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Tentative Speakers for Humanities Mixtape: Rewinding the 1980s
Please note this agenda is subject to change.

Wednesday, October 22, 2025
 5:30 pm          Registration Opens
 7:00 pm          Opening Remarks and Welcome – Michael Tomanek and Dr. Kim Weismann
 7:15 pm          Screening: BeetleJuice (1988)
 
Thursday, October 23, 2025
7:30 am           Check-in, Onsite Registration, Breakfast
8:30 am           Welcome and Day 1 Opening Remarks - Michael Tomanek
9:00 am           An Interview - Dan Gladden  and Brad Balukjian
10:00 am         Lessons from the Farm Crisis of the 1980s - Sarah Vogel
10:45 am         Break
11:00 am         Panel Discussion: The Gordon Kahl Case
                         Panelists: Hon. Robert “Bob” Wefald (ND Attorney General 1981-1984); Ret.
                         Assistant US Attorney David Peterson; Rev. David Ostendorf (co-founder of Prairie Fire Rural Action);    Dave Thompson (Prairie Public, 1981-current)
12:00 pm         Lunch (for paid participants)
1:00 pm           How News Coverage has Changed Since the 1980s - Dave Thompson, Prairie Public
1:30 pm           Dave Thompson and Lisa Napoli
1:45 pm           1980: The Dawn of the 24 Hour News Cycle -
                         Lisa Napoli, Author
2:30 pm           Break
2:45 pm           A Photo of Life Before the 1980s - Shane Balkowitsch
3:30 pm           They Say to Never Meet Your Heroes; Are They Right? Brad Balukjian, Author
4:30 pm           Close, Day 1
 
 
5:30 pm           Evening Social featuring music by Rift
6:30 pm           Introductory Remarks 
6:45 pm           Screening: The Terminator (1984)
8:30 pm           Panel Discussion: The Terminator and the 1980s
                         Panelists: Chuck Klosterman, Debra Marquart, Brad Balukjian, Dr. Holly McBee, and Dr. Kevin Moberg
 
 
Friday, October 24, 2025
 
7:30 am           Breakfast
8:30 am           Welcome and Day 2 Opening Remarks
8:45 am           How the 1980's Shaped and Influenced Fantasy and Horror Genres - Usman Malik (Virtual) and Josh Kern
9:30 am           Gag Me with a Spoon: The Linguistic Legacy of Valley Girls - Kevin Moberg, Bismarck State College
10:00 am         Break
10:15 am         Revisiting the 1980s: Nostalgia, Place, and Cultural Memory (Virtual) - Dr. Melissa Vosen Callens,
                         North Dakota State University
11:00 am         Apocalyptic Concerns and Aesthetics: The Cold War in Politics and Pop Culture - Holly McBee,
                         Bismarck State College
11:30 am         “Shall we play a game?” Expressions of Cyberculture in the 1980s (and ‘90s) and How They
                        Align with Our Lives Now
- Adam Tyma (Virtual)
12:00 pm         Lunch (for paid participants)
1:00 pm           Maya Angelou: The Power of Words in My Life  -
                       Becky Stone, A Chautauqua Memoir
                        Brought to BSC by the Humanities Council of North Dakota
2:00 pm           My Unplugged Eighties - Deb Marquart, Author, The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the
                         Middle of Nowhere

                        Brought to you by OLLI at Bismarck State College
3:00 pm           The Future Has Been Cancelled - Chuck Klosterman
                        Brought to you by OLLI at Bismarck State College
 
4:30 pm           Closing