The 2024 Lowell Lecture Series focuses on the lesser-known express assignments Paul Revere completed. Speakers will share the importance of his courier work as part of a communications system that involved complex overlapping networks of leaders of all stations. The series will also explore the very practical aspects of long-distance horse journeys and the local colonial politics in key communities Revere interacted with.Presented by Paul Revere Memorial Association in partnership with GBH, the Suffolk University History Department, Milton Historical Society/Suffolk Resolves House (Milton, MA), Carpenters’ Hall (Philadelphia, PA), Fraunces Tavern Museum (New York, NY), and the Portsmouth Athenaeum (Portsmouth, NH), with funding from the Lowell Institute. All lectures are free and open to the public.

The alarming acceleration of global warming is a grave threat to all forms of life. The only viable solution is the reduction and removal of the excess greenhouse gases --atmospheric CO2 and methane-- produced chiefly by fossil fuels. This requires immediate transition to renewable energy, combined with removal of atmospheric CO2. But there is a move to delay that transition by means of solar geoengineering. This approach involves the release of chemical particles high in the atmosphere that will shade the Sun. It does not eliminate the CO2 buildup. Solar geoengineering introduces serious risks that must be explained by responsible scientists.

Daniel Cziczo, a prominent atmospheric scientist specializing in the vital role of clouds in climate dynamics, explains the global warming threat and the risks involved in solar geoengineering.

Journalists Jorge Quiroga and Ray Suarez hold a conversation about ‘the Latino factor’ followed by a panel discussion with Massachusetts leaders to examine the disparities and opportunities faced by Latinos today.

What if we focus on abundance and community? What if we focus on the journey to our destination rather than on whether we’ll get there?

MIT Solve welcomes solvers on its stage to present solutions on how to adapt to our changing climate, centering local and community needs. As Hala Hanna, Executive Director of MIT Solve, put it: "Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up, ready to take action with a determination to make it".

With Scooby Laposky, independent artist, Henk Rogers - Blue Planet Alliance and Julia Kumari Drapkin - ISeeChange, Sara Beery, MIT Professor, Rania Khalif, Inara and Ritu Raman, MIT with Alexander Dale, MIT Solve, James Newell - GSR Foundation, and Taita Ngetich - Synnefa.

Join American Ancestors featured author and a guest historian-expert for an insightful discussion of Nat Turner, Black Prophet, a bold reinterpretation of the causes and legacy of Nat Turner's rebellion. This new, definitive account offers a fresh look at Black history.

In August 1831, a group of enslaved people in Southampton County, Virginia, rose up to fight for their freedom. They attacked the plantations on which their enslavers lived and attempted to march on the county seat of Jerusalem, from which they planned to launch an uprising across the South. After the rebellion was suppressed, well over a hundred people, Black and white, lay dead or were hanged. The uprising was the idea of a single man: Nat Turner. An enslaved preacher, he was as enigmatic as he was brilliant. He was also something more—a prophet, one who claimed to have received visions from the Spirit urging him to act.

With co-author Gregory P. Downs and moderator-historian Vincent Brown of Harvard, we’ll unpack how and why Nat Turner inspired the largest enslaved people’s rebellion in the US between 1811 and 1861 and became an enduring icon of resistance. Nat Turner, Black Prophet, a narrative history by the late historian Anthony E. Kaye and Downs, his collaborator, provides a new understanding of one of the nineteenth century's most decisive events.

Vincent Brown is Charles Warren Professor of American History and Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He teaches courses in Atlantic history, African diaspora studies, and the history of slavery in the Americas.

Gregory P. Downs is professor of history at University of California, Davis. He is the author of three books on the Civil War Era and a book of short stories, as well as many op-eds for leading newspapers. He is co-editor of the 'Journal of the Civil War Era'. Downs assisted in the completion of 'Nat Turner, Black Prophet' which represents the research of Anthony E. Kaye (1962–2017).

Join American Ancestors for the tale of one family spanning centuries and continents. Inspired by the discovery of a mysterious manuscript in an old Massachusetts farmhouse, the celebrated author John Kaag follows eight menbers of the Blood family from seventeenth-century England through the founding of the colonies and the American Revolution to the beginning of the twentieth century.

The Bloods were one of America’s first and most expansive pioneer families. They explored and laid claim to the frontiers—geographic, political, intellectual, and spiritual—that would become the very core of the United States. They were active participants in virtually every pivotal moment in American history, coming into contact with Emerson, Thoreau, John Brown, Frederick Douglass, Victoria Woodhull, and William James. The genealogy of the family tracks the ebb and flow of what Thoreau called “wildness,” the untamed spirit of Americans. John Kaag’s remarkable account reminds us of the risks and rewards that were taken in laying claim to the lands that would become the United States and shows how each family member embodied the elusive ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence.

John Kaag is a professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He is the author of 'American Philosophy: A Love Story' and 'Hiking with Nietzsche', both of which were named best books of the year by NPR. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, and many other publications. He lives outside Boston with his wife and children.

Despite its large size, Indonesia remains virtually invisible to most Americans. But as one of the world’s largest democracies, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, and as an economic driver of ASEAN, why does it fly below the radar? What are current issues in U.S.-Indonesian relations, and what role can the country play in Asia?

Join WorldBoston for a timely discussion of this topic with former Ambassador Robert Blake Jr. This program will feature an expert presentation, live audience Q&A, and time for networking and discussion with other globally-oriented participants in the Newsfeed Café.