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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.

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RETIRE OR RESIST: the pros and cons of working longer

Tue, Nov 15, 2022

Many Americans face a huge decision in the years ahead: is delaying their retirement a realistic, practical and tenable option or should they work longer, in an attempt to be in better financial shape for their retirement? Many policymakers think it is logical – almost inevitable – that Americans will delay retirement and spend more years in the paid labor force. However, working longer is not a one-size fits all solution especially when you factor in economic and social inequalities, precarious working conditions, family caregiving responsibilities, poor health, and age discrimination. All of these make it difficult or impossible for many to consider working past the age of 65. Marginalized groups in particular face special challenges and society’s legislative responses affect us all. Is there a way to find a path toward better working lives and improved retirement security for all Americans – and if so, what it is?

Resources
Learn more about The Overtime Project .
Get the book from Oxford University Press
Read Lisa Berkman Labor Day op-ed in The Nation

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Healing Trauma with EMDR

Tue, Oct 18, 2022

Nearly every day, we see evidence further confirming that we are facing a mental health crisis, especially among our youth. American society is beset by mass shootings and other acts of violence, which serve to exacerbate the large-scale trauma already inflicted by the pandemic. Only this week, the media highlighted the urgent issue confronting Generation Z’ers, who lack the funds to pay for medications or mental health therapy. Inadvertently, it seems, we are fueling rather than defusing the problem. Fortunately, there is affordable hope on the horizon. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing) was discovered in 1987 by psychologist, Francine Shapiro who found a novel method for aligning people’s “thinking brains” with their “emotional brains”, to help process traumatic events. Since then, it has been providing hope and healing to countless sufferers of PTSD and other emotional and stress-related problems; these include depression, chronic pain, anxiety, phobias, substance abuse and addictions. Studies demonstrate EMDR’s clinical effectiveness in dealing with trauma in a limited number of sessions and it is rated the most cost-effective treatment among the top 11 trauma therapies. With Deborah Korn, PsyD, an internationally renowned expert in EMDR and Michael Baldwin, co-author of the book with Deborah Korn : Every Memory Deserves Respect", also branding and communication professional in New York. ### Resources [What's EMDR](https://www.emdr.com/what-is-emdr/) [Video from the International Association](youtu.be/Pkfln-ZtWeY) [Dutch video explaining working Memory Hypothesis](youtu.be/hKrfH43srg8) [Research Overview](https://www.emdr.com/research-overview/)

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The Art of Resistance: Visions & Voices of Change

Tue, Oct 4, 2022

Art provides a powerful expression for resistance both in word and image, and Peter Sacks uses both to great effect in his latest works. Sacks, an expatriate of South Africa is currently presenting his first solo museum exhibition at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University. “RESISTANCE” is a collection of 88 portraits of individuals who have resisted political, racial or cultural oppression over the past two centuries ranging from Frederick Douglass, Rachel Carson and Nelson Mandela to Emmeline Pankhurst, Sitting Bull and Volodymyr Zelensky. Sacks, who began as a poet and still teaches at Harvard University produced all the portraits in the past two years, a prolific output for someone who did not pick up a paintbrush until he was 48 years of age. Drawing from his anti-apartheid activism and multicultural experiences, Sacks creates an inspiring cast of writers, artists, philosophers and activists from around the world, who all resisted oppression in various ways. Each portrait consists of a face embedded in a tactile composition of fabric, paint, personal items and text. The exhibit is immersive; alongside the visuals, there is an audio collage of voices of numerous contemporary literary, social, political and cultural figures. “Many of these figures have inspired me over a lifetime, in ways at once intimate and public. Many of the portrayed individuals became each other’s powerful guides and sources of courage. I hope they will do the same for viewers and conjure a community among them.” Peter Sacks: Resistance pays tribute to generations of resisters using the power of art to transmit their legacies to future generations. This is a collaboration with the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis Museum. The Rose Art Museum exhibit runs until December 30, 2022 and admission is free.

