From the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History website:

"Bureaucrats, University of Colorado professor of history Patricia Limerick argues, are often the most overlooked (at best) or reviled (at worst) of government officials, but they wield tremendous powers that shape Americans' daily lives. Nowhere is this more true than in the bureaucracy of the U.S. Department of the Interior. A wide-ranging agency charged with both protecting land and promoting its use, the Department of the Interior implements federal law over millions of acres of land and mediates the claims of environmental, mining, foresting, farming, and ranching interests, among others. Bureaucracies like the Department of the Interior may be boring, Limerick argues, but historians cannot ignore their impact on the development of the American West."

NAACP Chairman of the Board Julian Bond talks about the views of Martin Luther King, Jr., and his emphasis on improving conditions for the working class as a whole. Bond criticizes current abuses and denials of civil rights and quality-of-life issues, and considers the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court cases on affirmative action.

Former Secretary of State and MIT alum George Shultz speaks on his acceptance of the Robert A. Muh Award. He reflects on his time at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his views on the current state of world affairs and U.S. foreign policy.

Professor Paul L. Penfield, Jr., follows the history and development of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since the department's founding in 1913. He discusses the contributions of the program to science and technology at large and the possible development of the program in future.

Professor, geologist, and former astronaut on the Apollo mission Harrison H. Schmitt talks about his experiences as a member of the Apollo mission to the moon, and also discusses the possibilities of mining the moon in future for the energy source helium-3. His presentation includes film footage of the Apollo mission.

Economist and author Dr. Julianne Malveaux delivers the keynote address for MIT's Annual Breakfast Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., contrasting the values and goals of the civil rights movement with enduring direct and indirect abuses and denials of civil rights.

Professor and author Howard Zinn traces the evocation of divine right and approval as a force in U.S. politics, looking at how it has been used to support economic and military interests. He focuses particularly on how it has been used to justify war and violent action, both in the past and today, in the Middle East.

Professors John W. Dower and Charles S. Maier contrast previous U.S. foreign policy events and relations with the current situation in Iraq, focusing on the U.S. occupation of Japan following World War II and the Marshall Plan designed to stop the spread of Communism in Western Europe.