez
The Spiritual Life of Children (audio), Robert Coles
Guns and Oil in the Gulf: A View from Amman (audio), Bert De Vries
Some of My Best Friends and Worst Enemies are 'Fundamentalists': The Pros and Cons of a Worldwide Force (audio), Martin Marty
Life as a Movie Migrant: A Look at Motion Picture Production Design (audio), Jeannine Oppewall
John Calvin Meets the Creature of the Black Lagoon: Popular Entertainment (audio), William Romanowski
Celebration: Appalachian Ballads, Folksongs, and Stories (audio), Betty Smith
The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America (audio), Shelby Steele
Harp's Delight (audio), Mallarme Trio
Is There More to Acid Rain Than Acid and Rain? (audio), Kathleen Weathers
Under God: Religion and American Politics (audio), Garry Wills
Submissions from 1990
Spiritual Crisis in the 1990s: Mind Control, Brainwashing, Cults, and Seduction (audio), David Clark