Past Events

The major ocean currents strongly influence regional climate stability. Today’s rapidly warming oceans will ultimately alter major currents such as the AMOC, with huge consequences for global climate. In order to predict when and where these climate shifts will occur, oceanographers gather data over a long period of time and compare that data with historical variations in ocean temperature and currents. Hali Kilbourne’s focus on 2000 years of the relationship between oceans and climate provides important data for accurate climate models.
In this discussion Dr. Kilbourne describes how scientists collect and analyze the data, and what oceanographers can predict regarding sea level changes, stability of major currents and the coming impact on global climate.

GBH Music welcomes Norwegian violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing for the next installment in our music series, playing Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Ravel, and icy music from her new album, "Arctic."

A platform that connects big ideas and solutions for planetary health with a community of the world’s leading doers at in-person events and via worldwide media distribution to help ensure our planet and species will thrive long into the future.

Join GBH and NOVA producers and content creators in screening and discussing NOVA films: Chasing Carbon Zero and Weathering the Future.

We think we know what happened in 1621 — why Thanksgiving was held, how the Wampanoag were invited, what the Pilgrims ate – but first Thanksgiving facts, as most Americans have been taught in the years since, are not exactly accurate.

Learn more about the real Thanksgiving story, as shared by Brad Musquantamôsq Lopes (Aquinnah Wampanoag), Director of Wampanoag and Indigenous Interpretation and Training at Plimoth Patuxet Museums and Tom Begley, Deputy Director of Collections, Research, & Public Engagement at Plimoth Patuxet Museums. Together, Brad and Tom will offer historical and cultural perspectives related to the first Thanksgiving story and gratitude as a way of life for Indigenous Peoples. Topics to be explored include:

- The historical events that led up to the “First Thanksgiving” feast
- Who sat at the table
- What food was served
- How long the feast lasted
- Traditions of gratitude that informed Thanksgiving
- How Thanksgiving has been observed from 1621 to today

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to separate fact from fiction with our experts, and gain a deeper understanding of the real Thanksgiving story.
 
More about our speakers
Brad Musquantamôsq Lopes is the Director of Wampanoag and Indigenous Interpretation and Training at Plimoth Patuxet Museums, located in the homelands of his people, the Wampanoag Nation. A proud citizen of the Aquinnah Wampanoag community with a degree in Secondary Education from the University of Maine at Farmington, Brad has worked as a classroom teacher, curriculum developer, and most recently as a Program Director for the Aquinnah Cultural Center on Noepe (Martha’s Vineyard). In this role, Brad oversees the Wampanoag and Indigenous training program and the implementation of interpretive content and techniques surrounding the understanding of Indigenous people both in the past and today.

Tom Begley is the Deputy Director of Collections, Research, & Public Engagement at Plimoth Patuxet Museums. He has been with the museum since 2014 and has a Bachelor's degree in U.S. History from Stonehill College and is completing his Master's degree in Public History at UMass Boston. In his current role, Tom directs the research facilities and the operations across the exhibit and living history spaces. He served as editor on the facsimile of William Bradford's Of Plimoth Plantation published in collaboration with the State Library of Massachusetts and guided Plimoth Patuxet's successful application to list Mayflower II on the National Register of Historic Places.

About Plimoth Patuxet
Plimoth Patuxet is one of the nation’s foremost living history museums. Founded in 1947, the museum creates engaging experiences of history built on thorough research about the Indigenous and European people who met along Massachusetts' historic shores in the 1600s. Immersive and educational encounters underscore the collaborations as well as the culture clash and conflicts of the 17th century people of this region. Major exhibits include the Historic Patuxet Homesite, the 17th-Century English Village, Mayflower II, and Plimoth Grist Mill.

More about Ask the Expert
At Ask the Expert, get access to experts specializing in a wide variety of topics, learn something new about a subject you are passionate about or discover a new interest. GBH invites you to drive the conversation by asking questions during the live event directly with our expert. It’s always interesting, and it’s always free!

This event is presented in partnership with Plimoth Patuxet Museums.

