The Ted Talks group meets once per month to discuss pre-arranged topics of broad interest to all. Each member is responsible for hosting a monthly session, which is currently being held by Zoom. In advance of the meeting, we are given “homework” to read a few articles or to watch a video on the chosen topic. Sometimes a topic will spur us to engage in additional independent research. It’s an opportunity to put our brains to work and to participate in spirited, informative discussions.

TED Talks Special Interest Group: Meeting held in May 2021 – can we reduce the number of MPs?

The NWB Probus TED TALK Group met via coded Zoom on May 11, 2021. The Moderator of the session (Al MacDonald) had received a TOP SECRET letter from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) 2 weeks prior. In that letter the Prime Minister advised that our group had been selected, sole source, to prepare a report on how the PMO could drastically reduce the number of Members of Parliament before the next Federal election. For a summary, click here.

TED Talks Special Interest Group: Meeting held in April 2021 – Post-Covid Economy

The topic for April examined the idea of resetting the economy, post-COVID – a particularly timely discussion given the recent federal budget. The concept for the talk was based on “Covid-19: The Great Reset,” by Klaus Schwab and Thierry Malleret. Due to the enormity of the topic, people approached it from a variety of perspectives. For a summary, click here.

TED Talks Special Interest Group: Meeting held on December 8, 2020 – Climate Change

Our December 2020 TED Talk was about “Climate Change.” Norm Kilarski served as the Zoom host, subject matter researcher, and moderator. Norm outlined the issue, bringing up both issues and attitudes. We had a lively discussion of climate change causes, human action (and inaction), and the overwhelming scope/multi-faceted nature of the issue.

Meeting held on October 13, 2020 – Police Reform

The NWB Probus Ted Talks Club met via Zoom on Oct 13, 2020 to talk about Police Reform. The topic came about primarily as a result of the apparent rise in the incidence of police violence and discrimination as recently observed on television, newspapers, U-tube, etc. The session was organized by our team leaders Terry Kelly and Margaret Stevens and it was moderated by Al MacDonald who had prepared background material on the subject that was circulated to the participants in advance of the meeting. The discussion was anchored by some key reference material including:

• Council of Canadian Academies, 2014. Policing in Canada in the 21 First Century: New Policing for New Challenges, Ottawa, Ontario: The Expert Panel on the Future of Canadian Policing Models.
• Six New Mental Health Teams Being Added in B.C., Times Colonist, Katie DeRosa, Sept 22, 2020.

For a summary of the discussion on Police Reform, click here.

To read the summaries of previous topics follow these links:

New SIG members are always welcome! For information, please contact Margaret Stevens at 250-821-9678 or at [email protected].
For now, meetings will continue to be held via Zoom.  The upcoming topics are:

• Our January 2021 TED Talk will be about “aging in place.” This topic has gained more attention as Covid has highlighted concerns about communicable disease transmission in high density elder care facilities. Research indicates that 80 – 90% of elders desire to age in place (i.e., remain in their current home), if possible.