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Ford Hall Forum

The Ford Hall Forum is the nation's oldest continuously operating free public lecture series. Its mission is to foster an informed and effective citizenry and to promote freedom of speech through the public presentation of lectures, debates, and discussions. Forum events illuminate the key issues facing our society by bringing to its podium knowledgeable and thought-provoking speakers. These speakers are presented in person, for free, and in settings, which facilitate frank and open debate.

http://www.fordhallforum.org/

Too hot to handle: Climate Change meets American Politics

Wed, Mar 23, 2022

The newly released United Nations IPCC Report tells us we are at the point of no return with climate change, and that the situation is worse than they thought. It’s easy to see: wildfires, epic storms, floods, and droughts worsen each year. Combine that with rising sea levels, loss of species and the changing weather affecting our growing seasons, and the situation looks grim indeed. World leaders attending COP26 last November did not produce an international agreement to mitigate carbon emissions and turn the tide. Meanwhile, President Biden’s climate proposals have been stripped from his major legislative efforts, forcing him to resort to executive action, which has in turn been blocked by courts. Young people have had enough and are taking to the streets to protest while climate skeptics and lobbyists push harder for the status quo. What are the implications of this impasse? Environment Correspondent Carolyn Beeler leads a discussion looking into the science, policy and politics of the climate crisis now and what actions must happen next to pull us back from the brink.

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The Great Divide: Policy Making in Polarized Times

Tue, Mar 1, 2022

From charged school board meetings to shouting matches in Congress, on social media platforms and increasingly partisan media outlets, the level of incivility and outright hostility to anyone with views opposed to one’s own is alarming and unproductive. Real policy debates and compromise cannot be accomplished in an environment in which participants ascribe malign intent or even dehumanize others. Polarization in the United States has created both legislative stasis at the federal level and also widened the red state/blue state gulf, all contributing to a widespread lack of trust in democratic institutions by voters. How did we get here and how can we dial down the divisions? How will this impact our democracy? President Biden promised a return to civility in his Inaugural Address. Has he made any headway or is the situation only worsening? Join us to unpack these questions with former policymakers and experts in the field. The Washington Post's Arjun Singh moderates a panel discussion with former congressmen Scott Klug (R-WI) and Larry LaRocco (D-ID) as well as democracy scholar Dr. Jennifer McCoy.

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Challenges to Safeguarding our Democracy

Wed, Feb 16, 2022

Is there an alert system to notify us about the health of our democracy? In this episode we will examine the impact of partisan rancor not seen since the Civil War, declining trust in institutions, doubts about our election process, and the insurrection on January 6, 2021. There is emerging consensus that democracy in the United States is threatened. What can we do about it? Our panel will consider the health of our democracy and discuss solutions for restoring faith in our institutions and our democratic systems for everyone. This series builds upon Suffolk University’s historic mission of access, opportunity, and engagement with our alumni and the communities to which we belong. It’s sponsored by the Department of Political Science and Legal Studies in collaboration with the Ford Hall Forum, The Washington Center and GBH’s Forum Network.

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Pulse Check: Biden’s Agenda One Year In

Wed, Jan 26, 2022

One year into the Biden Administration how can we assess its performance? Which of the priority agenda items have seen progress? What have been the successes, failures and the reasons for these in the world he inherited? How has that landscape changed? Which areas are most meaningful for the health of our democracy, the health of the world that future generations will inherit? Join us as we attempt to unpack these questions and “score” Biden’s performance heading into midterms that are widely predicted to bring him a similar “shellacking” that President Obama acknowledged in his first midterm cycle.

