WGBH Forum Network - All Lectures

Frontline: Poisoned Waters

jeremy_tipton — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:12:05 +0000

Frontline's executive producer David Fanning welcomes more than 200 national and regional environmental leaders at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, for a sneak preview of Frontline's special report Poisoned Waters. A panel discussion follows, with special guests Lisa Jackson, new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator for the Obama Administration; and Bill Ruckelshaus, founding EPA Administrator under Nixon. Poisoned Waters correspondent Hedrick Smith leads the panel discussion about why, three decades after the Clean Water Act, two of the nation's great coastal estuaries, Puget Sound and Chesapeake Bay, are in perilous condition.

Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times II

jeremy_tipton — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:03:46 +0000

Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now! and an award winning journalist, discusses her new book, Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times, and takes questions from the audience. Jordan Weinstein, host of NPR’s Morning Edition on WGBH-FM, Boston’s oldest public radio station, moderates.

When media outlets are owned by an ever tightening media monopoly, what is the importance of independent media like public, non-commercial radio and television? With the declining big city newspapers cutting staff, who will do investigative reporting? Who got right the story about our current financial crisis: CNBC or Democracy Now!? Remember the deliberate media manipulation by the Bush administration in the run up to the Iraq War: what mainline media can citizens trust? What is the role of independent public forums, such as Cambridge Forum, in providing public education on progressive ideas?

Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times I

jeremy_tipton — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:02:54 +0000

Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now! and an award winning journalist, discusses her new book, Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times. Jordan Weinstein, host of NPR’s Morning Edition on WGBH-FM, Boston’s oldest public radio station, moderates.

Living in Two Worlds

jeremy_tipton — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:48:49 +0000

The people who first inhabited the land now known as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts share their own stories. They show the difference between the European world view and the natives' world view, and demonstrate the importance of passing on oral traditions to younger generations. This presentation includes a drum and voice performance by Larry Mann and his sons, the Quabbin Lake Singers.

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot: The Third Chapter

jeremy_tipton — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:20:48 +0000

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot discusses a major cultural shift in how older people are re-defining the word "retirement", in her new book, The Third Chapter: Passion, Risk and Adventure in the 25 Years after 50.

Lawrence-Lightfoot, one of America's preeminent sociologists, traveled for two years speaking to people in their fifties, sixties, and seventies, and found that, despite living through a time of declining mental and physical capacity, all had accomplished much in building whole new lives. What did she discover that helps us all live better? How can we all take advantage of this "Third Chapter" in our lives? In a person's life, could the years between 50 and 75 be the most transformative and generative?

Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, a sociologist, is the Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education at Harvard University. She is the author of nine books. In 1984, she received the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. In 1993, she was awarded Harvard's George Ledlie Prize for research that makes "the most valuable contribution to science" and is to "the benefit of mankind". She is the first African American woman in Harvard's history to have an endowed professorship named in her honor.

Co-sponsored by Helen Glikman and Dan Bartley.

Vanderwarker's Pantheon

jeremy_tipton — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:24:14 +0000

Peter Vanderwarker discusses his exhibition of photographs of iconic Boston buildings and portraits of people who currently shape the city's intellectual, architectural, and environmental culture.

Women Against the Vote: Anti-Suffragists in Massachusetts

jeremy_tipton — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:02:12 +0000

Aliza Saivetz of Old South Meeting House, and Jayne Gordon and Kathleen Barker of the Massachusetts Historical Society explore women's participation in the anti-suffrage movement.

Rallying around the cries of true womanhood, common decency, and the responsibilities of motherhood, some women were vocal opponents of female suffrage in the country. While it may seem counterintuitive to us today, some women were at the forefront of the anti-suffrage movement.

This lecture is part of "March to the Polls: Massachusetts and the Woman Suffrage Movement", a collaboration between Old South Meeting House and The Massachusetts Historical Society.

When Doctors Are Writers

jeremy_tipton — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:17:10 +0000

Elissa Ely and Tess Gerritsen talk about how writing affects their medical practice, and vice versa. They discuss the attention and analysis that the practice of medicine requires, and how the demands of being a doctor differ from the demands of being a writer.

Alexander Helper moderates this panel discussion, which explores the questions: Why do some strive to be successful at both writing and doctoring, two demanding professions? What drives doctors to form a unique identity as a writer as well as a doctor? What is added in their medical practice when they write satisfying words? How do doctors ethically balance privacy and story telling? And, is writing a respite from medicine or an extension of it?

Alexander Helper is a child psychiatrist with a private practice in the Boston area, and is herself a writer. Her columns appear regularly in Psychiatric Times.

Elissa Ely is a psychiatrist who completed her training at the Massachusetts General Hospital. She works with very ill psychiatric patients, and is an essayist for The Boston Globe and other national newspapers, and a commentator for National Public Radio.

Tess Gerritsen went to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco and practiced as an internist for five years. While on maternity leave, she began to write fiction, starting with nine romantic suspense novels. In 1996 she published her first medical thriller, Harvest, and she has continued to write award-winning medical thrillers ever since, culminating with her most recent book, Keeping the Dead.

