Tag Archives: 2022-2023

Events, Podcasts

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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Archive, Podcasts

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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Events, Podcasts

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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Events

All About Medicare: Info session and Q/A

Despite the booklets and on-line information sessions available to the public, many people still find themselves confused and in need of personal advice about Medicare benefits.

This event is designed to provide some answers. AARP will begin by giving a brief overview of Medicare – what it is, what it does and does not provide for retirees?   This will be followed by a slide presentation from Maureen Harty of Paine Senior Services, who will talk about the latest changes in Medicare provisions and the current period of open enrollment, which enables users to make changes to their coverage.

Maureen Harty (MSW) has been a Social Worker and SHINE (Service Health Insurance Needs of Everyone) Counselor with Paine Senior Services since 2004. Harty received her MSW from BU School of Social Work in 2000.  She has been a Medical Social Worker for the Cambridge Health Alliance and a Geriatric Psychiatry Social Worker at Mount Auburn Hospital prior to joining PSS. Paine Senior Services is committed to providing a wide range of quality, personalized services to Cambridge Elders and their families, regardless of financial means.  In the spirit of compassion and justice, assistance is offered through counseling, preventive planning, advocacy, and collaboration with community resources. Contact 617-864-2580 or [email protected]

Mike Festa is state director of AARP Massachusetts, based in Boston, which serves 800,000 members age 50+ in the commonwealth. Since joining as State Director in 2013, Festa has been fighting to lower prescription drug costs, support family caregivers, and make it easier for workers to save for retirement.

Festa served Massachusetts Secretary of Elder Affairs from 2007 to 2009, highlighting the changing needs of the commonwealth’s aging population. His leadership resulted in the expansion of senior employment and civic engagement opportunities, as well as increased access to resources and services for abused elders.  Festa, an attorney, was formerly the state representative for Melrose, MA. and parts of Wakefield, MA.

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Events

RETIRE OR RESIST: the pros and cons of working longer

Are you planning to retire early or late? What influenced your decision?

Many Americans face a huge decision in the years ahead: is delaying their retirement a realistic, practical and tenable option or should they work longer, in an attempt to be in better financial shape for their retirement?  Many policymakers think it is logical – almost inevitable – that Americans will delay retirement and spend more years in the paid labor force.

However, working longer is not a one-size fits all solution especially when you factor in economic and social inequalities, precarious working conditions, family caregiving responsibilities, poor health, and age discrimination. All of these make it difficult or impossible for many to consider working past the age of 65.  Marginalized groups in particular face special challenges and society’s legislative responses affect us all. Is there a way to find a path toward better working lives and improved retirement security for all Americans – and if so, what it is?

BETH TRUESDALE has been examining many of these considerations in her book Overtime: America’s Aging Workforce and the Future of Working Longer (co-authored with Lisa Berkman). 

Beth Truesdale is a sociologist whose research focuses on inequalities in work and aging, and the future of retirement. She is a visiting scientist at Harvard’s Center for Population and Development Studies, and a research fellow at W E Upjohn Institute for Employment Research.

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Events

Healing Trauma With EMDR

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Nearly every day, we see evidence further confirming that we are facing a mental health crisis, especially among our youth.  American society is beset by mass shootings and other acts of violence which serve to exacerbate the large-scale trauma already inflicted by the pandemic.  Only this week, the media highlighted the urgent issue confronting Generation Z’ers who lack the funds to pay for medications or mental health therapy.  Inadvertently, it seems, we are fueling rather than defusing the problem.  

Fortunately, there is affordable hope on the horizon.  EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing) was discovered in 1987 by psychologist Francine Shapiro who found a novel method for aligning people’s “thinking brains” with their “emotional brains”, to help process traumatic events.  Since then, it has been providing hope and healing to countless sufferers of PTSD and other emotional and stress-related problems; these include depression, chronic pain, anxiety, phobias, substance abuse and addictions.  Studies demonstrate EMDR’s clinical effectiveness in dealing with trauma in a limited number of sessions and it is rated the most cost-effective treatment among the top 11 trauma therapies.

Deborah Korn, PsyD, an internationally renowned expert in EMDR, is the co-author of Every Memory Deserves Respect.  Dr. Korn, says, “EMDR helps individuals get better and it serves the greater good. I see my work as a form of social action—a way to contribute to ending the cycles of violence in the world.” 

Co-author Michael Baldwin is a branding and communication professional in New York, who credits EMDR with saving his life after decades of unsuccessful therapy. In the book, Baldwin shares the history of his childhood abuse and psychological challenges as an adult, before discovering EMDR.

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Archive, Podcasts

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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Events, Podcasts

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; Textu; Footnotes 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.

Events, Podcasts

Tyrants On Twitter

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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.