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Heart To Heart : The Exquisite Machine

Mon, Sep 19, 2022

The human heart is a miraculous organ, a marvel of construction unsurpassed by any man-made creation with its resilience and precision. It beats 100,000 times a day so that if you live 100 years, that would be more than 3 billion beats in a lifetime. In “The Exquisite Machine: the new science of the heart”, Professor Sian Harding explores the latest scientific developments and mysteries of the heart. Harding, a world leader in cardiac research at Imperial College in London, reveals the latest cardiac discoveries as well as the relationship between the emotions and heart function. In addition to being a powerful pump, the heart is super-sensitive – not just in responding to emotions but in creating them. And yes, you can die of “broken heart syndrome” – although there are profound differences between men and women. There is also a much deeper connection between the heart and the brain than we previously realized. Since the heart is at the nexus of feeling we use the word in everyday conversation – heartfelt, heartache, the heart of the matter, a good heart. E E Cummings, the poet, famously wrote “I carry your heart with me” but writers have obsessed with this organ for centuries. Dr Fady Joudah practices Internal Medicine at St Luke’s Baylor Medical Center in Houston, TX. When not administering to his patients, Joudah is an award-winning poet who first starting writing when working for Doctors Without Frontiers in Africa and published “Earth in the Attic”. He has now published five collections of poems and will read from his work and discuss how poetry informs his mission as a physician. ### Resources **The heart’s mini-brain: Intrinsic cardiac ganglionated plexus ** “Neurocardiology: Structure-Based Function,” J. L. Ardell and J. A. Armour, Comprehensive Physiology 6 (2016): 1635–1653. **Stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte patches for the heart** “Large Cardiac Muscle Patches Engineered from Human Induced-Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Cardiac Cells Improve Recovery from Myocardial Infarction in Swine,” L. Gao, Z. R. Gregorich, W. Zhu, S. Mattapally, Y. Oduk, X. Lou, R. Kannappan, A. V. Borovjagin, G. P. Walcott, and A. E. Pollard et al., Circulation 137 (2018): 1712–1730. **Men vs. women in responses to emotional stress** “A Missed Penalty Kick Triggered Coronary Death in the Husband and Broken Heart Syndrome in the Wife,” Y. H. Shams, K. Feldt, and M. Stålberg American Journal of Cardiology 116 (2015): 1639–1642. **Even happy stress can cause Takotsubo syndrome** “Happy Heart Syndrome: Role of Positive Emotional Stress in Takotsubo Syndrome,” J. R. Ghadri, A. Sarcon, J. Diekmann, D. R. Bataiosu, V. L. Cammann, S. Jurisic, L. C. Napp, M. Jaguszewski, F. Scherff, and P. Brugger et al., European Heart Journal 37 (2016): 2823–2829. **Pollution and heart disease – the Oxford Street Study** Respiratory and cardiovascular responses to walking down a traffic-polluted road compared with walking in a traffic-free area in participants aged 60 years and older with chronic lung or heart disease and age-matched healthy controls: a randomised, crossover study. Sinharay R, Gong J, Barratt B, Ohman-Strickland P, Ernst S, Kelly FJ, Zhang JJ, Collins P, Cullinan P, Chung KF. Lancet. 2018 Jan 27;391(10118):339-349.

