Talks at Google

North African fashion designer Nadine Bejou visits Google to discuss her journey as an Arab woman entrepreneur navigating the fashion industry, and how patience, persistence, and a willingness to self-teach has helped her to find her authentic voice. Nadine is a North African fashion designer and entrepreneur based in Seattle, who has built her businesses from the ground up despite the challenges she has faced being a first generation Libyan-American. She runs several successful fashion ventures including IDINA Bride, a luxury bridal shop, and Nadia’s Evening, a fully sustainable prom and eveningwear brand which can be found in over 20 locations in the US and Canada. Her latest project, Soraya, a modest luxury evening label, has already received favorable recognition in the evening luxury space. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.

19 Jul 202244min

Author Kyle Johnson visits Google to discuss his book "Inception and Philosophy" which draws insight from important philosophical minds from Plato to Aristotle, Decartes to Hume, to shed new light on the movie's captivating themes, including the one that everyone talks about: did the top ever fall down (and does it even matter)? In the world of Christopher Nolan's four-time Academy Award-winning movie Inception, people can share one another's dreams and alter their beliefs and thoughts. Inception is a metaphysical heist film that raises more questions than it answers: Can we know what is real? Can you be held morally responsible for what you do in dreams? What is the nature of dreams, and what do they tell us about the boundaries of the "self" and the "other"? Johnson’s book further explores the movie's key questions and themes, including how we can tell if we're dreaming or awake, how to make sense of a paradox, and whether or not dream inception is possible. It also gives new insights into the nature of free will, time, dreams, and the unconscious mind. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.

15 Jul 202244min

Theoretical physicist Dr. Nicole Yunger Halpern visits Google to discuss her book "Quantum Steampunk: The Physics of Yesterday's Tomorrow." Victorian era steam engines and particle physics may seem worlds apart, yet a new branch of science, quantum thermodynamics, re-envisions the scientific underpinnings of the Industrial Revolution through the lens of today's quantum information revolution. Classical thermodynamics, understood as the study of engines, energy, and efficiency, needs reimagining to take advantage of quantum mechanics, the basic framework that explores the nature of reality by peering at minute matter, down to the momentum of a single particle. In her new book, intrepid Harvard-trained physicist Dr. Nicole Yunger Halpern introduces these concepts to the uninitiated with what she calls "quantum steampunk," after the fantastical genre that pairs futuristic technologies with Victorian sensibilities. While readers follow the adventures of a rag-tag steampunk crew on trains, dirigibles, and automobiles, they explore questions such as, "Can quantum physics revolutionize engines?" and "What deeper secrets can quantum information reveal about the trajectory of time?" Yunger Halpern also describes her own adventures in the quantum universe and provides an insider's look at the work of the scientists obsessed with its technological promise. Moving from fundamental physics to cutting-edge experimental applications, "Quantum Steampunk" explores the field's aesthetic, shares its whimsy, and gazes into the potential of a quantum future. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.

12 Jul 202258min

Peter Kohler, founder of The Plastic Tide project, and Dr. Stefan Leutenegger, Lecturer in Robotics at the Imperial College London, visit Google to discuss how the ocean is under siege from an ever-increasing tide of waste, and how technology like machine learning and drones can help us fix the issue. Plastics are threatening not only a vital economic resource worth an estimated $5 trillion a year, but also humanity’s very own life support. Oceanic plastic waste is growing by 8 million metric tonnes a year. If nothing is done, it is estimated that this figure will rise to 80 million metric tonnes a year by 2025. It consists of all sizes of plastics, with larger pieces taking at least 400 years to break down into fragments known as microplastics. These and other tiny pieces of plastic, like microbeads, accumulate into a toxic oceanic soup that recent estimates put at 15 to 50 trillion pieces. Solving this problem is becoming a major priority for scientists. But without further knowledge, it is impossible to identify trends, support legislation, monitor improvement, or develop strategies to reduce plastic pollution if we don’t have evidence of when, where and how the plastics are distributed. That’s why Peter Kohler founded The Plastic Tide initiative in 2015, with the aim of quantifying the problem using drone imagery of beaches in England & beyond. By raising awareness and generating precise data, Kohler is hoping to drive solutions at societal, political, and technological levels. He has already collected a huge database of drone imagery around British beaches, and a prototype algorithm he developed combines a deep-learning based plastic detection scheme in drone images with geo-referenced mapping. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.

8 Jul 202257min

In celebration of Africa Week, Dipo Faloyin discusses his book "Africa Is Not A Country: Breaking Stereotypes of Modern Africa." This portrait of modern Africa pushes back against harmful stereotypes to tell a much more comprehensive story. In this funny and insightful book, Dipo offers a much-needed corrective to the simplistic stereotype of Africa as an arid landscape of famines and safaris, plagued by poverty and strife. He examines each country's colonial heritage, and explores a wide range of subjects, from chronicling urban life in Lagos and the lively West African rivalry over who makes the best Jollof rice, to the story of democracy in seven dictatorships and the dangers of stereotypes in popular culture. "Africa Is Not A Country" brings the story of the continent towards reality, celebrating the energy and fabric of its different cultures and communities in a way that has never been done before. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.

5 Jul 20221h 1min

Physics professor Richard Wolfson discusses his book “Nuclear Choices for the 21st Century,” which explains, clearly and accessibly, the basics of nuclear technology and describes the controversies surrounding its use. The book begins with scientific issues, covering the nature of the atom and its nucleus, nuclear radiation, and nuclear energy. It discusses nuclear power, the operation of nuclear power plants, nuclear accidents, nuclear waste, alternatives to nuclear energy, and considers nuclear weapons: strategies for use and non-use, controlling the spread of these weapons to other countries and terrorist groups, and the prevention of nuclear war. “Nuclear Choices for the Twenty-First Century” offers readers an authoritative and unbiased guide to difficult questions. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.

1 Jul 202259min

Professor Suzanne Simard visits Google to discuss her book "Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest." Simard writes about how trees, living side by side for hundreds of years, have evolved, perceive one another, learn and adapt their behaviors, recognize neighbors, and remember the past. She also illustrates how they have agency about the future, elicit warnings and mount defenses, compete and cooperate with one another with sophistication, and possess other characteristics typically ascribed to human intelligence. Born and raised in the rainforests of British Columbia, Simard writes of her days as a child spent cataloging the forest trees and how she came to love and respect them. As she writes of her scientific quest, she tells of her own journey, making us understand how scientific inquiry exists beyond data and technology - that it is instead about us knowing who we are and our place in the world. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.

28 Jun 20221h

Licensed marriage and family therapist Laura Heck visits Google to give a Talk on Dr. John Gottman’s "Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work." This talk outlines the Seven Principles that every couple can adopt in order to have a harmonious and long lasting relationship. "The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work" has revolutionized the way we understand, repair, and strengthen marriages. This unprecedented study of many couples over a period of years has allowed for the observation of the habits that can make—and break—a marriage. Straightforward yet profound, these principles teach partners new approaches for resolving conflicts, creating new common ground, and achieving greater levels of intimacy. It offers strategies and resources to help couples collaborate more effectively to resolve any problem, whether dealing with issues related to sex, money, religion, work, family, or anything else. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.

24 Jun 20221h 10min