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Forum Network

Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

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GBH Forum Network

The Forum Network is a public media service of the GBH Educational Foundation that offers thousands of video lectures by the world's foremost scholars, authors, artists, scientists, policymakers, and community leaders, made available to the public for free.

Lectures hosted on The Forum Network are presented by community organizations and educational institutions from the Boston area and beyond.

From science to the humanities, from local to global topics, The Forum Network is committed to providing outstanding educational content for lifelong learners, and to encouraging deeper understanding and civic engagement around the vital issues of our time.

Explore lectures by Topics, Series, Partners, and Speakers. To provide viewers with more information, lectures are further augmented with speaker biographies, related lectures and books, captions and transcripts, and downloadable audio.

In the past, GBH has collaborated with other public media partners—WETA in Washington, DC; Public Broadcasting Atlanta; and WNET New York—to record public speaking events. While the structure of the Forum Network changed in 2014 to focus specifically on the Boston region, previously recorded lectures remain archived in this website.

Major support for the GBH Forum Network comes from the Lowell Institute, an organization created to carry out the 1836 bequest of John Lowell Jr., to make free public lectures available to the citizens of Boston

Stay in touch with Forum Network. » Facebook Find us on Facebook and Twitter. Become a partner by joining our network as a local community content contributor. Email forumnetwork@wgbh.org with the subject line "New Partner".

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About GBH Educational Foundation

GBH enriches people's lives through programs and services that educate, inspire, and entertain, fostering citizenship and culture, the joy of learning, and the power of diverse perspectives. GBH serves New England, the nation, and the world with programs that inform, inspire, and entertain. GBH is PBS's single largest producer of content for television (prime-time and children's programs) and the Web. Some of your favorite series and websites -- Nova, Masterpiece, Frontline, Antiques Roadshow, Curious George, Arthur, and The Victory Garden, to name a few -- are produced here in our Boston studios. GBH also is a major supplier of programs heard nationally on public radio, including The World. And we're a pioneer in educational multimedia and in media access technologies for people with hearing or vision loss. Our community ties run deep. We're a local public broadcaster serving southern New England, with 11 public television services and three public radio services -- and productions (from Greater Boston to Jazz with Eric in the Evening) that reflect the issues and cultural riches of our region. We're a member station of PBS and an affiliate of both NPR and PRI. In today's fast-changing media landscape, we're making sure you can find our content when and where you choose -- on TV, radio, the Web, podcasts, vodcasts, streaming audio and video, iPhone applications, groundbreaking teaching tools, and more. Our reach and impact keep growing. GBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors -- Emmys, Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards -- even two Academy Awards. In 2002, a special institutional Peabody Award cited GBH's 50 years of service to the "community, the nation, and the world with outstanding productions and collaborations."

GBH is devoted to bringing you new experiences, taking you to new worlds, and giving you the very best in educational content. We're here for you -- and it all happens thanks to your interest and generous support!

https://forum-network.org/

  • Private Rights and Public Broadcasting: Panel 1

    Wed, Mar 26, 2008
    Robert Lippincott, Senior Vice President of Education for PBS, Steve Altman, Senior Vice President of Business Affairs for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Jay Fialkov, Deputy General Counsel for WGBH, talk about issues for the digital age from the perspective of Public Broadcasting. For many years, Congress has recognized the important educational mission and the limited resources of public broadcasters, and the Copyright Act of 1976 included several specific provisions designed for their benefit. The business culture that developed around rights and distribution grew out of a broadcast-based system for public television and radio. Today, in the evolving digital environment, PBS, NPR, the stations, and other producers and distributors of public television and radio programming are working to embrace new production and distribution models beyond traditional broadcast. They must now aim to act more broadly as 'public service media' in order to further their mission and meet the changing needs of our audience. At the same time, public broadcasters are running up against a legal and business environment that has not kept pace with digital transformations. The provisions in copyright law that were intended to benefit public broadcasting have limited application to new technology and media formats; business systems that were formulated in the pre-digital era can create confusion, slow down or prevent new kinds of distribution, and have enormous cost implications. These issues challenge public broadcasters in our efforts to produce and distribute both new content and older archived materials for the public benefit. This conference brings together public broadcasting leaders with representatives of copyright organizations, talent unions, music rights holders, archives, and other key stakeholders for two days of discussions on balancing private rights and public interests in the ever-changing landscape of digital convergence. Its goals are to survey existing copyright laws and business practices; to educate its participants about the issues that affect public broadcasters' work in a multi-platform world; to hear and understand more fully the perspectives of union and rights holders; and to look for 'next steps' that public broadcasting, unions, and rights holders can take together.
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    Arguing Affirmative Action / What’s the Purpose?