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Tyrants on Twitter

Tue, Sep 6, 2022

_TYRANTS ON TWITTER_, a new book by national security expert David Sloss, details how by investing heavily in global media and information technology systems, Russia and China are undermining democracy. Sloss provides a careful analysis of how Chinese and Russian agents weaponize Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media platforms for the sole purpose of subverting the liberal international order, both in America and Europe. In this forum, we’ll examine questions about the 2016 US election and also explore Russia’s use of foreign infiltration to meddle with Western democratic elections. What can be done to mitigate the damage? David L. Sloss is an educator, author, and national security expert. His latest book, Tyrants on Twitter: Protecting Democracies from Information Warfare focuses on Russian and Chinese information warfare. Sloss is currently Professor of Law at Santa Clara University. Before entering academia, in 2008, he spent nine years in the federal government, working on U.S.-Soviet arms control negotiations and nuclear proliferation issues. Sloss will be joined in the discussion by John Feffer, director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies. ### Resources [Article : As autocrats ascend, gloomy data on democracies' decline](https://www.dw.com/en/as-autocrats-ascend-gloomy-data-on-democracies-decline/a-62674756) [Tyrants on Twitter ](https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=33642) [A short op-ed piece related to the book](https://thediplomat.com/2022/05/the-us-should-ban-chinas-state-media-from-social-platforms/) [John Feffer on Russia's invasion of Ukraine](https://fpif.org/putins-cold-cold-strategy/) [John Feffer on Ukraine, Russia and Food Politics](https://fpif.org/the-weaponization-of-food/)

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Much Ado About Mushrooms

Tue, Jun 28, 2022

Fungi are perhaps the most underappreciated kingdom of the natural world. As billion year-old organisms they are masters of survival and integral to the development of life on Earth. Fungi are also remarkable chemists producing molecules that humans still can’t make in a lab, and scientists are only scratching the surface since there are an estimated 5,000,000 species of fungi, and we’ve only discovered about one per cent of them. One species that is attracting great attention is psilocybin mushrooms, which have been part of religious rituals for thousands of years. The Aztecs referred to these mushrooms as “God’s flesh” in homage to their believed sacred power. In 1957, Albert Hoffman, a Swiss chemist working for the pharmaceutical company Sandoz, isolated psilocybin from a mushroom and unleashed all sorts of interesting discoveries. During the 60s, Sandoz sold psilocybin and LSD for research in medical trials, but the substances were soon outlawed after they became associated with Timothy Leary and the 60’s counterculture. Well Psilocybin has been making a steady comeback within the medical community who have conducted clinical trials showing remarkable success in treating patients with severe depression, anxiety and PTSD. Many individuals speak of life-changing experiences during a single session and emerge with new-found awareness including author Michael Pollan, author of “How to Change your Mind”. ---------- Bibliography: The Future Is Fungi: How Fungi Feed Us, Heal Us, and Save Our World By Michael Shu Lim and Yun Shue Thames and Hudson Fantastic Fungi: Expanding Consciousness, Alternative Healing, Environmental Impact // Official Book of Smash Hit Documentary Hardcover – Illustrated, August 27, 2019 Introduction by Paul Stamets Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World By Paul Stamets Ten Speed Press (2005) Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures By Merlin Sheldrake Random House (2021) Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest By Suzanne Simard Allen Lane (2021)

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Legacies of Slavery

Tue, May 31, 2022

Pulitzer prize-winning historian, David Hackett Fischer’s latest book AFRICAN FOUNDERS: How Enslaved People Expanded American Ideals draws on decades of research, some of it conducted in West Africa. Fischer shows that African and African Americans were agents of pluralism that drove the development of early America. He shines a light on the little-known history of how enslaved Africans and their descendants created new regional cultures and enlarged American ideas of freedom. Thus, slaves actually helped shape the early American republic; Fischer’s work will transform our understanding of the influential role slaves played in America’s origins ranging from their impact on music to linguistics, from farming techniques to ethical principles. David Hackett Fischer is a University Professor and Warren Professor of History emeritus at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He is the author of numerous books, including the 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner Washington’s Crossing and Champlain’s Dream. In 2015, he received the Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing. He wil be in conversation with Johanna Li, Associate Editor at Simon and Schuster.

