A Culture Trying to Happen

Lowell Lecturer: Christopher Lydon

Christopher Lydon © Christopher Moscatiello

On Tuesday, May 7, at 8 pm in Science Center C, Christopher Lydon will deliver the annual Lowell Lecture on the topic of "A Culture Trying to Happen." The Lowell Lecture is devoted to explorations of major issues of our time and is jointly sponsored by the Lowell Institute of Boston and the Harvard University Extension School.

The Lowell Lecture series is now in its third decade, and over the years many distinguished speakers have addressed the greater Boston audience on a variety of timely topics. They include McGeorge Bundy on foreign affairs, Alfred Kahn on inflation, Gloria Steinem on feminism and democracy, Carl Sagan on nuclear winter, Art Buchwald on Washington politics, Doris Kearns Goodwin on the issue of character in presidential politics, Mortimer Adler on the Great Books, Ken Burns on the documentary as history, Gore Vidal on American politics and religion, Ellen Goodman on value judgments, Secretary of Labor Robert Reich on education and the labor force, John Shattuck on conflict resolution, James Carroll on religious and political issues of the Holocaust, Jill Ker Conway on women's lives, Mark Plotkin on witchdoctors and biotechnology, and Thomas O'Connor on personal perspectives on Boston.

This year's Lowell lecturer has been a familiar and provocative presence in the field of journalism, both print and broadcast, for more than three decades. He has had for his beat presidential politics when serving with the Washington bureau of the New York Times; he has been the anchor of the Ten O'Clock News on WGBH; he has done pioneering work for public television in Boston; and he was the creator and co-host of The Connection, a popular public affairs radio show on WBUR, from 1994 to 2001.

Christopher Lydon was born in Boston in 1940. He graduated from Roxbury Latin School and Yale College. In 1993 he was a candidate for mayor of Boston on the ticket of a citizens' campaign for radical school reform.

Mr. Lydon is well known and admired for his informed and incisive conversational style. His Lowell Lecture promises to be a memorable evening both for his many National Public Radio fans and for those who haven't heard him speak out on cultural matters. The Lowell Lecture is a public event and all members of the Harvard and Boston communities are invited to attend.