Henderson, that's the magic word on think-tech here today, and we're talking about climate change. Beyond outrage, we have climate change everywhere, and we need to study it everywhere. We can study it, okay? And, Morgan Henderson, you'll see her in a minute. You will like her immediately. She's in Salt Lake City. She joins us by remote. Good morning or afternoon as the case may be, Morgan. Yeah, good morning, Jay. It's good to be here. Yeah, great. So, you are a public relations PR person, and you are speaking on behalf of KALON, which is an organization, I guess, into surfing, and that has issued a report on what places have done a good job in protecting surfing against the onslaught of climate change. Am I right? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Why does surfers care about climate change?  They might be half a percent, really. Even in Hawaii, where we have a lot of surfing, why do they care about surfing? Yeah, surfers specifically. I mean, everyone's affected by climate change, but surfers, especially with climate change, it can cause sea level rise and the water temperatures, changes in wave patterns. So, it really affects their sport in some of the places that they enjoy surfing in may actually not even exist. As sea level rises and as the ocean temperature is warming, it does cause coastal erosion, meaning beaches will start disappearing, coastlines will start disappearing, and surfers may not be able to go to their favorite locations anymore and catch those big waves in the future. Okay, let's unpack that. The first part that comes to mind is the temperature itself.  Presumably, that's not for sharks. That's for cold. They're afraid of getting cold. They don't want to be cold, and the wetsuit helps them stay warm. So, if the ocean temperature is going up in climate change and global warming, isn't that a good thing for surfers? They don't have to wear a wetsuit, right? I mean, that's what you might think. What's actually really bad for the ocean as a whole is with the rising temperatures, it changes the acidity of the ocean, meaning that coral bleaching and it disrupts those ecosystems in the ocean. And along with that, you know, but as coral reefs start getting bleached and as those plants are dying off, those things will be washing up to shore and again causing that coastal erosion. So, yeah, maybe the water's a little bit warmer, but for surfers, it means that if they have warm water, they're not going to be able to surf because there won't be those same waves anymore. And there won't be beaches for them to surf on. So, Le, yeah, okay, there's a lot of what you said. So, I take it that the configuration of the ocean changes with global warming. That is the undersea, the floor, the marine life, which ultimately is the floor. We can talk about coral. And that means that the wave formation is different. Am I right? That's correct, yeah. So, how is it different?  You want big waves, I guess.  But most surfers, serious surfers, want big waves. So, is this affecting the, you know, the, you know, the frequency of big waves? Yeah, yeah. So, actually, for some places, it means that the wave patterns change and their aren't as big of waves. And in the future, it might mean that those beaches that currently don't have a lot of big waves or a lot of waves at all might start having those big waves. But it's based on the floor, the sea level, the sea floor and, you know, the rocks, the debris and that kind of thing that are located underneath the water that will affect those wave patterns. So, as the levels rise, it means that it won't be running over those pieces of debris at the same level. So, all of these changes could mean that there are new surfing spots, but that a lot of our favorite ones that we currently have are going to disappear. Well, before we get into that, just one other thing I'd like to unpack with you. You said it affects acidification. Everybody knows that climate change affects, well, marine life, but in the process, acidification. Now, a surfer gets into water and he likes to have what we've always had, a certain level of salinity in the ocean. And it's a question of being used to that, but I guess it's also a question of acidification affecting him or her. Is it that if I give you a more acidified ocean content, that's going to affect me physically, my health, my state of mind, my ability to surf? Yeah, it doesn't affect it quite as heavily as marine life because obviously, we aren't living in the water and, you know, it might affect the pH balance and that kind of thing with your skin, but it's generally not as terrible for surfers unless they are ingesting the water, which can happen if you take a big spill, you're going to get water in your mouth. So that can definitely harm your body over a period of time, a long period of time. It's okay, back to the larger picture. So it would seem that Calon is, Calon, is it Calon?  It's ubiquitous. It's deadly in its own way. It's having effect on all these things in our planet, in our world, in our lives. It must be having an effect on surfing too. And the other guy who is in another continent somewhere, because, you know, surfing is global, says, you know, that's funny that you said that because I am having the same experience here. So surfer A talks to surfer B, continents away, and they both agree that climate change is affecting this surfing. And then they talk to other people. And before you know it, you have a geometric expansion of the conversation, all about surfers saying, wait a minute, something is happening. So what happened? I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but there definitely are organizations, specifically surfing organizations fighting against, you know, climate change and trying to preserve coastal ecosystems, you have the surf writer foundations, you have 1% for the planet, you have surf aid, all of which are organizations made up of surfers and people who are trying to fight against that climate change to preserve our beaches and the ocean ecosystems. Are these surfing organizations made of competitive surfers, or competitive surfers and ordinary surfers, you know, the like the little waves, those surfers like me? Or is it all or some surfers? I mean, what is it focused around, Halon, and these surfing organizations you're talking about? So Kaylon surf specifically is actually a surfers out in Costa Rica who actually pairs with a lot of sustainable and eco-friendly brands. So for example, they do a lot of work with firewire surfboards and Outer Known and even Patagonia to, you know, help preserve the planet. So a firewire specifically is one of the relationships that Kaylon has. But along with that, Kaylon does promote, you know, the support of surf writer foundations and surf aid and 1% for the planet and all of those other surf organizations that are fighting against climate change. And those organizations specifically are made up of both professional surfers and just, you know, people who do it as a hobby, just anyone who loves the planet and who wants to help preserve their sport. What is based in Costa Rica? Yes, Kaylon is based in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is a beautiful place. Costa Rica has certainly ocean and I know the American guys, including guys from Hawaii and women, go to South America, go to a place like Costa Rica because the surfing is both remote and beautiful and it's really good waves and they have special surfing holidays, including places like Costa Rica. Further, I told you before the show, it's my understanding there's a lot of Americans in Costa Rica and maybe there's an awful lot of surfers in Costa Rica. Am I right on those points? Yeah, absolutely. A lot of surfers are actually drawn to Costa Rica because of the temperatures all year round. You know, the climate is pretty