Go beyond flowers or sweets this Mother’s Day. Give your mom a gift that keeps giving all year long for about the same cost of a bouquet and box of candy.
This year, treat the woman in your life to a one-year gift subscription to One Day University. Portland Living on the Cheap has a special discount just for our readers. Instead of $89, pay just $72 (that’s $6 per month).
You may have heard of One Day University, or even attended one of its events. Pre-pandemic, the organization hosted wildly popular seminars in 61 cities around the country, including Portland.
Like other institutions of higher learning, One Day U has decided to go virtual so that everyone can “attend” fascinating lectures by professors from Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Stanford, Cornell, and dozens of other schools.
Want to go on a virtual tour of the Met Museum with a top-tier Columbia art professor? Or learn about the history of the Olympics from a professor at UNC Chapel Hill? How about discover the science of intelligence with Amherst’s top professor of psychology? Now anyone can whenever the mood strikes.
One Day University has a reputation for unique, interesting, eclectic topics, with a diverse lineup of talks: Broadway Close Up: The Musicals of Kander & Ebb; Edible America: How and What We Eat; Mona Lisa: The World’s Most Famous Painting; and Crossword Puzzles: Their History and the Puzzling People Who Can’t Live Without Them will all livestream this spring/summer.
Missed a live talk? No worries! Membership also includes access to a searchable video library of past 500+ talks on topics including history, art, politics, psychology, literature, film, science, and much more.
Among the most popular:
- Hamilton vs. Jefferson: The Rivalry that Shaped America | Louis Masur, Rutgers University
- A Culinary History of the United States | Allen Pietrobon, Trinity Washington University
- A Sinatra Centennial: What Made Ol’ Blue Eyes Great | Anna Celenza, Georgetown University
- Four Paintings Every Art Lover Should See | Tina Rivers Ryan, Albright-Knox Art Gallery (formerly Columbia University)
- The Science of Happiness | Catherine Sanderson, Amherst College
- Four Films that Changed America | Marc Lapadula, Yale University
Members can access all of these plus hundreds more in One Day University’s video library here.
How One Day University works
Every weekday at 1 p.m. PDT, One Day U livestreams a brand new one hour talk featuring one of more than 200 engaging professors.
They are open to all members. No advance registration required. Anyone with a computer, phone or tablet can participate.
During a live talk, attendees can enter questions at any point in a “Chatroll” box on their screen. Then, the professor goes through and addresses all questions in the last 15 minutes of the talk.
One Day U sends out an email to members every Sunday called the “Weekend Scholar” with a schedule of the week’s upcoming talks and direct links to view, so members can add the week’s talks to their calendar. Just visit the website and click “upcoming talks,” or click on a talk in the “Weekend Scholar” email when it is time to stream.
One Day University is perfect for lifelong learners of all ages. You don’t need a college degree, just a curious mind who likes to dig in to a variety of topics and issues.
While the One Day U professors hail from prestigious universities, they are also experts in making their subject matter accessible to learners of any level.
Talks are just 50 minutes, with no homework or tests (woo-hoo!), and designed to be enjoyed without a background knowledge in the subject matter.
Mother’s Day deal
As we said before, One Day University memberships make fantastic gifts. Giving Mom one means she’ll think of you every time she tunes into another wonderful workshop. Gift memberships are available for $72 (about 20¢ a day). Use our exclusive promo code SMARTMOM at checkout to get the deal.
When you purchase a gift membership, you enter the name and email address of the recipient, and the date and time you would like the gift to be sent. You can also enter a customized message.
The gift recipient is sent a certificate via email on the specified date/time. This certificate has detailed instructions for them to redeem and set up an account.
Gift recipients are not required to sign up for a recurring membership or enter a credit card to use their gift — they just get one year of full access, unless they choose to renew after that.
You can buy a gift membership for the Mom in your life here.
And if One Day U sounds like something you’d enjoy, we won’t tell if you use our promo code to try it yourself!
Want more Portland freebies, events and deals? Subscribe to my newsletter (only one email a day), and follow me on Facebook and Twitter!
You may also like:
Portland Living on the Cheap is a member of 
[…] If you want to pair brunch with a gift for Mom, Portland Living on the Cheap readers get this exclusive Mother’s Day discount on one-year subscriptions to One Day University. […]