TLL Fall 2023 Webinar Series

Sept 28th- Nov 2nd

Grappling with Changing Realities…Plus a Bonus Presentation

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This series, Thornhill Lifelong Learning takes a serious look at the changing world. A place of pivotal changes in technology, of righting historic transgressions and the very questioning of what is right and wrong.

It is a world of shifting sands and uncertain standards. What is true, what is real is up for discussion. Democracy and autocracy continue to be in conflict. Works of art some holders thought were legally theirs are actually part of the greatest art theft in history.

This series also includes a bonus presentation. While the other presentations in the series deal with disquieting realities, in sharp contrast, the bonus session features Barry Avrich interviewed by Steve Paikin. It promises to deliver an afternoon of gossip and inside scoop. Hollywood meets Royalty and so much more.

We hope you can join us.

All lectures take place via zoom webinar on Thursdays from 2:00-3:30 PM

Note: October 19 lecture will not be recorded.

Bonus Opening Presentation

Join us as we launch our Fall ’23 lecture series with this unmissable event.

Frame by Frame: The Scandalous Life of a Film Maker

Barry Avrich interviewed by Steve Paikin

September 28, 2023 2:00-3:30 p.m.

Barry Avrich, Canada’s most acclaimed documentary filmmaker, will share, spill and go deep into the scandalous and the salacious, including everyone he has worked with from Mick Jagger to King Charles and Celine Dion to Dame Maggie Smith, and so many more.

Prominent broadcaster Steve Paikin will lead a powerful, uncensored conversation with Barry. Responsible for over 60 films, Avrich has a colourful career investigating and documenting the world’s most famous and infamous characters from murderers to moguls and rock stars to royalty.

**Barry Avrich**, veteran producer and award-winning director, is the creative force behind Melbar Entertainment Group, one of the largest producers of non-scripted content in North America. Our guest has produced and directed over 65 documentaries and filmed productions including the internationally acclaimed *Made You Look*, *The Last Mogul*, *Prosecuting Evil, David Foster: Off the Record, Oscar Peterson Black + White* and the recently released *Without Precedent: The Supreme Life of Rosalie Abella.* He has produced over 20 award-winning stage to screen adaptations of Broadway and Shakespeare productions including *The Tempest* with Christopher Plummer and *King Lear* with Colm Feore. Melbar is currently in production on Born Hungry and Palm Beach Diaries.
His best-selling memoir, *Mogul, Monsters and Madmen* was released in 2017. In 2007 Barry built the world's first movie theatre in a hospital at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children.
**Steve Paikin** is a celebrated journalist with experience in documentaries, radio, print and TV. His career includes being an anchor and Queen’s Park correspondent for CBC and a reporter for his hometown’s *Hamilton Spectator* and Toronto radio station CHFI. He is also an accomplished moderator of election debates, a producer of feature-length documentaries including *Return to the Warsaw Ghetto* and a writer including *John Turner: an Intimate Biography of Canada’s 17th Prime Minister.* Paikin began work at TVO in 1992 on a number of news and interview shows. He is now the host of TVO’s flagship current affairs show, *The Agenda with Steve Paikin.*
In 2013, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and invested into the Order of Ontario recognizing his contribution to public broadcasting for “smart, eloquent, fair and contextual” work.
Steve Paikin is a proud supporter of the Boston Red Sox and Hamilton Tiger Cats.

The Power of Nuclear: Has Nuclear Power's Day Finally Arrived?

By Colin Wright

October 5, 2023 2:00-3:30 p.m

On December 8, 1953 U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations. Eisenhower initially discussed the nuclear arms race but then changed course to focus on how nuclear energy used in civilian applications had the potential to transform the lives of people around the world. Eisenhower’s address became known as his “Atoms for Peace” speech.

Seventy years later, as the world struggles to find cleaner ways to power the future and improve the lives of its more than eight billion human inhabitants, there is growing interest once again in nuclear power.

Will the modern quest for low- or zero-emissions energy sources finally lead to the realization of Eisenhower’s vision for nuclear power, or will longstanding reservations about its safety and security, radiation risks, waste disposal and cost, continue to limit the role it plays in powering the modern world?

**Colin Wright** spent the majority of his career designing and delivering operational improvements to the organizations he worked with, including a major bank, insurance companies and Canada’s largest electrical distribution utility. He first became interested in environmental and energy issues as an undergraduate student, subsequently cultivating that interest as a lay person throughout his adult life.

Our speaker has made presentations to other discussion forums on net zero emissions policies, climate change mitigation and adaptation and nuclear energy. He currently moderates a current affairs discussion group for Later Life Learning at the University of Toronto’s Innis College. Mr. Wright holds a BA from the University of Toronto in English and Political Science and an MBA from York University.

