These kinds of events below are happening all over the world every day and most of them, now, are webcast and archived, sometimes even with accurate transcripts. Would be good to have a place that helped people access them. This is a more global version of the local listings I did for about a decade until September 2020 and earlier for a few years in the 1990s (what I did and why I did it at http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com/2013/11/what-i-do-and-why-i-do-it.html
A more comprehensive global listing service could be developed if there were enough people interested in doing it, if it hasn’t already been done.
If anyone knows of such a global listing of open energy, climate, and other events is available, please put me in contact.
Thanks for reading,
Solar IS Civil Defense,
George Mokray
gmoke@world.std.com
http://hubeventsnotes.blogspot.com - notes on lectures and books
http://solarray.blogspot.com - renewable energy and efficiency
http://zeronetenrg.blogspot.com - zero net energy links lis
http://cityag.blogspot.com - city agriculture links list
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Index
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The 2026 Annual Environment & Spirituality Summit
Monday, September 28 - Tuesday, September 29
Online
https://aes-summit.org/
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From Global Climate Vulnerability Trends to Policy Choices
Monday, September 28
12:00pm to 1:00pm EDT
MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
And online
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeoQPscJUOuZkwwpEC5K2D66NWweORiYkFys-0UVoAbYvGSog/viewform
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Sources and Paths of the Lower Branch of the Abyssal Overturning Circulation
Monday, September 28
12:00 - 1:00pm
MIT Building 55-110 | MIT Campus, Cambridge, MA
And online
RSVP at https://eaps.mit.edu/events/paocq-xiaoting-yang-whoi/
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Policy Analysis at Scale: An Instrument to Evaluate Governance Proposals
Monday, September 28
12 – 1 p.m.
Harvard, Wexner 434AB (HKS Campus), 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
And online
RSVP at https://www.hks.harvard.edu/events/policy-analysis-scale-instrument-evaluate-governance-proposals
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Public Research Talk: A Transcendentalist Peace: American Pacifism from Lydia Maria Child to Jane Addams
Monday, September 28
12 – 1:30 p.m.
Harvard Divinity School, Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave., Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bpW6b8Lb0Ao79C6
And online
RSVP at https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_j0AY4o8xTXqWA0P_wHO_UQ#/registration
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Local Food Systems within Just Transition Micro-Clusters with Thomas Froehlich
Monday, September 28
12:00pm to 1:30pm EDT
Location will be emailed upon registration
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSecKyxMYGzh42CqfuHEYDVASOyZciiG6l4DD7gzZQXhMQgMBg/viewform
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Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism
Monday, September 28
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Princeton, 300 Wallace Hall, Princeton, NJ
And online
RSVP at https://environment.princeton.edu/event/extraction-the-frontiers-of-green-capitalism/
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AI for Climate Solutions: GRAIL
Monday, September 28
1:30pm - 2:20pm ET [4:30pm to 5:20pm PT]
Add to calendar: In person and online
Stanford, Shriram Center, 104, 443 Via Ortega, Stanford, CA 94305
Livestream at https://events.stanford.edu/event/stanford-energy-seminar-09282026
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Starr Forum: Housing the World: Inequality, Informality, and the Future of Cities
Monday, September 28
5:00 - 6:30 PM
MIT, Building 45-230, Schwarzman College of Computing, 51 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScRkaDXMA40FXCx5DkXMXDXDvVDOkeodvDizLlx7apb6Z8m3g/viewform
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Kashef Chowdhury, “Meditations in Entropy”
Monday, September 28
6:30 PM - 8 PM
Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 48 Quincy Street, Piper Auditorium Cambridge, MA 02138
And livestreamed at https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/meditations-in-entropy/
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kashef-chowdhury-meditations-in-entropy-tickets-1998429350985
RSVP does not guarantee entry, which is filled on a first-come-first-served basis. Doors open 15 minutes before the event begins, so be sure to arrive early.
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Future Energy Landscapes (FEL): a new toolkit
Tuesday, September 29
8 AM - 9 AM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/future-energy-landscapes-fel-a-new-toolkit-tickets-1996779977665
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Before the Concrete Sets: Powering Growth with Low-Carbon Cement
Tuesday, September 29
10:00 - 11:00am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://hub.wri.org/events/2026/9/concrete-sets-powering-growth-low-carbon-cement
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Demystifying This Historic El Niño & What It Means for Global Communities
Tuesday, September 29
1pm
Online
RSVP at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/7817900965750/WN_I-giSFtuSdeEozJ_HOmibg#/registration
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How Big Tech Is Fueling the Future of War
Tuesday, September 29
3pm EDT [6:00 PM PDT]
Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California, Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105
And online
RSVP at https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2026-09-29/sharon-weinberger-how-big-tech-fueling-future-war
Cost: $10 - $57
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M-Pesa: From Fintech Inventor to the Status Quo
Tuesday, September 29
3:30-5:00pm
BU, Photonics 906, 8 St Mary’s Street, Boston, MA
RSVP at https://www.bu.edu/pardee/2026/09/15/m-pesa-from-fintech-inventor-to-the-status-quo/
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Archives, LLMs, Data Visualization and Where They Connect
Tuesday, September 29
4:30 – 6:30 p.m.
metaLAB, Ground floor, 42 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
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Building What's Next: Global Development When the Model Breaks
Tuesday, September 29
5:30-7:30 PM | The Foundry, , 101 Rogers St, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://bnid.wildapricot.org/event-6662652
Cost: $20 - $25
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Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines
Tuesday, September 29
6:00pm
Harvard Science Center, Hall B, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sherry-turkle-at-the-harvard-science-center-tickets-1996244136951
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Author Talk: N.K. Jemisin on Revolutionary Ideas in Fantasy Fiction
Tuesday, September 29
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Central Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street, Boston MA 02116
RSVP at https://bpl.libcal.com/event/16247689
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The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State
Tuesday, September 29
7:00pm
First Parish in Cambridge, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138). Doors will open at 6:30 pm.
RSVP at https://portersquarebooks.com/products/tags/jill-lepore-event-tickets
Cost: $0 - $39
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Building Resilient and Sustainable Cities amid Climate Change and Water Challenges
Wednesday, September 30
1am - 2:30am ET [14:00 - 15:30 JST (GMT+09:00]
Online
RSVP at https://www.iges.or.jp/en/events/20260930
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Financing a Transition Away From Fossil Fuels: Building an implementation network for Santa Marta Workstream 2
Wednesday, September 30
9am - 10:45am ET [3:00 pm - 4:15 pm CEST]
Online
RSVP at https://www.iisd.org/events/session-2-building-implementation-network-santa-marta
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The future of 3D cell models: Charting the path to 2031
Wednesday, September 30
11 a.m. Eastern (ET), 8 a.m. Pacific (PT), 4 p.m. UK (BST), 5 p.m. Central Europe (CEST)
Online
RSVP at https://view6.workcast.net/register?cpak=4881286791739398&referrer=SciencePage&utm_campaign=webinars2026
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Americans Agree: Corporate Climate Action Still Matters
Wednesday, September 30
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm (EST)
Online
RSVP at https://www.c2es.org/event/americans-agree-corporate-climate-action-still-matters/
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Structure, Dynamics and Evolution of the US Defense Industry
Wednesday, September 30
12:00pm to 1:30pm EDT
MIT, Building E40, 496, 1 AMHERST ST, Cambridge, MA 02142
And online
Livestream at https://www.youtube.com/@mitsecuritystudiesprogram5272/streams
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Climate change is global. But the way we experience it is personal—and profoundly local
Wednesday, September 30
5:00pm–7:00pm ET
149 Woods Hole Road, Falmouth, MA
And online
RSVP at https://www.woodwellclimate.org/?event=woodwell-climate-conversations-when-climate-change-gets-personal
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Running Harder & Falling Faster: The Paradox of Enshittification and Reverse Centaurs
Wednesday, September 30
6:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online
RSVP at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/running-harder-falling-faster-paradox-enshittification-and-reverse-centaurs
—————
All the Wrong Moves: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump
Wednesday, September 30
6:00pm
The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/anthony-scaramucci-at-the-brattle-theatre-tickets-1996303674028
Cost: $13.59
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The Shoreline Is Moving. Should We?
Thursday, October 1
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_t_6oXRaRRUSOomB1brtoUg#/registration
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Other Side of Energy Transitions: Critical Mineral Mining in Latin America
Thursday, October 1
12 PM - 1 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/other-side-of-energy-transitions-critical-mineral-mining-in-latin-america-tickets-1995952113501
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Counted: Reflections on the US Census
Thursday, October 1
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Harvard Law School, Lewis International Law Center, Room 514 (5th Floor), 1557 Mass Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
And online
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdsM5oLjVD6tGHa89nkrEQz5IkGBaSJd9xPM3rSgJljy8-_qw/viewform
—————
Brought To You By: How Corporations Warped the Truth, Conned the Public, and Broke Democracy
Thursday, October 1
3:30 PM - 5 PM
Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability, 111 Cummington Mall, Suite 149 Boston, MA 02215
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-conversation-with-expert-author-amy-westervelt-tickets-2001898725979
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Community-led resilience: Improving disaster preparedness, response, and recovery for Black people and places
Thursday, October 1
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM EDT
The Brookings Institution, Falk Auditorium, 1775 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, D.C. 20036
And online
RSVP at https://www.brookings.edu/events/community-led-resilience-improving-disaster-preparedness-response-and-recovery-for-black-people-and-places/
—————
Innovating with Amazon: Six Months of Building and What's Next
Thursday, October 1
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Greentown Labs, 444 Somerville Avenue, Somerville, MA 02143, USA
RSVP at https://luma.com/ckb3o0je
Donations accepted
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Future of Climate Action
Thursday, October 1
6 PM - 7 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/future-of-climate-action-tickets-2001029830088
—————
The Art of Creative Disruption
Thursday, October 1
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Boston Public Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street, Boston MA 02116
RSVP at https://bpl.bibliocommons.com/events/6aa2ca9065abe8002a7817e2
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Inside Out: How Robotics is Reinventing Medicine
Thursday, October 1
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Swissnex, 420 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138
Request to join at https://luma.com/f7plbd8a
Your registration is subject to host approval.
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Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census
Thursday, October 1
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-3820
—————
Living Transcendentalism: Phenomenological Ecology and Nature's Wholeness Talk and Workshop
Friday, October 2 - Saturday, October 3
Harvard, Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA
—————
VthePeople: Amending the Constitution through Article V
Friday, October 2 – Saturday, October 3
Harvard Law School, Wasserstein Hall, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://secure.touchnet.net/C20832_ustores/web/store_main.jsp?STOREID=42&SINGLESTORE=true
Cost: $0 - $125
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Biological War
Friday, October 2
9am ET [12:00 PM PDT]
Online
RSVP at https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2026-10-02/annie-jacobsen-biological-war
Cost: $10, $43 with a book
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Applying SEPLS to OECMs: From Concept to Real-World Impact
Monday, October 5
3am - 4:45am ET [16:00 - 17:45 JST] (GMT+09:00)
Online
RSVP at https://www.iges.or.jp/en/events/20261005
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ALTWHEELS FLEET DAY
Monday, October 5
Four Points by Sheraton Norwood, 1125 Boston-Providence Turnpike Norwood, MA 02062
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
—————
Tackling the Grid Reliability and Affordability Challenge in the Age of AI
Monday, October 5
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM ET
Harvard, Rubenstein 414ab, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
And online
RSVP at https://hksexeced.tfaforms.net/f/registration?e=a4oPp000001johdIAA&_gl
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The State of Environmental Justice: Challenges and Opportunities
Monday, October 5
12:15 pm – 1:15 pm
Princeton, 300 Wallace Hall, Princeton, NJ
And online
RSVP at https://cpree.princeton.edu/events/2026/state-environmental-justice-challenges-and-opportunities
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Living Beyond Earth: Our Next Giant Leap
Monday, October 5
1 – 5:30 p.m.
Harvard, Knafel Center and Fay House, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
And online
RSVP at https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2026-living-beyond-earth-symposium
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El Niño: How Global Cities are Preparing for an Inevitable Threat
Tuesday, October 6
11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Online
RSVP at https://www.climate.columbia.edu/events/el-nino-how-global-cities-are-preparing-inevitable-threat
—————
Past and Future Tales of the Transmission Grid
Tuesday, October 6
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET
Harvard, Kennedy School, Malkin Penthouse, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
And online
RSVP at https://hksexeced.tfaforms.net/f/registration?e=a4oPp000001jjBhIAI&_gl
—————
BosTEN: Convergent Urban Scale Solution for Energy, Climate, and Health
Tuesday, October 6
12 PM - 1:30 PM
Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability, 111 Cummington Mall, Suite 149 Boston, MA 02215
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bosten-convergent-urban-scale-solution-for-energy-climate-and-health-tickets-1999779298715
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How to Sink a Megacity: A History of Water, Land, and Environmental Change in Mexico City” by Vera Candiani
Tuesday, October 6
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Princeton, Briger Hall Auditorium, 11 Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ
And online
RSVP at https://environment.princeton.edu/event/faculty-seminar-by-candiani/
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Community-wide Clean Energy: Innovative Solutions for Local Governments
Tuesday, October 6
3:00 - 4:00pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://hub.wri.org/events/2026/10/community-wide-clean-energy-innovative-solutions-local-governments
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En-ROADS Workshop with MIT's Jason Jay
Tuesday, October 6
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
The Foundry, 101 Rogers Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/en-roads-workshop-with-mits-jason-jay-tickets-1995970403206
Cost: $12 - $18
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Boston LongevityTech Night with Aubrey de Grey
Tuesday, October 6
6:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Liberty Lobby Bar, 215 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-longevitytech-night-with-aubrey-de-grey-registration-1994228512163
Cost: $16.78
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Bridging NBS Policy, Practice & Finance in Africa: Pathways to Financing Nature-based Solutions in Africa
Wednesday, October 7
9:00 - 10:00am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://hub.wri.org/events/2026/10/bridging-nbs-policy-practice-finance-africa-pathways-financing-nature-based
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Designing Hybrid Skins: Exploring the Social and Cultural Dimensions of On-Skin Interfaces Toward Different Possible Futures for Next-Generation Wearable Computers
Wednesday, October 7
12 PM ET
Online
RSVP at https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2026-cindy-hsin-liu-kao-fellow-presentation-virtual
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Securing the Supply Chain: Critical Minerals Permitting Reform
Wednesday, October 7
12:00PM - 1:00PM
Online
RSVP at https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/events/securing-the-supply-chain-critical-minerals-permitting-reform/
—————
Technology Priorities for National Security
Wednesday, October 7
12:00pm to 1:30pm EDT
MIT, Building E40, 496, 1 AMHERST ST, Cambridge, MA 02142
And online
Livestream at https://www.youtube.com/@mitsecuritystudiesprogram5272/streams
—————
From New York to Antalya: What Happens Between Climate Week and COP31?
Wednesday, October 7
1 PM - 2:15 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/from-new-york-to-antalya-what-happens-between-climate-week-and-cop31-tickets-2001605060618
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Resilience during Climate Change: Sink or Swim for Defence Logistics
Wednesday, October 7
2 PM - 3 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/resilience-during-climate-change-sink-or-swim-for-defence-logistics-tickets-2002045737695
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Monthly Dose of Climate Hope! with Jessica Craven
Wednesday, October 7
2 PM - 3 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monthly-dose-of-climate-hope-with-jessica-craven-tickets-2000517720354
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Restorative Ecology: The Charles River Floating Wetland
Wednesday, October 7
6:30 PM - 8 PM
The Foundry, 101 Rogers Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/restorative-ecology-the-charles-river-floating-wetland-tickets-1994152876936
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Not Today, Fascists
Wednesday, October 7
7:30pm
The Wilbur, 246 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02116
RSVP at https://thewilbur.com/event/jennifer-welch-not-today-fascists/
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How to Tell Environmental Stories for the Ear
Thursday, October 8
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Joyce Cummings Center, Room 170, 177 College Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hDct3uONRr2UPPm5DWUjjA#/registration
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Navigating Green Claims: Opportunities, Risks and Consumer Trust
Thursday, October 8
12:00 PM (EST)
Online
RSVP at https://trellis.net/webinar/navigating-green-claims-opportunities-risks-consumer-trust-sustainability-greenwashing/
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Democracy at Scale
Thursday, October 8
4pm to 6:30pm
Boston College, Brighton Campus, 2101 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02135, USA
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdxd4OH0Xk1vBDBuX0wyIdOYMqav2qXZhGLtRq6KsT-oV9hlA/viewform
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Until the Last Ton: Fossil Fuels in India from Empire to the Climate Crisis
Thursday, October 8
8pm - 9:30pm ET [5 - 6:30 p.m. PST]
University of CA, 10 Stephens Hall, Berkeley, CA
And online
RSVP at https://events.berkeley.edu/events/event/326165-matthew-shutzer-until-the-last-ton-fossil-fuels-in-in
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Sustainable Forestry: biodiversity, carbon and future timber supply
Friday, October 9
8 AM - 9 AM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sustainable-forestry-biodiversity-carbon-and-future-timber-supply-tickets-1999615242017
—————
North: The Future of Post-Climate America
Monday, October 12,
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Princeton, 300 Wallace Hall, Princeton, NJ
And online
RSVP at https://environment.princeton.edu/event/north-the-future-of-post-climate-america/
—————
AI for Cows: Designing low emission livestock using rumen digital twins - CIE Digital Economy and the Environment Series
Tuesday, October 13
12 PM – 1 PM EDT (GMT-4)
Yale, Kroon Hall, Room 319m New Haven, CT United States
And online
RSVP at https://yaleconnect.yale.edu/cie/rsvp_boot?id=2330328&rel=title
—————
COPx Webinar: Insights from Germany’s Solar Energy Transition
Tuesday, October 13
1 PM - 2:15 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/copx-webinar-insights-from-germanys-solar-energy-transition-tickets-2001398700389
—————
Deception and Detection: Why AI Empowers Cyber Defense over Offense
Wednesday, October 14
12:00pm to 1:30pm EDT
MIT, Building E40, 496, 1 AMHERST ST, Cambridge, MA 02142
And online
Livestream at https://www.youtube.com/@mitsecuritystudiesprogram5272/streams
—————
Design Futures: From Fictions to Environments
October 14
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Wentworth Institute of Technology, CEIS Lobby, 555 Parker Street, Boston, MA
RSVP at https://www.architects.org/events/914697/2026/10/14/wit-soad-public-lecture-series-anas-soufan
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Emily Knox: Book Banning in the 21st Century
Wednesday, October 14
7pm
Boston College, Devlin Hall, 110, 255 Beacon Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/emily-knox-book-banning-in-the-21st-century-tickets-1989264749415
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ASF Innovation Forum: Developing the Workforce of Tomorrow
Thursday, October 15
8:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Harvard Graduate School of Education, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Please email info@americanswiss.org to register or for more information.
—————
Pipeline Pedagogy: Prioritizing American Indian Peoples in Addressing Environmental Crisis
Thursday, October 15
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Gu3lnONvQYO3TY4IuL4t6g#/registration
—————
Starr Forum: What Would the US Do in a Middle Power Order?
Thursday, October 15
4:30pm to 6:00pm EDT
MIT, Building E51, 115, Wong Auditorium, 70 MEMORIAL DR, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeENKNXzD6iY7eKVYRhPha2GBLUhgyo5n24MZ6CcD4DCpPbfw/viewform
—————
Valley of Death: How Big Tech Is Fueling the Future of War
Thursday, October 15
6:00pm
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sharon-weinberger-at-the-cambridge-public-library-tickets-1996494561979
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America at 250 and Beyond: A Well-Informed Citizenry
Friday, October 16
4 – 5 p.m.
Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, Institute of Politics, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
And online
Livestream at https://www.youtube.com/@HarvardIOP/streams
—————
Call It Evil: Understanding the Trump Era
Friday, October 16
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, Cambridge Edition, 1815 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140-1413
RSVP at https://portersquarebooks.com/form/rsvp-susan-neiman-at-psb-cambrid
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Recent Developments in Energy and Nuclear Power in Japan
Monday, October 19
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM ET
Harvard, Rubenstein 414AB, 79n JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
And online
RSVP at https://hksexeced.tfaforms.net/f/registration?e=a4oPp000001jjLNIAY&_gl
—————
Stealing America: The Hidden Story of Indigenous Slavery in U.S. History
Monday, October 19
5 – 6:15PM
Tufts, Fung House, 48 Professors Row, Somerville, MA 02144
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Environmental change and cognitive decline: The role of heat and particulate matter exposure
Wednesday, October 21
9:30am -10:30pm ET [1.30 PM - 2.30 PM GMT]
Online
RSVP at https://www.bristol.ac.uk/cabot/events/2026/environmental-change-and-cognitive-decline---cch-seminar-.html
—————
Weaving Wonder: Human Flourishing in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Wednesday, October 21
12 PM ET
Online
RSVP at https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2026-orit-shaer-fellow-presentation-virtual
—————
China and US-China relations
Wednesday, October 21
12:00pm to 1:30pm EDT
MIT, Building E40, 496, 1 AMHERST ST, Cambridge, MA 02142
And online
Livestream at https://www.youtube.com/@mitsecuritystudiesprogram5272/streams
—————
Coding Kids: Big Tech's Battle to Remake Public Schools
Wednesday, October 21
6:00pm
Harvard Science Center, Hall E, downstairs at 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/natasha-singer-at-the-harvard-science-center-tickets-1997478522030
—————
Lowell Lecture: AI and Civic Engagement with Nathan Sanders, Dr. Avijit Ghosh, and Jessica Chapel
Wednesday, October 21
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Bioston Public Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street, Boston MA 02116
And online
RSVP at https://bpl.libcal.com/event/16247524
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Maria Claudia Clemente and Francesco Isidori, "The Architecture of Public Space”
Wednesday, October 21
6:30 – 8 p.m.
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/labics/
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Community-based scaling for innovations in sustainability
Thursday, October 22
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kO3UQ0X_QG-ejmHY4_vSyw#/registration
4TH Internatuional Virtual Climate Change Education Summit 2026
Thursday, October 22
1 PM - 8 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/4th-international-virtual-climate-change-education-summit-2026-tickets-1997684948457
How the Press Must Change to Save Democracy
Thursday, October 22
2:30pm ET [5:30 PM PDT]
Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California, 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco, CA 94105
And online
RSVP at https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2026-10-22/tom-rosenstiel-how-press-must-change-save-democracy-0
Cost: $30/$45 with a book in person
$10/$33 with a book online
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Crossing the Red Line: Biden, His Advisors, and Israel's War in Gaza
Thursday, October 22
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-3820
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Bringing Vienna’s Climate Strategy into the Doughnut - Virtual Session
Friday, October 23
8 AM - 9 AM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bringing-viennas-climate-strategy-into-the-doughnut-virtual-session-tickets-2001054743605
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Africa in a Post-Aid World: Reimagining the Global Architecture of Prosperity
Friday, October 23
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET
Harvard, Kennedy School, Littauer Building L-9-Malkin Penthouse, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
And online
RSVP at https://www.hks.harvard.edu/events/youth-leadership-africas-future-ahunna-eziakonwa-undp-africa-director
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Decoding Addiction: Breaking new ground in research and clinical care
Friday, October 23
1:00pm to 5:10pm EDT
MIT, Building 46, Singleton Auditorium, 43 VASSAR ST, Cambridge, MA 02139
RSVP at https://mcgovern.mit.edu/events/mcgovern-institute-annual-symposium/decoding-addiction/
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Climate Change and the Future of Boston
Saturday, October 24
2 PM - 3 PM
Boston Public Library, Central Library in Copley Square, Rabb Hall, 700 Boylston Street, Boston, MA
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-change-and-the-future-of-boston-tickets-1993696368507
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Libraries and positive climate action: accessible climate information
Monday, October 26
12 PM - 1:30 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/libraries-and-positive-climate-action-accessible-climate-information-tickets-1997453762975
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When Federal Climate Policy Works
Monday, October 26
12:15 pm – 1:15 pm
Princeton, 300 Wallace Hall, Princeton, NJ
And online
RSVP at https://cpree.princeton.edu/events/2026/when-federal-climate-policy-works
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Rama S. Mehta Lecture with Farida Shaheed on Women’s Education
Monday, October 26
4 – 5 p.m.
Harvard, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
And online
RSVP at https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2026-farida-shaheed-lecture
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Arthur Miller Lecture on Science and Ethics
Monday, October 26
4:00pm - 5:30pm EDT
MIT Welcome Center,292 Main St, Cambridge, MA 02142
And online
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScqofZsgVXPCXwlvdnguU2rFbri5lhu8Ueb3t2PtxgRMiLUOg/viewform
Livestream at https://calendar.mit.edu/event/arthur-miller-lecture-on-science-and-ethics-chatbots-in-childrens-toys-a-natural-progression-or-an-existential-crisis#about_stream
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Innovation on Steroids: What are We Learning from the Ukraine War?
