Talks at Google

Shellye Archambeau visits Google to discuss her book “Unapologetically Ambitious: Take Risks, Break Barriers, and Create Success on Your Own Terms.” The book is an empowering leadership guide from one of Silicon Valley's first female African American CEOs that offers a blueprint for how to achieve your personal and professional goals. Shellye Archambeau recounts how she overcame the challenges she faced as a young black woman, wife, and mother, managing her personal and professional responsibilities while climbing the ranks at IBM and subsequently in her roles as CEO. Through the busts and booms of Silicon Valley in the early 2000s, this book details the risks she took and the strategies she used to steer her family, her career, and her company toward success. Shellye is one of high tech's first female African American CEOs and has been featured frequently in Forbes, the New York Times, Business Insider, and more. Formerly an executive at IBM and President of Blockbuster.com, Archambeau was recruited to be the CEO of a then-struggling Silicon Valley startup, now named MetricStream, a recognized global leader in governance, risk, and compliance software solutions. She currently serves as a Fortune 500 board member and holds board seats at Verizon, Nordstrom, Roper Technologies, and Okta.  Visit YouTube.com/TalksAtGoogle to watch the video.

24 Okt 202347min

Morra Aarons-Mele visits Google to discuss her book “The Anxious Achiever: Turn Your Biggest Fears into Your Leadership Superpower.” Anxiety is normal. The way we hide it is not. Although so much has been done to promote diversity and wellness at work, there’s a giant hole in the understanding of how mental health plays into not just our daily grind, but the very trajectory of success. We’re all in desperate need for better models of leadership - especially in a society that tells us that mental health challenges like anxiety and depression are weaknesses. Anxiety is a constant in today’s workplace, and people need tools to manage it. If you do nothing to address it, anxiety can seriously hamper your potential for high performance. However, “The Anxious Achiever” shows that anxiety can be fundamentally helpful to leaders, and with the right tools, you can harness its power to turn stress into strength. Mentally healthy workforces drive return on investment: employers see a $4 return for every dollar invested in employee mental health support. This book will help leaders and teams understand how anxiety shows up for them at work, lead and thrive through uncertainty, and create mentally healthy teams and culture. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.

17 Okt 202347min

Jamie Jones visits Google to discuss the evolution, ecology, and adaptation of the human species. Rationality has taken a hit recently. Recent work in psychology and economics has challenged the notion that the human brain is designed to make rational decisions. However, this observation raises a paradox. By almost any measure, Homo sapiens is a spectacularly successful species. From humble origins approximately two million years ago, humans have grown to a population that exceeds seven billion and have colonized nearly every terrestrial biome. This phenomenal growth suggests that our ancestors made very good decisions. Yet this work from psychology and economics suggests that the decision-making software that our brains run is profoundly flawed — that we are, in a word, irrational. How is it possible that a species apparently so defective in its ability to generate sound decisions can be so incredibly successful? It turns out that the rules for a living organism, anchored in the present and subject to a force of selection which is extremely averse to extinction, are quite different from the rules of abstract, formal rationality. In this Talk, Jones will show how the all-important need to avoid extinction in a world that is at best incompletely known has profound implications for preferences, utility, and rationality. By ignoring the condition of existential uncertainty, the theory of rational decision-making has developed distorted expectations of how an organism working in its own best interest should behave. Originally published in March of 2018. Visit YouTube.com/TalksAtGoogle to watch the video.

