Author Joel Berg will be at the K Street Busboys on Tuesday discussing his book.

DCist’s guide to lectures and discussions in the D.C. area

This week is a little light on lectures at the museums, but a number of book discussions fill in the gap.

Monday:
>> The Cato Institute hosts a book discussion titled Gun Control on Trial: Inside the Supreme Court Battle over the Second Amendment today at 4 p.m. with author and Reason Magazine editor Brian Doherty, who will discuss the application of the Second Amendment to individuals.

>> Tonight at 7 p.m., Politics and Prose will feature From Colony to Superpower author George C. Herring.

>> Or, at 6:30 p.m., head instead to the K Street Busboys and Poets for an author event with Joel Berg. He’ll be discussing his book All You Can Eat: How Hungry is America?, which Busboys claims has “the biting wit of Super Size Me and the passion of a lifelong activist.”

>> From 6:30 to 8 p.m., the National Building Museum hosts a panel discussion with some big wigs from the Department of Energy and elsewhere titled For the Greener Good: Wanted: Power; Location: Anywhere but Here. They will discuss the nation’s increasing need for energy and where to get it. $20.

Tuesday:
>> Another political book discussion is at Politics and Prose tonight at 7 p.m. Giants author and Harvard professor John Stauffer will be on hand discussing his book which “profiles two of the greatest statesman of the 19th century, President Abraham Lincoln and the writer and activist Frederick Douglass.”

>> Or, head to the 14th Street Busboys and Poets for a ninety-minute dialogue on Public Kinship: Building Martin Luther King’s World House, which will begin Busboys’ “series of conversations, reflections and mutual story-telling to form a common bond and to build the world house.” Free.

>> The K Street Busboys is hosting Routinely Targeted: Attacks on Civilians in Somalia as part of the Human Rights Defenders Speaking Tour presented by Amnesty International at 6 p.m. Somali activist and photojournalist Abukar Albardi and Somali women’s rights activist Zamzam Abdillahi Abdi will share their experiences of the conflict and ways to help.

Friday:
>> If you have the day off, head to the Hirshhorn from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. to hear German artist and Smithsonian Artist Research Fellow Bjorn Dahlem discuss his work.