Monday, October 26
4:30pm to 6:00pm EDT
TBD
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeOrGCAtctbGjmTbPk8iLDHIoHF-dhJ983gFOqQKQYvujFk5Q/viewform
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Progress in the Face of Pushback: Grantham Institute Annual Lecture 2026 with Anne Hidalgo
Tuesday, October 27
1:30pm - 4:30pm ET [5:30 PM - 8:30 PM GMT]
Register to See Address in London, United Kingdom
And online
RSVP at https://luma.com/uyqc0kwq
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The Practice of Wisdom
Tuesday, October 27
6:00pm
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-practice-of-wisdom-panel-at-the-cambridge-public-library-tickets-1996508984116
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The Next Fix: The Winners and Losers in the Future of Drugs
Tuesday, October 27
7:00pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Coolidge Corner, Brookline, MA 02446-2908
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kojo-koram-with-quinn-slobodian-and-shaleen-title-tickets-1993696130796
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The Promise and Peril of the Intelligence Community-Policy Relationship
Wednesday, October 28
12:00pm to 1:30pm EDT
MIT, Building E40, 496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
And online
Livestream at https://www.youtube.com/@mitsecuritystudiesprogram5272/streams
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As Climate Disruption Increases, Should We Consider Solar Geoengineering Approaches to Rapidly Cool the Earth? A Conversation at the Nexus of Science, Justice and Policy
Wednesday, October 28
5:00pm–7:00pm ET
149 Woods Hole Road,Falmouth, MA
And online
RSVP at https://www.woodwellclimate.org/?event=woodwell-climate-conversations-should-we-consider-solar-geoengineering
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Baldwin: A Love Story
Wednesday, October 28
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Boston Public Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street, Boston MA 02116
And online
RSVP at https://bpl.bibliocommons.com/events/6a3c61b6c52cdc3600ecaceb
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After the Flush: Rethinking the Future of Human Waste
Thursday, October 29
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_u1H1XPBNRiCzRY20Bz__jQ#/registration
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Grassroots Water & Climate Solutions from Cameroon
Thursday, October 29
12 PM - 1 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/grassroots-water-climate-solutions-from-cameroon-tickets-2000510786615
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Building Lasting Impact – Lessons from Nature Everywhere Communities
Thursday, October 29
1 PM - 2 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/building-lasting-impact-lessons-from-nature-everywhere-communities-tickets-2000441441201
Cost: $0 - $100
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The Breakdown with Erica Chenoweth and Steve Levitsky
Friday, October 30
2:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online
RSVP at https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ybWH05DyRxWqkA2eflelNQ#/registration
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Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordiinary Life and Bold Legacy
Friday, October 30
6:30 - 7:30pm
Location Kennedy Library, Columbia Point, Boston, MA 02125
And online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ethel-kennedy-the-extraordinary-life-and-bold-legacy-tickets-1997568863243
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The Politics of Climate Expertise
Monday, November 2
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Princeton, 300 Wallace Hall, Princeton, NJ
And online
RSVP at https://environment.princeton.edu/event/the-politics-of-climate-expertise/
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The US Energy Transition: What is the Same; What Has Changed; and What Could Be with Philip Deutch, NGP Energy Technology Partners
Monday, November 2
1:30pm - 2:20pm ET [4:30pm to 5:20pm PT]
Stanford, Shriram Center, 104, 443 Via Ortega, Stanford, CA 94305
Livestream
RSVP at https://events.stanford.edu/event/stanford-energy-seminar-11022026
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Coastal Resilience: Influence of shape on near-coast structures” by Maria Garlock
Tuesday, November 3
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Princeton, Briger Hall Auditorium, 11 Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ
And online
RSVP at https://environment.princeton.edu/event/hmei-faculty-seminar-by-maria-e-moreyra-garlock/
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Flood Connectivity and Prediction in Urbanscapes
Wednesday, November 4, 2026
2pm - 3pm ET [4 p.m. – 5 p.m. (MST)]
Arizona State University, Walton Center for Planetary Health, Room 160, 777 E University Dr Tempe AZ 85281
And online
RSVP at https://specialevents.asu.edu/ereg/newreg.php?eventid=894063&
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Climate, food, and power: Lessons from now, directions for the future
Thursday, November 5
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UgZMSddaSF-ZOalxvUKt7g#/registration
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Bitter Honey: Big Ag’s Threat to Bees and the Fight to Save Them
Thursday, November 5
5:30pm - 6:30pm ET [3:30 - 4:30 p.m. PST]
University of CA, 132 Mulford Hall, Berkeley, CA
And online
RSVP at https://events.berkeley.edu/events/event/329871-espm-seminar-series-jennie-durant
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Events
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The 2026 Annual Environment & Spirituality Summit
Monday, September 28 - Tuesday, September 29
Online
https://aes-summit.org/
This year’s Summit explores the theme Grounded Resistance, with four sessions focused on how we engage the world from a place of deep grounding, collective support, and sustained resistance.
About the Host
Faith in Place is dedicated to empowering people of diverse faiths and spiritualities to be leaders in advancing environmental and racial justice, providing resources to educate, connect, and advocate for healthier communities.
Summit Sessions
Session 1
September 28th
11:30-12:30 pm CT | Zoom
Paradise is Now: Reclaiming Healthy, Grounded Faith in an Age of Divisive Fear with Dr. Matthias Beier
Register
Session 2
September 28th
6:00-7:00 pm CT | Zoom
Revolutionary Love and Grounded Resistance with Valarie Kaur
Register
Session 3
September 29th
11:30-12:30 pm CT | Zoom
Grounded in Earth’s Story: Mary Evelyn Tucker on Religion, Ecology, and Resistance
Register
Session 4
September 29th
6:00-7:30 pm CT | Zoom
Faithful Resistance in a Warming World: Bill McKibben on Climate, Courage, and Collective Action
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From Global Climate Vulnerability Trends to Policy Choices
Monday, September 28
12:00pm to 1:00pm EDT
MIT, Building E40-496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
And online
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeoQPscJUOuZkwwpEC5K2D66NWweORiYkFys-0UVoAbYvGSog/viewform
Climate impacts increasingly interact with geopolitical tensions and financial stress, and decisions made over the next few years will shape whether countries can build resilience in time. A single shock, like an energy price spike or a failed harvest, can cascade within months into strained foreign reserves, rising household costs, and delayed investment, with the first point of failure typically financial or institutional rather than technological. Drawing on Dr. Warner's extensive experience at the intersection of climate science and policymaking, this talk examines key vulnerability trends, and which financial tools, policy measures, and sequencing approaches can help when countries face simultaneous pressures.
Koko Warner, PhD, is Project Director at the Penn International Climate Observatory and former director of the Global Data Institute at the International Organization for Migration. At the UNFCCC secretariat, she managed the Vulnerability subdivision and supervised the loss and damage policy area. She is a lead author of the IPCC's Fifth and Sixth Assessment Reports and founded the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative. The International Council for Science named her among the top 20 women in the climate change debate.
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Sources and Paths of the Lower Branch of the Abyssal Overturning Circulation
Monday, September 28
12:00 - 1:00pm
MIT Building 55-110 | MIT Campus, Cambridge, MA
And online
RSVP at https://eaps.mit.edu/events/paocq-xiaoting-yang-whoi/
The Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC) carries a significant amount of mass, heat, carbon, and nutrients around the global oceans, therefore having an important and complicated influence on the global climate and ecosystem. These transports are accomplished by two overturning cells. The upper cell (the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, AMOC) is composed of northward near-surface flows and southward return flow of deep water at mid-depth, closed by upwelling in the Southern Ocean. The abyssal cell goes in the opposite direction, carrying northward a dense water mass originating from around Antarctica near the ocean bottom (Antarctic Bottom Watter, AABW). There has been debate on the composition of the AABW to origins from near Antarctica versus from the upper cell, since the two cells share some overlapping isopycnals and are therefore interconnected. In this work, we studied this composition from the Lagrangian perspective, using numerical parcel releasing and tracking techniques. Lagrangian analysis using the velocity field of the Southern Ocean State Estimate (SOSE) at 1/6° resolution quantifies the origin of the lower branch of the abyssal circulation south of 30°S. Antarctic waters from 65°S contribute 62% of the northward bottom flow at 30°S. The remaining 38% comes from deep water recirculating from sources north of 30°S. Half of this deep water is North Atlantic Deep Water, with the remainder split between Indian and Pacific Deep Waters. Deep water densifies to bottom values following several circumpolar loops, which homogenize original properties to common characteristics of Lower Circumpolar Water. Transit times of deep water starting at 30°S, arriving as abyssal waters at 30°S, are about 150 years, twice as long as transit times of waters starting near Antarctica. Paths to 30°S originating from Antarctica avoid circumpolar loops and are steered by bottom topography.
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Policy Analysis at Scale: An Instrument to Evaluate Governance Proposals
Monday, September 28
12 – 1 p.m.
Harvard, Wexner 434AB (HKS Campus), 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge
And online
RSVP at https://www.hks.harvard.edu/events/policy-analysis-scale-instrument-evaluate-governance-proposals
SPEAKER(S) Paulo Carvão, M-RCBG Research Fellow
Moderated by: John Haigh
Artificial intelligence governance is evolving faster than traditional policy analysis tools. Policymakers face a growing volume of bills, executive actions, and regulatory proposals across fragmented jurisdictions, often without a standardized way to compare their objectives, assumptions, or trade-offs. We respond to that gap with a transparent instrument for evaluating AI governance: a framework for assessing how a policy aligns with selected AI governance priorities. The framework draws on traditional policy analysis and computational text analysis.
This seminar will take place in Wexner 434AB for those with an HUID who wish to attend in person. Others may join us remotely via Zoom. Lunch will be served.
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Public Research Talk: A Transcendentalist Peace: American Pacifism from Lydia Maria Child to Jane Addams
Monday, September 28
12 – 1:30 p.m.
Harvard Divinity School, Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Ave., Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bpW6b8Lb0Ao79C6
And online
RSVP at https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_j0AY4o8xTXqWA0P_wHO_UQ#/registration
In 1839, abolitionist Lydia Maria Child called the first Peace Convention in Boston “unquestionably the greatest event of the nineteenth century.” “Posterity will marvel,” she wrote, “at the early adoption of such transcendental principles.” Seventy-five years later, Jane Addams honed transcendentalist ideas into a theory of pacifism that Child would have recognized—one built on moral self-reliance, faith in individual transformation, and a dedication to justice through applied democracy. These women's ideas, and the example of their lives, are deeply relevant today as we struggle, in a war-torn world, to imagine a lasting peace.
Lydia Moland is the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Philosophy at Colby College. She is the author of Lydia Maria Child: A Radical American Life (2022), a biography of abolitionist Lydia Maria Child. Her writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and American Scholar, among other publications. She is also the author of books on classical German philosophy and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of American and British Women Philosophers in the Nineteenth Century (2025). She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the American Academy in Berlin. In 2025, she was a Fulbright Fellow at Freie Universität Berlin. She is currently working on a group biography of interwar pacifists, provisionally titled Pacifist Women at War: Four Paths to Peace.
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Local Food Systems within Just Transition Micro-Clusters with Thomas Froehlich
Monday, September 28
12:00pm to 1:30pm EDT
Location will be emailed upon registration
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSecKyxMYGzh42CqfuHEYDVASOyZciiG6l4DD7gzZQXhMQgMBg/viewform
Join J-WAFS for a seminar with Thomas Froehlich, a research fellow at King’s College London, on September 28, 2026, from noon to 1:30 p.m. ET. As communities grapple with a compounding "polycrisis" of cost-of-living pressures, fragile supply chains, and climate imperatives, this talk introduces Just Transition Micro-Clusters (JTMCs), place-based units that function simultaneously as governance bodies, planning methods, and development strategies. Local food systems are an excellent entry point for JTMCs, since food sits at the intersection of household budgets, infrastructure, and social wellbeing. The talk lays out a practical four-step planning sequence (asset diagnosis, community-legitimized visioning, roadmap development, and mobilization of higher-level finance) for embedding food interventions into just-transition planning. Drawing on cases from London, Brazil, and Senegal, the talk demonstrates how JTMCs can turn food systems into a concrete lever for building resilient, low-carbon, and equitable regional economies.
This talk is open to the MIT community as well as those from universities or organizations in the greater Cambridge and Boston area. You must RSVP using your organizational email address.
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Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism
Monday, September 28
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Princeton, 300 Wallace Hall, Princeton, NJ
And online
RSVP at https://environment.princeton.edu/event/extraction-the-frontiers-of-green-capitalism/
Thea Riofrancos, professor of Political Science for Providence College, will present “Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism.” This seminar will be held in-person (PUID holders only) and available via livestream (open to all).
Will green capitalism save us from the climate crisis? “Clean” technologies and renewable energy are certainly growing sites of capitalist investment, with government policies playing a key role in making these sectors profitable. But the supply chains that produce the technologies pose vexing dilemmas for the energy transition. These dilemmas are most dramatic at the extractive frontiers of green capitalism: where the natural resources needed to manufacture electric vehicles and build windmills are extracted. In this talk, we will unpack these challenges through the lens of lithium, a so-called “critical mineral” essential for its role in decarbonizing one of the most polluting sectors: transportation. With forecasters predicting an enormous surge in lithium demand, exceeding existing supplies, Global North governments and downstream firms scramble to “secure” lithium, resulting in a new state-corporate alliance and the return of vertical integration. Meanwhile, Global South governments are attempting to leverage critical mineral deposits into sustainable and sovereign economic development. And, across the world, environmental and Indigenous movements contest the rapid expansion of extraction, defending ecosystems, livelihoods, and waterways already under pressure from global warming from a new boom in mining. It is in the play of these forces, unfolding amidst geopolitical rivalry and economic turbulence, that the energy transition will be forged. To conclude, we will explore the possibility of a less mining-intensive pathway to zero carbon transportation.
Riofrancos is a Professor of Political Science at Providence College, a Strategic Co-Director of the Climate and Community Institute, and a fellow at the Transnational Institute. Her research focuses on resource extraction, renewable energy, climate change, the global lithium sector, green technologies, social movements, and the Latin American left. She is the author of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism (W.W. Norton, 2025) and Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador (Duke University Press, 2020), and the coauthor of A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal (Verso Books, 2019). Her publications have appeared in scholarly journals such as Global Environmental Politics, World Politics, and Perspectives on Politics, as well as in media outlets including The New York Times, Financial Times, Foreign Policy, n+1, Dissent, and more.
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AI for Climate Solutions: GRAIL
Monday, September 28
1:30pm - 2:20pm ET [4:30pm to 5:20pm PT]
Add to calendar: In person and online
Stanford, Shriram Center, 104, 443 Via Ortega, Stanford, CA 94305
Livestream at https://events.stanford.edu/event/stanford-energy-seminar-09282026
The Stanford Energy Seminar has been a mainstay of energy engagement at Stanford for nearly 20 years and is one of the flagship programs of the Precourt Institute for Energy. We aim to bring a wide variety of perspectives to the Stanford community – academics, entrepreneurs, utilities, non-profits, and more.
About the talk
GRAIL — the Green Artificial Intelligence Learning network — is a global collaboration platform, founded by the Nand & Jeet Khemka Foundation, built to close the gap between two communities that rarely work together: the people building frontier AI and the people running the climate systems that need to decarbonise. Promising AI capability too often fails to convert into deployed outcomes because there is no translation layer between them. GRAIL is that layer to bring AI solutions to transform applied domains including energy, materials, value chains and the built environment to create economic value and deliver climate impact.
Shanthakumar Bannirchelvam is a Director of the Sustainable and AI investing teams at the SUN Group, a 120-year-old business group and Single Family Office which has established leading asset managers including Sequoia Capital India (now Peak XV Partners). Prior to this role, he worked at Nomura Greentech in their sustainable investment banking division, where he advised on infrastructure and energy transition deals.
He has also previously worked in corporate law in Sydney and London with Herbert Smith Freehills, the United Nations Economic and Social Council in New York and served as an Infantry Officer in the Singapore Armed Forces. Shanthakumar is admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of NSW and holds a Bachelor of Laws / Bachelor of Economics from the University of Sydney and an MBA from Columbia Business School, where he was a Three Cairns Climate Fellow.
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Starr Forum: Housing the World: Inequality, Informality, and the Future of Cities
Monday, September 28
5:00 - 6:30 PM
MIT, Building 45-230, Schwarzman College of Computing, 51 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScRkaDXMA40FXCx5DkXMXDXDvVDOkeodvDizLlx7apb6Z8m3g/viewform
SPEAKER
Anacláudia Rossbach is the executive director of UN-Habitat and an economist with over 20 years of experience in housing, informal settlements, and urban policies. Prior to this role, she was the director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and served as regional manager for Cities Alliance, where she founded the Urban Housing Practitioners Hub. In an earlier appointment with the World Bank, she oversaw the development and implementation of Brazilian housing and slum-upgrading policies.
MODERATOR Bish Sanyal, Ford International Professor of Urban Development and Planning
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Kashef Chowdhury, “Meditations in Entropy”
Monday, September 28
6:30 PM - 8 PM
Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 48 Quincy Street, Piper Auditorium Cambridge, MA 02138
And livestreamed at https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/meditations-in-entropy/
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kashef-chowdhury-meditations-in-entropy-tickets-1998429350985
RSVP does not guarantee entry, which is filled on a first-come-first-served basis. Doors open 15 minutes before the event begins, so be sure to arrive early.
Kashef Chowdhury has a studio-based practice in Dhaka, with strong emphasis on climate, materials and context – both natural and human.
About This Event
Since 1995, Dhaka-based architecture firm Kashef Chowdhury / URBANA has produced an astonishing collection of works of divergent scales, typologies, and contexts located in one of the most meteorologically challenging regions in the world. For this lecture Kashef Chowdhury will discuss some projects featured in the first full monograph of the practice: Meditations In Entropy. He will focus on works related to culture, history and climate change in Bangladesh, which are incisive, critical responses to varied issues and urgencies rooted in the belief that architecture must be a reflection of, and sympathetic to, increasingly fragile ecological conditions.
Speaker
Kashef Chowdhury has a studio-based practice based in Dhaka, with strong emphasis on climate, materials and context – both natural and human. Projects in the studio are given extended time for research so as to reach a level of innovation and original expression. Works span various typologies, from institutions and public buildings, to culture, education, sports, health, industry, religious, residential and climate-action projects.
Kashef Chowdhury won first prize in AR+D Architecture Award 2012 from the Architectural Review, London. He received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2016, Geneva and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) International Prize 2021, London.
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Future Energy Landscapes (FEL): a new toolkit
Tuesday, September 29
8 AM - 9 AM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/future-energy-landscapes-fel-a-new-toolkit-tickets-1996779977665
Join the launch of the new toolkit, helping communities explore renewable energy opportunities and how they could benefit local people.
Future Energy Landscapes (FEL) is a pioneering approach to community engagement, developed by sustainable energy charity, the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE). The toolkit has been created to make it simple for local authorities and community energy groups – or anyone interested in developing renewable energy plans or gauging local interest – to replicate the approach in their area.
This webinar will cover:
How to use the toolkit to run Future Energy Landscapes (FEL) community engagement workshops in your area.
Key learnings from delivering FEL in practice.
Who is this webinar for?
Anyone interested in running FEL in their area is very welcome to join the webinar. This could include local authorities, parish or town councils, climate action and community energy groups.
About this project
FEL starts community-wide conversations about renewable energy developments that could be owned by and benefit local people. It’s a bottom-up community engagement process, giving everyone the opportunity to share their thoughts about potential renewable energy plans. This ensures any plans or policies will be community-aligned and have social consent.
CSE has delivered FEL in over 25 communities over the last five years. This toolkit brings together the learnings from this work.
The project is funded by Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Scheme.
What if I'm interested but can't come?
We'll record the webinar and share the slides afterwards with everyone signed up, so please register for a free spot to receive those.
If you are having technical issue joining or during the webinar, please contact communities@cse.org.uk.
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Before the Concrete Sets: Powering Growth with Low-Carbon Cement
Tuesday, September 29
10:00 - 11:00am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://hub.wri.org/events/2026/9/concrete-sets-powering-growth-low-carbon-cement
Many countries across Africa and Asia are projected to experience rapid urbanization and industrialization in the coming decades, resulting in a massive buildout of cement and concrete. Conventional means of this additional cement production would result in billions of tons of additional CO2 emissions. Fortunately, with innovations to cement production, urbanization, industrialization, and economic development do not need to lead to increased carbon emissions, unhealthy air pollution, or fragile fossil fuel-dependent supply chains.
Innovative, low-pollution cement and concrete solutions have been successfully piloted around the world and are now beginning to be deployed at the commercial-scale, creating the opportunity to scale-up cement production in a more sustainable, lower-pollution way.
Join us on September 29th to hear from several experts presenting the policy, financial, and industrial outlook for deploying lower-pollution cement projects to fuel the development of rapidly growing countries across Africa and Asia. Presenters will discuss technology, policy, financing, and other challenges and opportunities for deploying decarbonized cement projects in emerging markets and developing economies.
Key Questions to Be Addressed:
What is the outlook for cement production and emissions in the future? What does the policy landscape look like in rapidly growing countries?
What are the unique financial considerations, challenges, and opportunities that low-carbon cement projects face in developing economies in Africa and Asia?
What are some of the non-climate benefits of decarbonized cement production?
What are some of the most promising decarbonized cement and concrete technologies and projects?
What further policy interventions and enabling conditions can support scaling the cement/concrete decarbonization technologies?
Presenters:
Suresh Kotla, International Director for Cement, Industrious Labs
Jana Psarska, Head of Policy and Advocacy, Global Cement and Concrete Association
Adam Bornstein, Partner, Bedrock Industrial Management
Moderator:
Neelam Singh, Senior Associate, World Resources Institute
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Demystifying This Historic El Niño & What It Means for Global Communities
Tuesday, September 29
1pm
Online
RSVP at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/7817900965750/WN_I-giSFtuSdeEozJ_HOmibg#/registration
Join Covering Climate Now and Climate Central about how to frame this historic El Niño’s possible impacts without losing sight of the role climate change plays in influencing extreme weather
This year’s El Niño is intensifying at breakneck speeds, and will likely become the strongest event in recorded history before November. Across every corner of the planet, communities are preparing for its growing impacts this winter — but what exactly is expected? And why is so much attention being given to its “super” status?
In this special conversation hosted by Covering Climate Now and Climate Central, hear from meteorologists, reporters, and international experts about what science tells us about this historic event and how to frame its possible impacts without losing sight of the role climate change plays in influencing extreme weather and temperatures.
Panelists
Dr. Alyssa Atwood; Associate Professor; Department of Earth, Ocean, & Atmospheric Science, Florida State University
Henri-Count Evans, Lecturer, University of Eswatini
Tom DiLiberto, Media Director, Climate Central
Ellyn Lapointe, Science Journalist, Gizmodo
Brien Mcelhatten, Climate Reporter, ABC 4 Utah
David Dickson of CCNow and Shel Winkley of Climate Central will moderate.
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How Big Tech Is Fueling the Future of War
Tuesday, September 29
3pm EDT [6:00 PM PDT]
Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California, Taube Family Auditorium, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA 94105
And online
RSVP at https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2026-09-29/sharon-weinberger-how-big-tech-fueling-future-war
Cost: $10 - $57
SPEAKER
Sharon Weinberger, Author, Valley of Death: How Big Tech Is Fueling the Future of War
Moderator: Zusha Elinson, National Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
In her new book Valley of Death, former Wall Street Journal national security editor Sharon Weinberger draws on deep, exclusive reporting to reveal how a new military-industrial complex is arising from the cradle of Silicon Valley, with vast implications for American democracy and the global balance of power.
Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Alexander Karp. These tech titans are fast becoming some of the most powerful figures in the realm of national security, with enormous implications for us all. As Weinberger reveals in this gripping account, the American military and spy agencies helped to create Silicon Valley as we now know it, and some of its biggest and most valuable companies today owe much of their success to the Pentagon and CIA. Beginning with the War on Terror and accelerating under Donald Trump, however, the old alliance between elected leaders in Washington and the unelected CEOs of Silicon Valley has grown increasingly uneasy as power has shifted to the private sector, and Big Tech exerts greater and greater influence over its old patrons. Companies such as SpaceX and Palantir, along with newer entrants to the field such as Anduril, are proudly supporting—and quietly shaping—U.S. national defense, whether by providing spies and soldiers with AI and cloud-computing tools or actual military hardware such as microwave weapons, hypersonic missiles, and advanced drones.
The implications of this historic shift, Weinberger writes, are poorly understood and fraught with peril. What happens when mercurial billionaires like Elon Musk control weapons and technologies that were once the preserve of the U.S. government? How will this new military-industrial complex affect the way wars are fought, or even which wars are fought? That is the urgent question before us today, at the dawn of this new era—and as Weinberger reveals, it is one on which our collective future might well hinge.
About the Speaker
Sharon Weinberger has been writing on national security issues for more than 25 years. She was the national security editor at The Wall Street Journal from 2022 to 2026 and has also contributed to The New York Times, New York magazine, and The Washington Post, among other outlets. Her new book is Valley of Death: How Big Tech Is Fueling the Future of War.
