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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/

  • Linda Pastan Reads "Why Are Your Poems So Dark?"

    Wed, Apr 1, 2009
    Linda Pastan reads her poem, "Why Are Your Poems So Dark?".
    Forum Network
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    GBH Forum Network

  • 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.
    Forum Network
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    GBH Forum Network

  • Stanley Kunitz Reads "Touch Me"

    Wed, Apr 1, 2009
    American poet Stanley Kunitz reads "Touch Me".
    Forum Network
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    GBH Forum Network

  • Adrienne Rich Reads "What Kind of Times Are These"

    Wed, Apr 1, 2009
    The poem "What Kind of Times Are These" from Rich's book *Dark Fields of the Republic*, makes reference to the Bertolt Brecht poem "For Those Born Later": "What kind of times are these/ When it's almost a crime to talk about trees/ Because it means keeping still about so many evil deeds?"
    Forum Network
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    GBH Forum Network

  • Kevin Young Reads "Aunties"

    Wed, Apr 1, 2009
    Kevin Young's poetry often examines his extensive Deep South roots. *Dear Darkness,* Young's sixth collection of poems, in which "Aunties" appears, was particularly inspired by the joy, sorrow, and food he came to associate with Louisiana.
    Forum Network
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    GBH Forum Network
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    Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy

    Tue, Mar 23, 2010
    Lidia Bastianich, host of the *Lidia's Italy* television series and best-selling author discusses her latest cookbook, *Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy*.
    Food and Wellness
    Partner:
    GBH Forum Network

  • Naomi Shihab Nye Reads "One Boy Told Me"

    Wed, Apr 1, 2009
    Naomi Shihab Nye reads her poem, "One Boy Told Me".
    Forum Network
    Partner:
    GBH Forum Network

  • Gerald Stern Reads "The Dancing"

    Thu, Apr 1, 2010
    "The Dancing," from Gerald Stern's 1984 collection *Paradise Poems,* captures the discord between the poet's relatively carefree all-American upbringing and the suffering endured by his fellow Jews during the Holocaust.
    Forum Network
    Partner:
    GBH Forum Network

  • Time, Talent, Treasure, and Tradition in a Tight Economy

    Sat, Mar 14, 2009
    Meizhu Lui, director of Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative at the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, talks to the Women's Economic Forum at Simmons College about her new book, The Color of Wealth. This lecture is sponsored by Our Public Spirit (OPS), a project of the Boston Women’s Fund in collaboration with Haymarket People’s Fund and the Women’s Theological Center (WTC). OPS recognizes and honors the giving traditions of women of color, while promoting social justice philanthropy within communities of color. Through OPS, Boston Women’s Fund works to continue diversifying the base of donors who fund social and economic justice efforts.
    Forum Network
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    GBH Forum Network

  • Mind Your Motive / The Supreme Principle of Morality

    Sun, Oct 18, 2009
    Lecture Eleven: "Mind Your Motive" Professor Sandel introduces Immanuel Kant -- one of the most challenging and difficult thinkers in his course. Kant believes we, as individuals, are sacred and the bearer of rights, but not because we own ourselves. Rather, it is our capacity to reason and choose freely that makes us unique, that sets us apart from mere animals. And when we act out of duty (doing something because it is right) only then do our actions have moral worth. Sandel uses the example of a shopkeeper who passes up the chance to shortchange a customer only because he worries it would hurt his business. That wouldn't be considered a moral action, according to Kant, because he wasn't doing the right thing ... for the right reason. Lecture Twelve: "The Supreme Principle of Morality" Immanuel Kant says that in so far as our actions have moral worth, what confers moral worth is precisely our capacity to rise above self-interest and inclination and to act out of duty. Sandel tells the true story of a 13-year-old boy who won a spelling bee contest, but then admitted to the judges that he had, in fact, misspelled the final word. Using this story and others, Sandel explains Kant's test for determining whether an action is morally right: when making a decision, imagine if the moral principle behind your actions became a universal law that everyone had to live by. Would that principle, as a universal law, benefit everyone?
    Forum Network
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    GBH Forum Network
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