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Past Events

  • Stories from the Stage warmly invites you to our home (studio) for a night of storytelling related to the concept of “home.” It can be a safe haven — or something you had to escape; a person, a location, or a dream; a place you swore you'd never return to; or a sanctuary you created. Come listen to true stories of home in all its beauty, heartbreak, complexity, and contradiction as you sit on set at Stories from the Stage.

    At Stories from the Stage, produced by GBH WORLD, ordinary people share extraordinary experiences that you will not soon forget. In each taping, we get up-close and personal with storytellers about what inspires them and the craft of storytelling. Join us!

    6:30pm Doors open to GBH's Atrium
    7:00pm Doors open to GBH's Calderwood Studio for seating



    This event is presented with support from our sponsor Liberty Mutual Insurance.

    Liberty Mutual Insurance logo
    Reese, Joshua
  • Join us at the GBH Studios at the Boston Public Library for a night of NOVA science trivia! Get ready for creative categories and exciting prizes as we test your knowledge, from the depths of the universe to the history of science.

    This month, we will be going back to school to revisit your favorite school subject... science, of course!

    Registration is encouraged for this free event.
  • Schools and colleges are open for business – it’s the fall semester – but the statistics are depressing. Nationally, high school seniors have scored the worst on reading results since 1992. The data, from the respected National Assessment of Education Progress, showed that a third of 12th-graders who were tested last year, did not meet basic reading skills. Forbes magazine recently reported on the “dark side of AI: tracking the decline of human cognitive skills” and the National Endowment for the Arts noted that federal data showed a slump in reading for pleasure. So, is any or all of this attributable to the invasion of AI into our kids’ classrooms?

    ChatGPT was initially pitched as a useful technological “tool”, yet more educational analysts are expressing concerns that tests show we are losing fundamental critical thinking skills in the process. As Sarah O’Connor commented in a Financial Times opinion piece, “without solid skills of your own, it is only a few short steps from being supported by the machine, to finding yourself dependent on it, or subject to it.”

    MIT’s recent media study published unsettling results on cognitive performance using ChatGPT and the only people who seem unconcerned are Sam Altman and other tech leaders. CF has put together a panel of AI observers, including a neuroscientist, a professor of humanities and a student to discuss some of the challenges and concerns associated with generative AI and learning. Until we know more about the cognitive effects of technology like ChatGPT, should we be inserting it into the classroom? And if, as recent studies indicate, it homogenizes thinking and creativity, are we content to let our kids’ education go into experimental free fall?
    Partner:
    Cambridge Forum
  • Join NOVA at Harvard University's Science Center for a screening of selected clips from Critical Condition and When Machines Prescribe paired with a panel discussion featuring filmmakers and experts from the film. The program will begin at 4PM and the event will be followed by a catered reception.

    In Critical Condition: Health in Black America, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Stanley Nelson investigates the dramatic health disparities in the US, even as scientists confirm that there are no meaningful genetic differences between races. From the deep history of pseudoscientific beliefs about race that still permeate modern medicine, to the latest research on how experiencing discrimination can directly damage the body’s DNA and biology, Critical Condition reveals the factors behind the health crisis facing Black Americans.

    The accompanying short documentary, When Machines Prescribe, produced by Llew Smith and Kelly Thomson, investigates the use of race in clinical algorithms. Designed to weigh factors like symptoms, medical history, and test results to achieve the best possible outcomes for patients, some medical algorithms were built using data based on old pseudoscience about racial differences and their continued use has harmed the health of Black patients.
  • Come say "hi!" to GBH at this year's 20th anniversary Fluff Festival. This family-friendly festival celebrates years of Somerville innovation, namely, Marshmallow Fluff! It is sure to be a flufftastic day of live music, delicious food, fun games and so much more. You won't want to miss it!
  • Melissa Lane is the Class of 1943 Professor of Politics at Princeton University, where she is also Associated Faculty in Classics and in Philosophy, and has received the Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize, the Stanley J. Kelley Teaching Award of the Department of Politics, and the Faculty Community Engagement Award of the Pace Center for Civic Engagement.

    She currently also holds a three-year appointment dedicated to delivering periodic public lectures in London as the fiftieth Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College. She has held a Guggenheim Fellowship in the field of Classics, as well as fellowships and visiting professorships at a number of institutions including the ANU, Auckland, Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, the American Academy in Rome, and the École Normale Supérieure. Lane was educated in Californian public schools, then at Harvard University and the University of Cambridge, where she received an MPhil and PhD in Philosophy and then taught for fifteen years before moving to Princeton in 2009.

    Her most recent monograph, titled Of Rule and Office: Plato's Ideas of the Political and published in 2023 by Princeton University Press, was awarded the 2024 Book Prize of the Journal of the History of Philosophy; her 2012 book Eco-Republic continues to be widely discussed. Lane has appeared multiple times on ‘In Our Time’ on BBC Radio Four, and been published in periodicals in the US, UK, Italy and Germany.

    This lecture is supported by an ILA Major Grant.

    The Lowell Humanities Series is sponsored by the Lowell Institute, Boston College's Institute for the Liberal Arts, and the Provost's Office.
    Partner:
    Boston College
  • Join the American Archive of Public Broadcasting for a Transcript-A-Thon at the Boston Public Library! Bring your laptop and explore archival public media from the past 70+ years to help make historic programs more accessible and discoverable for all.

    Refreshments will be provided by the Boston Public Library Café with a volunteer wristband.
  • Join us at Parkside Bookshop in Boston's South End for a live version of "Bookmarked: The Under the Radar Book Club." Callie Crossley, host of "Under the Radar," will be interviewing New York Times best-selling author B.A. Shapiro about her latest book, "The Lost Masterpiece," to learn more about the history behind the story, the author's inspiration and much more.

    Tickets are free, and RSVPs are appreciated.
  • With J.L. Bell, Historian.

    Beyond Paul Revere and his companions, Americans have passed along stories of other notable riders on April 19, 1775. Historian J. L. Bell investigates the facts and fiction behind such figures as Hezekiah Wyman, the dreaded “White Horseman”; Abel Benson and Abigail Smith, children said to have helped raise the alarm in Middlesex County; and Israel Bissell, the post rider credited with carrying news of the fight all the way to Philadelphia.


    Partner:
    Paul Revere Memorial Association
  • Analysts of American policy in 2025 have the unusual advantage of being able to assess the new president’s likely policies regarding the Middle East against the backdrop of what he did in his first term, four years earlier.

    Join WorldBoston for a timely Great Decisions discussion of this topic with Mona Yacoubian, senior adviser and director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

    This program will feature an expert presentation, live audience Q&A, and time for networking and discussion with other globally-oriented participants.

    Partner:
    WorldBoston