Smart Talks. Cold Drinks.

Presenting THINK & DRINK – where the curious gather. This ongoing lecture series delivers a wide array of topics that generate fresh perspectives, ideas, and discussion. These community-driven events are powered by a collaboration between UMKC, Linda Hall Library, The Third Place Historian, and Casual Animal Brewing Company. 

Your RSVP is appreciated to help us preset the room and accommodate as many seats as possible for interested attendees. You will also receive at least 1 reminder email about the event when you RSVP.

June 4th - Pints and Policy: The Documents that Built the Modern World

Speakers: Cassie Pikarsky, Director of strategic initiatives for the truman Library & erica benson, the third place historian

It’s complicated. Contradictory. Inspiring at times and deeply uncomfortable at others.

At “Pints and Policy: The Documents that Built the Modern World,” we’ll explore the good, the bad, and the ugly of the postwar American century through the actual documents, executive orders, doctrines, speeches, and decisions that reshaped global power, civil rights, diplomacy, war, and democracy itself.

From the creation of NATO and the United Nations to nuclear weapons policy, civil rights, and the desegregation of the military, the modern world was built document by document — often through moments of extraordinary courage, political risk, and profound controversy.

In partnership with the Truman Library Institute and inspired by the Library’s new “Story of Us” exhibit featuring rare historic documents from across American history, this talk asks a bigger question:

What kind of nation were these leaders trying to build and what kind of nation are we still becoming?

History, politics, difficult questions, and great beer.