Photo essays have proven their ability not only to document but actually change the course of human events. If that is the case, shouldn’t we be searching for the essential photo-essays of our time, the pictures that will spark public discourse and instigate the type of real-world reforms that engaged citizens in the past? What Matters, a new book edited by David Elliot Cohen, attempts to answer this question with eighteen important photo-essays by this generation’s preeminent photojournalists. These essays poignantly address the big issues of our time: climate change, oil addiction, the inequitable distribution of global wealth and other current problems. The book ends with “What You Can Do,” an appendix that offers hundreds of ways to be part of the solution to the compelling challenges we now face. Related Themes: environment, photography, social change

Forty years have passed since the Beatles released The White Album, introducing "Blackbird," "Rocky Raccoon," "Sexy Sadie," "Helter Skelter" and "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" into the cultural lexicon. Please join us for a conversation with three Stanford alums whose research explores the musical and cultural innovations that made the Beatles a powerful force for innovation in society and the arts. Related Themes: art, music, social change