A Recap of TEDxBerkeley 2022 • We Weblog The World

Annually, I return with delight as a co-curator and producer of TEDxBerkeley, now in its twelfth yr. This yr, the theme was Kaleidoscope and the audio system talks mirror it in some distinctive method. Let’s check out a few of this yr’s audio system, all of whom introduced on the distinguished Zellerbach Corridor stage in Berkeley, California.

TEDxBerkeley crew on stage…

Cole Cuchna: The Energy of Listening. Musicians know that the artwork of listening is not only listening to the noise that fills an area but in addition the vacancy or silence between the noise, or if within the case of an instrument, between the notes being performed. I discovered this once I moved from piano to guitar, the latter of which I might by no means fairly grasp. I additionally discovered this in dancing (what we do once we aren’t stepping to a beat) and qigong and tai chi masters perceive this as nicely. It comes right down to the artwork of listening. 

A passionate musician, Cole gave a chat on the facility of really listening which permits magic to unfold, permitting us to consider the world otherwise. 

Cole Cuchna

His background: Cole studied classical composition on the College of Music at Sacramento State College, the place he graduated with honors and founding father of Dissect, a podcast that fused his teenage love for up to date music with the educational evaluation abilities he discovered in school. Every season analyzes the music, lyrics, and that means of a single album, with every episode devoted to a single track. After two seasons publishing independently, Cole joined Spotify and since then, Dissect was named a high podcast by numerous main media retailers.

Fyodor Urnov: Imagining CRISPR Cures.So what’s CRISPR, you ask? Consider it as a family of DNA sequences discovered within the genomes of prokaryotic organisms like archaea and micro organism for instance and it’s getting used as a “gene enhancing software” to alter how illnesses could be cured by altering the DNA. Utilizing CRISPR-based genome and epigenome enhancing, his discuss was to get us all to rethink illness, particularly uncommon illnesses and the way new developments with CRISPR and past, could be carried out to convey options to those that really feel there isn’t a hope or analysis/organizations taking note of their illnesses and potential cures. Fyodor’s discuss empowered us to decide to treatment for the small share of people that could have uncommon illnesses and because of this, have misplaced hope.

His background: He’s Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology on the UC Berkeley and Director at its Revolutionary Genomics Institute, the place he leads the Heart for Translational Genomics and directs the Know-how & Translation division. As a pioneer within the subject of therapeutic genome enhancing, his analysis focuses on advancing genome enhancing know-how and pushing the boundaries of how it may be utilized to unravel real-world biomedical issues. At Sangamo Therapeutics, Fyodor and his crew, demonstrated the primary use of native gene enhancing in human cells and coined the time period “genome enhancing.” Fyodor then led collaborative groups to ascertain at-scale functions of genome enhancing for human somatic cell genetics and mannequin animal and crop reverse genetics.

Nina Davuluri: The Value of Magnificence from a Miss America. When you’re a girl studying this and over the age of 40, you’ll resonate with a lot that Nina has to say in regards to the pressures placed on you as a girl rising up within the 1960’s by the 1980’s, from conventional promoting to direct pressures in educational and social life. Add shade to being a girl throughout that point, and you already know Nina’s challenges, particularly when you’ve moved into the general public eye and in her case, a really public eye as Miss America. She tells her personal story on stage, sharing many uncooked and weak moments and the impression it had on her emotional well being.

As I seemed round, I noticed teary eyes within the viewers and felt my very own for once we can shed the pores and skin of how others wish to understand us and even challenge us to be, then we are able to stand in our purest type and permit our inner spirit to shine. Nina’s spirit shone brightly as she delivered the viewers such a profound present on April 9. It really was a strong and riveting discuss that broke by the falsities and masks so many ladies have hid behind for a lot of their lives.

Her background: Nina is an acclaimed filmmaker, activist, actor, entrepreneur, and the primary South Asian to win Miss America. Her most up-to-date enterprise combines the community she has cultivated, her love for advocacy, and disrupting world magnificence requirements by producing her new documentary: COMPLEXion. Raised in a tradition delicate to pores and skin tones, Nina was hyper-aware of the pores and skin lightening business and the way it dramatically influences magnificence requirements, so she sought to redefine magnificence requirements by spearheading a marketing campaign in opposition to colorism. This led to her sitting on the L’oreal Range & Inclusion Advisory Board. Nina has additionally labored with main know-how corporations to additional their ladies in STEM (Science, Know-how, Engineering, and Math) initiatives.

