Over the decades, MPR has occasionally broadcast speeches from The Ford Hall Forum, the oldest free public lecture series held in the United States. This collection highlights the varied speakers and topics.
May 9, 1971 - Writer and philosopher Ayn Rand speaking at the Ford Hall Forum. Rand’s speech is titled The New Left: The Anti-Industrial Revolution, based on a 1971 collection of essays in which Rand argues that religion, the New Left, and similar forces are irrational and harmful.
October 7, 1973 - Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward speaking at Ford Hall Forum. Title of address was “Watergate: A National Crisis.”
October 21, 1973 - Writer and philosopher Ayn Rand speaking at Ford Hall Forum. Rand’s address was titled “Censorship: Local and Express.”
November 17, 1974 - Writer and philosopher Ayn Rand speaking at Ford Hall Forum. Rand’s address was titled “Egalitarianism and Inflation.”
July 7, 1976 - Ayn Rand speaking at the Ford Hall Forum at Boston's Northeastern University. Topic of address is on the United States Bicentennial and politics.
May 16, 1982 - Black author Maya Angelou speaks her mind at the Ford Hall Forum as she receives the Forum's 1st Amendment Award at event.
August 1, 1983 - I. F. Stone, a journalist, social critic, and editor-publisher of I. F. Stone's Weekly, speaks on "A Maverick's View of the World" at Ford Hall Forum.