1. ‘The View From in Here’
May 11, 2012 The Times Center, New York

2. WelcometoTEDxEast
May 11, 2012
Dear TEDxEast Community,
Here we are together again. Welcome or welcome back- it is wonderful to have you here.
A few notes about the ideas that gave shape to the program today. This day was
designed with the intent to examine life around us. Our goal, in collaboration with you,
is to examine our views, others’ views public and private positions on different topics.
Some of these are shared while others are hotly debated. Essentially we are asking you
to counter, compliment or interrogate the ideas presented as they intersect with your own
lived experience.
This content includes conceptions of education, space exploration, our search for love,
definitions of beauty, understanding of our origins, re-conceptualizing our security,
anonymity, and the process of creating, just to a name a few. Why do we believe what
we believe? How are these views shaped, are they malleable, useful to us or worth
challenging?
Noteworthy in thinking about your experience today is the expansion to include simulcast
lounges as part of the TEDxEast event. Actually, the day was intentionally focused on
the experience, the ideas, the interactions. So, there are things happening in the lounges
throughout the day and we feel these offer an opportunity to interact with the talks, our
partners and each other in new ways. We encourage each attendee to spend at least one
of the four sessions in the simulcast lounges with friends (new or old) where you can eat,
drink, talk and engage.
Finally, at this event we have also brought in a guest curator, David Binder, who has used
his talents and resources to bring a new twist to the TEDxEast experience. We thank him
for his time and creativity in enhancing this event for our community.
So, now we ask you to unplug from your normal day-to-day and revel in the journey we
have designed for you. We are pleased you have decided to join us and think the day
ahead is something very special.
Enjoy and many thanks.
Warmly,
Julianne Wurm and the TEDxEast Team

3. May11,2012 TheTimesCenter,NewYork
agenda
Check in
Opening remarks Julianne Wurm Curator
David Binder Guest Curator
SESSION 1 Keith Yamashita The Other Side of Separation
THE LEFT BRAIN Oded Ahronson Titan: A World Both Strange and Familiar
Matthew Cross The Golden Ratio
Dr. Kim Janda The Unlikely Targets of Modern Day Vaccines
Dean Obeidalla The Muslims Are Coming! Using Stand Up Comedy to
Counter Islamaphobia
T. Colin Campbell Resolving The Health Care Crisis
Gillian Grassie Musical Performance
Jon Marks You Are Not an Ape. (Now Put Down That Turd and Get Back
to Work!)
Conversation Break
SESSION 2 Carmen deLavallade The Creation: Plus 40
THE RIGHT BRAIN Maya Lin Between Art, Architecture, and Monument
Julian Crouch The Gap
Peter Wegner Nix, Nada, Nameless
Charles Atlas How to Pass, Kick, Film and Run
Oskar Eustis A Public Place
Matthias Hollwich Meet Wendy
Michael Friedman The Song Makes a Space
Conversation Break
SESSION 3 Jane Comfort Excerpts from Beauty
FROM THE INSIDE OUT Samantha Sleeper Estranged Labour
PS22 Chorus
Helen Fisher Biology of Mind: Who We Love
Antonio Bolfo Defining Photography Through a First Person Perspective
Cassandra Lin Be Your Own Superman
David Pizarro Dirty minds: How Disgust Shapes our Thoughts on Moral
Wrong and the Political Right.
Conversation Break
SESSION 4 Julie Reumert Opera Singer
REFRAME Beth Coleman City as Platform
Sam Gregory Visual Anonymity in a Surveillance Age
Ross Martin The Poetry of Misunderstanding
Jeff Carter Prodigious Serendipity: Identifying Moments for Well Timed
Revolutionary Change
Pasi Sahlberg GERM That Kills Schools
Mahmout Natout How I Improved my Literacy
Closing Remarks

