Why should we read Dickens?
2023-12-01 20:00 - 22:00 (America/Chicago) | Roden House, 418 Texas Street, Denton, TX, 76201, United States

Should we be worried about democracy?
2024-02-17 20:00 - 22:00 | Roden House, 418 Texas Street, Denton, TX, 76201, United States

How should we approach jazz? With the Ari Hoenig Trio
2024-04-15 20:00 - 22:00 | Roden House, 418 Texas Street, Denton, TX, 76201, United States

How should we approach classical music?
2024-06-15 20:00 - 22:00 | Roden House, 418 Texas Street, Denton, TX, 76201, United States
There’s a great many more people who want to appreciate and enjoy classical music than those who actually do. Why is this the case? Is it an art form that is best left to a small circle of experts and practitioners? Is its beauty too esoteric for the average ear? How should we approach classical music?
Join us for the second event in our “What is beauty?” series where we explore the question through both experience and discussion. We’ll be joined by a special student ensemble from the Youth Symphony of Denton.
This is a free event, but please RSVP here to let us know you are coming.

How should we approach art?
2024-07-20 20:00 - 22:00 | Roden House, 418 Texas Street, Denton, TX, 76201, United States
How do I know when I am in the presence of a great work of art? Why do certain artists and works find themselves among the curated pieces in an art museum? And why not others? What role should the fine arts play in my everyday life?
Join us for this third installment of our “What is beauty?” series where we explore the question through both experience and discussion. We’ll be joined by a handful of brilliant artists:
Kelsey Anne Heimerman | visionary oil painter and gold gilder | Dallas, TX
Brady Black | large format public art | Seattle, WA
and more to be added
This is event is free, but please RSVP here to let us know you are coming.

What is beauty?
2024-08-24 20:00 - 22:00 | Roden House, 418 Texas Street, Denton, TX, 76201, United States
We end our 4 part series on the question that has been underlying it all: What is beauty and what role does it or ought it to play in our lives?
The event is free, but please RSVP here to let us know you are coming.

Why should we care about Public Education?
2024-09-14 19:30 - 21:30 | Roden House, 418 Texas Street, Denton, TX, 76201, United States
The American experiment of offering a public education through 12th grade is audacious and ambitious. It is also proving to be increasingly controversial, with criticisms coming from all sides and funding being cut or diverted to private, religious, and for-profit schools. Once understood to be a necessary element of a thriving democracy, there are real questions as to whether or not our education is up the task of of rescuing our increasingly fragile Republic. What are its aims? What does it mean to educate everyone? What is its role in 21st century America?
This evening is free and open to the public. Please RSVP here to reserve your spot.

Why are we banning books?
2024-10-19 19:30 - 21:30 | Roden House, 418 Texas Street, Denton, TX, 76201, United States
If you’ve paid attention to your local school board over the last couple of years, you would think that there is an epidemic of children rebelling against their parents by the reading of books. Even your local public library boards are seeing their share of the action. Challenges to books in classrooms, school libraries, and public libraries have increased dramatically over the last couple of years. What’s at the bottom of this? Do opponents of these bans really think that there is never a good justification for censorship in some form? After all, isn’t education all about the careful curation of content in one way or another? As usual for our discussions, we’ll dig deeper than the memes and soundbytes in hopes of understanding all of this.
Drink and Thinks are free and open to the public. Please RSVP to secure your spot.

Will we ever be able to talk politics at cocktail parties again?
2024-11-16 19:30 - 21:30 | TX
At this point, the election is over. Everyone will have had the time to relieve the stress brought on by another turbulent presidential campaign season, right? Everyone will be ready to engage in calm, rational conversation about politics and its issues, right?
We’re about to find out.
Drink and Thinks are free and open to the public. Please RSVP to reserve your spot.

What is love?
2025-02-15 19:30 - 21:30 | Roden House, 418 Texas Street, Denton, TX, 76201, United States
It has inspired great symphonies, timeless stories, and iconic works of art. Pursuit or loss of it has also fueled revenge, tragedy, and bloodshed. It gets us out of bed, drives us to greatness and craziness, and makes us need a drink most days. What is this thing that underlies so much of who we are and what we do? Let’s gather the evening after Valentines Day to try and figure it all out.
Drink and Think is free and open to the public. But please RSVP to reserve your spot.

