Politics
September 2026 • Politics
Above the Fray? Rethinking the Supreme Court Independence
What the Supreme Court ever what we thought it was?
May 2026 • Politics
CRISIS OF THE COMMON GOOD
Senator Chris Murphy discusses his latest book, Crisis of the Common Good: The Fight for Meaning and Connection in a Broken America with Heather Cox Richardson.
April 2026 • General
Can Democracy Survive the Data Economy? Privacy, Power, and the Right to Dissent
The data‑broker economy has quietly become a powerful surveillance engine for federal agencies and law enforcement. This conversation asks a pressing question: when dissent is recorded, classified, and stored, can democracy survive?
November 2025 • Politics
Democracy or whatever – can humor help?
CF asks three people from different areas of expertise to discuss the power behind the politics of ridicule. Different formats are used by both the Right and Left, not just to entertain, but to demonize, distract and derail debate. But what does this humor reveal about the state of our democracy – and is laughter our last best defense?
May 2025 • Politics
OUTCLASSED
Joan C. Williams, Professor of Law at UC San Francisco, discusses her book Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Get Them Back. Williams sends out an urgent wake-up call to mend the broken relationship between college and non-college grads of all races, that is driving politics to the far right in America.
April 2025 • Politics
DEMONIZING THE TRUTH
President Trump has spent years demonizing the press, popularizing the concept of “fake news” and branding journalists the “enemy of the people”.
How far are ordinary Americans willing to go to acquiesce or protest these developments? Demonizing the Truth features David Enrich, business investigations editor for NYT and author of a new book, MURDERING THE TRUTH: Fear, the First Amendment, And A Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful.
March 2025 • Politics
MONEY, LIES AND GOD
Why have so many Americans turned against democracy? How did we get to the point where an organized political movement within the U.S. is working to bring down its own democratic system? These are the questions that journalist Katherine Stewart grapples with, in her new NYT bestselling book, Money, Lies and God.
February 2025 • Politics
DISASTER NATIONALISM: is it the downfall of liberal civilization?
Are we on the brink of a new and irreversible epoch; one that signals the end of democratic civilization as we have known it? Richard Seymour discusses his latest book, Disaster Nationalism, and analyzes the roots, influencers and threats that this global shift poses.
February 2025 • Politics
LIVING IN THE SHADOW OF OUR FATHERS
Omo Moses‘s book, The White Peril, is a coming-of-age story, a multigenerational family memoir, an epic father-son road trip, a searing account of the Black male experience. Moses deftly interweaves his own life story with excerpts from both his great-grandfather’s sermons and the writings of his father, the civil rights activist Robert P. Moses.
October 2024 • Politics
The Art of Power: A Conversation with Nancy Pelosi
Cambridge Forum is delighted to partner with Harvard Book Store to bring you a conversation with Nancy Pelosi about The Art of Power, which chronicles her life as America’s first female Speaker of the House.
April 2024 • Politics
Age of Revolutions
Fareed Zakaria discusses his latest book, Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present, with Steven Pinker
March 2024 • Politics
Russia’s New Recklessness
Cambridge Forum considers what future prospects exist for Russia, post-Navalny and pre-election, and what the global response should be in light of America’s ambivalence about the future of NATO.
January 2024 • Politics
Is the American Century Over?
Joseph Nye shares his memories of living through the American century and discusses the future of America’s role on the international stage.
October 2023 • Politics
Beyond Belief
The effort to destroy facts and make American ungovernable didn’t come out of nowhere. It is the culmination of seventy years of strategic denialism
October 2023 • Politics
Can Local News Fix the Crisis in Democracy?
In this forum, a panel of journalists considers the pivotal role of information and facts in a healthy democracy.
September 2023 • Politics
Doppleganger
Naomi Klein’s new book Doppelganger explores “what it feels like to watch one’s identity slip away in the digital ether, an experience many more of us will have in the age of AI”.
June 2023 • Politics
Gunfight: Is Healthy Gun Ownership Ever Possible?
Ryan Busse, former executive at Kimber America, a major gun manufacturer and author of Gunfight talks about his battle with the gun industry which he says, has radicalized America.
April 2023 • Arts
Cartoonists, Racism, and Free Speech in a Threatened Democracy
What is the role of the cartoonist in the today’s convoluted world? Is it poking fun at the powerful, parodying the absurdities of life or acting as “a troublemaker”?
October 2022 • Arts
The Art of Resistance: Visions and Voices of Change
Art provides a powerful expression for resistance both in word and image, and Peter Sacks uses both to great effect in his latest works.
September 2022 • Politics
Tyrants on Twitter
Author David Sloss shares his analysis of how Chinese and Russian agents weaponize social media platforms for the sole purpose of subverting the liberal international order.
