Forum Network

We’re talking brews: beer, coffee, tea and… music! WGBH’s BostonTalks series connects you with local leaders, stories, trends and each other. Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum’s Josiah George takes us back in time to the days of brewing and throwing tea overboard into the Boston Harbor. Ajiri Tea founder Sara Holby explains how the lives of women and orphans in Kenya are being improved through the tea and coffee that are purchased and brewed in Boston. Adam Ritchie’s band The Lights Out released its album on a can of Aeronaut Brewing Co. beer. That’s right—drink a brew and discover new music at the same time. Adam explains this journey. Matt DeLuca, head brewer at Castle Island Brewing Co., talks about brewing beer and using failure to the company’s advantage. Additional speakers to come. Tweet with Josiah (@bostonteaship), Sara (@ajiritea), Adam (@fontbandit), Matt (@cibrewing) and Edgar B. Herwick, III (@ebherwick3) using #BostonTalks.

What if there is life in space? What if technology is having a negative impact our lives? What if the concept of junk food didn't exist?  WGBH News reporter **Craig LeMoult** (@clemoult) hosts a night of exploration into some big questions. **Mo Lotman**(@thetechnoskep), author and The Technoskeptic magazine publisher, takes a critical look at our relationship with technology and asks what would happen if we rethought this bond. Chew founder & CEO **Adam Melonas** (@adamchef) challenges our perceptions of health and junk food. What if we purchased food based on flavor and format instead of degrees of harm inflicted? MIT astronomer and Exoplaneteer **Jenn Burt** (@astrojennb) explains her work searching for planets and life in space. You can always add your comments to this talk on Twitter with #BostonTalks.

WGBH's Edgar B. Herwick, III (@ebherwick3) hosts a happy hour conversation with four very different experts in risk. Noah Wilson-Rich (@BestBees), co-founder of the Best Bees Company, discusses his work as a beekeeper and how he risks working with them to keep the pollinators—and their honey—in our lives. Tanya Hoke, Managing Director at Galen Diligence (@TanyaH), tells us about her decade-long investigation into the cannabis industry. Moran Cerf, a professor of Neuroscience and Business at the Kellogg School of Management and the LIJ department of Neurosurgery, discusses his experience as a computer hacker and teaches us what he has learned as he now studies the brain. Jeff Rogers (@professorjgrey), a freelance producer and consultant, talks about his experience working with young people who have severe emotional issues. He incorporates creativity and music into his job as a mentor to struggling youth. Photo Credit: A Syn/[Flickr](https://www.flickr.com/photos/24293932@N00/530211480 "RISK AWR WC T7L LosAngeles Graffiti Art")

We’re looking at Boston’s sexual history and how it has — or has not — shaped the city we know today. Writer and dance scholar Jessica Berson sheds light on the business and history of erotic performance. Independent scholar Lori Stokes shares how the Puritans might not have been so pure after all. Professor and author Stephanie Schorow takes us back in time to downtown Boston's adult entertainment district known as the Combat Zone. And Stephanie Berman, inventor of the Semenette, explains how she is making history by revolutionizing the way babies are made. Photo: By [Sailko](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 "") (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons

Host Edgar B Herwick III opens the floor to four local women who are helping to build a better Boston. **Liz Pawlak**, the Vice President of Design Museum, is using education to benefit design throughout the city. **Sumia Hussain**, the US Partnerships Coordinator at MassChallenge, promotes innovation through public-private partnerships, social impact, clean energy and water innovation, and inclusive entrepreneurship. **Sheena Collier**, the Boston Promise Initiative Director at Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, calls herself a social broker, and connects people across beliefs, communities, organizations, and sectors. **Megan Amaral**, the Master Model Builder at LEGOLAND® Discovery Center Boston, uses the fun of Legos to innovate design to Boston buildings. (Photo:[Flickr/allenran 917](https://www.flickr.com/photos/allenran917/7884528374/in/photolist-d1JgAo-auW4Mb-dwdzQe-iTQgWp-dwj4wd-7B5Yo7-auTjCi-dwd812-dkUysX-6k6VWg-g2KfRC-fnv5AY-dwiP9w-pxBFsX-b751Cr-pxGtoC-dwc72e-dwhNks-pN14E1-qfJQBG-nDSK8p-qKTnbN-pxGxmY-kvADJh-pxB3n4-dkUyWM-pQbvuG-69NBrX-pANYhN-MDXE4-qhQz7V-7ooDBk-dwhXt7-pxEmaa-fZy6Aq-hPwsiq-qJmtL-MDYCX-7ooG4i-7W4947-sGode-fyPp8S-d92yWN-9L1SUx-nGMNEH-5PYcAn-e6sxeb-qCNKgC-8grTee-7oswXN ""))

