Video Resources

Video 1:  Paul Zak: Trust, Morality--and Oxytocin?

Description: This 16:28 TED talk identifies oxytocin as the moral molecule found only in mammals, responsible for trust, empathy, and other feelings that help build a stable society. It identifies the sources of oxytocin and what inhibits it.

Video 2:  Nate Garvis: Change Our Culture, Change Our World

Description: In this 10:34 TED talk, Nate Garvis (founder of Naked Civics) looks at regulations as built-in habits. He gives concrete examples of how to get serious about intrinsic motivation, in order to concentrate public policy on outcomes rather than outputs. The objective is to steer institutions to work for the common good, and that we must all create the culture for the world in which we want to live.

Video 3:  Alex Steffen: The Shareable Future of Cities

Description: In this 10:06 TED talk, planetary futurist Alex Steffen addresses how cities and neighborhoods are planning and taking responsibility for reducing density in communities. This allows for green projects in urban planning, as well as grants citizens access to the capacity and capability to do things, not just to have more and expensive things. Steffen essentially applies New Public Service theory to explore the future of cities and the challenges we face.

Video 4:  Van Jones: The Economic Injustice of Plastic

Description: In this 12:43 TED talk, Van Jones discusses the consequences of plastics pollution from a social justice perspective. Poor people and countries are limited by income and in the choices they can make, and suffer the consequences of richer, often wasteful societies. However, there are new opportunities to change our disposable societies: By joining together as a community, we can make better economic choices that do not destroy our ecology and the future of humanity.

Video 5:  Values-Driven Leadership

Description: In this 7:54 video clip, Visiting Professor Mick Yates discusses value-driven leadership, and the relationship between engagement with ethical issues and successful management. At the time this clip was recorded, Yates was affiliated with the University of Leeds Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied Centre.

Video 6:  David Gergen: Ethics, Government, and the Common Good

Description: In this 1 hour 13 minute lecture at the Chautauqua Institution, former presidential advisor David Gergen discusses the relationship between ethics, good government, and orienting objectives to serve the common good.