Anne Quinney
Imagine your favorite book. What if you never read it? Or if the ending were different from the one you know and love? How would it change your overall sense of the work? Or affect your feelings about the author? UM Professor of French Anne Quinney explores the subject of editorial censorship—how a book is subjected to censorship even before it gets published. She suggests ways for us to become reflective literary citizens by asking questions about what we read: Am I reading what the author wrote? Or how she or he understood it? Was a “dangerous” book suppressed and replaced with what we have in print along with a softer message? What is the effect of a mistranslation, however slight, on the overall meaning of the foreign work brought out into English? Learn the backstory in order to get the full story behind the books we love.
Joe Campbell
If a person is drowning would you try to save them? If a person begins choking next to you at a restaurant, would you try to save their life with a Heimlich maneuver? Dr. Campbell discusses the new use of the old anesthesia drug Ketamine that has been shown to decrease suicidal tendencies in severely depressed patients. He explains the use of this drug to provide a pharmaceutical lifeboat that may other treatment modalities time to take effect.
Josh Mabus
What’s the difference between quitting and failing? How do you know when to keep pushing forward versus giving up or starting over? In this engaging talk from serial entrepreneur Josh Mabus learn the difference between quitting and failing.
Katherine Dooley
In this talk, Dr. Dooley speaks about her work on proving Einstein right. Her research is focused on designing improvements to the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) in collaboration with colleagues in the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. Katherine reviews the history of the experiments that led to this breakthrough and show that in large-scale science, although we can still find heroes who opened up new venues, many individual researchers operate behind the scenes. Such a workforce will be all the more necessary for building the next generation of gravitational wave detectors around the world, which will be specialized to hear different tones of the sound spectrum from space.
Patrick Woodyard
Mindful business: While working for a microfinance firm in Trujillo, Peru, Patrick was introduced to the broken Peruvian footwear industry made up of over 100,000 shoemakers who possess remarkable talent yet lack access to consistent work, fair-wages, and brand access to established international markets. Having had extensive exposure to such potential juxtaposed with a lack of access in other developing countries, Patrick developed a vision to push the fashion industry in a new direction by serving as one of the first fashion brands to deliver a superior yet ethically-produced product to consumers.
Rory Ledbetter
Is your breathing restricted right now, and would you even know if it was? Professional actor, director, and self-development coach Rory Ledbetter studies what happens when you release your breath and focus on gratitude in moments of stress or panic. Ledbetter explains why we should pay more attention to the connection between our thoughts and our breathing and presents a new technique called Connective Flow that can immediately improve your awareness and reduce your level of stress. Professional artist and self-development coach Rory Ledbetter studies what happens mentally and physiologically when you release the desire to speak. Ledbetter explains why we should celebrate moments of deep breathing in silence and presents new techniques that can immediately calm your mind.
Shannon Cohn
Do you know the most common, debilitating disease that most people have never heard of? Every year, countless women are forced to leave careers they love, abandon dreams of having children, watch their personal relationships suffer and live in unspeakable pain. Endometriosis: It affects an estimated 176 million girls & women, yet takes an average of 10 years & 8 doctors to diagnose. Many doctors and even loved ones tell them to toughen up, live with the pain or it’s all in their heads. Filmmaker and activist Shannon Cohn explores this troubling phenomenon & why historically women’s pain hasn’t been taken seriously. She asks: What does the widespread prevalence of this misunderstood, devastating disease say about the world we live in & what do we all risk by ignoring the voices of so many women?
Susan Grayzel
By now, it feels like there can’t be anyone who hasn’t seen the sign with its white letters on the sharp red background: “Keep Calm and Carry On.” Even more likely, we’ve seen what feel like infinite variations: “keep calm and smile on;” “keep calm and study hard;” “keep calm and rock on;” or even “sod calm and get angry.” But behind the popular resurgence of this 1939 British wartime slogan is an important story about how the age of air power shifted the relationship of individuals and their states in ways with which we are still grappling. What role would non-combatants have in the wars after 1918? What could states ask of their entire populations—from children to the elderly and including men and women of all walks of life? What does it mean that they asked them to “keep calm and carry on?” And why does this development still matter?