much the same all year. You're looking at between 75 and 85 degrees all year long. The water stays fairly warm because of that and it's a little bit lesser known to tourists, just, you know, general tourists and so surfers get to go enjoy beaches that aren't as crowded, like if you were to go to California or if you were to go to Europe with popular beaches where there are hordes of people all the time, Costa Rica doesn't quite have that. Are there competitions there? I'm actually not sure specifically in Costa Rica. I think Hawaii is the big place for those competitions, but there are definitely lots of surfers, professional surfers that will go there on holidays to enjoy the waves and just enjoy being out in the sun. Well, these are the heavy, serious surfers in Costa Rica. They must have big waves there. Am I right? The waves and the ocean conditions are really ideal. In fact, maybe even better than Hawaii. Ooh, I'm sorry I said that. Maybe even better than Hawaii. Yeah, I don't know if I would say they're better than Hawaii necessarily, but what a lot of people like about the waves in Costa Rica is that they are, you know, their nice size, but they're also consistent. They don't really change because they don't have the same seasons that you would find in other parts of the world. So you've got those same waves all year long no matter when you want to go surfing. Okay, so these surfer people in Costa Rica dedicated to surfing, they get together and they realize that climate change may be affecting their surfing and the environment not only for them in Costa Rica, but wherever surfing can be found, which is many, many places. I'm sure you can tell me how many places that has caught up. You know, of course, Morgan, that surfing was invented here in the 19th century. You know about that, right? Yes, of course. I want to be clear about that. We discovered it right here. Anyway, so they decided that there was a connection and it has to be examined because we have to see all the implications of climate change. It affects the more you watch, the more you read the news, the more you realize that climate change affects everything. And I'm really happy that Vila surfers decided to take a look at this and see how it affects surfing. Okay, so that meant the commissioning of the Klon report. Can you tell me the circumstances under which the organization commissioned the report? Yeah, so basically Klon and the staff there, the CEO specifically was very interested in looking at climate change and he'd known that Costa Rica, as Klon is based in Costa Rica, was taking a lot of initiatives to fight against climate change and live more sustainably. So he was interested to see what other places were doing, specifically at these other surf countries. So that's, we decided to go round up the data and see what other surf popular surf locations were doing to fight against climate change, or if they were doing anything at all. So we were just kind of wanting to raise awareness about this and tell other people, especially those surfers or those countries who rely on surf tourism as a form of sustainability, of financial sustainability, to let all of them know the importance of this. It's a great industry, isn't it? I mean, it's proliferated over the past few years to pretty much everywhere. So okay, so you talked about two things I want to unpack that. One is collecting data and two is evaluating solutions as they exist or as they might exist. So what kind of data was compiled for this report, this Klon report? What information were the writers of the report seeking? Yeah, so we actually looked at information from the climate action tracker, which tracks the progress of each country in the world towards the Paris agreement, which if you aren't familiar with the Paris agreement, is basically a worldwide agreement that most countries have signed to comply with to reach a certain level of stability, I guess, against climate change. And then we also looked at the climate change performance index, which looks at factors like renewable energy, emissions, energy use, and the climate policies that each country has in place. And then to supplement that, we looked at statistics and data from the International Renewable Energy Agency, our world and data, and the World Bank Group, just to ensure we have all of the facts together. And we just looked at specific surf countries, the most popular ones that were mentioned by surfers and surf magazines to find which ones were the most popular locations and matched up the data with those to see which ones were doing the most and which ones were. Okay, what kind of data can you get about wave conditions? For example, height of the waves, force of the waves, can you get that data? Is that available? The other data that you mentioned, it sounds to me like you can get that. And it's really wonderful that we live in a world where you can get data from all over the world about such things about climate change. This is good. But what about wave formations and height and force? Can you get that? Or is that anecdotal? Wave conditions were a little bit more difficult and that wasn't something that we necessarily looked at. We looked more at the data of how much waste that country was producing or how much energy that country used and produced as a whole, how much of the country's energy production was from renewable resources versus non-renewable resources. Because those are the factors that are going to affect climate change and either speed up or slow down climate change in the future. So this report has information and compilation in it that goes beyond just evaluating it with a benefit of would-be surfers and surfer travelers and surfer tourists. This goes to a comparison of the conditions in each country that you looked at. Am I right? Yes, that's correct. That's really valuable. That goes beyond surfing. So this report would be interesting for somebody who wasn't necessarily deeply involved in surfing. So then we get to the question of how many countries did you cover? I mean, that must be quite a lot of information. There are almost 200 countries in the world. Query, which ones did you focus on? We focused on, like I said before, we found which were the most popular surf countries. We narrowed it down to the top 10 most popular surf countries and then dug deeper into the data on those. And so we came up with the top five surf countries fighting climate change and the bottom five that weren't doing much. So here's a summary of tabulation of what you've found. It's on the screen now, Morgan. Can you explain this to us? So the top five countries, as you can see, are Costa Rica, Morocco, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the Philippines. The bottom five were the United States, Australia, South Africa, Indonesia, and Ireland. Specifically, this graph is looking at the United States. And for each of these, we have a moving graphic that will show the renewable energy, the waste, the energy use, and the emissions for each country. So as you can see with the United States, it has low renewable energy, only 15% renewable energy. And with the emissions and the energy use and the waste are all quite high. I mean, for energy use, it's 79,000 kilowatts, kilowatt hours per capita that were used. Waste, it was 942 kilograms, which if you convert that over to pounds is actually over 2000 pounds of waste per person in the United States during that one year. So the United States scores fairly high. Whereas when you look at the top five countries, they have generally a higher amount of renewable energy that is created there. So instead of being 15%, Costa Rica, for example, is at 98% renewable energy. The waste is generally lower, the energy and the emissions are lower for those top five countries. So they have a smaller impact on the climate