Radio host Krista Tippett to speak on civility

LAWRENCE — Krista Tippett, host of the public radio show "On Being," will present an upcoming lecture, "The Adventure of Civility," addressing issues such as diverging viewpoints on topics like politics, morality and life itself.

The lecture will take place at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 17, in Woodruff Auditorium at the Kansas Union as part of the Hall Center for the Humanities' 2015-2016 Humanities Lecture Series. The event is free and open to the public.

Tippett will also participate in an informal conversation and breakfast session the next day. “A Conversation with Krista Tippett” will take place at 9 a.m. Nov. 18 in the Hall Center Conference Hall. Audience members are invited to pose questions to Tippett and advance topics that may not have been touched upon in the previous night’s session. This event is also free and open to the public, but because breakfast is being served, an RSVP is requested by Nov. 11. Seating is limited. Please email hallcenter@ku.edu if you plan to attend.

Her talk stems from her newest initiative, The Civil Conversations Project. This project is a public forum providing ideas and tools for healing fractured civic spaces. Bringing together thought leaders, activists and everyday people representing diverging viewpoints, Tippett engages them in thoughtful conversation to explore the tough questions that we often don't know how to ask each other. Past guests have ranged from naturalist and writer Terry Tempest Williams, congressman and civil rights activist John Lewis, abortion rights advocate Frances Kissling and Jim Daly, president of the evangelical megachurch Focus on the Family.

This lecture is supported by the Sosland Foundation of Kansas City.

Tippett is a Peabody Award-winning broadcaster and author of "Speaking of Faith: Why Religion Matters and How to Talk About It," Penguin, 2007; and "Einstein’s God: Conversations about Science and the Human Spirit," Penguin, 2010. She has reported for The New York Times, Newsweek, The International Herald Tribune, the BBC and Die Zeit. She holds a master's degree in divinity from Yale.

The show she created, initially called "Speaking of Faith" and later renamed "On Being," is now heard on nearly 300 public radio stations and downloaded by millions as a podcast. Tippett and her guests trace the ancient, animating questions of human existence: What does it mean to be human? What matters in a life? What matters in a death? How to love? How to be of service to each other and to the world? They explore these questions in all the richness and complexity with which they are finding expression in 21st century lives.

The event is free and open to the public. A reception and book signing will occur after the lecture.

Founded in 1947, the Humanities Lecture Series is the oldest continuing series at KU. More than 150 eminent scholars from around the world have participated in the program, including author Salman Rushdie, poet Gwendolyn Brooks and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. Recent speakers have included Junot Diaz, Jeffrey Toobin and Sarah Vowell. Shortly after the program’s inception, a lecture by one outstanding KU faculty member was added to the schedule. For information on the series, visit the Hall Center website.