BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Springfield Public Forum - ECPv6.15.20//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:Springfield Public Forum
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://springfieldpublicforum.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Springfield Public Forum
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20250309T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20251102T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20260308T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20261101T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20270314T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20271107T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260615T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260615T180000
DTSTAMP:20260517T005243
CREATED:20260427T224445Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260429T165859Z
UID:9066-1781546400-1781546400@springfieldpublicforum.org
SUMMARY:Barbara McQuade "The Fix"
DESCRIPTION:5/11/17 Studio portrait of Barbara McQuade for Law School.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nBarbara McQuade  \n\n\n\n“The Fix” \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n@The Basketball Hall of Fame \n\n\n\n1000 Hall of Fame Ave\, Springfield\, MA  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\nPlease note that our events have security screenings. Please do not bring backpacks or large bags. \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe New York Times bestselling author\, co-host of the #SistersInLaw podcast\, and former U.S. Attorney will discuss the escalating threat of far-right politics—and a roadmap for preserving our democracy. \n\n\n\nMcQuade draws on her decades of experience as a federal prosecutor to reveal how systems of organized crime and political opportunism exploit the levers of power—using corruption\, cruelty\, and chaos as tools to dominate institutions and eliminate accountability. With clarity\, precision\, and moral force\, she exposes the tactics of today’s far-right: information warfare\, aggressive retribution\, conformism enforced by fear\, and pervasive dismantling of legal checks and balances necessary to defend the public interest and uphold justice. \n\n\n\nWeaving together courtroom stories\, real-time political analysis\, and cautionary lessons from history and democratic backsliding abroad\, McQuade will make the case that the threats we face are not future possibilities—they’re already here- and will outline common-sense reforms and strategies that can reclaim the rule of law and recenter democracy with the power of the people. \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\nDonations of $60 or more will receive a FREE copy of the book! Pre-order your copy of “The Fix” and pick up at the event HERE.
URL:https://springfieldpublicforum.org/event/the-fix-barbara-mcquade-in-conversation/
CATEGORIES:Speaker Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://springfieldpublicforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/McQuadeBarbara17011-1-scaled.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260910T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20260910T193000
DTSTAMP:20260517T005243
CREATED:20260428T203442Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260511T143959Z
UID:9088-1789063200-1789068600@springfieldpublicforum.org
SUMMARY:"The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State"
DESCRIPTION:Jill Lepore \n\n\n\n“The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State“ \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpringfield Symphony Hall\, 34 Court St Springfield\, MA \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPlease note that our events have security screenings. Please do not bring backpacks or large bags. \n\n\n\n“The Artificial State is the factory farming of humans\, the sorting and segmenting\, the isolation and alienation\, as if humans were becoming to machines what animals had become to humans.” —Jill Lepore \n\n\n\n“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 State demonstrates 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. \n\n\n\nJill 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 Timesbestsellers These Truths and We the People. 
URL:https://springfieldpublicforum.org/event/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-artificial-state/
CATEGORIES:Speaker Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://springfieldpublicforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/20458_leporejill_crichardrenaldi-e1777482428191.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20261026T180000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20261026T193000
DTSTAMP:20260517T005243
CREATED:20260428T195143Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260513T221530Z
UID:9080-1793037600-1793043000@springfieldpublicforum.org
SUMMARY:"How to Start: Discovering Your Life's Work"
DESCRIPTION:Jodi Kantor  \n\n\n\n“How to Start: Discovering Your Life’s Work“ \n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSpringfield Symphony Hall\, 34 Court St Springfield\, MA \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPlease note that our events have security screenings. Please do not bring backpacks or large bags. \n\n\n\nWith warmth\, honesty\, and inspired wisdom\, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Jodi Kantor expands on her triumphant Columbia University commencement address\, tackling the question\, “How\, in this environment\, is anyone supposed to find and start their life’s work?” \n\n\n\nJodi Kantor’s groundbreaking reporting has toppled media magnates\, sparked reform worldwide\, and foretold many of the unsettling changes we see in the workplace today. But before all of this\, Kantor was kicked off her college newspaper. Society expects perfection\, but Kantor knows those first professional steps are often rocky. She also knows that young people are facing new and frightening terrain\, with political upheaval\, skyrocketing costs of living\, and the unknowns of AI.Kantor casts aside platitudes and false hope to offer tangible help. Work is how we spend much of our time. It’s our engine of progress: how cancer therapies are invented\, political campaigns won\, thrilling art created and matched with an audience. Instead of letting cynicism take over\, Kantor identifies two principles to help young people discover their life’s work: craft and need. By pairing the two\, they can navigate tough\, sensitive choices: how to think about money. How much risk to take on. When to buck what others are saying.Powerful and provocative\, How to Start is a statement of faith for young people as they make their way through uncertain times\, offering wisdom\, strategy\, and a set of aspirations to launch their careers and last their whole lives. \n\n\n\n\nBOOK AVAILABLE NOW! \n\n\n\nThe perfect gift for the new graduate in your life!  \n\n\n\nFREE with new/renewal Membership of $60 or more! CLICK HERE TO ORDER \n\n\n\nor $25 for book only (including shipping)
URL:https://springfieldpublicforum.org/event/how-to-start-dicovering-your-lifes-work/
CATEGORIES:Speaker Series
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://springfieldpublicforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Jodi_Kantor_Headshot.jpg
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR