TEDxSalem

Ideas worth spreading

2020

Clinical Neuropsychologist Justin Feinstein: Diving into Float Therapy

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Dr. Justin Fein­stein is a Clin­i­cal Neu­ropsy­chol­o­gist and Direc­tor of the Float Clin­ic & Research Cen­ter at the Lau­re­ate Insti­tute for Brain Research. His lab­o­ra­to­ry inves­ti­gates the effects of Floata­tion-REST (Reduced Envi­ron­men­tal Stim­u­la­tion Ther­a­py) on both the body and the brain, while also explor­ing its poten­tial as a ther­a­peu­tic treat­ment for pro­mot­ing men­tal health and heal­ing in patients who suf­fer from anx­i­ety and stress-relat­ed dis­or­ders. Dr. Fein­stein joined the fac­ul­ty of the Lau­re­ate Insti­tute for Brain Research and the Oxley Col­lege of Health Sci­ences at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Tul­sa in 2013, after com­plet­ing his Ph.D. at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Iowa, and his post­doc­tor­al fel­low­ship at the Cal­i­for­nia Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy. He earned his under­grad­u­ate degree in cog­ni­tive neu­ro­science at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, San Diego, and com­plet­ed his clin­i­cal intern­ship at the San Diego VA hos­pi­tal with a focus on the treat­ment of vet­er­ans with
PTSD.

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence? Prob­a­bly towards the begin­ning of this decade when I watched my for­mer men­tors, Ralph Adolphs and Anto­nio Dama­sio, give TED talks.

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? One of my favorite TED talks is Kel­ly McGonigal’s “How to make stress your friend.” She does a bril­liant job high­light­ing the adap­tive aspects of stress and how our per­cep­tion of stress can fun­da­men­tal­ly alter the bal­ance between life and death. This per­spec­tive has been use­ful in the con­text of my own research into inte­ro­cep­tion, and how the brain per­ceives when the body is in Home­osta­sis.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? The sur­vival of our species depends on our abil­i­ty to fore­see the future and adapt to the oncom­ing chal­lenges that face soci­ety. With­out vision, we are the blind lead­ing the blind, reac­tive­ly address­ing issues once the fire has already start­ed rather than proac­tive­ly try­ing to elim­i­nate such issues before they even begin.

What is the most impor­tant les­son you’ve learned in life? How did you learn it? In life, dreams do not always come true, but some­times the mere act of hav­ing the dream is more impor­tant than achiev­ing it. This is some­thing my father taught me in the first book he ever wrote, Catch Us If You Can.

What is the scari­est thing you have ever done for fun? I have spent the past 15 years close­ly study­ing a rare group of humans who are miss­ing their amyg­dala, a brain region the­o­rized to be crit­i­cal for fear. My attempt to scare these patients was not exact­ly for fun, but rather for research, and through it we have now learned that the amyg­dala is not the epi­cen­ter of fear in the brain.

If you could instant­ly become an expert in some­thing, what would it be? Immunol­o­gy, as virus­es and bac­te­ria are the great­est threat (oth­er than our­selves) to human­i­ty.

Would you rather have a rewind but­ton or a pause but­ton on your life? Def­i­nite­ly a pause button…in fact, I’ll be dis­cussing an actu­al pause but­ton in this year’s talk!

Catch that talk in per­son at TEDxSalem on Jan­u­ary 4 at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter.

TEDxSalem VII

TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and swag. It takes place from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 4, 2020, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Click here for tick­ets. Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.com

Melissa Pollman: Rare disease awareness

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Entre­pre­neur. Par­ent. Activist. Meet Melis­sa Poll­man. Co-own­er of ConKraft Con­struc­tion, Cen­tral Homes Prop­er­ty man­age­ment and Stor­age 4 Less, she’s mar­ried (to Dean) with four kids (Audrey, Madi­son, Cole and Haley), plus two dogs, a cat, two Pygmy goats and a bunch of fish. She earned her MBA from Willamette Uni­ver­si­ty’s Atkin­son Grad­u­ate School of Man­age­ment while work­ing full time and rais­ing a fam­i­ly. She loves boat­ing in the sum­mer and ski­ing in the win­ter, and most of all, spend­ing time with her fam­i­ly. She is a founder of Haley’s Heroes, a foun­da­tion rais­ing funds and aware­ness to help find a cure for Bat­ten Dis­ease.

