TEDxSalem

Ideas worth spreading

TEDxSalem

Mike Studer: Physical therapist, world record holder, pun enthusiast

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Salemite Mike Stud­er nev­er imag­ined him­self as an endurance ath­lete, espe­cial­ly grow­ing up as a base­ball play­er in the 1980s when the thought of run­ning more than 360 feet at a time (the length of an inside-the-park home run) seemed point­less. But that is what he became and now holds the world record for the fastest under­wa­ter tread­mill marathon. A Phys­i­cal Ther­a­pist with a Master’s degree in Neu­ro­log­ic PT, Mike enjoys run­ning, bak­ing healthy food, puns and dad jokes. He is also a ded­i­cat­ed com­mu­ni­ty vol­un­teer — “I love work­ing with the Mar­i­on Polk Food Share sort­ing food as a team with peo­ple from our clin­ic; serv­ing at our church in dra­ma roles; work­ing a med­ical tent at local sport­ing events to pro­mote healthy activ­i­ties” — and will be able to add TEDx speak­er to his list of accom­plish­ments come Jan­u­ary 4, 2020, when he speaks about the regen­er­a­tive capac­i­ties of the human brain. So meet Mike, then join us for his “idea worth spread­ing” in Jan­u­ary.

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence? I believe that it was the 1998 Aimee Mullins inter­view TED talk. For obvi­ous rea­sons, this is rel­e­vant to my pro­fes­sion as a phys­i­cal ther­a­pist.

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? Per­son­al­ly, I am a bit of a health nut, and I very much appre­ci­at­ed Eliz­a­beth Black­burn’s TED talk about the Sci­ence of Aging, specif­i­cal­ly regard­ing the length and lifes­pan of DNA through telom­eres. I mod­i­fied my already strange the­o­ries on caloric intake and eat­ing in gen­er­al as a func­tion of this talk. 

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? The abil­i­ty to see what oth­ers might not. We have a human spec­trum of vis­i­ble light, that is well-stud­ied. How­ev­er, giv­en our indi­vid­ual expe­ri­ences and inher­ent bias­es, we bring dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives on human lim­its. I bring a per­spec­tive that caus­es me to believe in my vision for greater accom­plish­ments that what we present­ly achieve in peo­ple — and specif­i­cal­ly the human brain.

What is one of your favorite child­hood mem­o­ries? Pitch­ing the entire game of a lit­tle league all-star game and no-hit­ting the oppos­ing team. 

What do you feel most grate­ful for in your life? My work eth­ic and my wife. 

How has your life been dif­fer­ent than what you’d imag­ined? I nev­er imag­ined myself as an endurance ath­lete, grow­ing up as a base­ball play­er in the 1980s when the thought of run­ning more than 360 feet at a time (the length of an inside-the-park home run) seemed point­less.

What are some of the most impor­tant lessons you’ve learned in life? How did you learn them? Do the right thing. Admit to your­self and oth­ers when your con­cept of the right thing, was wrong. 

What is some­thing unex­pect­ed that has changed about you in the last few years? Med­ical advance­ments and our own fam­i­ly’s expe­ri­ences with chron­ic health con­di­tions, includ­ing pain and the rela­tion­ship to changes from the body to the brain and reverse…due to the pres­ence of chron­ic pain. 

Tell us some­thing about your­self we could nev­er tell from look­ing at you. I know more point­less facts than any­one real­ly should store in their brain. Triv­ia about sports, music, his­to­ry, etc. 

What song best describes your life? “I Did It My Way,” pop­u­lar­ized by Sina­tra or “It’s a Beau­ti­ful Day,” by U2

If you could live in the set­ting of any book or movie, with­out nec­es­sar­i­ly being involved in the sto­ry, which would you choose? “A Field of Dreams” or “Char­lie and the Choco­late Fac­to­ry”

What is the scari­est thing you have ever done for fun? At about 12 years old, I con­fi­dent­ly but inept­ly sad­dled-up a Shet­land pony and pro­ceed­ed to ride it with my cousin, Fred Stud­er, 13, at the same time. Not long into the ride, the sad­dle proved to be too loose and we were soon upside down on a 5‑foot tall horse with­out enough ground clear­ance to ride upside down. 

If you could instant­ly become an expert in some­thing, what would it be? Jazz piano

What is the best gift any­one has ever giv­en to you? Love

Would you rather have a rewind but­ton or a pause but­ton on your life? Rewind. I have enjoyed many moments that I would glad­ly relive. 

Favorite book(s)? And why. Bro­ca’s Brain by Carl Sagan — the insights into how the brain oper­ates fas­ci­nat­ed and con­tin­ue to fas­ci­nate me. 

