Hamilton Third Age Learning – Spring Lecture Series 2026

Hamilton Third Age Learning (HTAL) is thrilled to present its Spring 2026 lecture series. HTAL offers affordable learning opportunities to older adults in Hamilton and the surrounding region.

This fascinating lecture series, with recorded versions available, caters to Hamilton’s large community of lifelong learners who want to be informed and inspired. The speakers are experts in their fields based on their robust credentials, strong presentation skills, and ability to communicate complicated information to the lay community.

Each program in the series includes a 50-minute lecture and an interactive discussion .

The series will run every Wednesday at 10:00am from April 29th to May 27th 2025.

SPRING 2026 PROGRAM

APRIL 29: Steve Paikin – My Own Agenda

After more than four decades as a prominent Canadian and Hamilton born journalist, TV host, and author, Steve is experiencing the biggest transition in his career. Having retired as host of TVO, he is now his own boss, working for several different entities. Starting anew at age 65, is both nerve-wracking and exciting. Steve will feature notable people, events and discoveries he experienced as a journalist. As well, he will talk about how the media is changing and how we can deal with misinformation in this day and age.

About Steve Paikin

For more than four decades, Steve Paikin has been a sober voice of rational, fact-based journalism in a world where “alternative facts” too often seem in vogue. He is now the host of The Paikin Podcast, a weekly offering focused on national and international affairs, plus one-on-one interviews. For 19 seasons, he hosted The Agenda with Steve Paikin on TVO. He continues to co-host the #onpoli podcast in its 6th year with his pal John Michael McGrath. Steve also writes a weekly column for tvo.org and a bi-weekly interview column for the Toronto Star. Steve has written ten books, including biographies on former Ontario premiers Bill Davis and John Robarts, former prime minister John Turner, and Canadian politics in general. He has been asked to moderate four federal election leaders’ debates and five Ontario provincial election leaders’ debates. Steve was born in Hamilton, Ontario, earned his Bachelor of Arts degree at Victoria University at the University of Toronto, and his Master’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism at Boston University. He has been granted honorary doctorates and diplomas at multiple Canadian universities and colleges. Steve was invested as an officer of the Order of Canada and a member of the Order of Ontario in 2013. In 2025, he was presented with a King Charles III Coronation Medal and the Public Policy Forum gave him the lifetime achievement award for excellence in journalism. Steve tends to fall in love with hard luck sports teams. He loves the Toronto Maple Leafs despite no Stanley Cups since 1967. He adores his hometown Hamilton Tiger-Cats despite no Grey Cups since 1999. His patience with the Boston Red Sox finally paid off with four World Series victories in the 21st century.

MAY 6: Dr. Michael Dixon – Space Exploration: A Source of Technology Transfer in Canadian Agri-food Sectors

Canada’s contributions to human space exploration now include a leading role in providing life support technologies based on producing food in specialized controlled environments. Using the challenges we face in going to the Moon and Mars as the “technical pull” for developing harsh environment food production systems, we can exploit commercialization opportunities in terrestrial agri-food industries, mitigate the effects of climate change and address food security in Canada’s North.

About Dr. Michael Dixon

Dr. Mike Dixon is University Professor Emeritus and Director of the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility (CESRF), University of Guelph. As project leader for the Canadian research team investigating the contributions of plants to life support in space, Dr. Dixon formed the Space and Advanced Life Support Agriculture (SALSA) program at the University of Guelph. The CESRF is among the world’s leading research venues for technology developments and research dedicated to studying plant and microbial interactions in advanced life support systems. The technical “pull” of space exploration has aided the development of a wide range of technologies that have spun off into applications in terrestrial agri-food sectors and most notably the phyto-pharmaceutical (medicine from plants) sector in recent years.

MAY 13: Dr. Dawn Bowdish – Are Gut Microbes the Key to a Long, Healthy Life?

