Jay Shenai

Your FEARLESS back-to-school reading list

August 11, 2015 By Jay Shenai

There are only a few weeks left in summer, and TEDx Salem 2015 is less than two months away! If you’re looking for some reading suggestions for that last camping trip, road trip, or lazy stay-in-bed weekend before school starts, look no further!

Here are some staff-recommended picks that are sure to please. In keeping with this year’s theme, these books explore what “fearless” means to each of us…

Into Thin Air – Jon Krakauer

Saerom Yoo: “[The book] is about the deadliest ascent to Mt. Everest [before the 2014 climbing season] and tells the story of people who pursued a dream, risking their lives. Reading it puts you on the edge of your seat and puts you right in the shoes of the climbers, who sometimes cannot think straight due to their ambitions and delirium. You don’t think, WHY DIDN’T THEY TURN BACK? You get it because you feel empathy for the characters, even if you’re not a daredevil at all.”

Stephanie Knowlton: “I think it shows the sometimes thin line between fearless and reckless.”

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead – Brené Brown

Deb Vaughan: “As the parent of a three year old, the concept of being vulnerable with feelings in our house is a powerful way to approach conversations as she learns how to process and express bigger and bigger feelings. And the idea that I am enough – Tell me that wouldn’t change most people’s lives. The quote I have on my desk at work is: “Quick and dirty wins the race. Perfection is the enemy of done. Good enough is pretty effin’ good!” I quote it to my coworkers all the time!!!”

The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance – Steven Kotler

Brian Hart: “This book features some of the most amazing high adventure athletes in the world and how they have overcome fear to reach “flow” states on a regular basis. One of the best parts of the book is also one of the darkest, and explains the dangers of being fearless. In short, their addiction to being in the flow state, which is scientifically proven to fire the same triggers in the brain as cocaine, heroin and pot combined, end up literally killing many of them. They become fearless of just about everything…”

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super Athletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen – Christopher McDougall

Saerom: “Born to Run is close to my heart because I’m one of those people who never considered herself a runner. But this book is so inspiring because it looks at a tribe of fellow humans in a remote part of our world, running for DAYS without any of the fancy running equipment and no injuries. It explores the history and science behind humans’ relationship with running, and you realize that WE’RE ALL RUNNERS. I read it while training for my first half marathon, which was a very scary goal for me. It left me inspired and feeling strong. I still think back to it from time to time, when I’m daunted by the physical challenge of running. Oh, and I totally rocked the marathon, by the way. :-)”

Face the Music: A Life Exposed – Paul Stanley

Jay Shenai: “A somewhat surprisingly informative autobiography, quite introspective for an individual so strongly identified with aggressive self-promotion and masked, macho rock-and-roll. Along with the glamour and glitz of this “backstage pass,” Stanley also shares the anxiety and trauma of his chaotic upbringing in New York City before joining Gene Simmons to form the band KISS.

Putting the group’s own efforts at mythologizing aside – How did someone born with an ear deformity (microtia), rendered deaf in one ear from birth, decide he could and would make such an impact on music? My favorite image comes relatively early on, when an awkward pre-teen Stanley Bert Eisen sits on a bench waiting for his appointment with his therapist, and unwraps a Blimpie sandwich to eat in the park, alone. I like how he describes the solitude and the sandwich. Imagine the feeling, of being ready to take on the world despite all the evidence to the contrary, and all the doubters; not sure how, but just waiting for the opportunity to come.”

ALSO RECOMMENDED:

The Harry Potter series – J. K. Rowling

Saerom: “Harry Potter and his friends constantly face the risk of death fighting the evil Death Eaters and Voldemort. Harry sometimes does cross into reckless territory, though. I’m reading it for the first time currently and I’m on book 6 (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince). I’m constantly amazed at the adult themes discussed in the books.”

Editor’s Note: If you see Saerom around, please don’t talk about the ending. We’re trying not to spoil it for her.

The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness – Elyn R. Saks

Brian: “It’s an incredible autobiography about how [the author] struggles to maintain a ‘normal’ life while struggling with schizophrenia every day.”

Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston

Stephanie: “Both the author and main character were fearless at a time when women had little if any voice.”

Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl

Brian: “…hands down one of the most inspiring books I have ever read.”

- To get your tickets to TEDx Salem 2015, click here!

Michael Davis: What we get from “Sesame Street”

July 30, 2015 By Jay Shenai

Ask Michael Davis what his favorite Sesame Street sketch is, and one comes to mind right away: “Bert and Ernie Fish Call.” In it, the laid-back Ernie confounds Bert with his unorthodox yet wildly successful method for fishing. It’s a sophisticated and pretty funny gag for such a simple conceit: two Muppets in a boat, dodging fish.

“I think they’re one of the great comedy teams of all time,” said Davis, author of the New York Times Bestseller Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street, and speaker at this year’s TEDx Salem.

Fun fact – According to Davis, in Bert and Ernie you can see subtle hints of the real-life creative tension between the straight-laced Frank Oz, and the more mischievous Jim Henson, one that helped drive the show for years.

You can also see how a sketch that first aired in 1982 endures to this day, and still appeals to viewers both younger and older. Currently the clip has over 3 million views on YouTube.

“That’s the magic, that they’ve been able to keep [the show’s success] rolling for so many years,” he said.

For his TED talk Davis will share how the show has evolved to maintain its popularity with millions of children in its over 45-year history. He will also discuss how the show’s producers continue to parlay that power into positive social change both in the US and around the world. According to Davis they are currently working to bring awareness of sanitation and hygiene to audiences in India and Pakistan. In South Africa, the first-ever HIV-positive Muppet, Kami, has helped bring AIDS awareness to a country that has struggled to face the crisis. The Queen of Jordan Rania Al Abdullah also has credited the show (Hikayat Simsim) for empowering women in her country.

It’s one of the key missions of the Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organization behind Sesame Street: to use the show’s concepts in hotspots around the globe, from Northern Ireland to the Balkans to Central America, Davis said.

Everywhere it is seen, the show serves to “help children cope, and to teach them about their society,” he said.

Through a combination of comedy and television advertising techniques, Sesame Street has impacted generations of children worldwide, Davis said, exposing them to sometimes tough lessons through intelligence and wit — even if sometimes the lessons and occasionally even the wit are beyond the grasp of the show’s core demographic of 2- to 4‑year-olds.

Sesame Street has had the staying power and the patience to wait for them.

“When children get older and more sophisticated, a light goes on,” Davis said. “They understand that somebody a long time ago taught them.”

Something to think about, the next time you come across a fisherman out on a lake yelling, “Heeere fishy-fishy-fishy!”

– To see Michael Davis and other TEDx Salem 2015 speakers, get your tickets here.

Maya Kaup: Stepping Up to Stop Food Waste

July 16, 2015 By Jay Shenai

From music lessons to sports like gymnastics and track, to volunteering with the Girl Scouts, Maya Kaup, 20, was raised to explore every opportunity, and to stay busy. To find a niche. To get involved. It was only natural, then, during her freshman year at Willamette University that a Facebook video on food waste and community hunger spurred her to action. Why not bring food recovery to her school?

Why not here? Why not me?

“Someone had to do it,” the biology major said. “I see it as a moral obligation.”

For her TED talk, Kaup will share her experiences founding the Willamette University chapter of the Food Recovery Network, a national non-profit that focuses on fighting food waste and hunger. According to FRN statistics, 17.5 million families nationwide are “food-insecure,” not sure where their next meal will come from. In Oregon, 15 percent of families are food-insecure; the poverty rate in Marion County is 19.5 percent. Meanwhile, Americans discard 35 million tons of food per year, or roughly 40 percent of all food produced in the country.

In 2014, Kaup along with 20 volunteers helped the university block 8,000 pounds of surplus, unsold food from the garbage to feed the homeless. Not only is good food not thrown away, but nutritious fruits and vegetables are saved for those who can’t often have them, Kaup said.

“It’s a win-win,” she said.

When Kaup isn’t managing the FRN, she takes a full course load at school, and also helps care for orphaned animals at the Turtle Ridge Wildlife Center. Seeing the successes of her efforts motivates her to do even more, she said.

It “fuels my fire,” she said. “It makes me realize I can make a difference.”

To see Maya Kaup and other TEDx Salem 2015 speakers, buy tickets here.

Rhea Stadick: Bringing Humanity to Software Development

July 2, 2015 By Jay Shenai

Sometimes the only thing standing in the way of success is doubt, according to Rhea Stadick, software developer and organizational coach at Intel. “Just assumptions that it can’t happen, it won’t happen, or there’s a rule against it,” she says.

There’s a lot less in your way than you think, she says, if you just have the courage to try something new.

For her TED talk, Stadick will discuss her efforts to bring a new management approach to software, one that focuses more on collaboration, adaptability and innovation rather than conformity, deadlines and “deliverables.” One that encourages “out-of-the-box” thinking. It’s called Agile Development, and it promises not only better programs for end users, but a better life for programmers.

