The WBUR Festival: Full Schedule

1:00pm EDT

Mission, Margin, Momentum: A Conversation with Neil Blumenthal

Friday May 29, 2026 1:00pm - 1:45pm EDT

CFA Concert Hall @ 855B Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215, USA

The Warby Parker co-founder and co-CEO talks about leadership, disrupting retail and scaling mission-driven businesses.

Speakers

Zeninjor Enwemeka

Senior Business Reporter, WBUR

Zeninjor Enwemeka is a senior business reporter at WBUR. She covers how businesses and the economy are shaping Greater Boston and people's everyday lives. She also previously covered transportation and the city of Boston at WBUR. Her reporting on mortgage lending disparities, the future of work and... Read More →

Neil Blumenthal

Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Warby Parker

Neil Blumenthal is a co-founder and co-CEO of Warby Parker, a transformative lifestyle brand that offers designer eyewear at a revolutionary price, while leading the way for socially conscious businesses. In 2015, Fast Company named Warby Parker the most innovative company in the... Read More →

Friday May 29, 2026 1:00pm - 1:45pm EDT
CFA Concert Hall

Business

1:45pm EDT

Craft, Commerce and Community: A Conversation with Tristan Walker

Friday May 29, 2026 1:45pm - 2:30pm EDT

Marsh Chapel @ 735 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215, USA

The founder of Walker & Company talks about being an entrepreneur, building his men’s grooming brand, and how his latest venture lets him focus on education and craft.

Speakers

Shirley Leung

Columnist, The Boston Globe & Co-author, Power Play

Shirley Leung is an award-winning columnist for The Boston Globe covering the intersection of business and politics. She co-authors the Globe’s new Power Play newsletter, co-hosts the Globe Opinion podcast “Say More,” and contributes regularly to GBH’s Boston Public Radio. A former Globe b... Read More →

Tristan Walker

Founder, Heirloom Craft

Tristan Walker is the the founder of Heirloom Craft, Inc. and serves on the Shake Shack, Inc. and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Board of Directors. Fortune Magazine named him as one out of 50 of the “World’s Greatest Leaders.” His first company, Walker & Co., was acquired by Procter... Read More →

Friday May 29, 2026 1:45pm - 2:30pm EDT
Marsh Chapel

Business

3:00pm EDT

Sweet Success: How Jeni Britton Built a Food Empire

Friday May 29, 2026 3:00pm - 3:45pm EDT

Marsh Chapel @ 735 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215, USA

The founder of Jeni’s Ice Creams traces her entrepreneurial journey – from artisanal ice cream to fiber bars – and shares her recipe for success.

Speakers

Meagan McGinnes-Bessey

Managing Editor, Digital Audience & Community Engagement, WBUR

Meagan McGinnes-Bessey is the managing editor of digital audience & community engagement at WBUR, Boston's largest NPR newsroom. She oversees the newsletter and social media teams.

Her mouthful of a title really means thinking about the ways and places WBUR can bring its local journalism to more communities — and then how to better connect while there. That could be through newsletters, on our website, on Instagram, YouTube, in person at WBUR CitySpace or... Read More →

Jeni Britton

Founder, Jeni's Ice Creams & Floura Fiber

Jeni Britton is the founder of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, renowned for reinventing artisanal ice cream nationwide. Named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People and an Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow, Jeni has spent recent years pioneering a new fiber revolution. As the founder of Floura, sh... Read More →

Friday May 29, 2026 3:00pm - 3:45pm EDT
Marsh Chapel

Business

3:30pm EDT

It’s the Economy, Stupid: How Seismic Shifts Hit Wallets

Friday May 29, 2026 3:30pm - 4:15pm EDT

Tsai Performance Center @ 685 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215, USA

The former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers breaks down how tariffs, geopolitical conflict and AI are reshaping the global economy — and what persistent inflation and market uncertainty mean for everyday Americans.

Speakers

Jason Furman

Professor of Practice, Harvard University

Jason Furman is the Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy jointly at HarvardKennedy School (HKS) and the Department of Economics at Harvard University. Furmanengages in public policy through research, writing and teaching in a wide range of areasincluding U.S. and international macro... Read More →

Tiziana Dearing

Host, Morning Edition, WBUR

Tiziana Dearing is the host of WBUR’s Morning Edition.

Prior to helping listeners start the morning with news from around the corner and around the world, Tiziana hosted Radio Boston, WBUR’s daily local magazine, for five years.

Tiziana came to journalism after a career that spanned academia, nonprofits and for-profit management consulting. She taught graduate students at the Boston College School of Social Work and chaired its program in Social Innovation and Leadership. Tiziana ran a start-up foundation... Read More →

Friday May 29, 2026 3:30pm - 4:15pm EDT
Tsai Performance Center

Business

11:00am EDT

Is Business Broken? Live Podcast Taping on the Innovation Economy

Saturday May 30, 2026 11:00am - 11:45am EDT

WBUR CitySpace @ 890 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215, USA

What transforms a scientific idea into a technology, a company, a job or even an entire economy? A century and a half after Boston University Professor Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone, that question is more urgent than ever. Join us as we dig into the forces driving innovation today — and what's at stake if they falter.

Sponsored by:

Speakers

Kendalle Burlin O'Connell

CEO & President, MassBio

Kendalle Burlin O'Connell is CEO and President of MassBio, the world's largest and oldest biopharma membership organization, representing 1,700+ companies advancing breakthrough science. A leading voice on healthcare innovation and a champion for the biotech founders and emerging companies driving it, she adv... Read More →

Curt Nickisch

Host, Is Business Broken?

Curt Nickisch is the host of the Is Business Broken? podcast which features conversations with academics, industry leaders, and politicians that ask the thorny questions necessary for this moment, and help us navigate real world solutions.

Dr. Melissa Gilliam

President, Boston University

Dr. Melissa L. Gilliam became Boston University’s eleventh president on July 1, 2024. Dr. Gilliam is an esteemed and award-winning interdisciplinary researcher in medicine, public health, and the humanities. Dr. Gilliam joined Boston University from The Ohio State University, where she held the Engie-A... Read More →

Saturday May 30, 2026 11:00am - 11:45am EDT
WBUR CitySpace

Business, Live podcast taping

11:45am EDT

The New American Dream: Is Upward Mobility Still Possible?

Saturday May 30, 2026 11:45am - 12:30pm EDT

Marsh Chapel @ 735 Commonwealth Ave, Boston, MA 02215, USA

Economists and social innovators examine why fewer Americans now earn more than their parents. The consequences are particularly devastating for lower-income households, but research has identified powerful ways to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.

In partnership with:

Speakers

Raj Chetty

Director of Opportunity Insights & Professor of Economics, Harvard University

Raj Chetty is the William A. Ackman Professor of Economics at Harvard University and the Director of Opportunity Insights, which uses big data to study the science of economic opportunity: how we can give children from all backgrounds better chances of succeeding? Chetty’s work has been... Read More →

Michael Jonas

Executive Editor, CommonWealth Beacon

Michael Jonas is the executive editor of CommonWealth Beacon, a nonprofit publication covering Massachusetts politics and public policy. An award-winning journalist with a particular focus on education, criminal justice reform, and health care, he previously wrote a weekly column on politics f... Read More →

Saturday May 30, 2026 11:45am - 12:30pm EDT
Marsh Chapel

Business

1:00pm EDT

1:45pm EDT

3:00pm EDT

3:30pm EDT

11:00am EDT

11:45am EDT

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