Who elects a King? Is it God or the Barons? Who elects a President? Is it the billionaire class, the tech oligarchs, the “donor class”? Is there a difference between any of them and the Barons; between a King and a President? If one looks at the rhetoric of the past and present, there doesn’t seem to be a difference. But there is another similarity between the power struggles of the past and present that might be overlooked: the power of the people to assent to their new rulers or reject them. This is a constant that all would-be rulers know about and use to support their cause of self-promotion. Join the ladies of the Mosaic Ark as we discuss how image and rhetoric can turn a commoner to a King, and a King to an “also ran.” —Streamed July 26, 2024

On July 13th, 2024, former President Donald J. Trump was shot while speaking at a rally for his re-election campaign in Butler County, Pennsylvania. To protect him from getting shot again, the Secret Service agents quickly tackled him to the ground. He was down for what seemed like minutes as the crowd waited anxiously to see if he was alright. Though bleeding, he was alive—the would-be assassin failed. Trump rose to his feet, blood on his face and fist defiantly in the air, and shouted “Fight! Fight! Fight!” A photographer who was present for the rally had jumped towards the stage in this moment to take pictures, and captured perhaps one of the most iconic pictures of the century. That picture flew through the Internet, across the country and the world, and into the eyes and minds of billions within minutes. What did all of those people see? What did you see? Join the ladies of the Mosaic Ark as we discuss this rare moment where the electronic mosaic was activated world-wide. —Streamed July 19, 2024

Did you hear about those weird secret symbols embedded into the layout of the 19th-century Bomberg Talmud? Or similar layouts, symbols and coded messages found throughout a medieval Christian book called the Glossa Ordinaria? Oh come now, everyone has read Dan Brown. Those monks and rabbis were up to something. There must be a conspiracy “they” don’t want us to know about. Well, no, not really. It was just the medium used to convey the messages of those times, similar to the typical layout of almost all newspapers of today. But why were they so similar? And how does the medium of print and the form of their layouts convey (or amplify) their message? On this week’s Mosaic Ark, the ladies continued to discuss Marshall McLuhan’s The Mechanical Bride, and wondered how the medium of newsprint is affecting society, and whether the medium of the Internet was amplifying this affect. Join us! —Streamed July 12, 2024