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As you know, the Amos Fortune Forum is steeped in tradition. Our speakers have shared ideas each Friday evening since 1946, and we look forward to another successful season in 2026.
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Join us for our
79th SEASON!
a forum of ideas since 1946
2025 Summer Lecture Series
Thank you so much for joining us for a great summer of ideas! It was a pleasure seeing you in the Meetinghouse!
July 10th
Jack Savage
Are New Hampshire’s Forests Threatened?
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During the 125-year span of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, the State’s forests have continually changed and evolved. From his position as a steward, advocate, and conservationist, Forest Society President Jack Savage will discuss the trends and impacts shaping our forests in the decades to come and the priorities of the statewide conservation and forestry organization going forward.
Bio: Jack Savage is President of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. He was appointed as the Forest Society’s fifth President in September 2019. Previously the Vice President of Communications/Outreach at the Forest Society for 14 years, he has been a key contributor to many of the Forest Society’s successes over the last decade. A long-time certified Tree Farmer, Savage has been active in his community, serving for 20 years as town moderator and formerly as selectman, chair of the Planning Board, and chair of the Zoning Board. As a volunteer and former chair of the regional conservation group Moose Mountains Regional Greenways, Savage helped facilitate the Forest Society’s conservation of more than 2,000 acres in the Moose Mountains range.
July 17th
Carol Greenwald
Aardvarks, Monkeys and Talking Dogs: Lessons From a Career in Children’s Media
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Greenwald will reflect on the transformative power of media in childrens’ lives as she shares stories about developing Arthur, Curious George and Martha Speaks, highlighting both the creative process and the educational underpinnings of each project. She will also offer her perspective on how children’s media has changed over the past 40 years from the era of analog television to the current digital age and why it is now more important than ever to continue supporting PBS Kids as a free and educational alternative to commercial children’s media.
Bio: Carol Greenwald worked at GBH/ Boston for over 40 years where she produced some of the best-loved children’s shows on television. She co-developed and Executive Produced Arthur, the longest running children’s animated series throughout its more than 25-year run. She also co-developed and was Executive Producer for Curious George, Martha Speaks, Postcards from Buster, and Time Warp Trio. Greenwald oversaw the creative development and production of these television programs and supervised ancillary activities including the Web site and Educational Outreach. Carol is the recipient of 5 Daytime Emmy Awards, a George Foster Peabody Award and was inducted into the Daytime Emmy Silver Circle in 2025 for her long and distinguished career.
July 24th
Heather McKernan
The Future of Local News
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A free press is vital to our democracy and the health of our region. A strong community newspaper holds local officials accountable and gives residents a trusted place to engage in dialogue about the issues that shape where we live. It builds connection by highlighting stories that reflect our priorities, celebrate our neighbors, and encourage participation in the events and activities that bring us together.
As technology reshapes how people consume news — and as revenue models and staffing continue to shift — local newspapers must evolve. How do they remain a trusted source in a time of skepticism and rapid change? McKernan will share how journalists report in the digital age, how they responsibly use tools like AI, how they engage with the community, and how philanthropic support can help sustain local news.
Bio: Heather McKernan has been the publisher of the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript since 1995. Responsible for all departments, she works closely with the newsroom team and manages advertising and circulation operations. Her career at the parent company, Newspapers of New England, began in 1989 at the Concord Monitor, where she served as human resources manager, controller and later as publisher.
Heather earned a degree in writing from St. Lawrence University, and an MBA and master’s in journalism from Syracuse University. Over the years, Heather has served on the boards of several local nonprofits.
July 31st
Duncan Watson
Everyone’s Trash: Where We’ve Been, Where We Are, Where We Could Go
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How is waste managed in New Hampshire? And how has our overreliance on landfills scuttled any hope of achieving the state’s solid waste diversion goals? Offering deep experience and perspective, Duncan Watson will talk about existing technologies that can flip the script of how we manage our discards and improve not only the economics of waste disposal, but also meaningful benefits to our shared environment.