change that's currently happening. But the impact isn't local, right? In other words, if you find, I'm making this up, if you find a given place had a really, you know, high percentage of renewables and a low amount of carbon emissions, that doesn't necessarily affect that place or surfing in that place. It's merely a good statement of the intention of that place. And dealing with climate change, it's a, you know, it's a, it's a rah-rah for that place. But it doesn't necessarily affect that place, because you heard it here, climate change is global. So that we're talking about contributing, making positive contributions to dealing with climate change, but that doesn't necessarily reflect in exactly what's happening right here at my doorstep, right? Yeah, that's correct. It is a, it's a worldwide thing. It's a global thing. And so it really is up to everyone to do their part. There are some specific things like, for example, if you were to go on to the report and look at Indonesia, they had very low emissions, low energy use, low waste, which all looks pretty good. But there's also an underlying statistic that almost 20% of their plastic waste ends up directly in the oceans in Indonesia. So that can definitely affect Indonesia specifically with the ocean life and with the beaches and with the sea tourism. Yeah, there was, there was a piece on, it was in 60 minutes recently about that, the plastic in the ocean. And it, you know, that you have very remote places that are beautiful places. But for one reason or another, the trash winds up in these places and it's really hard to look at it so ugly. And, you know, it fouls them and it fouls their tourism for sure. So let's go back to that chart for a minute, because I have some questions about that chart. So when you get the bottom five, and this is notable, United States is at the top of the bottom five. Does that mean it's at the bottom? You know, that it's the least, doing the least of the bottom five? Or is it doing the most of the bottom five in terms of dealing with climate change? No, it is, it is doing the least. And one of the big contributing factors to it being one of the worst countries, if not the worst on the list, or in the world is the fact that it withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. And there are definitely a lot of groups within the United States that are trying to do their part and trying to fight against climate change. You have lots of great organizations and different communities doing that. Hawaii specifically has groups that are, that are trying to fight against it because, you know, you guys have beautiful beaches and and it brings lots of people there and it's a beautiful place to be. But unfortunately, the United States just, there's, there are very few regulations throughout the nation and there's not a lot of national support for fighting against climate change. Yeah, that's really tragic, because, you know, we have been a leader. I mean, you're talking about a chart and a report that was made recently, right? When was the K-Lon chart issued? I mean, K-Lon report issued. When was this chart made? Yeah, this report was actually released the beginning of July, so it's only been out for about a month. Now, you may not know the answer, but if I went back, I rolled the clock back five years, would this chart be different? I guess it would. Would we have been better on this chart five years ago? I'm not exactly sure if the United States would have been that much better, because within the last five years, there have been a lot of climate initiatives throughout the world. But I mean, for example, Costa Rica, they didn't reach 98% renewable energy just overnight. I mean, they've been working on it for years, whereas the United States, when you're only at, you know, 15 or 16% renewable energy, clearly there's nothing being done and people aren't caring about it. So I don't think the United States necessarily would have changed its place. I don't know if a lot of these countries would have necessarily moved up on the list, but I definitely do think that those top five countries have done a lot in the last five years. So maybe they would have ranked higher. But yeah, yeah, yeah, we might have been better shaped five years ago, relatively speaking. So again, to the right hand side of the chart, you were saying? Oh, no, just yeah, in relative terms, maybe the United States would have ranged better, but I don't think that the specific numbers would have changed that much. To the right hand side of the chart, if we can look at it one more time, you have Costa Rica on the top. And, you know, that's interesting because the people who organized Kailan and the report and the chart are from Costa Rica. So I wonder if you can tell us what is Costa Rica doing right that it gets to be at the top of the chart? Yeah, so as I've mentioned earlier, Costa Rica has taken a lot of initiatives and part of the reason why we put together this report and focused on that on climate change is because Costa Rica does take a lot of pride in the work that they're doing to fight climate change. And so 98% renewable energy has been what they've run off of, and there actually has been 100 consecutive days where they've run off of 100% renewable energy. So they're not using a lot of renewable, which is fantastic. And they also have a low amount of waste versus the United States, who is producing almost twice as much as Costa Rica. Costa Rica is at around 500 kilograms of solid waste per capita, whereas the United States is at 940. So there's a huge difference with that. Or if you want to look at energy use, the United States is using 79,000 kilowatt hours of energy per person versus Costa Rica, where they're only using 11. So they just have taken a lot of initiatives to reduce their waste and their emissions and energy use. And for the energy that they do use, it's mostly renewable. Yeah, so I want to, you know, is it solar? Do they have solar facilities all around Costa Rica? Do they have large solar farms? Do they have storage, battery storage to hold the solar energy overnight? I mean, what exactly have they done to achieve this very high level of renewable energy? Are they using, you know, other sources of renewables? Yeah, absolutely. Like you said, solar is a big one, especially when you are in a country like Costa Rica, that although there is a little bit of rain, there's definitely a lot of shine and they can harness that solar power. But again, like you mentioned, there's wind energy or thermal that they're also able to use. Yeah, that's impressive. So what can the United States learn from Costa Rica? It's a wonderful question, isn't it? You know, we should be looking out there and seeing what the good guys do and seeing how the successful people are handling this and achieving those numbers and getting to the top of the chart. What can we learn from Costa Rica?  