Events & Opportunities
January 22, 2026
Conversation Project: What Matters at Life’s End? Exploring Your End-of-life Wishes
Many of us know we should talk about what matters at the end of our lives, but we don’t always know where or how to start these conversations. Once people start exploring death and dying, they often realize it’s not so scary to talk about after all. It can be comforting and empowering to know more about your options and consider what would be helpful for those who may be making decisions on your behalf. Who do you want with you when you are dying? What environments feel most comfortable? Do you have a preference for what happens to your body and your possessions after you die? How do you want to be remembered? This conversation provides a space and dedicated time for reflecting and exploring your end-of-life wishes.
2:00 p.m., Bethany Library, Portland
January 23, 2026
Tough Shit with Oregon Humanities
Tough Shit is an onstage conversation about the most challenging questions Portlanders are facing. We’ll bring together three people with very different experiences of and perspectives on the city to talk through some shit with help from the audience and a moderator.
7:00 p.m., Tomorrow Theater, Portland
January 25, 2026
Grieving in Nature: Can connecting with nature help us heal?
Most of us know about the physical and emotional benefits of spending time outdoors. But did you know that getting outside can assist in grieving and processing loss? In this conversation, we’ll discuss how our connections to nature provide context and understanding around grieving. Can a deeper connection with nature and the outdoors provide additional value and perspective?
3:00 p.m., The Grief House, Portland
February 3, 2026
Consider This: The Stories We Tell About Our Nations with Colum McCann
Join us for a conversation with Colum McCann, award-winning writer and founder of Narrative 4. February 3, 2026, at the Alberta Rose Theatre in Portland and online.
7:00 p.m., Alberta Rose Theatre, Portland
February 3, 2026
Consider This Watch Party in Salem
Join Willamette University for a live watch party for our Consider This with Colum McCann.
7:00 p.m., Willamette University - Putnam University Center, Salem
February 11, 2026
Talking About Values Across Political Divides
“How can I be me without making it difficult for you to be you?” This question gets at the fundamental challenge of being in society together. We live in a contentious political world, and it’s difficult to talk about our deepest values and beliefs in safe, civil, and respectful ways. In 2021, the Pew Research Center found that nearly six in ten Americans felt that political conversations with those you disagree with are generally stressful and frustrating, as opposed to being interesting and informative. If we avoid such conversations, we lose opportunities to form a community with others that reflects our best selves. How can we learn to share our values in ways that bring us together rather than push us further apart?
12:30 p.m., Portland Community College Rock Creek Campus, Portland
February 12, 2026
Reflective Conversation Training (in-person)
During this in-person facilitation training, participants will:
- learn about facilitation and reflective conversation
- have an opportunity to practice new skills and techniques
- reflect on and share your own beliefs and assumptions and listen to beliefs, backgrounds, and experiences different than your own
- design and participate in reflective conversations and debriefs that analyze facilitation tools and choices.
This training will take place in the Oregon Humanities office in Portland (610 SW Alder St., Suite 1111) over the following days:
- Day 1: Thursday, February 12, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
- Day 2: Friday, February 13, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
To register for the February in-person training, click here.
In-person trainings are limited to the first twelve to sixteen people to sign up. Over the course of two days, we’ll spend our time together talking in large and small groups, in small to mid-sized rooms. We’ll provide coffee and tea and a light lunch on both days.
7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Oregon Humanities, Portland
February 23, 2026
Democracy in Motion
The constitution grants congress the power to establish post roads and regulate interstate commerce. For 250 years, political decisions rooted in these powers have shaped how we travel from place to place and even who can travel from place to place. For some, transportation is a mundane issue: the vehicles and routes that are needed to get where they need to go are available and convenient, even if they might not work perfectly sometimes. For others, getting around can be difficult and exhausting, or even impossible. Some find joy in getting around and others face barriers. How does transportation reflect our democratic values? Does how we get around foster democracy? If not, could it be made so?
2:00 p.m., Portland Community College Southeast Campus Library, Portland
February 24, 2026
Conversation Project: Are You Doing Community Wrong?
We all belong to many communities—that is, groups of people with common interests—depending on where we live, the work we do, how we spend our leisure time, political and religious beliefs, and so on. In some communities, finding agreement is easy; in others, especially those that represent many different experiences and points of view, members must work harder to find commonality. It may be easier to find a location for your next book-club meeting than to achieve consensus about a road project at your neighborhood association. In such contexts, are we “doing” community wrong? Are we celebrating diverse points of view and our common effort to find solutions together? If not, why not? What stops us from engaging in more diverse communities?
1:00 p.m., Portland Community College Rock Creek Campus, Portland
March 7, 2026
Talking About Values Across Political Divides
“How can I be me without making it difficult for you to be you?” This question gets at the fundamental challenge of being in society together. We live in a contentious political world, and it’s difficult to talk about our deepest values and beliefs in safe, civil, and respectful ways. In 2021, the Pew Research Center found that nearly six in ten Americans felt that political conversations with those you disagree with are generally stressful and frustrating, as opposed to being interesting and informative. If we avoid such conversations, we lose opportunities to form a community with others that reflects our best selves. How can we learn to share our values in ways that bring us together rather than push us further apart?
Facilitator Lowell Greathouse is a retired United Methodist minister who served congregations in rural, suburban, and urban settings in Oregon, Idaho, and England from 1986 to 2019. In addition, he worked with community-based programs at Catholic Social Services in San Francisco, Community Action in Washington County, and United Way of the Columbia-Willamette. Lowell was born in Oregon and has family roots in the state that date back to the 1890s. He has been engaged in a variety of cross-cultural settings, including at the Cuernavaca Center for Intercultural Dialogue on Development (CCIDD) in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and is the author of the book Rediscovering the Spirit: From Political Brokenness to Spiritual Wholeness (Wipf and Stock, 2020).
3:00 p.m., Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, Corvallis