Blog
Genomics Citizenship and Social Justice: A Call to Action
Brief Report and Action Items Executive Summary On Thursday, 12 October 2017, Drs. George Church, Ting Wu, and Ronnie Stangler hosted an intimate meeting and working dinner at the Greenwich Hotel in NYC with a [...]
Simon Lockett
Originally from Sydney, Australia, Simon moved to the United States in 2011 to complete his communication and law degrees through a cultural exchange program at Pace University in New York City. Simon works closely with [...]
The Internet of Elephants – TED Talk
On February the 8th 2017, Gautam Shah, founder of Internet of Elephants spoke at TED Nairobi about how to insert wildlife into people's everyday lives in the most fun, passionate, and meaningful manner. The video [...]
Photographer Builds A ‘Photo Ark’ For 6,500 Animal Species And Counting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZemdv91lmY Photographer Builds A 'Photo Ark' For 6,500 Animal Species And Counting Summary of Interview of National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore by Terri Gross on NPR Radio February 27, 2017 [...]
Five Ways to Advance Conservation Entrepreneurship
Meeting today’s growing conservation challenges requires that we find new ways of thinking about and practicing conservation, rooted in solving social problems through scalable methods and prototypes that deliver results. Conserving the diversity of life [...]
The Lion Guardians
Dawn is just breaking when Kamunu Saitoti sets out across the Amboseli bush in search of lions. At first glance, he appears much like any other Maasai warrior: Lean and tall, his dark red shuka [...]
mindful social media practice for adults, teens, and children
We are all self-critical - but for teens, self-consciousness is hardwired. Here's how to become aware of the emotions we all court on social media and how to assist young people to best navigate this [...]
what makes a good life: lessons from the world’s longest study on happiness
The following is a transcript of a TED talk by Robert Waldinger: "What Makes a Good Life - Lessons from the World's Longest Study on Happiness". "What keeps us healthy and happy as we go [...]
what three-year-olds can tell us
This week we discovered that a 45-minute test given to three-year-olds has an extraordinary ability to predict their chances of leading a productive life. The test, given to a thousand children in New Zealand born [...]
what can we control?
We all agree that 2016 was a most challenging year. Many of us anticipate this new year with some trepidation, but simultaneously great hope, sustained by our belief in the resiliency of human spirit. To actively [...]
the ultimate selfie: what healthy people can learn from getting their genome sequenced
Michael Snyder never saw it coming. Healthy, trim, and active at age 54, the Stanford geneticist decided to undergo whole genome sequencing (WGS) in 2010, when the technology was just being established at his university. [...]
Conflict and Ego
The best way to successfully respond to hate, even from the likes of ISIS, is to step outside the logic of vengeance. "Historically, we reserve special admiration for those who can quiet the self even [...]
Push for New Pact on Climate Change is Plagued by Old Divide of Wealth
"If history is any guide, the rich countries of the world will say how concerned they are about the damage their emissions of heat-trapping gases are causing. The poor countries - whose people have done [...]
The American Middle Class Is No Longer the World’s Richest
Today's report in the The York Times, The American Middle Class Is No Longer the World’s Richest, only confirms what many have been feeling for an increasingly long time. While our economic growth remains competitive with [...]
Giving Up on 4-Year Olds: A Societal Indictment
The New York Times published an editorial today, detailing a new report released by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, examining the disciplinary practices of our country’s 97,000 public schools. Giving up on 4-Year Olds is the [...]
Limits of Trying to Close the Knowledge Gap, Word by Word
Today's New York Times features a hopeful article, Trying to Close a Knowledge Gap, Word by Word, about the impact of exposing children, especially those of poverty, to greater quantity and quality of vocabulary. This [...]
“Capital in the Twenty-First Century” by Thomas Piketty
Thomas Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” is considered by those in a position to judge the merits of a monumental economic treatise, to be the most important economic book of the year, if not [...]
Empathy Inequality
Days ago yet another billionaire, Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone, made personal references to the super-wealthy and the Nazis, this time suggesting that those who express concerns about income inequality could learn a thing or two [...]
Income Gap, Meet the Longevity Gap (and What about Empathy?)
Where income is higher, life spans are longer. As incomes have diverged between this country’s richest and poorest counties, so have the life expectancies of their residents. Annie Lowry in the New York Times has [...]
Dialogue with the Wealthy Necessary to Constructive Solutions of Income Inequality
Perceptive, strategic discourse of income inequality in NY Times by Harvard University's Sendhil Mullainathan cautions we not lose focus on ameliorating conditions of bottom 20% with inappropriate focus on top 1%. However, my recent letter in [...]