Cities in the 21st Century:
The Role of Urban Centers
Alex Krieger, professor at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, speaks on the role of urban centers in this forum produced in collaboration with The Mature Urban Centers Project at Tufts University. Rebecca Barnes, Chief Planner, city of Boston, joins the discussion as moderator.
The Meaning of Urban Center Vitality
Alvaro Lima , Managing Director and Senior Vice President of ICIC-Boston, discusses urban center vitality in our changing society. Moderated by Charlie Euchner, Director, Rappaport Institute for a Greater Boston.
Forces Affecting Community and Character
Carter Wilkie , co-author of Changing Places, focuses on the forces that impact urban centers and their consequent effect on communities. Moderated by President of the Harvard Square Defense Fund, Jinny Nathans.
Designing Livable Communities
A panel featuring members of the Urban Design Committee of the Boston Society of Architects shares ideas about good urban design. Which designs best reflect public aspirations? How might planners, architects and the public best cooperate in pursuit of well-designed space defining their built environment. Other topics in this series:
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The Privatization of Open Space
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Leaving Your Car At Home: Walking Cities Of The Future
ART IN THE 21ST CENTURY: Design By Numbers
John Maeda who teaches at MIT's Media Lab, and is author of Design By Numbers discusses the changing landscape of art and graphic design in the computer age. Moderated by New York Times Science Section interviewer, Claudia Dreifus, author of Scientific Conversations: Interviews from the New York Times by Claudia Dreifus.
On Objects and Intimacy
Poet Mark Doty discusses his new book Still Life with Oysters and Lemon which examines our relationships with things. How do things become meaningful for human beings? How do things hold feeling, hope, and history within themselves?
Portrait Of the Artist
As An Old Man: Monet In The 20th Century 
Art Historian Paul Tucker of the University of Massachusetts, Boston and curator of Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston exhibition Monet in the 20th Century.
Life: The Movie
Entertainment has given everything from religion to politics to television news a show business twist. And we all have become not only the audience for the life spectacular, but also the performance artists acting out our own lives. Movie critic Neal Gabler discusses his book ÒLife: The MovieÓ and the implications of this conversion of life to entertainment.
The Folklore of Violence
Psychologist David Ingle and Afro-American folk singer Sparky Rucker discuss the history of the glorification of the outlaw in popular and folk music. Using songs and lyrics, they will trace the tradition of celebrating outlaws' battles against their oppressors, from Robin Hood to Stagger Lee, Pretty Boy Floyd to gangsta rappers.
America's Favorite Poems
This special two-part Cambridge Forum features readings by participants in the Favorite Poetry Project, a program created by the nation's former poet laureate Robert Pinsky, to celebrate the power and place of poetry in American culture. Following Pinsky's introduction, a diverse group of Americans read their favorite poems aloud and discuss why poetry has been a force in their lives.
The Voice Of The Poet
Gail Mazur's poems have been published by the University of Chicago Press and in the Atlantic Monthly, Poetry, the New Republic and Slate. Her books of poetry include "The Common" (Phoenix Poets, 1995) and "The Pose Of Happiness" (1986). She reads from her work and explores the role of poetry in a secular and technical society.
My Wars are Laid Away in Books
Biographer Alfred Habegger explores the deeply private and enigmatic life of one America's most extraordinary poets, Emily Dickinson. Examining volumes of personal and professional correspondence with family and friends, he provides a rare personal glimpse into Dickinson's troubled brilliance and the poems she kept hidden from public view.
Celebrating the Literary Legacy of C.S.Lewis
Award winning author Kathleen Norris, Harvard psychiatrist Armand Nicholi and philosopher Peter Kreeft lead a panel discussion on the writings of C.S. Lewis, most notably The Screwtape Letters (1942). What is the relevance of Screwtape for young readers today? What was the impact of C.S.Lewis' work on world culture and the literary landscape?
Emerson: The Mind On Fire 
Historian Robert D. Richardson whose last biography chronicled the intellectual life of American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, now tells the remarkable story of one of America's greatest thinkers, Ralph Waldo Emerson. How do Emerson's ideas about freedom hold up in our age? Did this 19th century Abolitionist and philosopher embrace the world around him or retreat into the world of ideas?
