Discussion held on Zoom, link here. Contact Millie Gonzalez, vgonzalez@framingham.edu with any questions.
The War for Kindness by The author Zaki graduated from Framingham High School and now is a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. He is the Director of the Social Neuroscience Laboratory. The book is about – “Empathy is in short supply. Isolation and tribalism are rampant. We struggle to understand people who aren’t like us, but find it easy to hate them. Studies show that we are less caring than we were even thirty years ago. In 2006, Barack Obama said that the United States is suffering from an “empathy deficit.” Since then, things only seem to have gotten worse.
It doesn’t have to be this way. In this groundbreaking book, Jamil Zaki shares cutting-edge research, including experiments from his own lab, showing that empathy is not a fixed trait—something we’re born with or not—but rather a skill that can be strengthened through effort. He also tells the stories of people who embody this new perspective, fighting for kindness in the most difficult of circumstances. We meet a former neo-Nazi who is now helping extract people from hate groups, ex-prisoners discussing novels with the judge who sentenced them, Washington police officers changing their culture to decrease violence among their ranks, and NICU nurses fine-tuning their empathy so that they don’t succumb to burnout.
Discussion held on Zoom, link here. Contact Millie Gonzalez, vgonzalez@framingham.edu with any questions.
Hosted on Zoom, contact Samantha Westall at swestall@framingham.edu for details.
How to Be an Antiracist by The Library will host Rev. Vernon Walker, from CREW to talk about extreme weather and social justice through Zoom, here. In 2018 a UN report warned that humans have 12 years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, a degree above which will make the risk of droughts, floods, extreme heat will become more severe and can cause climate related poverty for millions of people. Learn to prepare for extreme weather that will elicit hope and social justice. 11-12:45pm
Resident Scholar, Rajashree Ghosh, from Brandeis University will host a discussion through Zoom, here, on the film RiverBlue. She will include film clips and conversation on the fashion industry in the West and its impact on rivers in China, India, and Indonesia. RiverBlue shows impact of untreated wastewater on environment, livestock, food and human health. How can a pair of jeans destroy rivers and lives? What toxic chemicals may be released into the environment? 4:30-5:45pm