Category Archives: Podcasts

Some Cambridge Forums are now available as free podcasts via iTunes.

Why Do We Need The Humanities?

What kind of society do we wish to live in?  Nobel Laureate and physicist Steven Weinberg once said that science discovers many things but nothing in science can ever tell us what we ought to value.  At a time when interest and investment in the humanities is plummeting, and enrolment in STEM subjects is flourishing, we consider the human consequences of such a shift in direction. 

What good are the arts and why should we care about the past? 

Recorded 1/31/2023

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Author and Harvard Professor of English and Comparative Literature Martin Puchner has been grappling with these questions in his latest book CULTURE: THE STORY OF US, FROM CAVE ART TO K-POP.  Historically, humanity has sought to understand and pass onto future generations not just the know-how of life but the know-why.  Puchner suggests that the meaning of existence as expressed in art, philosophy and religion are essential to human civilization. 

Patrick Bringley, a writer, spent 10 years working as a museum guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and he has just published ALL THE BEAUTY IN THE WORLD about his many and varied experiences there.

  What is the function of a place like MMA and what effects does it have on our psyche and humanity? 

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The Resurgence Of The Independent Bookstore

Something exciting and unexpected has been happening over the past few years. More than 300 new independent bookstores have sprouted up across the country and the bookstore owners and their inventory have become much more diverse. 

The phenomenon is in some part, attributable to the pandemic. People were shuttered in for extended periods and had time to read.  Secondly, they recognized their hunger for a place of connection that was safe.  The public had rallied rather unexpectedly to support their local bookstores during lockdown and when restrictions relaxed, people returned to their favorite places. These bookstores represented much more than anonymous Amazonian warehouses for purchasing; they had become much-needed centers for community engagement and dialogue, crucibles for ideas and human interaction.

Consequently, all sorts of people with no professional background in books, used their savings or government stimulus checks to follow a dream of opening their own bookstore. Despite the numerous ongoing challenges, nobody seems to have regretted their decision.

So, what makes a bookstore special and why become a bookseller?

Recorded 1/17/2023

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LEONARD AND CLARRISSA CROPPER EGERTON are owners of the Frugal Bookstore in Roxbury, the only black-owned bookstore in Boston. They are business partners and the proud parents of four children, aged 13 to 30 years. Leonard was helped initially by Robert Romanow, who had a passion for starting businesses and selling them to people in the local community.  In June 2008, Romanow sold the couple The Frugal Bookstore and Clarrissa quit her corporate banking job and jumped right in as the new co-owner.  The couple have worked diligently to make the bookstore a place that “people in our community could be very proud of, a place where our young people and older folk could come and see themselves reflected in the pages of books. We strive to contribute to literacy in our community, our mission, is to change minds one book at a time.”  They have been in business together for 15 years and it is their desire to make the Frugal Bookstore not only a part of their legacy, but a part of Roxbury’s legacy

Leonard Egerton and Clarrissa Cropper Egerton, owners of the Frugal Bookstore.

CHRISTINA PASCUCCI CIAMPA is the owner of All She Wrote Books in Somerville, MA. ASWB is an inclusive feminist and queer indie bookstore that supports, celebrates and amplifies underrepresented voices through a carefully curated selection of books spanning across all genres.  

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Living A Good Enough Life

Do you constantly obsess about being happy?  Well, you’re not alone.  It appears that many Americans share this national proclivity.

These pervasive desires with how to be the wealthiest, the most powerful or famous, take up a lot of psychic energy, and the end results are not too impressive.  Despite the myriad of self-help books out there, we Americans are among the most anxious people on earth. 

So, we are taking a stop and asking, is there a better way? 

AVRAM ALPERT, writer and educator, shares his ideas from The Good-Enough Life, suggesting how an acceptance of our own limitations can lead to a more fulfilling life and a more harmonious society.

Obsessing about greatness has given us an epidemic of stress, anxiety, inequality and ecological damage.

Alpert is a writer and teacher, and currently a Research Fellow at The New Institute in Hamburg where he is working on a book on wisdom.

KIERAN SETIYA, a professor of philosophy at MIT, provides a refreshing and realistic antidote to many of the platitudes pushed by our contemporary American self-improvement industry.  His latest book Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help us Find our Way suggests that trying to live a perfect life in difficult circumstances only brings dismay.  Much in life that makes us miserable can neither be changed nor ignored, so we need to come to terms with reality.  

Both guests challenge the notion that happiness should be life’s primary pursuit – arguing we might be better served by living well within our means, acknowledging some difficult truths and concentrating on leading a meaningful life instead.  Embracing the “good-enough” life might be preferable to hankering for the perfect one, and we might just stumble across happiness in the process. 