4. SpeakersatTEDxEast
speakers
Oded Aharonson Titan: A World Both Strange and Familiar
http://www.aharonson.com/
Oded Aharonson is a Professor of Planetary Science. After
receiving degrees in Applied and Engineering Physics from Cornell
University, a stint in the Israeli Air Force, and a PhD in Planetary Science
from MIT, he arrived at Caltech and most recently the Weizmann Institute
of Science, where his research focuses on planetary surfaces. On Mars
for example, Aharonson has studied the history of water, the rock record
of past climate, and a giant impact event smashing the planet. Aharonson
participates in many spacecraft investigations of solar system bodies,
including the Mars Exploration Rovers, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter,
the Cassini mission to Titan, and is a hopeful member of the Titan Mare
Explorer team, a ship to float and navigate the seas of Titan.
Charles Atlas How to Pass, Kick, Film and Run
Charles Atlas has been a pioneering figure in film and video for
over four decades, Atlas has extended the limits of his medium, forging
new territory in a far-reaching range of genres, stylistic approaches,
and techniques. Throughout his production, the artist has consistently
fostered collaborative relationships, working intimately with such artists
and performers as Leigh Bowery, Michael Clark, Douglas Dunn, Marina
Abramovic, Yvonne Rainer, Mika Tajima/New Humans, Antony and the
Johnsons, and most notably Merce Cunningham, for whom he served
as in-house videographer for a decade from the early 1970s through
1983; their close working relationship continued until Cunningham’s
death in 2009.
Atlas was born in St. Louis, MO in 1949; he has lived and
worked in New York City since the early 1970s. His work has been
exhibited domestically and internationally in such institutions as Tate
Modern, London; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Centre
Pompidou, Paris; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Hamburger
Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin; and the Whitney Museum
of American Art, New York. Recent solo exhibitions include the New
Museum, New York; the De Hallen, Haarlem; and Bloomberg SPACE,
London.

5. The View From in Here
May11,2012TheTimesCenter,NewYork
T. Colin Campbell Resolving The Health Care Crisis
http://www.tcolincampbell.org/courses-resources/about/
For more than forty years, Dr. T. Colin Campbell has been at
the forefront of nutrition research. Trained at Cornell (M.S., Ph.D.) and
MIT (Research Associate) in nutrition, biochemistry and toxicology,
he spent 10 years on the faculty of Virginia Tech’s Department of
Biochemistry and Nutrition before returning to the Division of Nutritional
Sciences at Cornell in 1975 where he presently holds his Endowed Chair
(now Emeritus).
Dr. Campbell’s principal scientific interest has been on
the effects of nutritional status on long term health, particularly on
the causation of cancer. His legacy, the China Project, is the most
comprehensive study of health and nutrition ever conducted. He has
conducted original research both in laboratory experiments and in large-
scale human studies; has received over 70 grant-years of peer-reviewed
research funding (mostly NIH), has served on several grant review panels
of multiple funding agencies, has authored over 300 peer-reviewed
research papers, and has contributed to national nutrition policy. As well,
he is the coauthor of the bestselling book, The China Study: Startling
Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health, with ~800,000
copies sold since its publication in 2005.
Antonio Bolfo Defining Photography Through a First Person Perspective
http://www.antoniobolfo.com/
Antonio Bolfo was born and raised in New York City to
Korean and Italian immigrants. He grew up drawing and painting and
attended the art univVideo and became the senior animator at the
video game development company Harmonix. For 4 years he worked
on Playstation games such as Guitar Hero, Amplitude, and Anti-grav,
among others. Antonio left the videogame industry and attended the
International Center of Photography Photojournalism program in 2009.
He is the recipient of the New York Times Foundation Scholarship, 1st
place winner in the 2011 NPPA Best of Photojournalism, winner in the
2009 World Wide Photography Gala Awards, and 2011 participant in
the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass. His work has been
published in the New York Times, Time Magazine, Newsweek, MSNBC,
American Photography, and Communication Arts, among others. He
is based in New York City and is represented by Reportage by Getty
Images.

