Moran Cerf: Once upon a (hybrid) time

Moran Cerf, professor of neuroscience and business at the Kellogg School of Management, tells the curious story of when he was dead and alive at the same time.

Moran Cerf is a neuroscientist studying how conscious percepts are formed in our brains. He records the activity of individual nerve cells directly from the brains of patients undergoing neurosurgery. These patients are implanted with electrodes deep inside their brains for clinical purposes. Following the implantation, Cerf is able to use the implanted electrodes to study the ways by which thoughts and memories are registered. 

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Clapperton Mavhunga: The importance of going back

Clapperton Mavhunga grew up in rural Zimbabwe; he now teaches at MIT. Here, he discusses why he is “going back” home: to help build a better future by combining expert knowledge with the things local people already know and do.

Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga is associate professor of science, technology, and society at MIT and visiting associate professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. He is working to establish interdisciplinary and applied STS programs to train the next generation of Africa’s policymakers, engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs in inclusive, ethical, and context-specific tools of trade. 

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Erika Gregory and Carl Robichaud: Collaborating for a safer world

How do we innovate our way to a world free from the risks of nuclear weapons? Erika Gregory and Carl Robichaud believe that the answer to this question will be found in cross-sector collaboration, combined with the sheer ingenuity of an engaged public. In this talk, they introduce N Square -- a collaborative effort between five of the largest peace and security funders in the United States.

Director of N Square—a multimillion-dollar, two-year pilot of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Skoll Global Threats Fund and Ploughshares Fund—Erika is responsible for catalyzing innovation in the nuclear security and non-proliferation arena.

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As program officer in International Peace and Security at Carnegie Corporation of New York, Carl Robichaud manages a portfolio of grants to strengthen nuclear security. In this capacity, he heads the Corporation’s work on strengthening nuclear governance and investing in the next generation of nuclear experts. 

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Jason Rzepka: The color orange

Can the color orange help save lives? After a 15-year old girl was shot and killed, her classmates in Chicago came up with an idea. Borrowing from hunting practices, they wore orange to send a message about the value of human life. Their efforts inspired the creation of the Wear Orange campaign, which has reached 225 million people and is quickly becoming the symbol of the gun violence prevention movement.

Jason Rzepka is director of cultural engagement at Everytown for Gun Safety, a movement of more than 3 million Americans working to end gun violence. He oversees Everytown's storytelling efforts, partnerships with the creative community and develops cultural assets that mobilize Americans to support common sense reforms that will help save lives. 

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Eric Liu: Hybrid and our civic life

Eric Liu, founder and CEO of Citizen University, shares an inspiring vision of what it means to be an innovator and a citizen today. "The heart of innovation is hybridity; this is the heart of America."

Eric Liu is founder and CEO of Citizen University and the executive director of the Aspen Institute Citizenship & American Identity Program. His books include the national bestsellers The Gardens of Democracy, and The True Patriot, both co-authored with Nick Hanauer. Liu’s first book, The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker, was a New York Times Notable Book featured in the PBS documentary “Matters of Race." 

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Irene Au: Soft skills matter

We all know that the future of work will bring new workspaces, revolutionary technologies and radically different organizational structures. But according to Irene Au, emotional intelligence, empathy and compassion are going to be just as important in this new world of work. Watch to learn how yoga and meditation can support these important new "soft skills". For more information, visit poptech.org.

Irene Au builds and leads teams that design products people love and can't live without. She is the design operating partner at Khosla Ventures, where she works with portfolio companies to make their design great. Irene has unprecedented experience leading design at large scale consumer internet companies, as she has led the entire UX organization at Google, Yahoo!, and Udacity. 

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George Arriola: Mashing it up

George is a hybrid with a wide-ranging background that includes roles at Sony and Apple, to name a few. Here he discusses three world-changing products that wouldn't exist without a hybrid approach. Watch and learn about what can happen when we mash things up with this hybrid mentality. For more information, visit poptech.org.

George Arriola is an entrepreneur, craftsman, product guy, (a)rchitect, type designer, nerd, otaku, sous chef, and epiphany engineer. He is currently founder and CEO at a skunk_works product design boutique known as Minimalisms, and is a Founder, President & Chief Product Officer at Monohm Inc. Monohm exists to create New Necessities™ crafted on core values: heirloom, connection, control, ecosystem - Heirloom Electronics™. Previously, as Founder / CXO at zeroº (zero360, inc.) a stealth wearable hardware and platform company. 

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Rasanath Das: The tension of being a hybrid

Rasanath Das, formerly an investment banker and monk, tells the inspiring and humorous story of his hybrid life and what he learned from a near-death experience. For more talks, visit poptech.org.

Rasanath Das started his career in strategy consulting at Deloitte in 2000 before working as an investment banker for Bank of America. He then spent four years in a monastery in lower Manhattan during which time he co-founded Upbuild, an educational social enterprise focused on personal and organizational development. He now runs Upbuild full-time. Rasanath is a regular contributor to The Huffington Post, has been featured as a speaker for TEDx and SXSW, and has been profiled in The New York Times, CNN, PBS, and The Third Metric.

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Emily Falk: Brain waves and how people behave

Behaviors we can change, like smoking, are known to cause death—but determining what makes people do things differently is a daunting challenge. Psychologist Emily Falk’s research unites brain imaging and behavioral outcomes to discover the messages that work to help people help themselves.

Emily Falk is an Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication. She utilizes a variety of methods drawn from communication science, neuroscience and psychology. Her research shows how brain activity can be used to predict behavior change in response to persuasive messages as well as what makes successful ideas spread (e.g. through social networks and cultures). 

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Jennifer McCrea: Infusing money with values

Jennifer McCrea, a leader in philanthropy, discusses how she’s learned to put shared values at the center of fundraising; money is the “gas in the car,” not the car, driver, or destination. Her question is always “what are we going to do together?” not “what are you going to do for me?”

Jennifer McCrea is a Senior Research Fellow at the Hauser Institute for Civil Society at Harvard University and the co-founder and CEO of Born Free Africa, an initiative of the Millennium Development Goals Health Alliance that brings private sector resources and expertise to the goal of eradicating mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015. For the past 27 years, she has partnered with philanthropists, board members and nonprofit leaders to think more creatively and collaboratively about ways in which to align strategic direction and resources.

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Andrew Raftery: Labor that makes beauty

Master engraver and printmaker Andrew Raftery discusses a recent project that draws from a range of mediums, time periods and cultures. His creation is contemporary fine art that challenges the meaning of “contemporary.”

Andrew Stein Raftery is a printmaker specializing in narrative scenes of contemporary American life. Trained in painting and printmaking at Boston University and Yale, he has focused on burin engraving for the past 17 years, publishing the portfolios Suit Shopping in 2002 and Open House in 2008. Andrew’s current project (working title: The Autobiography of a Garden in Twelve Plates) involves transfer printing from engraving onto pottery.

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Alexa Clay: It's time for Misfit Entrepreneurs

It's time to “push our scripts around entrepreneurship” and bridge the worlds between the accepted way of doing things and those who do things differently. Watch Alexa Clay discuss the culture hacking, alter-egos and neo-tribes she investigates to discover how more people can participate in entrepreneurship.

Alexa Clay is a leading expert on subculture and innovation from unlikely places. She is the co-author of The Misfit Economy, a book that explores underground and informal innovation. Alexa works to create bridges and opportunities for misfit subcultures within the formal economy. She is the Founder of Wisdom Hackers, an incubator for philosophical inquiry, as well as the Co-Founder of the League of Intrapreneurs, a movement to create change from within incumbent systems and big organizations.

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Phil Gilbert: Transforming "companies of a certain age"

How does a century-old company thrive in the century to come? IBM’s Phil Gilbert believes that progress starts with people, and how he focuses on the heart of his team, not just its size.

As General Manager of IBM Design, Phil Gilbert sets the strategy for and leads the transformation of product design at IBM. His team is focused on three things: recruiting & retaining top designers, scaling the consistent practice of great design across IBM, and simplifying access to IBM’s broad portfolio of capabilities. Previously, Phil led the Business Process Management segment for IBM, where he drove the simplification of its portfolio and the ease-of-use of its products.

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Giorgia Lupi: Data is about people

It's time to change our minds about data. Information designer Giorgia Lupi says, "We jump to think that data is about algorithms -- (but) data is about people, when it matters.” Lupi uses slow data, small data, crafted data and data-gathering as personal documentary to become more, not less human.

Giorgia Lupi is an information designer. Her work in information visualization frequently crosses the divide between digital and print, exploring visual models and metaphors to represent dense and rich data-driven stories. She is co-founder and design director at Accurat (accurat.it), an information design company based in Milan and New York; Accurat analyzes data and contexts and designs analytical tools and visual narratives that provide awareness, comprehension and engagement.

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Assaf Biderman: Sentient Cities

Assaf Biderman is the Associate Director of the SENSEable City Laboratory, an MIT university research group that explores the “real-time city” by studying how distributed technologies can be used to improve our understanding of cities and create a more sustainable ways of interacting in urban environments.

Assaf Biderman is a technology inventor, author, and entrepreneur. He is the Founder of Superpedestrian, a technology company that focuses on the future of personal urban mobility. He teamed up with a group of veteran roboticists to develop their first product: The Copenhagen Wheel - Senseable City Lab's award winning bicycle project. Superpedestrian has received multiple awards including the 2014 Red Dot: Luminary - the highest Red Dot distinction, the 2014 Deutscher Werkbund and Time Magazine's 25 Best Inventions of 2014.

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Ben Fry: Design as the last line of defense

We hear a lot about big data, but less about how to make it useful. Ben Fry discusses how he puts reams of data through the filter of design to turn information into understanding.

Ben Fry is Founder and Principal of Fathom Information Design, a design and software consultancy located in Boston. He holds a Ph.D. in Aesthetics and Computation from MIT. Fry has authored and co-authored multiple books on data visualization and develops "Processing" -- the programming environment he co-created with artist Casey Reas used by designers and developers all over the world. Fast Company includes Ben on its lists of “The 50 Most Influential Designers in America” and “The Most Creative People in Business 1000.”

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Greg Hochmuth: Staring at the internet

What is the psychological effect of the Internet on humanity? What do we find online? What do we do when we're not online? Listen to what Gregor Hochmuth and Jonathan Harris found when they collected millions of data points online to try to answer these questions.

Greg Hochmuth is an artist and engineer based in New York City. He studied computer science and design at Stanford University, and then worked as a product manager, engineer, and data analyst at Google, Instagram, and Facebook. In 2015, Greg started collaborating with Jonathan Harris based on their shared interest in data poetics; Network Effect, an exploration of the psychological effects of internet use on humanity, is the first project they have released together.

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