One legislation or in his case, executive orders, because that's the way it works for him. What should we do? I mean, I think that the biggest thing about Costa Rica is that they're very mindful of it. They think about it. They've been trained to think about it. They've, you know, the nation as a whole has pushed all of the people that live there to think about recycling and think about when they drive in the car, you know, instead of just driving yourself carpool to work or walk, do what you can to save that. But I really do think it comes down to being conscious and, you know, reduce, reuse, recycle. A lot of people, especially in the United States, don't think about it. We are so used to getting packages from Amazon or, you know, ordering them shipped and we use tons of packaging, tons of plastic and paper, and all of those resources that we, a lot of the time don't even try to recycle it. We just immediately throw it in. It's the most convenient. So definitely fighting climate change isn't going to be convenient. Recycling isn't always convenient. You know, throwing your shampoo bottle into the trash can in your bathroom is a lot easier than throwing it in the recycling bin, but you have to make those conscious decisions and those little extra efforts to fight against climate change. That's really what it comes down to. Yeah. Well, you know, in the end, I want to go one step further on that same question. You know, you need to actually take action. And there's a lot of places where they do tons of talk. I can name places if you like, but they don't take action. And the question is, in Costa Rica, these initiatives, the law, are there sanctions if you fail? Are there sanctions against you if you emit carbon? What is the government doing about it? I mean, how does the government function on this issue? And the second part of that question is, it's sort of connected, is what's the political will? I mean, are the people in Costa Rica dedicated to addressing climate change? Or is it just the government or is it a combination? First of all, to answer the last part about with Costa Rica, I definitely think it's a combination of the two. It's the locals and the government both that are pushing for climate change. They rely a lot on tourism for their income. And they want people to come to a beautiful clean country versus, for example, somewhere like Indonesia that is still a very touristic location. But people don't want to go to beaches where there's trash everywhere, where there's plastic in the ocean. Nobody wants that. So with the United States, I definitely think that when the government is issuing policies and limiting maybe the kinds of energy that are being used, and what's really interesting actually is that the government itself doesn't necessarily push this, but a lot of power companies will push for people to get solar power, obviously, or renewable energy. And when people install solar power for their homes, they're able to receive tax breaks, or they're able to get a certain percentage of that money taken off of their taxes every year just for caring about the environment a little bit more. So I think in the United States specifically or any of these other countries where they ranked low on the list, they're going to implement things like that or make it more widely known that if you do install solar panels on your home, you'll be able to get a tax break. I think that'd be a lot more appealing to people in the long run. And everyone would benefit from it, all of the locals as well as the government. Now I see the core point for Costa Rica. They want to preserve the tourist industry. Surfing is a big part of the tourist industry. So this is their way of making the point of protecting the tourist industry in Costa Rica by addressing climate change everywhere, and especially in Costa Rica. This is relevant, of course, to Hawaii because even if people don't go surfing, they certainly go to the beach. The beach has trash. If the ocean is mucked up somehow or if we have sea level rise, which is likely here, that's a big problem for tourism. So this is why the surfers are interested because they're involved in an industry. Did I get that right? Yeah, absolutely. There are a lot of communities, specifically in Costa Rica, but in other countries as well. You mentioned Hawaii. They do rely a lot on surfing and tourism as a whole. So when you do have those little surf shops or those tourist shops, that's all they have for their family's income. When climate change hits really hard and the beaches disappear and people aren't visiting those countries as much, it's going to be devastating for those communities as they won't be able to support themselves financially. That's really good thinking, good public thinking, good private thinking, good industrial thinking. So you've made or Kailan has made this report. And you know the problem with a report like this is it's static. It's at a certain point in time, say the month of July of 2019. So it's clear to me that if this report is really going to have legs, this report has to be made again and again on a periodic basis, you know, every six months, every year, whatever it is. So that, you know, you can see the sea, excuse the expression, you can see the sea changes. You can see the trends as they unfold. You can see if it's getting better or worse or staying the same. What's the plan, Morgan? Well, we've actually been looking at we it's not a for sure thing, but we have been looking at doing one specifically for the United States that would look at each state and the actions it's taking against climate change to further raise awareness in the United States, which it was ranked as one of the worst countries. So maybe we'll get a report like that out in the near future to help further raise awareness in the United States. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. That is Morgan Henderson. And she's the representative of Calon, who has created this report on surfing around the world. Show us a few things about how it's doing as against climate change. Thank you so much, Morgan. Thank you. Aloha.


I think what has been obvious from going around is first the sheer amount of talent and innovation that's going on. And also the fact that so many businesses are doing extremely well and they're being extremely creative. The other thing of course is that why we're here is that we're trying to bring the regulatory authorities to these sorts of sites and these sorts of clinics to give them an opportunity to understand what the real requirements of the small business are. So we have DOA, DOI, NAFDAG, SCAC, all of the regulatory people. So they're able to understand first and what the problems and challenges are.


Hi everyone, my name is Stephanie Welch and my talk is called Tribal Living, How Might, An Ancestrally Inspired, Gender Segregated Housing Model Outperform the Nuclear Family as the Basic Domestic Unit of Society. I'm going to be asking you to do some experimental thinking with me here today because my proposal challenge is not only how we think about homes, but about relationships, families, paternity, and the value of domestic labor and femininity. It goes against a lot of norms in our society, but that's because it goes back to ways of living that we haven't seen for thousands of years. Fortunately, I know you all are on board with me on this. Okay, a little about me. My formal education includes degrees in Classics and Art History and a decade of experience in hands-on bodywork as a massage therapist. I've studied and dabbled in many other things along the way, but for as long as I can remember, understanding human nature has been my hobby, my passion, and my purpose in life. To me, the key has always been in using an evolutionary lens to understand and reduce our modern mismatch problems, whether it be in the realms of nutrition, biomechanics and physical development, neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, or sexuality. Along this path, for those of you who've known me since my first AHS back in Berkeley 2014, you might have noticed that I've also gone through some personal evolution over the years. And this process has been absolutely critical to what I'm here to share. From shoes are not paleo, to circumcision is not paleo, to evolutionary feminism, these are just a few of the terms that I've used to describe and define what I do and what I've studied over the years. I call myself a disruptive anthropologist because my curiosity about how humans work and the links I've gone to to learn about it are not bound by the limits of social convention. But I've also learned that we not only want to disrupt what's going on currently, but to take what we've learned and build something better. So now I've