Top 3 songs or artists? Where the Streets Have No Name, Start Me Up, Beau­ti­ful Day. U2, Rolling Stones respec­tive­ly.

Go-to karaoke song? Every­body Hurts by REM

Chunky or smooth peanut but­ter? Chunky

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 Speaker Nicole Malinoff: Dancer, teacher and Sci-Fi fan

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TEDXSalem speak­er Nicole Mali­noff is a pro­fes­sion­al bel­ly­dancer, dance instruc­tor and teach­ing assis­tant from Eugene. 

When she isn’t shim­my­ing to Mid­dle East­ern music or teach­ing dance at Cel­e­bra­tion Bel­ly Dance and Yoga, she loves to cook, eat, explore inter­est­ing places, hike, swim and rest. Her house­hold con­sists of “three humans and two dogs.” 

One ran­dom fact about Nicole is that she is “a film school drop out.” She is also an actress and pro­duc­tion man­ag­er at a small the­ater com­pa­ny (more on that in a minute).

We are excit­ed to wel­come Nicole as one of our many tal­ent­ed speak­ers for TEDxSalem 2020. 

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence? Sit­ting at home watch­ing Scott Dins­more’s How to Find and Do Work You Love. I was unem­ployed and feel­ing real­ly lost. His talk gave me hope and some­thing of a plan. I watched it sev­er­al times after that and made every­one I know watch it.

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? Fash­ion Styling for Peo­ple with Dis­abil­i­ties by Stephanie Thomas. As some­one who ben­e­fits from the priv­i­lege of being able to find clothes any­where, it brought the issue of cloth­ing acces­si­bil­i­ty into my aware­ness, and intro­duced me to the vibrant world of dis­abled beau­ty and fash­ion.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? I feel like the theme kind of encom­pass­es what TED is all about: New, world-chang­ing ideas, per­spec­tives and insights from peo­ple we don’t often get to hear from. In all hon­esty, I’m just so shocked that I’m a part of this that I haven’t real­ly con­sid­ered the theme.

What do you feel most grate­ful for in your life? Hav­ing all of my imme­di­ate needs met so that I have the lux­u­ry to fan­ta­size and dream about what I want for myself and the world.

Do you have any com­mu­ni­ty activ­i­ties? Tell us more about them…I belong to a Sci­ence Fic­tion the­atre com­pa­ny called Trek The­atre. We most­ly do Star Trek episodes, but dream of branch­ing out. We’re entire­ly vol­un­teer and dona­tion run, so our shows are free to the pub­lic. I just became their pro­duc­tion man­ag­er, but I also act.

Make one change in the world? I would have every­one in pow­er take cli­mate change seri­ous­ly, so we could have a shot at avoid­ing this impend­ing mass extinc­tion.

Great­est fear? Heights, bod­i­ly harm, phys­i­cal pain, death (I can’t pick just one)

TEDxSalem VII

TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. 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

Meet TEDxSalem VII Artist-in-Residence

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Pho­to by Ben Mah, from Press Play Salem.

Danielle Baca (Chayse) lives a life steeped in cre­ativ­i­ty, from orga­niz­ing com­mu­ni­ty events, such as the Salem Zom­bie Walk and Salem’s Rocky Hor­ror Pic­ture Show, to reimag­in­ing art on skin in her career as a tat­too artist. She is a wife and moth­er, as well as a zookeep­er of two cats, a dog, a lizard, a 20-year-old tor­tious name Mar­la and 45 house plants. A ded­i­cat­ed com­mu­ni­ty advo­cate, you will often find Danielle sup­port­ing local activ­i­ties, from vol­un­teer­ing behind the scenes to shar­ing them with her fam­i­ly. And her con­nec­tion with TEDxSalem is steeped in his­to­ry, too. She’s been active­ly shar­ing her cre­ativ­i­ty with our audi­ence for a num­ber of years, although you may not have always rec­og­nized her. We are proud to intro­duce and excit­ed to wel­come Danielle as our 2020 Artist-In-Res­i­dence. 

woman dressed in white like a bride and wearing white face make up and gloves while holding bouquet of orange/yellow sunflowersWhat was your first TED expe­ri­ence? Dress­ing up as the 8‑foot bride in 2014, while hold­ing bright orange sun­flow­ers, in light of Aman­da Palmer’s TEDtalk “The art of ask­ing.”