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence? About 18 months ago I was invit­ed to watch my neigh­bor, Becky McBride, give a TEDx [like] talk as part of her nurs­ing degree. She spoke on pedi­atric pal­lia­tive care and was inspired to do so by our sto­ry of Haley and Haley’s Heroes Foun­da­tion.

What inspired you to do a TED talk? When faced with immea­sur­able grief you will do any­thing! I would nev­er have thought to do a TED talk before Haley’s diag­no­sis but now I will speak any­where and every­where peo­ple will lis­ten to spread aware­ness. It may not save Haley but at least it’s some­thing I can do when I’m pow­er­less to cure my daugh­ter. Fears of pub­lic speak­ing and being uncom­fort­able are noth­ing com­pared to the fear of los­ing a child. If my words can help one per­son, if I can add hope to a life, then maybe this jour­ney we are on won’t be for noth­ing. Haley will be a lega­cy and sto­ry that lives on and cre­ates hope in hope­less sit­u­a­tions.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? One of the symp­toms of Bat­ten Dis­ease is loss of vision. Haley’s loss of vision put us on this jour­ney. Her joy for life and spir­it inspired us to cre­ate a plan or vision to save her. The phrase “how to have vision when you can’t see” comes to mind. 

What do you feel most grate­ful for in your life?  My fam­i­ly.  I’m blessed to have a hus­band that is also my best friend. My chil­dren are extreme­ly close despite the age dif­fer­ences. We are a close-knit fam­i­ly. My heart is full when we are all togeth­er.

How has your life been dif­fer­ent than what you’d imag­ined? I envi­sioned a fam­i­ly and all that goes along with it… watch­ing your kids grow up… watch­ing them get mar­ried… becom­ing a grandparent…etc. Receiv­ing the diag­no­sis that Haley has a fatal dis­ease blew that pic­ture up. I live with con­stant grief while bat­tling to stay present and grate­ful for the time we have. 

What is the scari­est thing you have ever done for fun? As a teen after I jumped off a bridge into a riv­er up at north fork. It was real­ly high up and I land­ed wrong. I had bruis­es all up and down the back of my legs. It was first and last time I ever did some­thing like that.

Do you have any com­mu­ni­ty activ­i­ties? I like to run races with friends. I have run Hood to Coast for the past five years and actu­al­ly find it fun! 

If you could instant­ly become an expert in some­thing, what would it be? Expert in cur­ing Bat­ten Dis­ease!

Favorite book? I love to read mur­der mys­ter­ies- par­tic­u­lar­ly with a hero­ine! I real­ly don’t know why but it’s all I read … except for the TED book.

Ran­dom fact: I am left-hand­ed but my kids are all right-hand­ed.

TEDxSalem VII

TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and swag. It takes place from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 4, 2020, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Click here for tick­ets.  Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.com

Student scientist Mihir Joshi has a solution to save the ocean

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The youngest speak­er to take to the TEDxSalem stage this com­ing year is Mihir Joshi, a 13-year-old stu­dent at South Salem High School. Mihir, who enjoys play­ing video games, prob­lem-solv­ing and run­ning cross-coun­try, at one time, was able to solve a Rubiks Cube in under 45 sec­onds. Always look­ing for solu­tions, this curi­ous teen will take to the TEDxSalem stage to share how he learned to pre­dict the change of Marine Pro­tect­ed Areas and what you can do to help save the ocean.

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence? I par­tic­i­pat­ed and spoke at the first-ever TEDxYouth@Salem event in Novem­ber 2017. (Check out Mihir’s talk here)

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? “This is What Hap­pens When you Reply to Spam Emails” by James Veitch. I love this TEDxTalk because of its amaz­ing use of humor.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? To me, Vision means to visu­al­ize some­thing that doesn’t exist today and strive to make it a real­i­ty because of your pas­sion and hard work.

What do you feel most grate­ful for in your life? Being able to grow up in a pos­i­tive and sup­port­ive house­hold with amaz­ing par­ents and a great sis­ter.