Photo credit: Kathy Tarantola/Plimoth Patuxet Museums

Considered “one of the iconic harpists of this new age,” ​Eduardo Betancourt​ is a Grammy-award winning Venezuelan musician, producer, arranger, composer, instructor, and multi-instrumentalist with 31 years of experience in traditional and fusion Venezuelan music. Betancourt plays on Electric ​Llanera and Camac EC harps (their design and construction he helped guide for the French harp company, ​Les Harpes Camac​).​ With his instruments, he explores and applies new sonorities to traditional Venezuelan music, giving his work a refreshing contemporary sound.

Solar has become one of the least expensive sources for new energy generation and fields of solar panels are appearing everywhere, including on forest and farmland. Most people have a sense that cutting down forests to install solar is not a good idea, but we assume it must be necessary in order to curb climate change. That was the thinking of early legislation passed to fast track solar installations without environmental review. But has that assumption stood up to the facts? This talk explore two aspects of the negative impacts of of solar installations on forest land and the viability of alternatives.

Michelle Manion, Vice President of Policy & Advocacy at Mass Audubon discusses the impacts of current trends in solar installation to nature. She reveals the conclusions of a study commissioned by Mass Audubon on the true cost of more sustainable alternatives. The talk also looks at the heat island effect of large solar installations and consider their impact on climate goals. Jessica Rempel, Natural Resources Analyst for the Cape Cod Commission, joins the discussion to discuss how to balance solar and protection of nature and landscape.

The discussion is moderated by Beck Mordini, Executive Director of Biodiversity for a Livable Climate. This talk is part of Life Saves the Planet, a partnership between Bio4Climate and the GBH Forum Network.

Join GBH Music in welcoming the Ulysses Quartet as its first-ever quartet in residence with a free performance at the GBH Studio at the Boston Public Library on Wednesday, November 8, at noon.

The ensemble will perform works by Joan Tower, traditional folk songs, and Beethoven's String Quartet No. 9, which they began recording in Fraser Performance Studio last month. The Ulysses Quartet's season-long partnership as quartet in residence furthers GBH Music's ongoing effort to connect with listeners of all backgrounds and ages. The partnership will span over fifty performances and events throughout the year, including with the Boston Public and Massachusetts schools.



Photo credit: Lara St. John

From historian and author of the popular daily newsletter LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN, a vital narrative that explains how America, once a beacon of democracy, now teeters on the brink of autocracy -- and how we can turn back.

In the midst of the impeachment crisis of 2019, Heather Cox Richardson launched a daily Facebook essay providing the historical background of the daily torrent of news. The essays soon turned into a newsletter and, spread by word of mouth, its readership ballooned to more than 2 million dedicated readers who rely on its plainspoken and informed take on the present and past in America.

In Democracy Awakening, Richardson crafts a compelling and original narrative, explaining how, over the decades, a small group of wealthy people have made war on American ideals. By weaponizing language and promoting false history they have led us into authoritarianism -- creating a disaffected population and then promising to recreate an imagined past where those people could feel important again. She argues that taking our country back starts by remembering the elements of the nation’s true history that marginalized Americans have always upheld. Their dedication to the principles on which this nation was founded has enabled us to renew and expand our commitment to democracy in the past. Richardson sees this history as a roadmap for the nation’s future.

Please notice that the in-person registration is sold out but you can register to take part to the event through zoom.

SÅINT VÅUGHN is a musical artist specializing in creative development, artistic exploration and professional expression of the mind and soul. She is a former Berklee student and independent artist based in New England. She specializes in the following crafts: Double Bass (Classical/Jazz), Electric (fretless) Bass, Singer (Classical, Jazz, Soul, Blues, Reggae, SOCA), Guitarist, Model, and photo editor.

Join us for an evening of music, wine, and food. Registration is encouraged for this free event.

Photo credit: Derek C. French

The dominant model of theological education positioned schools of theology as centers for training leaders of many different kinds of voluntary associations. But now powerful economic, political, and cultural forces are unraveling the network of voluntary associations these schools emerged to serve. The record number of people who identify as “nones”—people without any particular religious affiliation—is only one index of this unraveling. As this wider ecology comes undone, schools of theology across the spectrum are struggling for students, funds, and purposes. But the same forces that are unraveling voluntary associations are also authorizing new values, characters, and organizations. Refusing narratives of both progress and decline, Smith tries to read these developments by an eschatological light. Seeing by that light, he tries to name a series of affordances for theological education in this time between the times.

Reception starts at 6 pm and lecture starts at 6:30pm.