“Let us tenderly and kindly cherish therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak and write.”
John Adams
Welcome to Dialogues
Dialogues is a digital collection of content, stories and recommendations, and a physical community of curious-minded individuals in Amsterdam. Dialogues meetings and recommendations share one unifying principle: that the diversity and complexity of today’s world is worth engaging with. Dialogues provides you windows onto the American experience, as well as the human condition.
Love it or hate it, the United States impacts our lives for better and worse. But the spirit of America is a moving target that changes with the times. What the United States is and stands for—both at home and abroad—is being constantly reevaluated.
Dialogues is our digital attempt to collect and celebrate the diversity of the American experience from every background, perspective, and walk of life. Dive into topics worth discussing and join our community. You can follow us online or join us in Amsterdam for our meetups, and yearly course.
Meet-ups
Quarterly Dialogues meetups hosted by Young Minds
Four times per year the Dialogues community and Young Minds Network gather at the John Adams Institute for an evening of networking and conversation. These laid-back gatherings are the perfect way to meet our community and participate in the Dialogue of the evening. You don’t need to read anything or come prepared: simply let us know you’ll be in attendance and join us at 18:00 on one of the days listed below at Herenmarkt 95-A. Topics range from social media trends to aspects of US history and politics, and everything in between.
- September: Join our post-summer Dialogues meet up. Date to be confirmed.
- December: Year-end party in collaboration with the John Adams Young Minds Network. Location and date to be confirmed.
Yearly Course
The John Adams Institute runs a yearly Dialogue in January that is open to the public. This 3-part course is designed to delve deeply into a particular topic, welcoming experts from both Amsterdam and the United States. Past courses have been on topics of Dutch American history, great American literature, and the alarming trend of Book Banning.
More information on our Winter 2025 edition will be announced later this year. Register your interest by emailing us at dialogues@john-adams.nl.
Thoughts Hub Blog
Hear from our own community of Young Minds Ambassadors! Thoughts Hub is a project that gathers perspectives from curious minded individuals. Our authors write about a wide variety of topics—from the cultural exchange between Dutch and American musicians, to the unsung heroes of women’s history, and what it’s like to view the world by bike.
What We are Reading
The Dialogues community is always searching for the next best read. From American classics to hidden gems, dive into our bookshelves and our treasure trove of fiction and nonfiction recommendations. We take after our name-giver, John Adams, who said “I must judge for myself, but how can I judge, how can any man judge, unless his mind has been opened and enlarged by reading.”
Community Recommendations
Whether it’s an article fresh from the press or a thoughtful documentary we’ve just uncovered, the Dialogues community is constantly collecting thought-provoking material. Tune in to podcasts and playlists curated by our community, read a blog on the history of the United States, or check out some film. Whatever you do, we hope it piques your interest.
Click on the following links to check out the Thought Hub blogs, and our Reading & Community Recommendations as shown in the slider above: Salaria Kea, Two Wheels, Many Cities, The Rust Remains, Wandering Stars, Parable duology, Why Fish Don’t Exist, podcast Zoozve, America’s Founders blog and Stamped from the Beginning.