Tell us some­thing about your­self we could nev­er tell from look­ing at you. I won home­com­ing court this year in my high school.     

What song best describes your life? “Haven’t Met You Yet” By Michael Bublé. I chose this song because I’m always look­ing for the next thing out there and I believe the best is yet to come.

Top 3 movies of the moment?

  1.     3 Idiots (Bol­ly­wood movie)
  2.     Guardians of the Galaxy 1
  3.     Ter­mi­na­tor 1

Top 3 songs or artists?

  1.     AJR
  2.     Jon Bel­lion
  3.     Khalid

Where would you go in a time machine? I would go back in time to watch Neil Arm­strong take his first step on the moon.          

Chunky or smooth peanut but­ter? How could any­one ever like chunky peanut but­ter! Smooth is the only option.  

Favorite col­or? Red

TEDxSalem VII

TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and swag. It takes place from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 4, 2020, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Click here for tick­ets.  Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.com

Kaeli Swift explores avid interest in avians at TEDxSalem VII

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Kaeli Swift, 32, is a bird girl.

As a lec­tur­er at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton with a Ph.D. in Avian Behav­ior and Ecol­o­gy, she spends her days talk­ing about the lives of birds. And as a researcher with an avid inter­est in avians, she some­times spends her nights that way, too.

Mar­ried, with five pets (sur­pris­ing­ly, no birds), Kaeli enjoys nee­dle felt­ing, read­ing, run­ning and bird­watch­ing. When not work­ing or engaged with her hob­bies, you can find Kaeli involved in sci­ence out­reach, speak­ing for dif­fer­ent orga­ni­za­tions, such as the Audubon Soci­ety, as well as to stu­dents and at senior homes. When she takes the stage at TEDxSalem in Jan­u­ary, Kaeli will share her fas­ci­na­tion with our feath­ered friends and dis­cuss the pow­er of crows to enrich our lives and con­nect us to nature.

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? Rethink­ing infi­deli­ty… a talk for any­one who has ever loved, by Esther Per­el. Amaz­ing talk on adul­tery and why peo­ple cheat.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? I think it means appre­ci­at­ing that there are dif­fer­ent ways to see the world and dif­fer­ent ways to solve prob­lems. Hav­ing cre­ativ­i­ty to see things and prob­lem solve in unique ways is real­ly great to val­ue.

What is one of your favorite child­hood mem­o­ries? Going to the golf course with grand­moth­er to catch tree frogs in Sty­ro­foam cups. Spokane (dur­ing ele­men­tary school)

What do you feel most grate­ful for in your life? Health and that of the peo­ple around me

How has your life been dif­fer­ent than what you’d imag­ined?. Less pre­dictable.

What are some of the most impor­tant lessons you’ve learned in life? How did you learn them? Resilience, prob­a­bly the biggest les­son, learned that from being knocked down a lot and hav­ing to get back up.

What is some­thing unex­pect­ed that has changed about you in the last few years? Moved to a city I nev­er thought I’d live in — small, rur­al com­mu­ni­ty.

What song best describes your life? Bird­ing by Swet Shop Boys.

If you could live in the set­ting of any book or movie, with­out nec­es­sar­i­ly being involved in the sto­ry, which would you choose? Guernsey Lit­er­ary Pota­to Peel Soci­ety. 

What is the scari­est thing you have ever done for fun? I don’t like heights and I went on one of those sling­shot reverse bungee jump attrac­tions at Ore­gon State Fair. 

If you could instant­ly become an expert in some­thing, what would it be? Lichen. I think they’re so pret­ty and neat. Or mush­rooms.

What is the best gift any­one has ever giv­en to you? Hus­band bought me a cam­era – DLSR Nikon. Using it for bird­watch­ing

Would you rather have a rewind but­ton or a pause but­ton on your life? Pause – Need more time to get things accom­plished, going back seems painful and futile.

Favorite book? The Poi­son­wood Bible, By Bar­bara King­solver.

Top 3 movies of the moment? Day After Tomor­row, Coco, the first Men In Black

Top 3 songs or artists? Artists – Alt‑J, Mod­est Mouse, Band of Hors­es 

Where would you go in a time machine? Pleis­tocene Era (only if ful­ly armed) 

Make one change in the world? Snap my fin­gers and make every­one appre­ci­ate the con­nec­tion between social jus­tice and envi­ron­men­tal jus­tice.

