Upcoming Events
APRIL 8, 2026
LOCATION: Townhall collaborativeWhat’s Wrong With Us? The Psychology of American Politics
with Dr. Leaf Van Boven
America feels fractured. Talking about politics feels impossible. The divide between left and right seems unbridgeable.
So what's actually going on with our political beliefs? CU Boulder psychologist Dr. Leaf Van Boven has spent his career studying political polarization from every angle—how we form our political views, what makes partisan division worse, and crucially, what might actually help us understand each other across party lines.
This isn't just about understanding the problem. It's about finding pathways forward. Join us for an honest conversation about why our political beliefs drive us so far apart and what psychology tells us about bridging the gap.
About Dr. Van Boven is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at CU Boulder, where he directs the EDJI Lab studying how social and political psychology shapes our decisions on polarization, climate change, and public health.
May 2026
Location: TBD (Denver)
From AI to Zero Gravity: US-Chinese Rivalry in the 21st Century
with Dr. Greg Whiteside
The competition between the United States and China isn't just a headline — it's reshaping the technology in your pocket, the satellites overhead, and the global balance of power. In this month's Curious People talk, Dr. Greg Whitesides of CU Denver takes us inside the defining rivalry of our era: from artificial intelligence and semiconductor supply chains to space exploration and the surveillance state. Whether it's the fate of Taiwan, the race for chip dominance, or who plants a flag on the moon next, the stakes couldn't be higher — and the story is more fascinating than you'd expect.
Join us for a drink and a deep dive into the forces quietly rewriting the 21st century.
About Dr. Greg Whitesides: He is a historian at CU Denver who specializes in science, technology, and global power — particularly the rivalry between the US and China. He's the author of Science and American Foreign Relations since World War II and has written on everything from space competition to semiconductor politics to science diplomacy. He knows this stuff cold, and he's here to make sense of it for the rest of us.