Forum Network

Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

Funding provided by:

Cambridge Forum

Let Cambridge Forum change your mind....

Cambridge Forum hosts free, public discussions that inform and engage, so that people can better explore the varied issues and ideas that shape our changing world. CF broadcasts its live events via podcasts, weekly NPR shows and online presentations via GBH Forum Network on YouTube.

http://www.cambridgeforum.org

John de Graaf - What's the Economy for Anyway?

Wed, Oct 10, 2012

Activist, author, and film-maker John de Graaf looks beyond the current downturn to explore the assumptions underlying the U.S. economy at Cambridge Forum. In an election cycle that is focused on the economic future, his new book "What's the Economy For, Anyway?" offers a different perspective on quality of life, health, security, work-life balance, leisure, social justice, and sustainability. How can we measure economic success? Nationally? Individually? What is the role of growth in a 21st-century economy? What role can governments play in creating economic success? What is the individual's role? Recorded 10/10/12. More lectures at http://forum-network.org

Forum Network

Partner:

Cambridge Forum
Wendy Lesser: Why I Read

Wed, Jan 22, 2014

"Author and essayist Wendy Lesser discusses her latest book Why I Read with poet Robert Pinsky. Their conversation explores the ways that literature and, especially, poetry touch readers and change their lives as Cambridge Forum continues its series My Life Touched by Art. In a culture that is increasingly visual and virtual in orientation, what role does old-fashioned reading play? What power does the written word have in our lives? This program is part of the series My Life Touched by Art, supported by a grant from the Cambridge Arts Council and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a public agency."

Forum Network

Partner:

Cambridge Forum
Anthony Amore and Ingrid Neuman: Stolen Art

Thu, Feb 20, 2014

"Art security expert Anthony Amore discusses the crime of art theft and the ways that the intangible value of the stolen objects affects efforts to locate and retrieve them. Conservator Ingrid Neuman joins the conversation to explore the threat that theft poses to the physical materials that art works are made from. What makes stealing art different from other kinds of theft? How does the art itself change the way its caretakers'the security expert or the conservator'approach their jobs?"

Forum Network

Partner:

Cambridge Forum
Framing Military Occupation: Close-Ups of Daily Life in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Wed, Mar 5, 2014

"The media give us views of the Middle East influenced by politics, international law, and distance. But what does life in the Middle East feel like on the ground? Physician Alice Rothchild of American Jews for a Just Peace -- Boston leads a panel discussion on living under military occupation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Panelists Dr. Alan Meyers, Tali Ruskin, and Laila Bernstein from the AJJP Health and Human Rights Project present their observations of daily life in the West Bank and East Jerusalem made during their visits as part of human rights delegations over the past decade. These close-ups invite us to compare: treaties vs. transportation? peace process vs. putting food on the table? Co-sponsored by the Middle East Education Group of First Parish in Cambridge."

Forum Network

Partner:

Cambridge Forum
Being Alive and Having to Die: Forrest Church

Wed, Jan 25, 2012

Pulitzer Prize finalist Dan Cryer discusses his new biography of the Rev. Forrest Church. Church, one of the foremost Unitarian Universalists in the modern era, championed the separation of church and state, and a religion that fostered tolerance. In doing so, he often locked horns with the religious right, notably over discrimination against gays and the notion that the United States is a "Christian nation." He wrote or edited 25 books,from theology to pastoral meditations to histories, while building his own church, All Souls, into a congregation committed to social justice. *Being Alive and Having to Die* chronicles his journey from rebellious son of a U.S. Senator to eloquent spokesman on the national stage.

Forum Network

Partner:

Cambridge Forum
Where Does Democracy Come From? Popular Uprising and Parliamentary Elections in Egypt

Sun, Jan 22, 2012

"Stanford University Middle East specialist Joel Beinin discusses the results of the Egyptian elections. What is their significance for the future of the Arab Spring movement in Eqypt? In the region? What impact will the election results have on Egypt's relations with Israel and with the Palestinian people? "

Forum Network

Partner:

Cambridge Forum
The War on Terror and the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Mon, Feb 13, 2012

**Mark N. Katz** examines the relationships between the conceptual 'war on terror' and the military engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan. What purposes did the declaration of a 'War on Terror' serve? As military personnel withdraws from Iraq and Afghanistan, what will become of the idea of the war on terror? How will these changes affect American's sense of security and confidence?

Forum Network

Partner:

Cambridge Forum
Globalization of Capital: The Rise of the Multinationals

Mon, Apr 16, 2012

Economist Robert Scott of the Economic Policy Institute discusses the challenges that globalized trade poses for the economic well-being of the United States. Globalization of capital has lessened or eliminated many barriers to trade and put new pressures on traditional monetary and financial systems. If the new ease of moving capital around the world seems to threaten American workers, who see their jobs and way of life sailing off to China, what does it mean for workers in other countries? Are the current international financial agreements, many of which date to the mid-twentieth century, adequate to regulate globalized capital movement? How does the globalization of capital affect the power of the nation-state?

Forum Network

Partner:

Cambridge Forum
Globalization of Labor: Is a Race to the Bottom Inevitable?

Mon, Apr 16, 2012

Out-sourcing. Off-shoring. Even before the Great Recession of 2008 pushed unemployment rates into double digits, Americans worried that traditional jobs were disappearing. Economist** Robert Pollin** addresses questions for American workers raised by the globalization of labor. How has globalization of the labor market affected American employment patterns? Is globalization responsible for the loss of domestic jobs that pay middle class wages? How can the United States respond to the challenges created by the 'globalization of labor?' What can individual workers do to ensure their own employment security? Is a race to the bottom inevitable?

Forum Network

Partner:

Cambridge Forum
Wealth Inequality: The Gilded Road to Ruin?

Wed, Apr 25, 2012

**Chuck Collins**, director of the Institute for Policy Studies Program on Inequality and the Common Good, and journalist **Linda McQuaig** explore the impact of the growing wealth gap, and suggest ways to reverse the increase in economic inequality. The richest one percent of Americans now owns more than 36 percent of all the wealth in the United States, more than the net worth of the bottom 95 percent combined. In 2010, the one percent earned 21 percent of all income, up from only 8 percent in mid-1970s. How has this concentration of wealth come about? What does it mean for the health of American democracy? And for the well-being of Americans? How could the trend of increasing economic inequality be reversed? Where is the political will to make the necessary policy changes? How can an individual nation create economic conditions that overcome what some call a global race to the bottom?

Forum Network

Partner:

Cambridge Forum