As a film and television producer, Brian has been pursuing his dreams for 19 years. He’ll discuss how to keeping going, steps he follows, and how his dreams have come true.

Since 2005, Brian McLaughlin has produced four feature films and has developed eight others. Two of his films are on Amazon Prime Video. He recently developed a comedy series, which he pitched to ABC. He has also been a department head on several popular TV series. He is a member of the Producers Guild of America and there was a three-page article about him in the PGA’s Produced By magazine. Along the way, Brian was also a visiting film producer at the University of Notre Dame and the media production advisor to the top general in Afghanistan.

Jana Bickel will give a PowerPoint presentation on women artists of Southern California during the early part of the 20th century, artists you may not have heard of, but whose work is both beautiful a and representative of its time.

Jana, a life member, has been an active member of GLAAM for over thirty seven years as GLAAM Board Member, Area Secretary, RG Chairman, Program Chairman, Registrar and Treasurer, SIG leader and party host. She holds a silver medal in the GLAAM Hall of Fame.

“Lean Six Sigma” is a methodology that combines the principles of Lean manufacturing, focused on eliminating waste, with the statistical tools of Six Sigma. 

John Arnstein’s presentation introduces the audience to what LSS is, how it developed, specific tools and techniques, and several examples of successful projects from the County of Los Angeles Internal Services Department.

John is a Senior Information Technology Consultant at the County of Los Angeles Internal Services Department (ISD). A certified LSS Black Belt, he leads the Continuos Improvement Program. This role includes leading LSS training for ISD staff and certifying Yellow and Green Belt candidates. He mentors Green Belt teams as they develop and implement their process improvement projects. Mr. Arnstein was previously an Associate Chief Information Officer at the County of Los Angeles Chief Information Office. Prior to joining the County he was a management consultant, specializing in IT strategic planning, systems acquisition and implementation. Mr. Arnstein earned his MBA from UCLA in Marketing/Finance and his BA in Political Science from Claremont McKenna College.

They say everyone has a book in them.  But not everyone gets that book published.  Soon-to-be published author Vance Mitchell Gloster will take you through big changes that have occurred in traditional publishing and self-publishing.  He will show you how your book can be published for no money and introduce you to software that will help you create a quality book more easily.  He will also touch on the contentious issue of using AI to write a book.

Vance Mitchell Gloster had a career as a computer scientist before turning to writing full-time. He worked on the Space Shuttle program and for several leading technology firms, developing artificial intelligence and encryption software, as well as a massive email system. He is also a musician having played keyboards on several progressive rock albums from the bands Gekko Projekt and Bomber Goggles, and having written the score for one movie. His techno-thriller novella Two Thirds of a God will be released in March.

In many people’s eyes, the ocean is mainly coral reefs & kelp forests, however, that’s not the case. Approximately 90% of the ocean is deep-sea, & the majority of it is unexplored. Many interesting & strange creatures inhabit these oceans, & they deserve to be spoken about.   In this presentation, I’m going to take 5 deep-sea animals that inhabit California’s deepest waters, & dissect their habitat, strange adaptations, & interactions with humans, & invite you to join me on this journey through the deep sea.”

Gwenevere Persaud is a marine biologist & native Californian, who has always had a deep love & passion for the ocean. She currently runs a marine biological nonprofit, is one of the hosts of the Marine Enthusiasts Podcast, & runs an oceanic newsletter known as The Persaud Catalog.

Across history there have always been women you wouldn’t want to mess with. Many such female characters inhabit the opera stage. This talk explores some of these formidable female characters, considers where they come from, and looks at how they are portrayed in opera.

Mary Johnston is a retired Occupational Therapist.  She worked for most of her career at the Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA.  Following retirement she taught part time in the Occupational Therapy program at Cal State Dominguez Hills.  Mary has always loved theater and acted in college.  She also loves music.  For her opera is the perfect blend of drama and music.

During WWII the Germans used a machine that was supposed to encrypt communications beyond the possibility of deciphering. If the Allies hadn’t obtained an Enigma machine and devoted considerable resources to decoding the German military communications, the outcome of WWII may have been very different.