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M-Pesa: From Fintech Inventor to the Status Quo
Tuesday, September 29
3:30-5:00pm
BU, Photonics 906, 8 St Mary’s Street, Boston, MA
RSVP at https://www.bu.edu/pardee/2026/09/15/m-pesa-from-fintech-inventor-to-the-status-quo/
Join the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future and the Global Development Policy Center for a seminar examining the evolution of M-Pesa from the pioneer fintech leader into a rigid status quo defined by market dominance and institutional hubris. We’ll review the platform’s transition into a bureaucratic incumbent and government-aligned gatekeeper, utilizing its position for economic rent extraction while acting as a systemic bottleneck that is slow to adopt consumer-facing technologies. The discussion illustrates how M-Pesa’s robust financial metrics increasingly decouple from genuine innovation, morphing a digital disruptor into an obstacle to broader social impact and technological progress.
Guest presenters include:
Patrick Njoroge, Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya from June 2015 to June 2023, member of the Advisory Boards of the Yale Program on Financial Stability and the Global Finance and Technology Network, chair of the Africa Financial Industry Summit (AFIS) Supervisory Council, member of the Africa Expert Panel for South Africa’s G20 Presidency, and MIT Sloan visiting scholar 2025-26.
Mai Hassan, Associate Professor of Political Science at MIT and faculty affiliate with the Belfer Center’s Middle East Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School.
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Archives, LLMs, Data Visualization and Where They Connect
Tuesday, September 29
4:30 – 6:30 p.m.
metaLAB, Ground floor, 42 Kirkland Street, Cambridge
SPEAKER(S) Eric Rodenbeck
Join us on Tuesday September 29th at 4:30 for metaLAB's first Work-share & Mingle of the 2026-2027 academic year! We are thrilled to have Eric Rodenbeck come and share his work on "Archives, LLMs, data visualization and where they connect.”
Eric Rodenbeck is the founder of Stamen and a Lecturer in Advanced Studies at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. His MetaLab talk connects 25 years of data visualization practice with his teaching at Harvard, from Re-imagining the Archive to his upcoming course, Neural Cartographies.
Moving among archives, collections, brains, and machine-learning models, Rodenbeck will consider how design changes when machines become participants in making meaning. The talk is also an invitation to researchers, institutions, and potential project partners interested in what these systems make visible, what they leave out, and how we might work with them.
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Building What's Next: Global Development When the Model Breaks
Tuesday, September 29
5:30-7:30 PM | The Foundry, , 101 Rogers St, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://bnid.wildapricot.org/event-6662652
Cost: $20 - $25
BNID's annual Global Changemakers Salon is back — an evening of conversation, connection, and community for Boston's international development professionals, researchers, and students.
Each year the Salon brings together practitioners and leaders from across Greater Boston to explore a timely theme in global development.
Whether you're a seasoned professional, early in your career, or a student finding your footing in the field — this is your space.
Admission includes light refreshments and non-alcoholic drinks.
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Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines
Tuesday, September 29
6:00pm
Harvard Science Center, Hall B, 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sherry-turkle-at-the-harvard-science-center-tickets-1996244136951
About Artificial Intimacy
From the author of prescient best seller and classic Reclaiming Conversation, Sherry Turkle, comes an urgent warning about how our ever-increasing reliance on human-like AI chatbots is eroding our capacity for empathy, caring, and the very qualities that make us human.
If social media came for our attention, artificial intelligence is now coming for our capacity for attachment. Chatbots that speak to us in a human voice offer themselves as best friends, lovers, and psychotherapists. As of 2025, over 70% of teens and nearly one-third of US adults rely on AI for companionship and emotional support, with many preferring these chatbot relationships over human ones.
When we talk to chatbots in these roles, as intimate machines, we accept as sufficient what machines can offer: the mere performance of intimacy, empathy, and love. We begin to think that pretend empathy is empathy enough. We redefine human capacities for care, solitude, and intimacy in terms of what machines can do. Sherry Turkle, the psychologist who pioneered our understanding of human-computer relationships, calls the new culture of chatbots artificial intimacy, our new AI.
Through compelling storytelling, framed by Turkle’s decades of experience as a chronicler and analyst of digital culture, Artificial Intimacy evokes the seductive and beguiling nature of chatbots. They can organize our calendars, plan our travel, or analyze our stock picks, all with an efficiency that outstrips what a person might do.
And then, they promise to be more—to be our “perfect” companion. They will always be there for us, listen to us, and support us—and ask for nothing in return. But these intimate machines, warns Turkle, are producing a generation more alienated, depressed, and lonely than ever before. More than that, we become less equipped to reverse course—machine relationships do not offer practice for getting along with people.
Artificial Intimacy is unique in how it traces our new habit of talking to machines through the lifecycle—from children’s earliest attachments to how we face death. But technology, by offering to do everything, teaches us that we neither need nor have the capacity to take risks, have hard conversations, struggle through uncertainty or insecurity, or rely on our own faculties and judgment.
Turkle has spent decades studying how digital technologies isolate us from one another. Now, in her long-awaited follow-up to Reclaiming Conversation, she offers both a cautionary tale and a roadmap for reclaiming our humanity in the age of AI.
Bios
Sherry Turkle is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT and the founding director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. A leading expert in humans’ relationship with digital objects, she continues to revolutionize our understanding of the role of technology on psychology and culture. She is the New York Times bestselling author of Alone Together, Reclaiming Conversation, and The Empathy Diaries. Turkle’s most recent book is Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk To Machines (Little, Brown September 29, 2026) and is available for preorder now. Turkle is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rockefeller Humanities Fellowship, the Harvard Centennial Medal, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She received a joint doctorate in sociology and personality psychology from Harvard University and is a licensed clinical psychologist.David Kaiser is Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science and Professor of Physics at MIT. He is the author of several award-winning books on the history of modern physics, including Drawing Theories Apart: The Dispersion of Feynman Diagrams in Postwar Physics (2005) and How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival(2011). His latest book is Quantum Legacies: Dispatches from an Uncertain World (2020). Kaiser co-directs a research group on early-universe cosmology with Alan Guth in the MIT Center for Theoretical Physics — a Leinweber Institute (CTP-LI), and has also designed and helped to conduct novel experimental tests of quantum theory. A Fellow of the American Physical Society, Kaiser has received MIT’s highest awards for excellence in teaching. His work has been featured in Science, Nature, the New York Times, and the New Yorker magazine. His group’s efforts to conduct a “Cosmic Bell” test of quantum entanglement were featured in a documentary film, “Einstein’s Quantum Riddle,” which premiered on US Public Television stations in 2019.
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Author Talk: N.K. Jemisin on Revolutionary Ideas in Fantasy Fiction
Tuesday, September 29
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Central Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street, Boston MA 02116
RSVP at https://bpl.libcal.com/event/16247689
Noted and award-winning fantasy fiction author N.K. Jemisin discusses her work and her 20-plus-year career that has been inspired by revolutionary ideas. N. K. Jemisin is a fantasy author and 2020 MacArthur Fellow. Since beginning her professional career in the early 2000s, her short fiction and novels have been recognized with multiple Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards. Most of her works have been optioned for television or film, and collectively her novels, including the Broken Earth trilogy, have sold over two million copies. After twenty years working in higher education as an applied counseling psychologist, she “retired” in 2016 to become a full-time writer, writing instructor, and public speaker. Her speculative works range widely in theme, though with repeated motifs: resistance and oppression, loneliness and belonging, and Wouldn’t It Be Cool If This One Ridiculous Thing Happened. In her spare time she’s into tabletop and video games, biking, fanfiction, and urban gardening. She lives in Brooklyn with her son and two cats.
After the talk, N.K. Jemisin will sign copies of her books with our local bookstore partner, Trident Booksellers.
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The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State
Tuesday, September 29
7:00pm
First Parish in Cambridge, 1446 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138). Doors will open at 6:30 pm.
RSVP at https://portersquarebooks.com/products/tags/jill-lepore-event-tickets
Cost: $0 - $39
ABOUT THE RISE AND FALL OF THE ARTIFICIAL STATE
“Much in history is headlong but few grand transformations have been more precipitate or more heedless than the rise of . . . the Artificial State,” writes Jill Lepore in this passionate account of how rule by machine has ravaged the world. Inspired by Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism, which argued in 1951 that the machinery of modern life was reshaping the very fundamentals of human existence, Lepore, profoundly disturbed by the technology revolution and by the soulless inundation of artificial intelligence, unfurls a new history for our own twenty-first century.
Building on an essay in The New Yorker in 2024, Lepore’s clarion call traces our increasing dependence on and strangulation by data. Political campaigns, awash in an avalanche of fake bots, have been reduced to attention-mining algorithms, while multinational media corporations dictate public discourse, and the era of the liberal nation-state seems to be coming to a rapid end, replaced by billionaire technocrats reliant on autocracy and the tools of AI.
With Orwellian overtones, The Rise and Fall of the Artificial Statedemonstrates how technology has corroded global democracy, leading to the destruction of both human community and capacity for self-government, creating a new form of AI government, a digital citizen’s assembly, where AI will recommend the course of action to humans in place of human-run legislatures. Especially sobering with this proliferation of “dizzying, ever-changing schemes, prophesies, and predictions” is that the Artificial State has come at the expense of the natural world, leading to catastrophic loss of wildlife habitat and biodiversity.
Deliberately alarming, The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State, despite its abundance of dire facts, is not a funeral dirge; rather, it’s an inspiring wake-up call, written in Lepore’s typically elegiac prose, which demonstrates that nothing about the Artificial State was inevitable, for it is a “government without consent, even government without humans.” It can, Lepore asserts, be dismantled. Other heinous systems, like feudalism, fascism, and slavery, have also been dismantled, but disassembly requires identifying the parts, tracing the sources. It requires telling a new history. This is the purpose of The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jill Lepore is the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University, professor of law at Harvard Law School, and a staff writer at The New Yorker. Her many books include the New York Times bestsellers These Truths and We the People. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
James O’Donnell: His reporting examines how AI is reshaping high-stakes fields like policing and warfare, as well as its broader social consequences. His investigation into AI’s energy footprint was a recent finalist for a National Magazine Award.
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Building Resilient and Sustainable Cities amid Climate Change and Water Challenges
Wednesday, September 30
1am - 2:30am ET [14:00 - 15:30 JST (GMT+09:00]
Online
RSVP at https://www.iges.or.jp/en/events/20260930
Climate change is having multifaceted impacts on urban water environments. The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report assesses climate change impacts and risks for "Cities, Settlements and Key Infrastructure," indicating that coastal and low-lying cities and settlements may face severe impacts from sea-level rise and coastal climate hazards. Changes in precipitation and runoff are increasing uncertainty in water supply, while urban population growth and shifts in economic activity are altering water demand, making water-related challenges more complex.
As warming progresses, the climate system, including the ocean and cryosphere, may approach tipping points, potentially increasing disaster risks through sea-level rise, changing precipitation patterns and more frequent extremes. These impacts may appear as water scarcity, flooding, or inundation caused by heavy rainfall in urban areas, with their severity shaped by regional socio-economic conditions and adaptive capacity.
Against this background, this session examines how scientific knowledge on climate change and the water environment can support urban resilience and sustainable development. Through presentations by three experts and a panel discussion, the session will discuss future risks to water resources and urban flooding, and explore how prediction, assessment and cross-sectoral knowledge can support adaptation planning, risk-informed decision-making and resilience-building in cities and communities. By linking science, policy and local action, the session aims to contribute to sustainable and resilient cities in Japan and the wider Asia-Pacific region.
Programme
MC
AIZAWA Emi, Manager, Fund Management Division, Department of Environment Research and Technology Development Fund, Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency (ERCA)
OPENING REMARKS
TOJO Junji, Executive Managing Direcor,Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency (ERCA)
MODERATOR
HARADA Koh, Program Officer, Environment Research and Technology Development Fund Department, Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency (ERCA)
PRESENTERS
Development of Urban Localized Heavy Rainfall Predicting Technology for Urban Disaster Prevention
KAWANO Natsumi, Senior Staff Member, Global warming countermeasures group, Center for Environmental Science in Saitama
Water Resources in Cities Around the World and Their Simulation
HANASAKI Naota,Head, Climate Change Impacts Assessment Research Section, Center for Climate Change Adaptation, National Institute for Environmental Studies
Climate Change Impacts on Weather-Related Disaster Risks in Global Cities
HIRABAYASHI Yukiko, Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology
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Financing a Transition Away From Fossil Fuels: Building an implementation network for Santa Marta Workstream 2
Wednesday, September 30
9am - 10:45am ET [3:00 pm - 4:15 pm CEST]
Online
RSVP at https://www.iisd.org/events/session-2-building-implementation-network-santa-marta
Countries seeking to transition away from fossil fuels face significant financing and macroeconomic barriers, from large upfront investment needs and limited fiscal space to external economic vulnerabilities, legal obstacles, and financial incentives that can work against reform. In two regionally tailored webinars, IISD and its partners will bring together governments, financial institutions, think tanks, and civil society organizations to move from identifying these challenges to exploring practical solutions.
This webinar aims to
draw on existing initiatives and useful precedents to identify priority actions and quick wins ahead of the Tuvalu conference;
gather initial expressions of interest from participants in joining the network that will provide inputs on Workstream 2.
Please note this webinar has been organized with two session options to accommodate participants across different time zones. Session 2 is tailored to the Americas, Africa, and European regions. If you would prefer to join the Asia-Pacific session, please join us in Session 1.
Speakers
Moderator: Ivetta Gerasimchuk, Director, Energy Program, International Strategy, IISD
Laurien Eblé, Policy advisor, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, Netherlands
Nicolas Lippolis, Founder and Executive Director, Centre for Energy, Finance, and Development (CEFD)
Diana Barba Patiño, Energy Diplomacy Coordinator, Transforma
Charley Roberts, Senior Policy Advisor, Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP)
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The future of 3D cell models: Charting the path to 2031
Wednesday, September 30
11 a.m. Eastern (ET), 8 a.m. Pacific (PT), 4 p.m. UK (BST), 5 p.m. Central Europe (CEST)
Online
RSVP at https://view6.workcast.net/register?cpak=4881286791739398&referrer=SciencePage&utm_campaign=webinars2026
As pressure grows to improve the predictive power of preclinical research, organoids and other advanced 3D cell models are emerging as some of the most promising tools for studying disease and evaluating potential therapies. Advances in model complexity, imaging technologies, and experimental workflows are enhancing the biological relevance, scalability, and predictive potential of these systems, bringing them closer to widespread use across biomedical research and drug development.
Yet important questions remain. Can 3D cell models consistently generate insights that translate to human biology? What scientific and technical hurdles continue to limit adoption? And what evidence will be needed before these systems become a routine part of decision-making in drug development?
Join a panel of scientists for a forward-looking discussion on the future of advanced cell models. Drawing on their experience applying organoids and other 3D systems in real-world research settings, the panel will examine where the technology is already having an impact, where expectations may be outpacing reality, and what progress will be required over the next 5 years.
Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a live Q&A and pose questions directly to the panelists.
Participants will learn:
Where advanced cell models are providing meaningful value today and where significant challenges remain.
How researchers are tackling persistent challenges in reproducibility, scalability, and biological relevance.
What breakthroughs could help advanced cell models become a more widely adopted tool in drug discovery and development.
This webinar will last for approximately 60 minutes.
Presenters
Erika Gebel Berg, Ph.D., Science/AAAS, Washington, DC
Moderator
Soumya Mitra, AbbVie, United States
Pablo Cespedes, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
Simon Vyse, AstraZeneca, United Kingdom
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Americans Agree: Corporate Climate Action Still Matters
Wednesday, September 30
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm (EST)
Online
RSVP at https://www.c2es.org/event/americans-agree-corporate-climate-action-still-matters/
The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions (C2ES), along with maslansky + partners and Potential Energy Coalition, surveyed 2,000 adults across the United States, reaffirming key findings from previous studies: Americans across the political spectrum still expect companies to continue taking climate action. Three in four Americans agree that companies have a responsibility to limit their climate impact.
Join us and our partners on September 30, 2026, for a webinar where we will dive deep into the findings from the survey. Researchers will explain the results of our survey—including how nearly 7 in 10 Republicans view limiting climate impact as ‘smart business’—and offer key insights about what they mean for company leaders looking to communicate on climate.
In the webinar, we will discuss:
How Americans expect companies to engage on climate action
What our findings mean for communicating about climate action
Support for companies remaining steadfast in their climate commitments
Speakers
Nicholle Manners, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, MASLANSKY + PARTNERS
Verena Radulovic, VICE PRESIDENT FOR BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT, CENTER FOR CLIMATE AND ENERGY SOLUTIONS
Verena Radulovic is Vice President for Business Engagement at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. Ms. Radulovic works with businesses, policymakers and other stakeholders to advance business action on climate mitigation and resilience and help galvanize business support for ambitious, practical climate policies and solutions.
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Structure, Dynamics and Evolution of the US Defense Industry
Wednesday, September 30
12:00pm to 1:30pm EDT
MIT, Building E40, 496, 1 AMHERST ST, Cambridge, MA 02142
And online
Livestream at https://www.youtube.com/@mitsecuritystudiesprogram5272/streams
Summary: This talk will examine the US defense industrial base, focusing on what drives and motivates the behavior of the defense industry and its government customer. The talk will include a review of several analytical methodologies used to examine the forces driving the dynamics and evolution of the defense industry.
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Climate change is global. But the way we experience it is personal—and profoundly local
Wednesday, September 30
5:00pm–7:00pm ET
149 Woods Hole Road, Falmouth, MA
And online
RSVP at https://www.woodwellclimate.org/?event=woodwell-climate-conversations-when-climate-change-gets-personal
What does climate change mean for the people who live in a small town in the Mississippi River Delta region? It might mean an inoperable water supply system after a major storm, a neighborhood that is dangerously hotter than another, a home insurance policy that is suddenly unaffordable, or a flood protection system that can’t keep up with overwhelming rainfall rates.
This Climate Conversation will explore what happens when climate science gets close to home—and when communities have the information they need to understand and prepare for the risks they face. Join Max Holmes and the Woodwell Climate Risk Team to learn more about their work with Eudora and Wilmot, Arkansas, two small communities in the Upper Delta working to better understand their climate future.
Delivering high-quality climate modeling and technical analysis allows Woodwell to help communities transform their climate response, investing resources informed by climate models. By translating complex climate data into practical options for action, we empower these communities to shift toward proactive planning.
At its heart, this is a conversation about making climate change tangible, making climate science useful, and ensuring access to that science isn’t limited to communities that can afford it.
Because climate change may be global, but we experience it one community, one neighborhood, and one decision at a time.
Max Holmes, President & CEO, Moderator
Andrew Condia, Director of Government Relations
Carlos Dobler-Morales, Research Scientist
Dominick Dusseau, Research Associate
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Running Harder & Falling Faster: The Paradox of Enshittification and Reverse Centaurs
Wednesday, September 30
6:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online
RSVP at https://cyber.harvard.edu/events/running-harder-falling-faster-paradox-enshittification-and-reverse-centaurs
AI and digital platforms promise a friction-free future, yet the systems taking shape around us depend on hidden human labor, concentrated corporate power, and business models that demand more and more of those they purport to serve. In Cory Doctorow’s formulation, the defining metaphor may not be the centaur—a human enhanced by a machine—but the “reverse centaur”: a person compelled to serve an automated system.
Join author and activist Cory Doctorow and Dr. Elizabeth Mynatt, dean of Northeastern University’s Khoury College of Computer Sciences, for a conversation at Harvard Law School about the structural, economic, and human stakes of this reversal. Drawing on his work on platform “enshittification” and corporate monopoly, Doctorow asks us to focus not only on what technology does, but whom it is done to, who benefits, and who bears its costs. Mynatt brings a human-centered computing perspective, considering how technologies can instead be designed around human needs, agency, and care.
Together, they will explore a central challenge for AI governance: what legal, economic, and design choices can keep technology accountable to the people whose lives it shapes? What would it take to ensure that humans remain its beneficiaries, not its infrastructure?
Copies of Enshittification and The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI will be available for purchase.
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All the Wrong Moves: How Three Catastrophic Decisions Led to the Rise of Trump
Wednesday, September 30
6:00pm
The Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/anthony-scaramucci-at-the-brattle-theatre-tickets-1996303674028
Cost: $13.59
About All the Wrong Moves
We’re living in an age of deep political anger and frustration. Where did it come from? All the Wrong Moves offers a new, eye-opening answer, rooted in history, business, and the author’s firsthand experience, that reveals the true origins of America’s current political crisis.
In All the Wrong Moves, Anthony Scaramucci charts how both political parties, over three decades, made a series of catastrophic decisions that quietly dismantled the system supporting the American Dream. First came Bill Clinton’s trade deal with China, which opened U.S. markets while abandoning American workers. Next, George W. Bush’s choice to wage war while cutting taxes, exploding the deficit. Finally, Barack Obama’s bank bailout, which saved Wall Street but left millions of ordinary families behind. Each decision deepened inequality, corroded trust, and fueled the anger that empowered Donald Trump’s rise and his ongoing assault on democracy and the rule of law.
From the trading floors of Wall Street to the corridors of Washington, Scaramucci has witnessed how money, ambition, and hubris reshaped American politics. A product of the working-class who rose to the heights of finance and power, he brings a rare insider’s perspective to how both parties lost touch with the people they once represented.
But All The Wrong Moves isn’t just about how we got here—it’s about how we get out. Scaramucci lays out practical solutions, including economic policies to rebuild opportunity for the working class and constitutional reforms to protect our democracy. It’s a sharp, surprising critique that cuts through partisanship and challenges readers on the left, right, and center to reclaim what the American Dream was always meant to be.
Bio
Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge Capital, a global alternative investment firm, and founder and chairman of SALT, a global thought leadership forum and venture studio. He also hosts the podcast The Rest Is Politics: US. A graduate of Tufts University and Harvard Law School, he lives in Manhasset, Long Island.
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The Shoreline Is Moving. Should We?
Thursday, October 1
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_t_6oXRaRRUSOomB1brtoUg#/registration
Speaker: Kimberly Starbuck, A02, Senior Research Associate at the Urban Harbors Institute, U Mass Boston
As climate change drives rising seas and stronger coastal storms, communities are facing difficult decisions about where—and whether—to rebuild. Across Massachusetts and around the world, a growing strategy known as managed retreat is challenging the idea that every shoreline can, or should, be protected forever. Instead, it asks a difficult question: When is it time to move?
This talk explores one of the most controversial topics in climate adaptation: relocating people, infrastructure, and development away from areas at greatest risk. This talk will provide real-world examples that explain why managed retreat is gaining attention, the social, equity, and environmental challenges it raises, and how thoughtful planning today can help create safer, more resilient communities for the future.
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Other Side of Energy Transitions: Critical Mineral Mining in Latin America
Thursday, October 1
12 PM - 1 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/other-side-of-energy-transitions-critical-mineral-mining-in-latin-america-tickets-1995952113501
This talk will explore over a decade of work on decarbonization and extractivism in Latin America.
Join the Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care for our next Critical Conversations seminar featuring Dr. Donald Kingsbury, Associate Professor (teaching stream) in Political Science at the University of Toronto and the former Vice President of the Canadian Association of Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
Decarbonizing energy transitions, as currently proposed, are resource intensive. Critical minerals such as lithium and copper are required for the electricity generation, distribution, and storage technologies of post-fossil fuel futures, triggering financial speculation, political reconfiguration, and the extension of extractive frontiers the world over. While policymakers and the private sector often frame energy transitions as both necessary responses to the climate crisis and opportunities for new waves of ‘green’ industrializations, these promises often ring hollow in the territories from which critical minerals are mined. Rather than inclusive and sustainable growth, contemporary energy transitions often replicate unequal distributions of sacrifice and abundance that have characterized global political economy for generations.
This talk contextualizes the urgent need to decarbonize global supply chains with the social and environmental consequences of intensified extraction. Based on over a decade of work on decarbonization and extractivism in the Americas – specifically on lithium mining in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Canada – the talk makes the case for both an ethical and practical need to avoid replicating environmental injustices of the present in emerging post-carbon political economies.
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Counted: Reflections on the US Census
Thursday, October 1
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Harvard Law School, Lewis International Law Center, Room 514 (5th Floor), 1557 Mass Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
And online
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdsM5oLjVD6tGHa89nkrEQz5IkGBaSJd9xPM3rSgJljy8-_qw/viewform
As the government prepares for the 2030 Census, this vital dataset—produced by the government for the governed—has come under scrutiny. The Office of Management and Budget is reviewing significant changes for 2030: reclassifying noncitizens as nonresident, the rollback of race/ethnicity data collection standards, and the addition of a citizenship question. Changes to privacy protection have also been proposed that would have profound effects on how much Census data can be shared. These concerns, plus a recent spate of scholarship on the Census, invite a conversation around Census data at the Harvard Law School Library.
On October 1, the Public Data Project is hosting a panel of legal, technological, and policy experts to consider how the preservation of and access to US Census data can be both appreciated and reimagined. This conversation will highlight the recent publication of danah boyd’s Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census (2026), and will lay groundwork for boyd’s upcoming conversation with Jonathan Zittrain at the Harvard Book Store.
