Sophia Hall is the Deputy Litigation Director at Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR), a non-profit legal organization founded at the request of President John F. Kennedy in the 1960s at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. An experienced litigator, Sophia handles a broad range of civil rights matters, with a particular focus on employment and police misconduct litigation. Sophia’s legal work is regularly featured in media such as the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and NPR. In addition to her litigation, Sophia also spearheads Election Protection, a non-partisan voter protection initiative that mobilizes thousands of volunteers statewide to ensure equal access to the ballot box. Sophia has been recognized as “Lawyer of the Year” by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, a “Top Lawyer” by the Boston Magazine, and as one of Boston’s Most Impactful Black Women.

Join us for community conversations that amplify local voices from Boston and beyond. Recorded with a live cafe audience at GBH’s studio in the Boston Public Library, GBH Amplifies features a rotating cast of well-known hosts from local media, community organizations, and more.

On January 30, Alberto Vasallo, III, CEO of El Mundo Boston, welcomes guests to the stage for two tapings at 12 pm and 1 pm.

"Our ‘American Dream’ Stories," at 12 pm centers the journeys of four prominent Bostonians who were not born in the U.S. Learn how they strived to become successful and make their communities better.

"Wanted: More Latinos in Film," at 1 pm brings local casting experts in for a conversation about the opportunities available for aspiring Latinx actors and others hoping to join the state's active film industry.

Jennifer Nuzzo is a nationally and globally recognized leader on global health security, public health preparedness and response, and health systems resilience. Together with colleagues from the Nuclear Threat Initiative and Economist Impact, she co-leads the development of the first-ever Global Health Security Index, which benchmarks 195 countries’ public health and healthcare capacities and capabilities, their commitment to international norms and global health security financing, and socioeconomic, political, and environmental risk environments.

The record-breaking heat of the last few years is, climate scientists say, “not just summer.” Two distinguished researchers, Mathew Barlow and Jeffrey Basara, discuss their recent important article about the sudden uptick in global temperature, why is worrying climate experts, how they analyze the global heat patternsand what must be done to address the problem.

Dr. Barlow’s expertise is in climate variability and change, particularly the influence of large-scale climate variability and change on local conditions of importance to society. His research areas include climate change, droughts, floods, and heat waves, with particular geographic interest in the Northeast U.S., North America, Southwest Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

Humanities Workshop and Revolutionary Spaces invite you to The panel--Democracy Now--. It is an opportunity to hear from humanists whose daily work considers and shapes the state of our local and global democracies. Questions the conversation may explore include: What does active citizenship in a democracy look like? How do we prepare ourselves for the challenges that our democracy will face? How do we reform our democracy so that it serves all of its constituents?

The goal is for our panelists to help the audience interpret the current political moment and discover new pathways to citizen leadership.
Moderated by Simón Rios, WBUR reporter.

The Humanities Workshop—a consortium of public, private, and charter secondary school communities—believes in the critical importance of the humanities in addressing urgent social issues. The humanities educate our students to understand historical context, engage in perspective taking, hone critical thinking, and generate narrative. They believe a humanistic approach to social issues develops empathy in their students, inspiring them to engage deeply in the world around them, now and in the future, with their whole selves.

Born in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood, Simón Rios is an award-winning bilingual reporter in WBUR's newsroom. He graduated from Emerson College in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in writing, literature and journalism. At WBUR he covers the ways Greater Boston is changing, with an eye on demographics, immigration and inequality.

ELIZABETH HANSEN SHAPIRO is the CEO and co-founder of the National Trust for Local News, a nonprofit newspaper company dedicated to protecting and sustaining local news, by publishing sustainable community newspapers that safeguard the public trust, elevate facts, empower communities with solutions, and foster a strong sense of place.

CHAWKY FRENN was born in Zahlé, Lebanon. Before emigrating to the United States in 1981, he witnessed six years of civil war. Its devastating consequences have powerfully influenced his life and artwork. Frenn received a BFA from Mass College of Art and Design in Boston, MA in 1985, and an MFA from Tyler School of Art of Temple University in Philadelphia, PA in 1988. He is currently an Associate Professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. Frenn has exhibited his work throughout the United States, and around the globe, and has received critical acclaim from publications including the New York Times, NY ARTS, Art New England, Boston Globe, Connecticut Post, Atlanta Magazine, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in the United States, as well as An-Nahar,

REBECA G. FIGUEROA is an Associate Justice of the Boston Municipal Court. She was appointed to the bench by Governor Maura Healey in 2024. As an associate justice, Judge Figueroa presides at the Dorchester Division of the Boston Municipal Court and is the presiding justice of the Dorchester Recovery Court.