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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

  • Brett Finlay PhD., a microbiologist at the University of British Columbia and world leader on understanding how bacterial infections work, talks about his new book “LET THEM EAT DIRT”, in which he questions whether our hyper-vigilant hygiene practices are helping or hurting our health. In the 200 years since we first discovered that microbes cause infectious diseases, we have battled to keep them at bay. But a recent explosion of scientific knowledge has led to undeniable evidence that early exposure to these organisms is beneficial to or health. Finlay argues that our super-clean approach to living is damaging our health and the health of our children. Indeed, the imbalance of these important microbes can lead to the development of obesity, diabetes and asthma. Photo Credit: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Eating_Dirt_(3009282976).jpg "")
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  • Join the conversation as Cambridge Forum investigates one of the most urgent issues facing American society – loneliness. We will attempt to unravel some of the causes of this pernicious condition and consider the ways to ward off, or at least alleviate, the curse of loneliness. With the help of four great minds from different disciplines, all of whom have written extensively on the theme of friendship or loneliness, we will consider why loneliness is a such a growing sociological phenomenon in our hi-tech, super-wired world. Neuroscientific research seems to suggest that our brains are indeed wired to connect, but they prefer human rather than digital interaction. So what constitutes true friendship and can a device ever substitute for the power of human touch? Our panel consists of Dr. Terry Freiberg, a social psychologist and author of Four Seasons of Loneliness; Dr. Amy Banks, a psychiatrist at Wellesley Centers for Women and author of Wired to Connect: The Surprising Link between Brain Science and Strong, Healthy Relationships; Professor Alex Pentland, who directs the MIT Connection Science and Human Dynamics Labs and co-author of a recent study in the journal PLOS , Are you Your Friends’ Friend? Poor Perception of Friendship Ties; and Professor Alexander Nehamas, Princeton philosopher and author of the book On Friendship. Image Credit: http://www.cambridgeforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/mobilephone.jpg
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  • Cambridge Forum in collaboration with [Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard](http://ethics.harvard.edu/ "") host a facilitated discussion with three authors who have recent publications on the complex issues of race and structural injustice, and the steps that citizens and governments can take to find practical solutions to problems such as mass incarceration, extreme poverty in disadvantaged communities, and problematic notions of black criminality. Professor Danielle Allen moderates the discussion with Professors Tommie Shelby, Elizabeth Hinton and Khalil Gibran Muhammed. Photo: Richard Ashurst/Flickr Photo: [Richard Ashurst/Flickr](https://www.flickr.com/photos/-wichid/4670515071 "")
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  • In the past thirty years, the concept of parenting and the multibillion-dollar industry surrounding it have transformed child care into obsessive, controlling, goal-oriented labor intended to create a particular kind of child and thereby a particular kind of adult. In _The Gardener and the Carpenter_, developmental psychologist and philosopher Alison Gopnik argues that the familiar twenty-first-century picture of parents and children is profoundly wrong - it's not just based on bad science, it's also bad for kids and parents. Photo: [Pixbay](https://pixabay.com/en/family-together-parenting-lifestyle-492891/ "")
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  • In 1996, **Amy Goodman** began hosting a show on Pacifica Radio called _Democracy Now!_ to focus on the issues and movements that are too often ignored by the corporate media. Today _Democracy Now!_ is the largest public media collaboration in the US, broadcasting on over 1,400 public television and radio stations around the world, with millions accessing it online at DemocracyNow.org. Now Amy, along with her journalist brother, David, and co-author Denis Moynihan, share stories of the heroes - the whistleblowers, the organizers, the protesters - who have brought about remarkable change. In her book _Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America_ (2016), Amy Goodman looks back over the past two decades of _Democracy Now!_ and the powerful movements and charismatic leaders who are reshaping our world. She takes the reader along as she goes to where the silence is, bringing out voices from the streets of Ferguson to Staten Island, Wall Street, South Carolina to East Timor — and other places where people are rising up to demand justice. _Democracy Now!_ is the modern day underground railroad of information, bringing stories from the grassroots to a global audience. (Photo: ChrisEaves.com (Amy Goodman) [[CC BY 2.0](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 "CC License")], via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amy_Goodman_in_2010.jpg "Amy Goodman Democracy Now Cover"), image cropped)
