Open-space advocate and SoBro Conservancy founder Tom Denny will exploring what fireflies can teach us about ecological health, civic stewardship, and the future of community life. He’ll discuss how communities can work more thoughtfully with nature to create healthier, more connected places to live.

Young people graduating from college are facing the toughest job market we’ve seen in years. Tech titans are speculating that virtually all jobs in ten or 20 years will be performed by AI and robots. We’ll continue with Skidmore College President Emeritus Philip A. Glotzbach the conversation we started in February, further exploring the urgent questions facing young people and their families at a time when there is so much uncertainty as to the future of employment.

Now that AI has given us the ability to write with superhuman speed, efficiency, and accuracy, how might we put it to use for the Torch Club? Join us for a conversation about the AI-driven future barreling toward humanity.

After the Battle of Saratoga, George Washington faced challenges to his command from the generals who had success there. After the war, he was rebuffed in his attempt to buy Saratoga’s mineral springs. Join us in Zoom for John Oliver’s entertaining tale of a Washington we’ve never known.

Greg Veitch brings to the Saratoga Torch Club a deep and engaging exploration of the city’s Prohibition-era underworld, when Saratoga Springs briefly stood at the crossroads of gambling, organized crime, and political intrigue. Drawing on years of research into local archives, personalities, and places, Veitch traces how mob figures, entrepreneurs, and public officials together shaped a shadow history that still echoes in the city’s landscape. His talk will illuminate how Saratoga’s reputation as a playground for high-stakes leisure made it fertile ground for both opportunity and corruption. Far from romanticizing the era, Veitch examines the social and civic consequences of this period and what it reveals about power, influence, and community identity. Join us for a fascinating look at a chapter of Saratoga’s past that is as instructive as it is colorful.

We’ll celebrate the arrival of Thurman Maple Days by bringing together the people who make the region’s maple tradition more than a harvest—it’s a living community. From multigenerational sugar makers and first-time producers to tubing innovators, wood-fire traditionalists, chefs, historians, and the volunteers who help welcome thousands of visitors each spring, this conversation will spotlight the full ecosystem behind the syrup. We’ll explore how craft, science, land stewardship, and neighborly cooperation converge in the sugarhouse and across the hills of Thurman. We’ll offer stories from the woods, reflections on how the industry is evolving, and a chance to recognize the individuals whose work sustains one of the Adirondacks’ most beloved seasonal rituals. Join us for a warm, community-centered discussion that honors both the people and the landscape that make Maple Days possible.

In his newly published How to Outsmart AI and Thrive. Patrick Lynch shifts the focus of the AI conversation away from speculation about machines and toward the choices facing people and institutions.

Rather than asking whether AI will transform society, Lynch asks how we will respond — and what habits, values, and strategies will allow individuals and organizations not merely to survive technological change, but to grow wiser within it.

A professor at the Hult International Business School who draws on decade of experience in advising advised leaders and organizations on technological disruption, Lynch argues that the decisive advantage in the AI era will not belong to those who deploy the most powerful tools, but to those who cultivate judgment, adaptability, and purpose. His framework offers a roadmap for maintaining human agency in systems increasingly influenced by automation, data, and algorithmic decision-making.

In this Torch Radio conversation, we’ll explore the essential insights of Lynch’s book and invite listeners to consider what thriving alongside AI might truly mean — for our work, our institutions, and the kind of society we hope to build.

Philip A. Glotzbach, Skidmore College’s seventh president from 2003 to 2017, spent nearly two decades nurturing a campus culture built on curiosity, intellectual freedom, and moral purpose—an influence that continues to shape his thinking about the future of liberal education. In Embrace Your Freedom: Winning Strategies for Success in College and Life, he argues that success rests less on innate talent than on the habits students cultivate, urging them to treat college as a laboratory for engagement, relationships, reflection, and intellectual risk. More than a guide to academic achievement, the book invites readers to consider who they hope to become, framing education as preparation for responsible citizenship, purposeful work, and a lifetime of intentional growth.

Saratoga Dispatch Founder and Editor Abby Tegnelia will describe her journey from print to Substack in this far-reaching conversation about the future of journalism in Saratoga.