Edmond Town Hall is kicking off a new speaker series October 24 called “Newtown Talks: Conversations on Culture, Society, and Change.” The series is meant to bring all kinds of Newtown residents together to foster open conversation and inspire positive change within the community.

The series will feature Sebastian Junger on October 24, Dani Shapiro on November 21, Brian Reed on December 19, Anthony Edwards and Stephen Mills on January 16, and in March Tara Westover will also be visiting Newtown.

The hosts of the series, Suzy DeYoung and Lee Shull, said they were inspired by a previous talk series Edmond Town Hall sponsored in 2017.

DeYoung shared, “Back in 2017 and 18 … there was another speaker series that I co-ran with Jeremy Richman, who was a neuroscientist and founder of the Avielle Foundation … the foundation in a nutshell focused on mental health. We ran a mental health speaker series together called the Brainstorm Experience where each talk focused on some issue of mental health. I kept seeing, you know, at Edmond Town Hall the music series and the comedy series and I’m like, ‘Gosh I wish we had another speaker series.’”

And thus, Newtown Talks was born.

Shull said, “For me, this falls right in line with [Sodina] as another opportunity for community to come together. In addition to all the other great things that Edmond Town Hall does, but if some people aren’t into music or whatever, it’s a nice alternative for the community to come together and talk about important topics of what it means to be community.”

Sodina is Shull’s project that explores the scope and impact that violence has on individuals and communities.

Both hosts are looking forward to the several speakers that will be featured at Edmond Town Hall and hope the conversations “make people ask questions” and “gain a new perspective.”

The series starts off hot with Sebastian Junger on October 24, as mentioned above. Junger authored In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife. The book details his experience of being rushed off to the hospital and having a conversation with his deceased father.

Shull described Junger’s other work, which includes a documentary about veterans returning from Afghanistan and how veterans “formed bonds in a community that Jeremy [Richman], and we, would often talk about. That we’re wired for connection and evolved to collaborate rather than be competitive with each other. So that’s something I plan on asking questions of him, to tie in that sense of community. Also, with his near-death experience, and this idea of this universal consciousness.”

What DeYoung really enjoyed the most is “he doesn’t close the book with an answer.” It’s open-ended so the reader can make their own decision about the afterlife.

The next speaker to be featured is Dani Shapiro on November 21, author of Inheritance and host of the hit podcast “Family Secrets.” Her book and podcast detail her personal experiences of completing a genealogy test and discovering her family tree was not at all what she was taught to believe.

DeYoung said, “We had talked to her at Brainstorm. She was possibly going to be a Brainstorm speaker. She lives nearby and really wanted to come. She really felt for our community.”

Following Shapiro is Brian Reed, host of “S-Town,” on December 19. Reed’s podcast is all about a small town in Alabama and one resident’s complicated relationship with it.

DeYoung’s inspiration for inviting Reed to Newtown is his knack for storytelling. She said, “Storytelling can bridge gaps, you know?” She continued to explain how America finds itself in another big election year, “But something like this, I’m sure there’s both [republicans and democrats] in the audience and nobody knows, but yet, we’re coming together to hear a story … Somebody like Brian Reed just reminds you that we’re more alike than we are different.”

Shull added, “I think it can also open our eyes up to different cultures, to other lived experiences. Sometimes, when we think of cultures, we think outside of the continuous 48 states, but we have a lot of different cultures right here, even within Connecticut, maybe within our own town.”

Anthony Edwards and Stephen Mills will be joining Newtown in the new year on January 16. Edwards is a Golden Globe-winning actor who is a survivor of child sexual abuse. Mills is author of Chosen: A Memoir of Stolen Boyhood and a fellow survivor of child sexual abuse.

Their presentation will be focused on the prevention of CSA and helping the stigma surrounding male survivors and victims. CSA transcends all genders and affects thousands of children every day.

“It’s brave for [Edwards] to come out and, you know, and show that he’s just not that, there’s more to him … [We’re] hoping that people are less afraid to talk about it,” DeYoung shared.

Shull added, “part cautionary tale for parents.”

The last speaker will be in March. An official date and tickets have not been announced yet, but Tara Westover will be joining the community sometime in March 2025.

Westover wrote the book Educated, which detailed her experiences growing up not going to school and the struggles of pushing herself through high school and beyond despite her family’s wishes.

Shull shared, “It’s that perseverance that [Westover] had to just ask for what she needed and just went forward. I think so many of us think that there’s these rules for a certain pattern we should follow or a ladder we should climb,” he explained that idea with an expletive.

Overall, both Shull and DeYoung are excited to bring this new series to the community and encourage people to “get out of their homes” and “come learn. Just learn.”

Tickets for all speakers are on sale now at edmondtownhall.org. The prices start at $35 or $40 and increase depending on speaker, seating preference, and the optional “skip the line” book signing.

=====

Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.