Feed Your Brain Before our Upcoming Forum!

Are you feeling unprepared to be in the company of so many brainiacs at our February 25 Forum, "The Glorious, Mysterious Brain"? We've compiled some related articles so you can read up on the latest research beforehand.

If you want more, you can read one of our panelists' popular books - whether it's Steven Pinker's The Blank Slate or The Language Instinct;


Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation or The Way I See It;








or Paul Bloom's How Pleasure Works














Or, check out a video clip of any of the panelists:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Steven Pinker
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

Watch it on Academic Earth

Paul Bloom Joins CT Forum Panel on The Brain

We are excited to announce that

Paul Bloom
Cognitive Scientist and Popular Yale Professor,
Author of How Pleasure Works

has joined our panel for The Glorious, Mysterious Brain on Friday, February 25, 2011.

He will be joined by Temple Grandin, renowned autism advocate and inspiration to millions, and Steven Pinker, author of The Blank Slate and How the Mind Works.

Paul Bloom is a distinguished cognitive scientist and award-winning author, most recently of the book, How Pleasure Works: The new science of why we like what we like and the May 2010 article in The New York Times Magazine, “The Moral Life of Babies.”

A popular professor of psychology and cognitive science at Yale University, Bloom’s research is wide ranging, including the study of morality, happiness, language, and pleasure.

In How Pleasure Works, Bloom argues that there are deep and surprising commonalities in the pleasures that we get from art, food, sex, stories, and consumer products.  His study of everyday morality and the factors that underlie moral conflict have addressed philosophical questions like, Where do our gut feelings about issues such as abortion, torture, and gay marriage come form? Do liberals think differently than conservatives? How much does religion matter?

Bloom believes that we can learn much about morality through the study of babies, chimpanzees, and psychopaths. In his article, “The Moral Life of Babies,” Bloom asserts that babies possess certain moral foundations, including the capacity and willingness to judge the actions of others, some sense of justice, and gut responses to altruism and nastiness.

In addition to How Pleasure Works, Bloom is the author of Descartes’ Baby: How the science of child development explains what makes us human. He has written more than 100 scientific articles in journals such as Nature and Science, and his popular writing has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, The American Scientist, Slate, and The Atlantic. His article in The Atlantic, “Is God an Accident?” was included in The Best American Science Writing 2006.

Continuing the Education Conversation: CT Business Leaders Gather at Early Childhood Summit

As promised, The Connecticut Forum presented the first of several education summits last week to continue the conversation about education started at our November Forum, Our Great Education Challenge.

A partnership between The Connecticut Forum and The CBIA Education Foundation, the summit, "Why Business Should Care About Early Childhood Education," focused on the importance of preschool education to our state's economic competitiveness and how the business community can get involved.

Nearly 100 CT business executives and educators were in attendance to hear featured presentations from:
- Elaine Weiss, Project Manager, PEW Center on the States, Partnership for America's Economic Success
- Rob Grunewald, Associate Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis
- Rob Dugger, Managing Partner, Hanover Investment Group and advisory board chair of The Partnership for America's Economic Success.

Richard Sugarman, founding president of The Connecticut Forum, was the moderator.

Robert Dugger, managing partner of Hanover Investment Group,
presenting at the summit.
Photo by Christine Stuart, CT News Junkie

After their presentations, the panelists were joined for discussion and a Q&A session by local panelists, including:
- Karen Foley-Schain, Executive Director, Children's Trust Fund
- David Nee, Executive Director, William Graustein Memorial Fund
- Linda Kelly, President, Hartford Foundation for Public Giving

Linda McMahon with Bryan Flint.
Photo by Christine Stuart, CT News Junkie

We hope that this summit is the first of many to raise awareness and public will for education reform.

You can read further coverage of the event by CT News Junkie and CBIA.

Jon Schnur Joins Panel for CT Forum on Education

We are thrilled to share that
JON SCHNUR
Education Reform Pioneer &
CEO, New Leaders for New Schools
will be a panelist at Our Great Education Challenge on Thursday, November 11, 2010.  He will join fellow panelists Davis Guggenheim, director of the highly anticipated film Waiting for "Superman" and Joel Klein, chancellor of New York City schools.

Jon Schnur is CEO and co-founder of New Leaders for New Schools (NLNS), the largest organization in the nation for recruiting and training urban principals. He has served as an advisor to Barack Obama's Presidential campaign, a member of the Presidential Transition Team, and a senior policy advisor to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Schnur has developed national education policies from preschool to higher education - with special focus on teacher and educator quality, reforming urban school systems, charter schools, after-school programs, and early learning and preschools. He believes that quality education for all children is achievable, essential, and urgently needed to create a better future for our nation and world.