been using the term re-civilized woman because it's not that we just want to revert to our old ways, it's saying, look, we've done this civilization thing one way, and it turns out it's got some flaws. So let's use the wisdom of evolution and help us see how we might re-civilize ourselves and do something better in the future. Okay, some overview. What I want to talk to you about today is how we physically structure the way that we live in society. And what I mean is how we divide ourselves up into buildings, what we call our homes, which also delineate where we pool resources and whom we share those resources with. The way we choose to range ourselves in these environments has a huge impact on our ability to meet our needs and maximize human potential. This is incredibly important to me because it's actually also the key to how we correct for the imbalances in power and resource distribution that contribute to the sense of patriarchy and women's disempowerment that we experience in our culture. This is the basis of my concept of evolutionary feminism. You see, women are actually programmed to be extremely cooperative with one another while employing sexual rewards as a way to enlist male cooperation and resources. This all has to do with our evolutionary reproductive strategies and how we lived in ways that supported this. So let me explain. Here are some key differences between female and male reproductive strategies that influenced our social evolution. As women, we can only produce in general a maximum of around 10 to 20 offspring in a lifetime, whereas men have an effectively unlimited capacity for offspring, the only limitation being the number of fertile females that they have access to. This limitation is due in large part to the fact that women have, upon fertilization, a minimum of a nine-month investment, whereas men's initial investment is miniscule and they can go on to the next almost without delay. As a result, women cannot increase their rate of reproduction by slowing other women down, whereas every man's success is every other man's failure. On top of this, because the woman is already so obligated by the first nine months and the offspring is now dependent on adult caring guidance for at least the next 10 years or so, it's to her advantage to enlist the support of as many other caretakers as possible to protect that investment, whereas the man could theoretically conserve his resources for only pursuing other fertile females since he knows the mother is already so obligated to invest in this one. One of the most highly instructive observations is that evolutionarily speaking, an offspring dependent stage, the last for over a decade, could only have developed within a robust system of caretakers. One or even two invested parents is simply far too reproductively risky to have contributed to such an extensive evolutionary development. Furthermore, human reproduction is not merely a nine-month process, but one that lasts our entire lives as we contribute resources to the survival of our lineage through all its dependent stages as children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on. Because of this combination of factors, chiefly the hefty reproductive investment and benefits of working together, the evolutionary pressure on women was toward cooperation or socialism. Men on the other hand, whose reproduction was more opportunistic and who could technically get away with investing less, experienced more evolutionary pressure toward competition or capitalism and conserving their own resources. So what I believe makes it all work together as beautifully as it did to bring modern humanity to where we are are the social and sexual dynamics that lead to resource distribution that maximally serves the tribe as a reproductive unit. There it goes. Now let's talk about resources. Before agriculture, nomadic hunter-gatherers didn't own land. They couldn't accumulate much property because of the need to carry it from place to place. And they couldn't build permanent structures in which to divide up wealth and pass it down by lineage. Because people weren't tied to permanent houses, resources couldn't be segregated and were thus communally shared, including that children didn't belong to just one set of parents, but to the whole tribe. Because reproduction was a function of the tribe, not just of biological parents, human women expanded the function of sex from mere fertilization to a method by offering or denying sexual rewards to keep men invested and influence their behavior in the community. Relationships could come and go with ease, allowing women the freedom to exert this power because no one had to move out or pay child support in order to change sexual partners. But as agriculture developed, people began segregating themselves into nuclear family-based housing that competed with one another for resources. So why? Contrary to many assumptions, I believe this new arrangement didn't occur because men demanded control over women. Rather, I think it came about because a man who could, through agriculture, single-handedly provide a lifetime of support for a woman, and all of her children was mind-bogglingly attractive to a hunter-gatherer woman. So much so that she was willing to move in and agree to something as diametrically opposed to our social evolution as offering him sexual monogamy and hence allowing him to know which children were biologically his, at least most of the time, and direct his resources to only them. And the thing is, because this arrangement, this post-agricultural, nuclear family-based, sexually-exclusive domestic environment became so much a part of the canvas of our lives, no one even really stops to ask what needs should our living environment attempt to fulfill and how can that best be done? So that's what we're actually going to look at today. I've attempted to propose several criteria which I believe a home ought to try to provide for its residents. We'll first go over what those criteria might be, and then we'll take a look at the differences in how the nuclear family model seems to be meeting them as compared to a more tribal model that I propose which takes into account the views of evolutionary feminism. We spend a large percentage of our time at home, and thus the domestic environments have tremendous influence on our daily lives. So the question is, what criteria do we want a home to fulfill? What needs do we want it to provide for? I propose that in an ideal situation, our domestic environment should support the following three categories of criteria. Number one, health criteria, number two, social criteria, and number three, growth criteria. Health is familiar to us and covers several of the most basic elements that we normally include in a paleo or ancestral health approach. These would include nutrition, movement and fitness, sleep, and circadian rhythm optimization. Today, instead of looking only at how to modify individual behavior to improve our performance in these areas, we're going to look at how the structure of the home environment itself influences the individual's ability to meet these criteria. Second is social criteria, which is coming to attention as more people note that social relationships are actually the number one predictor of health outcomes. And my suggestion for the criteria that a domestic environment should provide are providing for daily companionship, supporting child rearing, supporting romantic relationships and sexual expression, and encouraging community building. Third, in addition to fulfilling health and social criteria, the domestic environment is also the place where interpersonal and interpersonal development takes place. So I additionally suggest the following criteria of providing an environment that caters to growth by maintaining and passing on knowledge