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  • What is killing our honey bees and can we save them? Bees don't just make honey, they pollinate a third of our food supply - but bee colonies are disappearing at an alarming rate in the United States. In addition to being ecologically essential insects, bees are highly social and complex creatures that have been subjected to a barrage of attacks ranging from parasitic mites to high levels of exposure to pesticides and herbicides. In recognition of Earth Day, **Noah Wilson-Rich** from Best Bees and **David Hackenberg**, apiarist and owner of Buffy Bees, examine the plight of the poor honey bee. (Photo: [Flickr/Martin LaBar](https://www.flickr.com/photos/martinlabar/14164641808/ "All About Bees butterflyweed"), image cropped)
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  • Climate change has forced us to rethink our options about many things, including how and where we grow our food. **James Miner**, Principal of urban design and planning at Sasaki Associates in Watertown, has focused much of his practice on creating more sustainable communities for future generations. **Jessie Banhazl**, founder and CEO of Green City Growers, helps to change people's perception of what is possible through her own rooftop farming revolution, growing fresh food in the most unlikely places. Miner, who lectures and writes extensively on how local food can be used to promote economic development, and Banhazl, who uses her work to prove that sustainable agriculture can be both healthy and profitable, discuss their opinions on the future of agriculture in an age where finding sustainable solutions for growing healthy food is paramount.
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  • The bulk of mainstream media in the U.S. is owned by a handful of corporations that continue to gobble up smaller outlets and independent presses. Some say that we have created a perfect echo chamber and that the plurality of a free press is just a sad joke. Turning on the TV or scrolling through the headlines offers only the illusion of choice. So is the media monopoly almost complete? Is there any cause for optimism in the new journalistic market place? In its pre-election coverage, does the national press corps reveal its true colors? **Lonnie Isabel**, professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, **Peter S. Goodman**, Global Editor-in-Chief of the International Business Times, and **Sam Fleming**, Director of News and Programming at WBUR, offer their answers to these questions.
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  • In today's technologically advanced society, smartphones make communication quicker and more convenient than ever, but this ease of communication does not come without consequences. **Sherry Turkle**, in her 2015 book _Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age_, interviews young people who have grown up in the age of technology and cautions us of the impact our virtual relationships and scripted conversations could have on our propensity for empathy and quality of face-to-face interactions. Dr. Turkle, in this lecture, discusses her book and the dilemma posed by the growing reliance on smartphones among young people and their parents. How can we reap the benefits of technology while striking a balance between our real and virtual lives? (Photo: [Flickr/Nicolas Nova](https://www.flickr.com/photos/nnova/15972323994/in/photolist-qZYCjX-e4Gdy3-fkhCNa-qkqkss-2GGPi-jYox9U-sy4Qag-rSCbtk-6WpyLA-cpUaqS-b4g79a-q8kWtT-pqmvfD-egeb1W-eg4knK-egpyFd-oUqbHS-o3nsh1-xFa6v3-ykyzCN-yBdNK5-ykyzAd-ykzQsy-xFinza-ykzQjN-yBdNp5-yCbzgx-ykyzh7-ykzQ85-yBdNiU-yBdNas-yCVJEn-yBdN3y-yCbyZR-yzS51s-yBdMPN-yCbyN8-ykzPGf-yCVJik-xFa5pW-yBdMA1-ykyyB9-yCVJ7Z-yCbyuc-ykEGQF-yCVJ2i-yzS4jY-yCbyiF-ykyyjW-xFa4ZC/ "Smartphone"), image cropped)
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  • After the Paris attacks, many feel that the world has entered a new and terrible "reign of terror." This lecture kicks off the Cambridge Forum's Deep Globalization series by considering the challenges of balancing security concerns with protecting our privacy. How do we track down terrorists who use encryption to communicate and coordinate attacks while simultaneously safeguarding our own personal data? Greg Nojeim, director of the Freedom, Security, and Technology Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology in Washington, D.C., discusses how to protect privacy in the digital age against surveillance and intrusion by the U.S. government. (Image: Peter Merholz/Flickr)
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