May 2022 • Politics
Can We Resist the Hijacking of Democracy in America and Beyond?
Russia’s terrible assault on Ukraine and the recent elections of pro-Putin regimes in Hungary and Serbia, coincide with a growing threat to American democracy from within its own borders.
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.
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.
June 2003 • Politics
Slavery and the Invention of America
Civil rights activist Byron Rushing traces the theme of colonial domination and slavery in the shaping of America’s history and civilization, beginning with the “founding” of a country that was already known to its original inhabitants, the native Americans.
April 2021 • Politics
Severe Information Disorder: Can We Restore a Healthier Information Economy?
Many of the problems we face in the world today—the global pandemic, the economic crisis, political violence of the kind that rocked the US Capitol in January—are the result of our severe information disorder. How do we create a universe of truthful and verifiable information, available to everyone? We are […]
February 2021 • Politics
Women and Leadership
Hear a powerful call to action for achieving equality in leadership from Julie Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia, as she reflects on her new book Women and Leadership.
January 2021 • Politics
Markers and Reminders: MLK to BLM
Cambridge Forum partners with the Harvard Square Business Association to examine Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy and Black Lives Matter’s impact on the history of Cambridge, Boston, and beyond.
December 2020 • Politics
Can We Save Journalism in America?
Respect for a free press is the cornerstone of democracy. What will it take to restore public confidence and trust in American journalism?
October 2020 • Politics
Trust in a Polarized Age
Are we caught in a downward spiral that must end in institutional decay or even civil war, or can we restore trust through our shared social institutions?
September 2020 • Politics
Too Much Information—Or Too Little Substance?
Too Much Information, Cass R. Sunstein’s latest book, examines the effects of excessive information in our lives.
April 2020 • Politics
Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy
Joseph Nye, leading scholar of international relations considers presidents and their foreign policy from FDR to Trump who come up short in the morality polls.
February 2020 • Politics
Migrating to Prison
César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández takes a hard look at the immigration prison system’s origins, how it currently operates, and why.
January 2020 • Politics
The Age of Illusions
Andrew Bacevich, Professor Emeritus of International Relations and History at the Boston University, discusses his new book, The Age of Illusions: How America Squandered Its Cold War Victory.
December 2019 • Climate
How to Start a Revolution
Writers Lauren Duca and Martin Lukacs, author of The Trudeau Formula, discuss collective action and non-violent protest with members of the climate action group, Extinction Rebellion.
October 2019 • Politics
Kochland
If you want to understand how we destroyed unions in this country, how we widened the income divide, how we stalled progress on climate change, and how corporate America bought the influence industry, you have to understand the story of Koch Industries.
September 2019 • Politics
Chinese Democracy in Crisis: The New Long March
In light of the escalating developments in Hong Kong with pro-Democracy demonstrators becoming increasingly galvanized in response to the Chinese government’s crackdown, we examine the current situation both inside and outside mainland China with regard to human rights.
June 2019 • Politics
Fake news vs facts: living in a post-truth world
Are we living in a post-truth world where “alternative facts” replace actual facts and feelings have more weight than evidence? How did we get here? Lee McIntrye discusses our modern dilemma.
January 2019 • Politics
Surveillance Capitalism and Democracy
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism reveals what is at stake for our digital future and how we can reclaim control by harnessing the power of indignant citizens, journalists and policymakers.
November 2018 • Politics
Healing From Hate: How Young Men Get Into and Out of Violent Extremism
Drawing on his work with skinheads, neo-Nazis and KKK members, sociologist Michael Kimmel considers the root causes of this addiction and how to bring marginalized men back from society’s extremist edge.
October 2018 • Climate
Whitewash
Carey Gillam won the Rachel Carson Book Award from the Society of Environmental Journalists for her book, Whitewash, which follows the first historic verdict against Monsanto in the San Francisco courts.
October 2018 • Politics
Good and Mad: How Women’s Anger is Reshaping America
Rebecca Traister, author and NY magazine journalist, examines the history of feminism and the #Metoo movement in the light of recent political events in Washington and beyond.
September 2018 • Politics
America: The Farewell Tour
Chris Hedges returns to the Cambridge Forum in a vigorous attempt to jolt us out of our complacency about the current state of affairs—while there is still time
June 2018 • Arts
From Trump to the Pope: Inside the Mind of a Political Cartoonist
Political cartoonist Ted Rall talks about the besieged state of political cartooning in an America where the media landscape has evolved radically in a recent years leaving many artists, writers and cartoonists behind.
May 2018 • Politics
Is Capitalism Devouring Democracy?
The provocative and controversial ex-Greek finance minister of Greece and Professor of Economics at the University of Athens, Yanis Varoufakis, considers the need for a radically new way of thinking about the economy and capitalism.
