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Forum Network

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

  • Witness To History: Remembering Freedom Summer

    Wed, Nov 19, 2014
    Afro-Puerto Rican folksinger, songwriter, actor, and story-teller Jack Landron, remembers his journey from Boston to Mississippi during the Freedom Summer of 1964. Landron worked in the Freedom Schools once served as personal assistant to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr . With family roots in Puerto Rico and years growing up in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood, Landron studied theater at Emerson College. Hear his unique perspective on the Civil Rights Movement in a discussion with folklorist Millie Rahn, hosted by the Cambridge Forum. Learn what moved him to travel south that summer and how did his journey affect him then, and over the course of his career.
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    Christ Actually: Jesus in the 21st Century

    Wed, Dec 10, 2014
    **Hosted at the First Parish in Cambridge, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue** Award-winning author **James Carroll** discusses his new book, _Christ Actually: The Son of God for The Secular Age_ with Harvey Cox of Harvard Divinity School. Carroll asks what can we believe-and how can we believe in—Jesus in the post-20th century world of wars and Holocaust and the drift from religion that followed. Carroll revisits Christ’s crucial identity as a Jew. What can the ordinary humanness of the Christ figure mean to the 21st century? How can Christ, who is no Christian himself, transcend Christianity to speak to people in today’s world?
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  • Masha Gessen: Putin's War - Against the West

    Wed, Nov 12, 2014
    Russian-American journalist and LGBT activist **Masha Gessen** visited First Parish in Cambridge to discuss Vladimir Putin’s rise to power and its worldwide effects. A noted opponent to Putin’s regime, Gessen cites the President’s militaristic allocation of funds and general pursuit of power as reasons for the fall of the country’s nascent democratic government. When asked about the nature of freedom of expression in Russia, Gessen opines, “the subjective experience of having space contract around you is probably more traumatic and more limiting than the experience of never having had the space in the first place.”
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  • Danielle Ofri: Why Doctors Write

    Wed, Mar 26, 2014
    "Beacon Press director Helene Atwan explores the relationship between editor and author with Danielle Ofri, a practicing physician, author, and the editor of the Bellevue Literary Review, the premier literary journal focused on illness, health, and healing. How does writing change Ofri's practice of medicine? How does editing the Bellevue Literary Review inform her view of her hospital and her patients? What does publishing a ""doctor who writes"" add to Beacon Press's legacy? How has Helene Atwan's sense of the power of writing changed through her work with Danielle Ofri?"
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  • Mary McGrath & Jo Radner: The Power of Narrative

    Wed, Apr 9, 2014
    Radio OpenSource producer, Mary McGrath and award-winning storyteller Jo Radner discuss their materials--facts, memories, voices, pregnant pauses, music, sound effects--and the ways they are put together to create a narrative that inspires the imagination and moves the heart.
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  • Learning To Look

    Wed, Apr 30, 2014
    You love Sebastian Smee's pieces about art and the local art scene in the Boston Globe and you've loved Paul Tucker's Monet exhibitions at the MFA. Now, meet them at Cambridge Forum as part of ArtWeek Boston to discuss the ways that looking at a work of art can open it up to reveal a rich web of information about the work itself, its maker and the society in which it was created. How does a work of art become meaningful for the beholder? Where can that appreciation lead the ordinary person?
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  • Key Issues: Election 2014

    Wed, May 14, 2014
    The fall Congressional elections may seem far off in the future. But with Congress experiencing record low approval ratings, voters are primed to look seriously at the policy positions of aspirants for national office. What should voters be attuned to as they sort through candidates in the upcoming Congressional elections? What are the key issues of concern to the new generation of millennial voters? A panel of scholars explores some of the fundamental questions newly elected representatives will have to address. Keith Bentele of the University of Massachusetts Boston looks at poverty and inequality; Alex Hertel-Fernandez from Harvard discusses tax policy and the social safety net; and Jack Schneider of the College of the Holy Cross looks at education reform. The panel proposes research- and experience-based policy solutions in an effort to overcome the ideological divisions that derail so much political debate. Boston University's Michelle Johnson moderates. Produced in conjunction with the Scholars Strategy Network, a national group of scholars seeking to use research to improve policy and enhance democracy.
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  • Gregory Maguire: Something Wicked This Way Comes

    Wed, Dec 7, 2011
    "With the publication of *Out of Oz*, the fourth and, perhaps, final volume in the series of books that began with *Wicked* in 1995, Gregory Magurie has spent more than 15 years in the land of Oz and has accumulated enough miles on the yellow brick road to be able to look back on his journey of imagination in the world that L. Frank Baum first brought to the page a century ago. What is its like to step into another writer's story and re-imagine it from the inside out? What are the satisfactions in re-imagining a beloved tale? What are the pitfalls? Are there ethical considerations: when does re-telling become plagiarism?"
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  • Michael Nielsen: Reinventing Discovery

    Wed, Nov 9, 2011
    Michael Nielsen, a pioneer of quantum computing, discusses the concept of "open science" and the need to change the way scientific research is conducted and the way data is handled in the modern scientific era. How is technology revolutionizing the way scientific problems are solved? How can a system traditionally based on individual discovery adapt to support collaboration and teamwork?
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  • Alzheimer's Prevention Program

    Thu, Feb 9, 2012
    "Alzheimer's disease currently afflicts 5 million Americans; one American is diagnosed with Alzheimer's every 70 seconds, and right now the only cure is prevention. Can Alzheimer's really be prevented? What are the new research techniques being used to study Alzheimer's disease? And what do they show us about the possibilities for preventing or delaying its degenerative effects? In his new book, *The Alzheimer's Prevention Program*, Dr. Gary Small looks at what Alzheimer's disease actually is and reviews the research on preventing its onset. Small challenges the widely held notion that Alzheimer's is not preventable and discusses a variety of ways to keep the brain healthy."
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