On Monday, October 24 at 7 p.m. in the Salomon Center for Teaching, room 001 (lower auditorium), author and magician Alex Stone will deliver the 13th Annual Don Wilmeth Endowed Lectureship in Theatre and Entertainment entitled, “The Psychology of Magic and the Science of Manipulating Minds.”
This event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the lecture.
Alex Stone
Alex Stone is a renowned journalist, speaker, magician, and former physicist. He is the author of Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks and the Hidden Powers of the Mind—a book about the world of magic and its ties to science. Fooling Houdini was named one of Amazon’s “Ten Best Nonfiction Books of 2012” and has been published in nine countries. Stone’s writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Harper’s, The New Republic, Discover, Psychology Today, and elsewhere. He lives in New York City.
Lecture Summary
Stone’s talk will show you how to hack the human brain using the principles of magic, illusion, and deception. Through a lively mix of cutting-edge science and jaw-dropping tricks, Stone pulls back the curtain to reveal a host of startling revelations about how the mind works—and why, sometimes, it doesn’t. His enthralling and informative talk offers a wealth of powerful insights into the nature of perception and the hidden forces that shape human behavior, leaving the audience with a new way of looking at the world and at themselves.
The Don Wilmeth Endowed Lectureship was established in honor of Professor Don Wilmeth and his monumental contribution to the study of theatre at Brown. The lectureship supports an annual lecture series on American theatre. Past visiting lecturers have included Laurence Maslon (2005), Jim Steinmeyer (2007), Christopher Bigsby (2008), Laura Linney (2008), Lynn Nottage (2010), Bill Irwin (2011), and Oskar Eustis (2014).
This event is supported by Brown University Library and Friends.
Date: October 24, 2016
Time: 7 p.m.
Location: Salomon Center for Teaching, Room 001, 79 Waterman Street, Providence