This past Saturday, roughly 1,600 Seattleites took over McCaw Hall to listen to 19 speakers explore the theme of “Space Between,” as TEDxRainier hosted its sixth independently organized TED event featuring four UW faculty members and two alumni.
The speakers at TEDxRainier 2015 gave personal accounts of the space between four specific opposites: Despair and hope, thinking and doing, the few and the many, and what is versus what can be.
While it was very broad, Lori Dugdale, the communications leader for TEDxRainier 2015 and communications director for the information school at the UW, said the concept was selected in order for the event to be “topical.”
“From my perspective, I think it’s because there is something for everybody here,” Dugdale said. “Maybe you find two or three things that are exciting.”
Subjects included the effects of narrow-mindedness, the negative connotations associated with smoking marijuana, the beauty of video game music, and “turning s--- into gold.”
Megan Ming Francis, an assistant professor in the department of political science at the UW, took on the subject of racism in America and said education isn’t the “cure all for America’s racial sins.”
The topic of facing difficult moments in life was also explored. Tanmeet Sethi, an adjunct clinical faculty member at the UW School of Medicine, proposed that the response to hardships should be gratitude.
“What I want is to teach people how we run away from suffering and we use gratitude, in a sense, only to remind us what’s good,” Sethi said. “I think that’s beautiful, but what I think is that if we can relate to our pain differently, if we can embrace it, say ‘thank you’ to it, and accept it, then there is actually more space for us to manage it and to actually also have joy alongside with it. We push so hard against pain that I think we push the joy out too.”
Dan Diamond, a clinical assistant professor at the UW School of Medicine, and Rusty Rodriguez, an affiliate associate professor in the department of biology at the UW, as well as alumni Susie Lee and Maura O’Neill, also contributed to TEDxRainier 2015.
Elizabeth Coppinger, the curator and executive director of this year’s event, said that the purpose of TEDxRainier is to inform Seattleites about their community, not only in the technological advancements, but also about the people who are interested in creating an impact.
Reach contributing writer Sarah Anderson at development@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @sanderson794