April 2018 • Politics
The New Cold War?
Journalist James Kirchick’s latest book The End of Europe, considers the implications of Putin’s victory in the recent Russian election and other cultural and political developments in Europe.
March 2018 • Politics
The Dream Machine
Princeton University professor and author of Undocumented Dan-El Padilla Peralta shares the story of his American dream journey.
September 2017 • Politics
No Justice, No Peace: Race and Power in America
Harvard Professor of Government Danielle Allen moderates this discussion with Professors Tommie Shelby, Elizabeth Hinton, and Khalil Gibran Muhammed.
June 2017 • Politics
Rwandan Women Rising
Swanee Hunt speaks about her experiences in Rwanda from her new book Rwandan Women Rising which follows the story of the women who worked for peace after the genocide in 1994.
May 2017 • Politics
Exceptional America
Stanford Law professor Mugambi Jouet discusses his new book Exceptional America which tackles why Americans are far more divided than other Westerners over basic issues.
May 2016 • Politics
Democracy Now! Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America
Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman joined us on her national speaking tour to celebrate 20 years of the daily, independent, global news hour.
March 2016 • Politics
Rotten Reportage: Do We Have the Media We Deserve?
Cambridge Forum invited a panel of journalists and experts drawn from the Internet, academia, and NPR to discuss the state of journalism in America today.
January 2016 • Politics
Infiltrating the Terrorist Network
After the Paris terrorist attacks, many feel that the world has entered a new and terrible “reign of terror”. We start our new Deep Globalization series by considering the challenge of balancing security concerns with protecting our privacy.
April 2015 • Politics
The Health of Democracy: Voter Suppression and Disenfranchisement
How can citizens respond when the ideals of democracy come into conflict with the policies of government?
April 2015 • Politics
The Health of Democracy: A Polarized People
The American people have become polarized over the past 50 years. Michael Dimock, President of the Pew Research Center, discusses the implications for the health of our democracy with Ted Landsmark, president emeritus of the Boston Architectural College.
April 2015 • Politics
Iyad Burnat: Non-Violent Resistance in Palestine
Since 2005, citizens of Bil’in, joined by Israeli and international peace activists, have held weekly non-violent demonstrations against the Israeli encroachment of illegal settlements.
March 2015 • Politics
The Health of Democracy: Economic Inequality
Historian Colin Gordon explores the growth of economic inequality and its implications for a healthy democracy. Michael Widmer, former president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, examines how tax policy can support or lessen economic inequality.
March 2015 • Politics
Witnessing: A People’s History of Ferguson
PEN-New England recognizes Ferguson activists and bloggers Johnetta Elzie and DeRay McKesson with its 2015 Howard Zinn Freedom to Write award for their work as activists, organizers, and citizen journalists in the Ferguson protest movement.
January 2015 • Politics
The Health of Democracy: The Role of the Media
Alex Jones, director of Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, and Charles Sennott, founder of Global Post and The GroundTruth Project, assess how today’s press—print and electronic—is carrying out its mission.
January 2015 • Politics
Duel Over Dinner: Washington and Hancock on State Sovereignty
Historian Timothy Breen explores one of the first disagreements over the power relationship between federal and state governments.
January 2015 • Politics
Putin’s War Against the West
Russian-American journalist, author, and LGBT activist Masha Gessen voluntarily left Russia last year when tightening anti-gay and lesbian policies threatened her family.
September 2014 • Politics
Uncertain Justice: The Supreme Court and the Constitution
On the day the United States celebrates its 227th Constitution Day., Laurence Tribe, eminent Constitutional Law scholar at Harvard Law School, discusses his new book, Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution.
November 2014 • Politics
Witness to History: Remembering Freedom Summer
Jack Landron, a young musician well known to Boston-area audiences for his performances as Jackie Washington at Club 47 in Harvard Square, remembers his journey to Mississippi during the Freedom Summer.
May 2014 • Politics
Election 2014: Key Issues
With Congress experiencing record-low approval ratings, voters are primed to look seriously at the policy positions of aspirants for national office. What should voters be attuned to as they sort through candidates in the upcoming Congressional elections?
March 2014 • Politics
Framing Military Occupation: Close-Ups of Daily Life in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Physician Alice Rothchild of American Jews for a Just Peace leads a panel discussion on living under military occupation in the occupied Palestinian Territories.
October 2013 • Politics
Taiwan: Island of Contention
Filmmaker Will Tiao addresses one of the thorniest balancing acts in global politics: the role of Taiwan in U.S. relations with China.
October 2013 • Politics
Lee Kuan Yew: The Grand Master’s Insights on China, the United States, and the World
Harvard’s Graham Allison discusses his new biography (co-authored with Robert Blackwell) of Lee Kuan Yew, “the power behind the throne” in modern Asian political leadership.
