In-Person and Online Program: New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult is known for her compelling storytelling that thoughtfully tackles contemporary issues. For her latest novel, she teamed up with author Jennifer Finney Boylan to create the suspenseful Mad Honey. Join them as they discuss what it was like to work together and their inspiration behind the novel.

In-Person and Online Program: Join award-winning historian and bestselling author Reza Aslan as he highlights the complex and historic ties between America and Iran and the potential of a single individual to change the course of history. Aslan traces the epic journey of Howard Baskerville, a young Christian missionary, from South Dakota to Persia (modern-day Iran) to preach the gospel in the 20th century. But it would be political activism and not Christianity that would define his life and lead to his death as a martyr in a foreign land.

Entrepreneur Steve Case recognized that jobs and opportunity spurred by technology were concentrated in a select few coastal cities. In response, he launched Rise of the Rest, a nationwide platform to back and spotlight innovative startups outside of Silicon Valley. Join Case, in conversation with Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch, as he shares some of the success stories of these startup communities, all leveraging regional strengths and betting on the future of innovation beyond the country’s usual tech hubs.

From “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” to Don Giovanni to the “Mephisto Waltz,” classical composers have long delighted in taking audiences on deliciously spooky excursions into the musical realms of the supernatural. In the perfect overture to Halloween, lecturer and concert pianist Rachel Franklin leads a hair-raising tour of some of the best-loved classical music haunts, spotlighting works that offer encounters with spectral creatures, ghost ships, demonic valets, trolls, devils, and necromancers.

In just the past twenty years, we have learned more about dinosaurs than we did in the previous two centuries. Paleontologist David Hone discusses the extraordinary advances beginning to solve many of the mysteries surrounding these marvelous prehistoric creatures, considers the gaps in our knowledge that remain, and charts new directions for tomorrow’s generation of dinosaur scientists.

The North Coast region, comprising Napa, Sonoma, Lake, and Mendocino counties, produces nearly every style of wine imaginable. In a delicious exploration led by sommelier Erik Segelbaum, discover why these regions have put America on the global map as a world-class wine producer.

Under the direction of Kenneth Slowik, the Smithsonian Chamber Orchestra performs five iconic works by Polish and American composers including Bacewicz, Barber, Górecki, Paderewski, and Copland.