6. SpeakersatTEDxEast
Beth Coleman City as Platform
http://cms.mit.edu/people/bcoleman/
Dr. Beth Coleman believes in the power of storytelling to
transform the world. She works with new technology and art to create
transmedia forms of engagement. She is the director of City as Platform,
Amsterdam, a Faculty Fellow at Berkman Center for Internet & Society,
Harvard University, as well as a professor at the Institute of Network
Cultures, Hogeschool van Amsterdam. Since 2005, Coleman has been
a professor of comparative media studies and the primary investigator
of the Pervasive Media lab at MIT. As an artist, she has a history of
international exhibition including venues such as the Whitney Museum of
American Art, New Museum of Contemporary Art, and Musée d’Art
moderne Paris. She is the co-founder of SoundLab Cultural Alchemy, an
internationally acclaimed multimedia performance platform. Her book
Hello Avatar is published by the MIT Press.
Jeff Carter Prodigious Serendipity: Identifying Moments for Well Timed
Revolutionary Change
http://www.eyelock.com
Jeff Carter is a multidimensional thinker, researching the
profound impacts to human evolution caused by the convergence of a
person’s digital and physical identity. He holds several patents related
to information banking and the monetization of personal data for the
privacy, control and empowerment of an individual.
In 2008, Carter founded the Center for Future Banking, a joint
venture between Bank of America (BoA) and MIT that researched the
impact of identity on global banking. As head of innovation for BoA,
Carter helped create the bank’s first information strategy, a catalyst for
advanced quantitative analysis, risk assessment and increased customer
intimacy. He has been recognized as one of the most innovative leaders
by several groups of his peers, including American Banker magazine.

7. The View From in Here
May11,2012TheTimesCenter,NewYork
Julian Crouch Designer & Director
Julian Crouch is a director, designer, writer, and teacher whose
career has spanned Theatre, Opera, Film, and Television. Julian is a
founding member and artistic director of Improbable Theatre and was co-
director and co-designer of the international and West End phenomenon
SHOCKHEADED PETER. Other shows for Improbable include
SATYAGRAHA in a co-production with the English National Opera and
The Metropolitan Opera, SPIRIT, which Julian directed, and which was a
co-production with The Royal Court, COMA, which he co-devised and
co-designed, STICKY, THE HANGING MAN, COMA and 70 HILL LANE.
He designed and was associate director on the multi award-winning
JERRY SPRINGER: THE OPERA at the National Theatre, West End and
UK tour. Other recent productions include DR ATOMIC for The Met / ENO,
THE MAGIC FLUTE for Welsh National Opera, the Broadway musical of
THE ADDAMS FAMILY, and THE ENCHANTED ISLAND for The Met. His
most recent production was THE DEVIL AND MISTER PUNCH which
he devised, directed and designed, and has just finished a sell out run at
the Barbican, London.Julian is currently Artist in Residence at the Park
Avenue Armory in New York City. He lives in Brooklyn with his family.
Jane Comfort and Company Excerpts from Beauty
http://www.janecomfortandcompany.org/
Hailed by The Washington Post as “fascinating and fantastic,”
Beauty takes a gimlet-eyed look at the extremes women go to achieve
impossible beauty. In these excerpts, Jane Comfort’s wildly versatile
company members don false eyelashes, sequins, and Spanx to
compete in a nightly Barbie Beauty Contest judged by random audience
members. Ditching Barbie drag, they examine the many beauty
procedures available to us lesser creatures: liposuction, botox, plastic
surgeries, etc., and those that aren’t: Photoshop, the digital magic that
retouches every model we see in magazines. Beauty invites men and
women of all ages to consider how they perceive and project notions
of female beauty in both benign and malevolent ways, consciously and
subconsciously. Comfort was awarded a Guggenheim to create this
wickedly funny and poignant work, which will be performed in repertory
with her Bessie Award-winning Underground River at LaMaMa Thurs-
Sun, May 17-20, 2012.

