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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/

  • Einstein's Relativity

    Thu, Dec 2, 2010
    Dr. Brainerd discusses some of the fascinating, and perhaps unsettling, consequences of Einstein's theories of Special Relativity and General Relativity. How do two observers, one moving with respect to the other, experience different perceptions of time and distance? How does gravity affect time and space? Is time travel possible?
    Forum Network
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    GBH Forum Network

  • Betsy Ross and the Making of America

    Thu, Jan 20, 2011
    National folk hero Betsy Ross, often described as a simple seamstress who rose to fame by creating our most recognizable national symbol, has long captivated the American imagination. But behind the legend is the compelling true story of an accomplished colonial artisan, a furniture upholsterer woven into a thriving colonial economy. Marla Miller, Associate Professor and Director of the Public History Program at UMass Amherst, and acclaimed author of *Betsy Ross and the Making of America*, stitches together the incredible story of this accomplished woman and explores why we as a nation cannot reconcile her true role in our historical imagination
    Forum Network
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    GBH Forum Network

  • Faces of Syria

    Sun, Jan 9, 2011
    Fully subscribing to Mark Twain’s phrase, "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness," Dick Simon and his family went to Syria in 2011 to better understand the human story behind the headlines. The Syria they experienced was not what they expected, the way our media has portrayed it. Simon said, "We found Syria to be a beautiful place with wonderful people. Our interactions with those we met opened our eyes and changed our perspective. Everyone welcomed us, including an encounter with President Bashar Assad, even after learning we were from the United States, the country which has imposed embargoes and labeled them Axis of Evil."
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    GBH Forum Network

  • The Road Ahead: Investment Outlook

    Tue, May 17, 2011
    After two years of strong returns, can the bull market continue? Investors have a lot to be concerned about. Unrest in the Mideast. Natural disasters in Japan. Rising government indebtedness around the world. What are the key long-term themes that will determine future investment returns? Choate Investment Advisors and Managing Director Todd Millay host a panel discussion of key investment trends. Todd and a panel of economists and senior financial experts discuss the road ahead for investors.
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    GBH Forum Network

  • Inventing Modern America: Microwave to the Mouse

    Tue, Nov 27, 2001
    This lively panel, discussing Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse, celebrates the best of American ingenuity and inventiveness. Through in-depth profiles of 35 inventors, Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse tells the often-surprising stories of how everyday objects and technologies were created. Each profile is illustrated with historical photographs, diagrams, and patent drawings that illuminate the inventor's life, inventive process, and creations. The book was developed by the Lemelson-MIT Program for Invention and Innovation, whose mission is to inspire a new generation of American scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs.
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    GBH Forum Network

  • NOVA: The Bible's Buried Secrets I

    Thu, Nov 6, 2008
    Panelists discuss the historic, scientific and theological mysteries brought up in The Bible's Buried Secrets, NOVA's landmark two-hour special. The Bible's Buried Secrets takes viewers on a fascinating scientific journey that began 3,000 years ago and continues to this day. The film presents the latest archeological scholarship from the Holy Land to explore the beginnings of modern religion and the origins of the Hebrew Bible, or the Old Testament. This archeological detective story tackles some of the biggest questions in biblical studies. Where did the ancient Israelites come from? Who wrote the Bible, when, and why? How did the worship of one god - the foundation of modern Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - emerge? A powerful intersection of science, scholarship, and scripture, The Bible's Buried Secrets provides unique insight into the deeper meaning of these biblical texts and their continuing resonance through the centuries. The Bible's Buried Secrets can be streamed **[here](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bible/program.html)**, on the NOVA website.
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    GBH Forum Network

  • Frontline: Alternative Fix

    Wed, Nov 5, 2003
    View a panel discussion on the new FRONTLINE special, The Alternative Fix FRONTLINE: The Alternative Fix examines the explosion in the popularity, and profitability, of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Under pressure from everyone from consumers to Congress, yet tempted by huge grants, hospitals and medical schools have embraced therapies that they once dismissed as quackery. So accepted have alternative medical treatments become that an entire center of the National Institutes of Health is now devoted to CAM. But the question remains: do these treatments actually work? Through interviews with staunch supporters, skeptical scientists, and observers on both sides of the debate, this documentary examines how these popular treatments are facing increased scrutiny as the first real studies of their effectiveness are published, and questions whether hospitals that offer alternative therapies are conferring a sense of legitimacy on these largely untested and scientifically unproven treatments.
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    GBH Forum Network

  • Beyond Black and White: Race in the Boston Public Schools

    Wed, Mar 23, 2005
    Basic Black hosts an hour-long forum with panelists and an audience in the WGBH studio. The discussion explores how the Boston public school system can maintain a commitment to diversity and provide a quality education. Major areas covered in the discussion include: the re-segregation of schools and how this impacts the achievement of students of color; multilingual education and the obligation to address the needs of a swelling immigrant student population; the re-examination of school assignments; and the impact of the recent court decision that the voluntary desegregation plan in Lynn, MA is unconstitutional. One of the goals for the forum is to provide a setting where the academy meets the community--a gathering that promotes conversations and ideas among Boston's scholars, parents, education activists and students.
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    GBH Forum Network

  • In a Global Village, Where is the 'Public Square'?

    Fri, Jan 13, 2006
    Speaking on the idea of mass media, the blogosphere, where they meet and their place within a global village, David Liroff launches the Public Media Roundtable Speakers Series at American University's Center for Social Media. The Center for Social Media showcases and analyzes strategies to use media as creative tools for public knowledge and action. It focuses on social documentaries for civil society and democracy, and on the public media environment that supports them. The Center is part of the School of Communication at American University.
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    GBH Forum Network

  • American Experience: Victory in the Pacific

    Thu, Apr 14, 2005
    Filmmaker Austin Hoyt discusses his new documentary, American Experience: Victory in the Pacific, which examines the final year of World War II in the Pacific, including the rationale for using the atomic bomb, and features first-hand recollections of both American and Japanese civilians and soldiers.
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