Recorded 12/22/2022

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THE ART OF RESISTANCE: Visions And Voices Of Change

Art provides a powerful expression for resistance both in word and image, and Peter Sacks uses both to great effect in his latest works. Sacks, an expatriate of South Africa is currently presenting his first solo museum exhibition at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University.

RESISTANCE is a collection of 88 portraits of individuals who have resisted political, racial or cultural oppression over the past two centuries ranging from Frederick Douglass, Rachel Carson and Nelson Mandela to Emmeline Pankhurst, Sitting Bull and Volodymyr Zelensky.

Sacks, who began as a poet and still teaches at Harvard University produced all the portraits in the past two years, a prolific output for someone who did not pick up a paintbrush until he was 48 years of age.

Drawing from his anti-apartheid activism and multicultural experiences, Sacks creates an inspiring cast of writers, artists, philosophers and activists from around the world, who all resisted oppression in various ways.  Each portrait consists of a face embedded in a tactile composition of fabric, paint, personal items and text.  The exhibit is immersive; alongside the visuals, there is an audio collage of voices of numerous contemporary literary, social, political and cultural figures.

Many of these figures have inspired me over a lifetime, in ways at once intimate and public.  Many of the portrayed individuals became each other’s powerful guides and sources of courage. I hope they will do the same for viewers and conjure a community among them.

Peter Sacks

The Rose Art Museum exhibit runs until December 30, 2022 and admission is free.

Drawing from his anti-apartheid activism and multicultural experiences, artist and expatriate of South Africa, Peter Sacks, is currently presenting his first solo museum exhibition at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University.

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Heart To Heart: The Exquisite Machine

The human heart is a miraculous organ, a marvel of construction unsurpassed by any human made creation with its resilience and precision.  It beats 100,000 times a day so that if you live 100 years, that would be more than 3 billion beats in a lifetime. 

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In our forum, Sian Harding will explore the latest scientific developments and mysteries of the heart.  Professor Harding, a world leader in cardiac research at Imperial College in London, is author of The Exquisite Machine: the new science of the heart. The book explains the latest cardiac discoveries as well as the relationship between the emotions and heart function.  In addition to being a powerful pump, the heart is super-sensitive – not just in responding to emotions but in creating them.  And yes, you can die of “broken heart syndrome” – although there are profound differences between men and women.  There is also a much deeper connection between the heart and the brain than was previously understood.

SIAN HARDING, a leading authority in cardiac science, is Emeritus Professor of Cardiac Pharmacology at Imperial College London. She served as Special Advisor to the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee on Regenerative Medicine.

Since the heart is at the nexus of feeling, we use the word in everyday conversation – heartfelt, heartache, the heart of the matter, a good heart.  E E Cummings famously wrote “I carry your heart with me” but writers have obsessed with this organ for centuries. One is the physician and poet, Dr. Fady Joudah who practices Internal Medicine at St Luke’s Baylor Medical Center in Houston, TX.

Joudah is an award-winning poet who first starting writing when working for Doctors Without Borders in Africa and published Earth in the Attic.  He will read from his work and discuss how poetry informs his mission as a physician.

Fady Joudah has published five collections of poems: The Earth in the Attic; Alight; TextuFootnotes in the Order of Disappearance;  and, most recently, Tethered to Stars. He has translated several collections of poetry from the Arabic and is the co-editor and co-founder of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize. He is an Editor-at-Large for Milkweed Editions. He lives in Houston where he practices internal medicine.

Tyrants On Twitter

TYRANTS ON TWITTER, a new book by national security expert David Sloss, details how by investing heavily in global media and information technology systems, Russia and China are undermining democracy.  Sloss provides a careful analysis of how Chinese and Russian agents weaponize Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media platforms for the sole purpose of subverting the liberal international order, both in America and Europe.  In this forum, we’ll examine questions about the 2016 US election and also explore Russia’s use of foreign infiltration to meddle with Western democratic elections. 

What can be done to mitigate the damage? 

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David L. Sloss is an educator, author, and national security expert. His latest book, Tyrants on Twitter: Protecting Democracies from Information Warfare focuses on Russian and Chinese information warfare. Sloss is currently Professor of Law at Santa Clara University. Before entering academia, he worked for the federal government on U.S.-Soviet arms control negotiations and nuclear proliferation issues.

