For 20 Years, a Denton Group Has Gathered to Drink and Think Together

Throughout his time in Denton, Kevin Roden has proven himself to be skilled in the art of conversation. Whether he’s forming connections with community locals at coffee shops on the Square or making headlines for trying to convince a Sriracha factory to move to North Texas, the former city councilman knows how to get people talking.

Over the years, Roden has worked to unlock new ways to inspire conversation and human interaction among those in his own community. And (part of) his secret lies in liquor.

“Turns out, as people spend an evening together and share a couple of drinks before they engage in conversations, it loosens them up,” Roden says. “I can then start throwing out some questions and get people talking, and they’ll feel comfortable enough to actually engage.”

For 20 years, Roden has hosted his own Drink and Think events in Denton at which people can confront their humanity and one another through question-driven conversations. The idea occurred to Roden when he was a graduate student studying philosophy. He found the questions and topics discussed in his classes to be remarkable and engaging, but too stiff in an academic setting.

To make such in-depth discussions more palatable for a college crowd, he began gathering his graduate school, musician and artist friends in his small, liquor-stocked apartment on Fry Street.

“And every time people would come back and say, ‘I've never had an evening like that,’” Roden says. “Like the idea of devoting an evening to deeper thought with other people and thinking together about something.”

Roden’s combination of cocktails and conversation quickly caught on, and eventually began averaging around 100 members per event. Over the years, Drink and Thinks have expanded some events to several venues across Denton such as Dan’s Silverleaf, but are still often held at the Roden family’s own home.

When first meeting folks in a new setting, some might think of basic small-talk prompts, like work and the weather, to be the main topic of conversation. But Roden likes to have his guests think bigger. Since its inception, Drink and Think attendees under Roden’s roof have explored existential questions and culture-inspired topics.

Comprehensive ideas have included “What does it mean to be human?” and “What is art?” Other nights have explored whether we should be worried about democracy or if societies can even discuss anything meaningful any longer. Roden says he uses these difficult conversations to prompt first impressions and foster deeper thinking and community.

“To me, I just think humans are fascinating,” Roden says. “And seeing how people react to and view such meaningful topics is such an amazing way to make connections … I mean, I've literally seen businesses start out through these events, and it's because people were connecting with one another. I think that's just the joy of local democracy and this kind of colliding of things.”

In addition to the drinking, Roden has found that hospitality has played a big part in generating a comfortable and productive conversational space for new and familiar faces at his events. Drink and Think’s foundation partially takes inspiration from historical salons run by aristocratic women in Paris. Roden says similar meetings were held in France by locals who wanted to gather with others nearby to forward literary and artistic movements at the time. To Roden, the idea of interacting with others through discussions combined with real hospitality is what truly makes the evenings feel communal.

“I think it really makes the experience for folks,” Roden says. “I'm coming over to someone's house, I don't have to worry about anything and I can just take advantage of the joy that comes from somebody putting a drink in my hand and then leading us in a great conversation.”

While Roden keeps the conversations fairly structured with a list of questions to keep the engagement going, he says it's far from the disciplined, formal structure of a political debate or philosophical seminar.

“I mean, it's hard to view it as something like your typical debate in a city council chamber when you have a beer in your hand, and people are asking questions is much more informal,” Roden says.

The purpose of a Drink and Think meeting isn’t to sound like the smartest in the room, but to simply introduce yourself to new people, perspectives and ideas you’ve never encountered before. With a new variety of questions and interactive elements, like live musicians and selected texts at every event, each Drink and Think is unlike any other. Every evening’s outcome depends mainly on which individuals, perspectives and personalities show up that night.

“You just kind of get to be open to where the night goes, and that’s the beauty of it,” Roden says. “I usually try to cap the official conversation time at around an hour and a half, but at one earlier this year on jazz music, some people hung out until like 3 in the morning and had to work the next day … a part of Drink and Think is learning something new, but the main part is interacting with the other people you’re learning with.”

Despite hosting countless Drink and Think conversations over the last two decades, Roden says he continues to learn something new from every interaction. He doesn’t come to the Drink and Think table with any predisposition for how he wants the following conversation to play out. Sure, he has his own thoughts and opinions like any other guest seated in his living room, but he says he hosts the events not to confirm any of his own biases, but to engage with other intelligent people. “I have something to learn from their perspectives and the things they've read, and things like that, that I haven't,” Roden says. “We all do. I go into it thinking that I've got as much to learn as you all learn. Let's figure this out together.”

Over the years, a number of life developments — such as Roden being elected to city council, his wife starting a business and the two of them starting a family — caused him to put a pause on frequent Drink and Think events. But recently, Roden was inspired to bring them back to his Denton home because of the need for human interaction and contemplation he noticed in his own community.

Drinking, Thinking, Clicking

Today, Roden views the general population as people stuck in a distracted culture. To him, the idea of helping people form new connections and think more deeply with one another is already a difficult task, and it becomes even more so when you take into account an increasingly polarized political environment. But through one simple spark of conversation, Roden believes we, as a community, can start finding our way back to a more open-minded collective.

“There's no models for that anymore,” Roden says. “And I believe that our democracy, ultimately, is saved not at this top-down, national level. It's saved through people in local communities getting together, learning how to engage with one another reasonably. And so there's a real aspect to this in which I think this should be happening all over the place, because I think this is how we get ourselves out of the mess that we're in.”

Roden’s next Drink and Think will be hosted at the Roden House (418 Texas St., Denton) on Saturday, July 20, at 8 p.m. Titled “How Should We Approach Art?,” the third installment of Drink and Think’s What Is Beauty? Series will explore the question through both experience and discussion. Guest speakers will be Dallas painter Kelsey Anne Heimerman and Seattle community muralist Brady Black. Guests can RSVP to the free event on Drink and Think's website.