MIT World

Barack Obama came to MIT not just to praise the Institute's leading edge energy research but to encourage all of America’s “heirs to a legacy of innovation” in their pursuit of discovery.

In this talk, Robert Fisk takes on the American press for over reporting on the "what and where" of the events of September 11th, and its inability to broach the question "why"?

At times humorous and other times defiant, José Ramos-Horta describes nurturing the 21st century’s first sovereign state through its formative years. The journey of East Timor from brutal Indonesian rule to fragile self-governance has involved Ramos-Horta in conflict and debate from the halls of the U.N. to the smallest villages of this tiny Southeast Asian island.

While he admits to no surprise about events in Gaza, Noam Chomsky does consider “the latest U.S.-Israeli attack on helpless Palestinians” a step beyond terrorism and aggression.

The Bush administration began its “great misuse of history” shortly after 9/11, says John Dower, when it seized upon Japan’s 1941 Pearl Harbor attack as a useful analogy, a way to promote its own invasion of Iraq and subsequent occupation.

U.S. actions in Iraq get a thorough thrashing in this final chapter of the Reconstructing Iraq series.

Imagine a bank that loans money based on a borrower’s desperate circumstances -- where, as Muhammad Yunus says, “the less you have, the higher priority you have.”

While many contemporary evangelical groups powerfully use all available means to get the Word out, these panelists firmly deny the existence of a monolithic evangelical movement, especially one that is motivated politically.

In this stirring speech, Julian Bond takes on issues of poverty and economic equality and argues that the same forces that tried to derail the civil rights movement in the 1960's are still in place today.

Two speakers steeped in the ongoing crisis of the Middle East describe abominable conditions for Palestinians living inside Gaza, which has been blockaded by Israel since 2007.

Gates describes some key issues his foundation is pursuing, where there is both “a great need and opportunity.” One critical area in what Gates calls the “world’s report card” is childhood deaths.

Peter Singer walks listeners through one of his most provocative philosophical arguments -- that affluent individuals must acknowledge their moral obligation to relieve the unnecessary death and suffering of the poor.

Globalization is for the first time being hit by a global economic hard landing. What happens to globalization in the process?

Rafael Vinoly and Frederic Schwartz led the THINK team, whose design was one of two finalists for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation’s World Trade Center design competition.

Vale provides a historical overview of public housing in America and shares insights from his most recent book Reclaiming Public Housing.

The rising public awareness of climate change, says MIT President Susan Hockfield, comes with a price. “The public dialogue has evolved from nothing is wrong, so we need to do nothing, to everything is so wrong, that there’s nothing we can do."

Noam Chomsky has written and lectured widely on linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, international affairs and U.S. foreign policy.

As the period of rebuilding Iraq begins, this panel takes on the big questions of political systems and religion based value systems—can Islam and democracy co-exist in the Arab world?

Addressing an issue that he deems pivotal to the world's future, Annan advocated values-based management and urged corporations to uphold their obligations to citizens and the global community.

In some organizations, vision and motivation don’t reside exclusively in the top tiers of management, but instead energize all employees, even the most ordinary foot soldiers. All staff become leaders.

After the terrorists attack of September 11, three Academies sponsored a major study of the role that science and technology might play in countering the threat of catastrophic terrorism in the United States.

Merrie Najimy’s father told her that “making the right decision isn’t always popular but making the popular decision isn’t always right.” Each of the speakers on this panel has taken an unpopular stand following September 11th.

In the common judgment of this panel, the World Wide Web will strongly shape the future of politics in this country, for good or ill.

We stand at a crossroads, states Mohamed ElBaradei: We can either employ nuclear energy to achieve global security, or watch nuclear technology lead to a global cataclysm.

In this lecture Mario Molina defines the causes of global warming as a direct result of human behavior.