Great Art, Big Ideas

We are thrilled to honor Lhakpa Sherpa, a true trailblazer whose impact and achievements continue to inspire across communities and generations. Set against the stunning backdrop of the historic New Haven Harbor, this evening features an intimate conversation with Lhakpa, moderated by Dr. Quan T. Tran.

In 2000, Lhakpa Sherpa became the first Nepali woman to summit Mt. Everest and survive. She has since summited Everest more times than any woman in history — 10 in total — and has also conquered K2. Beyond the mountains, Lhakpa runs her own Connecticut-based guiding business, Hiking With Lhakpa, and continues to climb in pursuit of a better life for herself and her daughters, championing Nepali women and girls along the way. Her story — as an immigrant, single mother, and survivor of intimate partner violence who reclaimed her agency and independence — was told in Netflix's 2024 documentary Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa.

The Visionary Leadership Award, presented annually by the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, honors a leader whose trailblazing work is impacting the world — carrying forward the legacy of Festival co-founder Jean M. Handley.

Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe on YouTube!

Every oyster shell tells a story — and together, they're helping bring Long Island Sound back to life.

 Watch "Shucking the Status Quo," a conversation on local aquaculture, indigenous stewardship, and community shell recycling, and how they're working hand in hand to restore one of our most treasured waterways. Featuring shellfish farmer Beth Simonds, Chief Sagamore Buddy Pocknett, and Tim Macklin of CORR-CT (Collective Oyster Recycling & Restoration), moderated by Tagan Engel of The Table Underground.

 Recorded live at the New Haven Museum as part of the 2026 International Festival of Arts & Ideas.
 Featuring:
 
 Beth Simonds, co-owner of Stonington Farms Shellfish
 
 Chief Sagamore Vernon "Buddy" Pocknett, Mashpee Wampanoag
 
 Tim Macklin, co-founder of CORR-CT
 
 Moderated by Tagan Engel, The Table Underground
 #NothingWasted #ArtIdea2026 #LongIslandSound #CTOysters

Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe on YouTube!

What's the most powerful weapon against fascism we've nearly forgotten?

Jack Hitt and Chenjerai Kumanyika, hosts of the Peabody Award-winning podcast Uncivil, turn their lens on the labor movement — tracing the buried stories of workers who fought back against gilded-age oligarchs, accumulated wealth, and authoritarian drift. 

This is not a history lesson. It's a warning — and a call to action.

Recorded live at New Haven Museum as part of America 250: Democracy at a Crossroads, presented by the International Festival of Arts & Ideas.

Featuring:
Jack Hitt, journalist and co-host of Uncivil
 Chenjerai Kumanyika, journalist, scholar, and co-host of Uncivil

 Learn more about the festival: https://www.artidea.org
 #America250 #DemocracyAtACrossroads #ArtIdea2026 #UnCivilPodcast

Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe on YouTube!

 | What does it really mean to cook local — and why does it matter?
 Chefs Emily Mingrone, Arturo Franco-Camacho, and Damon "Daye" Sawyer get honest about sourcing close to home, building relationships with local farmers and fishers, and what sustainable food can look like on a Connecticut plate. Moderated by Tagan Engel of The Table Underground.
 Recorded live at the New Haven Museum as part of the 2026 International Festival of Arts & Ideas.
 Featuring:
 
 Chef Emily Mingrone, Tavern on State, Provisions on State, Fair Haven Oyster Co. and The Pearl
 
 Chef Arturo Franco-Camacho, Geronimo Southwestern Kitchen, Shell & Bones Oyster Bar, and Camacho Garage
 
 Chef Damon "Daye" Sawyer, 29 Markle Ct
 
 Moderated by Tagan Engel, The Table Underground
 #NothingWasted #ArtIdea2026 #EatLocalCT #ChefsRoundtable

Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe on YouTube!

 | Historians Elizabeth Hinton, Joanne Freeman, and Beverly Gage sit down with CT Public's Lucy Nalpathanchil to ask: what does the past actually tell us about democracy under strain right now?

Drawing on centuries of American history, they explore how democracies have been tested before, what we can learn from those moments, and why understanding the past has never felt more urgent — whether you're a history buff or just trying to make sense of today's headlines.

Recorded live at New Haven Museum as part of America 250: Democracy at a Crossroads, presented by the International Festival of Arts & Ideas.

Featuring:
Elizabeth Hinton, Professor of History, Black Studies, and Law at Yale University
 Joanne Freeman, Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University
Beverly Gage, John Lewis Gaddis Professor of History at Yale University
Moderated by Lucy Nalpathanchil, CT Public
 
#America250 #DemocracyAtACrossroads #ArtIdea2026

Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe on YouTube!

In this fascinating talk, we explore the unexpected connections between neuroscience, quantum computing, and visual art through a unique interdisciplinary collaboration at Yale University.

This talk features a panel discussion following the screening of a documentary about Italian visual artist Serena Campini, who served as an artist-in-residence at the Yale Quantum Institute. Through her residency, Campini created stunning multilayered artworks inspired by both neurological imaging and quantum states of light.

Our guests include:
Serena Campini, visual artist and art historian who has spent over a decade collaborating with neuroscientists and quantum researchers
Michael Higley, neuroscientist at Yale Medical School whose lab studies synapses and memory formation
Harshvardhan “Harsh” Babla, a PhD student researching quantum error correction and extending quantum memory
Donna Fetis, gerontologist and educator specializing in aging, caregiving, and dementia
Florian Carle, representing the Yale Quantum Institute

Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe on YouTube!

Join us for an illuminating conversation about the transformative power of theater as a form of resistance and social change. In this compelling Ideas Talk, three distinguished theater artists explore how live performance challenges conventions, creates community, and gives voice to marginalized stories.

Featured Speakers:
Dexter Singleton - Executive Artistic Director and Founder of Collective Consciousness Theater, Senior Artistic Associate and Director of New Play Development at Theater Squared
Martyna Majok - Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, librettist, and screenwriter (Yale School of Drama alumna)
Godfrey Simmons - Artistic Director of Heartbeat Ensemble, actor, director, playwright, and Trinity College faculty member

Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe on YouTube!

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Martyna Majok delivers a stirring keynote weaving together Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, and her own immigrant story to explore how art serves as resistance against cultural devastation and loneliness.

Drawing from her current Broadway adaptation of Fahrenheit 451, Majok examines Guy Montag's journey from book-burner to truth-seeker as a mirror for our own times of censorship, distraction, and disconnection. She reflects on the "loneliness epidemic" plaguing America and how meaningful art—like the books Montag risks everything to save—offers "quality" and "pores" that reveal life's complexity rather than the "wax moon faces" of comfortable conformity.

Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe on YouTube!

Join us as Mercy Quay, founder and CEO of Connecticut's only anti-racist public relations agency, The Narrative Project, guides us through the complex world of news consumption and media literacy. With over a decade of experience as both a journalist and communications strategist, Quay examines how framing, bias, and sensationalism shape our understanding of current events.

In this thought-provoking episode, we explore the critical distinction between sensation and thinking in our modern media landscape, drawing inspiration from Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and its warnings about information manipulation and societal control.

Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe on YouTube!

In this thought-provoking discussion, hosts Juanita Sunday and New London Poet Laureate AnUrbanNerd explore how science fiction serves as a powerful lens for understanding our present and predicting our future. 

Using Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Octavia Butler's A Few Rules for Predicting the Future as their foundation, they examine how speculative fiction doesn't create problems—it takes current issues and projects them forward to show us potential consequences.

Thanks for listening and don't forget to subscribe on YouTube!