Tim will discuss:

The importance of the Enigma in WWI

The inner workings of Enigma

How the allies were able to obtain a machine

The deciphering of messages at Bletchley Park.

Timothy Bentley was born in England where he attended he Kings School in Chester, a school founded by Henry VIII in 1541. He emigrated to the US in 1976 and earned an MBA from CSULB.  Tim has been a member of Mensa for 40 years, He is active in many discussion groups and is usually the MC for the Speaker Series.

Honoring a hero or political pandering? How a major American highway junction gets named after a brave man from Korea?

The interchange between Interstate 10 (I-10) and Interstate 110 (I-110) in the Los Angeles area sees about 379,000 vehicles daily, or 138,335,000 annually. It is highly likely people driving through this critical route of transportation have no idea how this interchange got named, or, have any clue about who Dosan Ahn Chang Ho is.

Ahn and his wife Hye Ryon Lee were the first married couple to come to America from Korea in 1902. They were not immigrants they were sojourners hoping to return to Korea. The Ahn children hoped to live in Korea someday. The five Ahn children were the first Korean American family with all children born in America. The Ahn family clearly made an impact on American and World history. A unique story it is.

Currently, President Yoon Suk Yeol has been impeached for treasonous activities against the nation of Korea and its citizens. The Ahn legacy is bound to the voice of democracy being shouted by Koreans protesting for justice and having a competent government upholding the integrity of their Constitution.

There has been no effective education about the naming of the main Los Angeles freeway interchange. The naming was more like selling out Dosan Ahn Chang Ho’s legacy, not truly honoring him. Ironically, the Ahn’s meaningful contributions and service to others deserve to be celebrated.

Philip Ahn “Flip” Cuddy is a prominent Korean-American historian. He is critical of Korean Studies in America, Japan and Korea. His Korean family is well known as his grandfather is Dosan Ahn Chang Ho highly famous Korean patriot. His uncle is Philip Ahn famous Asian-American actor. His mother is Susan Ahn Cuddy the first Korean-American woman in the US military and first Woman Gunnery Officer during World War II; and, the First Korean American at the National Security Agency. His father Francis X. Cuddy was a Naval Intelligence Codebreaker who was part of the team that broke the code for the Battle of Midway and worked for the National Security Agency. Flip has researched Box Jellyfish sting treatment at University of Hawaii Biomed Lab, researched effects of environmental change on the Sierra Snowpack, was the Executive Director of the Eddie Aikau Foundation in Hawaii, among a variety of other personal experiences.  In addition, Flip’s love for surfing has lead him to holding a variety of roles in the surfing industry.

Your Mensa brain has unique strengths, supersensitivities, and superpowers. New discoveries show how we can hack into and control our gifted brains. The latest Brain Science research offers powerful strategies to develop Extreme Happiness, create exciting Peak Experiences, and capture the fireworks of euphoria. With additional strategies and hacks we can create more intimacy, belonging, richer more vivid life-long memories, and greater success in life. This presentation is action packed with fun tips, tricks, stories, photos and clever gadgets from Jennifer’s epic world adventures that show how the strategies work.

Jennifer used her Masters in Systems Engineering and MBA to lead teams that designed, built, sold, flew, and created the guidance, navigation, and control AI brain on commercial communication satellites. She discovered her life-calling and passion and now leads travelers around the world on epic life-changing adventures. She’s led groups to nearly sixty countries and written several books combining genius happiness, epic travel, and passionate photography. Most recently she created the newest Mensa SIG, Traveling Ms.

Mensa Bulletin language columnist Richard Lederer will share his inclusive and diverse history of our great nation, including the contributions of women and Brown, Black, and indigenous Americans.

Avid photographer Gordon Glattenberg explores the wonders of the Pacific with an enlightening photo essay, featuring well known and not-so-well known Pacific islands.

Ed You will be hosting Family Feud, based on the popular television program featuring two teams who compete to determine the answers to survey questions, plus Lawyers Games & Minute Mysteries and Kids Werewolf.  Full descriptions can be found on the Games and Kids Track pages.

