How Corn Changed Itself and Then Changed Everything Else:
The Role Agriculture Played in the Early Days of Chicago
Our Final AG 2025 Theodore Talks Lecture Presented by Cynthia Clampitt
Sunday afternoon June 22nd, 2025, via Zoom at 2:30 pm
About 10,000 years ago, a weedy grass growing in Mexico which possessed a strange trait known as a ‘jumping gene’, transformed itself into a larger and more useful grass — this the cereal grass that we would come to know as maize and then corn. Nurtured by Native Americans, this grain would transform the Americas even before First Contact. After First Contact, it spanned the globe, but it also drove westward expansion in North America, building cities and inspiring innovators and entrepreneurs.
Thanks to corn, the Midwest was settled faster than any other region in history — and Chicago became immensely influential. From the Chicago Stock Yards to the Chicago Board of Trade, the city changed the way the world does business. However, vampires, whiskey, Henry Ford, time zones, Fritos, and the Chicago Bears are also parts of this remarkable story. As Margaret Visser noted in Much Depends on Dinner: “Without corn, North America — and most particularly modern, technological North America — is inconceivable.”
Cynthia Clampitt, author of Midwest Maize: How Corn Shaped the U.S. Heartland, will present what may prove to be the corniest Theodore Talk ever!
Register for this presentation here: https://tinyurl.com/th68mxcv.
Theodore Talks take place via Zoom on the fourth Sunday of each month at 2:30 pm Central Time. Can’t attend this Theodore Talk? Go ahead and register anyway; a link to the recording will be sent to you once the talk is over. All Theodore Talks have closed captioning enabled.
Remember, Theodore Talks are always offered FREE to all members in an effort to provide more value to your Mensa membership.
A list of future Theodore Talks can be found on the Mensa National Events Calendar, by visiting the American Mensa homepage, or by viewing the article on 2025 Theodore Talks in the January issue of the Mensa Bulletin.
Questions? For more information, contact Brad Lucht.
~ Brad Lucht, Theodore Talks Co-Host and Life Member of American Mensa