Panelists
danah boyd, Professor of Communications at Cornell University
Cynthia Dwork, Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University
Ruth Greenwood, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School
Jayshree Sarathy, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Northeastern University
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Brought To You By: How Corporations Warped the Truth, Conned the Public, and Broke Democracy
Thursday, October 1
3:30 PM - 5 PM
Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability, 111 Cummington Mall, Suite 149 Boston, MA 02215
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-conversation-with-expert-author-amy-westervelt-tickets-2001898725979
Join us for a conversation with award-winning environmental journalist Amy Westervelt on her new book "Brought To You By: How Corporations Warped the Truth, Conned the Public, and Broke Democracy". Learn how science disinformation for profit works from medicine to public health and climate change, and how to counter it and repair democracy.
Amy Westervelt is an award-winning investigative print and audio journalist. This conversation will be moderated by Michelle Amazeen (College of Communication associate professor and IGS core faculty) and will include an audience Q&A followed by a book signing.
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Community-led resilience: Improving disaster preparedness, response, and recovery for Black people and places
Thursday, October 1
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM EDT
The Brookings Institution, Falk Auditorium, 1775 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, D.C. 20036
And online
RSVP at https://www.brookings.edu/events/community-led-resilience-improving-disaster-preparedness-response-and-recovery-for-black-people-and-places/
Disasters do not create inequities—they expose, magnify, and accelerate them. And Black communities often face compounded disaster risks related to health disparities, wealth gaps, environmental exposure, infrastructure vulnerabilities, and more. Yet across the country, Black communities also hold deep sources of resilience such as churches, mutual aid networks, neighborhood associations, cultural institutions, and informal care systems. On October 1, the Center for Community Uplift at Brookings and Next Leadership Development will host a public event to explore how community-led networks can support long-term resilience, including through focusing on health, wealth, and culture. In two panels that feature neighborhood leaders and policy experts, speakers will explore the importance of community-level resilience and how a “community hubs model” could improve disaster preparedness, response, and recovery in Black communities. This event will be open to attend in person or watch online. Online viewers can submit questions via e-mail to events@brookings.edu.
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Innovating with Amazon: Six Months of Building and What's Next
Thursday, October 1
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Greentown Labs, 444 Somerville Avenue, Somerville, MA 02143, USA
RSVP at https://luma.com/ckb3o0je
Donations accepted
Join us to celebrate the culmination of Go Build 2026, a 6-month open-innovation accelerator with Amazon and the Global CO₂ Initiative (GCI) at the University of Michigan, built to accelerate collaboration with startups in the field of CO₂ utilization and valorization.
Specifically, the program seeks to speed the development and implementation of advanced CO₂ mineralization and carbonation technologies to decarbonize the built environment—both within Amazon’s operations and the construction industry more broadly.
At this event, the five participating startups will share what they learned working alongside Amazon and GCI, the collaborations they've accomplished throughout the program, and what's next for their technologies and their work with Amazon and GCI.
We look forward to seeing you at Greentown Boston to celebrate this milestone and the innovators behind it!
Agenda:
Check-in and networking
Opening remarks from Greentown Labs and Amazon
Startup introduction and presentations featuring:
Carbon Infuse (Brooklyn, New York, U.S.) develops a novel CO2 mineralization technology that upcycles industrial waste and flue gas into cheaper and cleaner materials for construction and manufacturing.
Carbon Negative Solutions (Portland, Oregon, U.S.) converts any region’s industrial wastes and minerals into carbon-negative cement supplements (SCMs).
Low Carbon Materials (Durham, United Kingdom) develops a proprietary range of carbon-sequestering aggregate-like additives for concrete and asphalt.
Revora Materials (Tappan, New York, U.S.) converts industrial residues and CO₂ into lower-carbon construction materials for cement and concrete production.
Neocrete (Auckland, New Zealand) develops an additive that makes low-carbon materials (SCMs) behave like cement, reducing the carbon and cost of concrete while making it more durable.
Networking
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Future of Climate Action
Thursday, October 1
6 PM - 7 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/future-of-climate-action-tickets-2001029830088
Join us online to explore bold ideas and tech driving the future of climate action together!
Future of Climate Action
Hosted by Youth Climate Action Team Inc. (YCAT), this virtual conversation brings together two leaders advancing climate justice across activism, policy, research, and community-based action.
Join environmentalist and youth organizer Jerome Foster II and University of Richmond Professor Mary Finley-Brook for a thoughtful discussion on what meaningful climate action looks like now. Together, they will explore how young people and communities can build power, center environmental justice, influence policy, and create change that reaches beyond awareness. Jerome Foster II is an environmentalist, social entrepreneur, and public speaker who began leading weekly climate protests outside the White House before he was old enough to vote. He later became the youngest advisor in U.S. history to serve on the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and is a TIME Next Generation Leader and UN Champion of the Earth.
Mary Finley-Brook is a Professor of Geography and Global Studies at the University of Richmond whose work focuses on climate justice, environmental policy, public health, energy transition, and equitable access to renewable energy. Her research is grounded in long-term collaboration with frontline communities and community-based organizations. YCAT is an international, youth-powered climate justice advocacy nonprofit working to make intersectional climate action accessible to more people around the world. Learn more about YCAT.
Come hear from leaders who connect big-picture climate challenges with practical, community-centered pathways for action.
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The Art of Creative Disruption
Thursday, October 1
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Boston Public Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street, Boston MA 02116
RSVP at https://bpl.bibliocommons.com/events/6aa2ca9065abe8002a7817e2
In this interactive workshop, Artist-Changemaker Zakiyyah invites participants to explore the various ways we can utilize the arts to confront complex social themes and create the world we wish to see. You will identify tools for your own life and artistic practice while strategizing alongside other changemakers. Participants will be provided with paper and writing utensils and are encouraged to bring their own paper and writing utensils if they wish.
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Inside Out: How Robotics is Reinventing Medicine
Thursday, October 1
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Swissnex, 420 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138
Request to join at https://luma.com/f7plbd8a
Your registration is subject to host approval.
Robots are getting smaller, softer, and smarter — and they could soon be heading into the human body. Recent advances in robotics are opening new frontiers in medicine, from microscopic machines that can navigate the bloodstream to deliver drugs precisely where they’re needed, to soft robots that can safely interact with delicate tissues and organs. The result could be treatment that is more targeted, less invasive, and gentler on the patient.
Swissnex and the ETH Alumni Association present a discussion with experts in robotics, engineering, and medicine, including Bradley Nelson, a pioneer in micro- and nanorobotics research at ETH Zurich, and Gioele Zardini, who studies design and control of complex and autonomous systems at MIT. Together they will explore how advances in scale, materials, intelligence, and autonomy could transform the way we monitor, treat, and interact with the human body.
Join us to discover what these technologies can do, how they could evolve in the next few years, and the what’s still needed to bring them into clinical practice.
This event is presented in collaboration with the ETH Alumni Association, part of a series of briefings on strategic developments in key industries and innovation sectors.
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Data Are Made, Not Found: A Story of Politics, Power, and the Civil Servants Who Saved the US Census
Thursday, October 1
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-3820
About Data Are Made, Not Found
An eye-opening story of the people who make the census, the United States’ largest and most consequential dataset, and the growing threats to their crucial work.
By many measures, the US census is the government’s largest non-wartime operation, and one of the world’s oldest and biggest data-making endeavors. The 2020 census required more than a decade of planning and technical work—not to mention managing nearly a quarter of a million temporary workers simultaneously—to collect data about the American public. That data was then processed to count each of 331,449,281 residents once—and only once—and in the right place. The operation is also one of the country’s most consequential. Census data determine how political power and federal funding are allocated. Census data make politics, and consequently, politics make census data. In this urgent book, danah boyd explores what it took for the Census Bureau to make the 2020 census, amidst a global pandemic and natural disasters, and while navigating political forces that constrained the budget, micro-managed the schedule, and attacked statisticians’ methods.
With rare insider access to the Census Bureau, boyd observed and interviewed hundreds of government civil servants who made the 2020 census. By documenting the perspectives of government workers, Data Are Made, Not Found provides a rare glimpse into what it takes to make democracy’s data. Each chapter reveals a different challenge—ranging from the last-minute fights about a citizenship question to the not-so-helpful help of well-intended stakeholders to avoid undercounts—and shows how civil servants responded to each problem, controversy, and hurdle. Boyd shows how many of the challenges that the Census Bureau faced in 2020 resulted from decades of political operatives, data users, and various stakeholders playing what boyd calls “Jenga politics,” weakening the administrative state for short-term political gains by removing support and adding more requirements.
Civil servants saved the 2020 census, but future censuses—and other data-making efforts related to elections, health, and the economy—are precarious. Boyd’s message is clear and compelling: protecting democracy means protecting the people and institutions that produce this data.
Bio
danah boyd is the Geri Gay Professor of Communication at Cornell University, where she works on topics at the intersection of technology and society. She is also the founder of the research institute Data & Society and the author of It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens.
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Living Transcendentalism: Phenomenological Ecology and Nature's Wholeness Talk and Workshop
Friday, October 2 - Saturday, October 3
Harvard, Common Room, CSWR, 42 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA
Friday, October 2, 3:30–5:00 pm Opening Talk & Discussion: Imaginative Seeing in Goethe, Coleridge, and Emerson: Pathways to a Phenomenological Ecology
Saturday, October 3, 9:00 am–5:00 pm Workshop: Living Transcendentalism: Phenomenological Ecology and Participating in Nature’s Wholeness
The Friday opening talk and discussion is open to all.
Registration for the Saturday workshop includes attendance at both the Friday opening talk and the Saturday workshop. Workshop participation is limited to 15 attendees.
Inspired by the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, this two-day workshop invites participants to cultivate a deeper relationship with nature's wholeness. Friday afternoon’s talk introduces the imagination as an organ of participatory knowing. Saturday’s all-day workshop is devoted to attending carefully to plants in their immediate appearances and dynamic ecological relationships. By engaging in precise observation, pencil drawing, and writing practices, participants will explore transcendentalism as a living practice of perception, imagination, and engagement with the more-than-human world.
Ryan Shea is a full-time researcher and educator at The Nature Institute in Ghent, New York. Previously, he taught environmental philosophy, philosophy of science, interdisciplinary humanities, and nature writing at Providence College for eight years. He is also a doctoral researcher with MESH (Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities) at the University of Cologne in Germany.
His research seeks to develop the practice of experiential and participatory ecology, with a focus on metamorphosis in plants and insects. His work is informed by the tradition of Goethean transformative phenomenology—especially the work of Craig Holdrege, Mark Riegner, Henri Bortoft, Jochen Bockemühl, and Andreas Suchantke—which develops new ways of seeing that allow the whole to be directly experienced through the part.
Shea is the editor of The Nature Institute’s in-house publication, In Context, and co-producer of its podcast, In Dialogue with Nature. He also co-edited a recent translation of Goethean biologist Andreas Suchantke’s Insect Forms and Patterns: Exploring the Language of Nature.
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VthePeople: Amending the Constitution through Article V
Friday, October 2 – Saturday, October 3
Harvard Law School, Wasserstein Hall, 1585 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://secure.touchnet.net/C20832_ustores/web/store_main.jsp?STOREID=42&SINGLESTORE=true
Cost: $0 - $125
Article V of the Constitution offers two roads to amendment: through Congress, or through a convention called by the states. We have never taken that second road. Over two days, leading voices for and against an Article V convention meet to discuss that second road, the substantive amendments it might carry, whether it can be traveled responsibly, and what it may look like in the future.
This event is open advocates and organizers, public officials and practitioners, scholars and students, and the simply curious.
Registration & welcome
4:45 PM: Opening remarks
5:15 PM: Keynote address by Jill Lepore
6:00 PM: VthePeople Social reception (Full Admission ticket)
Saturday, October 3
8:30 AM: Breakfast & coffee
9:00 AM: Opening remarks by Lawrence Lessig and Michael Farris
9:30 AM–12:30 PM: Two moderated panels and a special guest interview
12:30 PM: Lunchtime fireside chat with Governor Chris Sununu and Lawrence Lessig
2:00–6:45 PM: Three moderated panels
6:45 PM: Closing remarks by Lawrence Lessig and Michael Farris
7:15 PM: Closing dinner with speakers and attendees (Full Admission ticket)
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Biological War
Friday, October 2
9am ET [12:00 PM PDT]
Online
RSVP at https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2026-10-02/annie-jacobsen-biological-war
Cost: $10, $43 with a book
SPEAKERS
Annie Jacobsen, Author, Biological War
In Conversation with Quentin Hardy, Journalist
A bio attack. A lab accident. A global pandemic. The collapse of human society.
Who else would want to explore the possibilities of biological warfare than Annie Jacobsen, investigative journalist and the best-selling author of Nuclear War? For her latest book, Biological War, Jacobsen interviewed dozens of experts in politics, governments, medicine, and the military to explore a scenario of bio warfare. She says it would only take days from the beginning of a global bio infection before we’d be in a battle for human existence. Is the infrastructure that was built to handle this very scenario up to the task?
How would people deal with a dystopic world with mass death, societal breakdown, violent insurrections, anarchy, and a plague-ravaged wasteland in place of modern civilization? Jacobsen lays out what would happen, providing a ticking-clock roadmap to the hours, days and weeks following the release of a biological agent, that serves as startling, forward-looking journalism in preparation for urgent societal upheaval.
Join us for special online-only program as Annie Jacobsen explores the unthinkable.
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Applying SEPLS to OECMs: From Concept to Real-World Impact
Monday, October 5
3am - 4:45am ET [16:00 - 17:45 JST] (GMT+09:00)
Online
RSVP at https://www.iges.or.jp/en/events/20261005
A landscape approach offers an effective way to address the interlinked global crises of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss simultaneously. Therefore, facilitating its adoption across diverse local contexts is key to translating global goals into meaningful action on the ground.
For biodiversity in particular, achieving Target 3 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF) requires expanding effectively conserved areas through both Protected Areas and Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OECMs). Unlike top-down protected areas, OECMs rely heavily on local initiatives, traditional knowledge and sustainable resource management.
In this context, Socio-ecological Production Landscapes and Seascapes (SEPLS), promoted globally under the Satoyama Initiative, offer a key landscape approach to balance biodiversity conservation and human well-being.
This session explores how effective SEPLS management enhances biodiversity and supports OECM recognition. Featuring Satoyama Development Mechanism (SDM) project implementers and government representatives, the session will highlight achievements, share practical lessons, and provide insights for advancing OECMs and sustainable biodiversity management.
Opening remarks
TAKEUCHI Kazuhiko, President, IGES
MODERATOR
MIWA Koji, Research Manager, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Unit, IGES
PRESENTERS
Ulrika ÅBERG, Senior Programme Officer, IUCN
Andrea CALISPA, Environmental Consultant, Fundación para la Investigación y el Desarrollo Social (FIDES)
Suranjan KODITUWAKKU, Green Movement of Sri Lanka (GMSL), Chairperson / CEO
LIN Chi-Che.Section Chief, Community Conservation Section, Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency (FANCA), Taiwan
FUJIMOTO Hiroki, Ministry of the Environment, Biodiversity Strategy Office, Deputy Director
Closing remarks
HAISA Yukihiro, Ministry of the Environment, Biodiversity Strategy Office, Director
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ALTWHEELS FLEET DAY
Monday, October 5
Four Points by Sheraton Norwood, 1125 Boston-Providence Turnpike Norwood, MA 02062
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
AltWheels Fleet Day is an annual sustainable transportation event that brings together corporate and municipal fleet managers and clean-fleet stakeholders working to reduce emissions and lower costs for tomorrow’s transportation needs.
AltWheels' municipal and corporate fleets come each year to understand more sustainable transportation options. AltWheels showcases the latest vehicle and fuel technologies, educates passenger and fleet consumers on best practices, promotes real choices that exist in the marketplace, and stimulates the demand for choices that will improve our health, air quality, and survival. AltWheels has won awards from the EPA and WTS for its effectiveness in changing thinking about transportation and real practices and behaviors.
Editorial Comment: Steve Connors, one of the organizers of AltWheels, did good work that lives on.
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Tackling the Grid Reliability and Affordability Challenge in the Age of AI
Monday, October 5
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM ET
Harvard, Rubenstein 414ab, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
And online
RSVP at https://hksexeced.tfaforms.net/f/registration?e=a4oPp000001johdIAA&_gl
In this Energy Policy Seminar, Manu Asthana, board member of Alliant Energy, will discuss alternative approaches to meeting accelerating power demand rapidly and affordably. Professor Joe Aldy will moderate. Q&A to follow. Lunch will be served.
About the Speaker
Manu Asthana has nearly three decades of leadership experience across the energy sector, with expertise in energy markets, grid operations, power generation and trading as well as retail energy. He serves on the board of Alliant Energy (NASDAQ: LNT), which provides regulated energy service to approximately 1 million electric and 430,000 natural gas customers across Wisconsin and Iowa.
He previously served as President and CEO of PJM Interconnection, the largest power grid operator in North America.
Before joining PJM, Manu served as President of Direct Energy’s residential energy and home services business across North America. Prior to that, he ran Direct Energy’s trading and power generation businesses.
Prior to his tenure at Direct Energy, Asthana spent much of his career at TXU Corp. in a range of roles including Chief Risk Officer and Senior Vice President of Trading and Asset Management.
Manu graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar and a Joseph Wharton Scholar. He serves as a trustee of Texas Children’s Hospital, and previously served as a member of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council.
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The State of Environmental Justice: Challenges and Opportunities
Monday, October 5
12:15 pm – 1:15 pm
Princeton, 300 Wallace Hall, Princeton, NJ
And online
RSVP at https://cpree.princeton.edu/events/2026/state-environmental-justice-challenges-and-opportunities
Speaker, Peggy Shepard, Executive Director - WE ACT for environmental justice
Peggy Shepard is co-founder and executive director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice and has a long history of organizing and engaging Northern Manhattan residents in community-based planning and campaigns to address environmental protection and environmental health policy locally and nationally. She has successfully combined grassroots organizing, environmental advocacy, and environmental health community-based participatory research to become a national leader in advancing environmental policy and the perspective of environmental justice in urban communities — to ensure that the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment extends to all. She served as the first co-chair of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council and was the first female chair of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She currently serves as chair of the New York City Environmental Justice Advisory Board as well as on the Executive Committee of the National Black Environmental Justice Network and the Board of Advisors of the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. Her work has received broad recognition: the Jane Jacobs Medal from the Rockefeller Foundation for Lifetime Achievement, the 10th Annual Heinz Award For the Environment, the William K. Reilly Award for Environmental Leadership, the Knight of the National Order of Merit from the French Republic, the Damu Smith Power of One Award, the Spirit of John Brown Freedom Award, the Dean’s Distinguished Service Award from the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, and Honorary Doctorates from Smith College and Lawrence University.
Abstract: This seminar will discuss the challenges which the Environmental Justice movement faces from the attacks on equity, federal and state rollbacks and the loss of federal funding emphasizing the opportunities to create a stronger and smarter environmental justice movement , marking wins at the city and state levels and the possibility created by a new Congress and Administration for greater equity.
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Living Beyond Earth: Our Next Giant Leap
Monday, October 5
1 – 5:30 p.m.
Harvard, Knafel Center and Fay House, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
And online
RSVP at https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2026-living-beyond-earth-symposium
Human space exploration requires more than rocket science. To extend human presence into deep space and onto other celestial bodies, spectacular feats of engineering and technology will be essential. But to survive and thrive in radically different environments, we must also carefully consider how to develop sustainable habitats, just institutions, and healthy communities beyond Earth. The 2026 Gellert Family Science Symposium at Harvard Radcliffe Institute will bring together leading experts to explore the contours of a human future in space.
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El Niño: How Global Cities are Preparing for an Inevitable Threat
Tuesday, October 6
11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Online
RSVP at https://www.climate.columbia.edu/events/el-nino-how-global-cities-are-preparing-inevitable-threat
A strong El Niño event is anticipated in the coming months, creating a unique opportunity to examine implications for climate risk, city preparedness, and community resilience. El Niño can affect weather, precipitation, temperature, storms, drought, air quality, food systems, supply chains, energy use, and health outcomes. It is also likely to cause a marked rise in global average surface temperatures, intensifying existing climate-related stressors.
The webinar focuses on what global cities are doing to prepare, what systems are ready, where gaps remain, and what can be done to overcome them. Practitioners, researchers, community partners, policymakers, and students working across health, emergency management, climate, energy, and infrastructure are invited to learn about:
The anticipated El Niño event and its potential sector-specific implications.
Connecting climate forecasts to practical preparedness planning for global cities, including New York City, Rio, Mumbai, Nairobi, and Amman.
How global cities have been and can prepare.
The gaps, resource needs, and opportunities for coordination across global cities.
This webinar is brought to you by the NYC Preparedness & Recovery Institute, in collaboration with Columbia Global, and the Columbia Climate School.
Contact Information
NYC Preparedness and Recovery Institute
info@pri.nyc
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Past and Future Tales of the Transmission Grid
Tuesday, October 6
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET
Harvard, Kennedy School, Malkin Penthouse, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
And online
RSVP at https://hksexeced.tfaforms.net/f/registration?e=a4oPp000001jjBhIAI&_gl
In this Energy Policy Seminar, Michael Skelly, CEO of Grid United, will join Professor Joe Aldy for a wide-ranging conversation about transmission infrastructure and renewable energy development, covering everything from utilities in North Dakota to future directions for energy policy.Q&A to follow. Lunch will be served.
About the Speaker
Michael Skelly is the co-founder and CEO of Grid United, a transmission development company working to build out the US transmission grid for greater resiliency, load growth and to accommodate the evolving generation mix. Skelly was previously the founder and president of Clean Line Energy, a company that successfully permitted some of the longest transmission lines in the U.S. in the last 50 years.
Prior to Clean Line, Skelly led the growth of Horizon Wind Energy, now part of EDPR, to become one of the largest renewable energy companies in the US. Skelly’s other entrepreneurial ventures include founding partner and general manager of the Rain Forest Aerial Tram in the early ’90’s, where Skelly led the development, construction and operations of the first large scale canopy tourism project in the Americas.
Skelly applies his expertise in developing infrastructure projects to advocate for more transportation options and increase access to parks in his adopted hometown of Houston, Texas. In 2012, he led the “Parks By You” campaign, which resulted in the passage of a $150 million bond measure to fund 100 plus miles of trails along the city’s bayous.
Skelly sits on the board of Form Energy. Skelly’s public service includes working as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Central America and a run for the US Congress in 2008, where he was the Democratic nominee for the 7th Congressional District of Texas. Skelly remains deeply involved in local politics.
Skelly is the principal protagonist in Superpower, a book by Wall Street Journal reporter and Pulitzer Prize finalist Russell Gold. The book chronicles the growth and development of renewable energy in the 21st century.
Skelly’s family immigrated to the United States from Ireland when he was a small child. He holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Notre Dame and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Skelly speaks fluent Spanish. Skelly and his wife of 30 years have three children in their twenties. They live in Firehouse No. 2, a 110 year old fire station which they restored in the East End of Houston.
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BosTEN: Convergent Urban Scale Solution for Energy, Climate, and Health
Tuesday, October 6
12 PM - 1:30 PM
Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability, 111 Cummington Mall, Suite 149 Boston, MA 02215
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bosten-convergent-urban-scale-solution-for-energy-climate-and-health-tickets-1999779298715
Join us for an event series to build interdisciplinary research connections across BU that address real-world challenges.
The Convergent Conversations event series, hosted by Boston University's Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS), aims to forge new connections through meaningful dialogue. Each event will feature BU faculty members from different disciplines as well as voices from organizations to address the potential impact of the research.
The second event in our series “Convergent Urban Scale Solution for Energy, Climate, and Health” is on October 6. Speakers include:
Jonathan Buonocore (Assistant Professor, Environmental Health, School of Public Health, IGS Core Faculty);
Lindsey Butler (Executive Director, Boston Green Ribbon Commission);
Dennis Carlberg (BU Chief Sustainability Officer, Associate Vice President for Climate Action, IGS Affiliated Faculty);
This conversation will be moderated by Cutler Cleveland (Professor, Earth & Environment, College of Arts & Sciences; IGS Interim Director).
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How to Sink a Megacity: A History of Water, Land, and Environmental Change in Mexico City” by Vera Candiani
Tuesday, October 6
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Princeton, Briger Hall Auditorium, 11 Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ
And online
RSVP at https://environment.princeton.edu/event/faculty-seminar-by-candiani/
Vera Candiani, Associate Professor of History, will present “How to Sink a Megacity: A History of Water, Land, and Environmental Change in Mexico City” Join us in the Briger Hall Auditorium, 11 Ivy Lane, or stream it live. Candiani is the second speaker in the Fall 2026 HMEI Faculty Seminar Series.
Modern Mexico City’s chronic flooding, aquifer depletion, and land subsidence are the cumulative result of five centuries during which land speculators, financiers, state engineers, and political authorities transformed a lake basin into a megacity whose very development generated the conditions for today’s water crisis. This talk traces how, from the seventeenth century onward, successive projects to drain the lakes, control water, and expand the city reshaped the basin’s hydrology while allocating environmental costs and benefits along class lines. By placing this process in historical perspective, the lecture explains how and why those conditions became embedded in the city’s development.
