Talks at Google

A former Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Walker is currently a Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley and the founder & director of the Center for Human Sleep Science. Dr. Walker’s research examines the impact of sleep on human health and disease. In addition, Dr. Walker helped create the recent National Geographic documentary, Sleepless in America, and the PBS NOVA special, Memory Hackers. Most recently, he contributed to the BBC Horizon documentary, Curing Alzheimer’s. His numerous presentations include radio features on the BBC and NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, City Arts & Lectures, Hidden Brain, Science Friday, and Forum: NPR. In this week’s episode, Dr. Walker discusses the importance and impact of sleep. In a time where we struggle to detach ourselves from our daily responsibilities, our recommended amount of sleep suffers. With a lack of rest, our ability to be high-functioning throughout the day is limited. Dr. Walker will highlight how prioritizing your sleep can be the ultimate factor that increases your energy level, productivity, and general wellbeing, and answer the question: What can you do with more sleep? Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video. Moderated by Rebecca Whiting-Holliday.

Tom Vanderbilt is an author who writes about design, technology, science, and culture for Wired, Slate, The New York Times, and many other publications. His book entitled “Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us)" is based on exhaustive research and interviews with driving experts and traffic officials around the globe. The book gets under the hood of the everyday activity of driving to uncover the surprisingly complex web of physical, psychological, and technical factors that explain how traffic works, why we drive the way we do, and what our driving says about us.  Vanderbilt examines the perceptual limits and cognitive underpinnings that make us worse drivers than we think we are. He demonstrates why plans to protect pedestrians from cars often lead to more accidents; how roundabouts, which can feel dangerous and chaotic, actually make roads safer—and reduce traffic in the bargain. He uncovers who is more likely to honk at whom, and why. He explains why traffic jams form, outlines the unintended consequences of our quest for safety, and even identifies the most common mistake drivers make in parking lots. Originally recorded on August 14, 2008. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.  

Brahma Kumari Shivani, also known as BK Shivani, has a widely popular television show called “Awakening With Brahma Kumaris.” The program is meant to help it’s audience with self-transformation, which empowers individuals from all walks of life all over the world. In this episode, BK Shivani discusses the difference between “to be” vs “to do”, and the importance of incorporating daily practices in our lives to maintain our well-being at all times. She provides insight on the art of detaching, yet being connected, and practicing gratitude while forming healthy routines. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video. Moderated by Shiva Chinnasamy.

Janet Mock is an American writer, television host, director, producer and transgender rights activist. Her debut book, the memoir Redefining Realness, debuted on the New York Times bestseller in 2014. The book tells her story of growing up as a trans girl in Hawaii, and celebrates self-actualization and self-love. In addition, she is a contributing editor for Marie Claire, a former staff editor of People magazine's website, and a writer, director, & producer for the acclaimed FX television series Pose. Originally published on March 25th, 2014. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.  

This episode features Dr. Christopher Mason - an associate professor of genomics, physiology, and biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine and the Director of the WorldQuant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction. The Mason laboratory develops and deploys new biochemical and computational methods in functional genomics to elucidate the genetic basis of human disease and physiology.  Inevitably, life on Earth will come to an end, whether by climate disaster, or by cataclysmic war, or when the sun runs out of fuel in a few billion years. To avoid extinction, will we have to find a new home planet, perhaps even a new solar system, to inhabit? In this provocative and fascinating book, Christopher Mason argues that because we are the only species aware that life on Earth has an expiration date, we have a responsibility to act as the shepherd of lifeforms--not only for our species but for all species on which we depend and for those still to come. Mason argues that the same capacity for ingenuity that has enabled us to build rockets and land on other planets can be applied to redesigning biology so that we can sustainably inhabit those planets. And he lays out a 500-year plan for undertaking the massively ambitious project of reengineering human genetics for life in other worlds. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video. Moderated by Matt Bongiovi.

Dr. Eugenia Cheng is Scientist In Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She won tenure in Pure Mathematics at the University of Sheffield, UK, where she is now an Honorary Fellow. Alongside her research in Category Theory and undergraduate teaching her aim is to rid the world of “math phobia”. Eugenia is also math columnist for the Wall Street Journal and a concert pianist. Emotions are powerful. In newspaper headlines and on social media, they have become the primary way of understanding the world. With her new book "The Art of Logic: How to Make Sense in a World that Doesn't", Eugenia has set out to show how mathematical logic can help us see things more clearly - and know when politicians and companies are trying to mislead us. This talk, like the book, is filled with useful real-life examples of logic and illogic at work and an essential guide to decoding modern life. Originally published in August of 2018. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.  

