The Chicago Humanities Festival saw attendance soar by 45 percent this year; 50,000 came in the first weekend… “The festival’s popularity is one sign of an American public that is becoming more deeply engaged in serious issues, such as national identity. In the late 1990s, networking clubs were means for aspiring entrepreneurs to find someone else’s money to spend. The current wave of discussion clubs offers instead a vehicle to get clever, not rich, quick.”