Past Events

Can wireless connectivity make self-driving cars safer? NOVA Science Café hosted Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) professor Dr. Alex Wyglinski. He explained the current state-of-the-art tech in vehicular wireless connectivity.

Learn how vehicle-to-vehicle communication improves situational awareness of the road environment for self-driving vehicles. Although almost all self-driving vehicles rely on sensor technologies such as LIDAR, RADAR, and vision systems to gather data about the surrounding road conditions, wireless connectivity between cars and nearby infrastructure is often overlooked in the discussion about autonomous vehicles. For even more on self-driving cars and to see how they are being tested, check out NOVA's "Look Who's Driving" — an episode that explores the challenges of training artificial intelligence to be better than humans at making life-and-death decisions.

The New York Times columnist visits Boston to talk about with her new book looking at women and aging in America. With razor-sharp, insightful social commentary, she takes us from colonial times to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, from Sojourner Truth to Mae West.

Gail Collins takes us through America’s History - from the colonies, when a woman was considered marriageable if "Civil, and under 50 years of Age," through a long stretch when they were quietly retired to a rocking chair once they had passed their reproductive years, to 68-year-old Hillary Clinton accepting the Democratic presidential nomination. Collins chronicles the lives of our country's most fascinating women, from Sojourner Truth to Mae West to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, as well as many whose names are less well-known but whose impact on American society is still felt today. Don't miss her razor-sharp, insightful social commentary. Gail is interviewd by Margaret Talcott, curator of the American Inspiration author series.

Historian Jared Ross Hardesty focuses on 17th century New England, when enslaved people—both indigenous peoples and kidnapped Africans—comprised about 4 percent of the population. He shares the individual stories of enslaved people, bringing their experiences to life. He also explores the importance of slavery to the colonization of the region and to agriculture and industry, New England’s deep connections to Caribbean plantation societies, and the significance of emancipation movements in the era of the American Revolution. **About the event site** In the eighteenth century, the [Royall House and Slave Quarters](http://royallhouse.org/) was home to the largest slaveholding family in Massachusetts and the enslaved Africans who made their lavish way of life possible. Today, the Royall House and Slave Quarters is a museum whose architecture, household items, archaeological artifacts, and programs bear witness to intertwined stories of wealth and bondage, set against the backdrop of America’s quest for independence.

How can art, artists, and cultural institutions move from perpetuating colonialism to confronting, repairing, resisting and ending colonialism? Join Boston-area thinkers, institutions, entrepreneurs, activists, city officials, and artists for a discussion inspired by national observances of the 400th Anniversary of the arrival at Jamestown of the first Africans to be sold into bondage in North America.

Many of us think that music exists in the ether – that while it defies definition, we know it when we hear it. But the truth is that we only hear it when we know it. Music isn’t music until our minds make it so. Just like music has the power to connect people, to change minds, to incite violence and tame beasts, to give us energy or heal our pain, our minds have the ability to turn noise into this panacea. How? This talk demonstrates just how ethereal and magical music is, that there is no right way to listen or play, and that extracting meaning from sound is one of the greatest gifts that natural selection has given us. Based on the podcast Cadence - what music tells us about the mind, neuroscientist and opera singer Dr. Indre Viskontas demonstrates how music makes us better. Image: Book Cover

Biologists have recently discovered that plants have far more sophisticated means of communication and survival strategies than we’d ever thought. Some scientists and philosophers even talk about “vegetal consciousness” and the “personhood” of plants. And if you really want to go down the rabbit hole of plant consciousness - and the insights gleaned from ayahuasca and magic mushrooms (ok, mushrooms aren’t really plants) - you’ll find testimonials about “plants as teachers.” In this talk, Steve Paulson explores this highly speculative way of thinking and also reflects on Terrence McKenna’s [Stoned Ape Theory of Consciousness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_McKenna) .

Mike Duncan is one of the foremost history podcasters in the world. His award-winning series [The History of Rome](https://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/) set the standard for episodic narrative history and inspired a generation of listeners. In this talk he shares his thoughts on why we create and listen to podcasts. Why do we make podcasts? Why do we listen to podcasts? What does it mean to the community? What does it mean to an individual? What does it mean for us here today? In short, Duncan asks, what is the point of all this? Image: [Pexels.com](http://www.pexels.com/photo/greyscale-photography-of-condenser-microphone-765139/)

Despite the popularity of podcasts, the art of audio storytelling remains somewhat of a mystery to both listeners and critics alike. This can bring a magical gloss to the craft of production, but also erases the work of audio professionals. Longtime editor Julia Barton makes the case for why a shared “audio literacy” among producers and listeners is important, and shares a few tricks for listening more like an editor. Image:[ Pexels.com](http://www.pexels.com/photo/audio-business-computer-connection-265672/)

History tells us stories of the past, but there are two - or three, or five, or twenty - sides to every story. The way we tell history is defined by our perspective, so how does a historian or historical storyteller choose their perspective and the point of view from which to tell it? When telling history, is there such thing as objectivity? How much context is too little or too much? In this panel, history podcasters discuss how they wrestle with these important questions when shaping their work for a general audience. Image: [Pexels.com](http://www.pexels.com/photo/building-castle-figures-facade-36006/)

As a podcaster, you can worm your way into your listener's brain, and live there. For YEARS, if you do it right. Helen Zaltzman has been residing in listeners' brains since 2007, when she began making fact-based entertainment podcasts - feeding people trivia, doling out information, and maybe subtly rewiring their minds. And along the way, she found that she was learning more than she'd ever learned in her life.