Past Events

This event is SOLD OUT. Please join the waitlist. We will be in touch with you if tickets open up.

Explore the life and prolific works of artist, scientist, and engineer Leonardo da Vinci in Ken Burns’s latest film LEONARDO da VINCI. Following a sneak peek of clips from the film, GBH President and CEO Susan Goldberg will moderate a conversation with filmmakers Ken Burns and his co-director and Sarah Burns. The Museum of Fine Arts’ Senior Curator of European Sculpture & Phillips Curator of Judaica, Marietta Cambareri, will also join the panel to discuss the unique genius of this Italian Renaissance polymath.

About the film
LEONARDO da VINCI follows the artist’s evolution as a draughtsman and painter, scientist and engineer, who used notebooks to explore an astonishing array of subjects including painting, philosophy, engineering, warfare, anatomy, and geography, among many others. Though he intended to publish his writings, he never did, but the film delves into those he left behind to get inside his mind as he strove to master the laws of nature and apply them to his endeavors.

LEONARDO da VINCI looks at how the artist influenced and inspired future generations, and it finds in his soaring imagination and profound intellect the foundation for a conversation we are still having today: what is our relationship with nature and what does it mean to be human.

LEONARDO da VINCI will air November 18 and 19, at 8-10pm ET (check local listings) on GBH, PBS.org and the PBS App.

About Ken Burns
Ken Burns is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who has directed and produced numerous acclaimed historical documentaries over the past fifty years, including the Academy Award nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, The Civil War, The Vietnam War, and Country Music. He has been honored with multiple Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

About Sarah Burns
Sarah Burns is an author and documentary producer, best known for her work on The Central Park Five and Jackie Robinson. Her documentaries have won several awards and nominations, including a Peabody Award and Writers Guild of America award.

About Marietta Cambareri
Marietta Cambareri, Ph.D., is Senior Curator of European Sculpture and Phillips Curator of Judaica at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She curated and wrote the publications accompanying the exhibitions Della Robbia: Sculpting with Color in Renaissance Florence (MFA, Boston and the National Gallery of Art, 2016-17) and Strong Women in Renaissance Italy (MFA, Boston, Fall 2024), and was lead curator on the recent installation of two galleries of Italian Renaissance art.

This event is presented by GBH and Bank of America.

By RSVPing for this event, you agree to receive timely news and updates on events, films, and special offers from GBH.

Cambridge Forum continues its series AI: Servant or Master with Greg Epstein

exploring the global worship of technology and discussing what prompted him to write Tech Agnostic. Epstein contends that technology has overtaken religion as the chief influencer in 21st Century life and community. He questions whether technology is deserving of our trust, and who profits from our uncritical faith in it? Epstein argues for tech agnosticism, not worship, and encourages us all to exert a critical freethinking perspective toward innovation, until it proves itself worthy of our faith.

He will be joined by Gideon Lichfield, journalist and science writer, former editor-in-chief of WIRED magazine and MIT Technology Review He now focuses on the future of democracy and governance which he covers in his weekly newsletter, Futurepolis.

The state-run guardianship system, called conservatorship in some states, is largely unregulated, ill-understood, and increasingly populated by financially motivated predators. Just how guardianship works and its real-life effects remained a mystery to most until the very public case of pop star Britney Spears. It suddenly became clear that those conscripted into the system lose all their civil rights in the process. Currently, there are an estimated 1.5 to 2 million Americans under court control, but no one can say for sure how many are affected because no government entity keeps track of citizens who have lost the right to determine their own fate.

Established in the late 1800s, the guardianship system was designed to assist the most vulnerable citizens: the elderly and the physically or intellectually disabled. While guardianship has been beneficial to many “wards of the court,” this little-understood process can be a judicial rollercoaster from which there is seldom an escape, and which often leads to financial devastation for the ward. Each year, fifty billion dollars belonging to wards are placed under the control of court appointees, tempting bad actors. As investigative journalist Diane Dimond discovers, the number of exploitive and abusive guardianship cases nationwide demands our urgent attention.

Explosive and compelling, We're Here to Help tells the human stories behind the headlines and shows how to avoid the risks of voluntary or involuntary guardianship.

GBH Music and JazzBoston are co-hosting a new series to showcase the breadth of incredible jazz talent in the Greater Boston area. The event is held on the second Thursday of every month through February.

This month, hear Latin rhythms fused with a modern jazz concept, led by acclaimed Puerto Rican flutist Kristalis Sotomayor.

GBH Jazz Nights are made possible by the Goldstein Family Fund.

With the General Election fast approaching, Massachusetts’ top law enforcement official — Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell — discusses the importance of voting in 2024, and her efforts to promote voter access and participation, and ensure voter protection in the Commonwealth.  

Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell will be in conversation with Celia Johnston Blue, President & CEO of the Massachusetts Women of Color Coalition (MAWOCC).

