Welcome!
The TED Talk Virtual "Book" Club is an opportunity to gather with others in our community and use short TED Talk videos as a catalyst for conversation and personal growth. All events are open to faculty, staff, students, and community members.
Each week we watch a TED Talk on a theme related to inclusion, then gather together to talk about the arguments, ideas, and questions raised in the video.
We hope you'll join us as we gather to talk about big ideas and think about how these ideas impact us and our community. Students can also earn forum credit for participating in this event.
Please join our mailing list and feel free to email us if you have questions or suggestions!
How it works:
- Each week we'll send out an email with a specific TED Talk and Zoom link (sign up below).
- Watch the video(s) on your own (most are less than 20 minutes long).
- Join the rest of the Virtual "Book" Club via Zoom.
- At the end of each meeting, we'll vote on the next week's selection.
- Sign up for our email or come back to this page to access links to this week's Talk and Zoom meeting in the "Up Next" section (below, updated Wednesdays).
Sign up for our weekly email which includes the next scheduled TED Talk, the meeting date and time, the Zoom link, guiding questions, and general series updates. Occasionally, we may also include suggestions for further viewing or reading related to Talks in the series.
Current Theme: Indigenous Indentities and Concerns
With gratitude and humility, we acknowledge that we are learning, speaking and gathering on the ancestral homelands of the Mohican people, who are the Indigenous peoples of this land. Despite tremendous hardship in being forced from here, today their community resides in Wisconsin and is known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. We pay honor and respect to their ancestors past and present as we commit to building a more inclusive and equitable space for all.
At each meeting we use several guiding questions to help focus our discussion. The guiding questions for this theme are:
- In what ways do our educational institutions and our own practices as educators today continue to be influenced by our country's colonializing past?
- How can building a deeper understanding of the history of native nations and peoples help us create a culture of inclusion and belonging at BCC?
- In what ways are we complicit in the historical genocide and ongoing erasure of native peoples, and how can we increase awareness and move toward active resistance?
You do not need to already be an expert! We encourage all interested parties to attend, regardless of your background knowledge in this subject.
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Up Next in the TED Talk "Book" Club Series
We've wrapped up our meetings for this year. Thanks to everyone who particpated, and stay tuned for what's coming up next!
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Future Events in the TED Talk "Book" Club Series
What should focus on when we return? Click the link below to share a suggestion!
Suggest another TED Talk or a future theme for consideration
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Past Events in the Series
May 2, 2022: In The Beginning Was Water And Sky – short film directed by Ryan Ward (2017, 13m44s) and Tai Simpson – "The intergenerational wisdom woven into Indigenous stories" (2019, 17m30s)
Apr. 25, 2022: Aaron Huey – "America's native prisoners of war" (2010, 15m11s)
Apr. 11, 2022: "How the US stole thousands of Native American children" from the Vox series, Missing Chapter, produced by Ranjani Chakraborty (2019, 13m41s)
Apr. 4, 2022: Lindsay Morcom – "A history of Indigenous languages – and how to revitalize them" (2019, 13m21s)
Mar. 21, 2022: Sean Sherman – "Why aren't there more Native American restaurants?" (2020, 17m59s)
Mar. 7, 2022: Without a Whisper – short film directed by Katsitsionni Fox (2020, 26m48s)
Feb. 28, 2022: Gregg Deal – "Indigenous In Plain Sight" (2018, 13m21s)
Feb. 14, 2022: Mercedes Peters – "Lessons in White Privilege from a Light-Skinned L'nu" (2019, 13m55s)
Feb. 7, 2022: Tara Houska – "The Standing Rock resistance and our fight for Indigenous rights" (2017, 10m55s) and "A Conversation With Native Americans on Race" from the New York Times "Conversation on Race" series, directed by Michèle Stephenson and Brian Young (6m23s)
Indigenous Identities and Concerns Theme: began February 7, 2022
Jan. 31, 2022: Archie Crowley – "Language around gender identity evolves (and always has)" (2020, 13m18s)
Dec. 13, 2021: Morgana Bailey – "The danger of hiding who you are" (2014, 10m14s)
Dec. 6, 2021: Yoruba Richen – "What the gay rights movement learned from the civil rights movement" (2014, 17m29s)
Nov. 29, 2021: LZ Granderson – "The myth of the gay agenda" (2012, 17m35s)
Nov. 22, 2021: Jenni Chang and Lisa Dazols – "The is what LGBT life is like around the world" (2015, 11m42s)
Nov. 15, 2021: Crystal Rasmussen – "A queer journey from shame to self-love" (2021, 10m22s)
Nov. 8, 2021: LB Hannahs – "What it's like to be a transgender dad" (2017, 13m35s)
Nov. 1, 2021: Tiq Milan and Kim Katrin Milan – "A queer vision of love and marriage" (2016, 16m28s)
Oct. 25, 2021: Karissa Sanbonmatsu – "The biology of gender, from DNA to the brain" (2018, 13m2s)
Oct. 18, 2021: iO Tillet Wright – "Fifty shades of gay" (2012, 18m)
Oct. 4, 2021: D-L Stewart – "Scenes from a Black trans life" (2019, 15m10s) and Katlego Kolanyane-Kesupile – "How I'm bringing queer pride to my rural village" (2017, 5m40s)
Sept. 27, 2021: France Villarta – "The gender-fluid history of the Philippines" (2020, 10m43s) and Geena Rocero – "Why I must come out" (2014, 9m46s)
May 10, 2021: Lindsay Amer – "Why kids need to learn about gender and sexuality" (2019) and Ivan Coyote – "Why we need gender neutral bathrooms" (2015)
May 3, 2021: Panti Bliss – "The necessity of normalizing queer love" (2014)
Apr. 26, 2021: Kelly Lepley – "Why being your true self is the most selfless act" (2015)
Apr. 12, 2021: Justin Baldoni – "Why I'm done trying to be 'man enough'" (2017)
Apr. 5, 2021: Jo Michael Rezes – "A playful exploration of gender performance" (2020)
Mar. 29, 2021: Coby Everton – "The importance of queer allyship in the classroom" (2019)
Mar. 22 and 29, 2021: Samy Nour Younes – "A short history of trans people's long fight for equality" (2018)
Mar. 22 and 29, 2021: Jackson Bird – "How to talk (and listen) to transgender people" (2017)
Mar. 22 and 29, 2021: Lee Mokobe – "A powerful poem about what it feels like to be transgender" (2015)
Gender Identity and Expression Theme: Mar. 22, 2021 - Jan. 31, 2022
Mar. 8, 2021: Taiye Selasi – "Don't ask where I'm from, ask where I'm a local" (2014)
Mar. 1, 2021: Baratunde Thurston – "How to deconstruct racism, one headline at a time" (2019)
Feb. 22, 2021: Chloé Valdary – "How love can help repair social inequality" (2020)
Feb. 1, 2021: Bryan Stevenson – "We need to talk about an injustice" (2012)
Dec. 14, 2020: Brittany Cooper – "The racial politics of time" (2016)
Dec. 7, 2020: Dorothy Roberts – "The problem of race-based medicine" (2015)
Nov. 30, 2020: Rich Benjamin – "My road trip through the whitest towns in America" (2015)
Nov. 23, 2020: Kimberlé Crenshaw – "The urgency of intersectionality" (2016)
Nov. 16, 2020: Ibram X. Kendi – "The difference between being 'not racist' and anti-racist" (2020)
Nov. 9, 2020: Vernā Myers – "How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them" (2014)
Nov. 2, 2020: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – "The danger of a single story" (2009)
Race and Identity Theme: Nov. 2, 2020 - Mar. 8, 2021