[music] Last March, when my son, my youngest son, needed his missile shot, the city had run out. I was on edge knowing there were outbreaks and that vaccination was at a record low. As a policy expert, after 20 years of studying to solve problems like this, a new the drop in vaccination was a symptom of a deeper invisible crisis.We are losing our sense of belonging. Let's connect the dots. More and more people are feeling lonely.We're having less children. Millions of kids are dropping out of high school. F ...

I am a developer, but more importantly, I'm a cultural preservationist. Yes, I design spaces and buildings, but my ultimate goal is to build belonging. Because when development becomes transactional rather than an opportunity for transformation, we lose what matters most, legacy, identity, and culture.I was born in Compton, California. Not the Compton you may have seen in headlines. Compton I knew was built on family, faith, fellowship, and resilience.Teachers lived next to jazz musicians, carpenters, next ...

From Palestine to the climate crisis, from the gender wars to the rise of the far right, we're living in a time of where I feel like all of the biggest political issues of our time can boil down to one root cause, a crisis of belonging. Think of it as the societal longing to be a part of something bigger than oneself. And we're all searching for it.It's not just personal, but it's political, it's social, and most importantly, it's cultural. We are living in a crisis of belonging, and I think that culture wi ...

They say that home is where the heart is. But what happens when your heart belongs to more than one space. when your heart has learned to live in multiple places at once.I spent my life moving between countries, cultures, and expectations, questioning my sense of belonging. Over time, I realized maybe I was never meant to identify as a single country, but to connect them. The strongest bridges aren't built from concrete or steel.They're built from people. People that are able to stand between differences an ...

There's a special feeling when you arrive at a ballpark on a warm summer evening. The late sun cast golden shadows across the infield. The chalk lines glow as if painted just for you.You hear the sharp pop of the ball hitting the catcher's mitt, the thud of cleats on the dirt, the echo of a coach's whistle, and laughter coming from the dugout. Then there's the crowd. People greet each other and share stories from the week.Kids race up and down the bleachers with snow cones melting faster than they can eat t ...

Well, I've had a really horrible day. So, if I completely screw this up, please bear with me. But, uh, yeah.Uh, before I get into anything deep, I want to start with a question and I hope you all play along with me and I will point and make eye contact. So, I ask you to play. Raise your hand if you believe you have a talent.Lego, cooking, cleaning. No, no, no. Hands up. Hands up. Hands up.Keep your hands up. Oh, louder. Okay, cool.Sorry, my bad. Right. Okay, I'm seeing hands.Great, great, great. You'll noti ...

I have a couple of words for all of you, okay. Maybe a few more than a couple. However, there are some specific ones that I want you all to take away today.You are in the right place. Whatever you're doing, wherever you are, that's where you're supposed to be. Hi, I'm Alexander Mertza, and today I'm going to tell you all about my journey to finding my sense of belonging so you can too.Mistakes are part of learning. Even though they may bring you down, mistakes are part of life. But when you're hurt by one, ...

Most of us have been told at some point that we just need to find our place as if belonging were a hidden location and once you get there everything would finally make sense. But philosophy offers a different think way of thinking about belonging. Instead of asking where we fit, it asks what part of ourselves we bring into the world we enter.Hi, I'm Anastasia and in this talk I want to explore how philosophers understood belonging and why many of them believed it begins long before we meet anyone else. To d ...

Today I'm standing on the stage just like how I show up in my everyday life. No makeup, bare face, which is either very brave or very bad. But I'm here proudly showing the world my imperfections. These white patches all over my skin. And I get asked all the time, how are you this confidence? My answer usually surprises people. You don't need confidence. What you actually need is permission to embrace imperfection. I say this as someone who used to wait for confidence and in the process I postpone my life. F ...

Friends, I have a lovehate relationship with being a human. Most of the time I'm the rock for my family, my friends, my colleagues, my clients. But sometimes I'm crumbling from the inside out. Weirdly, it's the crumbling that makes me a better rock. Let me give an example. For as long as I can remember, my now 10-year-old, the older son, has been obsessed with airplanes. He wants to design them. He wants to build them. He wants to fly them. He wants to live in them if he can. So, like any parent, got to sto ...