Bankruptcy 101
Henry Hildebrand, Chairman of the Legislative Affairs and Industry Standards Committee for the national Association of Chapter 13 Trustees discusses the new legislation related to bankruptcy and explains how it affects average consumers.
The Good Society: The Humane Agenda
What should the standards be in a socially tolerable economic society? What changes are required in order to achieve a good and just society? Harvard University economist John Kenneth Galbraith lends his unique perspective as outlined in his book, The Good Society: The Humane Agenda.
Everything for Sale
Nationally syndicated columnist, founding co-editor of The American Prospect, Robert Kuttner, discusses the virtues and limits of economic markets. He offers relevant, real-world examples of market failure and makes the case for intelligent intervention to attain more desirable outcomes. His illustrations of successful government interventions in the market -- from National Public Radio to the Internet--creates a persuasive case for a mixed program of political and market-based approaches in the shaping of public policy.
The Changing Role of Non-Profits in America
Peter Fromkin, Hauser Center for Non-Profit Studies, John F. Kennedy School of Government, examines the role that non-profits play in American society. How are expectations placed on non-profits changing in the era of federal government devolution? How are non-profits coping with changing funding patterns? How is the American experience different from that of other countries?
Who Benefited From the 90's Boom?
Former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich examines the growing gap between rich and poor in the United States and asks what impact the economic divide has on the nation's political life. Are the wealthiest Americans invested in the nation's democratic institutions? Do the poorest Americans feel they have genuine opportunities for civic participation?
Human and Economic Well-Being
Neva Goodwin, Co-Director of the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University. According to neoclassical theory, efficient interaction between the profit-maximizing "ideal producer" and the utility-maximizing "ideal consumer" will eventually lead to some sort of social optimum. But is that social optimum the same as human well-being?
Wildness and Reason
Celebrated biologist E.O.Wilson and nature writer/philosopher David Abram discuss the challenge of balancing the power of reason with the spell of the sensuous at a special forum produced in association with the New England Aquarium.
Making Effective Environmental Choices
Disposable diapers or cloth? Paper bags or plastic? Warren Leon and Michael Brower of the Union of Concerned Scientists discuss the environmental choices American consumers face every day. Which decisions have the greatest impact on the health of the environment? Where can we find reliable information so that we can make responsible environmental choices?
Ethics and Ecosystems: Making Science Matter
What is the proper balance of public policy, scientific research, and action needed to create a sustainable world? This forum in our ongoing Millennial Series features a dialogue among Tim Weiskel of the Harvard Environmental Seminar, Jonathan Lash, President of World Resources Institute and Steven Rockefeller, Chairman of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. How can scientific and technological data be made accessible for a public audience? Are traditional ethics sufficient to guide us to take environmental decisions that impact on global ecosystems?
Fragile Armor: Saving the Black Rhino
Donald Paglia, Professor Emeritus of Pathology and Hematology at UCLA Medical School, discusses his 16-year effort to save the black rhino from extinction. In part five of our Millennial Series, he looks at the impact of human encroachment on wild animal habitats and re-population efforts of endangered species in captive populations?
The Ecological Imagination
Nature writers, poets, scientists, and environmentalists read from and comment on their work, addressing the possibility of creating a vital environmental ethic. This series of programs is co-sponsored by the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. Series features:
- David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous; Laurie Kutchins, Between Towns; Barry Lopez, About This Life; Chet Raymo, Skeptics and True Believers; Pattiann Rogers, Eating Bread and Honey; Scott Russell Sanders, Writing From the Center; Richard Nelson, The Island Within; Simon Ortiz, Men on the Moon; Terry Tempest Williams, Refuge
Thoreau's Country
Ecologist David Foster charts the social and ecological histories of New England. Henry David Thoreau is Foster's inspiration, but by the time the philosopher-author of Walden moved to the Massachusetts woods and erected his small cabin, New England had already been transformed into a patchwork of agricultural fields and small woodlots. Indeed, farmers were seen as heroes for taming the land. But with the nineteenth century's industrial revolution, people deserted the countryside for new jobs in the cities. Over time, much of the land reforested itself. With the expanding forests, Foster finds a shift in human perception, too, one that encompasses the land's ecological importance.