Nina Davuluri

Dr. Shamini Jain:We’re Wired to Heal Every Different: The Science of Interconnection. Her riveting discuss challenges reductionist considering by bringing the newest advancements in science, psychology and peer-reviewed analysis along with what they‘ve discovered from her work on the Consciousness and Therapeutic Initiative (CHI), to point out simply how wired we’re, not simply to attach with one another however heal as nicely. Put one other method, we’re a lot extra highly effective than we expect we’re and have the skill to heal ourselves and others each emotionally and bodily.

Personally, we’ve seen this primary hand in our personal work, however to have information to again up what the traditional sages throughout cultures have taught and subscribed to for 1000’s of years, is a lesson for conventional medication to do what it all the time ought to: problem, dig deeper for higher solutions and transfer past materialist views into world that deserves extra funding, assist and credibility. 

Dr. Shamini Jain

Her background:  She serves humanity as a psychologist, scientist, and social entrepreneur. Shamini is the founder and CEO of the Consciousness and Therapeutic Initiative (CHI), a nonprofit collaborative accelerator that connects scientists, well being practitioners, educators, and artists to assist lead humanity to heal ourselves which is the subject of her greatest promoting bookay: Therapeutic Ourselves: Biofield Science and the Way forward for Well being. She additionally serves as adjunct school at UC San Diego, the place she is an lively member of the UC San Diego Heart for Integrative Drugs’s Analysis Committee.

Dr. Julia Schaletzky: Overcharged and Underserved – Blind Spots in Healthcare. It is a private scorching subject for me largely as a result of I’ve not solely skilled the atrocities as a affected person of the damaged healthcare system, however as a result of I additionally expertise the other — precise care with out worrying about going bankrupt for a easy process from dwelling in Europe.

Her discuss was exactly on that juxtaposition, utilizing an instance of 1 affected person to underline the problem: a easy process for a leg an infection which a easy antibiotic might have mounted ended up leading to a medical invoice half her annual wage. She ended with options, asking us to not be complacent however lively contributors in not succumbing to the present establishment.

Her background: Julia is as interdisciplinary biomedical scientist and entrepreneur who’s lively each the non-public sector and academia, who’s excited by world public well being, well being fairness, and the governance of processes that find yourself influencing who will get care and who doesn’t. She is the Govt Director of the Heart for Rising and Uncared for Ailments on the College of California, Berkeley, in addition to of the Drug Discovery Heart and Immunotherapy and Vaccine Analysis Initiative. She focuses on interdisciplinary approaches and public/non-public partnership for the invention and improvement of latest therapies and instruments, significantly for unmet medical wants. She has acquired NIH-funded grants to assist underrepresented minorities and ladies in STEM within the U.S. and runs a program in Uganda to construct native analysis capability.

Dr. Julia Schaletzky

Nyesha Arrington: Id, By means of the Lens of a Chef. After we consider meals, we regularly affiliate the visible memory of it and the style with a strong emotional expertise. Examples embrace a singular dish you ate for the primary time abroad, the consolation you felt out of your mom’s home made recipe or a platter you shared with mates at an necessary anniversary or birthday.

Nyesha introduced all of it again to id by a myriad of fascinating methods, using examples from her personal life, beginning together with her first expertise with meals as a baby: her Korean grandmother on one facet and her American southern grandmother on the opposite facet. Not each little one will get the chance to have such range at such a younger age and these reminiscences formed how she considered the world, her personal id and what she finally wove into her personal recipes as a well-known chef.

