We were thrilled to be back after a hiatus in 2020 because of COVID-19. Once again in 2021, we had the widest variety of talks, delivered by an amazing group of speakers with Ideas Worth Spreading.
From women's sport to brandy old-fashioneds; from dancing while walking to using smartphones for mental health; from dog mushing to mass-communication, it'll be an amazing day for your brain to play. You don't want to miss it.
Table of Contents: This Year's Talks
(Click/tap any speaker's name to scroll down to their bio and talk details)
Alina Bennett - Moral Injury on the Front Lines: Lessons From Healthcare
How do we make meaning out of suffering? This task has occupied human minds for millennia. Moral injury offers a new way to understand the consequences of betrayal resulting in the destruction of personhood.
This talk assesses how the complexities of contemporary medical work, the rise of a patients-as-consumers orientation, and the lack of health literacy in the United States has created environments where moral injury can flourish among health workers and what treatment is needed to recover.
Alina Bennett Biography
Alina Bennett is a clinical ethicist and researcher. Her nerd-heart drove her to attend university for entirely too long, resulting in a Master of Arts in Women’s Studies, a Master of Public Health, and a Doctorate of Philosophy in the Medical Humanities, all with mental health among incarcerated people as her research focus.
As she was completing her studies in the Texas, she met and married a practically perfect woman who smokes the best Texas-style BBQ beef ribs. They live in Oakland, California where she helps people to think well about the moral dimensions of medicine.
Blair Braverman - What Sled Dogs Can Teach Us About Courage
Bravery — especially in the face of the unknown — is actually about trust; it’s the ability to trust your future self. This talk will explore the lessons a veteran musher has learned about courage from working with her sled dogs.
Blair Braverman Biography
Blair Braverman is a writer, adventurer, and musher who has crossed thousands of miles of frozen wilderness with her sled dogs. She is the author of Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube, a contributing editor to Outside magazine, and a contributor to The New York Times, Vogue, This American Life, and elsewhere. She lives in the northwoods with her husband, Quince Mountain, and their dogs.
John Curtin - Mental Healthcare at Our Fingertips
We are experiencing a mental health crisis in the U.S. with many millions of people not receiving the treatment they desperately need. This talk explores how two emerging technological innovations, Digital Therapeutics and Personal Sensing, can address this crisis by delivering highly scalable treatment and other supports that can be precisely tailored to the specific needs of the person and their moment in time.
John Curtin Biography
John Curtin, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the Director of Clinical Training for the doctoral program in Clinical Psychology at UW-Madison and the Director of the Addiction Research Center.
His program of research uses personal sensing and machine learning techniques for psychiatric diagnosis and risk prediction, precision medicine, and “just-in-time” interventions for substance use and other psychiatric disorders. His scholarship has been recognized by grants from the National Institutes of Health and awards from the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science and UW-Madison. Professor Curtin also contributes to UW-Madison's teaching mission, offering courses on substance use disorders, statistics, and applied machine learning.
Gabrielle Dorn - Wance Revolution (no, that's not a typo)
Wancing, simply put, is the combination of dancing while walking. Not only is it an excellent and enjoyable source of exercise, it allows you to be creative, spread joy to others, and above all, it creates greater happiness within. When you are able to practice the subtle art of not caring what other people think, you can achieve a new sense of freedom - a freedom not many people are familiar with.
Gabrielle Dorn, the founder of WANCE, has realized many of the keys to happiness and increased self-confidence. Gabrielle created wancing as a fun way to combine some of those keys into one activity that she hopes to take to the masses so that as many people as possible have the opportunity for the authentic and radical self-growth that she has experienced. If you can WANCE on a busy street, you can do anything.
Gabrielle Dorn Biography
Gabrielle is a local Oshkosh resident and graduate of UW-Oshkosh with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She started her career as a creative strategist at a local marketing agency and now works as the brand manager at Goodwill NCW.
Although Gabrielle is more widely known as a mom and marketer, she is also a strong advocate for having fun and living life to the fullest. Gabrielle's mission to promote positivity, authenticity and build self-confidence among her family, friends & community is infectious and inspiring.
Pete Dulcamara - Humanity-Centric Innovation: Redefining the Meaning of Billionaire
We are on the cusp of one of the greatest revolutions in human history – powered by exponential technologies and new business models, which will enable us to address the greatest challenges to the health and well-being of people and the planet.
