Past Events

Former Chief Justice Margaret Marshall was the first woman to serve on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, a position that she held from 1999 until she retired in 2010. During her tenure, she worked to ensure equal access to justice for all, including our most vulnerable populations. Born and educated in South Africa, Marshall actively opposed the apartheid regime and served as the President of the National Union of South African students, a leading anti-apartheid organization. In 1968, she came to the United States on an academic scholarship. Unable to return home because of her political activism, she graduated from Harvard University with a master’s degree in education and Yale Law School and worked in private practice until the 1990s. From her early days in South Africa, Marshall has been a defender of human rights and equality for all individuals, as reflected in her judicial decisions. Margery Eagan, co-host of WGBH’s midday program Boston Public Radio, was the evening’s moderator.

Jill Abramson talks about her new book _The Merchant of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts_ which follows The New York Times, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, and Vice News over the course of the 21st century. She is also the co-author with Jane Mayer of _Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas_, a National Book Award finalist. Jill started as a reporter in the era of Watergate. She held senior editorial positions at the New York Times, where she was the first woman to serve as Washington bureau chief, managing editor, and executive editor. She spent nine years at the Wall Street Journal. A senior lecturer at Harvard University, she writes a column about U.S. politics for The Guardian.

Dr. Knoll describes the causes of the previous five extinctions on Earth and the possibility of a sixth. He explains how the specific causes of different mass extinctions tend to impact ecosystems in distinct and unexpected ways. He discusses the threat of a sixth mass extinction. A key issue is how well evolutionary mechanisms can adapt to this type of destruction.

Countries determine their own policies for accepting immigrants and refugees. No country has open borders. What is the difference between an immigrant and a refugee? Who determines this difference? How do international laws and groups affect national laws? Or even state laws? WorldBoston, Boston Network for International Development, and the United Nations Association of Greater Boston join forces to host this Great Decisions on Refugees and Global Migration. Mary Truong, Jeffrey Thielmen, and Professor Karen Jacobsen expand on the process of the immigration system, its triumphs and shortcomings.

How should museums represent race? Meet some Boston-area thinkers and artists for a discussion inspired by themes found in a recent exhibit, [“Made Visible: Contemporary South African Fashion and Identity”](https://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/made-visible "mfa exhibit") that was on view February through May, 2019.

Garrett M. Graff, a distinguished magazine journalist and historian, met with fellows and guests at the Shorenstein Center in Harvard's Kennedy School to give his take on the wrap-up of the Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Graff offers what he thinks is in the 300-400 pages of the final report that the public has not yet seen. » **[See WGBH News reporter Phillip Martin's interview with Garrett Graff](https://www.wgbh.org/news/politics/2019/04/05/searching-for-a-strategy-in-robert-muellers-final-report ) ** Graff writes about politics, technology, and national security. He’s written for publications from WIRED and _Esquire_ to _Bloomberg BusinessWeek_ and _The New York Times_, and served as the editor of two of Washington’s most prestigious magazines, _Washingtonian_ and POLITICO Magazine.

The Opioid Epidemic is devastating communities across the country. Overdoses have become the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 55, killing more people than HIV/AIDS, car crashes or gun violence ever did at their peaks. But what makes this crisis especially unique is how we got here. We’ll examine the origins of the worst public health crisis of the twenty-first century and expose the role pharmaceutical companies played in pushing addictive opioids into the American market. We will explore how we got here, the science of addiction, and how to stem the crisis.

UCLA Professor of History Katherine Marino chronicles the dawn of the global movement for women's rights in the first decades of the twentieth century. The founding mothers of this movement were not based primarily in the United States, however, or in Europe. Instead, Katherine M. Marino introduces readers to a cast of remarkable Latin American and Caribbean women whose deep friendships and intense rivalries forged global feminism out of an era of imperialism, racism, and fascism.

Katherine Mangu-Ward is editor in chief of Reason, the magazine of “free minds and free markets.” A few of her more memorable cover stories include a defense of plastic bags, an argument for why you almost certainly shouldn’t vote, and a welcome to our new robot overlords. Mangu-Ward started as a Reason intern in 2000, and has worked at The Weekly Standard and The New York Times. Her writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Slate, and numerous other publications. She is a frequent commentator on radio and television networks such as National Public Radio, CNBC, C-SPAN, Fox Business, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC. She is a Future Tense Fellow at New America.

Dr. Dantas discusses the present crisis of antibiotic resistance, its causes, and how this problem manifests itself in very different areas of the world. He explains the innovative technical and biological approaches of the Dantas Lab toward a solution to antibiotic resistance, including a possible cure for MRSA, a particularly deadly staph infection. Dr. Dantas also talks about the importance of serendipity in scientific breakthroughs.