Her background: She is an award successful chef and culinary artistic with an countless ardour for the way components and custom convey cultures collectively. She touts her earliest gig as sous chef to her Korean grandmother, as a strong and memorable method that she was capable of observe her culinary arts at such an early age. Arrington has labored underneath Joël Robuchon at L’Atelier and The Mansion, was a fan favourite on High Chef Season 12 and went on to win Knife Battle and Chef Hunter tv competitions. She is a steward of native produce, a meals waste warrior, was named a previous Zagat 30 underneath 30 honoree and above all, a culinary artist.

Coss Marte: The Energy of Untapped Expertise. For therefore lengthy, humanity has stereotyped prisoners right into a class of undesirables, which places an ignorant blanket over everybody who stands behind bars. It hasn’t been establishment for humanity to contemplate in any other case, by no means mind these in roles who might assist prisoners discover hope and switch their reside round.

Marte’s message is daring and powerful as he has straight demonstrated from his personal private experiences. He asserts that there’s a lot untapped expertise that when nurtured, is usually a proud examples to others, each inside and outdoors the prison system.

His background: He was ringleader of a multi-million greenback drug operation, a time during which he was additionally overweight and warned by his doctor that if he didn’t change his way of life, he was heading towards loss of life. Confronted with this grim prognosis, Coss began to get in form utilizing the instruments he had — hellos prison cell and his personal physique weight. Within six months, he misplaced 70 kilos and replicated his profitable system of physique weight workouts with 20 different inmates. This led to the launch of CONBODY, a jail type bootcamp that gained over 70,000+ purchasers and has employed 50+ previously incarcerated people to show health lessons. Coss is now co-founder of Second Probability Studios, a non-profit which trains and helps make use of previously incarcerated people to change into consultants in audio engineering, video manufacturing, and podcasting.

Brian Swimme: The Third Story of the Universe. This discuss was about one thing Brian refers to because the Noosphere, which a lot of you’ve got doubtless not heard of. I definitely hadn’t earlier than listening to his first run by throughout our TEDxBerkeley rehearsals. As Brian describes in his discuss, “Opinions vary from the concept the noosphere is just an interconnected community of computer systems all the way in which to the radical notion that the noosphere is an entity, a brand new sort of world organism.” Amongst different examples, he makes use of the construction of the James Webb Area Telescope because the noosphere in motion as an unbiased entity.

Brian Swimme

His background: Brian is a Director of the nonprofit, Third Story at Human Power and a professor on the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program, the place he repeatedly teaches and speaks on a wide range of matters associated to the universe, gravitational dynamics and past. His published work consists of the favored YouTube video sequence, The Story of the Noosphere, written with Monica DeRaspe-Bolles, The Universe is a Inexperienced Dragon, The Universe Story written with Thomas Berry, The Hidden Coronary heart of the Cosmos, and The Journey of the Universe written with Mary Evelyn Tucker. Swimme teamed with Tucker and David Kennard to supply “Journey of the Universe,” an Emmy-winning movie launched in 2011.

Alexandr Wang: Why AI Will By no means Substitute People. Drawing upon his background at MIT, which mixed each math and IT, his discuss was targeted on synthetic intelligence (AI) which aimed to handle a few of the fears that so many individuals have across the notion that AI will ultimately change people. From sci-fi movie scary eventualities to actual examples of robots replacing jobs once occupied by human beings, every of us has their very own threshold of accepting 0AI into our future lives. He cited examples of why he feels it’ll by no means be the case.

Alexandr Wang

His background: Alex is the founding father of Scale whereas at MIT, the place he studied mathematics and laptop science, he found the potential of AI, which led to founding an organization dedicated to crconsuming long-term AI methods by offering highly effective AI information and instruments. He acknowledged that he might speed up corporations’ skills to deploy AI by combining a machine learning-powered information labeling system with human perception to make sure fashions are skilled on high-quality, trusted datasets. The identical firm has grown to a $7 billion valuation, serving tons of of purchasers throughout a number of industries.

Dr. Laura Esserman: WISDOM: Assuring Tomorrow is Higher than At present. Her discuss struck an emotional chord for me. Why? As a result of like numerous ladies, we’ve all been touched by breast most cancers and though it was nearer for me (my grandmother and mom), we‘ve all doubtless misplaced somebody to or been one step faraway from the impression of breast most cancers. Esserman asserts that we’ve got been utilizing outdated strategies for screening which not like different developments on the planet (from the iPhone and automobiles to journey reserving and past), merely hasn’t developed, therefore her title.

