What’s there to learn at a boozy barroom lecture? Plenty, it turns out | Canada Voices

It’s a Tuesday night and I’m sitting in the back room of a dive bar in Toronto’s west end. Despite it being a weeknight, despite the unseasonably cold weather, the show is sold out.

There is a buzzy atmosphere – people are chatting with strangers, buying drinks and scanning the room for the last free chairs. The general vibe suggests a trending band or up-and-coming comedian. Instead, we’re about to watch three non-experts give talks on sea shanties, “the shape of a conversation” and the legacy of Xerxes, the ancient Persian king.

This is Trampoline Hall, a popular barroom lecture series that’s been running for the past 25 years in Toronto, with occasional tour dates to other cities. Created by acclaimed Canadian author Sheila Heti and hosted by Misha Glouberman, the format of Trampoline Hall sees a new curator each time select three speakers to give short lectures on a subject they are passionate about, but not a professional expert on.

Over the past few years, a number of barroom lecture series have popped up across the country. In Toronto you can attend Sip and Scholar and Brains and Barstools. There are events like Lectures and Libations in Montreal or Boozy Lectures in Calgary.

Topics vary based on who’s at each event. Browsing through listings, there were talks on everything from the history of high heels to giving AI a corporeal body. The growth of the format speaks to people’s intellectual curiosity and their desire for off-screen entertainment.

Glouberman doesn’t see Trampoline Hall as a part of the newer barroom lecture series. The majority of these lectures are given by professors or high-level specialists on a particular subject (for example, a Brains and Barstools event next month on “Why people fall in love with ChatGPT” will be hosted by Dan Lametti, a professor of cognitive psychology at Acadia University), while Trampoline Hall specifically seeks out non-experts.

After each lecture, Glouberman hosts a question-and-answer session between the speaker and the audience. For the host, the point of the show is more about those interactions and the conversations they spark than learning something new. At the time the show was created, the idea of non-experts sharing information to a room full of people felt less loaded than it does now, in the age of misinformation. Still, he recognizes why other lecture events have started to take off.

In Edmonton, Nicole Rodriguez and Kleinberg Fernandez run Curious Brews. The duo formed the idea while enrolled in graduate studies at the University of Alberta, inspired by different barroom lecture events happening across North America. They court experts to speak.

Bringing academic knowledge outside of the classroom seemed like a worthwhile endeavour. It was also an opportunity for a fun night out.

“We’re both people who genuinely love to gather. That part is deeply influenced by our Filipino roots, where there’s a strong culture of hospitality, connection and creating spaces for lively conversation,” Fernandez said.

While Curious Brews is still a new endeavour, they’ve averaged about 90 attendees per show. The organizers say the event creates natural opportunities for conversations that go beyond small talk, and brings together a number of curious people with a genuine desire to learn.

The events are a chance for the general public to ask questions and be part of important conversations, according to Rodriguez and Fernandez. It’s also an opportunity to explore perspectives on big ideas. For example, one recent event centred on how Disney classic films can teach real-world economics.

“While we valued opportunities to present in academic spaces like research conferences, we often felt that what we were learning shouldn’t stay confined to those environments,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve felt a lot of support from the community, and we’re genuinely grateful for the enthusiasm and openness people have brought to these events.”

It’s difficult to make friends as an adult and find ways to meet people with like-minded interests. There are certainly worse places to start than a room full of people curious enough to attend a lecture in a bar with a built-in topic to discuss.

Who wouldn’t want to wax poetic after a lecture about the “psychedelic comeback” or the “science of music as medicine” – something that Glouberman was quick to point out about Trampoline Hall.

“As much as anything, it’s about animating a room full of people into an interesting conversation,” he said. “If you ever want to go to make friends, you’re not going to do much better than this, because you’re at a whimsical barroom lecture series.”