<p>Can anyone give me a quick rundown of any big concerts or anything like that that have happened at Duke or nearby in the last year or two, any interesting/famous speakers, or anything along those lines? Thanks!</p>
<p>Lupe just came. For LDOC(last day of classes) Ludacris, Dev, Cataracts(not anymore). John legend, david Choi, Matisyahu have all been here this year. In the area are a variety of good concerts as well ( a lot at UNC’s cat’s cradle), and Tiesto just came to Raleigh.</p>
<p>We’ve also had Kid Cudi and Chiddy Bang in the last year, to name two. As far as interesting speakers go, we just had Aron Ralston (the inspiration for 127 Hours).</p>
<p>There are several big-name events each year, but there’s also a huge variety of slightly more niche events that may appeal to you as well. For instance, I love jazz, and I’ve enjoyed all the big-name jazz concerts this year (SF Jazz Collective, Wayne Shorter, Tain Watts, Vijay Iyer, etc), even though these shows were never on the radar of many students.</p>
<p>Jane Goodall and Richard Dawkins just this past year, both free. And Maya Angelou spoke at freshman commencement, like she does (almost) every year. The National Undergraduate Bioethics Conference was at Duke this year, which included a ton of speakers in that field (including the producer of House, who had a panel about the ethical qustions on the show). As far as major speakers that I didn’t see, there was Robert Gates, Salman Rushdie is coming up, and there’s probably more I’m not thinking of/wasn’t aware of. The key is to be aware, check the box office website and be on the lookout for fliers, because most major speakers sell out before word really gets out about them. If you do, the payoff is amazing - I mean, a first year biology student getting to listen to two of the top five living scientists ([The</a> top five most famous living scientists | SciGuy | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle](<a href=“http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2009/10/the_top_five_most_famous_living_scientists.html]The”>http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2009/10/the_top_five_most_famous_living_scientists.html)) for free? Where else do you get to do that?</p>