Talks at Google

Professor Adrienne Mayor of Stanford visits Google to discuss her book, "The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World". This book is the first comprehensive account of warrior women in myth and history across the ancient world, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Great Wall of China.  Amazons―fierce warrior women dwelling on the fringes of the known world―were the mythic archenemies of the ancient Greeks. Heracles and Achilles displayed their valor in duels with Amazon queens, and the Athenians reveled in their victory over a powerful Amazon army. In historical times, Cyrus of Persia, Alexander the Great, and the Roman general Pompey tangled with Amazons. But just who were these bold barbarian archers on horseback who gloried in fighting, hunting, and sexual freedom? Were Amazons real? Mayor tells how amazing new archaeological discoveries of battle-scarred female skeletons buried with their weapons prove that women warriors were not merely figments of the Greek imagination. Combining classical myth and art, nomad traditions, and scientific archaeology, she reveals intimate, surprising details and original insights about the lives and legends of the women known as Amazons. The Greeks were not the only people enchanted by Amazons―Mayor shows that warlike women of nomadic cultures inspired exciting tales in ancient Egypt, Persia, India, Central Asia, and China. Driven by a detective's curiosity, Mayor unearths long-buried evidence and sifts fact from fiction to show how flesh-and-blood women of the Eurasian steppes were mythologized as Amazons, the equals of men.  Originally published in December of 2014. Visit http://youtube.com/TalksAtGoogle/ [https://youtu.be/378zVUpeopY?si=tmwHgHTNhPzeKP_7] to watch the video.

Ecological engineer Dr. Nadina Galle visits Google to discuss her book “The Nature of our Cities: Harnessing the Power of the Natural World to Survive a Changing Planet.” The book describes her journey to show how scientists and citizens from around the world are harnessing emerging technologies to unlock the power of the natural world to save their cities, a phenomenon Dr. Nadina calls the “Internet of Nature.” Traveling the globe, Nadina examines how urban nature points the way toward a more sustainable future. Dr. Nadina Galle is a Dutch-Canadian ecological engineer, technologist, and podcast host, at the forefront of the growing movement to fuse nature and technology for urban resilience, and celebrated for her pioneering work on what she calls the 'Internet of Nature.' Her contributions have been showcased in documentaries by BBC Earth and featured in publications such as National Geographic and Newsweek. She was honored as one of Forbes’ “30 under 30” and recently designated a 2024 National Geographic Explorer. Visit http://youtube.com/TalksAtGoogle/ [https://youtu.be/gF4vKaOqVj4] to watch the video.

Professor Alexander Meyer visits Google to share the ways ancient Greeks and Romans kept time and their reasons for doing so. He discusses various time-keeping artifacts and works of literature to show that the manner in which time was kept and tracked reflected and continues to reflect much broader cultural issues, including imperialism, commercialism, religion, and law. This Talk analyzes ancient Greek and Roman calendrical systems, highlighting their diverse cultural expression and the challenges they faced in reconciling different calendars, with a focus on the calendar reforms made by Julius Caesar and Emperor Augustus. For example, in 46 BCE Julius Caesar implemented calendar reforms to correct the discrepancies caused by the lunar calendar's inaccuracy, and Augustus further refined the calendar system to ensure that leap years occurred every four years, as intended. Visit http://youtube.com/TalksAtGoogle/ [https://youtu.be/9yDK9m_CaxI?si=VW3uIUdMszUSb0ZD] to watch the video.

Master Certified life coach Kara Loewentheil visits Google to discuss her book “Take Back Your Brain: How A Sexist Society Gets in Your Head – and How to Get It Out,” Her book weaves cognitive psychology and feminist theory with practical thought-work exercises to awaken new possibilities for all. Kara Lowentheil is a founder of The School of New Feminist Thought, and host of the internationally top-ranked podcast “UnF*ck Your Brain: Feminist Self-Help for Everyone”, which has 50+ million downloads. A graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School, Kara transitioned from being an Ivy League lawyer to a life coach. Eight years after she stepped down as director of a think tank at Columbia Law School, she created multiple-seven-figure businesses, taught millions of women how to identify the ways that sexist socialization impacts their brains, and helped women all over the world rewire their thought patterns to liberate themselves from the inside out. Visit http://youtube.com/TalksAtGoogle/ [https://youtu.be/s7Mjx8qFqSY] to watch the video.

Author Robert Frank visits Google to discuss his book "The Economic Naturalist: In Search of Explanations for Everyday Enigmas". Why do the keypads on drive-up cash machines have Braille dots? Why are round-trip fares from Orlando to Kansas City higher than those from Kansas City to Orlando? For decades, Robert Frank has been asking his economics students to pose and answer questions like these as a way of learning how economic principles operate in the real world - which they do everywhere, all the time. Once you learn to think like an economist, all kinds of puzzling observations start to make sense. Drive-up ATM keypads have Braille dots because it's cheaper to make the same machine for both drive-up and walk-up locations. Travelers from Kansas City to Orlando pay less because they are usually price-sensitive tourists with many choices of destination, whereas travelers originating from Orlando typically choose Kansas City for specific family or business reasons. The Economic Naturalist employs basic economic principles to answer scores of intriguing questions from everyday life, and along the way, introduces key ideas such as the cost-benefit principle, the "no cash on the table" principle, and the law of one price. This is as delightful and painless a way to learn fundamental economics as there is! Visit http://youtube.com/TalksAtGoogle/ [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QalNVxeIKEE] to watch the video.