Our D.C. lunchtime lecture series continues with a focus on Georgetown. Founded in 1751, it predates the establishment of the federal district and Washington City by 40 years. Each week, expert lecturers focus on one of the extraordinary historic places that make Georgetown the unique neighborhood it is. This lecture features the Oak Hill Cemetery.

Former astronaut Mike Massimino is the veteran of NASA space flights aboard space shuttles Columbia and Atlantis. His final mission was to repair the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009. He tells a compelling story about following a dream and what having the “right stuff” really means—at NASA, in space, and in life. 

Join museum education consultant Sheila Pinsker for a close-up look at the rich and fascinating of Philadelphia as a center of American medicine. Explore the home of pioneering surgeon Philip Syng Physick, the Pennsylvania Hospital, and the Mutter Museum.

At the center of Fox’s wildly popular hip-hop drama, Empire, is the captivating Cookie Lyon. The force behind Cookie is D.C. native Taraji P. Henson, an Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner. Henson talks about her new memoir, Around the Way Girl, about making a life and building career—and what really happens behind the scenes on Empire.

In a conversation with NPR’s Lynn Neary, best-selling author Jodi Picoult discusses her career, inspirations, writing process, and why the issues she takes on in her latest book Small Great Things spoke to her as a novelist.