On May 19 the university hosted TEDxStanford, a daylong event featuring more than two dozen presentations and performances. Topics ranged from early cancer detection to the consequences of helicopter parenting and questions about what makes music.
If you were not among the 600 or so guests who attended, or if you’d like to experience some of those illuminating moments again, videos of the presentations and performances will be posted weekly on the TEDxStanford website. Many of them also will be featured here in The Dish.
First up are videos that feature two legendary Stanford personalities: JULIE LYTHCOTT-HAIMS, who left Stanford just last month after serving as the university’s first-ever dean of freshmen and undergraduate advising, and MARK APPLEBAUM, associate professor of music. Applebaum also is an accomplished jazz pianist and composer. He builds electro-acoustic sound sculptures out of hardware and found objects for use as compositional and improvisational tools.
In Lythcott-Haims’ presentation, she talks about what she calls “the padded cell of childhood” constructed by parents afraid to allow their children to make mistakes or fail.
Applebaum plays musical pieces including Beethoven and his own compositions. His instruments are the piano as well as his sound sculptures. His question to the audience is, “Is it music?”