Bio: Watson served as the Assistant Director of Public Works for the City of Keene, NH from 1992 through 2025. He managed the Solid Waste Division, the largest municipally operated materials recovery facility in NH. Awards during his tenure included being named “Best Municipal Recycling Facility” by the state and “Recycler of the Year” by the Northeast Resource Recovery Association.
Watson serves on the New Hampshire Solid Waste Working Group and is former President of the Northeast Resource Recovery Association. He is a founding member of the Solid Waste Environmental Excellence Protocol (SWEEP) standard. Duncan earned a business degree from the University of New Hampshire and a Masters of Resource Management from Antioch New England University.
Duncan’s debut book, Everyone’s Trash, One Man Against 1.6 Billion Pounds, was published in 2024. The book received a Booklist Starred Review and was honored at both the New England Book Festival and NH Literary Awards.
August 7th
Marie Yovanovitch
Insights on Ukraine: A Conversation with Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch
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The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the culmination of decades of tension, and Marie Yovanovitch is uniquely positioned to share insights on the historical roots and current trajectory of the struggle. She will draw from foreign service experience in both countries, including her three years serving as U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine (2016-2019). What is the path forward for the region, and how can this conflict inform our understanding of democracy in the global sphere? Yovanovitch will answer our questions from the perspective of a career diplomat committed to the principles of non-partisan duty and integrity in service.
Bio: Marie Yovanovitch is the author of a best-selling memoir, Lessons from the Edge. She is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, Georgetown University and a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. During her thirty-three-year diplomatic career, she served as the U.S. Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, and Ukraine. She also worked in Russia, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Somalia, and in multiple assignments in Washington, including as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, where she coordinated policy on European and global security issues.
August 14th
Christine Guth
Joseph Lindon Smith:
Dublin’s Peripatetic Painter
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Joseph Lindon Smith (1863-1950) was a well-known member of the Monadnock Artists’ Colony who enjoyed close friendships with Bostonians Isabella Stewart Gardner and Denman Ross. Although he had a house and family in Dublin, New Hampshire, he spent most of his professional life painting historic monuments in other parts of the world. In this talk Christine Guth will follow him on his travels to archeological excavations in Egypt and, especially, to temples and shrines in Japan where, during extended visits in 1901 and 1910, he painted captivating watercolors that brought this distant country and its ancient culture to life for American viewers.
Bio: Christine M.E. Guth received her PhD in Japanese art history at Harvard in 1976. She has taught at institutions including Princeton, N.Y.U., Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford, and the Royal College of Art in London. Among her publications focusing on transnational themes are Longfellow’s Tattoos: Tourism, Collecting and Japan (2004) and Hokusai’s Great Wave: Biography of a Global Icon (2015). She is working on a book about Joseph Lindon Smith’s activities in Japan.
August 21st
Tom Smith & Cosy Sheridan
Two Songwriters at the Kitchen Table
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Join Cosy Sheridan and Tom Smith in conversation about the why and how of songwriting and how this ancient story-telling art form serves both the songwriter’s and the listeners’ healthy relationship to the challenges of living in the modern world. They will illustrate this by performing songs based upon prompts chosen randomly from a hat, discussing the back-story of each song and the process of writing them. Song prompts will run the gamut of relationships, current events, humor, hardship, nature, aging and more.
Bio: Cosy Sheridan is a resident of Harrisville and has been called one of the era’s finest and most thoughtful song writers. She has also been called “a Buddhist monk trapped in the body of a singer-songwriter.” Her music regularly tops the folk radio charts. She has performed at Carnegie Hall, The Cowgirl Hall of Fame and on the Jerry Lewis Telethon. Cosy teaches classes in songwriting, performance, and guitar at workshops and adult music camps across the country. She is the director of Moab Folk Camp in Moab, Utah.
Tom Smith is a summer resident of Jaffrey and in the words of WUMB Boston Folk Radio host Dave Palmater, “Tom Smith writes songs that seem like they have always been there – a true folksinger.” One fanciful fan put it this way, “If you could combine the DNA of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie with that of Robert Frost and Kermit the Frog you would end up with someone very much like Tom Smith.” A folk veteran of over forty-five years, Tom performs at festivals, coffeehouses, schools, and concerts to audiences large and small, young and old.
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