Schnur's national non-profit organization, NLNS, recruits and trains about ten percent of the new principals needed for high poverty, low-income schools in the United States. In September 2009, NLNS became the first and only non-profit-led partnership with a public school system to win Harvard University's Innovations in Government Award from the ASH Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation. NLNS has one mission: driving high levels of learning and achievement for every student by attracting and preparing outstanding leaders and supporting the performance of the urban public schools they lead at scale.

Before co-founding NLNS, Schnur served as Special Assistant to Secretary of Education Richard Riley, President Clinton's White House Associate Director for Educational Policy, and Senior Advisor of Education to Vice President Gore.

Schnur graduated from Princeton University with a B.A. in Politics with honors, took coursework at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the Harvard Business School and the John F. Kennedy School of Government and graduated from a Wisconsin public high school.

CT Forum "Brain" Panelist Temple Grandin Wins Big at the Emmy Awards - Grandin will Appear in CT on February 25, 2011

Photo courtesy of The Baltimore Sun

Last night HBO's Temple Grandin won big at the 2010 Emmys, taking home awards for Best Made for TV Movie and Directing in a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special, as well as Best Actress and Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for Claire Danes and Julia Ormand respectively.

"I hope this movie is going to educate a lot of people about autism because there's a lot of people who don't understand it," Grandin said backstage.

The subject of the movie, Temple Grandin, will join our "Glorious, Mysterious Brain" panel on February 25, 2011 alongside Steven Pinker and others yet to be announced.

Temple on the red carpet:



Temple accepts award for Best Made for TV Movie and Directing in a Miniseries:

John Forté to join Patti Smith and John Legend at Forum Music Fest

We are excited to announce that John Forté
will join us at The Forum Music Fest on May 1.

John Forté's life has been an amazing story of twists and turns, major accomplishments and hard knocks. Today he tells his story and the lessons learned with music as his vehicle for sharing and healing.

John Forté is famous for his work with the multi-platinum group The Fugees. He wrote and produced two songs on their Grammy winning album, The Score. After the breakup of The Fugees, he recorded two solo albums, PolySci and I, John, which featured industry legends Herbie Hancock and Carly Simon, and will soon release an album titled Water Light Sound.

Few understand second chances better than John Forté.

After serving seven years of a 14-year sentence following a conviction on drug charges, he was granted a rare commutation of his sentence by President George W. Bush. His strong advocates included Carly Simon and Sen. Orin Hatch. Recognizing prison as an opportunity to redeem himself, Forté created a music program, conducted weekly round table forums for inmates and began pursuing his degree at the London School of Economics.

Released from Fort Dix on December 22, 2008, Forté resumed his career by starting to record in the studio, writing a book and serving as the subject of a feature-length documentary about his life. He teaches a music course to teenagers at In Arms Reach, a Harlem-based initiative committed to promoting a positive environment for children of incarcerated parents and at-risk youth. Forté uses music as a therapeutic means of addressing anger, stress and pain, and hopes that the catharsis of song composition will help children deal with the stigma of having an incarcerated family member. His historic commutation has also made him an ardent supporter of prison reform. He argues that a sentence need not be unreasonably long to provide just punishment, deter criminal conduct and protect the public from harm.

Raised by a single mother in Brooklyn, John was a brilliant young musical prodigy. A dedicated student, Forté was awarded a full scholarship to the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy and attended New York University until his career in the music industry took off. He is a classically-trained violinist.

Hear John tell his story in his own words...

Other Links

Live @ Joe's Pub-NYC

Blog @ The Daily Beast-How I Went From Prep School to Prison

Ever Wonder What's in Bob Woodward's Refrigerator?

Bob Woodward & Tina Brown at The Connecticut Forum. Photo by Nick Caito.

Each Forum, we ask our panelists to fill out a fun questionnaire to help us get to know them a little better. Check out what Bob Woodward, Tina Brown and Connie Schultz had to say!


What is your favorite place in the world? Why?

Bob: Venice, Italy. It reminds a visitor that time is very old.
Tina: The sofa in our house on Long Island.
Connie: Home-my favorite people tend to be there.


What is something you can't live without?

Bob: My wife, Elsa.
Tina: My Blackberry.
Connie: Optimism.


What book are you currently reading?

Bob: Wolf Hall
Tina: The Blue Sweater
Connie: Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend


What is always in your fridge?

Bob: Water.
Tina: How about ON my fridge? That would be a photo of myself 10 pounds overweight...in a bikini.
Connie: Skim milk from Ohio farmers.


What surprises people about you?

Bob: I don't know.
Tina: I am a secret introvert.
Connie: They never say.

Want more?
Clips from A World of Change
are now available on TheForumChannel!