and skills, providing positive role models for other society members, and creating healthy competition to encourage striving for improvement. So let's move on to the assessment of the nuclear family. Although we hear about family values as a big political topic, this could actually mean much more than what we've assumed in the past. Before deciding whether the model that we're accustomed to is even worth saving, we should consider whether it is effectively meeting any of the above criteria that we just said a domestic environment should provide. Now I listed health first initially, but that's because that's what we're most familiar with here in the ancestral health environment, but actually as we pointed out, social relationships are turning out to be an even bigger predictor of health outcomes than individual choices. And since they're part of what makes up our domestic environment itself, I actually want to reverse the order and start with this criteria. So let's take providing for daily companionship. In the nuclear family, adult companionship is usually only available from the romantic partner or in single-family households, no one. This can create high demands on the attention from a partner, which can contribute to stress on the relationship. At the same time, seeking outside support, going out for girls' nights and guys' nights out, for example, detracts from already limited attention available at home. So that's a challenge to get all your companionship from either one person in the home or take time to find it elsewhere. Then there's supporting childbearing. First, we already mentioned earlier that the fact that the human childhood dependence stage lasts for a decade or more could only have developed within a robust system of caretakers. So one or two invests in parents is simply far too risky to have created this in an evolutionary environment. And to have as few as two caretakers is already automatically a huge evolutionary mismatch for a child. Furthermore, unlike in tribal society where men did not know which children were theirs, so they supported the whole community, now men's resources are directed based on paternity. This really limits the pool of people that women can draw on for support of their children. Then there's the question of who will take care of the children while the parents are out earning the living to pay for the childcare that being out earning a living requires, which is a bit of a catch-22 and very economically inefficient. So the obvious question at this point is, well, why don't we just solve this by putting more people in one house? And that is actually part of what I'm getting at with the tribal model, but with an important caveat, which is the gender segregated aspect that I alluded to in the title of this presentation. This is different than the common suggestions of increasing caretakers by either bringing back more extended families, having multiple couples living together, or expanding on existing relationships through polyamory. The problem, as we're about to discuss, is that all of these arrangements continue to be built around cohabitation with romantic partners, and often with ties to biological paternity. Here's where we find one of the most serious pitfalls of the nuclear family-based domestic environment. I hate to say it, but this is important to recognize. Cohabitation is very dangerous to romantic relationships. That doesn't mean it's always fatal, but the fairy tale ideal, which we treat as both the solution and the goal, distracts us from seeing the dangers it presents. When longtime couples seek therapy, what does the therapist tell you to do to reinvigorate the relationship, to return to how you behaved when you were dating, to go out together, to put in more effort, to strive, to impress, and attract your mate? So the intent here is to combat complacency, but the very fact of moving in together and promising to stay together no matter what is what sets the stage for complacency in the first place. When you promise to love and support one another forever, you're saying that no matter how old and fat and lazy you get, I'll always stay with you. But when it comes to romantic relationships, the only way to encourage effort is to make it not a guarantee to stay together. In addition to encouraging complacency, cohabitation detracts from romance and seduction by embroiling the couple in the mundanities of everyday life, by making time spent together the default option taken for granted instead of specially and intentionally planned, and it makes it very difficult for both people to maintain a firm commitment to their own personal needs and boundaries in the relationship. The key to any negotiation, like one in a romantic relationship, is being willing and able to walk away from the table and say no deal. But when this means having to move out, get divorced and battle for custody and child support, we inevitably start by making small compromises instead of staying true to our needs, and over time these compound and fester and undermine the relationship. Now we think we want this because we also want the assurance that we'll both have economic support in the near term and also won't be alone when we get older, which are good points, but this does not mean living with your romantic partner is the only way to meet them and we'll get back to this with the tribal model. In the meantime, the important point is living together is one of the most challenging things we can do to a romantic relationship. When it comes to encouraging community building, with all the demands of work and child care stretching one or two adults thin already, we have little time to get to know our neighbors, but worse we're afraid of them. This again goes back to cohabitating and relying on domestic support from our romantic partners. If we are depending on the faithfulness of our mate to keep the limited resources we have within our household, every other potential competitor for his or her attention represents a potential threat to our livelihood. We may not always want to admit it, but the deep-seated fear is often there, and this is the exact opposite recipe needed for cooperation and community building. So the social challenges of living in the nuclear family pair bonded household are many. What about the health aspects? Well, with most adults working outside the home, hardly anyone has the time or energy to cook healthy meals with regularity. On top of all our other responsibilities, it's really hard to shop with values, to get to the farmer's market consistently, to choose the best and healthiest options, to set aside time to prepare them, and to do so before your groceries spoil. So we compromise on food often. Similarly, time and energy for fitness is lacking due to the high demands of home, work, children, and partner. Since this relationship model centers around permanence and monogamy, there's also little incentive to try to be physically fit to impress the partner, since they've promised they won't leave us, and it's going to be really hard for them to move out. In fact, pursuing fitness and attractiveness at a higher level can even appear as evidence of cheating. Just who are you trying to impress? And of course, we know how chronically sleep-deprived many people are. It's often an afterthought, as two people trying to work, run a household, and raise children barely have time for themselves, if there are two in the first place. Stress leads to fighting with the romantic partner, which leads to even more lost sleep and strain on the relationship. At this level of challenge and deficit, trying to manage circadian rhythm is often entirely out of the question. So to keep going with growth criteria, we have challenges there as well. When I saw in my household growing up, and I've witnessed for many parents since then, is