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Community-wide Clean Energy: Innovative Solutions for Local Governments
Tuesday, October 6
3:00 - 4:00pm EDT
Online
RSVP at https://hub.wri.org/events/2026/10/community-wide-clean-energy-innovative-solutions-local-governments
Community-wide clean energy programs, which offer residential customers access to off-site clean energy, are an increasingly important tool for local governments. Across the United States, local governments are exploring new ways to aggregate demand and give residents and businesses greater access to clean energy while also supporting local clean energy and sustainability goals. Two approaches gaining traction are Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) and utility-enabled community clean energy procurement programs. Local governments should understand the differences between these approaches and the state policies and regulatory structures that enable them to determine which model would work best in their communities.
Join World Resources Institute (WRI)’s US Polsky Energy Center for a one-hour webinar that explores how local governments are expanding access to community-wide clean energy. This session will provide an overview of CCA and utility-enabled community clean energy procurement programs, including how they work, what opportunities they create for communities, and how state policies and Public Utility Commissions (PUCs) shape their implementation. WRI will also explore regional differences in these approaches, including why CCA programs have emerged in some parts of the country while utility-enabled models are gaining traction in others. Participants will hear directly from Glade Sowards of Salt Lake City about the Utah Renewable Communities Program and Robert McCracken of Cincinnati about Ohio’s Community Choice Aggregation programs, including lessons learned and opportunities for local government engagement.
Speakers:
Glade Sowards, Senior Energy and Climate Program Manager, Salt Lake City Corporation
Robert McCracken, Energy Manager, City of Cincinnati
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En-ROADS Workshop with MIT's Jason Jay
Tuesday, October 6
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
The Foundry, 101 Rogers Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/en-roads-workshop-with-mits-jason-jay-tickets-1995970403206
Cost: $12 - $18
Learn to use En‑ROADS, a world-renowned climate simulator that reveals how policy and technology choices shape our planet’s future.
This hands-on workshop will be led by Jason Jay, Director of the MIT Sloan Sustainability Initiative and a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Please bring your own laptop to the session, to get the most out of the tutorial.
Developed by Climate Interactive and MIT Sloan, the online En‑ROADS simulator is grounded in the best available science and rigorously tested. Its interactive and accessible design makes it a powerful tool for instantaneously creating and testing hundreds of climate scenarios, exploring global and local impacts, understanding complex climate dynamics, and informing decisions at any level. This workshop will be sure to cover the most recent updates, including AI and data center related energy and emissions, marine carbon dioxide removal, fossil fuel subsidies, and more!
After the workshop, there will be an opportunity for informal discussion over drinks, thanks to support from Sustainserv.
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Boston LongevityTech Night with Aubrey de Grey
Tuesday, October 6
6:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Liberty Lobby Bar, 215 Charles Street, Boston, MA 02114
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/boston-longevitytech-night-with-aubrey-de-grey-registration-1994228512163
Cost: $16.78
An evening for healthcare and longevitytech innovators, enthusiasts, practitioners, and investors to get together and talk about the future
This event is co-hosted with Boston Health Innovation Night, Longevity Global Boston, and Boston Longevity Week.
Guest of Honor Aubrey de Grey of the Longevity Escape Velocity Foundation, will make opening remarks on "How AI can save millions of lives, but only with our help."
Take a break. Come to talk longevity and tech with friends. Swing by after work for a drink between 5:30p and 8:30p at the Liberty Hotel, 2nd floor lobby bar in downtown Boston, with your hosts Dan Elton (Metascience Observatory), Jodi Scarbrough(Supperclub Host), Justin Taylor (Longevity Global Boston), Ethan Berg (G4 Investments), and Steven Wardell (Wardell Advisors, DigitalHealth InvestorTalk). We are bringing together innovators and investors in healthcare & longevity. Stay for a short visit or as long as you like. Complimentary hors d'oeuvres and cash bar. Taking the T is easiest; if you are driving you may find the Mass Eye & Ear Parking to be the most reasonable.
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Bridging NBS Policy, Practice & Finance in Africa: Pathways to Financing Nature-based Solutions in Africa
Wednesday, October 7
9:00 - 10:00am EDT
Online
RSVP at https://hub.wri.org/events/2026/10/bridging-nbs-policy-practice-finance-africa-pathways-financing-nature-based
Unlocking investments and locally-led NBS for urban climate adaptation in Africa
Nature-based solutions (NBS) and green-gray infrastructure (GGI) are emerging as powerful tools for building climate resilience in African cities and around the world. When designed and implemented effectively, these approaches can protect people from climate shocks, enhance biodiversity, and improve socio-economic and health outcomes.
Momentum is growing. A 2025 WRI report found that new NBS projects in sub-Saharan Africa have increased by an average of 15% annually from 2012-2021 and secured over $21 billion in funding. Yet this is only a fraction of the estimated $170 billion in climate finance to Africa over this same period. Closing this gap requires stronger pipelines of bankable projects and better connections between cities, project developers, and a diverse array of financing.
Through its Green-Gray Infrastructure Accelerator, WRI is advancing a cross-sectoral approach to NBS policy integration and financing across 11 cities in Africa. Through peer learning, project design, and investor roundtables, the Accelerator moves GGI projects from ideas to implementation and policy integration.
Join WRI, city leaders, project developers, and financing institutions for a discussion on the key barriers, solutions, and practical insights to unlock investments in NBS and GGI across Africa. Speakers will share lessons learned, highlighting strategies to build investor confidence, unlock capital, and accelerate climate-resilience infrastructure.
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Designing Hybrid Skins: Exploring the Social and Cultural Dimensions of On-Skin Interfaces Toward Different Possible Futures for Next-Generation Wearable Computers
Wednesday, October 7
12 PM ET
Online
RSVP at https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2026-cindy-hsin-liu-kao-fellow-presentation-virtual
A presentation from 2026–2027 Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Fellow Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao
Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao is an associate professor at Cornell University and the founder and director of the Hybrid Body Lab, a transdisciplinary research group exploring cultural and social perspectives in the design of on-skin interfaces. At Radcliffe, she will develop a book on the social and cultural dimensions of these technologies, proposing design interventions that empower rather than constrain how close-body wearable devices are conceived and experienced.
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Securing the Supply Chain: Critical Minerals Permitting Reform
Wednesday, October 7
12:00PM - 1:00PM
Online
RSVP at https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/events/securing-the-supply-chain-critical-minerals-permitting-reform/
How can the U.S. secure the critical minerals needed for the clean energy transition while protecting communities and the environment? Join the EconClimate Lab for a conversation on the trade-offs of mineral permitting reform and the policies that could accelerate responsible domestic mining.
Electric vehicles, wind turbines, and grid-scale batteries all depend on critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements. Yet in the United States, opening a new mine can take years—or even decades—because of a complex permitting process. As demand for these minerals grows, policymakers face a difficult question: how can the U.S. secure the materials needed for the clean energy transition without weakening environmental protections or overlooking the concerns of local communities?
This seminar examines how mineral permitting works, why approvals take so long, and what reforms could speed up responsible mining. We will also explore how economic analysis can help measure the costs of permitting delays and the trade-offs involved in faster approvals, giving policymakers better evidence to guide reform.
The EconClimate Lab advances forward looking economic policy ideas that make energy policy benefit workers, communities, and the American economy.
The conversation will be moderated by Heather Boushey, professor of practice at the Kleinman Center and former member of the Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist to President Biden’s Investing in America Cabinet.
SPEAKER
Gracelin Baskaran, Director, Critical Minerals Security Program, CSIS
Gracelin Baskaran is director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She is a mining economist and has spent over a decade working on critical minerals globally.
Jamie Pleune, Associate Professor of Law (Research) and Wallace Stegner Center Fellow, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law
Jamie Pleune is an Associate Professor of Law (Research) and a member of the Law & Policy Program in the Wallace Stegner Center for land resources, and the environment. Her research focuses on issues of climate change, conservation, permitting, and public lands management.
MODERATOR
Heather Boushey, Professor of Practice
Heather Boushey is a professor of practice at the Kleinman Center. Boushey served in the Biden administration as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers and chief economist to the President’s Investing in America cabinet.
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Technology Priorities for National Security
Wednesday, October 7
12:00pm to 1:30pm EDT
MIT, Building E40, 496, 1 AMHERST ST, Cambridge, MA 02142
And online
Livestream at https://www.youtube.com/@mitsecuritystudiesprogram5272/streams
Summary: The seminar will cover national security technology priorities for improving defense and deterrence capabilities. The priorities will be covered in the context of past capability advances, and specific examples will be described from published Defense Science Board recommendations and recent research and development work at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. The talk will give an overview some potential new domains of conflict needing enhanced protection measures.
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From New York to Antalya: What Happens Between Climate Week and COP31?
Wednesday, October 7
1 PM - 2:15 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/from-new-york-to-antalya-what-happens-between-climate-week-and-cop31-tickets-2001605060618
Join COPx for a post–NY Climate Week conversation on what we learned, what matters now, and what to watch as the world heads toward COP31
As we come out of New York Climate Week, attention is already turning toward COP31 in Antalya. What did we learn in New York, what actually matters, and what should the climate community be focused on in the months ahead?
Join COPx for a timely conversation featuring Hunter Lovins, Cofounder of COPx, and Paul Rowland, COO at Environment Next, with additional perspectives from members of the COPx community.
Together, we’ll explore the ideas, commitments, tensions, and emerging priorities that gained momentum in New York, what may have been mostly noise, and what deserves to carry forward as the international climate community prepares for COP31.
We’ll look at what was missing, where governments, businesses, investors, and civil society are making meaningful progress, where climate action remains stuck, and what we should be watching in the months ahead.
This will be an interactive conversation, with plenty of time for audience perspectives, questions, and discussion.
We’ll Discuss
What stood out from New York Climate Week, and what was mostly noise
The climate priorities and themes gaining momentum
What should carry forward from New York to COP31
Where climate action appears to be moving, and where it remains stuck
The role of business, finance, communities, and civil society heading into COP31
What to watch in the weeks leading up to Antalya
What a meaningful COP31 could realistically accomplish
Whether you participated in New York Climate Week or followed it from afar, join us to take stock of where things stand and look ahead to the next major moment on the global climate calendar.
Audience participation will be central to the conversation. Come ready to share what you heard during Climate Week, what you think deserves more attention, and what questions you want the climate community to be asking on the road to COP31.
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Resilience during Climate Change: Sink or Swim for Defence Logistics
Wednesday, October 7
2 PM - 3 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/resilience-during-climate-change-sink-or-swim-for-defence-logistics-tickets-2002045737695
Speakers: Lucy Westgarth, ESG Lead, Leidos
Dominic McEvoy, FCILT, Chair One Defence Forum
The UK government, and by extension, Defence, have proactively adopted carbon reduction targets. This addresses our impact on the environment but what about its impact on us?
Join Dominic McEvoy and Lucy Westgrath to find out the ways in which climate change will impact defence logistics can be broken down as follows:
changes in supply chain
changes in mission demand
changes in operating conditions
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Monthly Dose of Climate Hope! with Jessica Craven
Wednesday, October 7
2 PM - 3 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monthly-dose-of-climate-hope-with-jessica-craven-tickets-2000517720354
Get your monthly dose of climate hope with Jessica Craven —community organizer and author of Chop Wood, Carry Water
Come learn from Jessica Craven, the community organizer and activist who has spent nearly a decade turning political anxiety into concrete, daily action!
For this October's Dose of Climate Hope, Jessica joins us to talk about finding real hope heading into the 2026 midterm elections. Since 2016, Jessica has published Chop Wood, Carry Water, a newsletter that reaches over 152,000 subscribers with short, doable political actions five days a week, plus a weekly roundup of the wins her community has helped make happen. She's also an elected member of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party and a correspondent for Courier News.
In conversation with Sam Matey-Coste, Editor-in-Chief at Climate Action Now, Jessica will share what she's learned from years of organizing: how small, consistent actions add up to real electoral change, and why staying hopeful is itself a strategic choice in this political moment.
Come learn from Jessica, bring your questions, and leave with a renewed sense that hope is an action!
About Our Featured Expert
Jessica Craven is a community organizer, activist, and elected member of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party. She's the author of Chop Wood, Carry Water, a daily actions newsletter she's published five days a week since 2016, giving readers short, concrete political actions they can take in 5-7 minutes to support progressive policies and elect more true public servants, along with a weekly "good news" roundup of Democratic wins. She's also a political content creator and correspondent for Courier News.
About Our Interviewer
Sam Matey is Editor-In-Chief at Climate Action Now and authors Your Daily Dose of Climate Hope, a Substack newsletter. Sam wears many hats as a climate journalist, environmental scientist, data scientist, and GIS analyst. Sam is also the author of The Weekly Anthropocene, a weekly Substack newsletter on progress towards a better relationship between humanity and our biosphere.
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Restorative Ecology: The Charles River Floating Wetland
Wednesday, October 7
6:30 PM - 8 PM
The Foundry, 101 Rogers Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/restorative-ecology-the-charles-river-floating-wetland-tickets-1994152876936
An ecological intervention to reduce harmful algal blooms, which threaten the river’s health and limit the feasibility of swimming.
Laura Jasinski, Executive Director of the Charles River Conservancy, will be presenting lessons from the first artificial wetland in the Charles River, including a vision for an expanded wetland hub in the Charles to increase biodiversity, research opportunities and access.
NOTE: Weather permitting, the presentation will begin with a viewing of the floating wetland from the bank of the Charles at 6:00 PM with Laura Jasinski. From there, it's a 10 minute walk to The Foundry, where the scheduled talk will begin a 6:30 PM
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Not Today, Fascists
Wednesday, October 7
7:30pm
The Wilbur, 246 Tremont Street, Boston, MA 02116
RSVP at https://thewilbur.com/event/jennifer-welch-not-today-fascists/
Join at Brookline Booksmith the Wilbur to celebrate the release of Not Today, Fascists with author Jennifer Welch, in conversation with Don Lemon.
Every ticket will come with a copy of Not Today, Fascists.
As a progressive atheist from a Bible Belt red state, Jennifer Welch has a unique perspective on the intersection of religion and politics in America. She has seen how the far right has used religion across denominations to coalesce power, and how their messaging, particularly the Evangelical prosperity gospel, reinforces economic inequality.
In Not Today, Fascists, Welch explores:
how America is moving not only toward fascism, but also theocracy;
the current administration’s harmful platform and how it’s hurting everyday Americans;
why the separation of church and state remains a fundamental principle of our country and the ways in which rogue actors are seeking to dismantle it;
the role of Big Church and its economic and political sway over our government;
how politicians on the left can create an effective platform and messaging on human decency, structural equality and a populist economics perspective to win elections
Not Today, Fascists will arm readers with the language and facts they need to discuss crucial politics issues, to win elections and to take back our country.
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How to Tell Environmental Stories for the Ear
Thursday, October 8
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Joyce Cummings Center, Room 170, 177 College Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hDct3uONRr2UPPm5DWUjjA#/registration
How do you fit complex science into a 3-minute broadcast spot? What language works for listeners? What are the limitations — and benefits — of audio storytelling? In this lecture we'll look at two environmental radio features to understand the writing and reporting process for telling stories about things that don't talk (to humans, anyway).
Speaker Name Hannah Loss, A17, Producer for GBH's Boston Public Radio and The Curiosity Desk
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Navigating Green Claims: Opportunities, Risks and Consumer Trust
Thursday, October 8
12:00 PM (EST)
Online
RSVP at https://trellis.net/webinar/navigating-green-claims-opportunities-risks-consumer-trust-sustainability-greenwashing/
Environmental marketing has never been more high-stakes. As regulatory scrutiny intensifies and greenwashing litigation rises, companies face a difficult choice: speak up about their climate commitments — or go quiet and risk losing the consumers and capital that reward credible action. Neither path is without risk, and the companies that navigate it best will be the ones that understand where the lines are drawn.
In this hour-long webinar, you’ll learn:
How to communicate environmental claims in a clear, credible, and responsible way
What recent U.S. greenwashing litigation means for your company’s messaging and where the highest areas of risk lie
Why consumer trust is the new competitive advantage — and what new market research reveals about willingness to pay for credible environmental claims
What regulators actually expect from net zero commitments and how to align your communications accordingly
Real-world strategies from a corporate leader who has navigated environmental marketing decisions in this rapidly shifting landscape
Speakers
Jordan Faires, Senior Manager, Net Zero, Environmental Defense Fund
Katie Ryan, VP, Sustainability Trellis Group
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Democracy at Scale
Thursday, October 8
4pm to 6:30pm
Boston College, Brighton Campus, 2101 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02135, USA
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdxd4OH0Xk1vBDBuX0wyIdOYMqav2qXZhGLtRq6KsT-oV9hlA/viewform
The Clough Center's 2026-'27 theme is “Democracy at Scale.” Citizens and scholars alike often think of "democracy" in terms of its essential components: free and fair elections, the freedom of assembly, the freedom of speech – to take just three. But we do not engage in democracy for its own sake; we engage in democracy to govern: to solve the problems and work toward the goals that the people – the dēmos – identify. Which of those problems are best addressed locally? Which objectives are best pursued nationally, or even supranationally? And, crucially, who decides? Democracy at Scale is about considering those questions and the many approaches and principles that go with them – from participatory budgeting to federalism to regional autonomy.
Featured Speaker: Sherrilyn Ifill
Sherrilyn Ifill is a civil rights lawyer and scholar. From 2013-2022, she served as the President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), the nation’s premier civil rights law organization fighting for racial justice and equality. She recently served as a Ford Foundation Fellow and as the Klinsky Visiting Professor for Leadership & Progress at Howard Law School. Ifill is currently the Vernon Jordan Distinguished Professor in Civil Rights at Howard Law School, where later this year she will launch the 14th Amendment Center for Law & Democracy. Ifill holds a fellowship at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Ifill’s tenure at the helm of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund was widely praised for elevating the profile, voice and influence of the organization, and for expanding and deepening its work across multiple areas of civil rights law. Ifill’s voice and analysis played a prominent role in shaping our national conversation about race and civil rights during a tumultuous period of racial reckoning in our country. Her strategic vision and counsel remains highly sought after by leaders in government, business, law, grassroots organizations, and academia.
Ifill began her legal career as a Fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union, before joining the staff of the LDF as an Assistant Counsel, where she litigated voting rights cases in the South. In 1993 Ifill left LDF to join the faculty at University of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore where she taught for twenty years before rejoining LDF in 2013 as its President & Director-Counsel.
Ifill is a scholar whose work has appeared in leading law journals, periodicals, and the nation’s leading newspapers. Her book On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the 21st Century, was highly acclaimed, and is credited with laying the foundation for contemporary conversations about lynching and reconciliation. She is currently completing a new book about race and the current crisis in American democracy entitled, Is This America? which will be published by Penguin Press.
Ifill is a graduate of Vassar College and earned her J.D. from New York University School of Law. She is the recipient of numerous honorary doctorates and many of the most prestigious medals in the legal profession including the Radcliffe Medal, the Brandeis Medal, the Thurgood Marshall Award from the American Bar Association, and The Gold Medal from the New York State Bar Association. Ifill was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019 and was named by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in 2021. She serves on the boards of the Mellon Foundation, New York University School of Law and the Baltimore Museum of Art.
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Until the Last Ton: Fossil Fuels in India from Empire to the Climate Crisis
Thursday, October 8
8pm - 9:30pm ET [5 - 6:30 p.m. PST]
University of CA, 10 Stephens Hall, Berkeley, CA
And online
RSVP at https://events.berkeley.edu/events/event/326165-matthew-shutzer-until-the-last-ton-fossil-fuels-in-in
A talk by Matthew Shutzer, Assistant Professor of History, on his new book, Until the Last Ton: Fossil Fuels in India from Empire to the Climate Crisis, a panoramic historical account of India’s ascent in the global fossil economy.
Event moderated by Sharad Chari, Associate Professor of Geography, UC Berkeley.
About the Book: India is today one of the world’s largest producers and consumers of fossil fuels, driving new investments in the global fossil economy and achieving record-breaking levels of coal extraction at home. As the planet burns from climate change, this entrenchment of fossil fuel dependence has left many searching for how we arrived at this point. Until the Last Tonprovides a sweeping new appraisal of this planetary dilemma, uncovering how India became part of an emerging fossil capitalism that continues to shape the present.
Matthew Shutzer recasts the origins of the fossil economy by showing how European industrialization unleashed a global search for fossil energy in the colonial world. Placing India at the center of this history, Shutzer traces how the highland forests of eastern India became early frontiers for global coal investment, transforming this landscape into the largest site of imperial overseas coal production across a century of colonial rule. At the heart of these shifts was a legal framework of subterranean property, which redefined local relations of land ownership and social power, while tying the growth of India’s fossil economy to the progressive ecological destruction of the forest frontier.
Following these dynamics into the postcolonial period, Until the Last Tonreveals the enduring impacts of colonial property on independent India’s energy history, shedding new light on postwar struggles for energy development and resource sovereignty, as well as the violent conflicts over mining dispossession that have haunted India’s economic ascent in an age of climate crisis.
About the Author: Matthew Shutzer is Assistant Professor of History at University of California, Berkeley. He is an environmental historian of South Asia. His research and teaching focus on the place of the environment in global history, with particular attention to fossil fuels, agriculture, forests, climate change, and environmental politics. His work also connects global environmental history to histories of law, capitalism, post-colonial development, the earth sciences, and photography.
His book, Until the Last Ton: Fossil Fuels in India from Empire to the Climate Crisis, is the first history of fossil fuels in colonial and post-colonial South Asia. It traces India’s rise as a world-leading fossil economy in the twentieth century and examines the processes of empire, capitalism, and agroecological change that shaped this transformation. The book moves beyond the prevailing focus in the environmental history of energy on production and consumption, offering instead a longer-term perspective on land, subsurface property rights, geological knowledge, and mining conflicts. In doing so, it reveals the central role of agrarian development in shaping India’s trajectory of fossil fuel dependence.
Shutzer is currently working on a second book project examining climate change and the making of the Third World after 1945.
Before joining the History Department at UC Berkeley, Shutzer taught as an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Duke University. He previously served as a Junior Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies at Harvard University and as an S.V. Ciriacy-Wantrup Fellow in Natural Resource Economics and Political Economy in the Department of Geography at UC Berkeley. He has also worked as a researcher on several projects related to the implementation of India’s Forest Rights Act in western Odisha.
Along with Rebecca Herman, Rebecca McLennan, and Bernadette Perez, Shutzer is one of the faculty conveners of the Berkeley Workshop on Environmental History, based in UC Berkeley’s Department of History.
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Sustainable Forestry: biodiversity, carbon and future timber supply
Friday, October 9
8 AM - 9 AM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sustainable-forestry-biodiversity-carbon-and-future-timber-supply-tickets-1999615242017
We all know how vital forests are for life on earth, so how do we honour this life in today's productive landscapes?
We have an innate cultural understanding of woodlands and forests as ecologically diverse habitats full of plants, animals and fungi - the life of forests are embedded through stories and legends from childhood. We also know forests as rich carbon stores, the "lungs of the planet". But the reality of commercial forests rarely matches the fairytales. With the financial demands of timber production often in competition with the needs of animal and plant communities living there, short-term profits often win over long-term sustainability. What do today's forests look like for the more-than-human world, for carbon balance and for future generations?
In the built environment, we rely upon the reassurances given by certification standards to protect and support productive landscapes and their ecosystems. We know precious little about how our specification decisions re-design material landscapes outside of the site boundary, yet we are increasingly responsible for delivery of net-zero, ecologically regenerative places. Join ACAN (Architects Climate Action Network) to explore the forested worlds of timber production from a multispecies perspective - what is it like to live in the forests of today’s timber production, how do carbon cycles respond to industrialised timber networks and what are the potentials for restorative and regenerative forestry?
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North: The Future of Post-Climate America
Monday, October 12,
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Princeton, 300 Wallace Hall, Princeton, NJ
And online
RSVP at https://environment.princeton.edu/event/north-the-future-of-post-climate-america/
Jesse Keenan, professor for Tulane University, will present “North: The Future of Post-Climate America.” This seminar will be held in-person (PUID holders only) and available via livestream (open to all).
Keenan is the Favrot II Associate Professor of Sustainable Real Estate and Urban Planning, Director of the Center on Climate Change and Urbanism, and Director of the Climate Change Science and Practice program at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana (USA). His research focuses on the intersection of climate change adaptation and the built environment, including aspects of applied science, policy, and planning.
Keenan formerly served as the Director and Area Head for Real Estate and Built Environment on the faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Design; Fellow of Science, Technology and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government; and as the Research Director of the Center for Urban Real Estate on the faculty of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. Keenan has served as a member of the IPCC and three consecutive U.S. National Climate Assessments; led climate research teams at the Federal Reserve and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; served as an advisor on climate policy for the Governors of California and Massachusetts; testified and briefed Congress on various climate-related issues; served as Chair of the U.S. Community Resilience Panel for Buildings and Infrastructure Systems under the Obama White House; and has served various federal details, including as a Senior Economist at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers where he supported interagency climate and national security activities, including the development of the National Resilience Strategy and the U.S. National Adaptation Plan.
