Past Events

Dr. Famiglietti is an internationally recognized expert on hydrology, the Earth’s water system. His focus is the freshwater crisis resulting from climate change and agricultural practices, and how the crisis is already affecting global populations and food production. His research team uses satellites and develops advanced computer models to track how freshwater availability is changing around the world.

In this program, Dr. Famiglietti explains the causes and development of the freshwater crisis and the urgent necessity of governmental policies to address the rapidly diminishing supply of water. Public understanding of the problem is essential.

Kittie Knox was a young biracial cyclist in the 1890s who fought against race-based limitations in America’s post-Reconstruction reaction against Black advancement. During her cycling career (1893 – 1899), she became a well-known century (100-mile) rider, protested the League of American Wheelmen’s color bar in 1895, and refused to conform to conventions about fast riding and wearing a long skirt while cycling. For decades after her untimely death, Knox’s groundbreaking story was virtually unknown outside of the world of cycling.

Scholar and writer Larry Finison has worked to bring her remarkable life back to a wider audience and speaks about Kittie Knox in the context of the late 19th century cycling craze.

Hear author Peter B. Kaufman discuss why video has become the dominant medium of human communication in his new book, The Moving Image: A User’s Manual. Kaufman explains how the moving image—not social media, not A.I., but TV networks and online video—has played such an outsized role in bringing personalities like Trump, Putin, Modi, and Netanyahu to the front of the world stage. These observations should raise public concerns about power across all communication industries. “If freedom involves participation in power, we are losing our grip on both. And that grip will disappear entirely if we let go of our control over the moving image,” says Kaufman.

He will be joined in conversation by Robert S. Boynton, Director of the Literary Reportage program at NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.

Hear Meg Stone—Executive Director of IMPACT Boston, an abuse prevention and empowerment self-defense organization—for a discussion of her new book 'The Cost of Fear: Why Most Safety Advice Is Sexist and How We Can Stop Gender-Based Violence.' Stone shows us how we can make safety choices that expand our worlds and contribute to the fight for social justice. She will be joined in conversation by Shameka Gregory—licensed independent clinical social worker (LICSW) and the Coordinator of the Domestic and Gender Based Violence Prevention Initiative for the city of Cambridge.

The GBH BPL studio will host Outspoken Saturdays, a spoken word poetry event for emerging artists. Every first Saturday of the month, the series will be created in collaboration with spoken word artist Amanda Shea. Join us!

Registration is encouraged for this free event.

GBH Music and JazzBoston kick off the 2025 JazzNOW series with a celebration of Hermeto Pascoal, one of Brazil's most iconic and genre-defying composers. This mesmerizing Latin jazz performance features TRIAD, a powerhouse trio that brings together three world-class musicians: multi-Grammy award-winning Peruvian bassist Oscar Stagnaro, acclaimed pianist Maxim Lubarsky, and multi-Grammy and Latin Grammy award-winning drummer Mark Walker. Renowned for their mastery of Latin jazz and improvisational brilliance, the trio will explore Pascoal's rich repertoire and adventurous spirit, blending his lush harmonies, dazzling rhythms, and intricate melodies with fresh interpretations. For this special performance, TRIAD is joined by renowned Puerto Rican saxophonist Edmar Colón.

Event timeline:

7:15-7:50pm Pre-event reception (in-person only)
7:50-7:58pm Guest are seated in Fraser (in-person only)
8-9pm Live performance in Fraser Performance Studio (Hybrid audience)


Photo credit of Oscar Stagnaro: Provided by the artist

Hear a fascinating discussion on the past, present, and future of a ubiquitous fabric – denim. The Charles River Museum is at the site of Francis Cabot Lowell’s first cotton textile mill, and it was cotton manufacturing that powered the Industrial Revolution. Now, jeans are the iconic American fashion staple that almost all of us own. Fashion history professor, curator, and author Emma McClendon will engage in an interactive discussion about where she sees the future of jeans as a fashion item, utilitarian garment, and manufactured product. She has a special interest in the sustainability of denim production, and the ways in which jeans have become not just clothing, but a way of expressing individuality and identity. This is sure to be a thought-provoking conversation around an article of clothing that, at any given moment, literally half of the planet’s population is wearing.

Join us at the GBH Studios at the Boston Public Library for a nerdy night of NOVA science trivia! Get ready for creative categories and exciting prizes as we test your knowledge of the natural world, space, the history of science, and more!

Lucy Foley is the author of six novels, including The Paris Apartment, The Guest List, and most recently, The Midnight Feast. She studied English literature at Durham University and University College London before working for several years as a fiction editor in the publishing industry. She now lives in London.

Lucy shares her insights into the publishing world and answers your questions about her work, the creative process, and beyond.

Moderated by GBH News Jeremy Siegel.

Join the democratic fray at this special mid-day program, where Gen Z voters will take the stage at Boston’s longtime bastion of free speech and civic action, the Old South Meeting House. Teamed up with visiting lawmakers, we will hear pro and con sides to the question of whether the legal voting age in the U.S. should be lowered—locally, statewide, and/or nationally.

As is the tradition for Revolutionary Spaces events, the audience will be encouraged to clap, thump, stomp, and “Huzzah!” their approval for the arguments presented—with respectful “Fies!” in opposition—followed by a lively Q & A.

Serving as debate moderator is Alexi Cohan, Digital Producer for GBH News and lead on Politics IRL, an ongoing series looking at politics from the Gen Z perspective.

This event is a collaboration between the GBH News Politics team, Suffolk University and its Congress to Classroom program, and Revolutionary Spaces.

This event is free and open to the public thanks in part to the generous support of the Lowell Institute. This program will be recorded by GBH Forum Network for later viewing. Doors will open at 12:00 pm and the program will begin at 12:30 pm.