Civil Rights, Yesterday and Today
John Lewis is an authentic American hero, a modest man from the most humble of beginnings who left a rural Alabama cotton farm 40 years ago and strode into the forefront of the civil rights movement. One of the young people who brought the teachings of Ghandi and King to the lunch counters of Nashville in 1960, Lewis suffered taunts and threats, beatings and arrests. He spoke at the historic 1963 March on Washington and became chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The nation, tuned to the nightly news, watched in horror as state troopers clubbed him viciously, fracturing his skull as he led a march in Selma, Alabama, in 1965. Today, he's the only member of Congress who can be proud of having been carried off to jail more than 40 times. In this forum, Lewis shares his recollections of the intense national drama that was the civil rights movement.
Wait Till Next Year: A Baseball Fan's Story
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin reflects on her own childhood and traces out her lifelong love of baseball. How did New York's baseball teams of the 1950's become a prism through which she viewed her own life? What inspired one young Brooklyn Dodgers baseball fan to grow up and become one of America's preeminent historians? What is it about baseball that defines the American experience?
What Could be New About the Declaration of Independence?
Pauline Maier, Professor of American History at MIT; Author of American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence.
Journalist David Halberstam discusses his book
The Children which tells
the compelling true story of the beginnings of the civil rights movement
in Nashville, Tennessee, tracing the lives of the young men, women, and
children who initiated it and powerfully changed the nation.
Why Terrorism Works
Renowned criminal defense and civil rights attorney Alan M. Dershowitz shares insights from his new book on understanding and responding to terrorism. Harvard Law School professor in history and author of Supreme Injustice, Chutzpah,and Reversal of Fortune, Dershowitz outlines a frank and controversial agenda to combat terror on American soil and around the world. How did America become so vulnerable? What can we do to stop terror without compromising civil liberties
The New Nuclear Danger
A new book from Dr. Helen Caldicott, founder of the Nobel Prize-winning Physicians for Social Responsibility, addresses the escalating nuclear dangers around the globe. From the possible war against Iraq, to India-Pakistan dispute, to terrorism ... which scenarios have the potential to escalate to nuclear conflicts? Has the world grown complacent about nuclear dangers?
Responding To Terrorism
Juliet Kayyem of the National Commission on Terrorism joins Joseph Nye, Dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and James Carroll, author of Constantine's Sword, to discuss America's responses to the deadly terrorist attack on New York and Washington. What are the ramifications -- moral, military, political -- of a "war" on terrorism?
Covering Cuba: A Journalist's Memoir
CNN Producer Patricia Vila discusses her experiences in Cuba as the Havana bureau manager working under the tight scrutiny of President Fidel Castro's regime. A first-generation Cuban-American, she shares stories of reconnecting with family while laboring in the journalistic trenches of Cuba.
Ethnic Warfare: Bosnia, Kosovo, and the Future
Journalist and 1999 Neiman Fellow Chris Hedges examines the basis for the proliferation of ethnic conflicts around the world. Drawing on his experiences reporting on wars throughout the world, Hedges asks why the number and violence of these conflicts seems to be increasing? What role should the media play in reporting ethnic conflicts? Can international intervention resolve ethnic crises before they escalate to genocide?
Former Anglican Archbishop of South Africa Desmond Tutu, one of the world's great spiritual and moral leaders, discusses the extraordinary mission of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission which he headed, to uncover, to understand, and to heal.
Limits of Military Power in the 21st Century
Major General William Nash,a Fellow at the Institute of Politics in Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government discusses the new ways in which military force is used in the post-Cold War world. Can national troops be effective in international missions? How can military and civilian organizations work together effectively? Commander of Task Force Eagle organized to implement the Dayton Peace Accords in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Nash draws on first hand experience in the "New Army" to examine these questions and more.
Land Mines: The Weapons That Keep On Killing
Journalist and author of Sowing the Dragon's Teeth: Land Mines and the Global Legacy of War , Philip Winslow has witnessed the terrible effects of land mines in Iran, Croatia, Cambodia, South Africa, and Angola. In this forum, Winslow portrays people whose lives have been changed by their destructive force and examines the legacy of this controversial weapon in the global arsenal.
