2026-27 Falmouth Forum | Marine Biological Laboratory

For more than 30 years, the Falmouth Forum, presented by the Friends of the MBL, has brought free cultural enrichment to our community. This season will feature captivating speakers that will deliver powerful talks with a wide range of subjects.

Lectures are free and open to the public for in-person and virtual attendance. Free parking is available in any MBL lot. No registration required for in-person attendance.

Doors open at 7:00 PM, lectures start at 7:30 PM, unless noted otherwise below.

Cornelia Clapp Auditorium
7 MBL Street
Woods Hole, MA 02543

Feast, then Forum - Join Us for Dinner!

An optional buffet dinner precedes each Falmouth Forum lecture.
6:00 PM: Swope Center, 5 North Street, Woods Hole
Tickets: $45/each or reserve a table of eight.

Purchase tickets in advance via links below, on sale two weeks prior to the event. Dinner tickets are available until they sell out or until 5:00 PM on the Wednesday prior to the event. We regret that no tickets will be sold at the door.

This page will be updated as more information becomes available.

The Falmouth Forum is supported by the Falmouth Forum Endowment and the Bakalar Endowed Director's Discretionary Fund.

This program is also supported in part by a grant from the Woods Hole Foundation.

Support the Falmouth Forum Endowment Drive Contact the Falmouth Forum Committee

Male presenting person with short dark hair wearing a suit.

10/2/26 - “Shining Tiles: the People and Places that Make the Falmouth Mosaic”

Troy Clarkson, Columnist & Author

View Clarkson Event Info Clarkson Zoom Registration

Female presenting person with short blond hair and glasses wearing a red shirt.

11/13/26 - “Creating Cape Cod: The Evolution of Tourism”

Jennifer Madden, Director of Collections & Exhibitions, Heritage Museums & Gardens

View Madden Event Info Madden Zoom Registration

Male presenting person in red flannel shirt standing in front of trees and mountains.

12/11/26 - “Chords and Chuckles: Navigating the Ridiculous and the Sublime in Music”

George Scharr, Pre-Concert Lecturer, Cape Symphony Orchestra, Retired Chair of the Arts Department at Falmouth Academy

View Scharr Event Info Scharr Zoom Registration

Male presenting person with short gray hair standing in front of the ocean.

1/22/27 - “The Wreck of the Mentor: A True Story of Death, Despair, and Deliverance in the Age of Sail”

Eric Jay Dolin, Author

View Dolin Event Info Dolin Zoom Registration

Female presenting person with long dark hair and wearing glasses.

2/12/27 - “Stopping Lyme at the Source: Engineering Wildlife to Break the Disease Cycle”

Joanna Buchthal, Project Lead, Mice Against Ticks

Herman T. Epstein Endowed Memorial Lecture

View Buchthal Event Info Buchthal Zoom Registration

Female presenting person with short brown hair wearing funky glasses and necklace,

3/12/27 - “A Garden Celebration: Learning From the Natural World”

C.L. Fornari, Author and Radio Host

View Fornari Event Info Fornari Zoom Registration

Female presenting person with short, curly brown hair.

4/2/27 - “Spell Freedom: The Underground Schools That Built the Civil Rights Movement”

Elaine Weiss, Author

Michael Mizell Memorial Public History Lecture

View Weiss Event Info Weiss Zoom Registration

Male presenting person with short gray hair.

Female presenting person with shoulder length brown hair.

5/7/27 - “The Last Flight: The Untold Story of the Search for JFK Jr. and the Race Against the Atlantic”

Captain W. Russell "Russ" Webster, USCG, Retired, Author
Theresa Mitchell Webster, Author

View Webster Event Info Webster Zoom Registration

6/4/27 - “Toward A More Accessible World Through Sport: A Paralympian's Perspective”

Sean O’Neill, Team USA Paralympian

View O’Neill Event Info O’Neill Zoom Registration