8. SpeakersatTEDxEast
Matthew Cross The Golden Ratio
http://www.about.me/matthewcross
Matthew Cross has been a Golden Ratio researcher
and emissary since age 13. His passion led to co-authoring the
groundbreaking Golden Ratio-themed books: The Golden Ratio Lifestyle
Diet and The Divine Code of Da Vinci, Fibonacci, Einstein & YOU
with Robert Friedman, M.D. He is President of Leadership Alliance,
an international consulting firm providing breakthrough strategies for
growth and transformation. Matthew is also the founder of Hoshin
Media publishing company, whose mission is to inspire, empower
and align. He is a Deming quality scholar, Hoshin Kanri strategic
alignment specialist and inspiring speaker who works with Fortune 100
organizations. In the 1980’s he conceived and launched the Greenpeace
Gift Collection and later played a strategic role in the national launch of
the Discover Card.
Carmen Delvallade The Creation: Plus 40
http://www.zia-artists.com
CARMEN DELAVALLADE first appeared in NYC with the
Lester Horton Dance Theatre and subsequently made her Broadway
debut in House of Flowers (1954). She has appeared in a number of
films for Twentieth Century Fox including Carmen Jones (1954), starring
Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte. As a dancer she has had ballets
created for her by Alvin Ailey, Lester Horton, John Butler, Glen Tetley,
Agnes De Mille, Geoffrey Holder, Donald McKayle, Louis Johnson and
Tally Beatty. She was a principle dancer with the Metropolitan Opera,
a guest artist with American Ballet Theater and a soloist with the NYC
Opera. At Yale she taught movement classes for actors and eventually
became a member of Yale Repertory Theatre and American Repertory
Theatre at Harvard. She has choreographed for Dance Theatre of
Harlem, Joyce Trisler, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and a number
of operas including the landmark production of Porgy & Bess at the
Metropolitan Opera House. She continues to dance, and work on stage
and film projects, such as the stage movement for Oscar Wilde’s Salome
with Al Pacino, appearing in Big Daddy with Adam Sandler, and in John
Sayles’ film Lone Star. She received the Dance Magazine Award (1964)
and an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree (1994) from the Boston
Conservatory of Music.

9. The View From in Here
May11,2012TheTimesCenter,NewYork
Michael Friedman The Song Makes a Space
Michael Friedman wrote the music and lyrics to Bloody Bloody
Andrew Jackson, which recently played at The Public Theater and on
Broadway. As an Associate Artist with the acclaimed theater company
The Civilians, he has written music and lyrics for Canard Canard Goose,
Gone Missing, Nobody’s Lunch, This Beautiful City, In the Footprint, and
The Great Immensity, and co-created the groups 2012 TED Talk. Other
works include Saved and The Brand New Kid. With Steve Cosson, he
is the co-author of Paris Commune. His music has appeared in shows
at most major New York theaters and at theaters around the country.
He was the dramaturg for the recent Broadway revival of A Raisin in
the Sun. He is an Artistic Associate at New York Theatre Workshop,
and has been a MacDowell Fellow, a Princeton Hodder Fellow, a
Meet The Composer Fellow, and a Visiting Professor at the Princeton
Environmental Institute. He received an OBIE Award for sustained
achievement.
Helen Fisher Biology of Mind: Who We Love
http://www.helenfisher.com/
Helen Fisher, PhD Biological Anthropologist, is a Research
Professor and member of the Center for Human Evolution Studies in
the Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University and Chief Scientific
Advisor to the Internet dating site, Chemistry.com, a division of Match.
com. She has conducted extensive research and written five books
on the evolution and future of human sex, love, marriage, gender
differences in the brain and how your personality type shapes who you
are and who you love.
Oskar Eustis A Public Place
Oskar Eustis is the Artistic Director of The Public Theater and
has worked as a director, dramaturg, and artistic director for theaters
around the country. Previously, Eustis has worked at the Eureka Theatre
Company in San Francisco and L.A.’s Mark Taper Forum. Mr. Eustis also
served as Artistic Director at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence,
Rhode Island for 11 years. In 2005, he took the helm at New York’s
Public Theater where he directed the New York and World premiere of
Rinne Groff’s The Ruby Sunrise and Compulsion; Angels in America,
Part I: Millennium Approaches (Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding
Director); Angels in America & Part II: Perestroika. He was a professor of
Theatre, Speech and Dance at Brown University, where he founded and
chaired the Trinity Rep/Brown University Consortium for professional
theater training. He received an honorary doctorate from Rhode Island
College in 1999 and Brown in 2001 and has held professorships at
Brown, UCLA and NYU. He currently serves as Professor of Dramatic
Writing and Arts and Public Policy at New York University. Oskar was
the lead producer on the Tony Award-winning revival of Hair, Bloody
Bloody Andrew Jackson and The Merchant of Venice on Broadway.

