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Forum Network

Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

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GBH Forum Network

The Forum Network is a public media service of the GBH Educational Foundation that offers thousands of video lectures by the world's foremost scholars, authors, artists, scientists, policymakers, and community leaders, made available to the public for free.

Lectures hosted on The Forum Network are presented by community organizations and educational institutions from the Boston area and beyond.

From science to the humanities, from local to global topics, The Forum Network is committed to providing outstanding educational content for lifelong learners, and to encouraging deeper understanding and civic engagement around the vital issues of our time.

Explore lectures by Topics, Series, Partners, and Speakers. To provide viewers with more information, lectures are further augmented with speaker biographies, related lectures and books, captions and transcripts, and downloadable audio.

In the past, GBH has collaborated with other public media partners—WETA in Washington, DC; Public Broadcasting Atlanta; and WNET New York—to record public speaking events. While the structure of the Forum Network changed in 2014 to focus specifically on the Boston region, previously recorded lectures remain archived in this website.

Major support for the GBH Forum Network comes from the Lowell Institute, an organization created to carry out the 1836 bequest of John Lowell Jr., to make free public lectures available to the citizens of Boston

Stay in touch with Forum Network. » Facebook Find us on Facebook and Twitter. Become a partner by joining our network as a local community content contributor. Email forumnetwork@wgbh.org with the subject line "New Partner".

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About GBH Educational Foundation

GBH enriches people's lives through programs and services that educate, inspire, and entertain, fostering citizenship and culture, the joy of learning, and the power of diverse perspectives. GBH serves New England, the nation, and the world with programs that inform, inspire, and entertain. GBH is PBS's single largest producer of content for television (prime-time and children's programs) and the Web. Some of your favorite series and websites -- Nova, Masterpiece, Frontline, Antiques Roadshow, Curious George, Arthur, and The Victory Garden, to name a few -- are produced here in our Boston studios. GBH also is a major supplier of programs heard nationally on public radio, including The World. And we're a pioneer in educational multimedia and in media access technologies for people with hearing or vision loss. Our community ties run deep. We're a local public broadcaster serving southern New England, with 11 public television services and three public radio services -- and productions (from Greater Boston to Jazz with Eric in the Evening) that reflect the issues and cultural riches of our region. We're a member station of PBS and an affiliate of both NPR and PRI. In today's fast-changing media landscape, we're making sure you can find our content when and where you choose -- on TV, radio, the Web, podcasts, vodcasts, streaming audio and video, iPhone applications, groundbreaking teaching tools, and more. Our reach and impact keep growing. GBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors -- Emmys, Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards -- even two Academy Awards. In 2002, a special institutional Peabody Award cited GBH's 50 years of service to the "community, the nation, and the world with outstanding productions and collaborations."

GBH is devoted to bringing you new experiences, taking you to new worlds, and giving you the very best in educational content. We're here for you -- and it all happens thanks to your interest and generous support!

https://forum-network.org/

  • Time, Talent, Treasure, and Tradition in a Tight Economy

    Sat, Mar 14, 2009
    Meizhu Lui, director of Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative at the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, talks to the Women's Economic Forum at Simmons College about her new book, The Color of Wealth. This lecture is sponsored by Our Public Spirit (OPS), a project of the Boston Women’s Fund in collaboration with Haymarket People’s Fund and the Women’s Theological Center (WTC). OPS recognizes and honors the giving traditions of women of color, while promoting social justice philanthropy within communities of color. Through OPS, Boston Women’s Fund works to continue diversifying the base of donors who fund social and economic justice efforts.
    Forum Network
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    GBH Forum Network

  • Mind Your Motive / The Supreme Principle of Morality

    Sun, Oct 18, 2009
    Lecture Eleven: "Mind Your Motive" Professor Sandel introduces Immanuel Kant -- one of the most challenging and difficult thinkers in his course. Kant believes we, as individuals, are sacred and the bearer of rights, but not because we own ourselves. Rather, it is our capacity to reason and choose freely that makes us unique, that sets us apart from mere animals. And when we act out of duty (doing something because it is right) only then do our actions have moral worth. Sandel uses the example of a shopkeeper who passes up the chance to shortchange a customer only because he worries it would hurt his business. That wouldn't be considered a moral action, according to Kant, because he wasn't doing the right thing ... for the right reason. Lecture Twelve: "The Supreme Principle of Morality" Immanuel Kant says that in so far as our actions have moral worth, what confers moral worth is precisely our capacity to rise above self-interest and inclination and to act out of duty. Sandel tells the true story of a 13-year-old boy who won a spelling bee contest, but then admitted to the judges that he had, in fact, misspelled the final word. Using this story and others, Sandel explains Kant's test for determining whether an action is morally right: when making a decision, imagine if the moral principle behind your actions became a universal law that everyone had to live by. Would that principle, as a universal law, benefit everyone?
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    GBH Forum Network

  • Inventing Modern America: Microwave to the Mouse

    Tue, Nov 27, 2001
    This lively panel, discussing Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse, celebrates the best of American ingenuity and inventiveness. Through in-depth profiles of 35 inventors, Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse tells the often-surprising stories of how everyday objects and technologies were created. Each profile is illustrated with historical photographs, diagrams, and patent drawings that illuminate the inventor's life, inventive process, and creations. The book was developed by the Lemelson-MIT Program for Invention and Innovation, whose mission is to inspire a new generation of American scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs.
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  • NOVA: The Bible's Buried Secrets I

