The two co-chairs of the Summer Institute Speaker Series know it’s cliché to say, but they do it anyway: People on the Vineyard are very curious.

“Our overall purpose since our founding has been to stimulate intellectual activity on the Vineyard, intellectual exchange,” said Jim Dale, co-chair of this year’s series along with Marc Levine. “That’s a hallmark of the program. Every year we try to have six speakers or speaker events, and each year we try to have six entirely different topics.” 

The speaker series takes place at the Martha’s Vineyard Hebrew Center, beginning on Thursday, July 10 and runs on successive Thursday evenings throughout the summer. The subjects include a wide range of topics, from panels about public health, theatre’s role in democracy and the future of entertainment, to name a few. 

The talks are meant to reflect current events and the “volatility of today’s culture,” Mr. Dale said. This also means that Mr. Dale and Mr. Levine expect each night to take unexpected turns, beginning with the conversation on July 10 with Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. The two are best known for breaking the story of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuse which helped to ignite the #MeToo movement. The event is already sold out. 

Ms. Kantor has recently written behind-the-scenes accounts of landmark Supreme Court decisions, including the one that eliminated the constitutional right abortion. 

Ms. Twohey has worked extensively on the dangers of marijuana, and has recently reported on Elon Musk’s ketamine use. 

“They have a lot of current material; they’re constantly working,” Mr. Levine said. “I don’t know how the evening will go, but whatever it’ll be, I’m 100 percent certain it’ll be fascinating.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning author, journalist and West Tisbury resident Geraldine Brooks will moderate the conversation. 

Other Vineyarders joining the speaker series are Scott Frank, Stacey Snider and Peter Chernin for a forum on the future of entertainment. Together, the three industry giants have worked in all aspects of filmmaking, creating or supervising TV and films such as Titanic, The Fast and the Furious series, The Queen’s Gambit and the recent Dept. Q. 

The July 31 event is already sold out. 

“We don’t go as much to movie theatres, we are technically watching television but it’s really just  a screen, and in the future, who or what is going to create that content?” said Mr. Dale. “Will we be watching Dept. Q on screens or will we be watching it in our eyes? Will ‘cutting the cord,’ cause changes in cable companies in order to survive? All that stuff will be explored.”

Other speakers for the series include Dr. Anthony Fauci, Oskar Eustis, artistic director of the Public Theater in New York City, Michael Steele, a political commentator and former chair of the Republican National Committee, and Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie. 

Rabbi Lau-Lavie is the co-founding spiritual leader of the Lab/Shul community in NYC and the creator of the ritual theater company Storahtelling, Inc. He is also the 39th generation of rabbis in his family, the first to be openly queer.

“If you count backwards, that’s a lot of generations,” Mr. Dale said, noting that Rabbi Lau-Lavie often conducts services in drag. Mr. Levine said he attended one of Rabbi Lau-Lavie’s Friday night services in New York City, where there was no drag but plenty of music and dancing.

Rabbi Lau-Lavie’s talk on August 7 will focus on his concept of “radical inclusivity” in Judaism. He will spend the following Friday night and Saturday morning as the rabbi in residence at the Hebrew Center. 

The Summer Institute is also showing Sabbath Queen as part of its ongoing summer Jewish film series. The documentary is directed by Sandi DuBowski and follows Rabbi Lau-Lavie over 21 years. The film will be shown August 4 at the Hebrew Center, ahead of Rabbir Lau-Lavie’s talk. 

“We like to have an intellectual component with entertainment, and he does it,” Dale said. “He’ll bring in thoughts, I guarantee, from our attendees who might normally say, ‘this is interesting, but it’s not for me.’”

Dr. Fauci will take part in the speaker series on July 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Agricultural Society in West Tisbury. The event is already sold out.

Having published a memoir in 2024, the evening with the infectious disease expert and renowned public health advisor might not just be another stop on his book tour. 

“I can see the Fauci talk being about Ebola and West Nile or HIV, talking almost nothing about Covid, and all the questions being about Lyme disease,” Mr. Levine said. 

“That’s very true,” Mr. Dale added. “On this Island you can end up with it being all about ticks. I hope he’s prepared.”

For more information, visit mvsummerinstitute.org.