10. SpeakersatTEDxEast
Gillian Grassie Musical Performance
Gillian Grassie is an indie harpist/singer-songwriter from
Philadelphia. Grammy-winner Marc Cohn has said of her music, “it’s rare
to hear a young singer with such control and understated soulfulness,
and even more rare to hear a harp provide such a deep percussive
groove. I was immediately captivated by her sound.” Her innovative
use of the harp, expressive vocals, and sophisticated but accessible
songwriting prowess have earned her grants from the Thomas J. Watson
Foundation and the U.S. State Department, a slew of awards, and the
fervent support of her fans, who collectively funded Grassie’s third
album, “The Hinterhaus,” produced by Todd Sickafoose (Ani DiFranco,
Anaïs Mitchell, Erin McKeown). A natural storyteller and comparative
literature major, her music is often inspired by literary works and has
been featured on radio, film, and television. She has toured across
the United States, Canada, Russia, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, India,
Indonesia, Germany, and France.
Sam Gregory Visual Anonymity in a Surveillance Age
http://www.witness.org/
Sam Gregory is a human rights advocate, trainer and video
producer who helps people use the power of the moving image
and participatory technologies to create human rights change. He is
currently the Program Director at WITNESS - the leading organization
supporting people to use video for human rights. He runs their ‘Cameras
Everywhere’ initiative - focused on empowering millions of people to
use video effectively, safely and ethically. Over the past decade, Sam
has worked extensively with human rights activists, particularly in Latin
America and Asia, integrating video into impactful campaigns on a range
of issues.
Known for his expertise in emerging forms of advocacy,
Sam publishes in human rights, social entrepreneurship & visual media
journals, and teaches on the topics as an Adjunct Lecturer at the
Harvard Kennedy School. A graduate of the University of Oxford, he
completed a Masters in Public Policy as a Kennedy Memorial Scholar at
Harvard. In 2012, Sam was named a Young Global Leader of the World
Economic Forum.

11. The View From in Here
May11,2012TheTimesCenter,NewYork
Dr. Kim Janda The Unlikely Targets of Modern Day Vaccines
Dr. Kim D. Janda currently holds the rank of the Ely R.
Callaway, Jr. Chaired Professor in the Departments of Chemistry,
Immunology and Microbial Science at The Scripps Research Institute
and is the Director of the Worm Institute of Research and Medicine
(WIRM) at The Scripps Research Institute. He is also a Skaggs Scholar
within the Skaggs Institute of Chemical Biology.
Janda obtained a BS degree from the University of South
Florida in Clinical Chemistry and a Doctoral degree from the University
of Arizona in natural product total synthesis. A hallmark of his research is
his ability to uniquely combine principles of medicinal chemistry together
with modern molecular biology, immunology & neuropharmacology,
helping to pioneer the field of immunopharmacotherapy.
Professor Janda has received numerous awards including
the AC Cope Scholar, an AP Sloan Fellowship, a Doctor of Philosophy
honoris causa, University of Helsinki, Finland, 2009 and was recognized
by Discover magazine’s Top 100 Science Stories for his obesity vaccine.
He has published over 450 original publications in refereed journals
and founded the biotechnological companies CombiChem, Drug
Abuse Sciences and AIPartia. He is a member of the NIH study section
Vaccines against Microbial Diseases and is the associate editor of
Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry.
Matthias Hollwich Meet Wendy
http://www.design.upenn.edu/people/hollwich_matthias
Matthias Hollwich is a registered European Architect and
cofounder or HOLLWICH KUSHNER LLC (HWKN) and ARCHITIZER.
HWKN is a New York based group of architects, designers, social
media experts and inventors operating within the field of architecture,
urbanism, branding, digital media, and development. ARCHITIZER is
the world largest social media site for architecture. Before cofounding
HWKN and ARCHITIZER, Matthias worked at the Office for Metropolitan
Architecture (OMA) in Rotterdam, and Diller + Scofidio in New York. He
is currently a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where
he created the international conference on aging and architecture:
New Aging in 2010. In 2004, Matthias finished editing his book at the
Bauhaus: UmBauhaus – Updating Modernism. Currently he works on
New Aging, a manifest on aging and architecture to be published in the
fall of 2011. His work has been featured in the New York Times, Bauwelt,
Architects Magazine, Dwell, and many other publications. He has been
a speaker at TED_U, TED_X Atlanta, PICNIC in Amsterdam and many
more. Matthias is an optimistic and driven to move architecture forward.

