The next 6 weeks or so are going to be insane!

Last semester of senior year, co-directing a middle school musical, working part-time, and finishing up my thesis. So little time, so much to do!

Keep questioning,
Sara 

TEDxPSU Recap

This past Sunday, November 13th, Penn State University hosted the second annual TEDxPSU event at the university’s main campus. TED Talks, a popular web series of “riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world“ (TED, 2011). TED events have been hosted all over the world, and have covered a variety of topics. TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, has a mission: to share ideas worth spreading. Speakers range from famous philanthropists and researchers to musical performers, comedians, and even middle school students.

Popular talks have come from the likes of:

• Arianna Huffington, journalist
• Annie Lennox, activist, singer-songwriter
• Al Gore, climate change prophet
• Bill Gates, philanthropist
• Bill Clinton, activist
• David Blaine, illusionist, endurance artist
• Dave Eggers, author, publisher, education activist
• Elizabeth Gilbert, writer
• Eve Ensler, playwright, activist
• Isaac Mizrahi, fashion designer
• Julian Assange, whistleblower
• JK Rowling, author
• James Cameron, director
• Jamie Oliver, chef, activist
• John Hodgman, expert (the “PC guy” opposite Justin Long’s Mac)
• J. J. Abrams, writer, director, producer
• Jane Goodall, primatologist, environmentalist
• Madeleine Albright, former US Secretary of State
• Martin Seligman, psychologist
• Maira Kalman, illustrator, author
• Malcolm Gladwell, writer
• Oliver Sacks, neurological anthropologist
• Roger Ebert, film critic & blogger
• Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist
• Thandie Newton, actor
• Temple Grandin, livestock handling designer, autism activist

Penn State University decided to host an event with the hopes of bringing together “innovative and thought-provoking individuals from the Penn State community and the world to share ideas worth spreading” (TEDxPSU, 2011). The event was structured around a host of live speakers, with several pre-recorded videos from the TED archives sprinkled in their midst. Dr. Christian Brady, Dean of the Schreyer Honors College, acted as host, making seamless transitions between speakers and videos, and alleviating the mood with jokes and anecdotes between intense talks.

The theme of this year’s TEDxPSU event was “Relics and Revolutions,” and the speakers tackled a variety of topics, from political cartoons and the role of females in terrorism to cyber charter schools and the global water crisis. Though the topics were all over the map, Dr. Brady found the thread that pulled the talks together: “relics are the blueprints to our designs and the basis of our ideas.”

Mia Bloom, Women’s Studies professor at Penn State’s University Park, discussed the evolution of women’s roles in global terrorism. Researcher Mark Ballora asked us, “what if you could hear data?” And discussed an upcoming project with astrophysicist, George Smoot, and famed drummer and ethnomusicologist, Mickey Hart that does just that. James Stone talked about emotion, vegetable intelligence, and cyborg plants. How would plants be different if they had mobility?

Dr. Joseph Valente talked about the importance of viewing deaf students in a different light: not as disabled, but bilingual. Currently, schools are “dumbing down” their deaf students, when they should be listening to what they have to share. Michael Mann discussed the politicization of science vs. the scientification of politics, and how important it is to address climate change. Editorial cartoonist Rob Rogers insisted that America needs a new avatar. Uncle Sam is outdated, but what should we base our new avatar on? Health? Economy? Our addiction to oil? Pop culture? Technology? Politics? Religion? War? Guns? Leaders?

Ali Carr-Chellman illuminated the financial problems that cyber charter schools have created for public and private educational institutions. Where does all the money go? Lori Hepner showed us how she created art by using binaries to visualize tweets and twitter feeds. Jeremy Irish, the brains behind geocaching, talked about the Great American Stash Hunt, the precursor to the geographic game we’ve come to know and love. Ian Rosenberger shared how helping others in Haiti after the earthquake changed his life. His organization, THREAD, recycles trash to provide jobs for Haitians and create new products.

Jack Matson talked about eco-dwellings and Rick Shuhmann discussed the politics of water. Derek Sivers, who was approached with the idea of online dating with music, discussed the importance of good ideas AND good execution. Eric Mockensturm talked about BitCoin, a contemporary vision for paperless currency.

Last, but most certainly not least, was a talk from our host, Dr. Christian Brady. He managed to create unifying meaning from the challenging issues brought forth by the speakers. Regardless of who you are, where you come from, or when you live, work, and play, it is your responsibility to take each moment as a learning experience. Each shred of every day is a relic to be cherished. Every class, every relationship, every tragedy and triumph must be noticed, observed, and described if we want to continue leading comfortable lives. Without the leaders of our world learning from the past — the mistakes, successes, hard work, poor choices — our society has no hope for a bright future.

Dr. Brady began his talk with a simple idea: light. According to historic and holy scriptures, “In the beginning, God created light.” Light is the first thing we see when we wake up. It is what allows us to see everything in our lives from our bathroom mirrors and toothbrushes to our computer screens at school and work. From the tiniest insect to the infinite cosmos. Without light, without examination of what is front of us, ahead of us, and behind us, we cannot learn. Without light and the willingness to learn, work hard, and pick ourselves up when we make mistakes, there is no triumph. Without the precious relic of light, there is no hope for revolution… and in so many areas of our lives today, we desperately need revolution.

My experience at TEDxPSU was, well, enlightening, to say the least. Upon reflecting on the variety of personalities and disciplines the speakers possessed, I found clarity in Dr. Brady’s mention of light. It is only in the light where we can work together, communicate, and create new ideas. It is only in the light that we can acknowledge common humanity, similarities and differences… it is only in the light that we can make much-needed change.

Keep questioning,
Sara

Snippets from Dr. Christian Brady’s TED Talk

We have primeval needs (comfort, love, light) and of course primeval fears, as well. Death is the ultimate darkness & fear, but the first thing God created was light — ‘Let there be light!’

Some of the oldest relics we have are lamps, those that bring light… Here we are today with all of these lights, all of this electricity being consumed. But I’m not here to talk about that. I’m here to talk about being predictive problem solvers. My talk is not about petroleum products or any of that. My talk is about entrepreneurs, creative people, like you all here today. We don’t have excuses to not be thoughtful people, too. We can’t be so focused on the neat, cool products we can design; we need to think about the impact. There will always be consequences. There will always be unintended consequences. I think we can expect one another to be mindful of them… and the reason we can is because we have those relics, those who came before us.

If we learn from our history, we stand a chance of getting more of it right.