Classics

January 1985 • General

Rev. Jesse Jackson: “Happy Birthday, Doctor King”

A birthday present to Dr. King, featuring the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who was by the side of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during many of the historic civil rights marches which inspired the nation during the 1960’s. Herbert Vetter, Director of Cambridge Forum introduces this broadcast on the occasion of a 1985 memorial service in commemoration of Dr. King, on his birthday, at the Memorial Church, Harvard University.

June 2023 • Classics

How Not to Kill Yourself

Suicide rates are rising at an alarming rate in America and the populations most at risk are no longer white middle-aged men, they are increasingly young people and minorities.  What societal ills might be fueling this tragic trend?

March 2022 • Classics

Black History: On Rewind 

To celebrate our newly digitized collection of eminent historical black orators, Cambridge Forum has teamed up with the Lincoln Institute to present a panel discussion.

August 2021 • Classics

N***er: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word

Randall Kennedy takes on not just the N-word word, but our laws, attitudes, and culture with references that extend from the Jim Crow south to Chris Rock and the O. J. Simpson trial.

January 1998 • Classics

Truth and Reconciliation

Archbishop Desmond Tutu is a world-renowned human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

September 1998 • Classics

Nelson Mandela at Harvard

In 1998, Nelson Mandela received an honorary degree awarded by Harvard. In his speech, Mandela reflects with wit and humor on the formidable challenge of democratization of developing nations.

February 1999 • Classics

I’ll Make Me a World

Filmmaker and co-executive producer of the PBS television series, I’ll Make Me A World: A Century of African-American Arts, Sam Pollard talks about his dedication to chronicling the Black experience in America.

March 2006 • Classics

Epic Journeys of Freedom

Historian Cassandra Pybus traces the lives of the runaway slaves who absorbed the dreams of liberty from their masters during the American Revolution and fled to the British to find freedom.

May 1987 • Classics

Eyes on the Prize

Henry Hampton, the driving force behind Eyes on the Prize and Blackside, speaks in 1987 at Cambridge Forum about his vision of the remarkable human drama that was the Civil Rights Movement.

July 1997 • Classics

Beloved Community: African American Women

Civil rights activist and Baptist minister Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, reflects on how Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman helped shape our ideas of humanity and advanced the struggle to recognize the dignity of all.

March 1998 • Classics

Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man

In this Cambridge Forum Classic, Paul Tucker, professor emeritus of art at UMass, offers a striking new view of Monet, the quintessential impressionist.

February 2009 • Classics

The Third Chapter

Renowned sociologist Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot details a process of creative reinvention which redefines our views about the casualties and opportunities of aging.

November 1998 • Classics

Rabindranath Tagore: Exemplar of Power?

Herbert Vetter, editor of The Heart of God, a collection of the prayers and poems of Indian philosopher Rabindranath Tagore, discusses the power of spirituality that Tagore evoked in his writings.

July 2020 • Classics

Civil Rights: Yesterday and Today

In honor of the late US Congressman from Georgia John Lewis, here’s a special Cambridge Forum we recorded in 2001 at the National History Museum in Lexington, Massachusetts.

April 1984 • Classics

Black Writers in White America: James Baldwin

Here’s a Cambridge Forum classic featuring James Baldwin, who visited the harbor campus of the University of Massachusetts in Boston in 1984.

January 2019 • Classics

Living With Robots

Judith Shulevitz, from the Atlantic Monthly, and Maxim Pozdorovkin, filmmaker of The Truth About Killer Robots discuss the future of robots.

February 2016 • Classics

Reclaiming Conversation

Most conversations today involve distracted people looking at their phones and not their partners. This, according to Sherry Turkle, is leading to a “crisis of empathy” at work, at home and in our public life.

February 2013 • Classics

Resilience: From PTSD to Hurricane Sandy

Psychiatrists Steven Southwick of Yale and Dennis Charney of Mount Sinai tell the stories of POWs, 9/11 survivors, and ordinary people with debilitating diseases or grievous personal losses.

October 2011 • Classics

Bob Dylan in America

Historian and cultural commentator Sean Wilentz explores the place that legendary artist Bob Dylan holds in America.

October 2011 • Classics

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Author Gregory Maguire has re-imagined the stories of Oz beginning with Wicked, which took the viewpoint of one of the wicked witches. With the publication of Out of Oz, the final volume of the series, he looks back on his journey of imagination.

September 2011 • Climate

Wildness and Reason

In this Cambridge Forum Classic, David Abram, author of The Spell of the Sensuous, tells a story that reveals the dependence of human cognition on the natural environment.

September 2011 • Classics

Reimagining Equality

Anita Hill reflects on her experience as an African American woman in the late 20th century. How successful have the movements for racial and gender equality been in eliminating barriers to opportunity?

June 2008 • Classics

Imagination And Failure

In 2008, children’s author J.K. Rowling spoke at Harvard University about her own life story, as a lesson for young people looking for future success.

April 2003 • Classics

Descent Into Limbo: Maurice Sendak’s Life in Children’s Art

In this Cambridge Forum conversation recorded in 2003, Sendak traces his lifelong journey in children’s literature and art.

November 2007 • Classics

Musicophilia

The late essayist-physician Oliver Sacks memorably reflected at Cambridge Forum on music and its mysterious relationship to the brain.

January 2005 • Classics

David McCullough: 1776

The late historian David McCullough, two-time winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award visited Cambridge Forum in 2005.

April 2000 • Classics

Bob Dylan: Artist

Christopher Ricks, Professor of Humanities at Boston University, explores the poetry in Bob Dylan’s songs. 

March 2000 • Classics

Remembering the Negro Leagues

Henry “Pistol” Bow Mason pitched in the Negro Leagues for the great Kansas City Monarchs and the Majors with the Phillies. Here he shares his experiences of playing alongside such greats as Satchel Page, Willy Mays, and Jackie Robinson.

February 1993 • Classics

Mississippi: Then and Now

Bob Moses, a veteran of the civil rights struggle, draws an analogy between the early voter registration drives in Mississippi during the 1960s and an innovative school curriculum called The Algebra Project.

May 1980 • Classics

The Uncertainty Of Science

In 1980, Biologist and physician Dr. Lewis Thomas spoke at the Harvard College commencement about the uncertainty of science.