CURRENT SEASON
2025-2026
Tuesday, September 23, 2025
Dr. Scott Bonn, PhD
“Serial Killers: with Dr. Scott Bonn”
Dr. Scott Bonn is a criminologist, producer, TV analyst, public speaker, and author of the bestselling popular culture book Why We Love Serial Killers: The Curious Appeal of the World’s Most Savage Murderers. Bonn also authored the critically acclaimed sociology book Mass Deception: Moral Panic and the U.S. War on Iraq. His fact-based crime thriller novel, Evil Guardian, was inspired by his correspondence with notorious, real-life serial killers David Berkowitz (Son of Sam) and Dennis Rader (Bind, Torture, Kill).
He has provided expert commentary and analysis for a number of high-profile true crime TV shows and documentaries on A&E, Discovery Network, Oxygen, Investigation Discovery, and Travel Channel.
Bonn is an expert on criminal behavior and is highly respected for answering the puzzling question of “why the perpetrator did it” in complex murder cases. He makes the seemingly incomprehensible both understandable and highly entertaining for his audience. He examines many types of criminal activity in his Psychology Today blog titled “Wicked Deeds,” which has been visited nearly 9 million times. He has more than 15,000 social media followers.
Bonn was an award-winning criminology and sociology professor at Drew University in Madison, NJ, from 2007-2017. Prior to becoming a criminologist, Bonn was an advertising and media executive in New York, serving in the roles of Vice President, Client Marketing, at NBC TV Network, and Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing, at The BOX Music TV Network and SonicNet during the 1990s. Dr. Bonn holds a Ph.D. in Sociology (Criminology) and an M.S. in Criminal Justice. He resides in Las Vegas, NV, with his wife and son.
Tuesday, October 21, 2025
Lt. Gen. John “Jack” Shanahan, USAF, Retired
“Artificial Intelligence and the Digital Revolution: The Implications for National Security”
Lieutenant General Shanahan retired in 2020 after a 36-year military career. In his final assignment, he served as the inaugural Director of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC). General Shanahan served in a variety of operational and staff positions in various fields, including flying, intelligence, policy, and command and control. He commanded at the squadron, group, wing, Agency, and Numbered Air Force levels. As the first Director of the Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional Team (Project Maven), the general established and led DoD’s pathfinder AI fielding program, charged with bringing AI capabilities to intelligence collection and analysis.
General Shanahan is a 2022 graduate of the North Carolina State University (NCSU) Master of International Studies program and serves on the NCSU School of Public and International Affairs Advisory Council. He serves as an advisor to the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) Defense Panel. He is an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS); is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Autonomous Weapons Systems Assurance and Safety Subcommittee; serves on the Advisory Group for the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) Hamilton Center on Industrial Strategy; and is a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Committee on Testing, Evaluating, and Assessing Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Systems under Operational Conditions for the Department of the Air Force. He serves as a consultant on the use of AI-enabled technologies for national security.
Tuesday, January 20, 2026
Dr. Diego Bohórquez, PhD
“The Gut-Brain Connection and Neuropods”
Dr. Bohórquez, an Associate Professor of Medicine and Neurobiology at Duke University, is a pioneer and leader in the field of gut-brain biology. Dr. Bohorquez is a gut-brain neuroscientist who focuses on how the brain perceives what the gut feels, how food in the intestine is sensed by the body, and how a sensory signal from a nutrient is transformed into an electrical signal that alters behavior.
His journey into this emerging field of neurobiology commenced with the groundbreaking discovery of synapses in enteroendocrine neuropod cells (Bohórquez et al., J. Clin. Invest., 2015). This discovery unveiled a sensory neuroepithelial circuit in the gut, akin to that for taste perception in the tongue, gaining rapid recognition in publications such as Nature, the TED Ideas blog, and The New Yorker.
Dr. Bohórquez’s team achieved a significant milestone in 2018 by revealing that gut neuropods synapse with vagal neurons, enabling the rapid transmission of sensory cues from nutrients to the brain in mere milliseconds (Kaelberer et al., Science, 2018). Moreover, through the development of novel technologies for studying neural circuits in visceral organs, his team made the groundbreaking observation that animals rely on gut neuropods to distinguish and preferentially consume sugar over sweeteners (Buchanan et al., Nat. Neurosci., 2022). These findings have ushered in a new era in the exploration of how visceral sensations influence appetite, choices, mood, and motivations.
In 2025, Dr. Bohórquez was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from President Joe Biden, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on outstanding early-career scientists and engineers.
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
Wendy Young, President KIND (Kids In Need of Defense)
“The Rights, Legal Issues, and Safety Concerns of Unaccompanied Migrant Children”
Ms. Young has led KIND since 2009 and brings extensive immigration policy experience to the organization. Prior to KIND, she served as Chief Counsel on Immigration Policy in the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Refugees for Senator Edward M. Kennedy. She held prior immigration policy positions with organizations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Women’s Refugee Commission, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the National Council of La Raza.
Ms. Young has also written numerous articles, reports, and cutting-edge op-eds on the plight of unaccompanied children. She has received a number of awards and honors for her work on immigration rights including: 2017 Williams College Bicentennial Medal Award; 2016 Keepers of the American Dream Honoree by the National Immigration Forum; Women Inspiring Change 2015 Honoree at Harvard Law School’s 2nd Annual International Women’s Day Celebration; Foreign Policy’s Leading Global Thinker of 2014; Nominated as one of two NGO representatives to participate in Seminar XXI Program on U.S. Foreign Policy by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and National Defense University (2002); Honored by Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center for work on behalf of women and children detainees (2002); Child Advocacy National Certification of Recognition, American Bar Association, in recognition of contributions advancing the welfare of children (2001); Human Rights Award, American Immigration Lawyers Association, in recognition of the work of the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children on behalf of women and child asylum seekers (1999).
Ms. Young earned a joint law degree and master’s degree in international relations from American University in Washington, DC, and a bachelor’s degree from Williams College in Massachusetts.
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
National Geographic Live
Dr. Lindsay Zanno, PhD
Title – “Rise of T. Rex”
Paleontologist Dr. Lindsay Zanno is uncovering the answer. Each year, she spends several months on expedition, scouring the badlands of western North America in search of clues. Along the way, she has discovered many new species – including some of the earliest predecessors of T. Rex. Dr. Zanno takes a fascinating look at how a global climate crisis during the Cretaceous changed the course of evolution for this prehistoric tyrant and its ancestors.
Lindsay Zanno is Head of Paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and an associate research professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at North Carolina State University, where she oversees the unit’s collective research and educational activities, three research collections (paleobotany, invertebrate paleontology, and vertebrate paleontology), and directs the on-exhibit Paleontology Research Lab in the Nature Research Center building. She is one of the world’s leading experts on the evolution of theropod dinosaurs. Zanno has a soft spot for the American West, where she has discovered more than a dozen new species, including Siats, one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs on the continent, and Moros, North America’s tiniest tyrannosaur.