This episode features Sis and Karen Olivo discussing The Next Generation Project, an organization dedicated to distributing resources to Black and Brown Trans folks in need. Through donations and crowdfunding campaigns, The Next Generation Project raises money to provide Trans people with the access to self care and mental health services to nourish their body, mind, and spirit. Through alleviating financial burdens, TNG’s goal is to assist in shaping a future where the next generation of Trans folk will have leaders and elders to guide them. Sis is a  multidisciplinary artist hailing from Houston, Texas. Sis refers to herself as an actress, activist, and sister to the people. With a life’s mission of franchising the disenfranchised and demarginalizing the marginalized, Sis founded The Next Generation Project, an organization dedicated to providing self-care and mental health resources to the Black and Brown trans community.  Karen Olivo is a television, film, and stage actor who most recently played “Satine” in Moulin Rouge, The Musical on Broadway. Olivo is also recognized for her Tony Award winning performance as “Anita” in the acclaimed 2009 Broadway revival of West Side Story, a role for which she also earned Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle, and Astaire Award nominations.  For more information about The Next Generation Project, visit wearetng.org. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video. Moderated by Googler Kwaii Bell.

Lisa Piccirillo is a mathematician specializing in the study of three- and four-dimensional spaces. Her work in four-manifold topology has surprising applications to the study of mathematical knots. Perhaps most notably, Piccirillo proved that the infamous Conway knot is not, quote-unquote, “slice.” For all other small knots, “sliceness” is readily determined, but this particular knot had remained a mystery since English mathematician John Conway presented it in the mid-1900s. After hearing about the problem at a conference, Piccirillo took only a week to formulate a proof, thus solving a 50-year old mystery. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.  

Our relationship with the ocean is undergoing a profound transformation. Just three decades ago, nearly everything we ate from the sea was wild - but rampant overfishing combined with an unprecedented bio-tech revolution has brought us to the point where wild and farmed fish occupy equal parts of a complex and confusing marketplace. We stand at the edge of a cataclysm; the distinct possibility that our children's children will never eat a wild fish that has swum freely in the sea. In Four Fish, award-winning writer and lifelong fisherman Paul Greenberg takes us on a culinary journey, exploring the history of the fish that dominate our menus---salmon, sea bass, cod and tuna-and examining where each species stands at this critical moment in time. He visits Norwegian megafarms that use genetic techniques once pioneered on sheep to grow millions of pounds of salmon a year; he travels to the ancestral river of the Yupik Eskimos to see the only Fair Trade certified fishing company in the world; investigates the way plastics and mercury find their way into seafood; discovers how Mediterranean sea bass went global; challenges people to taste the difference between a farmed and a wild cod; and almost sinks to the bottom of the South Pacific while searching for an alternative to the endangered bluefin tuna. Fish, Greenberg reveals, are the last truly wild food - for now. By examining the forces that get fish to our dinner tables, he shows how we can start to heal the oceans and fight for a world where healthy and sustainable seafood is the rule rather than the exception. Originally published on June 7, 2011, here is Paul Greenberg | Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.  

In this episode, Graham discusses his new book Home Stretch: A Novel about a small-town tragedy that reverberates throughout the lives of those involved and how shame and longing can become a legacy. It is 1987 and a small Irish community is preparing for a wedding. The day before the ceremony, a group of young friends, including the bride and groom, drive out to the beach. There is an accident. Three survive, but three are killed. In Home Stretch, Norton expertly explores the power of stigma and secrecy, and their devastating effect on ordinary lives through generations. Graham Norton is one of UK’s best-loved broadcasters of the acclaimed television show The Graham Norton Show, winner of eight BAFTA awards, a Sunday Times bestseller and winner of An Post Irish Book Award. He is also an award winning author of the novels Holding and A Keeper. Holding was a New York Times bestseller and won Norton the Irish Independent Popular Fiction award at the Bord Gáis Irish Book Awards in 2016. Most recently, he began a weekend show on Virgin Radio and writes a column for The Telegraph. Moderated by Ronan Harris, Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.