Theodore Talks are held monthly from January – October on the last Sunday of the month at 2:30pm Central (UTC-5) via Zoom. Please register using the link for the lecture. Registration is free and attending is free. We use your information to send the Zoom link and a survey after the lecture along with links to view the lecture if you missed it or want to see it again!

Upcoming Theodore Talks

Aug. 24: Spotting the Signs of & Preventing Child Sex Trafficking

Child sex trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provisioning, obtaining, patronizing, or soliciting of a minor for the purpose of a commercial sex act. Traffickers target vulnerable children and gain control over them using a variety of manipulative methods. Victims frequently fall prey to traffickers who lure them in with an offer of food, clothes, attention, friendship, love, and a seemingly safe place to sleep. No child is immune to becoming a victim of child sex trafficking, regardless of the child’s race, age, socioeconomic status, or location, and every child involved in this form of commercial sexual exploitation is a victim.

This Theodore Talk will focus on how children are lured into the dark world of sex trafficking and exploitation. Attendees will identify the dangers of technology — including strategies used by child predators — discover how to identify a child in trouble, and learn some best practices on how to be a child’s trusted adult or a trusted child advocate.

Presenter Susan Burkholder is the Lead Prevention Education Trainer at Ransomed Life, a nonprofit fighting child sex trafficking and exploitation in San Antonio and surrounding areas. Since 2015, Ransomed Life has trained and brought awareness to more than 90,000 community members, school staff, counselors, medical professionals, parents, and youth. Register here.

Sept. 28: Antisemitism: Evolution and Escalation

Antisemitism has a long history, well beyond the 20th century. Dr. Shelly Cline, historian and Director of Education at the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, will examine the evolution of antisemitism from religiously motivated antipathy in early modern times to the economic and pseudo-scientific antisemitism of the 19th and 20th centuries, and finally to the politically driven antisemitism of today. This talk will also provide the tools to identify antisemitic tropes and dog whistles that pervade our social media landscape. Register here.