Lyceum Library 2004 - 2005

Web Audio

Click on the in the table below for audio of any event.  The files are in mp3 format, ready for your iPod, computer, or mp3 player. (Video is also available for 18 of the events, but not online.)

#1

Sept 12, 2004

Prof. David Little

Professor of Religion, Ethnicity, and Conflict at Harvard Divinity School

The Roots of Islamic Revivalism

Discusses the sources of so-called Islamic fundamentalism (or revivalism), the US response to Sept. 11, 2001, and the effects of the Iraq War

#2

Sept 19, 2004

Dr. Ellery Schempp

At 16, Schempp protested the custom of morning Bible readings in his school by reading from the Koran. He became a plaintif in the 1963 US Supreme Court case banning the schools from imposing religious devotions.

Church-State Issues Today

Discussion boundries involving displays of religiosity in public and government sponsored events, as they have evolved over the last half century.

#3

Sept 26, 2004

Denise Taft Davidoff

National President of the Interfaith Alliance Foundation

Religion and Politics Today

Speaks about what religious organizations should and should not be doing in relation to public issues and elections.

#4

Oct 3, 2004

Holly Near

Human rights activist and singer-songwriter

Big Heart, Show Thyself

Speaking and singing about the spiritual qualities that sustain a long-term commitment to social justice.

#5

Oct 17, 2004

Prof. Diana Eck

Harvard, a scholar of comparative religion and religious diversity in America, a long-standing advocate for ecumenical interfaith cooperation, concerned about political uses of religion to divide us

Religious Pluralism and American Politics.

Addresses the question: Who is "we the people", as the religious landscape of America changes?

#6

Oct 24, 2004

Ann Bookman

Author, Starting In Our Own Backyards: How Creating Community Can Solve the Work-Family Crisis, Exec. Director, MIT Workplace Center; former Policy Dir., Women's Bureau, US Labor Dept.

Work, Family, and Politics

Commenting on public issues that effect the lives of workers and families

#7

Oct 31, 2004

John McDonough

MA state rep from 1985 to 1997 McDonough co-chaired the Joint Committee on Healthcare. He's written books on healthcare and politics and is Exec. Dir. of Healthcare for All in MA

Health Care and Politics

The presidential campaign has heard competing plans for healthcare. Both the facts and the politics will be analyzed by one of the best-informed people around.

#8

Nov 14, 2004

Rev. Jim Sherblom

Affiliate Minister, First Parish, Needham. Founder and past president of Mass Biotech. Council

The Post Consumer Society

History predicts certain changes in our style of living, as the size of the US economy is eclipsed by the China.

#9

Nov 21, 2004

Rev. John Buehrens

Minister at First Parish, Needham

The Bible without Theology

Talks about his book, "A Chosen Faith"

Rev. John Buehrens

Minister at First Parish, Needham

Reading The Bible agin for the First Time

Second session on Progressive Understanding of the Bible (Not being videotaped)

#10

Dec 5, 2004

Yehezkel Landau

Graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Divinity, a founder of the religious peace movement in Israel now serves on the faculty of Hartford Seminary.

The Israel-Palestine Conflict

If religion is part of the problem in the Middle East, it must also be part of the solution.

#11

Jan 9, 2005

Doug Muder

* Logician, writer, and weblog essayist.
* UU from First Parish in Bedford, living in Nashua.

Can you think like a Terrorist

Combating terrorism requires thinking like one. His essay, "Terrorist Strategy 101" appeared on DailyKos.com under the pseudonym Pericles.

#12

Jan 30, 2005

Laura Tuach

Assist. dir. of Partakers Inc

Debora Kelsie

Criminal Justice and Prison Reform

Sensible programs and humane prison environments, which foster accountability, responsibility and rehabilitation

#13

Feb 6, 2005

Howard Lenow
Jeff Klein

Visions of Peace withJustice in Israel/Palestine (VOPJ) is an independent Jewish voice which represents a variety of alternative perspectives on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Visions of Peace with Justice in Israel/Palestine

The election of a new Palestinian leader and the formation of a new coalition in Israel suggest a moment of opportunity. What are the barriers and the dangers? What should the US be doing to help?

#14

Feb 13, 2005

Katherine Gekas

The Needham Energy Commission

Reducing the Causes of Global Warming

A report on the local efforts of the Green Decade Commission to reduce the production of greenhouse gasses.

#15

Mar 13, 2005

John Buehrens

Minister at First Parish, Needham

Social Insecurity: Opening Opportunity Upward, or Distributing Danger Downward?

The proposal to partially privatize Social Security raises many issues of risk and opportunity and how they get distributed -- global security, environmental risks, accountability in education, government, and business, etc.

#16

Mar 20, 2005

Traci Abbot

Teacher of English, with an emphasis on Gender and Sexuality Issues, at Bently College

Transgender 101

This is "No Place for Hate" Month in Needham. Today's program explores how understandings of gender impact not only those who are the T in GLBT, but all of us. Includes an award-winning documentary "Call Me Kade", about a trans-gender teenager. Rights Committee.

#17

Apr 17, 2005

John Buehrens

Minister at First Parish, Needham. John was a student of G. H. Williams.

The Next Pope

An American Unitaran, G. H. Williams, was one of the few people to predict accurately that Karl Woltyla would be pope. He will share recollections of meeting with leaders of Solidarity in Poland, meeting with John Paul II, and talking with several leading candidates to succeed him. And he will venture a prediction about who will be chosen, why, and what the next pope will face.

#18

May 1, 2005

Marjorie Dove Kent

Needham organizer for the Massachusetts Alliance for Affordable Housing

Affordable Housing:

The issues, both local and regional - such as why many business leaders think the lack of affordable housing in Greater Boston is a threat to our economic future.

John Buehrens

Minister at First Parish, Needham.

No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam

A review of the new book by Reza Aslan. There is much we don't know we don't know about the world's fastest growing faith.