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Join us for the grand finale of WAMU’s Summer of Sci-Fi with this free evening panel at the MLK Library!
Join us for the grand finale of WAMU’s Summer of Sci-Fi! Experts and storytellers will explore how 1950s science fiction sparked public imagination with bold predictions, brought complex scientific ideas to everyday listeners, and continues to inspire the way we think about technology and discovery. We’ll connect those mid-century visions to today’s frontiers—from AI to space exploration—and consider what science fiction might help us imagine next.
Murray Horwitz is a Tony Award-winning playwright, lyricist, and broadcaster. Called “my first mentor” by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, his accomplishments include co-authoring the hit Broadway musical Ain’t Misbehavin’, writing popular song lyrics for John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby at the Metropolitan Opera, originating the NPR comedy quiz, Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me, and co-creating the Mark Twain Prize In American Humor at the Kennedy Center. Since 2016, he has been host and producer of The Big Broadcast on WAMU 88.5 in Washington. As an NPR broadcaster, he received three Peabody Awards, and the Order of Arts and Letters from the government of France. He began his career as a Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus clown.
Dr. Ellen Stofan oversees the science museums and science research centers as well as the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives and Smithsonian Scholarly Press. Her focus is on the Smithsonian’s Our Shared Future: Life on a Sustainable Planet initiative and collective research, especially in areas of biodiversity, climate change, global heath, and sustainable communities. She previously was the John and Adrienne Mars Director of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. As the former Chief Scientist of NASA, Stofan served as the principal advisor to the Administrator on science programs and strategic planning. Currently, she is on the science team of the NASA Dragonfly mission to Titan. Stofan holds master’s and doctorate degrees in geological sciences from Brown University, and a bachelor’s degree from the College of William & Mary
Alec Nevala-Lee is the author of the Hugo Award finalist Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction. His other books include Inventor of the Future: The Visionary Life of Buckminster Fuller and Collisions: A Physicist’s Journey from Hiroshima to the Death of the Dinosaurs, a biography of the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Luis W. Alvarez, which was released by W. W. Norton in June. He also edits puzzles for the magazine Analog Science Fiction and Fact.
AGE GROUP: | Seniors | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) | Lecture | Educational Program |
