Dr. Douglas Vakoch

Dr. Douglas Vakoch Speaking Topics

• Embracing Disruption: Science, Psychology, and Innovation

• CLIMATE CHANGES: Facing Reality through Fiction

  Though we are constantly bombarded with warnings about global warming, we easily become overwhelmed, feeling at a loss to do anything as individuals. The best way to face the reality of global warming is through fiction. Climate fiction, or “cli-fi,” is a literary genre that examines the human destruction of our natural environment, providing cautionary tales of future cataclysm if we don’t change course. By confronting our greatest fears directly and examining antidotes to our current practices and mindsets, cli-fi also provides a vision for a sustainable future, helping us imagine—and create—a better path forward.

  ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Dr. Vakoch is general editor of the book series Ecocritical Theory and Practice, which has published over sixty books exploring ways that fiction can help us address today’s most critical environmental problems. He is the editor of five books that explore the connections between ecology and fiction through a feminist lens, including “Literature and Ecofeminism: Intersectional and International Voices” and “Feminist Ecocriticism: Environment, Women, and Literature.”

GREEN TRANQUILITY: Staying Sane through Moments in Nature

As we feel overwhelmed by the pressures of work, constantly slaves to the digital technologies that are supposed to make our lives better, we need a break. We feel exhausted, overburdened, with no way to escape. We might occasionally get a brief respite as we spend a weekend hiking in the mountains, but how can we bring that sense of renewal back into our daily lives?

In this talk, Dr. Vakoch will provide practical guidelines for reclaiming nature in urban environments, starting with a one-minute experiential exercise that audience members can try during the talk itself. Drawing on ecotherapy and mindfulness meditation practices, he shows how connecting with elements of nature that already surround us can increase our sense of peace and serenity, wherever we live.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Dr. Vakoch is a licensed clinical psychologist and CEO of Green Psychotherapy, PC, as well as professor emeritus of clinical psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. His books include “Ecopsychology, Phenomenology, and the Environment,” which the review journal “PsycCRITIQUES” lauded for “its mature approach to suffering and the wildness of our nature, as part of the great chain of being. There is a cogent argument that we must address our sense of separateness from the world that holds us. I believe that readers will come away with an expanded sense of identity, and with a sense of calmness about what can be done and how one might go about contributing.”

THE POWER OF LISTENING

Simply listening to others, without judging, can be transformative. We don’t always need to offer people solutions to their problems. Sometimes, just listening is enough. Drawing on his diverse experiences as a psychotherapist and a scientist searching for radio signals from civilizations in space, Dr. Vakoch explains the virtues of patience and shifting the focus away from ourselves.

The key to effective listening is understanding people from their own perspective, not ours. Simply seeing others as they see themselves, listening in a nonjudgmental way, helps people accept themselves and move toward greater authenticity. Rather than pitting our view against theirs, by committing to hear others in their own terms, and in their own time, we can create a space to overcome longstanding histories of conflict, perhaps even giving others the freedom to agree with us for the first time.

Dr. Vakoch demonstrates how we can also learn to listen to ourselves better. We have all received messages throughout our lives about who we should be and what we should do. Our true desires and dreams can remain hidden even from ourselves, underneath the expectations of others—unless we become open to surprises from within.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Dr. Vakoch is professor emeritus of clinical psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, as well as CEO of Green Psychotherapy, PC, a Northern California psychological practice with offices in Berkeley, San Francisco, and Oakland. He is also president of METI, a scientific organization whose namesake mission is Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence, sending radio signals to nearby stars and listening for replies far into the future.?

STRESSED OUT OF THIS WORLD: Lessons from Astronauts in Coping with Major Catastrophes and Daily Hassles

Stress and conflict are part of our everyday lives. But imagine you had to deal with the pressures of overwhelming work demands and tense relationships in the hazardous environment of outer space. In this talk, Dr. Vakoch draws on the lessons learned from astronauts to provide insights into how we can all lead more contented and successful lives back here on Earth.

Dr. Vakoch uncovers secrets used by astronauts to cope with living in cramped spaces, far from friends and family back on Earth, and he explores preparations to help astronauts deal with future missions to the Moon and Mars that will be even more challenging. The practical wisdom and guidance we gain from these intrepid spacefarers helps us all deal more effectively with stresses ranging from daily hassles to major catastrophes that inevitably happen to all of us over the course of our lives.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Dr. Vakoch’s books include “Psychology of Space Exploration,” published by NASA, and he is a commentator on astronauts and space missions for the Science Channel’s television series “NASA’s Unexplained Files.” He is a licensed clinical psychologist in Northern California, with offices in Berkeley, San Francisco, and Oakland. Dr. Vakoch is the editor-in-chief of the book series Space and Society.

THE QUEST FOR A COSMIC ROSETTA STONE: Understanding Intelligence in a Vast Universe

If a radio signal is detected by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), we could well know that alien life exists, but not know what they are saying. Even if we detect a civilization circling one of our nearest stellar neighbors, its signals will have traversed trillions of miles, reaching Earth after traveling for years. Using a more sober estimate of the prevalence of life in the universe, Dr. Vakoch shows that our closest interstellar interlocutors may be so remote from Earth that their signals would take centuries or millennia to reach us. Moreover, any civilization we contact will have arisen independently of life on Earth, in the habitable zone of a star stable enough to allow its inhabitants to evolve biologically, culturally, and technologically. The evolutionary path followed by extraterrestrial intelligence will no doubt diverge in significant ways from the one traveled by humans over the course of our history.

To move beyond the mere detection of such intelligence, and to have any realistic chance of comprehending it, Dr. Vakoch looks to the work of researchers facing similar challenges on Earth, as they provide clues for creating a “Cosmic Rosetta Stone”—similar to the engraved slab of basalt that provided the key to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphics. Like archaeologists who reconstruct long-lost civilizations from fragmentary evidence, SETI researchers will need to reconstruct distant civilizations separated from us by vast expanses of space as well as time. And like anthropologists, who attempt to understand other cultures despite differences in language and social customs, as we attempt to decode and interpret extraterrestrial messages, we will be required to comprehend the mindset of a species that is radically Other.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Dr. Vakoch is the president of METI, a San Francisco-based research organization whose namesake mission is Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence. He is the editor of “Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication,” the most downloaded book ever published by the NASA History Office, as well as “Astrobiology, History, and Society,” which “nicely reveals the numerous ways in which anthropological knowledge and methods can help us think about and plan for managing the cultural impact of an eventual first contact,” according to the “Journal for the History of Astronomy.”