Too bad, you were actually interested in going to more speaker events to “expand your intellectual horizons” like they always advertised in college brochures. Maybe you’ll have better luck next time. In the meantime, you can always pick up Hilton Als’ works for some intellectual stimulation. Beyond his work at The New Yorker, he has published several works of literature, including The Women, which is a series of memoirs that analyze the role of sexual and racial identities, and White Girls, which explores racial, gender and historical insights through the literature, art and music of diverse figures such as Truman Capote and Louise Brooks, Malcolm X and Flannery O’Connor.