Can We Save Journalism In America?
How to make meaningful conversation
Trust In A Polarized Age
A Synthesizing Mind
Does Covid-19 Signal the End of the American Era?
Magdalena: River of Dreams
TOO MUCH INFORMATION – or too little substance?
Parenting While Black
Farming for the Future
The Rise of Environmental illness
Living without working
LOCKED-DOWN AMERICANS: Isolation and Loneliness
The Alchemy of Us
In Search of Meadowlarks
Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy
Nature Underfoot: Learning to live with tiny life
Migrating to Prison
The Age Of Illusions
CAMBRIDGE FORUM – 2020
Jan 14 AGE OF ILLUSIONS: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory
Andrew Bacevich, author and historian discusses his latest book “THE AGE OF ILLUSIONS” How did post-Cold War follies and the fall of Berlin Wall lay the conditions ripe for the rise of Trump. Bacevich converses with Chris Lydon, journalist and host of Open Source.
Feb 19 MIGRATING TO PRISON: America’s Obsession with Locking Up Immigrants with Professor Cesar Garcia Hernandez presents a scathing critique of America’s detention system for immigrants.
March 19 NATURE UNDERFOOT: Learning to Live with Tiny Life with John Hainze, an entomologist and James Barilla, “My Backyard Jungle”
April 3 DO MORALS MATTER: Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump with Joseph Nye, Harvard scholar of international relations considers which presidents come up short in the morality polls.
April 16 IN SEARCH OF MEADOWLARKS
John Marzluff, a Seattle ornithologist, takes a personal approach to sustainable agriculture and considers the fragile relationship between birds, farms, food and us. Joined by Ronnie Cummings, in Mexico, international director of Organic Consumers Association and author of “Grassroots Rising”; and Michael Chuisano, owner of Naked Farm in Orient NY who grows microgreens bio-intensively.
May 1 THE ALCHEMY OF US: How Humans and Matter Transformed One Another. Ainissa Ramirez, a materials scientist, examines eight inventions to see how they have shaped the human experience.
May 15,2020 LOCKED-DOWN AMERICANS: Isolation and Loneliness in 21st Century
Social psychologist J W Freiberg, author of “Surrounded by Others and Yet so Alone” explains how the human brain is wired for connection. How do we negotiate the current pandemic?
May 29, 2020 LIVING WITHOUT WORKING:Technology, Automation and How we Should Respond. Daniel Susskind, an Oxford economist looks at how advances in artificial intelligence are eroding employment across all types of occupations. What is this current situation different from all other previous examples?
June 12, 2020 THE RISE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ILLNESS
Freelance journalist Oliver Broudy explores environmental toxicity and the community of The Sensitives — people with powerful, puzzling symptoms resulting from exposure to chemicals, fragrances, and cell phone signals, that have no effect on “normals.”
June 26, 2020 FARMING FOR THE FUTURE
This forum features three uniquely different farmers who are all equally passionate about smart and sustainable ways of growing our food: Addy Shreffler is a young but savvy farmer; Michael Chuisano is the owner of the Naked Farm in Marion, New York; Ronnie Cummings runs a farming school in Mexico where he teaches bio-dynamics and is author of Grassroots Rising.
July 24, 2020 PARENTING WHILE BLACK/LIVING WHILE BLACK
Writer, poet and teacher Clint Smith in conversation with Jude Nixon, Professor of English at Salem State University. Both men are educators and fathers, and their discussion explores what it means to raise children during this challenging period of Black Lives Matter.
9/11/20 TOO MUCH INFORMATION – OR TOO LITTLE SUBSTANCE?Too Much Information, Cass Sunstein’s latest book, examines the effects of excessive information in our lives. Policymakers emphasize the public “right to know” but Sunstein takes a different tack, arguing that the focus should be on human well-being and the information that contributes to it.
9/25/20 DOES COVID-19 SIGNAL THE END OF THE AMERICAN ERA?Wade Davis attracted global attention with his opinion piece in Rolling Stone magazine raising this question: Does Covid-19 signal the end of the American era? Why did he ask this disturbingly profound question and why has it struck a chord around the world?
9/25/20 MAGDALENA: RIVER OF DREAMS
Anthropologist Wade Davis latest book, MAGDALENA: River of Dreams brings to life the story of the great Río Magdalena, illuminating Colombia’s complex past, present, and future.
10/9/2020 A SYNTHESIZING MIND
Long an authority on the human mind, Howard Gardner’s latest book reflects on his own childhood and intellectual development in addition to a review of his groundbreaking work on multiple intelligences- including his own.
10/23/2020 TRUST IN A POLARIZED AGE
Have we have reached an all-time low in terms of trusting our politicians and the media? Are we caught in a downward spiral that must end in institutional decay or even civil war, or can we restore trust through our shared social institutions? Political philosopher Kevin Vallier and Harvard political scientist Jane Mansbridge tackle these questions as Americans go about selecting a new president.
11/16/2020 HOW TO MAKE MEANINGFUL CONVERSATIONS
Discover the art of building a good dialogue! Designer Fred Dust and dialogue expert Seth Henderson consider ways to have constructive conversations which are critical to problem-solving in all sorts of different settings from schools, to non-profits and governments.
12/4/2020 CAN WE SAVE JOURNALISM IN AMERICA?
Respect for a free press is the cornerstone of democracy. But after all the fake news and tweeted lies, what will it take to restore public confidence and trust in American journalism? Charlie Sennott, founder of The Ground Truth Project and journalist Matt Taibbi share ideas along with a couple of his young journalists working for Report for America who are injecting fresh energy into the beleaguered field of journalism.
12/18/2020 EXERCISED
Professor Daniel Lieberman, Human Evolutionary Biologist at Harvard University has written a new book entitled EXERCISED: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do Is Healthy and Rewarding. If exercise is healthy why do so many people dislike it? If we are born to walk and run, why do most of us take it easy whenever possible?