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Leadership for Society with Brian Lowery
Conversations on the most important issues of today.
Tensions: Business, Civic Society and Politics
Tensions: Business, Civic Society and Politics
Professor Brian Lowery dares to ask the questions that demand answers in our provocative speaker series examining the significant opportunities and major challenges of balancing short-term return on investments with long-term goals of sustainability, equity, and social stability through the theme Tensions: Business, Civic Society and Politics.
March 18, 2024
The Growth of AI: Balancing Business Interests and National Security
In this conversation, Professor Brian Lowery will be joined by Thomas Kurian, MBA '94 and Google Cloud CEO.
March 11, 2024
Immigration: Navigating Economic Concerns and Civic Integration
In this conversation, Professor Brian Lowery will be joined by Rachel Perić, CEO of Welcoming America.
March 4, 2024
Technology, Foreign Policy and National Security
In this conversation, Professor Brian Lowery will be joined by Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster to discusss Technology, Foreign Policy and National Security
February 26, 2024
The Divided States of America
In this conversation, Professor Brian Lowery will be joined by Thomas Edsall, New York Times columnist.
February 19, 2024
When the Well Runs Dry: Tensions, Solutions and the Future of Water
In this conversation, Professor Brian Lowery will be joined by Peter Gleick, Pacific Institute Co-Founder and Senior Fellow.
February 12, 2024
Beyond the Checkered Flag: What F1 Tells Us about Sport and Society
Formula One is a global sport. It has teams that cost many millions to operate, it races at some 24 venues around the world, and it hosts an array of sponsors.
February 5, 2024
Governing Tech: International Cooperation and Competition
When regulating something as complex as artificial intelligence, how should countries work together?
January 29, 2024
Building Bridges: The YMCA’s Role in a Divided America
What role can and should civic organizations like the YMCA of the USA play at a time of intense political polarization, demographic segregation, and rising socioeconomic inequality?
January 22, 2024
The First Amendment and its Social Discontents
Are government officials’ social media accounts private or should they be considered “state action”?
January 15, 2024
The Economics of Inequality
Nobel laureate Sir Angus Deaton addresses the crisis of “deaths of despair” in the United States.
January 8, 2024
How Fast Food Franchises Shape Communities
Explore the complex relationship between fast food franchises, civic engagement, business opportunity, and communities in the United States
People & Planet in the Information Era
Dr. Brian Lowery dares to ask the questions that demand answers in our provocative speaker series on the information era. Join conversations with leaders from a variety of sectors to learn about the immense opportunity and critical challenges for society presented by the rapid explosion of information in our world.
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Mar 2023
Me, Myself, and Technology: How Tech Defines Us
How does tech affect us? How does it shape who we are?
Mar 2023
Our SciFi Future
With the bounds of AI and other technology being pushed further each day, what will our collective future look like?
Feb 2023
The Existential Crisis: Addressing Climate Change
What information, technology, and actions do we need to rise to the climate change challenge? How are decisions around climate made?
Feb 2023
Tech, What’s Next?
The future of technology, web3, and crypto
Feb 2023
Can Democracy Survive the Digital Era?
Governing & democracy in the information era
Feb 2023
Free Speech: Where’s the line, Who’s to Say?
Speech and content moderation on the internet
Jan 2023
Tech Monopolies: Promise or Peril?
Data and information monopolies in the information era
Jan 2023
Big Brother is Watching: Law and Privacy
We live in a time of mass data gathering, not just on the part of private corporations, but also by governing bodies the world over.
Jan 2023
Big Tech & the Data Economy
As the era of Web 2.0 came to dominate, so too did tech companies’ influence on our lives.
Jan 2023
When Everything Is Fake News: Knowledge in the Information Era
As polarization, misinformation, and doubt in science rise, what will be the consequences for people and the world?
Reimagining Work
This past Winter, the Stanford Graduate School of Business continued its speakers series on issues of societal importance, this time through the theme was “Reimagining Work.”
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Dec 2021
Working for What?: Reimagining the Meaning of Work
Climate change, a pandemic, inequality, all demand that we examine the economic systems and structures we are operating within. In this time of unprecedented change, how might we reimagine work?
Nov 2021
Interconnected: Work in the Global Economy
Given the ever-more connected world we live in, how should we reimagine the economy?
Nov 2021
Broken Paths to Economic Mobility
As the wealth divide continues to deepen and class and race inequities are exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the American dream of upward mobility has been called into question.
Nov 2021
Who's Responsible?: Government, Business and Philanthropy
While the form of this debate has changed with the times, the underlying question remains the same: who is responsible?
Oct 2021
Rethinking Gigs, Redefining Careers
How did the gig economy adapt through the pandemic? Might it provide a model to reimagine work post COVID?
Oct 2021
Worker Power
What does the future of worker protections look like? How can we protect dignity and fairness in work?
Oct 2021
Firing the Office, Freeing the Workers
How many more ways are workers held captive by work? Who will see the benefits of this new flexibility? Is the office done for good?
Oct 2021
Citizens & Workers: Education in a Capitalist Democracy
In a republic and capitalist economy that depends on an educated citizenry, how should we reimagine education at this critical time?
Sep 2021
Work Environment: Who Makes All The Decisions?
As we continue to adapt to COVID, who will own the decision power to reimagine work?
Sep 2021
Flexible for Whom?: Work Equity Post-COVID
How might we reimagine work with a view to better equity post-COVID? Featuring Brian Lowery and Aquilina Soriano Versoza.
Race and Power
In the Fall of 2020 and Winter of 2021, Stanford Graduate School of Business’ Prof. Brian Lowery hosted a series of critical and high visibility conversations to examine the way race interacts with structures of power, and how systemic racism manifests itself in institutions and our daily lives.
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Mar 2021
Health: Unequal Treatment
Is healthcare a privilege or a right? What factors contribute to the disparities in health among racial/ethnic and gender groups?
Mar 2021
Sports: Leveling the Playing Field
Games are serious business. From the schoolyard to professional leagues, sports are a ubiquitous presence in our society.
Mar 2021
Food: Reparations on the Menu
The history of race can be seen in our diets and the hands that touch the food we eat--68% of farm workers and 50% of food service and preparation workers are people of color.
Feb 2021
Music: The Roots of Our Rhythm
Music connects us, but like many things also seems to fall along racial cleavages, telling us where and to whom we belong. But, creativity rarely respects arbitrary barriers.
Feb 2021
Urban Design: Making Space for Equity
The planning decisions we made in the past haunt us in the broad inequities we experience today. How can we make better decisions for the future?
Feb 2021
Education: Still Separate and Unequal?
How do we account for the continuation of this educational divide, what are its consequences, and what, if anything, can we do about it?
Jan 2021
Environmental Justice
Challenges to the environment disproportionately affect communities of color. Have healthy environments become a privilege?
Jan 2021
Whiteness
Today, it seems much less uncomfortable to talk about what it means to be white. What does it mean to be white? Who gets to be white and why?
Jan 2021
Justice
American society has undervalued Black lives. What will it take for America to live up to its principles of liberty and justice for all?
Jan 2021
Creating Race
How was the idea of race created? What function did it serve? Is race understood the same everywhere?