Religion in the 21st Century
In their new books, internationally recognized authority on world religions, Huston Smith, and Harvard University Professor of Comparative Religion, Diana Eck, discuss the changing landscape of religion in America and beyond. Why does religion matter? How has a "Christian country" like America become the most religiously diverse nation in the world?
When in Doubt, Sing: Spiritual Practices, Old and New
Jane Redmont, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California
Reflections
Peter Gomes, author of The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart will describe some of the interpretive tools modern readers need to understand the Bible and the joy and inspiration it can bring to everyday life.
NO STRANGER TO CONTROVERSY: MARY BAKER EDDY
Biographer Gillian Gill examines the life of the only woman to found and lead a world religion.
Rabindranath Tagore: Exemplar of Power?
Rev. Herbert Vetter discusses Heart of God, his new edition of the prayers of the Indian philosopher and poet Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). Is the power of spirituality that Tagore evoked in his age a concept that has meaning in our own secular era? Can these "simple prayers of common life" transcend time and speak directly to the human heart?
GOD OF THE RODEO
Author and journalist Daniel Bergner discusses his new book, God of the Rodeo: The Search for Hope, Faith, and a Six-Second Ride in Louisiana's Angola Prison , a revealing look at convicts' lives in Louisiana's maximum security prison.
FLESH & MACHINES: How Robots Will Change Us
Director of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab Rodney Brooks will discuss the startling advances in robotics. The Sojourner Mars landing on July 4, 1997 was only the beginning. In the not too distant future, researchers will create robots that think, feel, repair themselves, and even reproduce. Are robots capable of having emotions? What ethical issues arise in imbuing a machine with consciousness only to serve human needs?
The Amazing Story of Sue
Paleontologist Peter Larson and reporter Kristin Donnan describe how a Black Hills Institute team unearthed the largest intact T-rex skeleton ever uncovered. Sue's discovery launched a hailstorm of lawsuits, FBI investigations and controversy in what came to be known as the "bone wars." Who should own such treasures? How has Sue's discovery changed paleontology?
Technology in the 21st Century
Credited with inventing the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, Chair of the 3 Com Founders Laboratory for Computer Science at MIT, Director of the World Wide Web Consortium, and author of Weaving the Web, discusses the changing face of computer technology in the new millennium.
Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century
Simson Garfinkel, columnist for the Boston Globe, discusses his new book on the impact that electronic technology is having on our right to privacy and our ability to guard personal information.
Freedom and Free Software
Richard Stallman, founder and president of the Free Software Foundation , discusses the broader implications for society in the information age of current intellectual property and copyright policies, and explores his belief that free software is a matter of freedom: people should be free to use software in all the ways that are socially useful. What is free software?
What Future Language?
Steven Pinker, Professor of Brain and Cognitive Science at MIT, explores the ways lanaguage and thought itself are changing in the age of computers and electronic communications. Part of the Language, Technology & Thought series.
From Papyrus to Cyberspace
Technology is changing the way we work and learn. The way we shop. The way we play. Will it change the way we think? James O'Donnell, Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania explores how electronic communications technology is changing our language and, with it, the ways we learn, solve problems and structure our thoughts. O'Donnell is the author of "Avatars of the Word". Part of the Language, Technology & Thought series.
Should We Worry About Global Warming?
Ross Gelbspan, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of "The Heat Is On" analyzes the wide-ranging debate on global warming. What's the evidence that global warming is already upsetting Nature's balance and causing gradual shifts in the world's climate zones? Who's winning and who's losing in the high stakes battle over Earth's threatened climate? How economically feasible are strategies designed to shift to renewable energy paths?
Rainforest biologist Mark Moffett provides a fascinating account of Earth's last and greatest ecological frontier. The "high frontier" as he calls it is the subject of a new field of research that ’s taking place high up in the canopy of the rainforest. Does this unique perspective on aerial plants and the millions of creatures --many of which have never been classified -- offer a new way of understanding our fragile ecosystem? What ’s to be learned up above the treetops?
Fresh from his experience at re-energizing the Baltimore Zoo, zookeeper extraordinaire Brian Rutledge shares his current experience of revitalizing Boston's Franklin Park Zoo. How should a zoo fit into a community? Can the desire to be profitable and entertaining be balanced with the mission to protect and conserve endangered species ? How are the newly arrived baby gorillas doing at zoo?
