Speakers Series of South Haven

Issues, Innovations & Ideas Shaping Our Lives

Front Page

Get ready, they’re coming to Michigan!

Parag Khanna
Parag Khanna

Thursday, April 28, 2022

by best-selling author Parag Khanna

Are you ready to move? Do you feel your welfare is at risk from political and economic crises, technology disruptions or climate change? Author and researcher Dr. Parag Khanna defended his claim that Michigan will be a top destination because of factors surrounding climate change, economies, and governments. According to his new book, “Move: The Forces Uprooting Us,” it appears the entire world will be coming to Michigan….. the best place to live on the entire planet by 2050.

Khanna is a leading global strategy advisor, world traveler, and best selling-author. He is Founder & Managing Partner of FutureMap, a data and scenario based strategic advisory firm. He was named one of Esquire’s “75 Most Influential People of the 21st Century,” and featured in WIRED magazine’s “Smart List.” He holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics, and Bachelors and Masters degrees from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He has traveled to nearly 150 countries and is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.

Watch the Video – Best place to live in 2050? Michigan! by best-selling author Parag Khanna

Video by Richard Brunvand

Game Changing Advances in Medicine

Dr. Caleb Bupp

Thursday September 29, 2022

by Dr. Caleb Bupp, MD
Medical Geneticist

South Haven Campus of Lake Michigan College | 7 p.m.

Dr. Caleb Bupp, MD is a pediatrics trained, board certified medical geneticist who practices at Beaumont Health-Spectrum Health and Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich. He will share his background and experience as he takes us through the process of genetic sequencing, a subject that is having a significant impact on the quality of our lives today and will increasingly impact us in the future. He will talk about the great advances in health care that have resulted from proactive versus reactive approaches, and how that change has improved the quality of life for many people. He will also address the unintended moral, ethical, and legal challenges that have arisen from the use of this technology to preselect or modify physical characteristics of unborn children.

Presentation will be held in the Community Room on the South Haven Campus of Lake Michigan College. The programs begin at 7:00 p.m. Admission is $10. Students free. Your contribution to the Speakers Series of South Haven is tax-deductible and may be sent to PO Box 572, South Haven, MI 49090-0986.

How Technology Both Increases Polarization and Builds Bridges in a Divided US Election Season

Lisa Schirch
Lisa Schirch

Thursday, October 20, 2022

by Dr. Lisa Schirch
Starmann Chair in Peace Studies, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame

South Haven Campus of Lake Michigan College | 7 p.m.

Dr. Lisa Schirch will provide a survey of the best and worst impacts of technology on polarization and social cohesion. Highlighting case studies and examples in the US within the context of a tense US election, she will explain how the designs of some technology platforms like Facebook and Twitter seem to encourage polarization, and then explain some new tech platforms that can help build greater trust and care among Americans.

Lisa Schirch, PhD is Professor of the Practice of Peacebuilding and the Starmann Chair in Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. She also directs the Social Media, Technology, and Peacebuilding program for the Toda Peace Institute. A former Fulbright Fellow in East and West Africa, Schirch is the author of eleven books, including Social Media Impacts on Conflict and Democracy: The Tech-tonic Shift.

Admission is $10. Students, educators and clergy admitted free. The doors will open 30 minutes prior to the presentation. COVID protocols will be observed.