Ed is a retired pharmacist and current actor, known for The Crusaders, Project Vampire and Vision: The Story of Sir Harold Christie. He played a boxer in the music video for the song “Old Time Pugilist” by Rose’s Pawn Shop. He also starred in the play Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You by Christopher Durang, which he performed at StaRGazing 2015. He proudly brought the Mr. Mensa crown home to GLAAM in 2014.

Drawing on his journey as an author, collaborative writer, and decade-long tenure as a memoir writing workshop instructor, Chris Epting offers invaluable insights and practical advice to guide writers to their unique voice and shape their personal stories. This book delves into the essential aspects of memoir writing, from uncovering inspiration to developing compelling narratives to organizing and structuring the autobiographical narrative for maximum emotional impact.
What sets Where One Hears the Rain apart is Epting’s incorporation of lessons learned from his mentor, the legendary author John Cheever. Epting weaves Cheever’s teachings seamlessly into the fabric of the book, enriching readers’ understanding of the craft and exposing them to the wisdom passed down from one literary generation to another.  This book is a treasure trove of knowledge for aspiring memoirists, covering every aspect of the writing and publishing process, including the intricacies of the publishing industry. Epting’s exhaustive approach ensures that readers are equipped with the tools and know-how to navigate the path to publication successfully.

Chris Epting is the author of 40 travel/history books, including James Dean Died Here (Santa Monica Press), Roadside Baseball (McGraw Hill), Hello It’s Me, Dispatches From a Pop Culture Junkie (Santa Monica Press) and many others. He is also an award-winning travel writer and has contributed articles for such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Westways and Travel + Leisure magazine, among other publications. In addition, Chris is a memoirist and has co-written Def Leppard’s Phil Collen’s memoir, Adrenalized, the John Oates Memoir Change of Seasons, and Long Train Runnin’ with the Doobie Brothers among many others.

The Barons
The North was already becoming an industrialized economy by 1860 but the Civil War gave production techniques a power boost. In this talk, we’ll survey various fields like transportation, arms manufacturing, medicine and food production to understand how factory owners adapted to the massive requirements the war presented, as well as how the government innovated to pay them. As usual, this talk goes behind the scenes to describe the Good Barons involved, some of whom are now household names like Borden, Armour, and Squibb.  Some like Parrott and Cooke are well known to Civil War buffs, but several lesser-known entrepreneurs like Burden and Eads will also get some limelight.  We’ll wrap with some stories about the Bad Barons, including fraudsters.

Dave Schrader
Dr. Dave Schrader has been giving CWRT talks to Los Angeles audiences since 2013. He is particularly fascinated by “the rest of the story” – for example, the activities of support organizations such as the Signal Corps, the Quartermaster, and Commissary Corps, who often played major, but behind-the-scenes, roles in the abilities of generals and presidents to achieve their goals.  Or, people like Lincoln’s Secretaries, or his Ambassadors, that played a pivotal role in supporting the President and his policies. Or, the Fire-Eaters, who drummed up support for secession in the south.  Most of Dave’s talks are interactive so be prepared for audience participation!

Vox MetalluM, a fanzine published by the Headbangers SIG, was my first experience with Mensa beginning in the 1990s. I shared photo pits, press passes, and record release parties with Spin, Metal Edge, Rolling Stone, RIP and other music magazines, and I interviewed the same musicians. If you aren’t finding a SIG to suit you, create one and make your dreams come true!

Robert Berend is a member of the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) and the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS).  He has been lecturing around the world on human sexuality for over 30 years.  He will answer questions (anonymously) on sexuality.

Robert is originally from southern California. He began studying human sexuality in the 1970s, reading the journal Medical Aspects of Human Sexuality.  He completed his B.A. in biophysics at U.C. Berkeley in 1978, where he focused on reproductive biology and contraceptive technology.  His undergraduate paper for Dr. Frank Beach at U.C. Berkeley (the founder of the journal Hormones and Behavior) was on the role of pheromones in primate sexual attraction, including humans.  He then received a Juris Doctor from Southwestern University School of law in 1981.  After some time had passed he chose to return to his true passion, human sexuality and sexology, and was accepted to the doctoral program at the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, from which he received  his Ph.D. in 2012. His dissertation covered his research on first blind dates and chemistry.