WISDOM stands for its true definition but in addition for a Knowledge Examine, which checks a personalised strategy to breast most cancers screening in 100,000 ladies, which she inspired ladies to affix. The examine helps to maneuver the needle ahead to the present century, permitting us to actually display in a method that’s distinctive to every lady, slightly than dumping us into the identical buckets. She makes use of easy however profound examples throughout industries to exemplify her level, whereas asking us to assist transfer a brand new mind-set ahead. In different for change to occur, a PUSH must occur on either side, in any other case we are able to by no means be empowered to be lively contributors in our therapeutic course of.

Her background: Laura is a physician and internationally-recognized visionary whose work is all about revolutionizing breast most cancers screening. She serves as Director of the UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Heart, the place her work is dedicated to growing new, more practical methods to take care of and empower breast most cancers sufferers throughout therapy. She led the creation of the University of California Breast Well being Community, a studying system designed to combine scientific care and analysis because it follows 150,000 ladies from screening by therapy and outcomes. Her breast most cancers work spans a spectrum from primary science to public coverage points and the impression of each on the supply of scientific care, empowering sufferers to change into companions in their very own well being care.

Grace Gu: From Nature to AIs: Higher Supplies for Higher Lives. This discuss woke me as much as something I don’t consider in my every day life and fairly frankly, until you’re in the sector of fabric sciences, its unlikely in your radar both. Grace Gu is dedicated to constructing a greater, extra sustainable world by supplies discovery and manufacturing and makes use of AI and different improvements to do it.

Her discuss began out with a easy bridge, utilizing it for example of one thing that requires a severe consideration of “materials” for it must be robust sufficient to be protected sufficient to resist 1000’s of kilos over a few years. There are numerous different supplies we don’t take into consideration, akin to what goes right into a tooth filling or an implant. Grace pointed to nature as a method for us to be taught however then moved onto AI as a approach to advance the needle in highly effective methods, together with past our present realm of linear considering.    

Her background: Grace serves as a professor ​​at UC Berkeley and leads the Gu Analysis Lab which goals to create supplies with customizable properties and functionalities throughout a large spectrum of functions, together with light-weight aerospace constructions, resilient biomedical gadgets, and versatile bioinspired actuators. Gu and her crew try to facilitate a path for on-demand supplies fabrication on this ever-expanding world by smarter, extra sustainable, and accessible 3D-printing strategies pushed by synthetic intelligence. Gu acquired her PhD and MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and BS in Mechanical Engineering from the College of Michigan. She has acquired numerous awards and was named one in every of MIT Know-how Evaluation 35 Innovators underneath 35 within the class of Pioneer.

Ien Chi: Cease Making an attempt to Change Your self. Ien takes us on a journey of his life and touches upon psychological well being as nicely and his challenges of his life as an entrepreneur and by no means feeling as if he was sufficient. This goes again to the frequent phrase in some religious circles: self-love, it begins right here. After we are consistently making an attempt to alter ourselves to fulfill the wants of others round us — to belong, to be accepted, to really feel liked — we’re in consistently turmoil as a result of hardly ever from that place, are we within the current second.

After we are within the current second, we cease wanting on the world by “what if’s” or “if solely I used to be like this or may very well be like this” and we merely settle for life for what it’s, in all of its stunning and numerous valleys. From that place comes acceptance and self-love. There’s no have to exert effort on altering ourselves or altering others, for with it solely comes struggling.

His background: Ien is Chief Artistic of Mindset, a venture-backed wellness platform at DIVE Studios aimed toward revealing the deeper humanity of celebrities by extra weak audio-based storytelling. He’s the previous Artistic Director of Jubilee, the place he led the crew to make a few of YouTube‘s extra fashionable reveals akin to Center Floor, Spectrum, Odd Man Out, and Versus 1 – which have collectively garnered 1B+ views.