This program was organized by fellow physician Sasha Helper.

Weaving Science into Sculpture

jeremy_tipton — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:12:42 +0000

Artist Nathalie Miebach explains how she literally weaves scientific data related to meteorology, climate change, and astronomy into brightly colored, three-dimensional sculptures. She describes how (and why) she creates these singular pieces that expand the boundaries of how scientific information can be represented and what art can mean, and demostrates what basket weaving, climate change, and sculpture have in common.

After the Hunting Stopped: Whales and Wildlife in the Auckland Islands

jeremy_tipton — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:44:36 +0000

Scott Kraus discusses how wildlife in the Auckland Islands can serve as control groups for evaluating stresses on oceanic animals in areas that sustain intensive and widespread human activities.

Three hundred miles south of New Zealand, the Auckland Islands are a wildlife refuge for thousands of seabirds (penguins, albatross, and petrels), Hookers sea lions, and calving South Atlantic right whales. A research expedition to these islands revealed that the animals here exhibit characteristics of undisturbed marine wildlife from pre-historic times.

Historic Voices: Boston Students Echo Boston Patriots

jeremy_tipton — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:21:26 +0000

Boston Latin School commemorate the 239th anniversary of the Boston Massacre by dramatizing the words of orators such as John Hancock, Joseph Warren, and John Rock.

In the years that followed the Boston Massacre, citizens crowded the halls of Old South Meeting House on the anniversary of the infamous event to hear the moving words of Boston's greatest orators. These speeches were evocative, passionate, and intended to stir the people of Boston into rebellion. Their inspirational messages about freedom and democracy still ring true today. Robert Allison, history professor at Suffolk University and author of The Boston Massacre, narrates the event.

Long Road To Suffrage and Beyond: Boston Women's Legal History

jeremy_tipton — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:05:12 +0000

Local historian Bonnie Hurd Smith looks at four centuries of women's legal history in Boston, as discussed in her recent book Boston Women & The Law.

Women's struggles to achieve legal rights and participate fully as voters, attorneys, and judges are part of a centuries-long story that is still playing out today. From Quakers and "witches" who were hanged in colonial Boston to the state's first woman Chief Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, Boston Women & The Law relates dozens of colorful stories.

This lecture is part of "March to the Polls: Massachusetts and the Woman Suffrage Movement", a collaboration between Old South Meeting House and The Massachusetts Historical Society.

Neil deGrasse Tyson: Pluto Files

jeremy_tipton — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:42:25 +0000

Paula Apsell interviews Neil deGrasse Tyson about his new book, The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet, and about his work in astrophysics.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, the astrophysicist, is director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York and host of NOVA ScienceNow. He is the author of nine books about astrophysics, including Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution and Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries, and is the recipient of nine honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal. His latest book, The Pluto Files, chronicles his experience at the center of the controversy over Pluto's planetary status.

Paula Apsell is the senior executive producer for NOVA, and the director of the WGBH Science Unit. She got her start in broadcasting at WGBH Boston, where she developed the award-winning children's drama radio series The Spider's Web, and later became a radio news producer. In 1975, she joined NOVA, a fledgling WGBH-produced national series that would set the standard for science programming on television. Today, NOVA is the most popular science series on American television and on the Web. NOVA has won every major broadcasting award, including the Emmy, the Peabody, the AAAS Westinghouse Science Journalism Award, and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Gold Baton.

Capitol Men: The First Black Congressmen

jeremy_tipton — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:11:58 +0000

Philip Dray tells the the epic story of America's reconstruction through the lives of the first black congressmen. After the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, which granted black men suffrage, 16 black southerners were elected to the United States Congress. These Capitol men faced a high degree of hostility and scrutiny upon their arrival in Washington, yet actively pursued civil rights and lasting economic and educational reforms. Dray reveals how these men became a source of inspiration for Americans in the years following the Civil War, and how they laid the groundwork for future civil rights legislation.

Transforming Cape Town: The Role of Education Activists

jeremy_tipton — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:33:54 +0000

Catherine Besteman, chair of Anthropology at Colby College, speaks about her new book, Transforming Cape Town, which explores the emotional and personal aspects of the legacy of apartheid and the transition to black majority rule in South Africa.

Allistair Witten, interim director of the Principal's Center and former school principal in South Africa, joins Besteman to discuss the role of grassroots activism in effecting social transformation. Through stories about families, schools, and communities in Cape Town, Besteman and Witten highlight the ongoing struggles and victories around race and reconciliation in a young democracy.

Susan Moore Johnson, Carl H. Pforzheimer, Jr. Professor of Teaching and Learning, provides an introduction.

This forum is co-sponsored by The Harvard Committee on African Studies, Facing History and Ourselves, and The University of Cape Town Fund.

Lost in Learning

jeremy_tipton — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:16:12 +0000

Eva Timothy discusses her photography project, Lost in Learning, which explores the idea of a modern educational Renaissance through a visual investigation of the previous one.

