Talks at Google

Leymah Gbowee was only 17 when the Second Liberian Civil War erupted.  Years of fighting destroyed her country—and her hopes and dreams. As a young mother trapped in a nightmare of domestic abuse, she found the courage to turn her bitterness into action, realizing that it is women who suffer most during conflicts—and that the power of women working together can create an unstoppable force. Working...

Jim Salzman and Michael Heller discuss their book "Mine!: How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives. " When is it okay to recline your airplane seat? Do we actually own our smartphones, or are we just leasing them? What do you really own when you click the "buy now" button?  And how is South Dakota making you less wealthy? In the spirited style of Freakonomics and Tipping Point , Jim Sal...

Farmer, author, and activist Joel Salatin discusses his book, "Folks, This Ain't Normal," as well as sustainable farming, food policy, and solutions to America's food woes. Visit YouTube.com/TalksatGoogle to watch the video.  

Nigel Ng discusses how he has overcome adversity and all odds against him to be successful, and gain a tremendous fanbase over years of hard work. Nigel Ng is a Malaysian stand up comedian and content creator. He started his career in the Chicago comedy clubs and is now based in London. In 2020, he went viral from his portrayal of Uncle Roger, a middle-aged Asian man reviewing an egg fried rice vi...

The uncut interview of Stephen Colbert's visit to Google's New York office. You can find Stephen's book on Google Play here: http://goo.gl/Jyujo . America Again: Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't is more of a coffee-table book, with large color pictures, and chapter photos that require the use of included 3-D glasses. It falls somewhere between I Am America and the Daily Show faux-textboo...

Simu Liu discusses his career, Asian empowerment and community. Actor, author and advocate Simu Liu will make his debut as the title character in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and starring alongside Awkwafina, Tony Leung, and Michelle Yeoh, Liu makes history as the star of the first Asian-fronted movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He also starred...

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, Sle...

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 o...

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...

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...

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 o...

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. Emot...

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 alleviatin...

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...

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 tha...

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. T...

After a successful career at Microsoft, Patrick Awuah looked back to his native Ghana and decided that the ills of the country could only by solved by educating the next generation of business and government leaders, providing them with training in critical thinking and ethics that the current generation lacked. To put his plan into action, he founded Ashesi University in Accra, West Africa's firs...

This episode features Dr. Donna Christensen & Dr. Lauren Smith who discuss the significance of Minority Health Month from its inauguration, to the work that is being done for BIPOC communities today. The Honorable Donna M. Christensen retired from the US House of Representatives in 2015 after serving nine terms over 18 years. She is the first female physician to serve as a Member in the history of...

Ice has been around for billions of years but it has taken less than three centuries for human growth and industry to bring it to the point of extinction. Henry Pollack, professor of geophysics at the University of Michigan for more than forty years and one of the world's leading experts on the temperature of the Earth, argues that ice is natures best thermometer and perhaps its most sensitive and...

Dr. Cassandra Coburn joins us to discuss her book Enough: How Your Food Choices Will Save the Planet. Our food production systems are the single biggest cause of environmental change, while diseases linked to our eating habits are at epidemic levels and increasing. Enough uses the latest scientific research to address the vital question: can we provide a growing population with a healthy diet from...

Named as one of TIME's Most Influential People (2018), Peggy Whitson has an incredible list of record-breaking accomplishments to her name. She is the first woman to command the International Space Station, twice(!) in 2008 & 2013, the first female and first non-military Chief Astronaut, she has performed 10 spacewalks, the most of any female astronaut, and at 665 days, Dr. Whitson has spent more...

In honor of International Woman's Day, Therese Caouette and Paula Bock from the nonprofit PARTNERS ASIA share the realities of human trafficking and examine proven methodologies to combat modern-day slavery. By connecting local organizations to global funding, PARTNERS ASIA is able to forge relationships with local leaders who work to serve the needs of invisible populations, such as refugees, mig...

Chef Marcus Samuelsson discusses his book The Rise: Black Cooks and the Soul of American Food: A Cookbook . In The Rise, Chef Marcus gathers together an unforgettable feast of food, culture, and history to highlight the diverse deliciousness of Black cooking today. Driven by a desire to fight against bias, reclaim Black culinary traditions, and energize a new generation of cooks, Marcus shares his...

Daphne Miller talks about her new book Farmacology: What Innovative Family Farming Can Teach Us About Health and Healing. Family physician Daphne Miller long suspected that farming and medicine were intimately linked. Increasingly disillusioned by mainstream medicine's mechanistic approach to healing and fascinated by the farming revolution that is changing the way we think about our relationship...

Chess Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi discusses his career and experience playing chess at the highest level. Vidit Gujrathi started playing chess at the age of 7, and has since won 4 National Youth Medals, 4 Asian Youth Silver Medals, and 3 medals in World Youth Championships. In 2006, he achieved the title of International Master after finishing second in the National Chess Championship 2008. He atta...