12. SpeakersatTEDxEast
Maya Lin Between Art, Architecture, and Monument
http://www.mayalin.com
Maya Lin has maintained a careful balance between art and
architecture throughout her career, having virtually redefined the idea of
the monument with her highly acclaimed Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial
in 1982. She has since gone on to successfully pursue the creation
of a remarkable body of work that encompasses large-scale site-
specific installations, intimate studio artworks, architectural works and
memorials.
In her large-scale environmental artworks, Lin has consistently
explored how we experience and relate to the landscape. She has made
works that merge seamlessly with the terrain, blurring the boundaries
between two- and three-dimensional space and setting up a systematic
ordering of the land that is tied to history, time, science and language.
Lin’s studio artwork interprets the world through a twenty-first
century lens, utilizing technological methods to study and visualize the
natural world, merging rational order with notions of beauty and the
transcendental and translating them into sculptures and drawings. Her
work has been shown in solo and group shows throughout the United
States and abroad, most recently at the Carnegie Museum of Art and the
Dayton Art Institute.
Cassandra Lin Be Your Own Superman
http://www.w-i-n.ws/
Cassandra Lin is a 13 year old young entrepreneur from
Westerly, RI. Cassandra co-founded her award-winning Project, TGIF -
Turn Grease Into Fuel, when she was age 10. The project collects waste
cooking oil from residents and restaurants, refines it into biodiesel and
then distributes the fuel to families who cannot afford heat in the winter.
Project TGIF has expanded to 10 towns and cities in Rhode Island and
Connecticut and generates over 50,000 gallons of biodiesel, which helps
heat 80 households each year. Cassandra was named one of the Top
10 Volunteers of the Year by the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards
as well as one of the top 5 environmentalists under 18 by bigmamma.net
in 2011. She and her project were featured on CNN, MTV International,
huffingtonpost.com and the United Nations’ website. In October 2011,
she was a keynote speaker during the Future Trends Conference in
Miami, Florida.

13. The View From in Here
May11,2012TheTimesCenter,NewYork
Ross Martin The Poetry of Misunderstanding
http://somethingburning.com/about-ross-martin/
Ross Martin is an Executive Vice President at Viacom Media
Networks and runs Scratch, a creative swat team driving innovation
across the company, including MTV, VH1, Comedy Central & more.
Scratch partners with select brands to channel the power of Viacom’s
portfolio and its unparalleled connection to youth in new ways, including
consumer insights, product development, design, branding and the
development, production and distribution of original content.
Previously, Ross served as Senior Vice President of MTV 360 Production
and Development. Ross joined MTV in 2004 as the first Head of
Programming for Emmy and Peabody Award winning college network,
mtvU. In this role, he oversaw the development and production of all
original programming, on-air, online and on mobile.
Prior to MTV, Ross founded Plant Film, a Los Angeles based production
company partnered with Fox, VH1 and Dimension Films; was a
development executive for Spike Lee’s 40 Acres and A Mule Filmworks;
and taught poetry at Washington University, RISD & The New School.
His writing appears in The Kenyon Review, The Harvard Review,
McSweeney’s, Denver Quarterly, BOMB Magazine, and has been
nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His first book, “The Cop Who Rides
Alone,” was published in 2002.
Jon Marks You Are Not an Ape. (Now Put Down That Turd and Get
Back to Work!)
http://personal.uncc.edu/jmarks/
Jonathan Marks (a product of the 1960s New York City
public school system and The Horace Mann School, class of ‘71) is
currently Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina
at Charlotte, where he has taught since the beginning of the present
millennium, after stretches at Yale and Berkeley. His primary interests lie
in the cultural aspects of science, particularly evolution and genetics. He
received the 1999 Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from
the American Anthropological Association, and served as President of its
General Anthropology Division from 2000-2002. In 2006 he was elected
a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Recently he has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the Genomics
Center in Edinburgh and at the Max Planck Institute for the History of
Science in Berlin. His most recent book is “The Alternative Introduction
to Biological Anthropology” (Oxford University Press). He is also the
author of “What It Means to Be 98% Chimpanzee” (2002); and “Why I
Am Not a Scientist” (2009), both published by the University of California
Press. Paradoxically, however, he is about 98% scientist, and not a
chimpanzee.