September 2013 • Politics
Presidential Leadership and the Creation of the American Era
Joseph Nye of the Harvard Kennedy School discusses the foreign policies of 20th-century American presidents with David Gergen,
April 2013 • Politics
Shadow Lives: The Forgotten Women of the War on Terror
British journalist and playwright Victoria Brittain reveals the unseen side of the ‘9/11 wars’: their impact on the wives and families of men incarcerated in Guantanamo, in prison or under house arrest in Britain and the US.
March 2013 • Politics
Brokers of Deceit
Rashid Khalidi, one of the foremost historians of the modern Middle East, zeroes in on the United States’ role as a broker of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Analyzing the 1982 “Reagan Plan,” the negotiations leading to the Oslo Accords, and President Obama’s stance toward the conditions for Middle East peace, […]
September 2012 • Politics
The Spirit of Compromise
Harvard University’s Dennis Thompson discusses the sources of partisan intransigence and legislative gridlock in American political life.
November 2012 • Arts
Censoring Children
MIT’s Noam Chomsky and Barbara Lubin of the Middle East Children’s Alliance discuss A Child’s View of Gaza, the book of Palestinian children’s artwork slated for exhibition at the Oakland Museum of Children’s Art. The exhibition was canceled at the last minute without explanation.
November 2012 • Politics
The Second Nuclear Age
Yale national security strategist Paul Bracken argues that a new nuclear age is dawning.
March 2012 • Politics
Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China
Harvard China scholar Ezra Vogel discusses his highly acclaimed biography of transformational Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping.
April 2012 • Politics
The Rise of China and American Power
Joseph Nye of the Harvard Kennedy School examines the future of American relations with China. As China has become a more powerful player in the Pacific, how has it projected its strength?
January 2012 • Politics
Challenges of Globalization: Global Engagement
Cambridge Forum hosts a mini-conference on the impact of global engagement on America’s sense of security and well-being.
March 2012 • Politics
Obama and Iran: A Single Roll of the Dice
Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, assesses the high-stakes diplomatic sparring between Washington and Tehran.
April 2012 • Politics
Challenges of Globalization: Economic Globalization
A mini-conference on economic globalization explores the impact of globalization of labor, capital, and markets on American workers, investors, and consumers. Robert Kuttner of Demos moderates.
April 2012 • Politics
Wealth Inequality: The Gilded Road to Ruin?
Chuck Collins, director of the Institute for Policy Studies Program on inequality and the Common Good, and journalist Linda McQuaig explore the impact of the growing wealth gap and suggest ways to reverse the increase in economic inequality.
January 2012 • Politics
Where Does Democracy Come From? Popular Uprising and Parliamentary Elections in Egypt
Stanford University Middle East specialist Joel Beinin discusses the results of the Egyptian elections.
October 2011 • Politics
America the Vulnerable: Digital Espionage, Crime, and Warfare
Former National Security Agency insider Joel Brenner explores the chilling future of espionage and warfare in the digital matrix that bounds our world.
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?
September 2011 • Politics
The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism
Harvard political scientist Theda Skocpol discusses the Tea Party. What are the sources of this group’s influence?
September 2011 • Politics
One Great Crisis
James K. Galbraith examines current economic debates about austerity, government spending, tax policy, and job creation.
May 2011 • Politics
Ralph Nader: Can the Super Rich Save Us?
Described as a work of imagination, but not of fiction, Nader’s newest book challenges our vision of the American dream.
March 2011 • Politics
Fire in the Heart: White Activists for Racial Justice
Harvard sociologist Mark Warren uncovers the dynamic processes through which some white Americans become activists for racial justice in his new book Fire in the Heart.
March 2011 • Politics
Rogue States and Suitcase Bombs: Coping with the New Nuclear Threat
Harvard Kennedy School expert in nuclear security Matthew Bunn discusses the nuclear threats of the 21st century: nuclear theft and terrorism, proliferation, and the nuclear energy fuel cycle.
November 2010 • Politics
Renewing Democracy: Deadly Spin
In 2009, Wendell Potter testified before Congress, giving powerful specifics of industry practices to “dump the sick” to increase shareholder value.
October 2010 • Politics
Renewing Democracy: Change Congress
Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig argues that American democracy is broken and that only a concerted effort to change the way Congress operates can restore our system of government.
September 2010 • Arts
Soul of a Citizen
Author Paul Loeb discusses his idea of citizenship. It’s more than political engagement, he argues, in his underground bestseller Soul of a Citizen.
October 2010 • Arts
The Freedom to Write
PEN-New England celebrates Howard Zinn and his support for the freedom to write with a panel discussion.
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.