This is a most exciting period for cosmology, especially for scientists whose focus is the early universe. The James Webb Space Telescope and other advanced technologies are providing unprecedented new insights about the early universe, especially the emergence of the first stars and galaxies and the relationship between these formations and mysterious dark matter. Professor Julian Muñoz explains both the newest discoveries and the techiques he uses to investigate the very early universe.

Will the United States and other powerful countries approach current and future climate initiatives with an increased commitment to nationalism? Or could a growing spirit of international accord develop to confront the “common enemy” of climate change?

Join WorldBoston for a timely discussion of this topic with Dr. Emily Reichert, CEO of MassCEC and former CEO of Greentown Labs.

As Chief Executive Officer of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Dr. Emily Reichert leads MassCEC’s efforts to build a robust, internationally competitive clean energy economy in Massachusetts.

Kate Quinn is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of historical fiction. A native of Southern California, she attended Boston University, where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in classical voice. She’s written a number of novels, including four in the Empress of Rome Saga and two set in the Italian Renaissance before turning to the 20th century with books like The Alice Network, The Huntress, The Rose Code, The Diamond Eye, and most recently, The Briar Club.

She and her husband now live in Maryland with three black rescue dogs. Check out more about Kate Quinn here.

GBH's Craig LeMoult moderates the conversation.

Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University welcomes author Miles Borrero, upon the publication of his new book Beautiful Monster: A Becoming. The afternoon’s moderator is Pascale Florestal, director, dramaturge, and education director and associate producer of The Front Porch Arts Collective.

Nearing the age of forty, with an entire life already lived as a woman—half in Colombia, half in the US—Miles Borrero comes face to face with his father’s impending death. Suddenly realizing that he has been stalling his transition for fear of losing his family’s love, this moment catalyzes Miles’s determination to be fully known as his father’s son before it is too late.

In Beautiful Monster, Miles chronicles his unusual childhood, by turns riveting and hilarious, in ’80s and ’90s Colombia during the Pablo Escobar years, as well as his move to Salt Lake City to pursue acting and the winding trajectory that eventually lands him in the New York City yoga scene. Within these very different cultures, the realities of being queer and trans echo poignantly through the triumphs, heartbreaks, family dynamics, spiritual pursuits, and relationships that propel Miles along his path.

Sublimely nuanced and written in ravishing prose that is as unique and irresistible as its subject, Beautiful Monster is one person’s story of navigating the pressures to perform femininity while becoming a gender outlaw. Brimming with wonder, humor, and mythos, entertaining and enlightening in equal measure, this book offers a compelling case for embracing one’s true nature.

Miles Borrero is a yoga and wellness educator and public speaker. As a public speaker, Miles is a magnetic and inspiring storyteller with an innate ability to engage his audience. His speeches and workshops have inspired hundreds to lean into their unique gifts as a way toward meaningful social change and co-creating the world we want to leave for our children together.

A rapidly changing Arctic is reshaping everything. Polar bears navigate shrinking expanses of sea ice, thawing permafrost threatens coastal villages, destabilizes infrastructure, and exhales methane, and warming temperatures push more species northward into a greener arctic. These transformations are profound, and their impacts can extend far beyond the region’s ecologies that depend on them.

What do these changes mean for wildlife, humans, and the climate? How is all of this going to play out in different regions and ecosystems around the world? Does understanding these changes and seeing them with your own eyes change the way you see everything else?

Join Biodiversity for a Livable Climate for a conversation that convenes story and science, writer and researcher to help shape our understanding of what this means for the Arctic, our climate and the webs of life that depend on both. Jon Waterman, writer for both Patagonia and NatGeo, and author of Into the Thaw, is by Dr. Flavio Lehner, Chief Climate Scientist at Polar Bears International—one a storyteller of the Arctic’s systems, the other a researcher of them.

Dr. Flavio Lehner is Polar Bears International’s Chief Climate Scientist. He is also an Assistant Professor in Earth and Atmospheric Science at Cornell University. He obtained a PhD in Climate Science from the University of Bern in Switzerland in 2013. His research group studies climate variability and change with a focus on physical processes that affect humans and ecosystems, from heatwaves and droughts to sea ice trends and precipitation extremes.

Ford Hall Forum at Suffolk University and Brandeis University Press welcome
Jehuda Reinharz, PhD, upon the publication of his latest book, Chaim Weizmann: A Biography, in conversation with Alexander Kaye, PhD.

In Chaim Weizmann: A Biography, Jehuda Reinharz and Motti Golani show how Weizmann, a leader of the World Zionist Organization who became the first president of Israel, advocated for a Jewish state by gaining the support of influential politicians and statesmen as well as Jews around the world. Beginning with his childhood and concluding with his tenure as president, Reinharz and Golani describe how a Russian Jew, who immigrated to the United Kingdom in the early twentieth century, was able to advance the goals of Theodor Herzl, the founder of the Zionist Organization. Weizmann is also shown as a man of human foibles – his infatuations, political machinations and elitism – as well as a man of admirable qualities – intelligence, wit, charisma, and dedication.

Alexander Kaye, PhD, is the Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Chair of Israel Studies and associate professor in the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at Brandeis University. His recent book is The Invention of Jewish Theocracy: The Struggle for Legal Authority in Modern Israel.