Global Cultures & Travel   

Rugged, beautiful, and delicious. The Southwest is the ultimate playground, luring adventurers with red-rock canyons, Wild West legends, and culinary delights. The region is home to a wonderful and vibrant mix of Anglo, Latino, Hispanic, and American Indian traditions making it one of the most diverse and fascinating corners of the United States. The defining characteristics of Southwestern cuisine are a mystery to most Americans. Southwestern cooking has a vibrant mestizo heritage and includes some of the most intensely spiced dishes in the Americas. Join Chef Larry Canepa on a visual and tasty journey through Southwest culinary history.

The eruption of Thira (modern Santorini) around 1600 BCE was one of the most powerful volcanic events in human history with far-reaching consequences for the flourishing Minoan civilization on nearby Crete. This talk explores the eruption’s impact—tsunamis, climate disruption, and societal collapse—while examining archaeological and geological evidence that sheds light on this ancient catastrophe. Was Thira’s eruption the beginning of the end for Minoan Crete, or did other factors seal its fate? Join us for a fascinating journey into the past, where science and history intertwine to reveal how natural disasters shape civilizations.