Chunky or smooth peanut but­ter? Depends on my mood…

Great­est fear? US health care sys­tem. Pos­si­bil­i­ty of get­ting old with­out health care.

Some­thing some­one should know about you? “I con­sume way too much pop cul­ture.” Celebri­ty gos­sip, enter­tain­ment news, etc.

Favorite col­or? Rich yel­lows – marigold yel­low.

 

Transformation through Awareness: Meet chiropractor & yoga teacher Zohra Campbell

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It’s hap­pened to all of us. We’re lis­ten­ing to a lec­ture or read­ing a book, but we’re not real­ly pay­ing atten­tion — our minds have wan­dered off to some­thing else.

At a day full of pre­sen­ta­tions and new ideas, like TEDxSalem, we can eas­i­ly find our­selves strug­gling with focus.

That’s where Dr. Zohra Camp­bell will try to help.

The long-time Salem chi­ro­prac­tor and yoga teacher will lead two ses­sions — one in the morn­ing and one after lunch — of mind­ful­ness and pranaya­ma, yog­ic breath­ing prac­tices that help our mind get focused, present, and aware.

She’ll be ask­ing audi­ence mem­bers to breathe, move, and become more aware of their bod­ies and sur­round­ings.

“My hope is that I can help us focus on what we are here for, notice what we bring to the table that day, and let our old pat­terns go so we can be present and open to the day ahead,” Camp­bell says.

Camp­bell believes that aware­ness is trans­for­ma­tion, and that is the heart of the busi­ness she has run for 15 years, Indi­go Well­ness Cen­ter.

A chi­ro­prac­tor since 1992, Camp­bell has found that her clients’ pain is often relat­ed to stress or ten­sion pat­terns they hold in their bod­ies.

“Pos­tur­al habits, emo­tion­al habits, men­tal habits — they keep us trapped in either pain or emo­tion­al suf­fer­ing,” she says. “My pas­sion is to help peo­ple unwind that.

“I start every yoga class by hav­ing peo­ple sit and breathe and just notice what they’re com­ing with today. Once we’re aware that we hold ten­sion in our neck, every time we have that aware­ness, we have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to respond.”

Indi­go began in 2004 in a loca­tion on south Com­mer­cial Street.  After sev­er­al loca­tion changes and with the sup­port of many stu­dents and clients, Indi­go found a home in Pringle Park Plaza, down­town Salem, five years ago.

Today, the busi­ness includes four chi­ro­prac­tors, sev­en mas­sage ther­a­pists, a coun­selor, and a full yoga stu­dio with 23 class­es each week.

Camp­bell also leads a 200-hour yoga teacher cer­ti­fi­ca­tion pro­gram and sev­er­al yoga retreats annu­al­ly. She has led retreats in Cuba, Mex­i­co, Guatemala, Hawaii, Cos­ta Rica and Italy.

Many of the retreats include a ser­vice ele­ment. In April, Camp­bell will be co-lead­ing a trip with Mik­ki Trow­bridge to India, where par­tic­i­pants will raise funds for an orga­ni­za­tion that helps vic­tims of human traf­fick­ing.

No mat­ter where she is teach­ing, Camp­bell tries to bring par­tic­i­pants’ focus back to the per­son­al aware­ness that can lead to heal­ing.

“We all feel great after we go to a yoga class or get a mas­sage, and we all wish we could feel that way all the time,” she says. “That’s real­ly my goal: to give you the tools you need to feel that way more of the time. The more we’re aware of our habits, the more oppor­tu­ni­ty there is to change them.”

TEDxSalem VII

TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and swag. It takes place from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 4, 2020, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Click here for tick­ets.  Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.com

TEDxSalem VII speaker Bassam Tarazi — Living Intentionally

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Bas­sam Tarazi is a Change Man­age­ment Consultant…but he wasn’t always. He has a back­ground in mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing and start­ed his career as a nuclear engi­neer work­ing on nuclear sub­marines in Pearl Har­bor, Hawaii. Born and raised in Con­necti­cut, the 39-year-old now lives in Port­land with his wife, Saman­tha, and dog, Oliv­er. His hob­bies include writ­ing, read­ing, hiking/trekking, swim­ming, bik­ing, and watch­ing his beloved Arse­nal foot­ball club dis­ap­point him. He once con­vinced Fidel Cas­tro to sign his US pass­port with a Sharpie, but that’s not the only risky thing he’s done. Bas­sam has a dynam­ic list of chal­lenges he’s faced, which he will share more about at TEDxSalem VII.

