Are ultramarathoners built differently from the rest of us? What can Greenland sharks teach us about aging eyes? As the longtime host of the popular public radio program and podcast Science Friday, Ira Flatow explores questions like these during engaging discussions on topics ranging from science and technology to health, space and the environment.
In a lively conversation with award-winning journalist Sasha-Ann Simons, host of WBEZ Chicago’s In the Loop, Flatow will share the latest findings in medicine and health during this year’s Roland Quest Lecture at Elmhurst University on Thursday, April 23.
An award-winning science correspondent and broadcast journalist familiar to millions around the world, Flatow has spent his career making science accessible to all audiences, describing his mission as a challenge “to make science and technology a topic for discussion around the dinner table.”
During more than four decades on radio and television, Flatow has covered cutting-edge science stories on a range of programs, reporting from locations that have included Three Mile Island, Antarctica and the South Pole. His TV credits include the four-part series Big Ideas, host and writer for the Emmy award-winning Newton’s Apple on PBS, and science reporter for CBS This Morning and CNBC. He has also co-starred on the hit CBS series The Big Bang Theory.
Simons has been a broadcast journalist for nearly 20 years, working in television news and for public radio stations WXXI News in Rochester, N.Y., and WAMU in Washington, D.C., before joining WBEZ Chicago in 2020 to host the talk show Reset. Her current program, In the Loop, is a weekday morning talk show that covers Chicago news, politics and culture. In Washington, she worked regularly behind the mic on programs like 1A, Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
This year’s Roland Quest Lecture, “Health and Wellness Discoveries from the Files of ‘Science Friday,’” begins at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 23, in Hammerschmidt Memorial Chapel. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. Admission is $15 but is free for all Elmhurst University students, faculty, staff and alumni. The public lectures and other cultural programming at Elmhurst University support community engagement and lifelong learning, and prepare our students to thrive as adaptive leaders. To learn more and reserve tickets, visit elmhurst.edu/Cultural. For questions, email [email protected].