last call lectures: the epic journey of the odyssey: from the iliad to the aeneid to imax theaters
christopher nolan just spent a quarter-billion dollars reminding everyone that one of the hottest stories of 2026 is also roughly 2,800 years old.
but before odysseus was matt damon, before the trojan war was an imax spectacle, and long before western civilization decided that reading dead greeks made you sophisticated, there was homer: a probably-not-one-guy poet telling enormous stories about war, monsters, gods, bad decisions, wounded egos, and one man taking an absolutely unreasonable amount of time to get home.
in this lecture, historian dr. john j murphy takes us back to the ancient world to unpack the iliad, the odyssey, and their wildly influential roman successor, virgil’s aeneid. we’ll meet heroes who are brave, petty, horny, traumatized, occasionally brilliant, and spectacularly bad at conflict resolution—and ask how their stories became some of the foundational texts of western literature.
then we’re heading to the movies.
what does christopher nolan keep from homer? what does he throw overboard? why make the gods quieter, the war darker, and odysseus more recognizably human? and when you adapt a story that has already survived nearly three millennia of retellings, is changing it actually a betrayal, or the most homeric thing you could possibly do?
come for the cyclops. stay for the fall of troy, roman propaganda, ancient masculinity, unreliable narrators, extremely vindictive gods, and the realization that basically every road movie, war story, homecoming narrative, and “one last job before i can go home” plot owes homer his flowers.
we’ve spent 2,800 years telling the same stories; christopher nolan just put them back in imax.
21+ to attend
this event has ended
here's what's coming up that you might like.
last call lectures: night shift: how to lucid dream and alter memories in your sleep
Mary Jo McGuire's
2251 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60614, USA
Did you watch Inception and leave the theater certain that dream control is a fun plot idea but not possible? What if we told you that you actually could control your dreams? Learn about the relationship between sleep and memory, how we study sleep in the lab, and how we're starting to investigate lucid dreaming. Sadie Witkowski, PhD will cover the history of scientific research on sleep, how it relates to memory, and how lucid dreaming is studied today. Plus, we'll spend some time on how it all relates to sleep disorders and our understanding of consciousness. Come for the science, stay to learn how to lucid dream! here is how the night runs: dr. Witkowski 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 debrief to bring it all back together. stick around after for mingling, this crowd always has more to say.
arguing with strangers
Mary Jo McGuire's
2251 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60614, USA
arguing with strangers, thursday, november 12 at mary jo mcguire's in lincoln park. arguing with strangers is our viral monthly bar debate club series where strangers go head to head to debate. we start things easy. get paired with a stranger, get handed a side, and argue something ridiculous. like is a hot dog a sandwich? defend it with everything you've got and practice disagreeing with a laugh. then the best matchups go up front, with the crowd picking the winner. send us your hot takes and get the chance to defend them up front and spark debates for the whole crowd. once everyone's loose, the topics get real and you talk about the stuff you don't usually say out loud to a stranger. things may get serious, but they stay civil. and at the end of the night, you walk away knowing you can completely disagree with someone and still walk out respecting a new friend. we forgot how to do that. this is practice.
last call lectures: the frozen frontier: glory, disaster, and the race for the north pole
The Scout Waterhouse + Kitchen
1419 N Wells St, Chicago, IL 60610, USA
before astronauts raced to the moon, another kind of adventurer captured the world's imagination: the explorer. during the golden age of exploration, these daring, ambitious, and occasionally unhinged individuals became international celebrities, chasing fame and national glory into the most dangerous corners of the planet. but one prize stood above all others: the north pole. why were men willing to risk starvation, frostbite, shipwreck, and almost certain death just to be the first to stand on an invisible point in a frozen ocean? from vanished expeditions and extraordinary feats of survival to bitter rivalries, accusations of fraud, and some of history's most spectacular disasters, historian dr. john j. murphy explores the personalities and obsessions behind humanity's race to the top of the world. along the way, we'll discover how exploration became a spectator sport, how nations turned adventurers into heroes, and why the greatest prize in exploration may have been less about discovery than the desperate desire to be remembered. from the frozen arctic to the modern space race, it's a story of courage, ego, ambition, and the question that has driven explorers for centuries: how far would you go to be first? 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.