that people often take the easy route of doing things for children? Because it takes less time and energy than teaching them. Too often, with the pressure to get things done efficiently, kids are handed the screen of hyper-stimulating entertainment instead of being incorporated into daily activities. This problem continues to get worse over time, as each successive family unit becomes more and more isolated and detached from the ancient knowledge and wisdom handed down by our ancestors. As for positive role models, again, with only two adults typically present, children are short on role models as well. This also compounds every generation. If the current role models are sub-optimal and few other adults are present in their lives to compare with, children are likely to perform successively worse than the last generation on this when they in turn become adults. In addition, because of the social deficits we discussed, we spend most of our time relating to fictional versions of other people instead of reality. Among adolescents and adults, the daily struggles of peers are rarely seen, while Facebook and Instagram paint fantasies of the lives of others. Depression and anxiety result from fear of missing out and comparing ourselves to imaginary ideals of how everyone else is succeeding more than we are. These deficiencies reduce our social skills even further. And competition is seen as a nearly universal negative, as we are trapped in a scarcity mindset, where everything we're holding together depends on keeping our home and relationship exactly the way it is, unchallenged by others. Concepts like body shaming even come into play here, as suggesting or striving for evolutionarily driven aesthetic values is seen as shallow. There's no room to spur each other on to our better selves if that just means our friends will then be even stronger competition for our domestic partners. To top it off, when the nuclear family model does frequently self-distract, this leaves everyone feeling like a failure. If we only realize that the model itself was largely to blame, perhaps we could be a little bit easier on ourselves. So the nuclear family does not seem to be performing well at these criteria. The alternative model I propose, which is of course controversial, involves bringing together same-sex, nonromantically involved adults into the same domestic environment rather than romantic mother-father pair bonds. This model also suggests a return to mothers taking primary responsibility for children, which happens to be consistent with our biology, and male participation in child care being voluntary and distributed rather than mandatory and limited by biological paternity. The way this is accomplished is by, instead of men supporting the children they've individually fathered, they return to supporting the communities of the women whose company they want to enjoy. At the same time, women in turn distribute resources amongst their own households, addressing all levels of multi-generational support according to their needs. So the question is, how might this gender segregated model, more like our tribal origins, be able to fulfill although previously discussed criteria more effectively than the nuclear family model does? Returning to social criteria, we can look at how a household of women or men working together might operate differently than one based around a romantic pair. For women in particular, the key evolutionary pressure as we discussed was based around a reproductive strategy of high resource investment in a small number of offspring. Unable to speed up our own rates of reproduction by slowing other women down, and vastly increasing the chances of our offspring surviving by increasing the number of adults invested in their care, women are deeply viscerally programmed to cooperate with one another, and this presents a huge opportunity if we share resources within the same household. I've personally experienced that coming together with other women can be very powerful. I have heard the same for men who participate in men's groups. The openness and ability to express oneself with authenticity often drastically exceeds that found in co-ed situations. So this provides a significant opportunity for increased daily companionship.  With women living together, the number of caretakers in the household can increase to the capacity of the living space without creating the complications of housing romantic relationships under the same roof that we discussed earlier. This ability to distribute the domestic workload among more than two adults could be invaluable and greatly increase our freedom to pursue our dreams even with children on board, as some can participate in child care while others pursue alternative activities, taking turns so each person has access to many opportunities. To return to the issue of romantic relationships, although it requires a significant mental shift from the approach of monogamous cohabitation, this is one of the greatest opportunities we have to change the state of male-female power dynamics and get everyone more of what they want out of romantic relationships. The biggest limitation on women's empowerment, in my opinion, is in the realm of sexual empowerment. Since agriculture, women have been working on the assumption that their sexual choices were the bedrock of their domestic stability. Disengaging these elements is one of the most liberating things a woman can experience. If a woman knows that she has the freedom to make sexual choices without disrupting her home, she can be much more relaxed about those choices. And instead of putting men on the hook for any potential pregnancy that might result, because she gets her primary child care support through her community, she can instead expect more from how he treats her in the moment rather than trying to tie him down forever. We mentioned that couples therapy sometimes involves returning to how one would act before living together. So what if we simply left things in the pre-cohabitative state instead of moving together in the first place? What if every time you wanted to go out with someone you actually had to impress them?  What if we all held higher expectations of one another and helped each other understand what we were looking for so we could work on delivering it? It would be a big step up to not taking each other for granted anymore. At the same time, because our value of knowledge and wisdom to our same-sex community actually goes up with our age, whereas our sexual value to potential romantic partners tends to go down with age, relying on a gender segregated community for long-term support makes more sense than asking of it from the romantic partner. On community building, how much more incentive would we have to get to know our neighbors if they were the pool of potential romantic partners instead of having that role fulfilled at home? And what if the attraction we had for them did not threaten our own domestic environments? I believe the idea of visiting our neighbors more often when they're attractive and not threats to our domesticity presents a huge opportunity. In fact, it represents a huge sift in how we think about getting our needs met if we're working collectively rather than each person for themselves when it comes to romantic partner seeking and how this brings resources into our household. If communities of men seek to support communities of women, we can distribute the economic resources and burdens in a way that allows more people to get what they want out of life. Getting back to health benefits, an increased number of domestic inhabitants also greatly improves the chances that we can work together on prioritizing health goals. There's great benefit to being able to specialize and delegate duties that can be scaled like shopping and cooking, but which