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Cambridge Forum

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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

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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The European Debt Crisis: Lessons from Greece

Mon, Feb 13, 2012

"The Great Recession of 2008 revealed a new threat to Americans' sense of security: the global economy. The meltdown of domestic housing and financial markets shook the international economy to its core, exposing weaknesses in the Eurozone that now threaten not only a global recovery but also the U.S. economic recovery. What were the causes of the Greek debt crisis? Why don't the solutions proposed by the European Union seem to be working? How could the European crisis come back to weaken the United States economy? Richard Parker of the Harvard Kennedy School explores these issues and more. "

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Globalization of Capital: The Rise of the Multinationals

Mon, Apr 16, 2012

Economist Robert Scott of the Economic Policy Institute discusses the challenges that globalized trade poses for the economic well-being of the United States. Globalization of capital has lessened or eliminated many barriers to trade and put new pressures on traditional monetary and financial systems. If the new ease of moving capital around the world seems to threaten American workers, who see their jobs and way of life sailing off to China, what does it mean for workers in other countries? Are the current international financial agreements, many of which date to the mid-twentieth century, adequate to regulate globalized capital movement? How does the globalization of capital affect the power of the nation-state?

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Wealth Inequality: The Gilded Road to Ruin?

Wed, Apr 25, 2012

**Chuck Collins**, director of the Institute for Policy Studies Program on Inequality and the Common Good, and journalist **Linda McQuaig** explore the impact of the growing wealth gap, and suggest ways to reverse the increase in economic inequality. The richest one percent of Americans now owns more than 36 percent of all the wealth in the United States, more than the net worth of the bottom 95 percent combined. In 2010, the one percent earned 21 percent of all income, up from only 8 percent in mid-1970s. How has this concentration of wealth come about? What does it mean for the health of American democracy? And for the well-being of Americans? How could the trend of increasing economic inequality be reversed? Where is the political will to make the necessary policy changes? How can an individual nation create economic conditions that overcome what some call a global race to the bottom?

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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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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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Framing Military Occupation: Close-Ups of Daily Life in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Wed, Mar 5, 2014

"The media give us views of the Middle East influenced by politics, international law, and distance. But what does life in the Middle East feel like on the ground? Physician Alice Rothchild of American Jews for a Just Peace -- Boston leads a panel discussion on living under military occupation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Panelists Dr. Alan Meyers, Tali Ruskin, and Laila Bernstein from the AJJP Health and Human Rights Project present their observations of daily life in the West Bank and East Jerusalem made during their visits as part of human rights delegations over the past decade. These close-ups invite us to compare: treaties vs. transportation? peace process vs. putting food on the table? Co-sponsored by the Middle East Education Group of First Parish in Cambridge."

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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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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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Anthony Amore and Ingrid Neuman: Stolen Art

Thu, Feb 20, 2014

"Art security expert Anthony Amore discusses the crime of art theft and the ways that the intangible value of the stolen objects affects efforts to locate and retrieve them. Conservator Ingrid Neuman joins the conversation to explore the threat that theft poses to the physical materials that art works are made from. What makes stealing art different from other kinds of theft? How does the art itself change the way its caretakers'the security expert or the conservator'approach their jobs?"

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