(Radio Iowa) – Long before there was T-V or the internet, Iowans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries would gather during the summer for events called “chautauquas,” to share food and drink, and to hear speakers on topics like history, art, and philosophy. An event later this month aims to recapture the spirit of those gatherings. Nathan Beacom is founder of the Lyceum Movement, which is sponsoring the third annual Des Moines Festival of Ideas. “We have speakers coming from around Iowa, but also around the country, people who are scholars and thinkers and writers and leaders,” Beacom says. “We’re talking about this theme of Trust in America, which I think is really timely right now. And there’s food, we have Australian pies and beer and wine and things like that.”

Polls continue to find public trust is failing in institutions like the media and the government. “We’re going to consider why that is and what it would mean to be trustworthy,” Beacom says. “So, Trust in Media, we have a few well-known journalists who are going to talk about what do they think it would mean for the media to be trustworthy and why have people lost trust? Similarly, we’ve got some figures from local government who are going to share their thoughts on that as well.” Other topics will include trust in religion, trust in technology, and trust in medicine. The two-day festival is designed to inspire those in the audience to discuss the topics and actually talk to one another face to face, Beacom says, with the goal of being conversational, not confrontational.

“We’re not trying to talk about heated topics. In general, we’re talking about the bigger ideas of why does trust matter in a society and what can we do to build trust together,” Beacom says. “We try to keep things on the level of big ideas rather than talking about this or that politician, or this or that law.” The non-partisan event is scheduled for next weekend, August 15th and 16th, in downtown Des Moines.

https://www.lyceummovement.org/tallgrass