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Exploring Unconventional Black Feminist Art

Wed, Nov 17, 2021

Boston Globe cultural columnist Jeneé Osterheldt moderates a discussion with three Black women artists. She asks what makes their work a beautiful resistance and explores why Black femme radical imagination and art is a beautiful resistance. Learn about the inspiration behind each woman's work and how their chosen craft is what Audre Lorde would call _a vital necessity of our existence._ Osterheldt delves into what it means to be Black and femme and how everyone loves a Black woman until she dare speak for herself and use her art as her portal. She shines a light on the backlash experienced by Candace McDuffie and shares her own experience with death threats, as well as what nearly all Black women with a platform endure both by their own community and other communities. She brings in a little Toni, a little bell, a little of each artist and how we root for one another and persist through the f**kery. ###Resources [A Beautiful Resistance](bostonglobe.com/abeautifulresistance) | Instagram: @abeautifulresistance Poems by Ashley Rose: [Poem for Mayor Janey 100th Day in Office](https://youtu.be/c312nGSzsoc) [The Haunting 2020 NAACP Convention Poem of the Year/ March for Mothers BLM ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXJL3etwAZU&authuser=0) Ashley's WGBH Stories from the Stage, [The 1996 Flood of Roslindale](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_-1ubOolps&authuser=0) [“Not Liking Beyoncé's "Kitty Kat" Doesn't Make Me Anti-Black,”](https://www.essence.com/op-ed/not-liking-beyonces-kitty-kat-doesnt-make-me-anti-black/ ) by Candace McDuffie for _Essence_. Listen to Oompa’s single [“Closer”](https://open.spotify.com/album/5kVUFD5JzgqsrfSOt0j3hR?si=2JH09NCNTSSV1J058rQDlw&nd=1 ) Oompa’s latest album, [UNBOTHERED](https://open.spotify.com/album/4awaXFZzfvJT9g3Qm3nwnN?si=WKv62JI5ROuGkGZe9THrMg&nd=1 ) was released independently on October 1

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Ford Hall Forum: Laura Spinney on How the 1918 Spanish Flu Changed the World

Thu, Oct 7, 2021

Laura Spinney, internationally acclaimed science journalist and author, will discuss her latest non-fiction title, "Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World." In the book, Spinney examines the enduring effects of the pandemic flu, which killed over 50 million people worldwide, and society's response: how it altered global politics, race relations, family structures, and thinking across medicine, religion, and the arts. Spinney will discuss the parallels or lack thereof between the Spanish Flu and COVID-19, what we can learn from history, how pandemics begin and how they end, and our tendency to forget pandemics. The afternoon’s moderator is Udodiri R. Okwandu, Presidential Scholar, Harvard University.

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Ford Hall Forum: Feminist Perspectives from the Bible to Rousseau

Thu, Sep 30, 2021

What can Enlightenment philosophes -- especially Rousseau, arguably the most difficult of them all -- have to tell us about modern life that we don’t already know? A team of scholars from different academic areas—Barbara Abrams, PhD., Suffolk University; Mira Morgenstern, PhD, The City College of New York; and Karen Sullivan, PhD, Queens College/CUNY share unique vantage points in understanding Rousseau’s texts. This constellation of approaches -- grounded in an appreciation of the shared background of feminist critique -- provides the density that allows Rousseau’s nuanced writings to be read in their full complexity. The three focus on a relatively unfamiliar work of Rousseau’s, Le Lévite d’Ephraïm, a prose-poem in which Rousseau elaborates on a little-known Hebrew biblical text to interrogate many of the accepted, conventional views on issues ranging from the role of sacred texts; to Rousseau’s self-construction through the representation of guilt and remorse; to the role of hospitality in structuring both individual self-representation and social cohesion; to the place of violence in establishing national and communal self-identity. In each of these spheres, Rousseau reveals a particularly modern perspective in trying to honor both personal and social needs, and in privileging both the individual viewpoint and the political structure.

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Life After COVID — the New Normal?