How, with a little help from John Cage, criticism could improve the world rather than, as now, make matters worse.

Mark Swed has been the classical music critic of the Los Angeles Times since 1996. Before that, he was a music critic for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and the Wall Street Journal and has written extensively for international publications. Swed is the author of the book-length text to the best-selling iPad app, “The Orchestra,” and is a former editor of the Musical Quarterly. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist in criticism, honored in 2021 and 2007.

More details on Mark Swed’s program to be announced.

William Newman shares a deep interest in science education and literacy and this talk was stimulated by numerous interactions during Mensa activities over the
holidays.  Those discussions identified a shared concern arising from the perceived decline in the quality in American education and concern about how to reverse the trend.  Today, he will review America’s position in the world of science literacy and possible pathways forward focusing how MENSANs can improve the quality of education that their children receive and their competitive edge.

• Dr. Newman has 4 degrees in different areas of theoretical physics and astrophysics beginning in Canada and culminating in Cornell working in high
energy astrophysics as well as planetary physics. The latter led to a collaboration with Carl Sagan that thrived until Carl died prematurely in 1996.
• After Cornell, he was a member for two years of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in theoretical astrophysics, working with Freeman Dyson
and others.
• He then joined the faculty at UCLA in 1980 where he teaches in 3 departments, and has published over 100 peer reviewed research papers, 2 graduate
textbooks, and supervised 10 Ph.D. dissertations.
• He became a collaborator at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1980 ending in 2015, He held appointment as Stanislaw Ulam Distinguished Scholar in
1990-91 and returned to UCLA as full Professor.
• He held other sabbatical appointments around the globe as a fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation including the USSR Academy of Science, the
Weizmann Institute, Cornell, etc. and then returned to the Institute for Advanced Study in 2018-19 as a fellow of the IBM Einstein Foundation where
he continues to collaborate on problems in general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics.
• He has served the broader scientific community having been elected to serve on the executive committees of both the American Physical Society’s Topical
Group on the Physics of Climate and of the American Astronomical Society’s Division on Dynamical Astronomy.

Even people who are highly resistant to you and your ideas can lower their guard and embrace your information if you use communication strategies that specifically target resistance. This presentation will help you understand what is happening in the brain of someone who disagrees with you and will arm you with surprising-yet-practical strategies for persuading even the most averse audience.

Once upon a time, “weird” referred the supernatural—anything eerie, fantastic, or mysterious. Today, most plants are viewed as anything but. They are conventionally perceived as passive organismos that serve us as ornamental components of gardens and homes or crops that yield food, textiles, medicines, and shelter. But even the most demure, thoroughly domesticated plant is capable of magical behaviors, and nature abounds with truly strange plants that defy our expectations of “vegetation.” Discover some of these weird and wonderful denizens of the plant kingdom.

Sandy Masuo is an editor, educator, author, and conservationist on a mission to enlighten and to inspire wonder in the world around us. She currently serves as the botanical content specialist at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Prior to that she was the associate editor in the Los Angeles Zoo publications division for 18 years.  In 2016, she published her debut novel (as Rosana DuMas). Unnatural Selection: Life and Death on the Paper Trail is the story of a horticulturist/detective investigating the dubious death of a zoo docent. She has taught fiction and business writing as well as a variety of classes from succulent gardening to bird watching at local community colleges. She holds a BA from Brown University and an Ed. M from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Linda Dorfmont will focus on Retirement Planning and Business Incorporation this year.

The 1040 Tour Guide will take you on a trip around John and Jane Doe’s tax return covering types of income deductions, tax credits, and audit preparation. The new tax law, good, bad, or ugly, will be explained before it is amended with technical corrections. See how John and Jane Doe are affected by the new law. The lecture will discuss wage earner income and expenses and self-employment issues including office in the home, depreciation of assets, and self-employment tax. Education credits and adjustments will be explained. If you want a better understanding of what you file under penalty of perjury with the government each year, this session is for you.

Linda has been doing other peoples’ taxes for over 40 years. She has taught taxation for the Small Business Development Centers, the IRS TCE/VITA Program, the College for Financial Planning, local colleges, and private education providers. She is a frequent speaker at Mensa events.