Helen Plum Library

As head of TED, Chris Anderson has had a ringside view of the world's boldest thinkers sharing their most uplifting ideas. Inspired by them and the unique insights he gained from how online sharing transformed TED into a global beacon of transformative ideas, he believes there's a pathway back from outrage to optimism. It all comes down to reimagining the role that generosity can play in our connected era. Anderson shows how the same technologies...

"Dr. Joy Buolamwini is the self-described "Poet of Code" who has had a lifelong passion for computer science, engineering, and art-disciplines that, she felt, pushed the boundaries of reality. After tinkering with robotics as a high school student in Tennessee, to developing mobile apps in Zambia as a Fulbright fellow, Buolamwini eventually found herself at MIT. As a graduate student at the "Future Factory," Buolamwini's groundbreaking research revealed...

"In The Includers, Colette Phillips shares data and real-life stories, focusing on the steps to take, qualities to hone, and people to emulate to become an "includer." By highlighting the experiences of real includers who have utilized their positions as leaders to fight for change, Phillips shows that this form of allyship isn't just possible, it's easy, sustainable, and necessary"--

"When the application for a new sedative called Kevadon--commonly known as thalidomide--landed on Frances Kelsey's desk at the FDA in 1960, it seemed destined to sail through the review process. The drug, billed as entirely risk-free, was already being sold in forty-six countries. But when Kelsey learned that the drug caused terrible birth defects, she and a team of dedicated doctors, parents, and journalists fought Merrell, the drug's American manufacturer,...

"A big-hearted, no-bullshit memoir from TikTok superstar Madeline Pendleton about her journey from living paycheck to paycheck to creating a multi-million-dollar business that offers a compassionate alternative to capitalism. Imagine a job where you work four days a week and earn as much as the CEO. You also get full benefits, a gym membership, free lunch, and unlimited time off, including mental health days, no questions asked. Hard-won profits don't...

Criando humanos en un mundo digital muestra cómo los niños digitales deben aprender a navegar por este entorno, desde el equilibrio de la vida real y virtual hasta convertirse en modelos positivos y líderes. Sexting, cyberbullying, la venganza del porno, depredadores en línea... todas estas amenazas potenciales pueden tentar a los padres a arrebatar de las manos de sus hijos, el teléfono inteligente o la tableta. Si bien la privación puede...

When the federal government catches hotshot financial adviser Louis Martin "Marty" Blazer defrauding his NFL-player clients, it's time to come clean. He has no reasonable defense. What he has is a bigger story to spill to the feds--that of a multibillion-dollar conspiracy that exploits the most talented college athletes and implicates one of the most popular entertainment industries in the nation. The DOJ is listening, and the truth could literally...

"Confronted by the terrifying trends of the early twenty-first century -- widening inequality, environmental destruction, and the immiseration of millions of workers around the world -- many economists and business leaders still preach dogmas that lack evidence and create political catastrophe: Private markets are always more efficient than public ones; investment capital flows efficiently to necessary projects; massive inequality is the unavoidable...

"An adventure story that examines consent and privacy in a way that books have not had to before this generation where everything is online. As much as Paige hates the word normal, it's a pretty good word to describe her life, and the kind of night she was having just before a single email turned her world upside down. In an effort to better understand and communicate with their autistic daughter, Paige's parents enrolled her in a study without her...