Timothy asks if genius could be less a matter of genetics than of passion and perspective. She wonders what the profound secret was that led the great minds of the Renaissance to such astonishing breakthroughs and discoveries during a time when information was comparatively limited.

The core of the project is a collection of black and white photographs that offer a unique glimpse of great historical figures alongside their manuscripts and various artifacts of exploration (courtesy of Harvard University's Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments). Visual narratives portrayed in the collection include a prism creatively placed upon Isaac Newton's book on Opticks to refract the word "Light," and a collage in which Galileo gazes fondly upon his sketch of the moon.

The sfumato nuances within these mono-color photographs convey the aura of mystery and wonder often associated with the Renaissance. Yet, the imagery also brings these larger-than-life figures down to a level where the everyday learner can relate. This is a message that Eva Timothy enthusiastically voices during her frequent visits with schools, libraries and universities as she urges learners of all ages to make the most out of life through a positive, take-charge perspective on education.

Lonely American: Drifting Apart in the 21st Century

jeremy_tipton — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:07:07 +0000

Jacqueline Olds and Richard Schwartz discuss the previously un-reported American epidemic of living in social isolation in their new book, The Lonely American: Drifting Apart in the 21st Century.

Why do 25% of Americans report that they have talked to no one about anything important in the last six months? How do contemporary American lifestyle and work place demands lead to social isolation? What are the negative affects - on children, physical health, the environment - of so many people living lonely lives? Are there remedies?

Jacqueline Olds and Richard Schwartz are both Associate Clinical Professors of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Olds teaches child psychiatry and Dr. Schwartz teaches adult psychiatry at McLean and Massachusetts General Hospital. They both are psychoanalysts and have written two other books, Overcoming Loneliness in Everyday Life and Marriage in Motion. Married to each other and with two grown children, they each maintain a private practice in Cambridge, MA.

Conscience of A Liberal

jeremy_tipton — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:07:03 +0000

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman talks with David Gergen of the Harvard Kennedy School about the foundations of the liberal political and economic systems. In the current economic downturn, Krugman asks what we learn from past liberal successes and failures.

Paul Krugman, recipient of the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize for Economic Sciences, has written or edited 18 books and several hundred articles, most of which are about international trade and international finance. He helped found the "new trade theory", which is about the consequences of increasing returns and imperfect competition for international trade. He currently teaches at Princeton University and writes an op-ed column for The New York Times.

David Gergen is currently a professor of public service at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and director of its Center for Public Leadership. He is also editor-at-large for U.S. News & World Report and a Senior Political Analyst for CNN. In earlier years, he served as a White House advisor to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton.

Big Wheels Kept on Turning: Arlington's Mill Brook Valley

jeremy_tipton — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:18:08 +0000

Ed Gordon tells the story of how a visionary preservationist prevented the destruction of the Scwamb brothers' mill.

In 1864, Charles and Frederick Schwamb, brothers from Germany's Rhineland, commenced the manufacture of oval and circular frames. Fast forwarding to 1969, the fourth and fifth generations of Schwambs were about to shut down their business when Patricia C. Fitzmaurice stepped in to save the three buildings from demolition. Gordon places the Schwamb brothers' mill within the context of the industrial history of Arlington's Mill Brook Valley - from the founding of Cook's Mill in 1637 through the rise of mills in the 19th century - that produced a variety of products, including two-man saws, edge tools, piano cases, and ornamental wood work, as well as picture frames.

Museum of Fine Arts in a Time of Transformation

jeremy_tipton — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:44:15 +0000

Malcolm Rogers, Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, describes the MFA's extensive and visionary project, Building the New MFA. The core of the project is the Museum's new American Wing, scheduled to open in 2010. Rogers gives his firsthand account of this major undertaking, from its earliest planning stages and strategy, to choosing the architect, Foster and Partners, to surmounting daunting fundraising goals, as well as such challenges as protecting fragile artwork and keeping the city's biggest art museum vibrant and functioning during construction. He offers an advance view of the new galleries and improvements and a glimpse of the exciting transformations of the MFA that are to come.

Malcolm Rogers assumed the role of Ann and Graham Gund Director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), in September 1994. Since then, he has led the Museum in welcoming new audiences to the MFA, expanding its encyclopedic collection, enhancing arts education, and bringing a variety of exhibitions to Boston of national and international importance. Prior to his arrival at the MFA, he served as the Deputy Director (from 1983) and Deputy Keeper (from 1985) at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

He is an authority on 16th, 17th, and early 18th century portraits, and has written on Van Dyck's English period. In December 2003, Rogers was awarded the honor of Commander, Order of the British Empire (CBE) in recognition of his services to the arts in both the UK and the United States. In 2005, he received the Eagle and Bulldog Award from the British American Business Council of New England (BABCNE) for his outstanding leadership in the cultural community. In October 2007, Rogers was honored with the title Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (Knight in the Order of Arts and Letters). The award, from France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, recognizes significant contribution to furthering the arts and letters in France and throughout the world.