Past Events

How much CO2 does the much-promoted carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology actually extract from the atmosphere—and at what cost? Answer: very little extraction and at great cost with serious environmental risks. CCS keeps the fossil fuel industry going at taxpayer expense, although renewable energy and biological sequestration are available, much less expensive, and environmentally beneficial --definitely the only viable solution to the excess atmospheric CO2 crisis. This discussion provides important facts the public rarely gets.

Seaweed often gets a bad rap – maybe it just has the wrong name! Many regard it as a nuisance – slimy, smelly stuff that mars our beaches, entangles us while swimming and not good for much, except of course making sushi. But an increasing number of marine scientists, ecologists, entrepreneurs and foodies are beginning to appreciate seaweed’s remarkable properties. The benefits of seaweed are enormous and we are only starting to explore its myriad applications, from farming to pharmaceuticals, from food to packaging. Some species can take CO2 out of the atmosphere at 5 x the rate of land-based plants, and in addition to being a sustainable food source for humans and animals, it is one of the fastest growing plants. Nori provides more protein than soy, more vitamin C than orange juice and it is full of Omega 3s, iodine, zinc and magnesium – and it doesn’t require agro-chemicals, fertilizer or antibiotics! Seaweed has been called the miracle crop because it can be cultivated easily, protects the planets by trapping carbon, it provides many foodstuffs, supplies jobs and generally does good. Of course, in some parts of the world, like Ireland, farmers have been cultivating seaweed as an animal food and fertilizer for centuries. Our Forum will talk to experts around the world about why they are so excited about algae and how they became involved in this huge field of sustainable seaweed aquaculture. Please join our discussion with Dr. Stefan Kraan, a Dutch marine biologist and founder of the The Seaweed Company in Galway, Ireland who specializes in high-quality, seaweed products that he produces in Ireland, India, Morocco and the Netherlands. Sean Barrett is the founder of Dock to Dish, an expansive network of small-scale community-based fishery programs, as well as The Montauk Seaweed Supply Company in Long Island. Sean is currently pioneering a “sea to soil” movement to revive an ancient symbiotic relationship between regional gardens, farmlands and local oceans through the cultivation of macroalgae, such as sugar kelp, which he converts into fertilizer and livestock feed. Vincent Doumeizel is Senior Advisor for the UN Global Compact, Head of the Safe Seaweed Coalition and director of the food program at Lloyd’s Register Foundation. Image credit : Pexels # Resources [Article from The Guardian about Seaweed Farming in NY](https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/26/new-york-seaweed-farming-kelp-producers)

The pandemic also saw many roads and streets emptied of traffic, and more demand for safe outdoor spaces. Planners took a fresh look at how we used pavement, while MassDOT and the Barr Foundation provided new funding programs for cities and towns to create new outdoor dining and parks, while accelerating the buildup of dedicated lanes for buses, bikes and pedestrians. In just the last 2 years, 183 communities have created 310 projects with the Shared Streets and Spaces program, while several cities and towns have established new dedicated lanes for buses and bikes. What are the results, who wins and loses when we relocate our limited pavement, and what should we expect in the coming years? Bob Seay, GBH News Reporter, will moderate the discussion. Guest panelists are: Christian MilNeil, Editor in Chief, Streetsblog.org, Lisa Jacobson, Senior Program Officer, Mobility at Barr Foundation, Elijah Evans, Executive Director Bikes Not Bombs and Jay Monty, Transportation Planner, City of Everett.

As cultural criticism becomes more valuable than ever, marginalized writers are still routinely pushed to the sidelines and no one is more ostracized than the Black woman critic. But what happens when they manage to find the courage to write–and ultimately find success–anyway? Join award-winning Boston Globe cultural columnist Jeneé Osterheldt as she moderates a discussion among journalist Clarissa Brooks, writer, cultural critic, and community organizer, Erica Campbell, News Editor at NME, and Candace McDuffie, journalist and cultural critic, as they explore this topic in depth. ### Resources Books that inspired Clarissa: [Misogynoir](https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/misogynoir-transformed-black-womens-digital-resistance_moya-bailey/27142551/item/47825335/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw4PKTBhD8ARIsAHChzRKoOuoT1rUk2vypC1Uu6z19R7vIcZSeLWUexSs_NzNoS7hDoMDKaxYaApt5EALw_wcB#idiq=47825335&edition=58138873) - ['Glitch Feminism'](https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/glitch-feminism-a-manifesto/26138950/item/41838276/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw4PKTBhD8ARIsAHChzRKFWg5GKAzFraqNEkLWiHA6D2xUGLWLIl9cEZ42DEfrM7baCn2J_XoaAi2TEALw_wcB#isbn=1786632667&idiq=41838276) [Jia Tolentino on what happens when life is an endless performance](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/jia-tolentino-on-what-happens-when-life-is-endless/id1081584611?i=1000447807714) [The Guardian: The journalist as influencer: how we sell ourselves on social media](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/oct/20/caroline-calloway-writers-journalists-social-media-influencers) [Black Criticism Is Always Good — Especially When Black Art Isn’t](https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2021/05/10463837/black-criticism-important-them-series-backlash) [NY Times: The Vitality of Black Criticism](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/07/arts/music/black-critics-pop-conference.html) [What Happens When the Line Between Hip-Hop Journalist & Online Personality Becomes Blurry?](https://www.okayplayer.com/culture/no-jumper-dj-akademiks-hip-hop-journalist-2018.html)