In this talk, corporate futurist Pete Dulcamara will discuss how a new focus on humanity-centric innovation can help solve the most significant problems facing society and the environment in an economically viable way, open doors to new business opportunities, and give us all the opportunity to build a better world.
As part of this focus, Pete will also share why he redefined the word “billionaire” to mean a person helping a billion people – not a person accumulating a billion dollars.
Pete Dulcamara Biography
Pete Dulcamara is an innovator, challenger and corporate futurist at Kimberly-Clark. In his role as Chief Scientist & Technical Vice President, Pete combines consumer insights with predictive data and trends to uncover new opportunities for the consumer goods company.
He is a passionate proponent of humanity-centric innovation -- the intersection of exponential technologies with the business models of the 21st century to improve the lives of billions of people around the world.
A proud advocate for developing solutions for the good of people and the planet, Pete serves as an Emeritus board member for NEW North, the economic development board for Northeast Wisconsin, and serves as the co-lead for corporate innovation for the NEW Launch Alliance. He also serves on the board of directors of Bassett Mechanical, and on the board of the Wisconsin Technology Council, the science and technology advisor to Wisconsin’s governor and the legislature.
Bethanie Gengler - Should we be Punished for a Lifetime for our One Worst Act?
Everyone makes mistakes in life. How long should a person be required to pay for their mistakes? This talk explores how a bad decision can alter a person’s life in unimaginable ways and examines society’s biases against people who have criminal convictions.
Bethanie Gengler Biography
Bethanie Gengler spent 15 years working in the pet industry before obtaining a BS in journalism from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. Gengler is an award-winning writer who has served as the opinion editor, news editor and as a reporter for the college newspaper The Advance-Titan and as a contributing reporter for The Oshkosh Herald. She is the founder and director of a nonprofit dedicated to animal welfare. She works as a freelance writer and editor.
Jeanette Hurt - The Real Truth About the Wisconsin Brandy Old Fashioned
The story goes, the Wisconsin taste for brandy old fashoneds started because a California brandy maker displayed his brandy at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 in Chicago, and supposedly the good folks of Wisconsin who attended the Exposition and brought home a taste for the beverage. The story has become legend, yet deeper research has revealed the real truth.
Jeanette Hurt Biography
Jeanette Hurt is a journalist and cocktail historian whose books and articles explore culture through the lens of food and drink.
Her award-winning work takes readers on a delicious journey to inspire them to create a good life. She is a spirits columnist for Forbes and a contributor to Milwaukee Public Radio. Of her book, Wisconsin Cocktails, noted bartender and author Jim Meehan says, "Hurt's definitive guide effortlessly toggles between history, journalism and sociology to capture the breezy idiosyncrasies of Wisconsin bars and the peculiar imbibing conventions of their loyal patrons with an earnestness that reads like a Coen Brothers script if you're nonnative or a Ken Burns documentary if you are."
She has written 14 other books, including the best-selling The Unofficial ALDI Cookbook, The Joy of Cider: All You Ever Wanted to Know about Drinking and Making Hard Cider, and Drink Like a Woman. She’s currently writing The Whiskey Sour, and there are as many tall tales about the Whiskey Sour as there are about the Brandy Old Fashioned. When she's not writing or researching, she can either be found walking along Lake Michigan in Milwaukee with her husband, their son and their chihuahua-Great Pyrenees, or she's driving said-son to gymnastics and diving practices.
Rebecca Langley - Re-Thinking Charity: Where Would We Begin?
Most people feel like the world's problems are too big for any one of us to do anything about. So we tacitly agree to keep on doing the same things that aren't working, all the while complaining that they aren't working and wondering why somebody doesn't do something about it. Meanwhile, we'll write a check to help poor starving farmers in Africa over our morning cup of coffee, courtesy of underpaid farmers in Africa, or we'll sign a petition to save the rain forest not very long after serving factory beef off of paper plates at a picnic. Chances are we're horrified by the notion of sweatshops, but that doesn't change where we shop for our clothes or holiday gifts.
What if we stopped doing these things.... and did something else?
Where would we begin?
Rebecca Langley Biography
Rebecca likes everything and cares about everything. She edits medical research and teaches English as a second language for a living, writes, home-schools her son, runs a mini-farm, and fights against human trafficking, all while trying to maintain an unreasonable number of hobbies. Her passion for making the world a better place, even if one is not an entrepreneur and has very little money, has given birth to ideas anyone can easily implement to begin having an impact.
