Each summer, the Nantucket Atheneum invites some of the country’s incisive thinkers, talented writers, and public figures to the island for an evening of conversation open to the public. This year the 2026 Geschke Series brings to the island speakers whose work spans political theory, artificial intelligence, public health, sociology, and foreign policy, continuing a tradition that has quietly become a highlight of summer on Nantucket.
Nantucket’s public library, the Atheneum has a long history of hosting notable speakers: during the nineteenth century, they welcomed figures including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Horace Greeley, Lucretia Mott, and Frederick Douglass.
That tradition faded over time, and by the early 2000s, the island had seen fewer prominent speakers hosted in library’s Great Hall. According to a 2007 interview with Atheneum Trustee Emerita Nan Geschke published in Yesterday’s Island, Today’s Nantucket, a handful of board members set out to change that. Facing the practical question of how to fund an ongoing lecture series, they applied to the National Endowment for the Humanities for a grant and were awarded one. It was a distinction few libraries could claim: “We were one of only two public libraries in the U.S. to receive a grant that year,” Nan Geschke explained.
The NEH award was a matching grant, meaning the Atheneum needed to raise additional funds to unlock it. “The goal was to build a total endowment of about $1.2 million to sustain the series for years to come.” The Geschke Foundation, established by Chuck and Nancy Geschke, stepped in as the largest donor to that matching effort, and the lecture series was named in their honor. Chuck Geschke, who co-founded Adobe Systems, and his wife served on the Atheneum’s board in the early 2000s and were longtime supporters of island nonprofits. Chuck passed away in 2021, but the series he helped fund carries on his and Nan’s legacy of supporting public access to ideas.
Since its launch in the summer of 2005, the Geschke Series has brought more than two decades’ worth of distinguished guests to Nantucket — an eclectic roster that has included Adobe co-founder Chuck Geschke and 3Com founder Bob Metcalfe, journalists Thomas Friedman, Lesley Stahl, Mike Barnicle, Gwen Ifill, and Robin Wright, historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential advisor David Gergen, General David Petraeus, and foreign policy expert Richard Haass, among many others. Along the way, the series has tackled climate change, technology, public health, journalism, and democracy, always with an eye toward the pressing questions of the moment.
This year’s series features five speakers drawn from academia, medicine, and public policy. On July 6, political theorist and the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University Danielle Allen spoke to an engaged audience. Allen holds two PhDs, in Classics and in Government, and has earned a MacArthur Fellowship and the Library of Congress’s Kluge Prize. She is the author of several influential books, including Our Declaration and Cuz, and has written as a longtime columnist for The Washington Post.
This Monday, July 27, Dr. Randall Davis will speak about artifical intelligence: what it is, what it can do now, and its possible future. A Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at MIT and a Research Director at the Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), Dr. Davis brings decades of expertise in artificial intelligence to the stage.
This Wednesday, July 29, the talk by Dr. Jeremy Nobel will focus on creativity, connection, and health. A primary care physician, public health practitioner, and award-winning poet on the faculty of both Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Dr. Nobel offers a perspective that bridges medicine and the humanities.
The 2026 Geschke Series continues in August with a talk by Dr. Paul Starr on August 3. A professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University and co-founder of The American Prospect, Starr is known for his scholarship on the American health care system and the media. He will speak on how shared trust in science and medicine broke down.
As the World Churns is the title of a talk Dr. Richard Haass will present on August 24. During his career, Haass held senior government posts including Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. Department of State and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs on the National Security Council. He has written or edited fourteen books on foreign policy, including his 2023 bestseller The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens, and remains a frequent commentator on global affairs. Haass is a familiar face to Geschke audiences, having previously spoken in the series on international politics and global disarray.
This year the 2026 Geschke Series talks will be held in the Great Harbor Yacht Club rather than the Atheneum’s Great Hall, allowing the series to accommodate a growing audience. Tickets are available at nantucketatheneum.org.