Keenan’s books include Blue Dunes: Climate Change By Design (Columbia University Press, 2017), Climate Adaptation Finance and Investment in California (Routledge, 2018), and North: The Future of Post-Climate America (Oxford University Press, 2025).
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AI for Cows: Designing low emission livestock using rumen digital twins - CIE Digital Economy and the Environment Series
Tuesday, October 13
12 PM – 1 PM EDT (GMT-4)
Yale, Kroon Hall, Room 319m New Haven, CT United States
And online
RSVP at https://yaleconnect.yale.edu/cie/rsvp_boot?id=2330328&rel=title
Reducing methane emissions from livestock is an important part of lowering agriculture’s climate impact, but mitigation strategies often work differently across animals, herds, and production systems. In this talk, Yale Professor Purushottam Dixit will describe his team’s efforts to build a Rumen Digital Twin: an AI-based generative model linking diet, microbiome composition, animal physiology, productivity, and methane emissions. The starting point is a mechanistically motivated model of host-associated microbiomes that captures both microbial community structure and host phenotypes and can generate realistic in silico communities associated with desired traits. Building on this framework, he is developing multimodal AI models that can learn across heterogeneous ruminant datasets and eventually generate “virtual herds” for exploring interventions before costly animal trials. The goal is not only to accelerate methane mitigation, but also to understand why interventions succeed in some contexts and fail in others.
Purushottam Dixit is an assistant professor of biomedical engineering and a computational biophysics lab leader at Yale Engineering. The Rumen Digital Twin project was awarded the Bezos Earth Fund’s AI Grand Challenge for Climate and Nature in 2025.
His talk is part of the Digital Economy and the Environment series of the Yale Center for Industrial Ecology. The talk is free and open to the public and is available online and in person. For those joining locally, lunch will be available.
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COPx Webinar: Insights from Germany’s Solar Energy Transition
Tuesday, October 13
1 PM - 2:15 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/copx-webinar-insights-from-germanys-solar-energy-transition-tickets-2001398700389
What Germany learned from scaling solar energy, and what those lessons can offer communities navigating the energy transition today.
Germany helped show the world that solar could scale. What can its successes, and its mistakes, teach communities navigating the energy transition today?
Germany was one of the earliest countries to bring solar power into the mainstream. As countries and communities now look to expand solar while dealing with energy security, affordability, grid constraints, and increasingly extreme weather, Germany’s experience offers important lessons about what worked, what didn’t, and what could be done differently today.
Join COPx for a conversation between Hans Josef Fell, one of the architects of Germany’s renewable energy transition, and Dr. Martin Frick, a global leader working at the intersection of climate, energy systems, and economic stability. The conversation will be moderated by Paul Rowland, Chief Operating Officer at Environment Next.
Together, they will explore how Germany created the conditions for solar to grow rapidly, the role feed-in tariffs played in allowing households, businesses, and communities to supply power to the grid, and the choices between grid-connected and more decentralized energy systems. They will also discuss what Germany’s experience can teach communities today about energy security, local resilience, affordability, and building public support for the energy transition.
This 75-minute session will connect the early days of Germany’s solar transition with the challenges communities face today: how to scale clean energy, keep it reliable and affordable, strengthen community resilience, and build an energy transition that can last.
Speakers
Hans Josef Fell, President, Energy Watch Group
Dr. Martin Frick, COPx Co-founder, Director, World Food Programme Global Office Berlin
Moderator: Paul Rowland, Chief Operating Officer, Environment Next
Key Themes
How Germany used solar power to help drive its broader energy transition
How feed-in tariffs helped households, businesses, and communities participate in the transition
What Germany learned about grid-connected and more decentralized energy systems
Why long-term policy certainty matters for scaling solar investment
How local solar can contribute to energy security and community resilience
What communities, governments, and investors can learn from Germany’s successes and challenges
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Deception and Detection: Why AI Empowers Cyber Defense over Offense
Wednesday, October 14
12:00pm to 1:30pm EDT
MIT, Building E40, 496, 1 AMHERST ST, Cambridge, MA 02142
And online
Livestream at https://www.youtube.com/@mitsecuritystudiesprogram5272/streams
Professor Lennart Maschmeyer from the Georgia Institute of Technology will give a presentation at the MIT Security Studies Program's Wednesday Seminar.
Summary: Many have predicted that AI will revolutionize cyber conflict by enabling offense automation for faster, stealthier, and more damaging attacks. But the revolution has not happened, even though highly capable AI models have been available for several years. The article that Professor Maschmeyer presents in this seminar explains why: There is a gap between defense and offense when it comes to the limits on what AI can do. Cyber offense requires creative deception to burrow into systems and produce desired effects before being discovered. Cyber defense, by contrast, strives to detect such intrusions before they cause harm. AI models struggle with the creativity and deception necessary for offensive operations, but they excel at the pattern recognition that is key for defensive operations - and this relative advantage of defensive tasks increases as the stakes increase.
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Design Futures: From Fictions to Environments
October 14
5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Wentworth Institute of Technology, CEIS Lobby, 555 Parker Street, Boston, MA
RSVP at https://www.architects.org/events/914697/2026/10/14/wit-soad-public-lecture-series-anas-soufan
Anas Soufan, is an assistant professor, artist, architect, and urban planner specialist in the management of historic towns and world heritage sites.
SoAD Public Lecture Series, Fall 2026
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Emily Knox: Book Banning in the 21st Century
Wednesday, October 14
7pm
Boston College, Devlin Hall, 110, 255 Beacon Street, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/emily-knox-book-banning-in-the-21st-century-tickets-1989264749415
Emily Knox is interim dean and professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include information access and intellectual freedom and censorship. She is a member of the Mapping Information Access research team. The second edition of her book Book Banning in 21st Century America was published in January 2026. Her previous book Foundations of Intellectual Freedom won the 2023 Eli M. Oboler Prize for best published work in the area of intellectual freedom. She has been interviewed by media outlets such as NPR and The New York Times and also testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on book banning.
Knox previously served on the boards of the National Coalition Against Censorship, the Freedom to Read Foundation, and is a former editor of the Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy. She received her Ph.D. from the doctoral program at the Rutgers University School of Communication & Information.
Cosponsored by Boston College Libraries, the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, and the Communication Department.
All Lowell Humanities Series lectures are free and open to the public. Registration via Eventbrite is required for in-person attendance.
The Lowell Humanities Series is sponsored by the Lowell Institute, Boston College's Institute for the Liberal Arts, and the Provost's Office.
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ASF Innovation Forum: Developing the Workforce of Tomorrow
Thursday, October 15
8:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Harvard Graduate School of Education, 13 Appian Way, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Please email info@americanswiss.org to register or for more information.
How can we prepare the workforce for a rapidly changing world of work? Join the American Swiss Foundation for a day of transatlantic exchange on career pathways, skills development, apprenticeship, and the partnerships shaping the workforce of tomorrow.
Our partner organization, the American Swiss Foundation (ASF), is hosting its Innovation Forum: Developing the Workforce of Tomorrow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
The ASF Innovation Forum is a cutting-edge program that brings together leaders from government, industry, academia, and the nonprofit sector to exchange transatlantic perspectives on labor innovation and workforce development.
This year’s Forum will welcome the second cohort of ASF Innovation Fellows, including mayors and city workforce development leaders from across the United States. The Forum creates a space for leaders from Switzerland and the United States to exchange approaches, strengthen professional networks, and identify opportunities for collaboration around the future of work.
A detailed program will be shared with registered participants once available.
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Pipeline Pedagogy: Prioritizing American Indian Peoples in Addressing Environmental Crisis
Thursday, October 15
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Gu3lnONvQYO3TY4IuL4t6g#/registration
In the United States, non-Indigenous (non-American Indian) peoples articulate this environmental jeopardy within the privileges of stolen American Indian lands and worlds. Their articulations of climate change and various other related phenomena (e.g., data centers) are both out of conversationwith American Indian peoples and non-responsible to the sovereignties and complexities of American Indian nations and communities as they (American Indian peoples) remain the preeminent sufferers of environmental poisoning and dismemberment within the United States. Using examples from his research in the Lumbee community, in/around MIT, and (increasingly) in Maine, David will begin to place American Indian peoples up front within communicative and policy processes that address environmental poisoning. This placement, which he labels “pipeline pedagogy”, shines a bright light on American Indian peoples as both the first (and continual) victims of environmental poisoning and key stakeholders in business and political processes that sometimes/often allow (and depend on) that poisoning.
Speaker Name Dr. David Shane Lowry, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Native American Studies at University of Southern Maine
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Starr Forum: What Would the US Do in a Middle Power Order?
Thursday, October 15
4:30pm to 6:00pm EDT
MIT, Building E51, 115, Wong Auditorium, 70 MEMORIAL DR, Cambridge, MA 02142
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeENKNXzD6iY7eKVYRhPha2GBLUhgyo5n24MZ6CcD4DCpPbfw/viewform
Anne-Marie Slaughter, Incoming Dean of Public Policy at the London School of Economics
A globally recognized scholar, policy innovator, and public leader, Anne-Marie Slaughter is the incoming dean of public policy at the London School of Economics, and had previously served as the CEO of New America, and as the director of policy planning at the US State Department.
Discussants:
Fotini Christia, Ford International Professor of the Social Sciences; Director, MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society
Taylor Fravel, Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science; Director, MIT Security Studies Program
Noelle Selin, Professor, MIT Institute for Data, Systems and Society and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS); Director, MIT Center for Sustainability Science and Strategy
Refreshments will be served after the event in the main lobby.
Free & open to the public.
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Valley of Death: How Big Tech Is Fueling the Future of War
Thursday, October 15
6:00pm
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sharon-weinberger-at-the-cambridge-public-library-tickets-1996494561979
Harvard Book Store and the Cambridge Public Library welcome Sharon Weinberger—veteran national security correspondent , and former National Security Editor at The Wall Street Journal from 2022 to 2026—for a discussion of her new book, Valley of Death: How Big Tech Is Fueling the Future of War. She will be joined in conversation by Sam Fellman—US Navy veteran with 17 years of journalism experience covering military affairs, currently studying disruptions in military technology and the civil-military order as a Knight Science Journalism fellow at MIT.
About Valley of Death
Drawing on deep, exclusive reporting, a veteran national security correspondent reveals how a new military-industrial complex is arising from the cradle of Silicon Valley, with vast implications for American democracy and the global balance of power.
Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Alexander Karp. These tech titans are fast becoming some of the most powerful figures in the realm of national security, with enormous implications for us all. As Sharon Weinberger reveals in this gripping account, the American military and spy agencies helped to create Silicon Valley as we now know it, and some of its biggest and most valuable companies today owe much of their success to the Pentagon and CIA. Beginning with the War on Terror and accelerating under Donald Trump, however, the old alliance between elected leaders in Washington and the unelected CEOs of Silicon Valley has grown increasingly uneasy as power has shifted to the private sector and Big Tech exerts greater and greater influence over its old patrons. Companies such as SpaceX and Palantir, along with newer entrants to the field such as Anduril, are proudly supporting—and quietly shaping—US national defense, whether by providing spies and soldiers with AI and cloud-computing tools or actual military hardware such as microwave weapons, hypersonic missiles, and advanced drones.
The implications of this historic shift are poorly understood and fraught with peril. What happens when mercurial billionaires like Elon Musk control weapons and technologies that were once the preserve of the US government? How will this new military-industrial complex affect the way wars are fought, or even whichwars are fought? That is the urgent question before us today, at the dawn of this new era—and as Weinberger reveals, it is one on which our collective future might well hinge.
Bios
Sharon Weinberger has been writing on national security issues for more than twenty-five years. She was the National Security Editor at The Wall Street Journal from 2022 to 2026 and has also contributed to The New York Times, New York Magazine, and The Washington Post, among other outlets. Also the author of The Imagineers of War: The Untold Story of DARPA, the Pentagon Agency that Changed the World, A Nuclear Family Vacation: Travels in the World of Atomic Weaponry, and Imaginary Weapons: A Journey Through the Pentagon's Scientific Underworld, she is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has held fellowships at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, MIT’s Knight Science Journalism program, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She lives in Washington, DC. Photo Credit: Pete Kiehart
Sam Fellman is a US Navy veteran with 17 years of journalism experience covering military affairs. He has worked for Harper's Magazine, Military Times, and most recently led Business Insider’s defense team. Sam is currently studying disruptions in military technology and the civil-military order as a Knight Science Journalism fellow at MIT.
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America at 250 and Beyond: A Well-Informed Citizenry
Friday, October 16
4 – 5 p.m.
Harvard, JFK Jr. Forum, Institute of Politics, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge
And online
Livestream at https://www.youtube.com/@HarvardIOP/streams
SPEAKER(S) Jill Lepore (Moderator), Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and professor
David French, Opinion Columnist for the New York Times
Steve Inskeep, NPR, Host, Morning Edition and Up First
Jameel Jaffer, Executive Director, Knight First Amendment Institute, Columbia University
Join us in the JFK Forum for the third installment of our year-long series observing America’s semiquincentennial Consent of the Governed: America at 250 and Beyond.
Moderated by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and professor Jill Lepore, this panel discussion will focus on the importance of a well-informed citizenry to the health of constitutional democracy.
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Call It Evil: Understanding the Trump Era
Friday, October 16
7:00pm
Porter Square Books, Cambridge Edition, 1815 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140-1413
RSVP at https://portersquarebooks.com/form/rsvp-susan-neiman-at-psb-cambrid
ABOUT CALL IT EVIL
Moral philosopher Susan Neiman makes the argument for naming and confronting evil as essential to preserving democracy in an age of demagogues.
Call It Evil is a bold reckoning with one of the most fraught words in our moral vocabulary. Philosopher Susan Neiman argues that “evil” is not a relic of the past or a term to be avoided, but a vital lens through which to understand the threats facing democracy today.
From the rise of Donald Trump to the erosion of shared values, Neiman examines how our reluctance to name evil has left public life vulnerable to demagogues who twist morality to their own ends. Drawing on history—from fascism to the moral failures of recent US leaders—she shows how the normalization of wrongdoing corrodes trust, distorts justice, and endangers our future. This is a book for readers who refuse to accept moral confusion as the price of political life, and who believe that confronting evil is the first step toward renewal.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND CONVERSATION PARTNER
Susan Neiman is an American moral philosopher, cultural commentator, and essayist. She has written extensively on the juncture between Enlightenment moral philosophy, metaphysics, and politics. She lives in Germany.
James Wood has been a staff writer and book critic at The New Yorker since 2007 and is Professor of the Practice of Literary Criticism at Harvard University. He was the chief literary critic at The Guardian, in London, from 1992 to 1995, and a senior editor at The New Republic from 1995 to 2007. His critical essays have been collected in three volumes, The Broken Estate: Essays on Literature and Belief (1999), The Irresponsible Self: On Laughter and the Novel (2004), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and The Fun Stuff, and Other Essays (2012). He has written a study of technique in the novel, How Fiction Works (2008), and two novels, The Book Against God (2003), and Upstate (2018).
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Recent Developments in Energy and Nuclear Power in Japan
Monday, October 19
12:00 PM - 1:15 PM ET
Harvard, Rubenstein 414AB, 79n JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
And online
RSVP at https://hksexeced.tfaforms.net/f/registration?e=a4oPp000001jjLNIAY&_gl
In this Energy Policy Seminar, Hisashi Yoshikawa, Project Professor of the Institute for Future Initiatives at the University of Tokyo, and Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director Emeritus of the International Energy Agency, will discuss emerging trends in Japan's energy system. Mr. Yoshikawa will set the context with a talk entitled, "The Recent Development of Energy and Nuclear in Japan." Mr. Tanaka will then give a talk entitled, "New Geopolitics of Energy: The Role of Nuclear Power and the Implication to Japan."Professor Joe Aldy will moderate. Q&A to follow. Lunch will be served.Registration: RSVP required. A Harvard University ID is required for in-person attendance; all are welcome to attend via Zoom.
About the Speakers
Hisashi Yoshikawa is a Project Professor of the Institute for Future Initiatives (IFI), the University of Tokyo. Before he started to work in the University in September 2011, he worked both in the International Energy Agency (IEA) as Senior Advisor for Long-Term Policy and in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as Deputy Director of the Directorate of Science, Technology and Industry (STI). He also worked in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of the Japanese Government and held director positions including Director of the Service Affairs Policy Division and Director of the Petroleum Distribution Division. His interests include policy planning and implementation, particularly in the field of energy and climate change. He received Master’s degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, in 1987 and a BA in law from the University of Tokyo in 1981. He also works as a Researcher in the Canon Institute for Global Strategy (CIGS).
Nobuo Tanaka is Chairman of the steering committee of the Innovation for Cool Earth Forum (ICEF), which was established by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2014. He was Chairman and President of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation for 2015-2020. As Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) from 2007 to 2011, he initiated a collective release of oil stocks in June 2011. He also played a crucial and personal role in the strengthening of ties with major non-Member energy players, including China and India. He began his career in 1973 in the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), and has served in a number of high-ranking positions, including Director-General of the Multilateral Trade System Department. He was deeply engaged in bilateral trade issues with the United States as Minister for Industry, Trade and Energy at the Embassy of Japan, Washington, D.C. He has also served twice as Director for Science, Technology and Industry (DSTI) of the Paris-based international organization, OECD. As CEO of Tanaka Global Inc, he advises several Japanese and International companies. He graduated from University of Tokyo and has an MBA from Case Western Reserve University. He is currently a Distinguished Fellow at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy and the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan (IEEJ). He chairs the Study Group on Next Generation Nuclear Energy Utilization at Canon Institute of Global Studies (CIGS).
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Stealing America: The Hidden Story of Indigenous Slavery in U.S. History
Monday, October 19
5 – 6:15PM
Tufts, Fung House, 48 Professors Row, Somerville, MA 02144
Join a book talk conversation with professor, historian and author, Linford Fisher, on his new book, Stealing America: The Hidden Story of Indigenous Slavery in U.S. History. Shortlisted for the prestigious Cundill History Prize, Stealing America demonstrates how the enslavement of Indigenous people began in the years just after 1492, ensnaring an estimated three to six million Natives throughout the Americas. Although largely erased from the public consciousness, Native enslavement continued for centuries to become a colossal phenomenon that affected nearly 600,000 Native Americans in North America alone, revealing the shocking truth that American colonizers enslaved Natives in roughly the same numbers as they imported enslaved Africans. The book not only uncovers a five-century genocidal history but also illuminates the myriad ways Native Americans have fought for their sovereignty and maintained community.
Linford Fisher is professor of history and faculty director of the Center for Digital Scholarship at Brown University, where his research and teaching focus on the cultural and religious history of colonial America and the Atlantic world, including Native Americans, religion, material culture, and slavery.
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Environmental change and cognitive decline: The role of heat and particulate matter exposure
Wednesday, October 21
9:30am -10:30pm ET [1.30 PM - 2.30 PM GMT]
Online
RSVP at https://www.bristol.ac.uk/cabot/events/2026/environmental-change-and-cognitive-decline---cch-seminar-.html
Wendy Fang, Tim Leeder
University of Bristol staff and students also have the option to attend this event in-person. Please see internal event advert.
The Cabot Institute for the Environment and the Elizabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research invite you to attend the next Climate Change and Health seminar.
In this seminar, Wendy Fang and Tim Leeder will explore how climate change and air pollution may be shaping the global rise in dementia, from long-term international trends to emerging evidence on the potential role of airborne metal particulates in triggering neurodegenerative disease.
Wendy Fang - Exploring the long-term effect of environmental factors on dementia.
Wendy is a PhD student in the School of Geography at the University of Bristol. Her research focuses on exploring the long-term effects of temperature and air pollution on human health, with a particular focus on dementia, and on understanding how evidence can support older people in adapting. She became interested in climate change and health during her master's degree and has been exploring this area ever since.
Abstract
The effect of temperature and air pollution on the incidence of dementia is hard to study in individuals because of the long latency period of dementia, meaning that 20+ years of pollution, climate, and dementia data would be required. The incidence of dementia differs between countries, and the reasons for this may shed light on the risk factors for dementia. Here, Wendy presents results from an ongoing project that integrated selected country-level surface temperature, PM2.5, and NO₂ concentration data from the past twenty years, together with national proportions of elderly and annual numbers of dementia incidence cases among older populations. The study used data from 50 countries to examine decadal trends in climate change, air pollution, population ageing, and dementia incidence. This ecological study provides evidence on the associations between country-level mean temperature and air pollution with dementia incidence.
Tim Leeder - Aerosol Mediated Risks of Dementia - are metal particulates significant?
Tim has worked within many different industries from Investment Banking to Technology Startups and a stint at Technology Strategy Board (now Innovate UK). Currently a Senior Research Fellow in Applied Biosciences, he is the recipient of a five - year Fellowship that started as an intellectual curiosity while working for Professor Jeremy O’Brien in the Centre for Quantum Photonics and builds upon his ‘hobby’ of a decade of self-funded research into Alzheimer’s and Dementia.
Abstract
There is consensus over much of the landscape of neurodegenerative disease; in the case of Alzheimer’s and Dementias the scale of costs to the individual and society are well-characterised, as are the pathologies that accompany disease.
These appear to be diseases of the modern world and during the course of the last century there has been significant industrial development and technological innovations. This has seen significant improvements in the prevention and treatment of many diseases and yet we see an (apparently) inexorable rise in the incidence of dementias. The Aerosol Mediated Modifiable Risks of Alzheimer’s Disease Fellowship explores a possible link between the rise in particulate matter emissions, principally: pollutants from internal combustion engine sources (found ubiquitously across the globe) and the biochemical initiation of the neurodegenerative processes that underpin Alzheimer’s and Dementia.
Editorial Comment: It certainly seems from my observation that environmental decline does lead to cognitive decline, especially in those who deny most vociferously that any environmental decline is happening at all.
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Weaving Wonder: Human Flourishing in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Wednesday, October 21
12 PM ET
Online
RSVP at https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2026-orit-shaer-fellow-presentation-virtual
A presentation from 2026–2027 Sally Starling Seaver Fellow Orit Shaer
Orit Shaer is a professor of computer science at Wellesley College and a leading scholar in human-computer interaction whose work advances human-centered approaches to artificial intelligence for creativity, learning, and collaboration. At Radcliffe, she will write “Weaving Wonder: Human Flourishing in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,” a book that guides readers in shaping AI technologies that expand rather than diminish human potential.
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China and US-China relations
Wednesday, October 21
12:00pm to 1:30pm EDT
MIT, Building E40, 496, 1 AMHERST ST, Cambridge, MA 02142
And online
Livestream at https://www.youtube.com/@mitsecuritystudiesprogram5272/streams
Professor Evan Medeiros from Georgetown University will give a presentation at the MIT Security Studies Program's Wednesday Seminar.
Summary: For this seminar, Professor Medeiros will discuss a range of China-related topics including East Asian security, US-China relations, and modern Chinese and American defense and foreign policy.
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Coding Kids: Big Tech's Battle to Remake Public Schools
Wednesday, October 21
6:00pm
Harvard Science Center, Hall E, downstairs at 1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/natasha-singer-at-the-harvard-science-center-tickets-1997478522030
Harvard Book Store, the Harvard University Division of Science, and the Harvard Library welcome Natasha Singer—a Pulitzer Prize finalist for National Reporting who has covered tech industry influence in schools for the New York Times for more than a decade—for a discussion of her new book, Coding Kids: Big Tech's Battle to Remake Public Schools. She will be joined in conversation by Cathy O'Neill—CEO of ORCAA, a founder and board member of OCEAN, and author of Weapons of Math Destruction and The Shame Machine.
About Coding Kids
The inside story of how Big Tech catalyzed, co-opted, and ultimately came to capture computer science and AI education in America.
Fourth graders doing Google-branded coding lessons. Amazon schooling seventh graders on its warehouse robots. Advanced Placement computing courses from Microsoft and Apple. Many educators and parents would object if Exxon wrote their school’s climate curriculum—or if schools assigned nutrition lessons from Coca-Cola and McDonald’s. Yet today, tech giants influence nearly every step of the education supply chain. They provide the classroom devices and software many students use to do assignments. They sell schools on the latest artificial intelligence tools. And increasingly, tech companies are launching their own corporate-branded school curricula, shaping how and what millions of children learn.
In recent years, the tech industry has helped spread computer science and AI education in schools at astonishing speed and scale. In Coding Kids, award-winning New York Times journalist Natasha Singer draws on a decade of reporting to reveal how tech titans used the promise of coding (high-paying jobs! change the world!) to weave rosy industry visions of technology into the very fabric of American education, sometimes sidelining crucial ideas like civics and critical thinking. Along the way, Singer takes readers through the powerful playbook Big Tech used to scale coding lessons nationwide. Then she shows readers how tech companies are now applying the same playbook to mainstream their AI tools in schools.
