let's do fun thingsclasses & workshops · chicago
classes & workshops in chicago
drop into a class with no commitment. dance, pottery, cooking, language, lectures — short-format, beginner-friendly, and built for meeting the room.
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let's learn bachata
We The People Fitness Studio
1229 N North Branch St #3/F, Chicago, IL 60642, USA
let's learn bachata: september series a drop-in bachata class with Andrew, Director of our Latin Dance program who it's for anyone who wants to actually learn salsa instead of shuffling through it. no partner needed, no experience required. you'll start with the basics and build from there. what to expect andrew covers timing, the basic step, cross-body lead, turns, and the lead/follow connection that makes it feel like dancing instead of counting.
last call lectures: finder's keepers? museums, looted art, and debating their return
The Scout Waterhouse + Kitchen
1419 N Wells St, Chicago, IL 60610, USA
there is just one easy question to answer tonight: who owns history? join dr. caroline malloy to explore the controversies behind some of the most famous objects from some of the world's most famous museums. from the parthenon marbles to the benin bronzes, from native american spiritual objects to nazi-looted art, she'll challenge you to weigh whether artifacts should be repatriated and why. taking you through the histories of collecting in the 19th and 20th centuries, she'll ask you to consider what happens to museums if their collections disappear, and whether replication technology can offer a solution. dr. caroline malloy is a chicago-based historian and nonfiction book editor. after over a decade in academia, she traded the university classroom for the public stage and travels the world as a resident historian with viking ocean cruises. she teaches casually at newberry library. she works at the intersection of heritage, preservation, and national identity. here is how the night runs: dr. malloy opens with a 45 minute lecture, followed by 15 minutes of live q&a. then we break into small groups for 45 minutes of guided discussion, closing with a 15 minute debrief to bring it all back together. stick around after for mingling, this crowd always has more to say.
let's learn bachata
We The People Fitness Studio
1229 N North Branch St #3/F, Chicago, IL 60642, USA
let's learn bachata: september series a drop-in bachata class with Andrew, Director of our Latin Dance program who it's for anyone who wants to actually learn salsa instead of shuffling through it. no partner needed, no experience required. you'll start with the basics and build from there. what to expect andrew covers timing, the basic step, cross-body lead, turns, and the lead/follow connection that makes it feel like dancing instead of counting.
last call lectures: risk, reward, repeat: the neuroscience behind why we gamble
The Scout Waterhouse + Kitchen
1419 N Wells St, Chicago, IL 60610, USA
our brains are there to keep us from making bad decisions, but when you light up its reward circuit, all it wants is to achieve that high again. good decision or not. and when your brain starts convince you the next pull is the one that pays off, it's hard to get it to stop. modern gambling is built around this principle, and this lecture is going to dive into the neuroscience that created the $70 billion annual industry. this week's presenter dr. viral mistry, a neuroscience educator at dominican university, has spent years studying how nervous systems learn, and is a passionate advocate of making neuroscience findings approachable to the public. why do near misses feel like almost-wins? why are some brains built to chase the risk while others walk away? and what, if anything, can we as the broader public do about it? dr. mistry will answer these questions and more on tuesday, september 29. here is how the night runs: our lecturer opens with a 45-minute talk, followed by 15-minutes of live q&a. then we break into small groups for 45-minutes of guided discussion with fellow readers, closing with a short debrief to bring it all back together. stick around after for mingling and connecting with others who are just as curious as you are.
let's learn salsa
We The People Fitness Studio
1229 N North Branch St #3/F, Chicago, IL 60642, USA
let's learn salsa: september series a drop-in salsa class with Andrew, Director of our Latin Dance program who it's for anyone who wants to actually learn salsa instead of shuffling through it. no partner needed, no experience required. you'll start with the basics and build from there. what to expect andrew covers timing, the basic step, cross-body lead, turns, and the lead/follow connection that makes it feel like dancing instead of counting.