Zuriel Oduwole: Elevating Your Palms Excessive. As a younger entrepreneur and advocate, Zuriel will not be a newcomer to a stage since she has been asking robust questions and talking to luminaries since a baby. Her voice has been an inspiration to thousands and thousands of ladies, ladies and households, around the globe and Zuriel’s discuss was easy, not complicated, which is among the issues that made it so compelling. What number of of you keep in mind sitting in a classroom, a seminar, a lecture or perhaps a social setting, however have been afraid to voice your reality?

Maybe you didn’t have the arrogance to even ask a query, which is exactly what she asserts is critical so as to transfer you from feeling insignificant to the really highly effective particular person that you’re. Put one other method, all of us deserve a voice and we’re all sensible sufficient (and worthy sufficient) to warrant a spot on any stage, nevertheless large or small. Merely elevating your hand excessive is pivotal to getting there, for it crosses us over an necessary bridge: the one which stands between the invisibles and the visibles. What’s going to you select?

Her background: Zuriel is called the world’s youngest filmmaker, however much more recognized for her worldwide improvement work and advocacy for ladies’ training in Africa. On the age of 10, she was listed amongst 33 ladies who had modified the world by ELLE Journal. Oduwole has met with over 30 world leaders to handle World Social Growth and Schooling Challenges, has spoken in 19 international locations in regards to the energy of training and addressed COP23 delegates in Bonn, demonstrating the confluence between local weather change and training. When she will not be advocating for ladies’ training, she teaches a filmmaking class for unemployed younger ladies, a program she has now delivered in Ghana, Ethiopia, Mexico, Côte D’Ivoire, and Namibia.

Poulomi Saha: Indian Spirituality on the Coronary heart of Early America. Not everybody could notice that Indian Spirituality is deeply rooted in American society and that is the place her discuss took us: to the guts of it. She factors to examples in American historical past together with the fascination in Indian spirituality by early presidents akin to Thomas Jefferson.

Her background: Poulomi is a professor at UC Berkeley and a scholar of postcolonial research, ethnic American literature, and demanding principle, she has performed analysis that span eastward and ahead from the late nineteenth century decline of British colonial rule within the Indian Ocean by to the Pacific and the rise of American world energy and home race relations within the twentieth century. Her e-book, Fascination: America’s “Hindu” Cults considers the attract and scandal of Indian spirituality in America. She writes and teaches about gender, sexuality, race, and empire.

Performers have been equally highly effective.  Let’s begin with the one who shook up all the viewers and bought everybody up dancing and singing along with his electrical persona and vibrant power. Ace Patterson, often known as Name Me Ace, is a Billboard-charting hip-hop artist, music tech skilled and inventive entrepreneur who challenges the establishment. His music covers a myriad of sociocultural matters drawn from his personal life experiences, together with: the necessity for range and fairness within the office, psychological well being struggles, the first-generation immigrant’s dilemma, the challenges of constructing generational wealth, persevering by intense adversity, and extra. I LOVED his efficiency as he took us all on a various rollercoaster from participatory experiences to unhappiness, anger, humility, wrestle and humor all in underneath fifteen minutes. Enuf stated: Wow is the end line.

Name Me Ace launched his debut album, Airplane Mode (2019), which debuted #3 on the iTunes High 40 US Hip-Hop Album and #50 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Album Gross sales charts. In June 2020, Ace launched Working From House: Prolonged and donated 100% of the proceeds (over $10,000) in the direction of combating the criminalization of Black and Brown communities within the USA. Bravo bravo!

We additionally had a compelling dance efficiency from the AFX Dance troupe which was based by Ping Quach, Geoffrey Chen, and Rosemary Hua to offer dancers a chance to study and take part in dance tradition and be a part of an ongoing group. Their identify AFX displays their three pillars—Aspirations, Household, Expertise—and their philosophy of making a household atmosphere for dancers to construct up the arrogance and assist to achieve new heights.

Ballet Folklorico Reflejos de Mexico, known as “Reflejos”, additionally graced us with their expertise. They’re a Mexican folklorico dance group that promotes cultural range at UC Berkeley and within the larger San Francisco/Bay space. Their goal is to coach others about Mexican and Latino tradition by music, artwork, and dance.

