Ideas That Shape Tomorrow
For 150 years, Johns Hopkins has advanced discovery in science, medicine, engineering, and the humanities, moving society and humanity forward. And behind every major breakthrough is the capacity to imagine what does not yet exist.
In honor of our 150th anniversary, we invite the world to join us in a yearlong conversation at the intersection of imagination and impact. Welcome to the Next Conversations, a series of discussions designed to inspire wonder, reflection, and possibility—bringing cutting-edge science into dialogue with the arts and humanities to explore the future for discovery, creativity, and the human experience.
Recent event
Feeding the Future: Food, Climate, and Global Stability
Monday, March 23 | 6 p.m. | Shriver Hall, Homewood campus
What we choose to grow, cook, and eat will shape the future of our planet as surely as any energy policy or trade agreement. Food is climate. Food is health. Food is diplomacy. And the decisions we make now will determine whether the global food system becomes a force for resilience—or a driver of instability.
Jessica Fanzo, a leading expert in food systems, nutrition, and global food policy, brings together three influential thinkers—former White House chef Sam Kass, renowned nutrition scholar and food policy advocate Marion Nestle, and planetary health expert Sam Myers—to converse about public health, the evolution of our planet, and science policies that will define the next generation.
Together, they explored:
- How climate change is reshaping global food security and nutrition
- The geopolitical consequences of fragile food systems
- The role of government, markets, and consumers in accelerating change
- What it will take to build food systems that are equitable, sustainable, and resilient
Past event
What the Expanding Universe Demands of the Human Imagination
Our picture of the universe is changing fast. It is expanding faster than we thought, its laws are stranger than we imagined, and its unraveling mysteries are constantly defying our current explanations. What happens when science challenges the stories we’ve long told about our place in the cosmos—and how can the sciences and humanities learn from each other as our understanding evolves?
Our moderator, nationally recognized physicist and host of the popular podcast Mindscape, Sean Carroll brings insights from modern cosmology and the nature of time, helping us make sense of a universe that is stranger and more surprising than we ever expected with three distinguished panelists: Nobel Prize-winning astronomer Adam Riess, philosopher Jenann Ismael, and classicist Karen ní Mheallaigh.
