The nominal theme of this year’s Chicago Humanities Festival was Power. Recent years’ have been Graphic, Belief, Stuff, Speed, Style, Citizens, Journey, Animal, America, Tech-Knowledge, The Body, Laughter, etc. If they insist upon continuing the naming pretense, I would like to suggest, for next year, Apathy. It’s my hope that this would, by power of suggestion, reduce tickets sales, thus making seats more available.

I often select sessions based on their comedic potential, so, not surprisingly, my most hopeful year, despite the frequent disconnect, was 2009’s Laughter. I particularly remember seeing former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, who, in addition to being very smart, is downright funny, much funnier than any of the comedians I’ve seen at the Underground Comedy Club.

This year, Ren Weschler talked about his new biography of Oliver Sacks, who himself was a speaker at the 2002 festival. If I’d seen that, I wouldn’t have bothered with Weschler.

John Hodgman pushed his new book Medallion Status: True Stories from Secret Rooms. He told some good stories, but the audience’s questions were about his podcast Judge John Hodgman, which I’ve never heard. So I was surprised that many of the questions seemed serious, with people looking for actual advice from a comedian, and not one named Larry David.

Mo Rocca’s new book is Mobituaries, Great Lives Worth Reliving, but it was more interesting to hear him talk about his own career, which has included a job as an editor at a soft porn magazine.

Sarah Vowell, when asked why she became an historian, said that she doesn’t like to pry, which she acknowledged was a problem for her as a journalist, so she finds it easier to write about dead people, as she doesn’t have to talk to them, or, I suppose, see them.