I’m not going to lie. The prospect of giving a TEDx Talk scared the shit out of me.

Thirty years ago, Julie Winokur & Ed Kashi documented their first story together in Cairo’s City of the Dead.

While I experience the literal heights of mobility, my students are confined to an arid, desolate corner of northwest Kenya without paved roads or running water.

This is our antidote to the hysteria driving most media coverage and warping our sense of who we actually are as a nation.

As a living, breathing member of the species, I would like to make a case for a different kind of AI: Authentic Intelligence.

Sheila sparked a tinder box inside me. Her house was burning and I knew I could use my powers of communication as a firehose.

The stories are the magnet, the impetus for shared dialogue and a reason to convene.

I had subjected so many other people to this process during my career, but only then did I learn to appreciate the pain and the rewards it entailed.

We set out with no particular focus, and no exact destination – the goal is to document true stories of American life, with as few preconceptions as possible.