This talk is a partnership between MassINC and GBH Forum Network supported by
the Massachusetts Women of Color Coalition (MAWOCC).

Camille T. Dungy is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Trophic Cascade, which won the Colorado Book Award. She is also the author of the essay collections Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden and Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood and History, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Dungy has also edited anthologies including Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry and From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great. A 2019 Guggenheim Fellow, her honors include NEA Fellowships in poetry (2003) and prose (2018), an American Book Award, two NAACP Image Award nominations, and two Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominations. Dungy’s poems have been published in Best American Poetry, The 100 Best African American Poems, the Pushcart Anthology, Best American Travel Writing, and over thirty other anthologies. She is University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University.

Cosponsored by the Boston College Poetry Days Series, American Studies Program, and English Department.

New England has a rich apparel and textile manufacturing history. The United States' industrial revolution started here, and many of the region's famous families made their first fortunes in textile, shoe, and apparel production. Over the past 40 years, much of that industry has vanished as companies have been forced to deal with ever cheaper imports from abroad.

Now, a new group of entrepreneurs is reviving every aspect of this legacy. Why are they doing it? What does it take to breathe life into a dying industry? And will they succeed?

This far-reaching conversation with journalist Rachel Slade, author of Making It in America, and Michelle Finamore, fashion historian, author, and curator, will explore New England's manufacturing legacy while exploring the ways new companies are revitalizing centuries-old industries.

Go beyond the page with acclaimed author Danzy Senna! Known for her works on race, gender, and American identity, Senna will talk about, her writing process, challenges, and more. She will answer your questions and will share insights into her new novel, Colored Television, which released on September 3, 2024.

Danzy Senna is the author of five works of fiction, including the bestselling Caucasia (set partly in Boston and Roxbury), New People, Symptomatic, and her forthcoming novel Colored Television, a collection of short stories, and a memoir. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, she teaches writing at the University of Southern California.

GBH News' Phillip Martin moderates the conversation.

This event is presented with support from our sponsor Liberty Mutual Insurance.


This event is presented by GBH with support from the Boston Book Festival which returns to Boston this October.

GBH Music will introduce new listeners to opera in a video series produced in collaboration with Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) and New England Conservatory (NEC). Designed for newcomers and seasoned enthusiasts, “Getting into Opera” aims to ignite a passion for the genre by showcasing how powerful performances are shaped by vocal coaching and stage direction. The innovative multi-platform video series will be filmed in front of a live audience in GBH’s acoustically acclaimed Fraser Performance Studio.

Due to an unexpected illness, Carol Vaness will be unable to host this Getting Into Opera event. However, GBH Music is thrilled to announce that acclaimed Bass-Baritone Davóne Tines, in town for a performance with A Far Cry, has generously stepped in to lead the session.

“Getting into Opera” will be hosted by Anthony Rudel, author of “Tales from the Opera,” “Classical Music Top 40,” and “Imagining Don Giovanni.” Joshua Major, Chair of Opera Studies at NEC and Bradley Vernatter, BLO’s Stanford Calderwood General Director & CEO, will also share perspectives on producing operas as part of the series.

“Getting into Opera” will be available free of charge on YouTube and other platforms.


How it works:

Event timeline:

7-9:15pm Performance in Fraser

9:15-10pm Dessert Reception in the Atrium


This event is FREE but registration is required.

Photo credit: GBH Creative

Join the Paul Revere House for the second event in their 2024 Lowell Lecture Series. This three-part series focuses on the lesser-known express assignments Paul Revere completed. Speakers will share the importance of his courier work as part of a communications system that involved complex overlapping networks of leaders of all stations. The series will also explore the very practical aspects of long-distance horse journeys and the local colonial politics in key communities Revere interacted with.

Horses first appeared in New England in 1629, when Francis Higginson shipped approximately 25 mares and stallions from Leicestershire, England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Horses were central to survival in terms of work, travel, communication, and leisure. However, for New Englanders, horses were also a staple exportation commodity, and by the mid-eighteenth century New England led the way in shipping horses to the sugar colonies. Amongst the diverse types of horses that were raised in New England, the Narragansett Pacer was exceptional in many ways. The Pacer’s easy gait made it suitable for both long-distance travel and racing. The Pacer was the first “truly” American breed of horse, and it was in high demand all around the Atlantic World. However, from such promising beginnings, the Pacer was extinct by the next century. The talk will examine how the Narragansett Pacer emerged in Rhode Island in the 17th century, what made it so special as riding horse, how the breed is connected to well-known people including Paul Revere and George Washington, and how it has been memorialized in literature and art.

Presented in partnership with GBH, the Suffolk University History Department, Milton Historical Society/Suffolk Resolves House (Milton, MA), Carpenters’ Hall (Philadelphia, PA), Fraunces Tavern Museum (New York, NY), and the Portsmouth Athenaeum (Portsmouth, NH), with funding from the Lowell Institute. For more information, please contact staff@paulreverehouse.org or visit paulreverehouse.org.