What we’re about
Profs and Pints brings professors and other college instructors into bars, cafes, and other venues to give fascinating talks or to conduct instructive workshops. They cover a wide range of subjects, including history, politics, popular culture, horticulture, literature, creative writing, and personal finance. Anyone interested in learning and in meeting people with similar interests should join. Lectures are structured to allow at least a half hour for questions and an additional hour for audience members to meet each other. Admission to Profs and Pints events requires the purchase of tickets, either in advance (through the ticket link provided in event descriptions) or at the door to the venue. Many events sell out in advance. Your indication on Meetup of your intent to attend an event constitutes neither a reservation nor payment for that event.
Although Profs and Pints has a social mission--expanding access to higher learning while offering college instructors a new income source--it is NOT a 501c3. It was established as a for-profit company in hopes that, by developing a profitable business model, it would be able to spread to other communities much more quickly than a nonprofit dependent on philanthropic support. That said, it is welcoming partners and collaborators as it seeks to build up audiences and spread to new cities. For more information email profsandpints@hotmail.com.
Thank you for your interest in Profs and Pints.
Regards,
Peter Schmidt, Founder, Profs and PInts
Upcoming events (2)
See all- Profs & Pints Nashville: An Essential Talk on Free SpeechFait la Force Brewing, Nashville, TN
Profs and Pints Nashville presents: “An Essential Talk on Free Speech,” a look at the past, present, and future of the right to speak out, with Jacob Mchangama, research professor at Vanderbilt University, founder and executive director of the think tank The Future of Free Speech, and author of Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media.
[Doors open at 6 pm. Talk starts at 7. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/nashville-speech ]
Free speech is not just one among many rights. It is the very foundation of democracy.
Gain a deep understanding of this freedom’s importance and its evolution over time with Jacob Mchangama, award-winning scholar of free-speech and human-rights law, frequent writer and media commentator on speech issues, and producer and narrator of the podcast “Clear and Present” Danger: A History of Free Speech.
In an encore of a thought-provoking talk delivered to a sold-out audience in April, Mchangama will trace the enduring power—and fragility—of freedom of speech from the trial of Socrates to social media bans, from medieval heretics to modern whistleblowers.
Along the way, he’ll tackle key questions such as: Why has free speech so often been the first casualty of fear and power? What lessons can history offer us in navigating today’s digital controversies? And how can we defend free expression without abandoning responsibility in an age of Artificial Intelligence?
Drawing on his acclaimed global history of free speech, Mchangama will explain why societies that protect expression tend to thrive, while those that silence dissent often descend into repression. He’ll make the case that the freedom to speak, write, and dissent is what allows all other rights to flourish.
A compelling advocate for liberal democracy, he’ll show why free speech remains our best defense against tyranny and a vital tool for progress, even when it's messy, uncomfortable, or unpopular. You’ll emerge from your evening with him with plenty to talk about. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID.)
Image: From “The Death of Socrates,” painted by Jacques-Louis David in 1787 (Metropolitan Museum of Art / Wikimedia Commons).
- Profs & Pints Nashville: It's a Conspiracy!Fait la Force Brewing, Nashville, TN
Profs and Pints Nashville presents: “It’s a Conspiracy!” an exploration of how conspiracy theories came to pervade what we see and hear, with Robert Spinelli, Archivist for Special Collections at Middle Tennessee State University, professor at American Baptist College, and author of the new book The Lizard People Don't Want You to Read This: Essays on Conspiracy Theory in Popular Culture.
[Doors open at 6 pm. Talk starts at 7. Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/scully
]Whether in text, in films, or on the internet, conspiratorial ideologies have become nearly unavoidable, with many social media influencers, celebrities, and powerful political figures alleging that dark forces are at work.
How did it come to be this way? Having poked around for an answer, Mr. Spinelli believes the responsibility lies in a vast web of figures that includes Mulder and Scully of The X Files and may lead all the way to Superman.
On June 11th he’ll blow the whistle on how potentially dangerous conspiracy theories came to be normalized in American popular culture to the point when it was only a matter of time before they infiltrated serious public debate.
He’ll discuss how conspiracy theories attract wide audiences by mirroring the narrative structures found throughout literature and mythology. We’ll look at how popular culture typically portrays conspiracy theorists as characters to be laughed at and dismissed, or as antiheroes, or as anti-establishment figures with authority stemming from their status as challengers to the norm.
Mr. Spinelli will revisit how The X-Files portrayed conspiracy theorists as truth seekers and holders of secret knowledge and how old Superman comics took on the Ku Klux Klan. He’ll explore how novels such as The Da Vinci Code tap into the cultural fascination with the shadowy plots, secret cabals, complex symbolism, and narrative revelations that historically underly American conspiracism.
We’ll discuss how and where to draw the line between conspiracy theories that are harmless entertainment and conspiracy theories that are potentially dangerous political lies. You’ll learn how media literacy efforts can possibly contend with the multitude of formats in which conspiratorial ideas are dispersed.
The truth is out there at Nashville’s Fait La Force taproom. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID.)
Image: A cryptex like this factored prominently into The Da Vinci Code. (Photo by Rex Roof / Creative Commons.)