Wed, Aug 18, 2021

“After COVID” is hard to imagine, as is just how long it will take us—globally, nationally, regionally— to get there. The term “new normal” has already become old and overused, but what does it really mean? The truth is that we can’t provide any concrete answers to this complex question, but we can examine empirical patterns that are already observable. A panel including Dr. Michael Osterholm, White House advisor, epidemiologist and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota; Rachel Silverman, policy fellow Center for Global Development, and Dr. Amesh Adalja Johns Hopkins, Center for Global Health and Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security predict what might change fundamentally and what lessons about preparedness we will have learned. Politics in the Era of Global Pandemic— 2.0, is produced by Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University, the Political Science & Legal Studies department at Suffolk University, and the GBH Forum Network. Guest speakers examine the issues at play in year two of the COVID-19 pandemic, from global infection rates to the havoc on the economy, our politics, and our trust in our governments. ### RESOURCES “[The Case for Investing in Public Health](https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/278073/Case-Investing-Public-Health.pdf ) ”, by the European Health Organization, 2020. “[About Variants](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/variants/variant.html) ” CDC, 08/06/202. “[‘Act now’ on global vaccines to stop more-dangerous variants, experts warn Biden](https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/08/10/health-experts-demand-global-vaccines-pandemic/) ” By Dan Diamond and Yasmeen Abutaleb, The Washington Post, 08/10/2021.

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One Pandemic, a Globe of Different Responses

Wed, Aug 11, 2021

When COVID-19 initially began to rage across the globe, it was described as an equal opportunity killer that didn’t differentiate between hosts; everyone was vulnerable. It quickly became apparent that not everyone was impacted in the same way. While the virus itself does not discriminate, our responses to it – geographically, socioeconomically, and politically – have resulted in vastly different outcomes. The past 18 months have exposed massive inequalities at both the national and international levels when it comes to combating the virus. This expert panel examines some of the most disappointing and surprising developments in COVID responsiveness and asks essential questions to better understand what role resources, ideology and geography have played in creating such divergent responses. They also discuss what can be done to level the playing field going forward. ## Resources Check out this [Percent of Population Fully Vaccinated by Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) ](https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccination-equity) interactive map, published by the CDC. More from [Kaiser Health's Lauren Weber](https://khn.org/news/author/lauren-weber/) [“Wealthy Countries Have Left the Rest of the World Behind”](https://www.thenation.com/article/world/vaccine-nationailsm/) By Rajan Menon, 06/22/2021 [“Covid-19 Is Revealing America’s Fault Lines”](hhttps://www.thenation.com/article/society/coronavirus-trump-fault-lines/) By Rajan Menon, 04/20/2020 [“The defining moments of the COVID-19 pandemic”](https://recommendations.theindependentpanel.org/companion-report/) By the IPPR, 2021 [“One big question about the end of Covid-19”](https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/23/opinions/pandemic-response-commission-covid-19-dybul/index.html) by Mark Dybul, 05/23/2021 [“The Case for Investing in Public Health”](https://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/278073/Case-Investing-Public-Health.pdf ) , by the European Health Organization, 2020,

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Getting the Word Out: Effective Communication In a Pandemic

Wed, Jul 28, 2021

We could see COVID-19 as a common enemy to unite us, yet several responses to the pandemic have resulted in misinformation that creates confusion, hostility and even violence. Antagonism around how we define the crisis caused by COVID-19 inspires outrage toward mask and vaccine mandates, lockdowns, school and business closures. To make matters worse, global leaders have manipulated information, undermined trust in vaccines, and advanced political agendas by politicizing public health responses. Heidi Legg, Fellow at Harvard University Future of Media project, will moderate a panel discussion with Peggy Slasman, VP of of Public Affairs at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. William Schnaffer, Professor of Preventative Medicine and Infectious Disease at Vanderbilt School of Medicine, and Jonas Kaiser, Ph.D. Associate at Harvard Berkman Klein Center and Assistant Professor at Suffolk University. Together they will consider how effectively public health information and policy has been communicated by governments, public health officials, media, and civic organizations, as well as ways to combat misinformation as we make our way through the pandemic.

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