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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

  • Harold Meyerson - Globalization of Markets: Do Corporations Need American Consumers?

    Mon, Apr 16, 2012
    Harold Meyerson, editor-at-large of *The American Prospect*, explores the impact of "Globalization of Markets" on the American economy. When Henry Ford revolutionized American auto manufacturing a century ago, he not only introduced the assembly line; he also paid his workers enough to allow them to buy a Ford. This move was one of the first steps in creating an American economy that is driven by consumption. If globalization is keeping American incomes low, how can consumption rebound to fuel a recovery? If globalization is moving investments overseas, what role will commerce play in the national economy?
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  • Dani Rodrik - The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy

    Mon, Apr 16, 2012
    Harvard economist Dani Rodrik argues that we cannot simultaneously pursue democracy, national self-determination, and economic globalization. While the world economy is becoming an international system, the political systems of the world remain based in the construct of the nation-state. And while nations have organized some international political and economic governing authorities, such as the WTO, IMF, and World Bank, a comprehensive and widely accepted international system to regulate the global economy does not exist. When the social arrangements of democracies inevitably clash with the international demands of globalization, national priorities should take precedence. What are the most effective responses to today's globalized economy? Is Rodrik's vision of 'balanced prosperity' based on globalization supported by a light frame of international rules feasible? How can national governments reclaim a role in managing globalization under his proposals?
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    Creativity and Stress

    Sun, Apr 22, 2012
    In Terezin, the concentration camp in which Jewish artists, writers, and musicians were imprisoned, the opportunity to practice art'to draw, to write, to perform'provided a kind of spiritual or emotional sustenance for the prisoners. This panel discussion examines the relationship between creativity and stress. How can human creativity survive and assert itself under inhuman conditions? What can modern neuroscience show us about the ways in which extreme stress stimulates or impedes creativity? What can we learn from the experience of the artists of the Holocaust about using the arts to assist victims of torture, rape, and other human rights abuses to cope and to heal? What can we learn about the role of creativity in our own lives? Panelists include Debra Wise, Artistic Director of Underground Railway Theater; Dr. Michael Grodin, Professor of Health Law, Bioethics and Human Rights at Boston University School of Public Health; and Guila Clara Kessous, Carr Center's Initiative in Theater and Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
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  • Joseph Nye: The Rise of China and American Power

    Tue, Apr 10, 2012
    Joseph Nye of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government draws upon the insights of his recent meetings with China's future leaders to examine the future of American relations with China. As China has become a more powerful player in the Pacific, how has it projected its strength? How have strategic alliances among its neighbors changed in response to China's growing economic and military might? What does the Obama administration's new emphasis on the Pacific mean for the future of American relations with China? Moderated by PRI's The World's Lisa Mullins.
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  • Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China

    Thu, Mar 29, 2012
    China expert, Ezra Vogel of Harvard University, spent twelve years researching and writing his biography of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and his era, *Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China.* This masterful and comprehensive study chronicles Deng's rich and intricate career from his birth in 1904 at the end of the Qing Dynasty to his death in 1997 a few months before the return of Hong Kong to the mainland. Deng's life spanned almost a century of dramatic changes in China as it experienced war, the Communist Revolution, decades of Mao's rule, and finally, economic boom, and Deng played a major in his nation's development over that period. How did Deng Xiaoping find a way to turn China into a wealthy and powerful member of the international community? What personal and cultural factors contributed to his success? What obstacles did he face? How did Vogel go about researching and writing this study of Deng's life and legacy?
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  • The Rise of China and American Power

    Tue, Apr 10, 2012
    "Duplicate Joseph Nye of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government draws upon the insights of his recent meetings with China's future leaders to examine the future of American relations with China. As China has become a more powerful player in the Pacific, how has it projected its strength? How have strategic alliances among its neighbors changed in response to China's growing economic and military might? What does the Obama administration's new emphasis on the Pacific mean for the future of American relations with China? Moderated by PRI's The World's Lisa Mullins."
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  • Washington, Longfellow, and the Jewish Community at Newport

    Wed, Sep 19, 2012
    Ted Widmer, director of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, speaks about George Washington's 1790 letter to the Jewish community in Newport, Longfellow's poem on the same theme, and the history of religious tolerance in American politics at Cambridge Forum.
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  • Dr. Marcia Angell - May Doctors Help You Die? Physician-assisted Suicide in Massachusetts

    Wed, Oct 3, 2012
    Dr. Marcia Angell, senior lecturer in the Division of Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School, discusses the Massachusetts ballot initiative on physician-assisted suicide at Cambridge Forum. How does the Hippocratic Oath square with the notion that a doctor might help a patient end his or her life? Under what circumstances would this be an ethical act for a physician? What are the risks of enacting Death with Dignity legislation? Whose interests does such a law serve?
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  • John de Graaf - What's the Economy for Anyway?

    Wed, Oct 10, 2012
    Activist, author, and film-maker John de Graaf looks beyond the current downturn to explore the assumptions underlying the U.S. economy at Cambridge Forum. In an election cycle that is focused on the economic future, his new book "What's the Economy For, Anyway?" offers a different perspective on quality of life, health, security, work-life balance, leisure, social justice, and sustainability. How can we measure economic success? Nationally? Individually? What is the role of growth in a 21st-century economy? What role can governments play in creating economic success? What is the individual's role? Recorded 10/10/12. More lectures at http://forum-network.org
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  • Wendy Lesser: Why I Read

    Wed, Jan 22, 2014
    "Author and essayist Wendy Lesser discusses her latest book Why I Read with poet Robert Pinsky. Their conversation explores the ways that literature and, especially, poetry touch readers and change their lives as Cambridge Forum continues its series My Life Touched by Art. In a culture that is increasingly visual and virtual in orientation, what role does old-fashioned reading play? What power does the written word have in our lives? This program is part of the series My Life Touched by Art, supported by a grant from the Cambridge Arts Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a public agency."
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