    Thu, Nov 6, 2008
    Panelists discuss the historic, scientific and theological mysteries brought up in The Bible's Buried Secrets, NOVA's landmark two-hour special. The Bible's Buried Secrets takes viewers on a fascinating scientific journey that began 3,000 years ago and continues to this day. The film presents the latest archeological scholarship from the Holy Land to explore the beginnings of modern religion and the origins of the Hebrew Bible, or the Old Testament. This archeological detective story tackles some of the biggest questions in biblical studies. Where did the ancient Israelites come from? Who wrote the Bible, when, and why? How did the worship of one god - the foundation of modern Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - emerge? A powerful intersection of science, scholarship, and scripture, The Bible's Buried Secrets provides unique insight into the deeper meaning of these biblical texts and their continuing resonance through the centuries. The Bible's Buried Secrets can be streamed **[here](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bible/program.html)**, on the NOVA website.
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  • Frontline: Alternative Fix

    Wed, Nov 5, 2003
    View a panel discussion on the new FRONTLINE special, The Alternative Fix FRONTLINE: The Alternative Fix examines the explosion in the popularity, and profitability, of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Under pressure from everyone from consumers to Congress, yet tempted by huge grants, hospitals and medical schools have embraced therapies that they once dismissed as quackery. So accepted have alternative medical treatments become that an entire center of the National Institutes of Health is now devoted to CAM. But the question remains: do these treatments actually work? Through interviews with staunch supporters, skeptical scientists, and observers on both sides of the debate, this documentary examines how these popular treatments are facing increased scrutiny as the first real studies of their effectiveness are published, and questions whether hospitals that offer alternative therapies are conferring a sense of legitimacy on these largely untested and scientifically unproven treatments.
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    GBH Forum Network

  • Beyond Black and White: Race in the Boston Public Schools

    Wed, Mar 23, 2005
    Basic Black hosts an hour-long forum with panelists and an audience in the WGBH studio. The discussion explores how the Boston public school system can maintain a commitment to diversity and provide a quality education. Major areas covered in the discussion include: the re-segregation of schools and how this impacts the achievement of students of color; multilingual education and the obligation to address the needs of a swelling immigrant student population; the re-examination of school assignments; and the impact of the recent court decision that the voluntary desegregation plan in Lynn, MA is unconstitutional. One of the goals for the forum is to provide a setting where the academy meets the community--a gathering that promotes conversations and ideas among Boston's scholars, parents, education activists and students.
    Forum Network
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    GBH Forum Network

  • Modern Slavery: MIT-BBC Symposium

    Sat, May 14, 2005
    In an effort to shine light on this issues of forced labor, enforced prostitution and human trafficking, MIT's Program on Human Rights and Justice at the Center for International Studies partners with the BBC World Service Trust, an independent BBC charity that promotes development through the innovative use of the media, to present a day-long public symposium on the problem of forced labor in the global economy and what can be done about it. The event coincides with the May 11, 2005 release of a major report by the International Labor Organization. The ILO report provides the first estimates by an international organization of forced labor, globally and regionally, and the first estimate of profits made by those exploiting trafficked workers. Cosponsored by MIT's Center for International Studies and The MIT Program on Human Rights and Justice. MIT's [Center for International Studies](http://web.mit.edu/cis/) is one of the country's leading international affairs research centers. The [MIT Program on Human Rights and Justice](http://web.mit.edu/phrj/) is the first human rights program with a focus on the human rights aspects of economic, scientific and technological developments.
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  • Pitch Panel for Documentary Filmmakers

    Thu, Jun 9, 2005
    Join in on a pitch session as a diverse group of documentary filmmakers present their ideas to an esteemed panel of experts who give feedback and advice. What do filmmakers need to know to make funders and broadcasters prick up their ears and fund their film projects? How can producers maximize their pitches in short amounts of time? Though filmmaker's descriptions of their work and actual pitches are included, this webcast does not include video clips or other imagery shown during the pitches. This panel discussion is a part of the 2005 Boston Fimmaker's Expo, presented by The Filmmaker's Collaborative.
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  • NOVA scienceNOW: Fuel Cells

    Thu, Nov 10, 2005
    Fuel cell researcher, Martin Baucom moderates a discussion of the science of fuel cell research at a Science Café after a screening of *NOVA scienceNOW: Fuel Cells*. Everyone from automakers to environmentalists to politicians is touting hydrogen fuel cell cars as the wave of the future. But just how soon will that wave arrive? Most experts agree that major technological and economic hurdles need to be cleared before these silent, pollution-free automobiles proliferate on the nation's highways. *NOVA scienceNOW*, *NOVA's* new magazine-format miniseries about cutting-edge science produced by WGBH, presents a Science Café to address fuel cell research. This event attempts to demystify the science and encourage discussion in an informal setting. We encourage you to explore the [NOVA scienceNOW](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3210/01.html) website for additional information.
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  • Adam Pertman on Adoption

    Fri, Nov 4, 2005
    Adam Pertman argues that adoption is changing the way we form our families, the way we perceive families, the importance of blood ties, how families are formed, what they look like and the way we perceive basic concepts of life like nature and nurture. According to Pertman, adoption is having a significant effect on helping us understand how our country is changing, how our lives are changing. [*Adoption: An American Revolution*](http://www.adoptionfilm.org) is a major multimedia project that plans to explore how transformations taking place in adoption today are having far-reaching effects on all our public and private lives. The centerpiece of the project will be a two-hour documentary special for national public broadcasting. The documentary will feature a rich tapestry of original stories, illuminating the joys, the challenges and the impact of adoption. The television broadcast will be linked to an ambitious adoption education effort, with innovative adoption-related materials for public libraries and schools, a new Web site with adoption resources, and more.
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