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive? Sarah Kay’s “If I should have a daugh­ter” is a beau­ti­ful spo­ken-word piece. It moved the young woman, the moth­er, and sis­ter­ly role mod­el in me, and is a love­ly reminder of my appre­ci­a­tion of poet­ry, and the pow­er has to wake us, move us, or lead our hearts for­ward.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you? It means, to see. To see the path before us, but not with our eyes, but with our minds. To look out and with­in. It means to appre­ci­ate our per­spec­tive, while not being afraid to look at some­thing in a dif­fer­ent light.  

What is one of your favorite child­hood mem­o­ries? Hear­ing my sec­ond-grade teacher play the didgeri­doo. It was strange and mag­i­cal.

What do you feel most grate­ful for in your life? The many oppor­tu­ni­ties I have had to grow, or make my life fuller, and for all the many peo­ple who have helped me along the way.

What is the best gift any­one has ever giv­en to you? My daugh­ter.

Would you rather have a rewind but­ton or a pause but­ton on your life? Pause.

Favorite col­or? Green.

Most embar­rass­ing moment? My first kiss.

Some­thing some­one should know about you? I love puns.

TEDxSalem VII

TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. 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

Become a TEDxSalem Patron

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We can’t do this with­out your sup­port.

TEDxSalem is pro­duced entire­ly by vol­un­teers. No one is paid, includ­ing speak­ers, but we do incur sig­nif­i­cant expens­es. From food and drinks to venue rental, A/V pro­fes­sion­als, mate­ri­als costs, trav­el expens­es and even pay­ment pro­cess­ing fees, run­ning a large-scale event like TEDxSalem requires a sig­nif­i­cant bud­get.

New this year, TEDxSalem is offer­ing three tick­et lev­els: gen­er­al, stu­dent and patron.

While we have offered gen­er­al and stu­dent in the past, after receiv­ing numer­ous requests on how to sup­port our event beyond a gen­er­al tick­et we decid­ed to add a patron tick­et lev­el.

We aim to pro­vide as many peo­ple as pos­si­ble access to our annu­al event so they may join, engage, expe­ri­ence and learn.

A patron tick­et gen­er­ous­ly pro­vides funds to sup­port dis­count­ed tick­ets for local stu­dents to attend TEDxSalem. While we have pro­vid­ed stu­dent tick­ets for a num­ber of years, we have had to lim­it the num­ber avail­able due to fund­ing. The addi­tion of a patron lev­el allows us to expand our stu­dent tick­et offer­ings. Pur­chas­ing a patron tick­et declares that you believe in mak­ing our pro­gram acces­si­ble to every­one.

All of our fund­ing comes from a com­bi­na­tion of our event part­ners, tick­et sales and the sup­port of patrons like you.

TEDxSalem is orga­nized by The Mox­ie Ini­tia­tive, a reg­is­tered 501(c)(3) non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tion. Dona­tions are tax-deductible, to the full extent of the law. Con­sult your tax pro­fes­sion­al for details.

TEDxSalem VII

TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. It takes place 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 4, 2020, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Tick­ets on sale now! 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

Meet the final round of speakers for TEDxSalem VII

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TEDxSalem is proud to announce the final round of speak­ers for TEDxSalem VII “Vision” on Jan­u­ary 4, 2020.

Nina Bali­ga, Co-Founder and CEO of <div>ersity, will dis­cuss build­ing acces­si­bil­i­ty to tech­nol­o­gy for peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties and how it can make our world bet­ter not just through inclu­sion, but by improv­ing prod­ucts and ser­vices for every­one.

Justin Fein­stein, Ph.D., a Clin­i­cal Neu­ropsy­chol­o­gist and direc­tor at the Lau­re­ate Insti­tute for Brain Research Float Clinic & Research Cen­ter and Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Tul­sa, Oxley Col­lege of Health Sci­ences, will share how float­ing (in a sen­so­ry depri­va­tion tank) can desen­si­tize the anx­ious ner­vous sys­tem, includ­ing in patients with PTSD, pan­ic dis­or­der, ago­ra­pho­bia, social pho­bia, and gen­er­al­ized anx­i­ety. 

Hai­ley Hard­cas­tle, a grad­u­ate of Sher­wood High School and fresh­man at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ore­gon who helped with a new piece of leg­is­la­tion that allows Ore­gon stu­dents to take “men­tal health days” off from school (House Bill 2191), will speak to defeat­ing the stig­ma sur­round­ing men­tal health and learn how we can cre­ate a more empa­thet­ic soci­ety.

Mihir Joshi, a 13-year-old stu­dent at South Salem High School, will explore how to pre­dict the change of Marine Pro­tect­ed Areas in the ocean and what you can do to help save the ocean.

