There's a mistaken belief in today's working world that leaders need to be serious all the time to be taken seriously. The research tells a different story. Based on the course they teach at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, behavioral scientist Jennifer Aaker and corporate strategist Naomi Bagdonas delve into the surprising power of humor: why it's a secret weapon to build bonds, power, creativity and resilience -- and how we can all have more of it.
Comics creator Sam Hester is part of a growing movement within health care: graphic medicine. In short, literally drawing attention to a patient's needs and goals with pictures to foster better and more accessible caretaking. Hester shares how illustrating small details of her mother's medical story as she struggled with mysterious symptoms alongside her Parkinson's and dementia led to more empathy, understanding, communication and peace of mind.
Bjørn Otto Sverdrup leads the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OCGI), which gathers the CEOs of twelve of the world's largest oil and gas companies around an ambitious goal: to get one of the leading contributors to climate change to drastically lower their own carbon emissions. He describes a possible path for the industry to pivot to net-zero operations, reimagining the role it could play in helping decarbonize the economy and igniting changes in how we consume energy. (Followed by a Q&A with Countdown cofounder Lindsay Levin)
Biochar is a kind of charcoal that removes CO2 from the atmosphere, helping yield healthy crops and even producing abundant renewable energy in the form of electricity as it's made. This exciting climate change fighter is ready for scaling now. Entrepreneur Axel Reinaud outlines three ways to make this material more accessible to farmers -- so that our food system, energy grid and the climate can all reap the benefits.
The freedom journey doesn't end when someone is released from prison. In many ways, it begins. Attorney and entrepreneur Brittany K. Barnett fights to free people from prison and champions restoring and nurturing the creative ingenuity of justice-impacted people. She shares stories of the innovation languishing in America's prisons -- and a vision for investing in people whose unjust sentences interrupted their dreams to bring great things to the world.
Cities designed like families can last for generations. Skeptical? Look to master architect Liu Thai Ker, who transformed Singapore into a modern marvel with his unique approach to sustainable urban design. Liu shares creative wisdom and perspective on how marrying a humanist heart, a scientific mind and an artistic eye creates a resilient marriage of form and function. A talk that both humbles and inspires.
Businesses need to stop cutting labor costs and start investing in people, says social impact investor Warren Valdmanis. In this perspective-shifting talk, he breaks down the essential ingredients of a "good" job -- which is more than just the size of a paycheck -- and shares why they're key to building great companies.
Most scientific literature is written only in English, creating an alarming knowledge gap for the 75 percent of the world who don't speak it. That's a big problem for climate change -- because it's hard to take action on something you don't understand. With Climate Cardinals, an international youth-led nonprofit that's working to make the climate movement more accessible, activist and social entrepreneur Sophia Kianni is furthering the global transfer of knowledge by translating and sourcing crucial climate resources into more than 100 languages. A barrier-breaking talk about the collective effort we'll need to protect the future of our planet.