Russia and the United States have many areas of conflict and some possible areas of mutual interest. Arms control, Russian interference in U.S. elections and support of cyberattacks, and the fate of opposition politicians in Russia all continue to be concerning. Now, with Russia’s war in Ukraine, the relationship between Russia and the U.S. has become particularly fraught. How will the Biden administration approach these issues, and how will the U.S.-Russia relationship be affected for years to come? Join WorldBoston for a discussion of this complex topic with Dr. Alexandra Vacroux, Executive Director of the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University.

Public transportation needs to change to be clean, reliable and more attractive to riders. That requires money. Over the next five years Massachusetts will receive more than 9 billion dollars in new federal infrastructure funding. This is in addition to existing state and federal funding for transportation. What are our needs for investments and for operations? Is there enough funding to make our transit system modern, climate-friendly, reliable and safe? At a time when we need to slash carbon emissions and pollution from transportation, and encourage more people to take transit. What are the funding priorities? Join Josh Ostroff,of the Transportation for Massachusetts Coalition, Lizzi Weyant of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, and Brian Kane, Executive Director of the MBTA Advisory Board for this informative discussion moderated by Bob Seay of GBH. ### Resources [MBTA 2023-2027 Capital Improvement Plan - Oversight Report](https://mbtaadvisoryboard.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/AB_CIP_oversightFINAL4-29-22.pdf) [MBTA Proposed Fare Tariff Changes for FY 23 - Oversight Report](https://mbtaadvisoryboard.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/MBTAFareTariffOversightReport3-8-22.pdf) [FY2022 MBTA Operating Budget Oversight Report](http://mbtaadvisoryboard.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/FY22MBTAOpsBud.pdf) [Born Broke How too much debt and a faltering financing source threaten the MBTA](https://mbtaadvisoryboard.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Born_Broke.pdf) [Article in the Commonwealth Magazine](https://commonwealthmagazine.org/transportation/let-the-mbta-plan-its-own-future/) [MAPC ARPA Investment priorities](https://www.mapc.org/resource-library/arpa-priorities/) [MAPC list of IIJA resources](https://www.mapc.org/resource-library/iija/) [MAPC transportation finance recommendations](https://www.mapc.org/planning101/mapc-releases-transportation-finance-recommendations/)

Catherine Filloux is an internationally recognized award-winning playwright who has been writing about human rights and social justice for over 25 years. Her new one-person play “Under the Skin” is about the internationally acclaimed visual artist and human rights activist Claudia Bernardi, who is part of a generation that grew up in Argentina under a military junta, Filloux and Bernardi show clips from the virtual workshop of the play and share how they embarked on this collaboration of trust, having first met in Belfast, Northern Ireland. They discuss aspects of the play including its historical perspectives, Bernardi’s participation with the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team, as well as the community art model Bernardi has shared with communities that suffered political violence in many parts of the world. The conversation is moderated by Toni Shapiro-Phim, PhD, a Brandeis University professor whose work focuses on efforts at the nexus of the arts, human rights, and social justice concerns, and who has worked with Filloux and Bernardi in theatrical, educational, and community endeavors. ### Resources The Disappeared Are Appearing: Murals that Recover Communal Memory International Journal of Transitional Justice Oxford University Press Published: 26 November 2019 Claudia Bernardi: Author [Abstract](https://academic.oup.com/ijtj/article-abstract/14/1/193/5643962) [Article (free access)](https://academic.oup.com/ijtj/article/14/1/193/5643962?guestAccessKey=3d64083b-09fe-45ed-81a4-9d64b29b6ae3) [Argentinian Artist Claudia Bernardi Visually Unearths Brutalities Of Past Present](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackieabramian/2021/01/07/argentinian-artist-claudia-bernardi-visually-unearths-brutalities-of-past-and-present/?sh=75f959b53a07) By Jackie Abramian FORBES Magazine [“La Bestia/ The Beast”](https://solispress.com/9781910146460.html) Claudia Bernardi: Author Voices On The Move: An Anthology About And By Refugees Edited by Domnica Radulescu and Roxana Cazan Solis Press/ England 2020 [Cartography](https://smoca.org/2020/06/17/museum-musings-claudia-bernardi/ ) Claudia Bernardi: Author Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art [Second Chances](https://directory.weadartists.org/second-chances) Claudia Bernardi: Author WEAD, Women Eco Artists Dialog [“The Tenacity of Memory”](https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9783319749648) by Claudia Bernardi “Doubling the Voice, Expanding the Frame: Re-imagining Witnessing Against Torture” Bringing together the voices of torture survivors from TASSC International with non-survivor academics, clinicians, and advocates Edited by Elizabeth Swanson, Ph. D. and Alexandra Schultheis Moore [Horrors and Dreams](http://clas.berkeley.edu/research/art-horrors-and-dreams) Claudia Bernardi: Author Berkeley Review of Latin American Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Fall 2015. “Urdimbre de Historia” Claudia Bernardi: Author Aesthethika, Revista Internacional de Estudio e Investigación Interdisciplinaria sobre Subjetividad, Política y Arte International Journal for the Study and International Investigation of Subjectivity, Politics and Art. Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Vol 8, No 1, Septiembre 2012 ISSN 1553-5053 [Version online](http://www.aesthethika.org/Urdimbre-de-historias) “An Angel Passes By: Silence and Memories at El Mozote” Claudia Bernardi: Author “Inhabiting Memory: Essays on Memory and Human Rights in the Americas” Edited by Marjorie Agosin Wing Press, San Antonio, Texas “The Moral Imagination Embodied/ Insights from Artists Navigating Hybrid Identities In Scholarship and Practice” by Kathryn M. Lance The International Journal of Conflict Engagement and Resolution 2016 (4) 1 55 doi: 10.5553/IJCER/221199652016004001004

