An Arlington Reads Signature Author Event.

Join us online for a conversation between science policy expert and journalist Bina Venkataraman and Library Director Diane Kresh about Venkataraman's book "The Optimist's Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age." This event is sponsored by the Rosslyn BID, which is raffling off gift cards to a new local restaurant Assembly, and supported by EcoAction Arlington which will share tips and resources during the YouTube premiere.  

About the book:

A trailblazing exploration of how we can plan better for the future: our own, our families', and our society's. Instant gratification is the norm today - in our lives, our culture, our economy, and our politics. Many of us have forgotten (if we ever learned) how to make smart decisions for the long run. Whether it comes to our finances, our health, our communities, or our planet, it's easy to avoid thinking ahead. The consequences of this immediacy are stark: Superbugs spawned by the overuse of antibiotics endanger our health. Companies that fail to invest stagnate and fall behind. Hurricanes and wildfires turn deadly for communities that could have taken more precaution. Today more than ever, all of us need to know how we can make better long-term decisions in our lives, businesses, and society. Bina Venkataraman sees the way forward. A former journalist and adviser in the Obama administration, she helped communities and businesses prepare for climate change, and she learned firsthand why people don't think ahead'and what can be done to change that. In The Optimist's Telescope, she draws from stories she has reported around the world and new research in biology, psychology, and economics to explain how we can make decisions that benefit us over time. With examples from ancient Pompeii to modern-day Fukushima, she dispels the myth that human nature is impossibly reckless and highlights the surprising practices each of us can adopt in our own lives'and the ones we must fight for as a society. The result is a book brimming with the ideas and insights all of us need in order to forge a better future.

About the Author

Bina Venkataraman is an American journalist, author, and science policy expert. She is currently the Editorial Page Editor of The Boston Globe and a fellow at New America. Since 2011, she has taught in the program on science, technology, and society at MIT. She is the author of The Optimist’s Telescope: Thinking Ahead in a Reckless Age (Riverhead, 2019), named a top business book by The Financial Times and a best book of the year by Amazon, Science Friday, and National Public Radio. Bina formerly served as Senior Advisor for Climate Change Innovation in the Obama White House, where she forged partnerships among communities, companies, and government to prepare for climate disasters and to declassify data useful for global development. She also advised the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology in responding to the Ebola epidemic, promoting patient access to cancer therapies, and reforming public school science education. She previously was the Director of Global Policy Initiatives at the Broad Institute of Harvard & MIT.

Watch on Arlington Public Library's Youtube channel, where you can enter to win a free copy of Venkataraman's book!

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