TED Walks! A TED Discussion and (Optional) Walking Group

Join us for a monthly TED talk viewing and discussion program! We’ll watch a TED talk for 20 minutes, discuss for 20 minutes indoors, and then, weather permitting, take a 30 minute *optional* walk to continue the discussion! Come for all or some of this program. If you just want to walk, please contact Courtney (508-358-2311) and then join us about 10:40.

For February we’ll view and discuss Dr. Steven Pinker’s 2018 talk – Is the World Getting Better or Worse? A Look at the Numbers 

Was 2017 really the “worst year ever,” as some would have us believe? In his analysis of recent data on homicide, war, poverty, pollution and more, psychologist Steven Pinker finds that we’re doing better now in every one of them when compared with 30 years ago. But progress isn’t inevitable, and it doesn’t mean everything gets better for everyone all the time, Pinker says. Instead, progress is problem-solving, and we should look at things like climate change and nuclear war as problems to be solved, not apocalypses in waiting. “We will never have a perfect world, and it would be dangerous to seek one,” he says. “But there’s no limit to the betterments we can attain if we continue to apply knowledge to enhance human flourishing.”