Much Ado About Mushrooms

Recorded June 28, 2022

Fungi are perhaps the most underappreciated kingdom of the natural world. As billion year-old organisms they are masters of survival and integral to the development of life on Earth. Fungi are also remarkable chemists producing molecules that humans still can’t make in a lab, and scientists are only scratching the surface since there are an estimated 5,000,000 species of fungi, and we’ve only discovered about one per cent of them. 

One species that is attracting great attention is psilocybin mushrooms, which have been part of religious rituals for thousands of years. The Aztecs referred to these mushrooms as “God’s flesh” in homage to their believed sacred power. In 1957, Albert Hoffman, a Swiss chemist working for the pharmaceutical company Sandoz, isolated psilocybin from a mushroom and unleashed all sorts of interesting discoveries.  During the 60s, Sandoz sold psilocybin and LSD for research in medical trials, but the substances were soon outlawed after they became associated with Timothy Leary and the 60’s counterculture.

Well Psilocybin has been making a steady comeback within the medical community who  have conducted clinical trials showing remarkable success in treating patients with severe depression, anxiety and PTSD.  Many individuals speak of life-changing experiences during a single session and emerge with new-found awareness including author Michael Pollan, author of “How to Change your Mind”. 

GIULIANA FURCI is Chile’s first female mycologist who launched the Fungi Foundation in 2012 – the first NGO devoted to these organisms.

Giuliana Furci is Chile’s first female mycologist, who founded the Fungi Foundation, the first NGO in the world working solely for the protection and promotion of fungi, with offices in Chile and the USA.  Her work triggered the inclusion of fungi in Chilean environmental legislation and made it possible to assess the conservation status of over 80 species of fungi.  Furci has described several species of fungi and conducted mycological expeditions in close to 20 countries.

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BLACK HISTORY: ON REWIND 

To celebrate our newly digitized collection of eminent historical black orators, Cambridge Forum has teamed up with the Lincoln Institute to present a panel discussion featuring distinguished CF speakers Professors Randall Kennedy, Danielle Allen and Cheryl Townsend-Gilkes and Cambridge City Councilor Denise Simmons.

L to R:  Professor Danielle Allen, Mary Stack CF, Professor Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Professor Randall Kennedy, moderator Roberto Mighty

What progress has been made in social justice and equality in America? Who writes American history? What outstanding issues urgently remain to be addressed by Americans?

Black History On Rewind

Recorded 3.21.2022

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This forum was made possible through partnerships with the Lincoln Institute and the Harvard Square Business Association. 

Cambridge Forum: Black History Retrospective

The digitization project was funded in part through grants from the City of Cambridge and Cambridge Community Foundation.

Cambridge Forum co-sponsors



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Tick, Tick, And More Ticks

Many people know at least one person suffering from Lyme’s disease, a quietly expanding tick-borne epidemic that has now spread throughout the United States into Canada.  It is more than 40 years since the disease was first identified yet there is still no human vaccine available, despite the multiple vaccine options that you can purchase for your dog.  So what happened to the LymeRix vaccine that was developed in 1990s, and why was it so abruptly withdrawn from the market?

 Kris Newby, is a Stanford-educated science writer and senior producer of the Lyme disease documentary Under the Skin, whose book Bitten has won three international book awards. 

Brian Owens, an award-winning science journalist for Nature, New Scientist and The Lancet, was commissioned to investigate the causes, treatments, and controversy surrounding this insidious but often overlooked disease and recently published his book, Lyme Disease in Canada.  In it, Owens cites hope in a new French vaccine that is being developed in partnership with Pfizer for use in 2024.

Find out what you should know about Lyme’s disease before being bitten!

Recorded 2/22/22

Tick,Tick, And More Ticks

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Join the conversation. Support our ongoing public events and radio series.  Contribute $100 or more and receive our newsletter and invitations to special Cambridge Forum events.

To join,  call the Forum office at 617 495-2727 or make a contribution now online via Paypal.

SMELL – an olfactory orgy

Smell is one of the primal ways that we humans first navigate the world.  Yet smell largely remains a sensorial mystery because of the intricate way that scent, emotion and memory are intertwined in the brain.  Research into olfaction, the science of what happens between the nose and the brain, has intensified in the past couple of years due to the huge number of people who lost their sense of smell due to COVID.  Luckily, this condition, anosmia, is usually temporary.

How much do our noses really matter in making sense of the world?  Consider your coffee – just one sniff contains 800 separate volatile chemicals!

To help us understand this important but often overlooked sense, we talk to Sandeep Robert Datta, Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and Venkatesh Murthy, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard’s Center for Brain Science. They will be joined by Dr. Eric Holbrook, Director of Rhinology at Mass Eye and Ear Hospital.

Recorded January 11, 2022

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