Hammer Forum lectures, conversations, performances and panel discussions address current social and political issues.

June 10: The Crime of Punishment features Marc Mauer, author and one of the country’s leading experts on sentencing policy, race, and the criminal justice system, and Judge James P. Gray, Superior Court of Santa Ana, and Chief Norm Stamper, retired Seattle Police Chief, who are both members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).

June 17: Get Dirty: Art, Environment, and Community features Steven Badgett, a founding member of the SIMPARCH collaborative with Matt Lynch, Amy Franceschini, an artist, educator, and founder of Futurefarmers and Free Soil, and Nance Klehm, a radical ecologist, designer, urban forager, teacher, and artist.

July 1: Education Without Learning features Sir Ken Robinson, author of "Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative," and Jennifer Washburn, a fellow at the New America Foundation.

July 16: Paying for Play Money features Michael Greenberger, former Director of Trading and Markets at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, who explains the crisis in American capitalism where finance has replaced production as income disparity grows and debt piles up.