A revelatory account of the powerful forces shaping education and our kids’ futures, Coding Kids also offers hope. It tells the compelling stories of pioneering teachers fighting for a broader vision of tech education—one that not only teaches kids algorithms and app-making, but also asks students to grapple with the societal impacts of tech giants and their disruptive digital tools.
Bios
Natasha Singer has covered tech industry influence in schools for the New York Times for more than a decade. Her school tech reporting helped prompt California to enact a landmark student online data protection law. In 2019, she was part of a Times team whose tech coverage won a George Polk Award and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.
Cathy O’Neil earned a Ph.D. in math from Harvard and worked as a math professor at Barnard College before switching over to the private sector, working as a quant for the hedge fund D.E. Shaw and as a data scientist in the New York start-up scene. In 2016 she wrote the book Weapons of Math Destruction: how big data increases inequality and threatens democracy, and in 2022 she wrote The Shame Machine: who profits in the new age of humiliation. She is the CEO of ORCAA, an algorithmic auditing company and a founder and board member of OCEAN, a non-profit defending the public interest against algorithmic harm.
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Lowell Lecture: AI and Civic Engagement with Nathan Sanders, Dr. Avijit Ghosh, and Jessica Chapel
Wednesday, October 21
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Bioston Public Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street, Boston MA 02116
And online
RSVP at https://bpl.libcal.com/event/16247524
Artificial Intelligence experts Nathan Sanders, Dr. Avijit Ghosh, and Jessica Chapel lead a panel discussion on AI and civic engagement as a part of the 2026 Lowell Lecture Series; moderated by BPL President David Leonard.
Jessica Chapel is Chief of Digital & Online Services at the Boston Public Library, where she leads digitization, digital stewardship, and UX, with a growing focus on AI's role in information access and discovery. Her department operates Digital Commonwealth, the statewide repository connecting 270+ Massachusetts libraries, archives, and museums. She co-hosts an ongoing speaker series with the Leventhal Map & Education Center on AI and cultural heritage collections, and co-moderates BPL's AI Interest Group.
Dr. Avijit Ghosh is a Lead Technical AI Policy Researcher at Hugging Face, a central platform for open AI models, datasets, and research tools used by industry, government, and academic developers worldwide. He is also a Research Affiliate at the University of Connecticut. His work sits at the intersection of AI research and policy, with a central focus on how we measure and benchmark AI systems, and whether those measurements can actually be trusted. He founded and leads the EvalEval Coalition, a multi-stakeholder initiative bringing methodological rigor and accountability to AI evaluation. His broader research spans algorithmic bias, agent autonomy, AI for science, and third-party flaw disclosure, with coverage in The New York Times, Forbes, The Guardian, ProPublica, Wired, andMIT Technology Review. He represents Hugging Face in technical engagements with legislators and regulators in the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, and Singapore on open-source AI governance and evaluation standards. His work has helped shape AI regulation in New York City and prompted Facebook to remove its biased ad targeting algorithm.
Nathan E. Sanders is a data scientist focused on making policymaking more participatory. His research spans machine learning, astrophysics, public health, environmental justice, and more. He has served in fellowships and the Massachusetts legislature and the Berkman-Klein Center at Harvard University. You can find his writing on AI and democracy in publications like The New York Times and The Atlantic and at his website, nsanders.me.
After the main program, in-person audience members can meet the speakers in the Connector Space located just outside of Rabb Hall.
This program will happen in-person and over Zoom Webinar. We plan to open doors twenty minutes in advance for our in-person audience.
Please note: registration will open on Wednesday, September 9 at 6:00 PM.This program is part of the Lowell Lecture Series generously sponsored by the Lowell Institute through the Boston Public Library Fund.
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Maria Claudia Clemente and Francesco Isidori, "The Architecture of Public Space”
Wednesday, October 21
6:30 – 8 p.m.
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Piper Auditorium, Gund Hall, 48 Quincy Street, Cambridge
RSVP at https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/event/labics/
SPEAKER(S) Maria Claudia Clemente and Francesco Isidori, Founders of Labics
Labics is an architecture and urban design practice, founded in Rome in 2002 by Maria Claudia Clemente and Francesco Isidori. Drawing on the reflections in The Architecture of Public Space (Park Books, 2023), this lecture will illustrate several examples from Labics’s recent architectural work, where the connection between architecture, the city, and public space is most evident.
LINK www.gsd.harvard.edu…
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Community-based scaling for innovations in sustainability
Thursday, October 22
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kO3UQ0X_QG-ejmHY4_vSyw#/registration
Society currently faces many, interconnected and accelerating sustainability challenges. We also have many innovative solutions that, if rapidly scaled, could help address these challenges. But most solutions do not scale or, if they do, only do so at rates that cannot keep up with intensifying problems. What if scaling could be accelerated through strategies that work? We’ll use an interactive, dynamic model of community-based scaling approaches to explore when this strategy is needed, how it works, and why it can be far more effective than outreach, advertising, or word-of-mouth scaling approaches. We’ll explore how community-based scaling has been used to innovations in sustainability education, regenerative agriculture, and political movements. The model and its initial application are described by Rooney-Varga et al. (2024).
Speaker Name Dr. Juliette Rooney-Varga, Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Massachusetts Lowell
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4TH Internatuional Virtual Climate Change Education Summit 2026
Thursday, October 22
1 PM - 8 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/4th-international-virtual-climate-change-education-summit-2026-tickets-1997684948457
An educational event aimed at exploring artificial intelligence for climate resilience, good health and well-being.
4TH INTERNATIONAL VIRTUAL CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION SUMMIT 2026
Theme: Exploring Artificial Intelligence for Climate Resilience, Good Health and Well-Being
You are cordially invited to join an inspiring global gathering of researchers, educators, innovators, policymakers, environmentalists, health professionals, students, and sustainability champions at the 4th International Virtual Climate Change Education Summit 2026.This event shall feature seminar presentations, workshops, research collaboration opportunities, mentorship and networking sessions aimed at exploring artificial intelligence for climate resilience, good health and well-being. As the world confronts the growing challenges of climate change, there is an urgent need for innovative solutions that can protect our environment, strengthen community resilience, and promote healthy and sustainable societies. This Summit provides a dynamic platform to explore how Artificial Intelligence (AI)can transform climate change education, environmental protection, healthcare, sustainable development, and climate resilience.Come and connect with distinguished experts, share knowledge, discover innovative ideas, build meaningful collaborations, and contribute to shaping a greener and healthier future.
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How the Press Must Change to Save Democracy
Thursday, October 22
2:30pm ET [5:30 PM PDT]
Commonwealth Club World Affairs of California, 110 The Embarcadero, Toni Rembe Rock Auditorium, San Francisco, CA 94105
And online
RSVP at https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/2026-10-22/tom-rosenstiel-how-press-must-change-save-democracy-0
Cost: $30/$45 with a book in person
$10/$33 with a book online
SPEAKERS
Tom Rosenstiel.Eleanor Merrill Professor on the Future of Journalism, University of Maryland; Author, The Next Journalism: How the Press Must Change to Serve Democracy
Moderator: Neil Chase, Chief Executive Officer, CalMatters and The Markup
The crisis in journalism, says veteran journalist and media critic Tom Rosenstiel, reflects a crisis in American democracy. Faith in news outlets has dwindled, news deserts are expanding, and audiences are turning away from alarmist, partisan, and fragmented coverage.
In his new book The Next Journalism, Rosenstiel argues that the roots of journalism’s failure are intellectual, not just financial or technological. He outlines ten fundamental ways journalism must change to become more useful, trustworthy, and collaborative with the communities it serves.
From redefining news as a service rather than a product, to embracing transparency, to harnessing AI responsibly, Rosenstiel provides a bold, practical framework for rebuilding a press that empowers citizens instead of alienating them. With case studies, historical insight, and forward-looking ideas, this book offers journalists, policymakers, and readers alike a roadmap to ensuring democracy’s survival in the twenty-first century.
Tom Rosenstiel is a journalist, media critic, researcher, novelist, and professor. He is the author of seven influential nonfiction books, including The Elements of Journalism, and four novels. Rosenstiel has been a press critic for the Los Angeles Times, chief congressional correspondent for Newsweek, press critic for MSNBC, and director of media studies at the Pew Research Center. He also led the American Press Institute and now serves as Eleanor Merrill Professor on the Future of Journalism at the University of Maryland. His new book is The Next Journalism: How the Press Must Change to Serve Democracy.
forum. Any views expressed in our programs are those of the speakers and not of Commonwealth Club World Affairs.
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Crossing the Red Line: Biden, His Advisors, and Israel's War in Gaza
Thursday, October 22
7:00pm
Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-3820
Harvard Book Store welcomes Akbar Shahid Ahmed—award-winning journalist and Diplomatic Correspondent at The Washington Sun—for a discussion of his new book, Crossing the Red Line: Biden, His Advisors, and Israel's War in Gaza. He will be joined in conversation by Indira Lakshmanan—co-host of NPR & WBUR's Here & Now.
About Crossing the Red Line
A powerful and authoritative account of how the Biden administration fueled atrocities in Gaza, from an award-winning foreign affairs journalist.
Following Hamas’s horrific October 7 attack, Israel launched an offensive of staggering violence in Gaza, saying it targeted militants while regularly striking hospitals, schools, and homes. Critically acclaimed journalist Akbar Shahid Ahmed offers extensive reporting and chilling new details about how the Biden administration enabled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—ignoring warnings from government experts and implicating Americans in thousands of apparent war crimes. Washington did little to free Israeli hostages or shield innocent Palestinians as protests grew nationwide and international human rights principles crumbled. Still, President Joe Biden denied he was giving Netanyahu a blank check. He set a “red line” over the town of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians were sheltering, saying an assault there would risk Israel’s pipeline of American bombs. Yet after Netanyahu’s advance began, deepening Gaza’s humanitarian catastrophe, Biden’s team kept weapons flowing.
In vivid prose and with unparalleled access to insiders, Ahmed depicts a White House that resisted a course correction as its failures became undeniable. He probes Biden’s inner circle: a paranoid and imperious group shaped by the War on Terror, whose choices fueled tens of thousands of avoidable deaths among Palestinians, Lebanese, and Israelis, torpedoed long-time standards for warfare, and created a more dangerous world for us all. The Biden administration’s decisions drove voter backlash that helped Donald Trump regain power, and established patterns of impunity that have spurred wider bloodshed under Trump.
Crossing the Red Line is an urgent reckoning with Biden’s record on Gaza that is vital to understanding historic damage to America’s standing in the world, and a period whose dark consequences will resonate globally for decades to come.
Bios
Akbar Shahid Ahmed is the Diplomatic Correspondent at The Washington Sun, based in Washington, D.C. For his Gaza coverage, Ahmed has received a Writers Guild Award and a New York Press Club Award, and twice been named a finalist for the Livingston Award. He is a Yale graduate who, for 12 years, covered foreign policy at HuffPost and grew up in Karachi, Pakistan.
Indira Lakshmanan is co-host of NPR & WBUR's Here & Now. A veteran foreign correspondent and political reporter with decades of experience covering global events and U.S. policy, Lakshmanan has previously contributed to numerous NPR shows as a guest host and journalist, including 1A, On Point, Weekend Edition and Here & Now. Previously, she was the ideas and opinions editor at U.S. News & World Report and led the organization's effort to showcase a wide range of perspectives. Her career has spanned six continents, reporting and editing for national newspapers and magazines in Washington D.C. and Boston, two global wire services, radio, TV, and podcasts. Learn more about her at npr.org.
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Bringing Vienna’s Climate Strategy into the Doughnut - Virtual Session
Friday, October 23
8 AM - 9 AM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bringing-viennas-climate-strategy-into-the-doughnut-virtual-session-tickets-2001054743605
Doughnut Vienna (Donut Wien) will share project work with the City of Vienna to shape a safe, just future locally and globally.
For Global Doughnut Days 2026, Donut Wien will present the process and key findings of Vienna's qualitative Doughnut Portrait, inviting open reflection on what the research reveals about the city's social and ecological future.
In Autumn 2026 and only one year after Doughnut Vienna was officially founded, the City of Vienna will present its Climate Action Plan (Klimafahrplan) — and it will be Doughnut-shaped.
Over the past months we have been working with representatives from Vienna's climate team to develop a Doughnut Portrait which aligns the goals and principles of the city's new climate strategy with those of the Doughnut. The Portrait outlines areas of alignment while also pinpointing areas for future development. It covers the Doughnut's key social and ecological dimensions and also assesses the strategy through the seven Doughnut Economics Principles. We hope it can be the start of a process that can shape future strategy and action inline with human and planetary flourishing - and we'd love to hear what this community thinks!
In this interactive discussion the Doughnut Vienna team will discuss:
How the project came about
Our process (covering research methodology, dialogue with local decisionmakers, as well as scientific support, including from the DEAL team)
Key outcomes / findings
Next steps (as part of an audience discussion about where we go from here)
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Africa in a Post-Aid World: Reimagining the Global Architecture of Prosperity
Friday, October 23
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET
Harvard, Kennedy School, Littauer Building L-9-Malkin Penthouse, 79 JFK Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
And online
RSVP at https://www.hks.harvard.edu/events/youth-leadership-africas-future-ahunna-eziakonwa-undp-africa-director
Join the Harvard Center for International Development in welcoming Her Excellency Ahunna Eziakonwa, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa to the United Nations Secretary-General, for a conversation on Africa’s role in a changing global order.
At a time when aid and development financing are increasingly contested, Africa and its diaspora face consequential choices about the terms on which they will participate in the global economy. For decades, aid has framed the continent primarily as a recipient. Eziakonwa will explore the structural question at the heart of a post-aid world: Who builds, owns, and governs the systems on which African prosperity depends?
Drawing on the mandate of the UN Office of the Special Adviser on Africa to advance UN system support for Agenda 2063, she will argue that Africa is not capital-scarce but requires the financial, industrial, digital, and institutional systems that enable its wealth to serve its people. The conversation will consider what this shift means for African UN Member States, the multilateral system, and Africa’s global partnerships in the next phase of the continent’s development.This event is hosted by Harvard’s Center for International Development and will be held in a hybrid format.
All are welcome. Harvard ID holders are encouraged to attend in person, while non-HUID guests are invited to join via livestream or access the event recording afterward.
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Decoding Addiction: Breaking new ground in research and clinical care
Friday, October 23
1:00pm to 5:10pm EDT
MIT, Building 46, Singleton Auditorium, 43 VASSAR ST, Cambridge, MA 02139
RSVP at https://mcgovern.mit.edu/events/mcgovern-institute-annual-symposium/decoding-addiction/
Symposium Overview
This symposium brings together scientists, engineers, clinicians, and emerging researchers whose work advances the understanding and treatment of substance use disorders. Spanning discoveries in humans and animal models, the conference bridges basic research and clinical care, fostering collaborations that result in novel treatment strategies for one of society’s most urgent public health challenges.
Speakers Include:
Patricia Janak, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Departments of Psychological and Brain Sciences, and Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Geoffrey Schoenbaum, Distinguished Investigator, Chief, Cellular and Neurocomputational Systems; Branch Chief, Behavioral Neurophysiology Neuroscience Section, National Institute on Drug Abuse
A. Eden Evins, Director of Center for Addiction Medicine, Mass General Hospital
Sarah Wakeman, Senior Medical Director for Substance Use Disorder, Mass General Brigham
Yasaman Bioki, Research Scientist, Gabrieli lab at MIT
Ke Chen, Postdoctoral Associate, Wang lab at MIT
Pema Maretich, Postdoctoral Associate, Anikeeva lab at MIT
Wenyu Tu, Postdoctoral Associate, Jasanoff lab at MIT
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Climate Change and the Future of Boston
Saturday, October 24
2 PM - 3 PM
Boston Public Library, Central Library in Copley Square, Rabb Hall, 700 Boylston Street, Boston, MA
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climate-change-and-the-future-of-boston-tickets-1993696368507
Join us as author Courtney Humphries discusses her new book on the climate impacts facing Boston and the city’s efforts to adapt
Like many of the world’s iconic coastal cities, Boston faces potentially severe impacts from climate change. Depending on global emissions, Boston could face several feet of sea level rise this century, which would leave many parts of the city subject to tidal and storm flooding. Precipitation events could become more frequent and extreme, and its already-humid summers could become dangerously hot, with most days over 90 degrees. Today, Boston is a booming city with a growing population, a glittering new waterfront neighborhood, world-class universities and a strong economy. Its future risks and opportunities related to climate change are shaped by the 400-year environmental, social and economic history of the city’s development.
Climate Change and the Future of Boston describes how Boston’s history and current context shape future climate impacts and examines the mitigation and adaptation strategies the city has taken. Boston is a leader in acknowledging the problem of climate change; it has set a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050, among other climate-related goals. It has also developed science-based climate models and undertaken a robust planning process to identify strategies to protect its waterfront from flooding and increase its resilience to other climate-related impacts. Its mayor has embraced a progressive Green New Deal for Boston emphasizing the need for an inclusive and equitable approach to climate mitigation and adaptation. But the city also faces structural challenges, such as aging infrastructure, historic racial inequities, rising gentrification and income inequality and ongoing political and regulatory obstacles that hinder efforts to adapt in an efficient and just manner. She will conclude with a set of forward-looking scenarios about what the future may have in store for the city and the lessons it holds for other coastal cities struggling with these challenges.
Courtney Humphries, PhD, is an interdisciplinary scholar, teacher, and award-winning journalist writing about science and the urban environment.
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Libraries and positive climate action: accessible climate information
Monday, October 26
12 PM - 1:30 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/libraries-and-positive-climate-action-accessible-climate-information-tickets-1997453762975
This webinar will focus on how climate information and science can be demystified and made accessible.
In a time of adverse weather events, libraries are working on ways they can support their users and local communities who face the impacts of climate change.
The British Library is hosting a series of webinars focused on libraries and the climate crisis. The aim of the series is to bring together international library leaders to share their different responses to the climate emergency. This year, our Libraries and Positive Climate Action webinar series explores what climate resilience means to libraries around the world.
The first session on accessible and participatory climate information will be chaired by Maja Maricevic, Director of Science and Innovation at the British Library.
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When Federal Climate Policy Works
Monday, October 26
12:15 pm – 1:15 pm
Princeton, 300 Wallace Hall, Princeton, NJ
And online
RSVP at https://cpree.princeton.edu/events/2026/when-federal-climate-policy-works
Speaker
David Vogel, Emeritus Professor, University of California , Berkeley
David Vogel is Professor Emeritus, the Haas School of Business and the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He received his PhD from the Department of Politics at Princeton. Vogel has written extensively on environmental policy at the state, national, and international levels. He is the author of nine books and several articles and essays on the national, comparative and international dimensions of consumer and environmental regulation. His most recent book is When Federal Climate Policy Works: Benefits, Business and Politics (with Roger Karapin) MIT Press, 2026. Vogel’s research has been recognized with lifetime achievement awards from the European Consortium for Political Research and the Section on Science, Technology and Environmental Politics of the American Political Science Association.
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Rama S. Mehta Lecture with Farida Shaheed
Monday, October 26
4 – 5 p.m.
Harvard, Knafel Center, 10 Garden Street, Cambridge
And online
RSVP at https://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2026-farida-shaheed-lecture
SPEAKER(S) Farida Shaheed, United Nations Special Rapporteur Executive director of Shirkat Gah—Women's Resource Centre, Pakistan
Harvard Radcliffe Institute welcomes Farida Shaheed, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to education and executive director of Shirkat Gah—Women's Resource Centre, Pakistan, to deliver the 2026–2027 Rama S. Mehta Lecture. Shaheed is a sociologist and lifelong activist who has spent decades advancing the rights of women and girls in Pakistan and around the world. Drawing on her career in gender justice, Shaheed will discuss her advocacy for the right to education and her proposal to frame academic freedom as an autonomous human right.
Editorial Comment: Project Drawdown is working on education for girls and women because it is a very effective measure to reduce greenhouse gases and climate change: https://drawdown.org/publications/girls-education-family-planning-and-climate-adaptation
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Arthur Miller Lecture on Science and Ethics
Monday, October 26
4:00pm - 5:30pm EDT
MIT Welcome Center,292 Main St, Cambridge, MA 02142
And online
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScqofZsgVXPCXwlvdnguU2rFbri5lhu8Ueb3t2PtxgRMiLUOg/viewform
Livestream at https://calendar.mit.edu/event/arthur-miller-lecture-on-science-and-ethics-chatbots-in-childrens-toys-a-natural-progression-or-an-existential-crisis#about_stream
The Program in Science, Technology, and Society invites you to the annual Arthur Miller Lecture in Science and Ethics on Monday, October 26th from 4:00-5:30 pm in the MIT Welcome Center, for a panel lecture on the use of chatbots in children's toys. The panel features Professor Mimi Ito, Director of the Connected Learning Lab, Professor Sherry Turkle, founding director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self, and Mike Rizkalla, CEO & Founder of Snorble, a visionary leader in AI, consumer robotics, humanoid robotics, and children's technology.
2027 Arthur Miller Lecture on Science and Ethics
There are many views surrounding the advances in children's toys with artificial intelligence capabilities. From a sociological standpoint, some experts believe children should not be the consumers of relational AI, programs that pretend to have a self, capable of humanlike connection. Chatbots draw us into a game of pretend — and for some, pretend empathy becomes empathy enough. While the seductions of pretend empathy are dangerous for all of us, children have no defense; they are first-time learners.
Others in the field view the advent of these new computers, or robots and physical AI, as a chance to change the outcomes we build for ourselves and to realign incentives. Joy, laughter, and love can be something different to everyone. To a child, it is having someone to play with. To a parent, it is five minutes where nothing is going wrong. To a grandparent, it is seeing their family happy.
Embodied AI is a blank canvas. A new mix of cameras, sensors, voice, character, and context gives us a whole new toolkit to do good things, to help people in ways that were never available before. We need to stop running in the other direction and embrace the tech before it becomes weaponized. We need smart, idealistic people leading what comes next, and that is where the smart money should be.
About Mimi Ito
Mimi Ito is a cultural anthropologist, learning scientist, entrepreneur, and an advocate for connected learning—learning that is equity-oriented, centered on youth interest, and socially connected. Her work decodes digital youth culture for parents and educators, offering ways to tap interests and digital media to fuel learning that is engaging, relevant, and social. She is Professor in Residence and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Chair in Digital Media and Learning at the University of California, Irvine, where she directs the Connected Learning Lab. The CLL stewards the Connected Learning Alliance, an expanding network of educators, experts and youth-serving organizations mobilizing new technology in the service of equity, access and opportunity for all young people. Mimi is also co-founder of Connected Camps, a non-profit providing online learning experiences for kids in all walks of life. Her publications include: Algorithmic Rights and Protections for Children (2023), Social Media and Youth Wellbeing (2020), The Connected Learning Research Network: Reflections on a Decade of Engaged Scholarship (2020), Affinity Online: How Connection and Shared Interest Fuel Learning (2018), and From Good Intentions to Real Outcomes: Equity by Design in Learning Technologies (2017). Her website is https://mimiito.com/
About Sherry Turkle
Sherry Turkle is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at MIT, and the founding director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. She is a specialist in how technology changes us psychologically and socially. Her new book is on our relationships with chatbots —Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines. It will be published by Little, Brown and Company on September 29, 2026. It captures the seductive, beguiling nature of our new faux companions, tracing their effects throughout a human life—from childhood to parenthood, from work to love and more. She warns that these machines are quietly reshaping us - teaching us to avoid risk, sidestep difficult conversations, deny grief, and relinquish skills that make us human: empathy, resilience, the ability to navigate uncertainty. Her website is https://www.sherryturkle.com/
About Mike Rizkalla
Mike Rizkalla is a visionary entrepreneur and creative technologist recognized for pioneering work in embodied AI and human-centered robotics. As the CEO and Co-Founder of Snorble, he leads a mission to democratize early childhood development through emotionally intelligent technology—bridging the worlds of Robotics, AI, animation, and education to empower families and inspire children’s growth.
A veteran of the robotics and creative industries, Mike’s career spans over two decades of innovation at the intersection of storytelling and technology. He previously founded Brave New World, an award-winning product house, with its own AI, IoT and robotics lab that designed interactive products and experiences for global brands such as Ford, Google, YouTube, DefJam, Scholastic, Target, UFC, Discovery Channel, MTV and Blackberry. Their work in the lab incubated Snorble and helped shape a new generation of character driven AI companions.
Widely regarded as an expert in embodied AI systems, Mike advises multiple startups and funds in the robotics ecosystem, collaborating with leading engineers, investors, and visionaries advancing humanoid robotics and AI ethics worldwide. His passion lies in developing technologies that foster empathy, imagination, and connection—bringing “technology with heart” to life. His website is https://www.mikerizkalla.com/
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Innovation on Steroids: What are We Learning from the Ukraine War?