14. SpeakersatTEDxEast
Dean Obeidallah The Muslims Are Coming!Busing Stand Up Comedy
to Counter Islamaphobia
http://wwwdeanofcomedy.com
Dean Obeidallah is a former lawyer turned political comedian
who has appeared on numerous TV shows including Comedy Central’s
“Axis of Evil”, “The View,” NBC’s “Rock Center,” MSNBC’s “Up with
Chris Hayes,” CNN, and the PBS Special “Stand Up: Muslim-American
Comics Come of Age.”
Dean is co-directing the upcoming documentary “The
Muslims Are Coming!” featuring a stand up comedy tour of Muslim-
American comedians performing free shows across the South and
West in an effort to dispel misconceptions about Muslims. The film
features interviews with Jon Stewart, Rachel Maddow, Soledad O’Brien,
comedians Lewis Black, David Cross & many more.
He is the co-founder of the annual NY Arab-American Comedy
Festival and served as Executive Producer of the Amman Stand up
Comedy Festival – the first and only annual stand up comedy festival in
the Middle East.
Dean also co-created the comedy show “Stand up for Peace”
along with Jewish comic Scott Blakeman which they perform at colleges
across the country in hope of fostering understanding between Jewish
and Muslim-Americans.
Mahmound Natout How I improved my Literacy
In the past, when asked to write a ‘bio’ of my
accomplishments/ life, my mind almost automatically leaps into
constructing a rigidly linear timeline of my major achievements laid
out in a chronological fashion and articulated in words that depict a
progression of some sort. Having been asked to write a bio for this
event, I have decided to approach the matter differently. What I would
like this bio to represent is but an iteration of what I will present at the
event:
Experimenting with programming game consoles as a kid
to flirting with fractal geometry in calculus class as an engineering
student, to attempting to sell Bibles and encyclopedias door to door
as a deluded drop-out and later selling computers and running a family
business, to reflecting on questions about the historical construction of
scientific knowledge as a Masters student in ‘Science and Religion’, to
experiencing the process of conducting a doctoral research project in
Educational Studies. On the day of my presentation, I hope to be able to
graph in front of you yet another image/figure/re-presentation of my bio;
a process that I have come to call iteracy.

15. The View From in Here
May11,2012TheTimesCenter,NewYork
PS22 Chorus
http://www.ps22chorus.blogspot.com/
The PS22 Chorus was formed in the year 2000 as an ever-
changing group of 5th graders from a public elementary school in
Staten Island, New York. PS22 is NOT a school for the arts or a magnet
program, just an ordinary elementary school with extraordinary children.
The chorus has become an Internet sensation over the last few
years, singing choral renditions of classic & alternative pop songs. The
kids have sung with Tori Amos, Queen Latifah, Common, Matisyahu, VV
Brown, The Bangles, Little Dragon, KT Tunstall, & Kylie Minogue! They
have also performed for President Obama and the first family, Beyonce,
Lady Gaga, Stevie Nicks, Rihanna, Kanye West and many more! The
PS22 Chorus has appeared on Nightline, MTV News, Good Morning
America, VH1 Divas 2009 Special, and other national broadcasts.
Perhaps most notably, the PS22 Chorus closed the 2011 Academy
Awards with an unforgettable performance of “Somewhere Over The
Rainbow!”
Pasi Sahlberg GERM That Kills Schools
http://www.passisahlberg.com
Pasi Sahlberg is the school improvement activist & director
general of CIMO (the Ministry of Education and Culture) in Helsinki,
Finland. He has experience in classroom teaching, training teachers,
coaching schools to change, national policy development, and advising
education reformers around the world. He is an international advocate
of public education and a passionate speaker for an alternative course
of education reform. He has published numerous articles and books,
among them “The fourth way of Finland”, “Rethinking accountability in a
knowledge society”, “Creativity & innovation through lifelong learning”,
and “Education reform for raising economic competitiveness”. His latest
book is “Finnish Lessons: What can the world learn from educational
change in Finland?” (Teachers College Press, 2011). He earned his PhD
from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and is adjunct professor at the
Universities of Helsinki and Oulu in Finland. More on pasisahlberg.com &
Twitter @pasi_sahlberg.
David Pizarro Dirty Minds: How Disgust Shapes our Thoughts on Moral
Wrong and the Political Right.
Dr. David Pizarro is an associate professor of psychology at
Cornell University (Ithaca, NY). His research focuses primarily on the
origins of human morality: Why do some people find certain actions to
be morally wrong (or even abhorrent) when there are others couldn’t care
less about those actions? How do people decide who is responsible for
their actions, who deserves to be blamed and punished, who deserves
to be praised, and who deserves neither?
His research has also focused on how various emotions shape
and influence moral judgments. Much of his recent work has implicated
the emotion of disgust as a powerful influence on both moral judgment
and political beliefs. His recent work has shown that individuals made
to feel disgust in a laboratory, and individuals who are more likely to
be easily disgusted in everyday life, are also more likely to make moral
and political judgments consistent with a more conservative political
orientation.