In 1907, the year before he won the Nobel prize, Professor Ilya Metchnikoff published his novel “The Prolongation of Life: Optimistic Studies” in which he proposed that the microbes in our gut might be what cause unhealthy aging. He was the laughing stock of the Parisian press because of insistent evangelizing about the benefits of probiotics but, in hindsight, was he right? Over a hundred years later this McMaster professor set out to prove his theory that gut microbes drive unhealthy aging. Come hear about the incredible personalities that started this field and learn about where the science is today. Is the secret to a long and healthy life living in your gut right now?

About Dr. Dawn Bowdish

Dr. Dawn Bowdish is a Professor at McMaster University and the Executive Director of the Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health at St. Joe’s. She and her team work to uncover how the aging immune system and the microbes that live in and on us (“the microbiome”) interact in order to prevent infections and give older adults more years of healthy, independent living. Dawn talks a lot! She talks about infections, she talks about COVID, she talks about the immune system and vaccinations and she talks about aging. She talks to students, she talks to reporters, she talks to politicians, and she talks to scientists, but the people she likes to talk to the most are the people in her community. HTAL is happy to welcome Dawn back to talk to us!

MAY 20: Dr. Daniel Hoornweg – Sustainability; the Next 100 Years

Last year Dan Hoornweg published Canada’s Cities in a Changing World 1920-2120. The open-access book presents a ‘halftime report’ of a sweeping 200-year timeframe of Canadian cities within the national and global framework. Ways that Canada’s, and the rest of the world’s, cities could better usher in greater sustainability and flourish over the next century are suggested. The book was mostly written before the current Trump Administration took office and geopolitical shifts, such as those articulated by Prime Minister Carney at Davos earlier this year, took root. This talk doubles-down on the book’s proposal that cities, those messy urban agglomerations that anchor Canada, and the rest of the world’s wealth, and that drive most environmental degradation, need to rise to the challenge of leading humanity toward sustainability. An argument is made why this needs to be led from Hamilton, the GTHA, the Golden Horseshoe, and the rest of the Great Lakes Region.

About Dr. Daniel Hoornweg

Dan is Associate Professor in Energy Systems Engineering at Ontario Tech University. For almost 20 years Dan was with the World Bank, including as Lead Advisor overseeing Sustainable Cities and Climate Change programs. Dan was the Chief Safety and Risk Officer for the Province of Ontario 2012-2020. Dan began his career in waste management working with City of Guelph and Region of Peel in Ontario and the Government of Bermuda. He has worked with more than 400 governments on sustainability issues. Dan is a Fellow with Canada’s Transition Accelerator and the Global Cities Institute at University of Toronto, a Board Member of the Georgian Bay Biosphere, past board member with Clean Air Partnership, and served as Chair of the Region of Durham’s Roundtable on Climate Change. Dan researches energy and material flows of cities and urban systems and how sustainability might arise from connected communities.

MAY 27: Dr. Parminder Raina – Canada is Getting Older — and More Diverse. What That Means for the Future of Healthy Aging

Canada’s population is aging rapidly — by the end of the 2030s, nearly one in four Canadians will be 65 or older. At the same time, older adults are becoming more culturally and ethnically diverse, and more people than ever are living into their 80s, 90s, and even beyond 100. While living longer can be a sign of progress, it doesn’t always mean living healthier. Many seniors face challenges like chronic illness, limited mobility, or social isolation. That’s why experts are now looking at healthy aging from a systems perspective — recognizing that good health in later life depends not just on medicine, but also on how we design our cities, support caregivers, address environmental change, and build inclusive communities for all.

About Dr. Parminder Raina

Dr. Parminder Raina is a Professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at McMaster University. He is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and holds the endowed Raymond and Margaret Labarge Chair in Research and Knowledge Application for Optimal Aging, and past holder of Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in GeroScience. Dr. Raina became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2025 and was awarded member of the Order of Canada in 2022 for his research in aging. He is the founding Scientific Director of the McMaster Institute for Research on Aging, and Labarge Centre for Mobility in Aging. He is the Lead Principal Investigator of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging including the Healthy Brains and Healthy Aging study. He is one of the founding members of the McMaster Optimal Aging.

$55.00 for the series of 5 lectures. Includes lecture, Q&A, and 2 week password protected access to video recorded lectures.

Registration will be open from March 25 – April 24, 2026

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