In his 2nd TEDxBuckhead Talk, orator, tv host, social influencer, activist, and entrepreneur Wallace Peeples, better known as Wallo267, urges you to activate your “fuck it button” to ignore others’ limiting opinions and beliefs of you so you can access your greatest potential in his signature unorthodox style of unflinching honesty and humor. This event was curated by Jercori Freeman. After serving a 20 year prison sentence, Wallo took Instagram by storm proving he could catch lightning in a bottle again and again. His powerful highly viral videos share his life story, cautioning viewers against wasting their time and/or potential. He tells audience to eliminate excuses and drives home his point that it “costs too much to be a criminal.” With over 21 million social media impressions monthly, Wallo has converted his followers into evangelists, sharing with their friends and followers his unorthodox high-energy motivational videos full of inspiration, humor, and hard-earned lessons. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

Weve all heard of physical and mental health, but another important aspect to our overall health and wellbeing is social health. In fact, recently in the United States, the surgeon general revealed that social isolation and loneliness just topped obesity to claim second place as one of the top three killers in America.

Humans are highly social creatures, but that doesnt always mean that our social interactions are healthy. In this informative talk, Dr. Chelsea Shields, explains how our emotions can easily be high-jacked and then offers guidance on how to evaluate and level up our social health.

This presentation was filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic, with only a limited live audience of cast and crew members. While applause has been added to the beginning and end of the video, all other aspects have intentionally remained as filmed to honor the struggle and loss experienced globally during 2020.

Wardrobe furnished by Tommaso Cardullo. Dr. Chelsea Shields is a bio-social anthropologist, placebo studies expert, and runs a local consulting business.

In her academic work, Dr. Shields focuses on the evolution and elicitation of the placebo effect outside medical contexts. She coined the concept of social susceptibility to talk about how and why our human bodies have evolved to react, adjust, and adapt to specific social rituals, relationships and communities. Her work also investigates the evolutionary mismatch of modern human hyper-sociality and the health implications of a global, digital, 24/7 social network.

In her professional work, Shields runs a research and strategy business that specializes in qualitative, quantitative, and ethnographic research as well as creative ideation, branding, and user-experience design.

Dr. Shields is also a TED Fellow, 3x TED speaker, and teaches speaker training that is focused on the 90% of communication we never talk about: the non-verbals! This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

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Frederik Imbo studied theatre at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent and has acted in lots of television series. He founded Imboorling and now has over 15 years experience in stimulating and supporting people. With the aim of improving their communication skills Frederik gives presentations, workshops, training courses and personal coaching sessions to anyone prepared to make their two ears available.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

Elena is a mentor for highly sensitive and empathic entrepreneurs. She explains why we need to change the prevalent cultural narrative around highly sensitive people.

Elena Herdieckerhoff, Founder

The United States accounts for five percent of the worlds population but consumes almost 70 percent of the total global opioid supply, creating an epidemic that has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths each year. How did we get here, and what can we do about it? In this personal talk, Travis Rieder recounts the painful, often-hidden struggle of opioid withdrawal and reveals how doctors who are quick to prescribe (and overprescribe) opioids arent equipped with the tools to eventually get people off the meds. Travis Rieder, PhD, is the Assistant Director for Education Initiatives, Director of the Master of Bioethics degree program and Research Scholar at the Berman Institute of Bioethics.

Travis’ work tends to fall into one of two, quite distinct research programs. The first concerns ethical and policy questions about sustainability and planetary limits. Much of this research has been on issues in climate change ethics and procreative ethics with a particular focus on the intersection of the two – that is, on the question of responsible procreation in the era of climate change. The second research program concerns ethical and policy issues surrounding America’s opioid epidemic.

In addition to his more scholarly writing, Travis is firmly committed to doing bioethics with the public. He writes regularly for The Conversation and blogs occasionally at The Huffington Post and the Berman Institute Bioethics Bulletin. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

The Opioid Crisis has been more than two decades in the making. It’s time for us to move from problem to solution. We have to look at the major forces that are tragically taking more lives daily and get to the root cause. A public call for help! Dr. Manal Fakhoury is President and CEO of Fakhoury Leadership International, with over 30 years of non-profit and leadership experience, she serves on many community and national boards.
Manal is also a consultant pharmacist, inspirational speaker, coach, trainer, and mentor. Undergraduate, and doctorate from the University of Southern California, an MBA from Webster University. Manal has been recognized with many professional and community awards including Person of the Year, Pharmacist of the year and recently Communicator of the Year. Manal was honored to participate in the Climb of Hope and summit Mt. Kilimanjaro in January 2014. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

Russ Altman uses computer technology to explore how our genes affect the ways our bodies respond to drugs.

A Stanford professor of bioengineering, genetics and medicine, Altman leads Simbios, an NIH Center for Biomedical Computation, and holds a BA from Harvard College, an MD from Stanford Medical School and a PhD in medical information sciences from Stanford. Altman received the U.S. Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award and Stanford Medical Schools graduate teaching award. He chairs the Science Board advising the Food and Drug Administration and is a founder of Personalis Inc.

As an emergency room physician, Chris Johnson has worked on the front lines of the opioid epidemic. He argues that the epidemic is not an accident, and that the medical industry and its system of incentives have in fact created this crisis at the expense of effective, compassionate medicine driven by science. Dr. Chris Johnson is a nationally recognized expert on the opioid and heroin epidemic which currently claims over 25,000 American lives per year. He has spoken throughout the country on this topic to medical and non-medical audiences alike, and brings an urgent message on the need to reform a medical industry that has prioritized business interests over patient safety. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

Marc talked about the process of learning a foreign language and the different levels of fluency. He will show that there is a higher realm of language proficiency and explain what it takes to reach this “native” point where the benefits far surpass mere communication skills. Marc’s passion is the study of languages, their manifestation in local dialects, as well as their expression in poetry and folkloric song. He has acquired a near-native proficiency in six languages and their sub-forms and has given various musical performances. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx