In today's society, every conversation has the potential to become an argument, whether it's about politics, religion, or even the weather. A study by Pew Research shows that Americans are more polarized than ever, leading to a lack of compromise and listening. We're choosing friends, spouses, and living situations based on pre-existing beliefs, reinforcing this divide.
As a precocious reader and writer, I absorbed the foreign worlds of British and American children's books, which led me to pen stories that did not reflect my own Nigerian experience. The characters I created were white, blue-eyed, and lived in a world of snow and apples, a stark contrast to my reality of mangoes and perpetual sunshine. This was a testament to the power of stories, especially on young, impressionable minds.
Good morning. It's been an incredible conference, highlighting human creativity and the unpredictability of the future. Everyone has a stake in education because it's supposed to prepare us for this uncertain future. Consider that children starting school today will retire in 2065, yet we can't predict what the world will look like in five years.
Why do some companies and individuals achieve things that defy all assumptions, while others do not? Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers, for example, stand out despite having the same resources as their peers. The key to their success is the Golden Circle: Why? How? What? This concept reveals that inspiring leaders and organizations all think, act, and communicate from the inside out—starting with Why—unlike others who do the opposite.
I've been a health psychologist for 10 years, teaching that stress is detrimental to health. However, a pivotal study has led me to reconsider the role of stress. This study followed 30,000 U.S. adults over eight years, finding that high stress increased the risk of dying by 43%, but only in those who believed stress was harmful. Those who didn't see stress as harmful had the lowest risk of dying.
The human voice is a powerful tool, capable of starting wars or expressing love. However, many people feel that when they speak, no one listens. To speak powerfully and effect change, we must avoid certain habits. Here are the seven deadly sins of speaking:
We're all liars, and today I'll show you research on why we lie, how to become a liespotter, and the importance of moving beyond liespotting to seeking truth and building trust. Lying is a cooperative act; its power comes when someone agrees to believe it. Not all lies are harmful, but some can have dramatic costs, such as $997 billion in corporate fraud in the U.S. alone.
A highly intriguing study titled "Observations of In-Utero Masturbation" was published in The Journal of Ultrasound in Medicine. It includes ultrasound images showing a fetus with its hand near the penis, and according to radiologist Israel Meisner, mimicking masturbation movements.
I embarked on a journey to understand the brain due to my brother's diagnosis with schizophrenia, which led me to question the connection between dreams and reality. I dedicated my career to researching severe mental illnesses, moving to Boston to work in Dr. Francine Benes's lab at the Harvard Department of Psychiatry. We explored the biological differences between the brains of 'normal' individuals and those diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective, or bipolar disorder, focusing on the microcircuitry of the brain.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has expanded from a slim pamphlet in the 1950s to an 886-page volume listing 374 mental disorders. While browsing through a copy, the author humorously discovers he "suffers" from a dozen disorders, questioning whether normal behavior is too often labeled as pathological.
In my childhood, the looming threat was nuclear war, prompting us to stockpile supplies in our basements. Today, the greatest risk of global catastrophe is a highly infectious virus rather than war. Despite significant investment in nuclear deterrents, we have invested little in systems to stop an epidemic. The Ebola crisis highlighted that we lacked a system altogether. Key components were missing: no rapid deployment of epidemiologists, delayed and inaccurate case reporting, and insufficient medical teams.
A few years ago, an event planner struggled with how to describe me on a flyer for a speaking event. She decided to call me a storyteller rather than a researcher, fearing the latter might sound boring. I embraced the term, realizing that my work as a qualitative researcher is about collecting stories, or data with a soul.
In college, I majored in government, which required writing numerous papers. While a typical student might distribute their workload evenly over time, I always ended up cramming at the last minute. This pattern persisted until my 90-page senior thesis, a project too vast for my usual approach. I planned a more structured schedule, but inevitably, procrastination took over, and I ended up writing the entire thesis in a 72-hour, sleep-deprived frenzy.