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Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

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Cambridge Forum

Let Cambridge Forum change your mind....

Cambridge Forum hosts free, public discussions that inform and engage, so that people can better explore the varied issues and ideas that shape our changing world. CF broadcasts its live events via podcasts, weekly NPR shows and online presentations via GBH Forum Network on YouTube.

http://www.cambridgeforum.org

  • Cows are big methane machines and not very efficient ones, and everyone agrees that we need to reduce our carbon footprint. As people are becoming better informed about choices and what they’re putting into their bodies, they are looking at the “costs” from a health perspective, for animals and for the environment. Changes are afoot. Who knew that Burger King would be offering the Impossible Whopper made from plant-based protein instead of meat? And veganism, which used to be a fringe-movement, has now morphed into a hip lifestyle. Scientists are already working on cell-based meat products which will be on sale to the public next year. To help us understand the issues, we have scientists, philosophers and businessmen. Dr. Walter Willett, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard is joined by Nina Gheihman, a sociologist at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and two entrepreneurs, Truman French and Tucker Pforzheimer, who are running a business, growing shiitake mushrooms on Martha’s Vineyard. Image: [Pexels.com](http://www.pexels.com/photo/ham-and-bacon-burger-2983098/)
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    Cambridge Forum
  • Protests in Hong Kong have escalated over the summer of 2019 with pro-Democracy demonstrators galvanized in response to the Chinese government’s crackdown. Cambridge Forum examines the situation both inside and outside mainland China with regard to human rights.Teng Biao, is a human rights lawyer attached to the U.S.-Asia Law Institute, at NYU and he is joined by Uyghur-American Salih Hudayar and activist Kyle Olbert, who discusses the challenges facing both the Chinese Communist party and the ethnic minorities who resist the Chinese policy of oppression which they say is being carried out under the guise of “counter-terrorism”. Image: [Voice of America](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Protesters_waving_the_Hong_Kong_colonial_flag_in_front_of_China_liaison_office_in_Hong_Kong_02.jpg)
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    Cambridge Forum
  • McIntyre traces the development of the post-truth phenomenon from science denial through the rise of “fake news,” from our psychological blind spots to the public’s retreat into “information silos.” Lee McIntyre is a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University and an Instructor in Ethics at Harvard Extension School. Image: Book Cover
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    Cambridge Forum
  • In _They Were Her Property_, Jones-Roger writes that women typically inherited more slaves than land, and that enslaved people were often their primary source of wealth. Not only did white women often refuse to cede ownership of their slaves to their husbands, they employed management techniques that were as effective and brutal as those used by slave-owning men. White women actively participated in the slave market, profited from it, and used it for economic and social empowerment. By examining the economically entangled lives of enslaved people and slave-owning women, Jones-Rogers presents a narrative that forces us to rethink the economics and social conventions of slaveholding America. Image: Book Cover
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    Cambridge Forum
  • Cambridge Forum and Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation co-present former poet laureate Richard Blanco who reads from and talks about his new book, _How To Love A Country._ As a presidential inaugural poet, educator, and advocate, Blanco has crisscrossed the nation inviting communities to connect to the heart of the human experience and our shared identity as a country. In this new collection of poems, his first in over seven years, Blanco continues to invite a conversation with all Americans.
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    Cambridge Forum Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation
  • Author John Leland explores a simple yet profound question in his latest book _Happiness Is a Choice You Make: Lessons From a Year Among the Oldest Old._ Drawing upon interviews with some of the oldest residents of New York City, listening to them weave tales of experience and wisdom they have gained as they approach their twilight years, Leland gives us sound advice on the pursuit of happiness. Image Source: Book Cover
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    Cambridge Forum
  • Computers are learning to read our emotions and it is big business. Alexa will soon be servicing all our needs. But can we really trust the robots? Join Judith Shulevitz, from the Atlantic Monthly, and Maxim Pozdorovkin, film-maker of The Truth About Killer Robots, as they discuss the future of robots.
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    Cambridge Forum
  • Drawing on his work with skinheads, neo-Nazis and KKK members, sociologist Michael Kimmel considers the root causes of this addiction and how to bring marginalized men back from society’s extremist edge. He is joined by former neo-Nazis Frank Meeink and Tony McAleer, two men who can speak personally to the violence they conducted and how they are devoting their lives now to healing from their pasts and speaking publicly to prevent others from exploring that path. Image by [Evan Nesterak](https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61723994 "") - White supremacists clash with police, CC BY 2.0,
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    Cambridge Forum
  • Investigative journalist Carey Gillam writes about Monsanto, the global agri-chemical corporation, which recently merged with Bayer and is now worth $60 billion. In a recent court battle in San Francisco, the company lost against one individual groundskeeper who is dying from lymphoma. DeWayne “Lee" Johnson attributes his cancer to the use of Monsanto’s ubiquitous weedkiller,RoundUp. He won $289 million in compensation. This landmark lawsuit has opened the door for hundreds of other cancer cases to proceed to trial. For her work, Gillam received the prestigious Rachel Carson Book Award for unveiling decades of corporate secrets and deceptive tactics by powerful pesticide companies, and exposing how the corporate pursuit of profits has taken priority over protection of the public. Image: Bookcover
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    Cambridge Forum
  • Chris Hedges, who writes a regular column for truthdig, and was a foreign correspondent for The New York Times for nearly two decades, seeks to jolt us out of our complacency about the current state of affairs, while we still have time. In conversation with Chris Lydon, producer & presenter of WBUR’s “Open Source”, Hedges discusses his latest book, 'America: The Farewell Tour.'
    Image: Book Cover
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    Cambridge Forum