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence? Simon Sinek’s talk was my first stum­ble into a TED Talk (at least from what I can remem­ber)

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? I’d say it’s that same talk. “Peo­ple don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” Simon was one of the first peo­ple to real­ly dri­ve home that idea. Ever since, I’ve always tried to tack­le my “why” in life and to be sure I bring it across in all that I do.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? It’s not about what we want to do in the world, but who we want to be. I think we spend too much time think­ing about what we are going to do in life and we for­get to lay the foun­da­tion of who we are going to become. What do peo­ple say about us when we leave the room? When I think of vision, I think about what would go in my eulo­gy, not on my resume.

What do you feel most grate­ful for in your life? That I grew up in the rel­a­tive time of plen­ty. In the his­to­ry of humankind, it is only for the slight­est sliv­er of it that we have the free­doms and time to explore our imag­i­na­tions and this world in the way that we can today. What an incred­i­ble gift that is.

What are some of the most impor­tant lessons you’ve learned in life? How did you learn them? 

You nev­er know when a smile might save some­one’s life. — My mom used to say that to us when we were kids.

“Make every deci­sion the right deci­sion.” When you are left with an either-or choice, just pick one and nev­er look back. If the choice you made does­n’t work out, you can’t look back and say, “I knew it. I should have cho­sen the oth­er thing.” You don’t know that. You could have been dead if you chose the oth­er thing. Learn what you learned in what you chose, dust your­self off and move for­ward. My father taught me that.

Writ­ing isn’t a man­i­fes­ta­tion of what I’ve dis­cov­ered, it’s a dis­cov­ery of what I’ll man­i­fest. Learned this one on my own, try­ing to write. I used to hold ideas in my head think­ing that once I fig­ure them out then I’ll write them down. But it does­n’t work that way. The best part of writ­ing is sit­ting down to write and then writ­ing some­thing you did­n’t even know was in your end. 

In five years you’ll be wrong. I think we some­times get too caught up in our visions for the future that we for­get to see what’s in front of us every day. When peo­ple ask me where do I want to be in five years, I always answer, “Liv­ing inten­tion­al­ly,” because when I go back five years and look for­ward, I’m nev­er where I thought I’d be. We design our ship and load our pro­vi­sions for what we think we will encounter over the hori­zon, but what we inevitably do encounter is nev­er what we expect­ed. So we cer­tain­ly have to choose and pad­dle in a car­di­nal direc­tion in life, but we should always be ready to adapt to what comes from beyond the hori­zon. This has taught me to not put too much weight on any deci­sion. Life will always throw a curve­ball, so it’s bet­ter to act while you can and adapt lat­er.

Tell us some­thing about your­self we could nev­er tell from look­ing at you. I have a stut­ter that I work around every day. One of the hard­est things for me to do is just say my first name when going around the room intro­duc­ing our­selves.

If you could live in the set­ting of any book or movie, with­out nec­es­sar­i­ly being involved in the sto­ry, which would you choose? Incep­tion; Imag­ine there was a world where you could enter peo­ple’s dreams?! That would be crazy.

If you could instant­ly become an expert in some­thing, what would it be? Rock­et sci­ence

Go-to karaoke song? The Killers “Mr. Bright­side” 

Where would you go in a time machine? Inside the com­mand mod­ule of Apol­lo 11 on top of the Sat­urn 5, ten sec­onds before liftoff. It was the great­est adven­ture of all time. Would have loved to be a part of it.

TEDxSalem VII

TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and swag. It takes place from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 4, 2020, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Click here for tick­ets.  Fol­low us on Face­book for the most up-to-date news from our com­mu­ni­ty, and check our web­site reg­u­lar­ly for new infor­ma­tion. You can also reach us at info@tedxsalem.com