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Harnessing the Power of Seaweed: The Miracle Crop

Tue, May 17, 2022

Seaweed often gets a bad rap – maybe it just has the wrong name! Many regard it as a nuisance – slimy, smelly stuff that mars our beaches, entangles us while swimming and not good for much, except of course making sushi. But an increasing number of marine scientists, ecologists, entrepreneurs and foodies are beginning to appreciate seaweed’s remarkable properties. The benefits of seaweed are enormous and we are only starting to explore its myriad applications, from farming to pharmaceuticals, from food to packaging. Some species can take CO2 out of the atmosphere at 5 x the rate of land-based plants, and in addition to being a sustainable food source for humans and animals, it is one of the fastest growing plants. Nori provides more protein than soy, more vitamin C than orange juice and it is full of Omega 3s, iodine, zinc and magnesium – and it doesn’t require agro-chemicals, fertilizer or antibiotics! Seaweed has been called the miracle crop because it can be cultivated easily, protects the planets by trapping carbon, it provides many foodstuffs, supplies jobs and generally does good. Of course, in some parts of the world, like Ireland, farmers have been cultivating seaweed as an animal food and fertilizer for centuries. Our Forum will talk to experts around the world about why they are so excited about algae and how they became involved in this huge field of sustainable seaweed aquaculture. Please join our discussion with Dr. Stefan Kraan, a Dutch marine biologist and founder of the The Seaweed Company in Galway, Ireland who specializes in high-quality, seaweed products that he produces in Ireland, India, Morocco and the Netherlands. Sean Barrett is the founder of Dock to Dish, an expansive network of small-scale community-based fishery programs, as well as The Montauk Seaweed Supply Company in Long Island. Sean is currently pioneering a “sea to soil” movement to revive an ancient symbiotic relationship between regional gardens, farmlands and local oceans through the cultivation of macroalgae, such as sugar kelp, which he converts into fertilizer and livestock feed. Vincent Doumeizel is Senior Advisor for the UN Global Compact, Head of the Safe Seaweed Coalition and director of the food program at Lloyd’s Register Foundation. Image credit : Pexels # Resources [Article from The Guardian about Seaweed Farming in NY](https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/26/new-york-seaweed-farming-kelp-producers)

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Can We Resist the Hijacking of Democracy in America & Beyond?

Tue, May 3, 2022

It feels like a new Cold War is upon us – Russia poses an alarming extrinsic threat to the American concept of freedom, and to Western ideas of democratic values. Russia’s terrible assault on Ukraine and the recent elections of pro-Putin regimes in Hungary and Serbia, coincide with a growing threat to American democracy from within its own borders. JOHN SHATTUCK, an international legal scholar and human rights leader, is currently Professor of Practice in Diplomacy at Tufts after a long and distinguished career in academia and government. In the early post-Cold War years, he was responsible for coordinating and implementing U.S. efforts to promote human rights, democracy and international labor rights. The first U.S. official to reach and interview survivors of the genocide at Srebrenica, he helped negotiate the Dayton peace agreement that ended the war in Bosnia and was instrumental in the establishment of the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He also served President Clinton as U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic from 1998-2000. His new book ‘Holding Together: the hijacking of rights in America’ is co-authored with SUSHMA RAMAN, Executive Director and Mathias Risse, faculty director at the Harvard Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. Shattuck and Raman will join the Forum to discuss the current world crisis with regard to human rights, a fight which challenges Americans domestically, as well as internationally. Raman is the host of Justice Matters podcast and a contributor to Foreign Policy magazine; she brings two decades of experience in launching and leading social justice and human rights’ initiatives to her position as director at the Carr Center. Are you alarmed at the steady deterioration of common purpose among your fellow Americans or are you more concerned about the international disregard for human rights and democratic values, we have witnessed in Ukraine and beyond? Join this spirited discussion to investigate what can be done.

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Can Having Good Friends Prolong Your Life

Tue, Apr 19, 2022

Research is providing us with more and more proof that having friends is beneficial, if not essential, to good health. Many people are aware of the detrimental effects that social isolation and loneliness can have on physical and mental wellbeing, but fewer appreciate the advantages of keeping our important relationships close and personal. University of Oxford data shows that best friends’ physiology comes into synchrony – the rhythm of their hearts, body temperatures and hormonal responses match. Human touch also slows the heartbeat, lowers blood pressure and the stress hormone cortisol. So our interaction with good friends actually keeps us alive and helps us live longer!

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