Wait! Cary Grant was actually a British spy? Dolph Lundgren (Ivan Drago from Rocky IV) won a Fulbright Scholarship to attend MIT? C’mon, now. You know that not everything is as it seems. That venerable Bostonian Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “People only see what they are prepared to see.” Well, this month, our panel of thinkers and doers is guaranteed to prepare you to see things like you never have before. Named by Newsweek as America’s #1 Young Entrepreneur, Johnny Earle (aka Johnny Cupcakes) explains how he turned product packaging into a magic trick; Harvard ArtScience Lab founder David Edwards shares why museums are the labs of the future (or is it that labs are the museums of the future?); and food writer Anastacia Marx reveals how the United States Army has been secretly infiltrating your kitchen from a base in Natick. Join Johnny (@JohnnyCupcakes), David (@LeLabCambridge), Anastacia (@CombatKitchen) and a flock of fellow fun-loving locals for a smarter happy hour — hosted by Edgar B. Herwick III (@ebherwick3) of WGBH’s Curiosity Desk.

Move over nurses, cashiers, and office clerks! It's time to talk about really unusual, curious and offbeat jobs. Specifically, we'll hear from a designer working at the intersections of fashion and disability; a psychic medium who works on police investigations and a guy who combs junkyards for his next invention. The guests are: Open Style Lab Co-Founder Grace Teo (@openstylelab) Psychic Medium and Investigator Kelle Sutliff (@KellePyschic) Leader of THE NERDS, aka the New England Rubbish Deconstruction Society, Jeff Del Papa. Tweet with WGBH guests and our speakers using #BostonTalks Image credit: [Flickr](https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1373/5125677289_c7e402e0ac_b.jpg "")

This time we spotlight The Hub._ The Curiosity Desk's_ **Edgar Herwick** asks, "Just what is it that makes Boston, Boston?" The Sox and the Citgo sign? The hallowed and oft-maligned T? Our Puritan past? All those thinkers, geeks, and entrepreneurs buzzing about? How do Bostonians define their city and just how accurate is the image of it that we broadcast to the rest of the world? _Boston Globe_ reporter [**Alex Beam**](https://twitter.com/imalexbeamyrnot "Alex on Twitter") brings his signature wry wit to the party for an incisive look at the region, and historian [**Ed O'Donnell**](https://twitter.com/InThePastLane "Ed on Twitter") examines some of the local history that tends to get swept under the rug. Plus, [**John Romard**](https://twitter.com/BostonAttitude "John on Twitter") offers his spirited take on the soul of the city. And if that isn't enough, Lesley University's Dean of the College of Art and Design, [**Richard Zauft**](https://twitter.com/RichardZauft "Richard on Twitter") gives insight into the trajectory of creativity. (Image By By Matthias Rosenkranz CC BY-SA 2.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Hear from rower Andrew Campbell (@TheAndyCamps), who is set to represent the United States in the Men's Lightweight Double Scull at the upcoming 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Investigative and enterprise sports reporter for the Boston Globe, Shira Springer (@ShiraSpringer) gives us the inside story on what it’s like to cover the Olympics, and lets us know what to watch for this summer. And Special Olympics VP of Philanthropy Nick Savarese (@NickSava) explains how sports unite communities. Join Andrew, Shira, Nick, and others for a smarter happy hour celebrating the Olympics. (Photo: [Pixbay](https://pixabay.com/en/olympic-rings-olympiad-1120047/ ""))

Life on the farm now has a whole new meaning. Join us to talk about all the farming being done right here in our city, from the growing going on in shipping containers, vacant lots, and the roof of a local CrossFit, to the creation of “green-collar jobs” and the benefits of scratch cooking. (Photo: [Homegrowndotorg](https://www.flickr.com/photos/homegrowndotorg/ "")/Flickr)