What is the good life?
2025-03-29 19:30 - 21:30 | Roden House, 418 Texas Street, Denton, TX, 76201, United States
We’ve been warned by Scorates that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” yet it is not clear that we spend much time in such an examination. Everyone, at least it seems, is striving after something that they perceive to be the good life. Is there something to aim for that is better than other options? How would we know? And why, with all of our intellectual, technological, and sociological progress over the course of human history have we not figured this out by now?
Drink and Think is free and open to the public. But please RSVP to reserve your spot.

What is the good society?
2025-05-17 19:30 - 21:30 | Roden House, 418 Texas Street, Denton, TX, 76201, United States
We had a polarizing presidential election not too long ago. By the time we gather for this evening, our city will have gone through yet another contentious city council election. All of which inevitably surface plenty of ideas, opinions, and slogans that dance around some attempted answer to the question: what is the good society? We’ll move beyond the memes in search of all this.
Drink and Think is free and open to the public. But please RSVP to reserve your spot.

A Night with Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"
2025-12-13 19:30 - 21:30 | TX
Join us for a night of conversation over a bowl of Smoking Bishop and under the haunting, delightful gaze of Dickens’, A Christmas Carol. Our discussion will be led by our own local Dickens scholar, Dr. J. Don Vann.
“No space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused”
This event is open and free to all – please RSVP to secure a spot.

How to think about jazz - w/ the Ari Hoenig Trio
2026-02-02 20:00 - 22:00 | Roden House, 418 Texas Street, Denton, TX, 76201, United States
The Ari Hoenig Trio is returning to Drink and Think for a special house show. And because it’s a Drink and Think event, we’ll sprinkle in some discourse throughout the evening.
Ari Hoenig – drums
Ben Tiberio – bass
Tivon Pennicott – tenor sax
Get your tickets here.

Is Self-Improvement Possible?
2026-02-20 19:30 - 21:30 | Roden House, 418 Texas Street, Denton, TX, 76201, United States
In contemporary life, many people’s sense of agency is diminishing. Isolation, social media, economic and existential uncertainty, institutional decay–as well as the endless self-help content and essays–all point toward an anxiety about our own capacity to act well in relation to each other and our values. There is general malaise regarding our own sense of authority in this world and among others. We want to change our lives in some way, but we feel ourselves hampered by a mix of habits, society, and human nature.
In this special event, hosted by Drink & Think and The Cluny Institute, we will discuss the possibilities and limits of human freedom, agency, and ways we might enlarge ourselves and our world to increase both.
This event is free and open to the public. RSVP here to reserve your spot.

What is the Purpose of Education?
2026-02-21 19:00 - 21:00 | San Marcos, TX
Join us for a special Drink and Think in San Marcos, TX, benefitting the Blanco River Academy. We’ll be spending an evening exploring the question, What is the purpose of education?
Hosted by the Barnards at their home in San Marcos, Texas. This is a fundraiser and tickets are $15, which includes one drink ticket. Secure your spot here.

AI and the Future of Humanity
2026-03-21 19:30 - 21:30 | Roden House, 418 Texas Street, Denton, TX, 76201, United States
“DANGER WILL ROBINSON!” AI promises to disrupt every aspect of human life – the economy, education, business, the arts, relationships, entertainment, and even what we mean by human intelligence. What will remain for us mere humans? What remains distinctly human in an age of robots? Will we know the difference? Will we even care?
Drink and Think has always been about confronting and (re)discovering our humanity, so this seems like something we should discuss together.
RSVP to reserve your spot here.

What is the good city?
2026-04-18 19:30 - 21:30 | TX
This Spring brings us yet another local city council election, bringing with it a slew of candidate forums, yard signs, and Facebook fights. By the time this discussion comes around, we’ll have considered views on affordable housing, street construction, zoning, economic development, homelessness, and other issues of great importance to our citizenry.
But underneath it all is a question that has been asked repeatedly for the last 2000 years – a question so important, so foundational, yet it is too often ignored in the political discourse of our day: what is the good city?
I will invite all the candidates and I imagine some of them will come. But this isn’t a forum for them, it’s for you, the citizen.
RSVP here to reserve your spot.

America: Do we still believe in this idea?
2026-06-27 19:30 - 21:30 | Roden House, 418 Texas Street, Denton, TX, 76201, United States
I’ve heard that for people with summer birthdays, it’s all the rage to throw a birthday party for yourself and America’s 250th at the same time…
I’m going to spend the evening of my birthday reflecting on the idea of America, whether we still really believe in it, and how we are doing 250 years in. Feel free to join me. To help us, we’ll be reading a couple sentences out of the Declaration of Independence and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
Drink and Think is free and open to the public. To secure your spot, please RSVP here.
