What was once a marketplace for personal information has evolved into a permanent, powerful infrastructure: one that federal agencies, law enforcement, and even the Department of Defense increasingly rely on to monitor, classify, and track people in ways the public rarely sees. At the center of this shift is the data-broker economy, a vast, lightly regulated industry that buys and sells the intimate details of our lives. These datasets now feed into AI systems used for policing, immigration enforcement, and risk assessment. More recently, they have also begun informing the Pentagon’s exploration of autonomous technologies capable of identifying and targeting individuals without direct human oversight.

Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Kade Crockford, director of Technology and Justice Programs at the ACLU of Massachusetts, sit down for a timely investigation into how these systems work, who they empower, and what they mean for the future of democratic participation.

Andrew H. Knoll studies the interdependence of the evolution of life and the evolution of our planet. He presents his book, "Earth and Life: A Four Billion Year Conversation," in conversation with his colleague, environmental scientist Robin Wordsworth.

Hear from renowned legal scholar, civil rights advocate, and former judge Margaret A. Burnham, the founder of Northeastern University School of Law’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ) and author of By Hands Now Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners. Through CRRJ, Burnham has led teams of law students in investigating acts of racial violence in the Jim Crow era, including hundreds of unsolved murders of Black people among other historical failures of the criminal justice system.

Massachusetts is home to the second-largest Brazilian population in the country, with thriving communities across Greater Boston and MetroWest. Brazilians are launching businesses, revitalizing neighborhoods, and creating pathways to economic opportunity.


Five local business leaders in the Brazilian community joined us for a conversation about entrepreneurship, economic mobility, and the growing influence of Brazilians in Massachusetts—and what their success means for the region’s future.

Learn what industries Brazilian entrepreneurs are building here and how are they shaping the state’s economic future.

From construction and real estate development to professional services, food, retail, and a growing number of women-led and family-owned enterprises, Brazilian entrepreneurs are helping drive innovation, job creation, and community investment across the Commonwealth.

Our panelists include:

• Real Estate Development & Construction - Nelson de Oliveira, Founder & CEO at Nelson Group
• Professional Services - Fernando Castro, President of Income Tax Plus
• Food Services - Renato Valentin, Co-founder of Tavern in the Square
• Personal Services - Flavia Leal, Owner of Flavia Leal Beauty School
• Consulting and Investment - Manuel Mendes, Global Executive Director of IXL Center for Innovation, Excellence and Leadership

Thanks to these organizations for an evening of networking in the GBH Atrium:

1. Brazilian American Center (BRACE)
2. Brazilian Women’s Group
3. Brazilian Workers Center
4. Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (CDLE USA)
5. Downtown Framingham INC
6. Brazilian Consulate
7. Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers ( MAPS)
8. Brazilian Community Heritage Foundation 
9. Instituto Diáspora Brasil (IDB)

Keith Lockhart, conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, will accept the Third Lantern Award, which is presented annually to an individual who embodies the values symbolized in Old North’s iconic signal lanterns: leadership, courage, hope, tenacity, and active citizenship.

Lam is a journalist and short story writer, currently serving as the web editor of New America Media. He is a regular contributor to National Public Radio's All Things Considered and blogs for the Huffington Post.

How do stories and songs carry knowledge across generations? How does art hold space for healing while challenging systems of oppression? This panel explores how narrative and music function as radical tools for Black liberation—both historically and today.

Kelly Sims Gallagher directs The Climate Policy Lab at Tufts University, dedicated to identifying which climate policies work, which don’t, and why in countries around the world, with particular emphasis on major emerging economies including China, India, Ethiopia, South Africa, Indonesia, Mexico, and Brazil.

The field of industrial archeology (IA) is now about 70 years old and has passed through stages of life, from an exuberant youth filled with discovery – the period when the Charles River Museum of Industry was founded – to its sedate present. Interest in the field seems to be waning, judging from declining membership in IA groups, and even the name of the field confuses people. Those of us who would like to see the field survive and flourish wonder how it can be re-energized, in what direction should it go?

This presentation explains what industrial archeology is. It traces the history of the field, from its beginnings in England in the 1950s and the founding of the U.S. Society for Industrial Archeology in 1971, to the present, and describes some of its contributions, like the early surveys of historic textile mills. It covers its connections to allied history and practice fields, like history of technology and historic preservation. Sara Wermiel concludes by presenting her ideas for what the field might focus on, to have a purpose that can sustain it.

The Lowell Humanities Series at Boston College welcomes Sherene Seikaly to discuss themes from her forthcoming book project, From Baltimore to Beirut: On the Question of Palestine.