13 Okt 20231h 5min

Kristy Hamilton visits Google to discuss her book “Nature's Wild Ideas: How the Natural World is Inspiring Scientific Innovation”. The book is a deep-dive into nature and the many groundbreaking human inventions inspired by the wild.  When astronomers wanted a telescope that could capture X-rays from celestial bodies, they looked to the lobster. When doctors wanted a medication that could stabilize Type II diabetic patients, they found their muse in a lizard. When scientists wanted to drastically reduce emissions in cement manufacturing, they observed how corals construct their skeletons in the sea. This is biomimicry in action: taking inspiration from nature to tackle human challenges. In “Nature’s Wild Ideas”, Kristy Hamilton goes behind the scenes of some of our most unexpected innovations. She traverses frozen waterfalls, treks through cloudy forests, discovers nests in the Mojave desert, scours intertidal zones and takes us to the deepest oceans to introduce us to the animals and plants that have inspired everything from cargo routing systems to non-toxic glues, as well as the men and women who followed that first spark of “I wonder” all the way to its conclusion. While the joy of scientific discovery is front and center, “Nature’s Wild Ideas” is also a love letter to nature—complete with a deep message of conservation: If we are to continue learning from the creatures around us, we must protect their untamed homelands. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.

3 Okt 202350min

Award-winning writer, stand-up comedian and TV and radio presenter Viv Groskop visits Google to discuss her book “Happy High Status: How to Be Effortlessly Confident.” Everyone wants to be able to face challenging situations without feeling daunted, intimidated or stressed. But no-one wants to be labeled over-confident, arrogant or smarmy, or to get caught up in their own hype. So how can you feel authentically confident - without the cringe, and without pretending to be something you're not? “Happy high status” is a new way of thinking about confidence and how you relate to yourself. It's how actors and comedians enhance their presence on stage and screen. It lends strength and energy to your interactions, big and small, and is a way of projecting status, minimizing self-doubt and moving effortlessly through life. Drawing on research, practical tips and lessons from the worlds of comedy, film, television, politics and sport, Viv Groskop offers a masterclass in how you can access this new form of confidence at any time. All, crucially, with no risk of anyone thinking that you are your own biggest fan.  Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.

26 Sep 202358min

Dr. Nathalie Cabrol visits Google to discuss the science and technology of exploring Saturn’s moon, Titan. Titan is the largest moon in the Saturn system. It is 50% larger than the Earth's moon, has an atmosphere, and is presumed to have seas filled with methane and other hydrocarbons. In order for humanity to explore Titan in the future, we need exploration systems that are radically different from those currently used in space. In particular, we need to develop robots that can accumulate knowledge about their environment; understand mission priorities, and make and evaluate observations as events happen on site, not only when receiving commands from Earth. Dr. Nathalie A. Cabrol leads projects in planetary sciences and astrobiology at NASA. She develops science exploration strategies for Mars and Titan, and designs robotic field experiments. She explores lakes in the Andes up to 6,000 meters high, where environmental conditions are analogous to early Mars. Through geologic and diving expeditions, she documents life's adaptation to extreme environments, the effect of rapid climate change on lake ecosystems and habitats, its geobiological signatures, and relevance to planetary exploration. Originally published in June of 2014. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.

22 Sep 20231h 12min

Comedic actor, producer, and writer Rainn Wilson visits Google to discuss his book “Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution.” The book is a deep-dive into the problem-solving benefits that spirituality gives us to create solutions for an increasingly challenging world. The trauma that our species has experienced in recent years is not going away anytime soon. Existing political and economic systems are not enough to bring the change that the world needs. In this book, Rainn Wilson explores the possibility and hope for a spiritual revolution, a “Soul Boom,” to find a healing transformation on both a personal and global level. For Wilson, this is a serious and essential pursuit, but he brings great humor and his own unique perspective to the conversation. He feels that culturally, we’ve discounted spirituality, and we need the wisdom that the great spiritual traditions can provide. Wilson’s approach to spirituality—the non-physical, eternal aspects of ourselves—is relatable and applies to people of all beliefs, even the most skeptical among us. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.

19 Sep 202359min

Dr. Robert Califf visits Google to share his views on the nascent field of technology-enabled healthcare. One of the most prominent and influential physician-scientists in the US, Robert is the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, where he is responsible for protecting public health by assuring the safety and effectiveness of drugs and medical devices. Described as “the most qualified commissioner in the FDA's History”, Dr. Califf is a cardiologist and professor of medicine at Duke University and Stanford University, with more than 1,200 publications in peer-reviewed literature. Originally published in July of 2018 Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.

15 Sep 202355min