At the start of the pandemic, federal subsidies helped to keep public transit running even though there were few passengers. There was less of a need to collect fares and in fact many Regional Transit Authorities did not. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu first promoted the idea of free bus service as a city councilor, the idea became reality when she took office. Using 8 million dollars in federal Covid relief money, Mayor Wu made 3 of the busiest routes in Boston free for the next 2 years. Other transit agencies like the Merrimack Valley and Worcester RTAs are also adopting fare free models. And the creation of a means-tested fare system to make transit more affordable for low income riders is under consideration by the MBTA with the encouragement of many transit advocacy groups. We will look at the pros and cons of making mass transit more affordable. How do we create free fares, or lower fares for low-income riders? What would affordable transportation look like? What is the effect on ridership? And what will happen to the current fare free pilots when the COVID-19 relief funds are depleted? ### Resources [UnFare Deal report: How Fare Policy at Baker’s MBTA Transfers Wealth from Riders to Corporations](https://publictransitpublicgood.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/PTPG_Un-Fare-Deal-Report.pdf) [H. 4481 An Act Relative to Low Income Fares](https://malegislature.gov/Bills/192/H4481) [Low-Income Fare savings white paper](https://publictransitpublicgood.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/PTPG_Low-Income-Fare-Savings-Report-1.pdf) [Polling from MassINC](https://www.massincpolling.com/the-topline/poll-massachusetts-voters-support-new-transportation-investment-taxing-million-dollar-earners) [Fair Share Amendment](https://www.raiseupma.org/fair-share-amendment-2022/) [A low-income fare at the MBTA would bolster struggling Massachusetts families with $500 annual savings per rider](https://publictransitpublicgood.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/PTPG_Low-Income-Fare-Savings-Report-1.pdf)

It feels like a new Cold War is upon us – Russia poses an alarming extrinsic threat to the American concept of freedom, and to Western ideas of democratic values. Russia’s terrible assault on Ukraine and the recent elections of pro-Putin regimes in Hungary and Serbia, coincide with a growing threat to American democracy from within its own borders. JOHN SHATTUCK, an international legal scholar and human rights leader, is currently Professor of Practice in Diplomacy at Tufts after a long and distinguished career in academia and government. In the early post-Cold War years, he was responsible for coordinating and implementing U.S. efforts to promote human rights, democracy and international labor rights. The first U.S. official to reach and interview survivors of the genocide at Srebrenica, he helped negotiate the Dayton peace agreement that ended the war in Bosnia and was instrumental in the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He also served President Clinton as U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic from 1998-2000. His new book ‘Holding Together: the hijacking of rights in America’ is co-authored with SUSHMA RAMAN, Executive Director and Mathias Risse, faculty director at the Harvard Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. Shattuck and Raman will join the Forum to discuss the current world crisis with regard to human rights, a fight which challenges Americans domestically, as well as internationally. Raman is the host of Justice Matters podcast and a contributor to Foreign Policy magazine; she brings two decades of experience in launching and leading social justice and human rights’ initiatives to her position as director at the Carr Center. Are you alarmed at the steady deterioration of common purpose among your fellow Americans or are you more concerned about the international disregard for human rights and democratic values, we have witnessed in Ukraine and beyond? Join this spirited discussion to investigate what can be done.

Life Is Good Co-Founder John Jacobs in conversation with Boston Public Library President David Leonard will instruct on the power of optimism, sharing how a Boston-based family business grew into a million-dollar lifestyle brand that changes lives through its charitable foundation and simple wisdom. An audience Q&A session will follow the discussion. When John and his brother Bert started the now $100 million company in 1994, they had $78 in their pockets, lived out of their van, and sold t-shirts on the streets of Boston. Was this their way of avoiding the “real world”? You betcha. Did it turn into something much bigger? Absolutely. It has been 25 years since they sold their first t-shirt, but John and Bert champion the same mission: to spread the power of optimism. On their journey, they’ve been inspired by a vibrant community of resilient optimists — people from all walks of life who identify deeply with the brand and who constantly demonstrate the depth and meaning behind the three simple words “Life is Good.”