Sean Lynch - Songs of Moving On
Accompanied by pianist Martin Vajgrt, Sean will present a classical vocal performance of 3 songs that tell the story of experiencing, and moving on from traumatic events in life.
Sean Lynch Biography
Sean Lynch, Baritone, hails from Oshkosh, WI, where he earned his Bachelor of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. He then attended the University of Iowa, earning a Master of Arts Degree in Voice.
Sean has appeared with Fresco Opera Theatre, Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre, The Genesius Guild, and he has also been a young artist for the Oberlin in Italy Summer Program. Sean’s performance credits include Rambaldo in La rondine, Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus, The Vicar in Albert Herring, Grégorio in Roméo et Juliette, and Amelia’s Husband in Amelia goes to the Ball.
An avid cyclist and outdoorsman, Sean is the owner of Winnebago Bicycle, an adventure cycling focused bicycle shop in Oshkosh, WI
Heidi Nicholls - Where Have all the Conversations Gone? Talking About the Hard Stuff
We live in a time where there is much discussion of freedom of speech, yet at the same time, social sanctioning and "cancel" culture. It is a time of silos and division, with an intensified echo chamber replacing interpersonal engagement. We are experiencing a time of policies proposed to limit what history can be addressed in fear that it may incite further division, yet in doing so, lines are drawn in a fundamental difference in understanding and perspective of history.
This talk will look at the dangers of watering down history and question why are we so afraid to acknowledge our dark histories, imperfections and unwillingness to engage with differing thought. What is it that we are protecting? What happens when we let our guard down and are willing to be vulnerable? To engage with others? To learn that we have space to grow and learn? What happens when we stop and have to face ourselves?
Heidi Nicholls Biography
Dr. Heidi Nicholls is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, the Chair of the Indigenous Studies Committee, and advisor to the Inter-Tribal Student Council. She is an economic anthropologist who explores power dynamics, race, ethnicity and inequities and teaches courses such as Cultural Diversity in the US, Cultural Anthropology, Tourism, and Political Resistance.
Off campus, Heidi collaborates with variety of stakeholders to offer Diversity, Equity and Inclusion workshops and talks, and is a part of the "Voices of Vision" podcast centered on social justice.
Madeleine Pape - How do we Decide Who Competes in Women’s Sport?
From a young age, we are taught that separate categories defined on the basis of “biological sex” are necessary to ensure the integrity of sports competition for women and girls. It turns out, however, that drawing a clean line around the female athlete category is far more complex than many of us might presume. From variation in sex-linked traits to the increasing visibility of trans people, sports administrators and advocates of women’s sport are grappling with the reality that neither biology nor social identity map neatly onto binary female/male categories.
In this context, where even science fails to provide us with a straightforward solution, how do we decide who gets to compete as a woman in sport, particularly at the elite level? Expect to come away with more questions than answers: this talk is an invitation to challenge your assumptions and embrace the complexity of sexed bodies, sporting ability, and gender equity.
Madeleine Pape Biography
Madeleine Pape is one of those rare people whose email signature includes both PhD and OLY: she is an Olympian who competed for Australia in track-and-field at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and she obtained her PhD in Sociology in 2019 at none other than the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After seven years in America's dairylands, and a brief stint at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, she now finds herself at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. There she is a postdoctoral researcher who studies gender and sport in between cycling mountain roads and eating fondue.
Pape's story as a sociologist has been profoundly shaped by a pivotal moment in 2009 the World Championships in Berlin. There, she had the opportunity to compete against South African athlete Caster Semenya, now a two-time gold medallist in the women's 800m––an athlete now infamous for being arguably the most scrutinized in the history of the sport of track-and-field. In Berlin, Semenya was accused of being insufficiently feminine and as having biological advantages over other women. Ten years of scrutiny, regulation, and debate have followed, culminating in Semenya being unable to defend her title at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
With the question of inclusion in women's sport now becoming one of the hottest gender equality topics of our time, Pape has been uniquely positioned to offer the perspective of both a sociologist and an athlete with intimate knowledge of the world of elite sport. Her research on the contentious responses of sports governing bodies to the quandary of inclusion in women's sport have appeared in top academic journals. Pape has also used her unique platform to contribute a nuanced perspective to public debates surrounding the place of both transgender women and women with high testosterone in sport in a wide range of media outlets including The Guardian, 1A, PBS NewsHour, NPR Weekend Edition, The Times, and BBC Newshour.