Monday, October 26
4:30pm to 6:00pm EDT
TBD
RSVP at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeOrGCAtctbGjmTbPk8iLDHIoHF-dhJ983gFOqQKQYvujFk5Q/viewform
Speakers
Erik Lin Greenberg, associate professor of political science; co-director, Wargaming Lab, MIT Security Studies Program
Erik Lin Greenberg's research examines how emerging military technology affects conflict dynamics and the regulation and use of force. His book, The Remote Revolution: Drones and Modern Statecraft (Cornell University Press), explores how remote warfighting technologies are reshaping international politics. In other ongoing projects, he explores how technology and public opinion influence international politics and decisions on the use of force. He is also interested in the international politics of food and the use of wargaming as a tool of scholarly inquiry. Before entering academia, he was an active duty officer in the United States Air Force and completed assignments in operational units, Headquarters Air Force, and the Joint Staff. He currently commands a squadron in the Air Force Reserve.
Gene Keselman, principal lecturer, technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and strategic management, MIT Sloan School
Gene Keselman has held leadership positions in a range of start-ups: he is the co-founder of ServDAO and formerly co-founder of Esports One and the Foundation for Innovation and Discovery (FINND), where he is now a board director. He sits on the Reagan Institute’s National Security Industrial Base Advisory Board, supports numerous startups as a board advisor and has also been a space and defense industry consultant. As a military officer in the Air Force Reserves, Colonel Keselman works as the senior Reservist and Director, Strategic Incubation & SSG Reserve Program for the Chief of Staff of the Air Force’s Strategic Studies Group (SSG).
Co-chairs
Carol Saivetz is a senior fellow in the MIT Security Studies Program at the Center for International Studies (CIS). She is the author and contributing co-editor of books and articles on Soviet and now Russian foreign policy issues.
Elizabeth Wood is Ford International Professor of History at MIT. She is the author most recently of Roots of Russia’s War in Ukraine as well as articles on Vladimir Putin, the political cult of WWII, right-wing populism in Russia and Turkey, and U.S.-Russian Partnerships in Science. She is director of the MIT-Ukraine Program at CIS.
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Progress in the Face of Pushback: Grantham Institute Annual Lecture 2026 with Anne Hidalgo
Tuesday, October 27
1:30pm - 4:30pm ET [5:30 PM - 8:30 PM GMT]
Register to See Address in London, United Kingdom
And online
RSVP at https://luma.com/uyqc0kwq
Around the world, the leaders driving the most ambitious climate action are increasingly finding themselves at the centre of political polarisation, misinformation campaigns, and public backlash. Yet history shows that transformative change has rarely been achieved by following the path of least resistance. From redesigning cities and defending climate science to challenging vested interests, bold leadership often demands the willingness to go against the grain and withstand intense scrutiny.
In this keynote address, Anne Hidalgo, former Mayor of Paris, Global Ambassador for the Global Covenant of Mayors and one of Europe's most influential urban climate leaders, will reflect on her experience leading the transformation of one of the world's largest cities. From reclaiming streets for people and expanding active transport to tackling air pollution and embedding climate resilience into urban planning, she will examine how sustained political opposition and misinformation became defining features of delivering change. Drawing on lessons from Paris, Hidalgo will explore what it takes to build trust, maintain conviction under pressure, and deliver tangible benefits of ambitious climate action.
About the speaker
In 2014, Anne Hidalgo became the first woman to be elected Mayor of Paris, after serving as First Deputy Mayor of Paris from 2001 to 2014. A member of the Socialist Party, she had graduated with a Master of Advanced Studies in social law before becoming a labour inspector and going on to serve as an adviser to three Ministers under the Lionel Jospin Government. In 2020, she was re-elected Mayor of Paris, with an ambitious programme designed to transform Paris into a zero-carbon city by 2050. She successfully led Paris's bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. As Mayor of Paris until March 2026, Anne Hidalgo pursued an ambitious policy agenda focused on housing for families and universal, inclusive public services, working to improve air quality, combat climate change and adapt the city to the climate challenge, reducing car use, greening public spaces and prioritising pedestrians. She fulfilled a promise first made in 1988 to make the Seine swimmable again, ending a ban that had been in place for over a century. She has equally championed these issues on the international stage. In December 2015 in Paris, she organised the climate summit for local leaders, a major side event of COP21. She chaired the C40 Cities Leadership Group and served as President of the International Association of Francophone Mayors (AIMF) and Co-Chair of the World Organization of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG). Today, she continues in her role as Global Ambassador of the Global Covenant of Mayors, working on climate leadership with mayors around the world.
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The Practice of Wisdom
Tuesday, October 27
6:00pm
Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02138
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-practice-of-wisdom-panel-at-the-cambridge-public-library-tickets-1996508984116
Harvard Book Store and the Cambridge Public Library welcome Davíd Carrasco, the Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of the Study of Latin America at Harvard University, Arthur Kleinman, the Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Anthropology at Harvard, Stephanie Paulsell, Professor Emerita at Harvard Divinity School, and Michael Puett, the Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology at Harvard, for a discussion of their new book, The Practice of Wisdom: Five Quests. They will be joined in conversation by Rev. Matthew Ichihashi Potts—Minister in the Memorial Church and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard University.
About The Practice of Wisdom
A master class from four renowned Harvard professors—an anthropologist, a physician, a theologian, and a historian—on discovering wisdom in challenging times.
In moments of uncertainty, to whom do we turn for solace and insight? How can we endure and overcome our own suffering? Harvard University professors Davíd Carrasco, Arthur Kleinman, Stephanie Paulsell, and Michael Puett turn to great thinkers, artists, and religious traditions not for definitive answers, but for lessons we can bring to our own quests for wisdom. Wisdom, they find, is not an abstract ideal but a way of living formed by caring for others and through everyday practices of solitude, ritual, and art. Based on their celebrated Harvard course, The Practice of Wisdom helps us brave loneliness, grief, and crises and bring beauty, healing, and spiritual significance into our lives.
Wisdom, they teach, is an ongoing quest—a practice to be lived and deliberately cultivated. Through five interwoven chapters, we travel from Chinese temples and Hindu ashrams to Emily Dickinson’s Homestead and US-Mexico borderlands. We encounter philosopher William James on the power of the subconscious after trauma; theologian Howard Thurman on solitude as a source of dignity; Toni Morrison on the interplay between mercy and goodness; writer John Phillip Santos on generational wisdom; physician Paul Farmer on medical compassion; and Confucius on ritual as a way of breaking the patterns that entrap us. We hear from Wendy Doniger, the eminent scholar of Hinduism, whose reflections present wisdom as a lifelong, unfinished art of seeking meaning, balance, and purpose.
Threaded throughout this short but powerful book is the image of the labyrinth: life as a series of turns that carry us through adversity and loss to hard-won clarity and grace. Led by teachers who have walked these paths, lost their way, and carried on, we learn the art—and practice—of living wisely.
Bios
Davíd Carrasco, Neil L. Rudenstine Professor of the Study of Latin America at Harvard University, is Director of the Moses Mesoamerican Archive, author of The Religions of Mesoamerica, City of Sacrifice, and Quetzalcoatl and the Irony of Empire. Photo Credit: Timothy Greenfield Sanders
Arthur Kleinman has taught for over forty years in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and in the Department of Anthropology, where he is Rabb Professor. He is the author of The Illness Narratives: Suffering, Healing, and the Human Condition and The Soul of Care: The Moral Education of a Husband and Doctor. Photo Credit: Torben Eskerod
Stephanie Paulsell is Professor Emerita at Harvard Divinity School and a long-standing columnist at the Christian Century. She is the author of Religion Around Virginia Woolf and coeditor of Toni Morrison: Goodness and the Literary Imagination. Photo Credit: Jeffrey Blackwell
Michael Puett, Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology and Director of the Asia Center at Harvard University, is the author of The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life and To Become a God: Cosmology, Sacrifice, and Self-Divinization in Early China. Photo Credit: Charles Michael
The Rev. Matthew Ichihashi Potts, Minister in the Memorial Church and Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard University, previously served as Professor of Religion and Literature and of Ministry Studies at Harvard Divinity School. He is the author of Cormac McCarthy and the Signs of Sacrament: Literature, Theology, and the Moral of Stories and Forgiveness: An Alternative Account.
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The Next Fix: The Winners and Losers in the Future of Drugs
Tuesday, October 27
7:00pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard Street, Coolidge Corner, Brookline, MA 02446-2908
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kojo-koram-with-quinn-slobodian-and-shaleen-title-tickets-1993696130796
From America’s plantation-turned-prison known as Angola in Louisiana to the psychedelic boom of Silicon Valley, The Next Fix tracks a seismic shift in global drug policy. Kojo Koram—legal scholar and acclaimed author of Uncommon Wealth—travels across five continents to examine how criminalized substances are being rebranded as commodities in a new billion-dollar industry. Legal cannabis dispensaries now trade in what once led to life sentences. Psychedelics have become fertile ground for biotech. But for all these developments, prisons still swell with underprivileged users and addicts, and enforcement falls hardest along lines of race and class.
This is not a polemic for or against legalization. It is a powerful, clear-eyed reckoning with how we got here—and what kind of future is taking shape in a world addicted to economic “fixes” every bit as much as it is troubled by drugs. Combining reportage, political analysis and vivid personal testimony, The Next Fix tells the untold story of drugs, capitalism and inequality in the twenty-first century.
Kojo Koram is an author and professor, teaching at the School of Law at Loughborough University. He is the author of Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire (John Murray 2022)
Quinn Slobodian is professor of international history at Boston University, and the author of several books including mostly recently Muskism with Ben Tarnoff. His previous book, Hayek’s Bastards, won the National Book Critics Circle award for for Criticism.
Shaleen Title is a lawyer and activist focused on the regulation of emerging industries, including cannabis and AI. She directs the Parabola Center for Law and Policy, serves as of counsel at Rudick Law Group, and teaches at Roger Williams University.
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The Promise and Peril of the Intelligence Community-Policy Relationship
Wednesday, October 28
12:00pm to 1:30pm EDT
MIT, Building E40, 496, 1 Amherst Street, Cambridge, MA 02142
And online
Livestream at https://www.youtube.com/@mitsecuritystudiesprogram5272/streams
Amy McAuliffe will give a presentation at the MIT Security Studies Program's Wednesday Seminar.
Summary: Amy McAuliffe will discuss the Intelligence Community's (IC) mission and features of a “proper” IC-policy relationship, using Sherman Kent's framework, as well as her own experience as a senior CIA executive. She’ll discuss in detail examples of when this relationship worked well and produced a well-informed US policy decision and when it did not. Examples will include Libya's decision to relinquish WMD in 2003, Iraq-WMD, the capture and death of Osama bin Ladin, and the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA).
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As Climate Disruption Increases, Should We Consider Solar Geoengineering Approaches to Rapidly Cool the Earth? A Conversation at the Nexus of Science, Justice and Policy
Wednesday, October 28
5:00pm–7:00pm ET
149 Woods Hole Road,Falmouth, MA
And online
RSVP at https://www.woodwellclimate.org/?event=woodwell-climate-conversations-should-we-consider-solar-geoengineering
As climate disruption intensifies, the urgency to identify what can protect people and ecosystems is growing. Solar geoengineering—approaches that could temporarily reflect sunlight and rapidly cool the Earth—is emerging as a serious area of scientific research and policy discussion.
Could these approaches play a role alongside emissions reductions and adaptation? How can they be responsibly researched? What might we learn by studying them now, and how can we ensure that decisions about these technologies are guided by rigorous science, international cooperation, and principles of justice?
Join Woodwell Climate for a forward-looking conversation about the risks and potential of solar geoengineering—and exploring how better understanding these technologies today could help us make better-informed choices about our climate future.
Woodwell Climate Conversations is a monthly event series designed to engage our community and foster meaningful discussion about climate change and its impacts.
This series provides a platform for both in-person and virtual discussions, workshops, and presentations.
Join us each month as we bring together experts, thought leaders, and community members to explore the latest climate science, the work being done at Woodwell Climate Research Center, and the steps we can all take toward a sustainable future.
Doors open at 5:00pm, events start at 6:00pm in the Harbourton Auditorium.
This event will be offered both in-person and virtually, please register in advance.
Featuring
Peter Frumhoff
Senior Science Policy Advisor
Dr. Shuchi Talati
Founder & Executive Director, The Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering (DSG)
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Baldwin: A Love Story
Wednesday, October 28
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Boston Public Library in Copley Square, 700 Boylston Street, Boston MA 02116
And online
RSVP at https://bpl.bibliocommons.com/events/6a3c61b6c52cdc3600ecaceb
Join us in person or online over Zoom Webinar to hear author Nicholas Boggsspeak about his recent bestselling biography of James Baldwin, Baldwin: A Love Story, in celebration of LGBTQ+ History Month! Joining Nicolas in Conversation is author and professor, Jesse McCarthy.
After the hour-long talk, Nicholas Boggs will sign copies of Baldwin during a signing facilitated by our local, independent bookseller, Trident Booksellers.
Nicholas Boggs is the author of the New York Times bestselling biography, Baldwin: A Love Story (FSG, 2025), winner of the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize, the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography, the Stonewall/Israel Fishman Nonfiction Award, and the Randy Shilts Nonfiction Award. It was named a Top Ten Book of 2025 by Time Magazine and The Atlantic, and a New York Times Notable Book of the year. In addition, it was recognized with an Audie Award for Best Audiobook in History/Biography. Also the co-editor of Baldwin's collaboration with French artist Yoran Cazac, Little Man, Little Man: A Story of Childhood (2018), Boggs' research and writing have been supported by fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Humanities Center, the Gilder Lehrman Center and Beinecke Library at Yale, the Scholars-in-Residence Program at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the Leon Levy Center for Biography, as well as a 2023 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant. He was educated at Yale (BA), American University (MFA), and Columbia (PhD). He lives in New York City.
Jesse McCarthy is John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities and of the Social Sciences at Harvard University. He is the author of The Blue Period: Black Writing in the Early Cold War, Who Will Pay Reparations on My Soul? and a novel, The Fugitivities. His writing on literature, politics, and the arts has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, and The New York Review of Books. He also serves as an editor at the magazines The Point and Public Books.
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After the Flush: Rethinking the Future of Human Waste
Thursday, October 29
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_u1H1XPBNRiCzRY20Bz__jQ#/registration
What happens when the modern toilet goes flush? Where does this waste go and what eventually becomes of it? Who is responsible for its management and who is implicated in its afterlives? And is it all just waste or might it be something more? This talk, based on Kawa’s new book of the same title, draws on long-term ethnographic research in the American Midwest to investigate these questions while also considering more radical alternative approaches to sanitation and ways of relating to bodily excess.
Speaker Name Dr. Nick Kawa, Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Ohio State University
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Grassroots Water & Climate Solutions from Cameroon
Thursday, October 29
12 PM - 1 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/grassroots-water-climate-solutions-from-cameroon-tickets-2000510786615
Discover how everyday neighborhood initiatives halfway across the globe mirror the exact actions needed to safeguard our local watersheds.
Clean water begins at the community level, whether along the riverbanks of West Africa or in our own backyards.
Join us for our October Winter Webinar and discover how everyday neighborhood initiatives halfway across the globe mirror the exact actions needed to safeguard our local watersheds. Learn practical, grassroots strategies for reducing plastic pollution and restoring local water resources.
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Building Lasting Impact – Lessons from Nature Everywhere Communities
Thursday, October 29
1 PM - 2 PM EDT
Online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/building-lasting-impact-lessons-from-nature-everywhere-communities-tickets-2000441441201
Cost: $0 - $100
Join the Children & Nature Network for an inspiring virtual conversation featuring community leaders who are transforming how their cities prioritize nature-based solutions for children and families.
While many communities recognize the need for nature-based solutions to address interconnected challenges—from climate resilience and pediatric mental health to physical activity—implementing a project is only the first step. Creating true, lasting impact requires shifting the underlying ways our organizations, policies, and local partnerships work together- in other words, systems change.
In this webinar, we bring together leaders from five successful Nature Everywhere Communities to share their "on-the-ground" experiences. Drawing on findings from our recent Ripple Effects Mapping evaluation, these leaders will discuss how they built sustainable, long-term change.
What You’ll Learn:
Discover the 7 practical lessons communities are using to shift local systems, build capacity, and ensure nature access is equitable and enduring.
Learn how "backbone" organizations and strong network coordination can align daily efforts, secure resources, and sustain momentum.
Hear firsthand how prioritizing relationships, fostering youth leadership, and co-designing with community members transforms power dynamics and builds long-term local ownership.
Explore how to frame nature access as a multi-benefit solution that advances existing community priorities, from climate action to public health.
Who Should Attend:
This session is designed for local nonprofit and community organization staff, city and municipal employees and leaders (especially parks & recreation, public works and sustainability departments), outdoor program leaders and educators, municipal planners, public health advocates and local funders who are looking to scale nature-based work. Whether you are an existing Nature Everywhere Community or exploring how to start a movement in your region, this webinar will provide actionable insights to help you build a greener, more equitable future for children.
Join us to see how, when communities move at the speed of trust, lasting transformation is entirely within reach.
Panelists:
Grace Parker, She/Her, Project Manager, Prescribe Outside
Jane Tesner Kleiner, She/Her, Program Manager, Lower Columbia Nature Network
Monica Brinkerhoff, She/Her, Associate Vice President, Early Childhood Education at United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona
Cynthia Walter, She/Her, Green Schoolyards Manager, Green Umbrella Climate Collaborative
Curry Rosato, She/Her, Program Manager & Education Leader, City of Boulder Open Space & Mountain Parks
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The Breakdown with Erica Chenoweth and Steve Levitsky
Friday, October 30
2:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Online
RSVP at https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ybWH05DyRxWqkA2eflelNQ#/registration
Join Erica Chenoweth and Steven Levitsky for the ninth session of The Breakdown, a webinar series on the ongoing struggle for American democracy. Each month, Chenoweth and Levitsky will break down key developments, reflect on this moment’s historical precedents both at home and abroad and offer evidence-based reflections on the path forward.
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Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordiinary Life and Bold Legacy
Friday, October 30
6:30 - 7:30pm
Location Kennedy Library, Columbia Point, Boston, MA 02125
And online
RSVP at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ethel-kennedy-the-extraordinary-life-and-bold-legacy-tickets-1997568863243
From her working-class Chicago roots to her decades as a fearless champion of human rights, Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy charts the many lives of a woman who became an American icon — full of grace, grit, and an unshakeable instinct for speaking truth to power. Human rights lawyer, activist, and New York Times-bestselling author Kerry Kennedy draws on personal memory and her mother's private papers to discuss a truly extraordinary life. Former Congressman and U.S. Special Envoy to Northern Ireland for Economic Affairs Joseph P. Kennedy III moderates.
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The Politics of Climate Expertise
Monday, November 2
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Princeton, 300 Wallace Hall, Princeton, NJ
And online
RSVP at https://environment.princeton.edu/event/the-politics-of-climate-expertise/
Noah Zucker, assistant professor of Politics, will present “ The Politics of Climate Expertise.” This seminar will be held in-person (PUID holders only) and available via livestream (open to all).
Zucker is an Assistant Professor of Politics at Princeton University, specializing in international and comparative political economy. He studies the political economy of climate change, with associated interests in bureaucracy, finance, identity, and labor. His work has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, and World Politics. He has received awards from the American Political Science Association for best dissertation on science, technology, and environmental politics; best paper in political economy; best paper in comparative politics; best paper on democracy and autocracy; and best paper on women, gender, and politics. Zucker received his Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University in 2022. Prior to joining the Princeton faculty, he was an assistant professor at the London School of Economics and postdoctoral fellow at the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance.
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The US Energy Transition: What is the Same; What Has Changed; and What Could Be with Philip Deutch, NGP Energy Technology Partners
Monday, November 2
1:30pm - 2:20pm ET [4:30pm to 5:20pm PT]
Stanford, Shriram Center, 104, 443 Via Ortega, Stanford, CA 94305
Livestream
RSVP at https://events.stanford.edu/event/stanford-energy-seminar-11022026
The Stanford Energy Seminar has been a mainstay of energy engagement at Stanford for nearly 20 years and is one of the flagship programs of the Precourt Institute for Energy. We aim to bring a wide variety of perspectives to the Stanford community – academics, entrepreneurs, utilities, non-profits, and more.
About the talk
Phil Deutch is one the most experienced energy technology investors in the United States having begun investing in the space in 1997. This seminar will examine what drivers are the same in energy technology; what drivers are new; and what the future might hold. Philip Deutch, Partner and Co-Head Energy Transition, NGP Energy Technology Partners
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Coastal Resilience: Influence of shape on near-coast structures” by Maria Garlock
Tuesday, November 3
12:15 PM - 1:15 PM
Princeton, Briger Hall Auditorium, 11 Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ
And online
RSVP at https://environment.princeton.edu/event/hmei-faculty-seminar-by-maria-e-moreyra-garlock/
The High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI) will host a seminar by Maria E. Moreyra Garlock, Daniel Tsui Professor in Engineering, on Tuesday, November 3. Maria is the third speaker in the Fall 2026 HMEI Faculty Seminar Series.
It is well known that the shape of a large-scale structure has an important influence on its performance and material efficiency. For example, the proper shape of a tall building can reduce wind drag forces and vortices (e.g. Burj Khalifa), the proper shape of a long-span roof can reduce undesirable bending stresses (e.g. Dulles Airport), and the proper shape of a bridge results in efficiency (e.g. Verrazzano Narrows). However, the influence of shape on near-coast structures (such as near-coast bridges, floodbarriers, and free-surface breakwaters) subject to wave action has not been extensively explored. This presentation examines the performance of variously shaped near-coast structures subject to wave actions. Using both experimental and numerical studies, the shapes examined are concave, convex, trapezoid, T-shape, hypar faced, and perforated facades. Overall, this research points to opportunities to enhance our coastal resilience.
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Flood Connectivity and Prediction in Urbanscapes
Wednesday, November 4, 2026
2pm - 3pm ET [4 p.m. – 5 p.m. (MST)]
Arizona State University, Walton Center for Planetary Health, Room 160, 777 E University Dr Tempe AZ 85281
And online
RSVP at https://specialevents.asu.edu/ereg/newreg.php?eventid=894063&
Urban flood-control systems don't always work as designed and storm drains, pipelines, and surface flows interact in ways current guidelines often miss. This presentation draws on research in southeast Michigan where infrastructure errors caused flooding even without local rain. It also explores ongoing work on real-time urban flood forecasting, combining hydrodynamic modeling, precipitation forecasts, and machine learning to predict flooding days in advance and trace where floodwaters come from. Relevant for anyone interested in urban infrastructure, climate resilience, or flood prediction.
About the Presenter
Valeriy Ivanov is Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Michigan. His research interests involve physical surface and subsurface hydrology, floods, climate science and hydrologic impacts, plant water relations and ecohydraulics. Current research projects focus on Amazon rainforest ecohydrology; climate change and hydrometeorological impacts on reindeer herding in the Arctic; and the development of novel, hybrid first-principles / machine-learning frameworks for fast, real-time assessment of flooding impacts for decision-making. His education includes: 1996 - Diploma in Hydrology obtained at Moscow State University, Russia; 2002 - M.S. and 2006 - Ph.D. obtained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, U.S. In 2006, he pursued Ziff Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Center for the Environment, Harvard University and, in 2007, he began a faculty position at the University of Michigan.
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Climate, food, and power: Lessons from now, directions for the future
Thursday, November 5
12 – 1PM
Tufts, Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room, 474 Boston Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
And online
RSVP at https://tufts.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UgZMSddaSF-ZOalxvUKt7g#/registration
There is widening gap between large-scale decision-making and on-the-ground realities of food insecurity. Drawing on experience that spans secondary analyses of environmental and health data alongside small-scale, community-based research, Khristopher draws from his experience at high-level decision-making forums—from IPCC expert meetings to COP30— which often diverge from community needs and lived experience. The presentation reviews findings from community-based work in small island settings, outlines the magnitude of global climate-related nutrition challenges with key statistics, and illustrates relevant mechanisms linking human and planetary health through food systems. Although climate is used as the primary lens in this talk, similar gaps emerge whether the driver is the food economics, policy, or agriculture, underscoring a central concern for global food security.
Speaker Name Dr. Khristopher Nicholas, Assistant Professor of Agriculture, Food and Environment at Tufts University
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Bitter Honey: Big Ag’s Threat to Bees and the Fight to Save Them
Thursday, November 5
6:30pm - 7:30pm ET [3:30 - 4:30 p.m. PST]
University of CA, 132 Mulford Hall, Berkeley, CA
And online
RSVP at https://events.berkeley.edu/events/event/329871-espm-seminar-series-jennie-durant
Jennie Durant
Jennie Durant, an ESPM alum, is a writer, researcher, and author whose work explores why bees and other pollinators are declining, and what it will take to build a more just and sustainable food system. Her writing weaves together science, agriculture, environmental policy, and human stories to make complex ecological issues accessible to a broad audience.
In her book, Jennie Durant takes readers behind the scenes to reveal the human and ecological cost of industrial farming for bees, beekeepers, and all of us who depend on them. “Bitter Honey” exposes the crisis threatening the nation’s bees and spotlights the advocates working to protect them for generations to come.
This weekly ESPM seminar will be held in 132 Mulford Hall and via Zoom. There will be a social hour afterwards from 4:30pm - 5:30pm in the Mulford Courtyard.
Speaker: Jennie Durant, Researcher and Author
