Annual Public Lecture Series

Watch the 2026 Spring Lecture

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Join us for an uplifting dose of inspiration and education as part of our Annual Public Lecture Series. Three times each year we bring you a free presentation or discussion with an inspired thought leader, grappling with real-world climate change and environmental issues. Together, we’ll explore the latest research and collaborative efforts to respond to our changing environment.

All lectures are free. All of our lectures are accessible for deaf and hard of hearing via live ASL interpreters, by request. Learn more when registering for each event!

Leeson Lecture 2026

Join Metcalf June 23 for Our Annual Leeson Lecture Featuring an Exclusive Screening of Rosanna Xia’s ‘Out of Plain Sight’

The Los Angeles Times environmental reporter and 2018 Metcalf alum will screen her award-winning documentary followed by a conversation with Metcalf Executive Director Fara Warner

Metcalf’s Annual Public Lecture Series continues on Tuesday, June 23, with our Annual Leeson Lecture featuring an exclusive screening of the award-winning documentary, “Out of Plain Sight,” and a conversation with the filmmaker Rosanna Xia, Los Angeles Times environmental reporter and 2018 alum of Metcalf’s Annual Science Immersion Workshop for Journalists. This event coincides with the Institute’s 28th Annual Workshop, which is focused this year on some of the world’s most urgent environmental challenges: plastics, pollution, and PFAS (also known as forever chemicals).

“Out of Plain Sight” is described as “a cinematic exposé of an environmental disaster lurking just off the coast of Southern California.” Through her reporting, Xia learns that in the years after World War II, as many as half a million barrels of toxic waste had been quietly dumped into the ocean, and she uncovers the consequences that continue to haunt the world today. Xia also directed and produced the film, which has received numerous film festival honors, including the Audience Choice Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and the Jackson Wild Media Award for Best Investigative Film. You can watch the trailer here.

In addition to her reporting for the Times, Xia was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2020 for explanatory reporting, and her celebrated book on climate change adaptation, “California Against the Sea,” received the PEN America/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award, a gold medal from the California Book Awards, and a special citation from the Library of Congress, among other honors.

Metcalf’s Leeson Lecture, named in honor of former Metcalf advisory council member Rob Leeson, is free and open to the public. The event will take place from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Corless Auditorium on the University of Rhode Island Bay Campus, 215 South Ferry Road, Narragansett, R.I.