Erin Stevens - Ending the "War on Cancer"
War metaphors are pervasive in cancer care. Yet, as an oncologist, Dr. Stevens avoids using the war analogies with her patients. This talk explore the idea that an oncologist's job is to have hard conversations while inspiring hope - and to leave the war out of it.
Erin Stevens Biography
Erin E. Stevens, MD is a women’s cancer expert specializing in gynecologic oncology surgery at Prevea Health in Green Bay. A graduate of Ithaca College and New York Medical College, she went on to complete an obstetrics & gynecology residency and fellowship in gynecologic oncology. In doing this, she completed the equivalent of the 27th grade. She’s known for going above and beyond at her job, even once having her head shaved by a patient for a cancer fundraiser.
She is a nationally recognized speaker, having given over 100 local, regional and national presentations on gynecologic oncology, living with cancer, sexual health, and end of life issues.
Steve Szydlik - How a Mathematician Looks at Redrawing Political Boundaries
We have all had experiences where something that we expected to occur did not: the job offer that didn’t come through, the stock that tanked, the 1998 Super Bowl. Randomness is a part of life! But what happens when a reasonably expected outcome fails again and again to occur? When can we conclude that it is not random chance conspiring against us but the system?
This talk is a Wisconsin election detective story. We’ll investigate a simultaneously mundane and intensely controversial issue: the redrawing of political district lines. We’ll see how randomness can actually help us better understand redistricting in Wisconsin.
Steve Szydlik Biography
Steve Szydlik is a professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, where he has taught for 25 years after earning his doctorate in mathematics at University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1997.
After more than a quarter century as a mathematician, Steve still likes to think about abstract mathematical problems, and especially enjoys exploring topics he can share with a broad audience. He is fascinated by connections between mathematics and other disciplines, especially political science and economics. In recent years, he has published scholarship that connects the scoring of cross-country running races to voting.
Beyond mathematics, Steve has found passion in distance running for four decades, with many years as a competitive ultra-marathoner, including on the U.S. 100 kilometer team several times, and the Ironman Triathlon World Championships in Hawaii in 2007.
Jim VandeHei - The Art of Smart Brevity - Write Less, Say More
Never have humans talked, tweeted or texted more words — and found it more difficult to be heard. Veteran journalist Jim VandeHei, having come from traditional long-form journalism roots, created Axios to be an audience-first solution to today’s chaotic news and communication climate. The need for a new, effective, way to communicate isn’t confined to journalism, however, and any modern communicator can benefit from smart brevity. The more noise and distraction, the more precision and efficiency matter in being heard — and remembered. This talk will share the lessons VandeHei learned from running a media company that you can use to bust through the noise.
Jim VandeHei Biography
Jim VandeHei is a co-founder and CEO of Axios, a media company focused on breaking news and invaluable insights across politics, tech, business, media, and the world. Axios was created to help readers and viewers get smarter, faster across the topics reshaping our country and lives. As CEO, VandeHei has steered Axios into becoming one of the most celebrated digital media success stories of the past few years. VandeHei also serves as executive producer on "Axios on HBO".
Before Axios, VandeHei co-founded and was CEO of POLITICO, the media company that upended and revolutionized political and policy journalism in Washington, New York, and Europe. Overseeing both the editorial and business teams, VandeHei was the leading strategist behind its highly scalable and highly successful business model. VandeHei spent more than a decade as a reporter, covering the ins and outs of Washington politics and power, working at legacy publications such as Roll Call, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
In 2017, Vanity Fair named VandeHei to its "New Establishment List," the magazine's annualcompilation of industry titans, and Entrepreneur magazine named him one of the year's "50 Most Daring Entrepreneurs." Vanity Fair also formerly listed him among the 100 most powerful "Information Age" thinkers for helping to create "the model for the new media success story." In 2015, VandeHei was named Editor of the Year by the National Press Foundation for his work at POLITICO. VandeHei was also selected as the first representative of a primarily online news organization to serve on the Pulitzer Board. He has moderated two presidential debates.
VandeHei is from Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
