Carpenter Lecture with Zoë Schlanger

Join the Highlands Biological Foundation for a thought-provoking journey into the hidden lives of plants at this year’s Carpenter Lecture, a biennial community event established in honor of former HBF director Sonya Carpenter. Presented in partnership with Highlands Performing Arts Center, HBF is proud to welcome acclaimed science writer Zoë Schlanger for an illuminating presentation that will change the way you see the natural world.

Schlanger, a staff writer for The Atlantic and author of the New York Times bestselling book The Light Eaters, will guide attendees through some of the most cutting-edge discoveries in plant behavior and intelligence. Her talk, titled Memory, Manipulation, Mimicry, and Kinship, will explore remarkable new findings in plant science, research that challenges our basic ideas about consciousness, agency, and life itself.

Through compelling storytelling and scientific insight, Schlanger will reveal how plants communicate, remember, and respond to their environment in ways that blur the line between flora and fauna. Her work, which has appeared in The New York Times, NPR, and The New York Review of Books, has earned national recognition for its depth and clarity, bringing the wonders of the natural world to life for audiences of all kinds.

Reception + Book Signing

After the lecture, guests are invited to stay for a light reception and an opportunity to meet the author. Copies of The Light Eaters will be available for purchase and signing.