Reader Report: Senior Ted group talks big issues at Susi Q
The recently formed TED group at the Susi Q Senior Center has already attracted many enthusiastic participants.
The gatherings are held to view TED Talks, informative, inspiring Internet videos on a multitude of subjects. The talks are about 18 minutes long and presented by educated individuals who know what they are talking about. TED stands for technology, entertainment, design.
Members of the group suggest topics from the huge TED Talks selection and email them to the facilitator, Al Gumb. Gumb then emails back five choices, which are voted on for the next session. Usually two are chosen for viewing and discussion by the members.
The TED group emerged out of another popular Susi Q group, the Science Salon, in which members discuss topics from Scientific American.
Gumb, a former systems engineer, financial planner and a Science Salon member, got the idea of having a similar kind of group but one with a wider scope than that of the Science Salon. He and Jeanine Edmond, Susi Q program director, developed the idea of a TED group, and it began in June.
Discussions can be quite lively, with many points of view reflecting the variety of interests among knowledgeable participants, many of them now retired: an assistant district attorney; a psychoanalyst; teachers; engineers; a space expert; a microbiologist; physicians; a psychology professor; and an astrophysicist. But it’s not necessary to have an impressive background to join. Everybody is welcome.
Some topics already viewed include consciousness; how economic inequality harms societies; the rise of the new global super-rich; the effect schools have on creativity; how great leaders inspire action; the power of vulnerability; Salman Khan on the use of video to reinvent education; and the world without work.
If you’d like to engage interesting people and expand your horizons, just show up at 10 a.m. on the first and third Tuesday of the month in the Laguna Room of the Susi Q, 380 Third St., Laguna Beach.