    Sun, Nov 8, 2009
    Lecture Seventeen: "Arguing Affirmative Action" Students discuss the issue of affirmative action and college admissions. Is it "just" for schools to consider race and ethnicity as a factor in admissions? Does it violate individual rights? Or is it as equal, and as arbitrary, as favoring a star athlete? Is the argument in favor of promoting diversity a valid one? How does it size up against the argument that a student's efforts and achievements should carry more weight? Lecture Eighteen: "What's the Purpose?" Sandel introduces Aristotle's theory of justice, which, simply put, is giving people what they are due, what they deserve. Aristotle argues that when considering issues of distribution, one must consider the goal, the end, the purpose of what is being distributed. For him, it's a matter of fitting a person's virtues with their appropriate roles.
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  • A Lesson in Lying / A Deal Is A Deal

    Sun, Oct 25, 2009
    Lecture Thirteen: "A Lesson in Lying" Immanuel Kant's stringent theory of morality allows for no exceptions; he believed that telling a lie, even a white lie, is a violation of one's own dignity. His theory is put to the test with a hypothetical case. If your friend was hiding inside your home, and a killer knocked on your door asking where he was, what could you say to him -- without lying -- that would also save the life of your friend? This leads to a discussion of "misleading truths" -- and the example of how President Clinton used precise language to deny having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky, without outright lying to the public. Lecture Fourteen: "A Deal Is A Deal" Sandel introduces the modern philosopher John Rawls and his theory of a "hypothetical contract." Rawls argues that the only way to achieve the most just and fair principles of governance is if all legislators came to the bargaining table in a position of equality. Imagine if they were all behind a "veil of ignorance" -- if their individual identities were temporarily unknown to them (their race, class, personal interests) and they had to agree on a set of laws together. Then and only then, Rawls argues, could a governing body agree upon truly fair principles of justice.
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  • Henry Butler: Inclusive By Design Concert (Part 1)

    Tue, May 26, 2009
    Henry Butler, a New Orleans piano legend who has been blind since birth, along with visual artist, Nancy Ostrovsky, demonstrate principles of Universal Design in the performing arts. The creative team includes deaf and hearing ASL interpreters, live captioning, audio description, and Nancy Ostrovsky, painting a mural live on stage. John Hockenberry serves as Master of Ceremonies, and VSA Massachusetts, in collaboration with WGBH, hosts this live, all-inclusive performance.
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  • Coleman Barks Reads Rumi in Translation

    Wed, Apr 1, 2009
    American poet Coleman Barks reads from the work of Jalal Al-Din Rumi, the 13th century Persian poet, theologian, and philosopher.
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  • Lucille Clifton Reads "won't you celebrate with me"

    Wed, Apr 1, 2009
    Contemporary poet Lucille Clifton explores themes of identity, race, and gender as she reads her poem, “won’t you celebrate with me.”
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  • Billy Collins Reads "The Lanyard"

    Wed, Apr 1, 2009
    Billy Collins reads his poem "The Lanyard", which explores how contrasting images can create meaning as, he remembers a gift he made for his mother.
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  • Robert Hass Reads "Selected Haiku" by Issa

    Wed, Apr 1, 2009
    Hass reads "Selected Haiku" by Kobayashi Issa from his book of translations *The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa*. Issa, who was born in 1763 to a farming family in rural Japan, is considered one of four great masters of Haiku. This 17 syllable poetic form is known for its ability to squeeze astonishing beauty and depth of feeling out of plain language and direct observation. Issa's poems are remarkable for their "pathos and humor," especially in light of the string of tragedies that marked each stage of his life.
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  • Mark Doty Reads "Brian, Age 7"

    Wed, Apr 1, 2009
    American poet and writer Mark Doty reads his poem "Brian, Age 7".
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  • Edward Hirsch Reads "A Partial History of My Stupidity"

    Wed, Apr 1, 2009
    Hirsch often finds inspiration in the work of other writers and artists, as is the case with this poem, "A Partial History of My Stupidity." In response to a poem by Polish writer Czeslaw Milosz, in which the author wrote that the history of his stupidity would fill many volumes, Hirsch said he thought, "I could relate to that. But it seemed impossible to write all of [it]. I wrote like volume three, chapter five."
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