“It’s about bringing humanity to the workplace,” says Stadick, sitting in her team room at Intel’s Jones Farm campus, where she oversees the company’s efforts to implement Agile management strategies. It seems especially odd to see robots positioned around her as she says this. But those robots – in essence stands with monitor screens – help to mimic face-to-face meetings with programmers who may be in other countries, part of Agile’s emphasis on direct communication. In and around the room there is a 3‑D printer, couches, and a large whiteboard with various Post-It notes on it, and ideas scribbled across its surface. A large wall-size window opens to trees, leaves waving in the wind.

It’s a breath of fresh air for programmers, to have such an open space that encourages individuality and creative problem-solving.

And it’s a stark contrast to the traditionally heavy-handed, bureaucratic and partitioned approach to software that defined the industry in the past, an approach infamously portrayed in the 1999 movie Office Space. Think exasperated engineers — “I am good at dealing with people!! Can’t you understand that?!” – separating developers from the company’s clients. Think Bill Lumbergh, handing out weekend work and enforcing cover sheets for TPS reports. Think Peter Gibbons, drowning in a sea of cubicles every morning, doing just enough work to not get hassled.

“Six-by-six cubicles are not necessarily what humans are designed to do,” Stadick says.

As a new software hire 10 years ago, she saw firsthand the frustrations of just correcting defects instead of preventing them, and spending “crazy hours” on the job and at home, just to achieve the same average success rate, never better.

“I saw how painful some of the ways we ran projects and teams were for people,” she says.

Today, with Agile Development, Stadick is hoping to drive change not just at Intel, but across the industry. Her success could not only revolutionize the way we lead our projects, but also the way we lead our lives.

There are still some obstacles, she concedes, not surprising when trying to uproot an assembly-line management strategy that hearkens back to the Model‑T. But Stadick has faith in her team.

“We work with the some of the most intelligent people in the world,” she says.

“We can do pretty amazing things; there’s not a lot of things holding us back.”

Vickie Hardin Woods: “Hi! Do you like pie?”

June 18, 2015 By Jay Shenai

According to Vickie Hardin Woods, “if you’re going to give a gift, [a pie] is about the right gift.”

“If you give something that is too valuable, then the person feels obliged to give something back,” she said. “But you also want it to have enough effort and value” to show that you care.

Two years ago Woods was inspired to perfect the gift of giving, one day at a time, with a little help from her oven. Over the course of a 365-day period, beginning with a lemon meringue, she baked one fresh pie each day from scratch and delivered it, unsolicited, to friends, neighbors and eventually even complete strangers. She gained notoriety in local news by photographing each pie and its smiling, occasionally disoriented recipient as part of her blog.

For her TEDx talk, Woods will discuss how surprising people with pie gave her both a deeper understanding of community, and insight into her own sense of purpose after retiring from a 30-year career in local government.

A pie-a-day blog – Seems daunting, but is it really? Here are some key ingredients, and tips to make yours a smash hit at your next random encounter…

What you would need:

(137) different pie recipes
Fresh, local, wholesome organic ingredients
A Tumblr blog
Be retired
Optional: (5) grandchildren to occasionally help deliver pies.

Break the ice. “That was on many days the hardest thing I had to do,” she said, “to find somebody, and then approach them and give them the pie.” It’s important to establish a connection, even if it’s brief, she said.

“You can’t just walk up to a stranger and say, ‘Here’s a pie.’ You have to build some sort of relationship, no matter how short it is.”

Some were more receptive than others, she said. Sometimes small talk would not be enough for a skeptical stranger; more often than not, though, Woods’ pie pitch would find a willing participant.

“There’s something about breaking through that barrier,” she said. “I don’t know how many times I had people say to me, ‘This is the best thing that’s happened to me today!”

Failures happen. “Usually if [a pie] didn’t turn out, I figured it was me, not the pie,” Woods said. She remembered a particular pecan pie she tried to show off at a cooking class she was taking at Carl’s Cuisine on Chemeketa St. In a hurry, she had failed to give the pie enough time to set. “I opened up the carrier and there’s this gooey mess all over the bottom.”

Blend until ingredients come together. Woods sees pie giving as “less as gratitude than just a gift, free of all encumbrances, grace,” she said. It took roughly a month to work up the nerve to approach her first stranger, she said. But the reward of making people happy made the challenge worthwhile for her.

“I got the satisfaction of knowing that I touched someone’s life,” she said.

For Woods, pie provided structure to a life in transition. It forced her to get out into the world. And in handing home-baked goodness to people sometimes far from their home, she brought the world a little closer to hers.

“Each pie is its own journey,” she said, from her kitchen to points unknown, and the stories told and experienced in between.

“That’s what life is about, our stories.”

– To see Vickie Hardin Woods and other TEDx Salem 2015 speakers, get your tickets here.

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