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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

Can God and Caesar Coexist?

Wed, Apr 13, 2005

Robert Drinan explores the challenges of balancing religious freedom with the rule of law, noting that the United Nations has never adopted a legally binding covenant guaranteeing freedom of religion. Examining questions of feminism, homosexuality, conversion, and other contentious issues of belief in the modern multicultural world, he asks whether religious rights should trump other political and human rights. What role can international organizations play in fostering freedom of conscience or religion? What are the possibilities for religion to become a force for peace, rather than division, in today's globalized world? **Robert Drinan** is currently professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center. A former dean of Boston College Law School and visiting professor at four American universities, he is the author of 11 previous books, including *The Mobilization of Shame: A World View of Human Rights*. Drinan was a US congressman for Massachusetts for five terms and has served on many publicly and privately sponsored international human rights missions. He is the recipient of the 2003 Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute's Freedom of Worship Medal.

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Race to the Bottom: Jobs, Trade, Deficit and Justice

Wed, Apr 20, 2005

Alan Tonelson examines the role that globalization of trade and labor plays in the lives of American workers. No one is exempt, he argues, from low-wage textile workers to high-tech aerospace engineers. What decisions need to be made in Washington and around the world so that labor and trade policies assure prosperity for working people in the era of globalization? What is the difference between free trade and fair trade? Who wins and who loses when multinational corporations tap into a global surplus of workers? Why should Americans be concerned about the growing trade deficit? With off-shoring, outsourcing, stagnant wages, and declining benefits, American workers are worried.

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Facing Up to Evil in an Age of Genocide and Terror

Wed, Mar 2, 2005

Journalist Os Guinness discusses evil as evidenced in human history. How we understand evil is not merely an academic question for philosophers or a matter of personal morality; it is has powerful significance for our national politics and policies. Are violence and warfare inevitable aspects of the human condition? Are individuals who strive for justice and equality facing impossible odds?

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David McCullough's Biography of a Year: 1776

Wed, Jun 1, 2005

Best-selling historical writer and two-time Pulitzer winner David McCullough follows up his biography *John Adams* by focusing on a historic time rather than an individual: the momentous 12 months in the fight for independence. *1776* describes how a group of ragtag farmers were able to defeat the world's greatest empire with a great deal of suffering, determination, ingenuity, and, as McCullough notes, luck.

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Raw Deal: Social Security Privatization

Wed, Oct 26, 2005

Best-selling author and New York Observer, columnist Joe Conason considers the new social security proposal as the latest attack in a seventy-year campaign to destroy the advances of the New Deal. In The Raw Deal: How the Bush Republicans Plan to Destroy Social Security and the Legacy of the New Deal, with a foreword by Al Franken, Conason explains the workings of the think tanks, front organizations, town hall meetings, and the public fronts for conservative ideologues and financial institutions that he feels are intent on destroying the most successful federal program in history.

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Death, Love and Liberty in the American Ballad

Mon, Dec 5, 2005

Greil Marcus and Sean Wilentz, editors of the acclaimed anthology The Rose and the Briar: Death, Love and Liberty in the American Ballad, discuss the place that folk ballads hold in American culture. A panel featuring musician and Boston Globe folk critic Scott Alarik, folklorist Millie Rahn, and Rounder Records founder Bill Nowlin asks how these songs of jilted lovers and hanging judges still manage to speak to 21st century audiences. Scott Alarik performs a selection of ballads to illustrate points in the discussion.

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Measure of God: Can We Reconcile Science and Religion?

Wed, Oct 19, 2005

Journalist and author Larry Witham talks about the topics found in his book, The Measure of God: History's Greatest Minds Wrestle with Reconciling Science and Religion In this lecture, Witham explores the tension between science and religion that lies at the heart of contemporary debates on stem cell research, cloning, and teaching evolution in the school curriculum.

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Shame of the Nation: Unequal Schooling

Mon, Oct 24, 2005

Jonathan Kozol documents the reappearance of separate and unequal schooling in our nation's educational system. Gary Orfield of The Civil Rights Project at Harvard responds and moderates the discussion. This event is cosponsored by the Cambridge Forum and the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University.

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Creating Green Cities

Wed, Nov 16, 2005

Peter Smith of the Boston Society of Architects, Larissa Brown, chief planner for urban design firm Goody and Clancy, and Kristina Egan, director of the Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance discuss transit oriented development and "smart growth" are new initiatives in urban design aimed at creating "green cities." How is it possible to design urban communities that are economically and environmentally sustainable? How do such communities work? Are they coming to your region soon?

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Assessing the Health of the Environment II

Mon, Nov 21, 2005

Robert Watson, chief scientist and director of the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Network of the World Bank, and chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, explores the implications of the 2005 report of the UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. In part two of this forum, Watson asks what the future of the earth looks like if current climate trends continue, what we have we done to change the global climate, and how we can undo the negative changes we have made to our environment. Special thanks to Massachusetts Interfaith Power and Light.

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