Dr. Marisa Zap­a­ta, Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor of Land-Use Plan­ning at Port­land State Uni­ver­si­ty, will address how we can solve home­less­ness by rethink­ing who has a right to hous­ing.

Keep an eye on our web­site as over the next few months we will delve into the sto­ries behind our speak­ers learn­ing more about their “ideas worth spread­ing.”

TEDxSalem VII

TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. It takes place 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 4, 2020, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Tick­ets will go on sale in Octo­ber. (Join our email list to find out about Ear­ly Bird 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

Meet Jacob Espinoza:
TEDxSalem VII Host

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When it comes to orga­niz­ing a TEDx event, find­ing the right host is just as impor­tant as select­ing the speak­ers. 

A guide for the audi­ence as well as an ambas­sador for the event, the host is respon­si­ble for intro­duc­ing each of the speak­ers and giv­ing the audi­ence the per­fect tease of what is about to come, but at the same time, nev­er telling the audi­ence how to feel. They are also in charge of time-keep­ing, trou­bleshoot­ing, announce­ments, con­nec­tions and audi­ence engage­ment.

It’s a big job, and when con­sid­er­ing who to ask for January’s TEDxSalem event, co-cura­tors Bri­an Hart and Car­lee Wright had a cer­tain some­one in mind.

Meet Jacob Espinoza. 

Jacob has a pres­ence: sin­cere, warm and wel­com­ing. A lead­er­ship devel­op­ment con­sul­tant, Jacob facil­i­tates train­ing and coach­ing con­ver­sa­tions, plus hosts a pod­cast. His grand focus is help­ing man­agers become lead­ers who moti­vate and inspire. Oth­er than his time spent get­ting his Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in advertising/journalism at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ore­gon, he has called Salem home for 36 years.

Woman and man sitting on couch as part of a group discussion

Sit down for a cup of cof­fee with the Salem native, and you will find your­self rapt in con­ver­sa­tion with an engaged, insight­ful, atten­tive lis­ten­er. He’s com­pas­sion­ate and moti­vat­ed, which is why it should come as no sur­prise that he has a goal of becom­ing the city’s most sup­port­ive per­son. (He’s cur­rent­ly host­ing the Insta­gram account Salem­Takeover and is the Sep­tem­ber spon­sor at Basil & Board, where you can try the Ore­gon Home­boy piz­za named after a song Jacob wrote. BONUS — 10% of the pur­chase from that piz­za goes to help Fam­i­ly Build­ing Blocks.)

Here’s what we found out about host-to-be Jacob in our last chat:

What was your first TED expe­ri­ence?
My first live TED expe­ri­ence was the first TEDx­Port­land. I loved see­ing all of the pas­sion and new ideas com­ing out of Ore­gon.

Do you have a favorite TED Talk? How has it impact­ed your life or per­spec­tive?
Simon Sinek’s Start With Why was extreme­ly impact­ful on me as a leader. It changed how I approach get­ting buy-in from those I work with. I also think it rep­re­sents the pow­er of TEDx events. They pro­vide a plat­form that gives ideas a chance to catch fire.

What does this year’s theme “Vision” mean to you?
This world needs opti­mism. To me, this year’s theme is all about look­ing into the future and remind­ing our­selves that the nec­es­sary labor will be worth it. 

What is one of your favorite child­hood mem­o­ries?
Watch­ing my dad raise two kids on his own. I did­n’t appre­ci­ate what a chal­lenge that was until I got old­er. It’s amaz­ing look­ing back at all of the sac­ri­fices he made. I’m very for­tu­nate to have some­one like him set an exam­ple for me as I’m now also the father of two boys. 

What song best describes your life?
Aesop Rock’s ”Lot­ta Years” sums up this stage of my life pret­ty well. 

What is the scari­est thing you have ever done for fun?
Noth­ing I’d admit to.

Tell us more about your com­mu­ni­ty activ­i­ties.
I enjoy coach­ing youth sports, lis­ten­ing to local artists, host a pod­cast focused on help­ing boss­es become bet­ter lead­ers and give out a lot of free high fives.

Watch for Jacob on stage as host of TEDxSalem VII on Jan­u­ary 4, 2020, and when you see him in the hall­way, have your high-five ready!

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TEDxSalem VII

Orga­nized by The Mox­ie Ini­tia­tive, TEDxSalem VII is an all-day event fea­tur­ing talks, per­for­mances, refresh­ments, lunch and a swag bag. It takes place 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Jan. 4, 2020, at the Salem Con­ven­tion Cen­ter. Tick­ets will go on sale in Sep­tem­ber. 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.