PopTech Videos: PopCasts

Fiction writer and memoirist Anthony Doerr is the author of three books, The Shell Collector, About Grace, and Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World. Here, the award-winning writer shares a story about how networked technologies can alienate us from nature and the things that matter most.

Fiction writer and memoirist Anthony Doerr is the author of three books: The Shell Collector, About Grace, and Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World. In this moving story, the award-winning writer shares a chance encounter between migrants in western Wyoming.

Robert Guest is a Washington correspondent and the Lexington columnist for The Economist, covering American news and politics. Despite some predictions otherwise, Guest suggests that America is uniquely positioned to continue as the world’s leading superpower thanks to its unparalleled ability to attract working immigrants from around the world.

Co-founder of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), Paul Van Zyl has devoted his career to human rights. The South African has been helping his country out of apartheid through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Van Zyl calls on America to hold its own commission to “openly and publicly” confront the torture that recently occurred in Guantanamo and elsewhere.

Senior Advisor on Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Alec Ross, says it’s time to reboot US diplomatic efforts abroad. Ross calls for 21st century statecraft based on the innovative use of new media. Previously, Ross co-founded One Economy, a nonprofit devoted to closing the digital divide, and brought his expertise to then Senator Obama’s presidential campaign.

Erica Williams is a Washington, D.C.-based activist and commentator who currently serves as the Deputy Director of Campus Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress. In this riveting Poptech talk, Williams discusses how the Millennial generation—today’s 18-30 year olds—are re-imagining the nature of political engagement.

As General Manager for Nike’s “Considered” team, Lorrie Vogel is conducting pioneering research in sustainable product design. Vogel says that green design requires fundamentally altering Nike business practices – which would dramatically cut waste, boost the use of eco-conscious materials, and transform social attitudes around consumption.

As Corporate Vice President of External Research for Microsoft, Tony Hey is responsible for public-private partnerships with scientific and engineering communities, government agencies, and industry partners worldwide. At PopTech 2009, Hey discussed the critical role of citizen scientists in understanding complex data-intensive problems like climate change and galaxy formation.

Michael Pollan on voting with your fork, Nick Bilton on news, Neri Oxman on an eggshell membrane, Marije Vogelzang on designing playful eating, Naif Al-Mutawa on comics, James Fowler on connections, Dean Ornish on changing your genes, and Zoë Keating, Ruby Jane Smith, Mark O’Connor musically closing the day.

Dennis Littky on why kids drop out of school, Jay Rogers on building family cars, Rinku Sen on the continuing racial divide, Zoe Keating’s electronic layering of cello, Zach Lieberman on helping a paralyzed man make art, Hayat Sindi with a diagnostic lab on her fingertip, Robert Guest on America’s greatest strength, and Josh Nesbit on cell phones.

Erica Williams’s passionate generational call, musician Zee Avi’s bright lyrics, artist Chris Jordan’s stunning albatross photos, Mayor John Fetterman on his town isn’t, and kinetic sculptor Reuben Margolin on the movement of light.

Marije Vogelzang runs her own food-design laboratory, Proef. She is inspired by everything that surrounds the act of eating – from the stories and rituals surrounding food preparation to the emotional impact of the texture and color of specific foods. The result? Edible art installations that are at once provocative and intimate.

Author and activist Michael Pollan is a passionate advocate for sustainable food. In his compelling PopTech talk, he explores how our industrial food system keeps us overly dependent on fossil fuels, destroys our environment, and makes us sick. Breaking this cycle requires changing our relationship to food – and eating more meals together.

Will Allen is co-founder and director of Growing Power, Inc., an organization that is transforming the production and delivery of healthy foods to underserved, urban populations. Growing Power operates as an urban farm and education center in Milwaukee, WI, and more recently, Chicago, teaching urban youth how to produce low-cost healthy foods for their communities.