The Fei Tian Dancers gave us a completely completely different dance type. They’re the one and solely Chinese language dance crew at UC Berkeley. As a Registered Pupil Group, they goal to convey extra consciousness of Chinese language classical and ethnic cultures to the larger group and of their artwork, they incorporate classical, ethnic and trendy Chinese language dances into its repertoire by a mix of unique choreography and conventional works.

[email protected] carried out 4 items for us as nicely. They’ve carried out trendy works by composers within the Bay Space akin to Michael Nicholas, Daniel Leo, and Anica Galindo. I used to be amused to listen to Mama Mia, my first time listening to it by 4 cellists. I’ve to confess, I actually did wish to stand up and dance and I sensed others round me who wished to do the identical.

Lastly, let’s not neglect voice. I‘ve all the time been a fan of a cappella and thrilled that every yr, we‘ve all the time had an a cappella group efficiency. This yr, the honors went to Drawn to Scale, an all gender a cappella group based at UC Berkeley.

In fact, this unbelievable occasion isn’t potential with no crew and I used to be so proud to see how nicely our TEDxBerkeley scholar crew did this yr. It was a monumental and built-in effort that makes our occasions shine yr after yr. Keep in mind too, that this was our first reside occasion since they pandemic restrictions have lifted. All I can say is bravo bravo bravo! Be certain to not miss subsequent yr’s occasion — we’ll be posting hyperlinks to the speaker’s talks as soon as the movies have been processed.

The Speaker Dinner

Beneath is a shot taken of our casual speaker dinner the place we introduced audio system with a token of our thanks, which included artistic portraits accomplished by artist Jeremy Sutton who is thought for his mixture of mixing conventional creative strategies with the digital world. He’s additionally the writer of Fractal Design Painter Artistic Strategies and the Painter 4 Video Coaching Sequence.

Nina Davuluri receives presents at speaker dinner

Sonali, Renee, Shamini, Jeremy on the speaker dinner

Nyesha Arrington on the speaker dinner with the curators and Jeremy

Dr. Laura Esserman and Jeremy Sutton

Behind the Scenes

Now, let’s take a look behind the scenes…

Coss Marte at rehearsal

Sonali and Amisha, co-curators on stage

Grace Wu and Sonali Loomba throughout rehearsal

Speaker dinner: Sonali Loomba, Amisha Wadhwa, Renee Blodgett, Grace Wu, Jeremy Sutton (from L to R)

Encouragement and observe earlier than efficiency…

2022 Co-Curators & Producers: Amisha Wadhwa, Renee Blodgett and Sonali Loomba (from L to R)

Founder

Renee Blodgett is the founding father of We Weblog the World. The positioning combines the magic of a web based tradition and journey journal with a world weblog community and has contributors from each continent on the planet. Having lived in 10 international locations and explored almost 80, she is an avid traveler, and a lover, observer and participant in cultural range.

She can be the CEO and founding father of Magic Sauce Media, a brand new media companies consultancy targeted on viral advertising, social media, branding, occasions and PR. For over 20 years, she has helped corporations from 12 international locations get traction out there. Identified for her world and natural strategy to product and company launches, Renee practices what she pitches and as an lively person of social media, she helps purchasers navigate digital waters from around the globe. Renee has been running a blog for over 16 years and repeatedly writes on her private weblog Down the Avenue, Huffington Publish, BlogHer, We Weblog the World and different websites. She was ranked #12 Social Media Influencer by Forbes Journal and is listed as a brand new media influencer and recreation changer on varied websites and books on the brand new media revolution. In 2013, she was listed because the sixth most influential lady in social media by Forbes Journal on a High 20 Listing.

Her ardour for artwork, storytelling and images led to the launch of Magic Sauce Images, which is a visible extension of her writing, the results of which has led to producing six picture books: Galapagos Islands, London, South Africa, Rome, Urbanization and Ecuador.

Renee can be the co-founder of Touring Geeks, an initiative that brings entrepreneurs, thought leaders, bloggers, creators, curators and influencers to different international locations to share and be taught from friends, governments, companies, and most people so as to educate, share, consider, and promote revolutionary applied sciences.