The Century of the Gene
In her new book, The Century of the Gene, M.I.T. professor and author Evelyn Fox Keller will discuss issues surrounding genetic engineering as we enter the 21st century. In the part 4 of our Millennial Series, Keller will discuss her idea that genes do not shape destiny, but rather play a role as bit players in the larger game of life.
Whither Psychoanalysis In Digital Culture?
Sherry Turkle, Director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, discusses how virtual communities, robotic companions, and screen avatars demand a depth psychology of our relationships with them, and calls for a new psychoanalytic discourse in digital culture and a renewal of psychoanalytic thinking.
In Schools We Trust
School reformer Deborah Meier tackles the issue of how we can restore faith in our schools in an age of standardized testing. Meier's latest book In Schools We Trust explores ways to engender trust between parents and teachers, teachers and students, and diverse ethnic groups. How do we create a dynamic where teachers and students are trusted to use their own judgment? Are standardized tests ever appropriate?
The Unschooled Mind
Educator and psychologist Howard Gardner assesses how children think and how schools should teach. Drawing on his research on intelligence and creativity, Gardner suggests that the best learning occurs when the challenges that confront a child are equal to his/her skills, when a kid stretches a bit, not so much that he or she gets anxious, but just enough so that the child is "in flow".
Intelligence Reframed
Educational theorist Howard Gardner's ideas about intelligence and creativity explicated in such best-selling books as Frames of Mind and Multiple Intelligences have revolutionized our thinking. In his groundbreaking 1983 book, Frames of Mind, Gardner first introduced the theory of multiple intelligences which posits that intelligence is more than a single property of the human mind. In Intelligence Reframed, Gardner provides a much-needed report on the theory, its evolution and revisions. In this forum, he offers practical guidance on the educational uses of the theory and responds to the critiques leveled against him.
The End of Homework
Etta Kralovec and John Buell examine the impact of home work on children's lives. Their new book argues that in today's schools, homework has become a burden that does not help students learn but rather undermines their social and emotional health, limits their interests, and affects the quality of family life and relationships.
Public Schools and the American Dream
Jennifer Hochschild, joint professor of Government and Afro-American Studies at Harvard University, discusses her forthcoming book on race matters in public schools. Part 2 of our Millennial Series, this forum tackles issues of racism and education, and examines the conflicting goals the American Dream imposes on our schools. Are we educating kids to become good citizens?
Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund
Mayhem & Violence as Public Entertainment
Philosopher and social critic, Sissela Bok,
author of "Mayhem: Violence As Public Entertainment," discusses the history
of violent entertainment. In sketching the public debates about the possible
effects of spectacular violence, Bok raises questions relevant today.
Is censorship an appropriate or even effective tool in lessening entertainment
violence? What evidence is there that media violence contributes to violent
acts in our society?
AIDS and Women
Dr. Kathy Anastos discusses her pioneering healthcare program providing care to women and children in the South Bronx. She'll explore the impact of AIDS and HIV on women and the necessary societal changes needed to stem the epidemic.
Locked Up/Locked Out: America's Response to Juvenile Crime
James Alan Fox, Lipman Family Professor of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University, discusses trends in juvenile crime and juvenile justice.
Living Strenuously
Author Bill McKibben examines our culture's fascination with eternal youth as expressed in extreme sports, adventure travel, and recreational danger.
Bob Dylan, Artist
Christopher Ricks, Professor of Humanities at Boston University, explores the poetry of Bob Dylan's songs.
Creating Worlds From Words
Housekeeper and detective extraordinaire, Blanche White is the creation of mystery novelist Barbara Neely. How does a writer give voice to a class of people, service workers, who are generally invisible in American life? How does a writer convey a character's lusty approach to life and street-wise attitiudes?
Helen Vendler, A. Kingsley Porter University Professor, Harvard University; poetry critic.
Linda Lear, historian and editor of Lost Woods, a collection of environmental writer Rachel Carson's previously unpublished writings, talks about Carson's legacy and the social impact of writing about nature. Carson was a careful writer and meticulous researcher and she worked as a government scientist until the success of books like "Silent Spring" and "The Sea Around Us" enabled her to turn to her own writing full-time. How should today's nature writers integrate the personal, the aesthetic, and the scientific to create a compelling document about the natural world?