16. SpeakersatTEDxEast
Peter Wegner Nix, Nada, Nameless
http://peterwegner.com
Peter Wegner is an artist concerned primarily with color and
language. His work ranges across media, from painting and sculpture
to installation and photography. Recent artworks include THE UNITED
STATES OF NOTHING, an 80-foot wall work in neon installed at The
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; LEVER LABYRINTH, a maze
constructed with two million sheets of paper in various greens at mid-
town’s iconic Lever House; and BUILDINGS MADE OF SKY, a series of
photographs focused on the invisible cities found suspended between
skyscrapers. Wegner’s MONUMENT TO CHANGE AS IT CHANGES
is one of five new permanent installations he created at Stanford
University. This moving sculpture uses the flip-digit technology seen in
European train stations, but substitutes color for arrival and departure
information. Wegner’s work can be found in the permanent collections
of The Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, and The Yale
University Art Gallery, among others. Last week he installed an exhibition
of new work in Dusseldorf; this fall, he will have a solo exhibition at The
Leipzig Museum. Wegner grew up in South Dakota and graduated from
Yale University.
Samantha Sleeper Estranged Labour
http://www.samantha-sleeper.com/
Samantha Sleeper offers beautiful, luxe and eco-conscious
clothing and accessories for woman and home. The company is based
in New York and San Francisco.
Samantha’s collections have been featured on the cover of
Woman’s Wear Daily, and in major publications such as InStyle, Lucky,
Essence, German Vogue, The Guardian and many others. Her custom
evening and wedding wear have been seen on red carpets from LA to
Cannes. Katy Perry and Ciara are among the beautiful, smart, putting-it-
out-there women who have chosen her clothes. Samantha’s eponymous
collection will be debuting at NY fashion week in September, 2011,
where she will be showing inspired dressing for Spring/Summer 2012.
More information on collections, press and events.
The company is committed to conscious making, using
salvaged, reclaimed or repurposed materials and honoring ethical
production practices.

17. The View From in Here
May11,2012TheTimesCenter,NewYork
Keith Yamashita The Other Side of Separation
http://www.sypartners.com/
For the past two decades, Keith Yamashita has worked
alongside CEOs and their leadership teams to define—and then attain—
greatness for their institutions. He has worked with leaders at Apple,
IBM, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, eBay, Nike, and Gap, among
others.
Keith founded, and currently serves as chairman of, SYPartners (www.
sypartners.com)—a firm steeped in the belief that transformation of
individuals, teams, and institutions requires equal parts empathy,
aspiration, and a bravery to act. SYPartners Consulting’s work has been
recognized in The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company Magazine, and
Fortune Magazine for its uniquely human-centered approach. The firm
fuses systems thinking and creativity to help organizations in times of
seismic change.
In 2011, SYPartners launched a sister company called
Unstuck (www.unstuck.com)— that brings the firm’s knowledge of
transformation to everyday people. The first offering is an iPad-based
app that helps people find a way forward, when they don’t know how to
go forward. The app debuted to critical acclaim by Oprah.com, The New
Yorker, Lifehacker, & others. SYPartners’ next offering will be a suite of
collaborative tools focused on helping managers and teams perform at
their best.
Thank You
Marisa Farina
David Binder
Connie Frances Avila Vico Sharabani
Samantha Fair Jim Gold
Chip Carroll Dominick Quartuccio JrAemish Shah
Courtney Allison
Julianne Wurm

18. thx

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