last call lectures: follow the money, find the cure: the economics of big pharma
The Scout Waterhouse + Kitchen
1419 N Wells St, Chicago, IL 60610, USA
your meds cost what they cost because someone decided they should. this talk gets into who that someone is. we're breaking down the real economics behind who gets treated in biotech and pharma, how drug pricing decisions actually get made, and why some diseases get cured while others get quietly deprioritized. we'll cover a real case where commercial incentives and patient needs are pulled in opposite directions, and close with what it would actually take to realign the two. leading the talk is dr. manead khin. dr. khin holds a phd in pharmaceutical sciences with a focus on analytical chemistry, and cancer biology. she is the founder and host of petri dish perspectives, a biotech and pharma podcast built on turning dense molecular science into stories a general audience actually wants to hear. here is how the night runs: dr. khin opens with a 45 minute lecture, followed by 15 minutes of live q&a. then we break into small groups for 45 minutes of guided discussion, closing with a quick debrief to bring it all back together. stick around after for mingling, this crowd always has more to say.
last call lectures: the philosophy of fandoms: what swifties, sherlockians, and sports fans have in common
The Scout Waterhouse + Kitchen
1419 N Wells St, Chicago, IL 60610, USA
fans are more visible—and influential—in the public sphere than ever before. yet with greater cultural prominence has also come greater misunderstanding. dr. samantha close, associate professor of media and popular culture at depaul university, surveys three very different kinds of fandom before focusing in on what they all have in common: a balance between loving something as it is and seeking to transform it into what you want it to be. we will explore fundamental questions about what fans want from their fandom and how different kinds of industry can—and should—relate to them. dr. close is an expert on digital media and popular culture, with a focus on fandom. you can check out her work at newsweek, vice media, and academic outlets like the international journal of communication, transformative works and cultures, and [in]transition. she is currently working on a book about naruto fandom. here is how the night runs: dr. close opens with a 45 minute lecture, followed by 15 minutes of live q&a. then we break into small groups for 45 minutes of guided discussion, closing with a 15 minute debrief to bring it all back together. stick around after for mingling, this crowd always has more to say.
last call lectures: storytelling is community building: how spoken art brought chicago together
The Scout Waterhouse + Kitchen
1419 N Wells St, Chicago, IL 60610, USA
before chicago had podcasts or open mics, it had settlement houses. immigrant families packed into rooms taught each other how to speak, perform, and be heard in a new country. in this lecture, dr. fiona maxwell will be diving into the art of storytelling and its history based in chicago's late 1800s immigrant populations and beyond. dr. maxwell is a historian at north central college who studies how chicagoans used drama, oratory, and storytelling to build civic life in the early 1900s. her research digs into the settlement houses that immigrant and working class families relied on, places like hull house, where spoken performance became a tool for organizing, belonging, and making others laugh. how the night runs: 45 minutes of dr. maxwell walking us through the immigrant roots of storytelling in the city, 15 minutes of q&a, then 45 minutes of small group discussion with other people just as curious as you are.
last call lectures: from bloodsucker to heartthrob: how the vampire got hot
The Scout Waterhouse + Kitchen
1419 N Wells St, Chicago, IL 60610, USA
vampires weren’t always sexy. from ancient blood-drinking monsters and plague-era corpses to dracula, bela lugosi, anne rice, buffy, and twilight, this lecture follows 2,000 years of humanity’s favorite undead menace and asks how a horrifying creature of disease and death somehow became robert pattinson with glowing skin. historian dr. john j murphy leads us through a history of folklore, fear, sex, death, and pop culture, told through the constantly changing monster we call the vampire. here's how the night runs: dr. murphy opens with a 45 minute lecture, followed by 15 minutes of live q&a. then we break into small groups for 45 minutes of guided discussion. stick around after for mingling, this crowd always has more to say.
common questions
- do i need experience?
- no. every class on this list is beginner-friendly by design. show up, follow along, leave knowing one new thing.
- is it weird to come alone?
- no. about half the room comes solo. classes are one of the easiest formats to meet people.
- what should i bring?
- check the event card — most classes provide everything. if a class needs you to bring anything, it'll be listed.