Right or Wrong: How people make moral decisions

By Dr. Daniel Yudkin

October 12, 2023 2:00 - 3:30 p.m.

We’ve all been there. You say or do something, maybe it’s telling a “little” lie that backfires or perhaps you go off on someone else for their bad behaviour. It leaves you wondering: Was I in the wrong? Or was it their fault? Fortunately, there’s a website for vetting such moral dilemmas, the Reddit forum titled: “Am I the A-hole?” With thousands of posts and millions of comments, it is a clearinghouse for ethical quandaries about honesty, privacy, fairness, kindness, loyalty and decency. This forum has also proved to be a goldmine (and vast database) for studying the ways people think about and experience morality in their everyday lives.

This talk explores the moral codes that we impose on ourselves and each other—and the ways we adapt, bend and break those rules as we navigate relationships and social situations in our daily lives.

**Dr. Daniel Yudkin** is a Visiting Scholar at the Wharton School and the Psychology Department at the University of Pennsylvania and a Senior Advisor at More in Common, an international organization seeking to understand and bridge political divides.
He received his PhD in social psychology from New York University and has held research positions at Harvard University and Yale University. His award-winning examinations seek to understand how people decide between right and wrong, and the implications these decisions have for people, organizations, and society. His work has been featured in over 1,000 news articles, including on the front page of the New York Times, the BBC, the Atlantic, Washington Post, Financial Times, NPR and CNN. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Recovering the Nazi Looted Art of Max Stern

By Dr. Clarence Epstein

October 19, 2023 2:00-3:30 p.m.

It’s often said that looted artworks are the last prisoners remaining from the Holocaust and World War II.

Max Stern was a noted Jewish art dealer in Dusseldorf, Germany before the Second World War who was forced to sell his gallery and private collection by the Nazis. Dr. Stern fled Germany in 1937, ultimately gaining refugee status in Canada and settling in Montreal.

He never gave up hope of recovering his stolen works of art. Honouring his memory, in 2002 Concordia University, McGill University, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Holocaust Claims Processing Office in New York, established the Max Stern Art Restitution Project. The Project’s initiative has been to locate and recover works from the original Stern collection lost in the 1930s, estimated at 400 pieces in total on behalf of the educational institutions and museums around the world that are his heirs.

Please join us for this timely review and report on the most significant project of its kind in the world. Our speaker, Dr. Clarence Epstein, has been a vital force in the Project from its inception.

Dr. Clarence Epstein became the Executive Director of the Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Family Foundation in 2018, overseeing all contributions and programs for a Montreal family in its third generation of transformational philanthropy.
In the twenty years prior, Dr. Epstein was at Concordia University, responsible for key dossiers in advancement, estate management, strategic planning as well as urban and cultural affairs. He oversaw the foundation of the Dr. Max Stern Art Restitution Project.
Dr. Epstein has published books, articles and has lectured internationally on Montreal history, Nazi-era restitution and public art. In recognition of his expertise, he served at the request of the Governor General on the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board.
Our speaker holds a Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of Edinburgh; a Masters in Architectural History from the Courtauld Institute of Art (in London); and undergraduate degrees in Art History (Honours. Eq) and in North American Studies from McGill University.

Democracy and Autocracy in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

By Seva Gunitsky

October 26, 2023 2:00-3:30p.m.

As the effects of artificial intelligence (AI) become more pervasive, one of the growing issues is the effect the technology will have on the future of democracy.

Our speaker argues that while AI may offer certain advantages to democracies, autocracies stand to benefit more. AI has the potential to make autocratic systems more resilient, efficient, and adept at anticipating and suppressing unrest. It is, in other words, a potential solution for the serious information problems faced by autocrats around the world. The growth of surveillance technology and disinformation offers the potential of bolstering the power of the autocrat.

Dr. Gunitsky will explore these developments and the crucial implications they present to democracy in the 21st century and to the evolution of modern states.

**Dr. Seva Gunitsky** is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto. He is the author of *Aftershocks: Great Powers and Domestic Reforms in the Twentieth Century*, selected by Foreign Affairs magazine as one of the best books of 2017.
His research has appeared in International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, International Theory, and Perspectives on Politics, as well as popular outlets like Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, The New Republic, and others.

AI 101

By Richard (Dick) Harris

November 2, 2023 2:00-3:30 p.m.

Everyday we are bombarded by news stories and opinions about Artificial Intelligence (AI). Will it enhance our lives? Will it disrupt our lives? How will we be able to trust that what we see online or on media is really true? The one thing we know for sure is that it will affect many aspects of our world. And the questions we are facing are how it works, what it can do now and in the future, and what are its benefits and risks.

This introduction to AI will offer a better understanding of the technology and a discussion of how AI will inform our world at this moment and going forward. These issues include employment, ethics and social media information and misinformation.