Lawrence Lessig visits Google's New York office to discuss his book “Free Culture.”

Lawrence Lessig could be called a cultural environmentalist. One of America’s most original and influential public intellectuals, his focus is the social dimension of creativity, or how creative work builds on the past and how society encourages or inhibits that building with laws and technologies. In his two previous books, CODE and THE FUTURE OF IDEAS, Lessig concentrated on the destruction of much of the original promise of the Internet. In FREE CULTURE, he widens his focus to consider the diminishment of the larger public domain of ideas. In this powerful wake-up call he shows how short-sighted interests blind to the long-term damage they’re inflicting are poisoning the ecosystem that fosters innovation.

All creative works—books, movies, records, software, and so on—are a compromise between what can be imagined and what is possible. For more than two hundred years, laws in America have sought a balance between rewarding creativity and allowing the borrowing from which new creativity springs. The original term of copyright set by the First Congress in 1790 was 14 years, renewable once. Now it is closer to two hundred.

Lessig shows us that while new technologies always lead to new laws, never before have the big cultural monopolists used the fear created by new technologies, specifically the Internet, to shrink the public domain of ideas, even as the same corporations use the same technologies to control more and more what we can and can’t do with culture. As more and more culture becomes digitized, more and more becomes controllable, even as laws are being toughened at the behest of the big media groups. What’s at stake is our freedom—freedom to create, freedom to build, and ultimately, freedom to imagine.

Originally published in March of 2007.

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Everybody look around, there’s reason to rejoice! "The Wiz," the Tony Award®-winning Best Musical that took the world by storm in 1975 is back. Based on L. Frank Baum’s children’s book, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," "The Wiz" returns home to the stage with an all-new adaptation.

This beloved Broadway musical sets Dorothy’s adventures in the Land of Oz to a dazzling, lively mixture of rock, gospel and soul music. Dorothy, a restless Kansas farm girl eager to see the world, is transported by a tornado to a magical world of Munchkins, witches and a yellow brick road. On her way to the Emerald City to meet the Wizard of Oz, who she believes can help her get back home to Kansas, she encounters the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion — friends who help her battle the Wicked Witch of the West and eventually learn that there is “no place like home.”

Director Schele Williams and cast members Nichelle Lewis, Avery Wilson, Phillip Johnson Richardson & Kyle Ramar Freeman make up the panel.

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Fred Kofman visits Google to discuss his book “Conscious Business”.

Consciousness is the main source of organizational greatness. Conscious business means finding your passion and expressing your essential values through your work. A conscious business seeks to promote the intelligent pursuit of happiness in all its stakeholders. It produces sustainable, exceptional performance through the solidarity of its community and the dignity of each member.

It also fosters personal fulfillment in the individuals, mutual respect in the community, and success in the organization. This book is the definitive resource for achieving what really matters in the workplace and beyond.

Fred Kofman is an executive coach and advisor on leadership and culture. He is founder and president of the Conscious Business Center. In 2018, Fred accepted a position as Vice President at Google in charge of advising the CEO's office on leadership and culture. Previously, he was Vice President of executive development at LinkedIn.

Originally published in March of 2007.

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Andy Cohen visits Google to discuss his book “Design for a Radically Changing World.” The book brings to light the impact of design on our everyday lives and offers innovative ways that design can help address some of the world’s most pressing issues and urgent crises. From rethinking the future of work and the integration of live/work/play in our daily lives, to addressing climate change and revitalizing our urban cores, design can bring people together, elevate the human experience, and provide hope for the future.

Reflecting on decades of design experience and offering unique case studies, Andy’s book uncovers the design solutions impacting our lives and offers actionable advice for business leaders, designers, and all people to embrace the power of design to create a better world for all.

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Mindfulness-based psychotherapy is the most popular new treatment approach in the last decade—and for good reason. Studies demonstrate that mindfulness practices can be effective tools to help resolve anxiety, depression, addictive habits, stress-related medical disorders, and even interpersonal conflict. Mindfulness is not, however, a one-size-fits-all remedy. Practices must be tailored to particular problems. This talk will outline how mindfulness practices work to alleviate psychological distress and how anyone can creatively adapt them to work with the difficulty of the moment.

Dr. Ronald Siegel is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, where he has taught for over 30 years. He is a long time student of mindfulness meditation and serves on the Board of Directors and faculty of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. He teaches internationally about mindfulness and its application to psychotherapy and other fields and has worked for many years in community mental health with inner city families.

Originally published in August of 2015.

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New York Times Bestselling author Amanda Montell visits Google to discuss her book “The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality.”

“Magical thinking” can be broadly defined as the belief that one’s internal thoughts can affect unrelated events in the external world - think of the conviction that one can manifest their way out of poverty, stave off cancer with positive vibes, or thwart the apocalypse by learning to can their own peaches. In all its forms, magical thinking works in service of restoring agency amid chaos, but Montell argues that in the modern information age, our brain’s coping mechanisms have been overloaded, and our irrationality turned up to eleven.

Montell’s book delves into a cornucopia of the cognitive biases that run rampant in our brains, from how the “halo effect” cultivates the worship or hatred of larger-than-life celebrities, to how the “sunk cost fallacy” can keep us in detrimental relationships long after we’ve realized they’re not serving us. As she illuminates these concepts with her signature brilliance and wit, Montell’s prevailing message is one of hope, empathy, and ultimately forgiveness for our anxiety-addled human selves. If you have all but lost faith in our ability to reason, Montell aims to make some sense of the senseless.

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Chef Melissa King is one of the most exciting talents in America’s culinary scene — with a unique cooking style that combines the Bay Area’s best ingredients with modern techniques and Asian flavors. King visits Google to share her thoughts on current events, the importance of her visibility as a queer Asian woman in the culinary industry, and meals to make.

Chef King recently won Bravo’s Top Chef All Stars: Los Angeles Season 17 and was also the winner of All Star’s Fan Favorite. She previously placed as a finalist on Top Chef: Boston Season 12. As a proud Asian-American, queer woman, King has a passion for supporting the community — working with non-profit organizations and LGBTQ+ charities such as The Human Rights Campaign, The Trevor Project, Black Visions Collective, Asian Americans For Equality and more. She was honored as a Celebrity Grand Marshal for San Francisco Pride and has modeled for Levi's Strauss Co. in a global campaign advocating for the LGBTQ+ community.

Originally published in June of 2020.

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Triple board certified physician Dr. Romie Mushtaq visits Google to discuss her bestselling book, “The Busy Brain Cure: The Eight-Week Plan to Find Focus, Tame Anxiety, and Sleep Again.” The book sheds light on the science of chronic stress and neuroinflammation for high-performing individuals who need a lasting cure for their busy brain, and is a culmination of 20-plus years of clinical research as a brain doctor and experience in corporate wellness as a Chief Wellness Officer.

Dr. Romie is a triple board-certified physician, award-winning speaker, and nationally recognized wellness expert. She brings together over 2 decades of leadership in neurology, integrative medicine, and mindfulness and is on a mission to transform mental health and wellness in the workplace. Dr. Romie speaks and consults with Fortune 500 leaders, professional athletes, and global associations on performance, leadership, and mental health for individuals and teams. She entered neurology at a time when less than 5% of brain doctors were women and faced both career burnout and life-saving surgery. She spent the last decade researching the negative impact of stress and burnout on workplace cultures, team performance, and finding ways to help high-performing leaders.

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