Join us for a year of Pods and save!
|Online, in Portland, or both!
A Year of Pods: Online or in Portland
Commit to a full year of Premise Pods and make space for deeper conversation, new ideas, and meaningful connection throughout the year. Your registration includes all seven Pods in your chosen format, plus automatic enrollment, readings, films, and session updates for each one.
Join us for a year of Pods and save!
Online, in Portland, or both!
Join a Year of Premise Pods
Commit to all seven Pods before the year begins and save.
A year of Pods offers more than a discount. It creates a steady rhythm of reflection, conversation, and intellectual companionship throughout the year. You will return to life’s big questions from different angles, encounter new ideas and perspectives, and have time for both the conversations and the relationships around them to deepen.
Rather than joining for a single experience, you are making space for curiosity, connection, and the life of the mind to become an ongoing part of your year.
$800 in person / $700 online
Portland participants can choose to attend any Pod either in person or online, depending on what works best.
2026-2027 Pods online & in person in Portland
Are We Who We’ve Always Been?
A Pod on memory, change, identity, and the selves we carry. Explore what stays constant, what changes, and who we are still becoming.
In person, Portland
September 13 and 27, and October 4, 2026
5:30–7:30 PM PT
Online
September 5 and 19, and October 3, 2026
10:00–11:30 AM PT / 1:00–2:30 PM ET
Are We Our Bodies?
A Pod on bodies, identity, beauty, aging, and vulnerability. Explore how our bodies shape how we meet the world, and how the world meets us.
In person, Portland
October 18, November 1 and 8, 2026
5:30–7:30 PM PT
Online
October 24, November 7 and 14, 2026
10:00–11:30 AM PT / 1:00–2:30 PM ET
What Is Home?
A Pod on place, belonging, longing, and what it means to feel rooted.
In person, Portland
November 15, December 6 and 13, 2026
5:30–7:30 PM PT
Online
December 5, 12 and 19, 2026
10:00–11:30 AM PT / 1:00–2:30 PM ET
Just Because We Can, Should We?
A Pod on progress, power, responsibility, and restraint. Explore how we decide what we should do when what we can do keeps changing.
In person, Portland
January 10 and 24, and February 7, 2027
5:30–7:30 PM PT
Online
January 9 and 23, and February 6, 2027
10:00–11:30 AM PT / 1:00–2:30 PM ET
What Is Happiness, Really?
A Pod on pleasure, meaning, desire, and the good life. Explore what we chase, what satisfies us, and what kind of life happiness might actually require.
In person, Portland
February 21, March 7 and 21, 2027
10:30 AM–12:30 PM PT
Online
February 14 and 28, and March 14, 2027
4:00–5:30 PM PT / 7:00–8:30 PM ET
What Is Love? What Should It Be?
Explore love from many angles, including tenderness, longing, loyalty, sacrifice, possession, and freedom. What kinds of love enlarge us, and what kinds make us smaller?
In person, Portland
April 4 and 18, and May 2, 2027
10:30 AM–12:30 PM PT
Online
March 28, April 11 and 25, 2027
4:00–5:30 PM PT / 7:00–8:30 PM ET
Does Thinking About Death Lead to a Good Life?
A Pod on mortality, meaning, time, grief, and whether facing death can help us live more fully.
In person, Portland
May 16 and 23, and June 6, 2027
10:30 AM–12:30 PM PT
Online
May 15 and 22, and June 5, 2027
10:00–11:30 AM PT / 1:00–2:30 PM ET
Conversation Catalysts: What will we read and watch?
Preparation between sessions is designed to take under two hours. The final selections may shift slightly in response to the interests, questions, and energy of the group. The specific texts for the first session will be shared 3 weeks prior to the start of the pod.
Readings and films for the Pod
Preparation between sessions is designed to take under two hours.
For this Pod, we will draw our conversation catalysts from the range of sources below, including poems, essays, short stories, memoir excerpts, visual art, and film or television. The final selections may shift slightly in response to the interests, questions, and energy of the group.
The first session readings will be shared three weeks before the start of the Pod.
Sources we'll draw from:
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book I selections (philosophy)
Epicurus, “Letter to Menoeceus” (philosophy) Seneca, “On a Happy Life” (philosophy)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, selected passages (philosophy)
Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, selected verses (wisdom literature)
The Dhammapada, selected passages on desire and suffering (wisdom literature)
The Book of Ecclesiastes, selected passages (scripture/wisdom literature)
Zhuangzi, “The Happiness of Fish” (philosophical parable)
John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism, selections on higher and lower pleasures (philosophy)
Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness, selections (essay/philosophy)
Simone Weil, “Attention and Will,” selections (essay/philosophy)
Martha Nussbaum, Creating Capabilities, selections (philosophy/social theory)
Viktor Frankl, “The Case for Tragic Optimism” from Man’s Search for Meaning (essay/book excerpt)
David Foster Wallace, “This Is Water” (speech/essay)
Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark, selections (essay/book excerpt)
Zadie Smith, “Joy” (essay)
Ross Gay, The Book of Delights, selected essays (essay/micro-essay)
Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, selections (essay/book excerpt)
Arthur C. Brooks, “To Get Happier, Make Yourself Smaller” (research-informed essay)
Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks, selections (book excerpt)
Barbara Ehrenreich, Bright-Sided, selections (essay/book excerpt)
Sei Shōnagon, The Pillow Book, selections on pleasing things (essay/list)
Virginia Woolf, “Moments of Being,” selections (essay/memoir)
Mary Oliver, “Wild Geese” (poem)
Jane Kenyon, “Happiness” (poem)
Wendell Berry, “The Peace of Wild Things” (poem)
Emily Dickinson, “I dwell in Possibility” (poem)
Anton Chekhov, “The Lottery Ticket” (short story)
Anton Chekhov, “Gooseberries” (short story)
Katherine Mansfield, “Bliss” (short story)
Leo Tolstoy, “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” (short story)
Grace Paley, “Wants” (short story)
Tillie Olsen, “I Stand Here Ironing” (short story)
Yiyun Li, “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers” (short story)
George Saunders, “Victory Lap” (short story)
Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, the Controller and the Savage excerpt (novel excerpt)
Daniel Gilbert, Stumbling on Happiness, selections (psychology book excerpt)
Sonja Lyubomirsky, The How of Happiness, selections (psychology book excerpt)
Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz, The Good Life, selections (psychology/social science book excerpt)
Happy, Roko Belic (documentary)
Henri Matisse, The Joy of Life (visual art)
Nina Simone, “Feeling Good” (song)
Where and when does this Pod meet?
Portland · in person · $150
Sun, Feb 21, March 7, 21
10:30AM-12:30 PM
Portland:720 N Page St, Portland, OR, more info provided after registration Online: We'll share the Zoom link after registration.
FAQ Premise Pods
Have more questions? Get all your questions answered here.
What Happens After You Register?
Once you purchase the full year, your place will be reserved in all seven Pods.
You will automatically be added to the participant list for each Pod. As each one approaches, you will receive the readings, films, session information, and other updates along with the rest of the group. There is no need to register separately for each Pod.
Do I have to attend every Pod if I sign up for the year?
No. Signing up for the year helps keep Premise programming running and gives us greater financial stability. If you want to support Premise but cannot attend every Pod, that is completely fine.
Join Us
Portland Year of Pods
$800.00
Online Year of Pods
$700.00
Total
$0.00