are very time intensive for only one or two individuals. With more time and shared responsibilities, plus the motivation to keep in shape since we're not taking for granted the presence of a permanent monogamous partner, the likelihood of prioritizing fitness goes up. Also, among similarly physically advantaged same-sex peers, fitness can be a more appealing social activity encouraging us to partake more readily with a healthy form of competition. This is actually a noteworthy point because it's not the case when women are pitted against men in physical or other contests. Men invariably lose face when competing with women as to beat a girl and to lose to a girl both reflect poorly on him. When it comes to sleep and circadian rhythm, if we could reduce and distribute the daily demand so that there's enough energy to go around and address all the other health needs, there may be a lot more time for sleep. In addition, with the romantic partners not being given, we have more motivation to continue developing all aspects of health as they relate to attractiveness toward our non-cohabitating partners. And without the stress that comes from tension in the romantic relationship at home, we can also focus more on taking care of ourselves when we are at home. In passing on knowledge and skills with a network of community members we can connect to more readily as well as distributed labor with more caretakers in our households, we have access to many more people to learn from and we can have time available for this kind of teaching and learning. This photo shows one of my favorite kinds of performance to witness, the Maori haka dance, a traditional male display of strength, ferocity and unity. This activity is a way for men to come together to provide positive role models to support the growth and development of younger members of the community. I can't decide which is more attractive, the actual physical display or the idea that they're teaching and bringing up the youth through guidance and rites of passage into what it means to be a warrior. So imagine an environment in which we have both stability of our domestic environment independent of our sexual choices and at the same time no guarantees of success with romantic partners, but instead a host of role models surrounding us to learn from and the impetus to always strive for improvement. We have to continuously work at being good romantic partners in order to maintain our relationships but we also know that we're not relying on them as our sole means of support for the rest of our lives. Women's cooperative instincts are maximized to create stability for children while men urge each other toward optimal efforts and behavior because the opportunities to impress women, including by providing resources and good examples for their children, are limitless and not constricted by monogamy. The focus is on equality of opportunity rather than equality of outcome. At the very least it can't provide much worse outcomes than our current system, can it? So I've shared with you what I think are valid criteria for a domestic environment to be judged by. We looked at how the pair bonded monogamous nuclear family unit as a household basis does not seem to be fulfilling them. I'm sure I've left many unanswered questions in this short attempt to describe a more ancestral tribal model of a household, but I'm curious if you think as I do that if thoughtfully enacted perhaps this tribal and evolutionary based model might outperform the nuclear family at meeting our needs and helping us to unlock human potential. Thank you very much. Great talk. We have time for some questions. Stephanie, I won't make a question as this is a straight comment. The brilliant, thank you very much, is was answering you encapsulated what I already do and think perfectly. You know, you widened my mind on a direction that I was already thinking but I live with my partner, her sister, we've got two kids, we have a work colleague stays half the time, we have an aunt that's been staying for the last year and the whole thing flows so much better. With my people? Yeah, well half the time I've got my nephew staying with me and so we have a five, a four and a three-year-old that's fun, too much and it just works, it really does. Sometimes we go out one night, we instantly have a baby sitter, you don't have to worry about it, there's no planning, it's no stress then when we don't want to get up in the morning I just lock the door, don't worry about what the kids are going to do in the morning, I know someone's going to like after them is going to get sorted. Literally I couldn't do the work I do in a normal nuclear family, I couldn't have achieved it, I couldn't have got where I am today with a nuclear family, it would have been too stressful, difficult and it just works brilliantly. Thank you very much. Thank you. I also think that cohabitation will take care of a lot of things that we are deeply missing. I'm a parent and I've suffered from a lot of the things you talked about. I did want to say something about co-dependence and if you don't realize that you're responsible for your own happiness then a monogamous relationship can be a particularly horrific place for those co-dependencies to play out but I'm not sure that is the fault of the monogamy and I think that there can be problems in polyamory that aren't necessarily fixed. For example, if you think that you have to compete with other people at all times and that you're going to lose attention from your loved ones, if you've taken a bad health turn or if you are pregnant, this can be a strain on a relationship that might not be ideal as well. Yeah and so the the model that I'm talking about, I would differentiate it from polyamory and actually part of it is to not be attempting to rely primarily on those romantic partners as the base of support so that's part of where it's coming from is you're creating a household that is not dependent on the romantic partner and so it's protective of some of the things that maybe you're saying like the taking a bad turn or the idea of the getting older and all that because you're relying domestically on somebody who's not that's not your primary engagement with them. I think that's great. One of the things that was a great life changer for me was realizing that I didn't need to get all of my needs met from one person and when you've gone through a divorce you can suddenly see where you have done that and where you haven't so yeah thank you. Hi Alyssa. Hey Stephanie thank you for your courageous and crazy ideas I love it. Okay so I just I'm just curious why you're thinking that the gender segregation is ancestral because I think actually the the the idea that we evolved through these cooperative tribal situations rather than pairs is absolutely uncontroversial but when you look at like the extant anthropological comparison you see a lot of variation actually in how much men are involved in childrearing ranging from like nothing to all the time there with the children as much as the women are so I'm yeah I'm just curious like is there not like other is there not another model say of communal living that would not be gender segregated that would work as well. Yeah so the biggest thing that is the issue is how resources are managed and that they're tied to like the households that we live in that's what has complicated this because yeah in the ancestral model that was part of the point earlier on is that we weren't divided up by households that were competing internally or against each other when in households so essentially as long as we want to continue using houses as a way to organize ourselves the it's it's trying to come up with a way to get a little bit closer to some of the things that we had in that more communal environment in the first place and if we're going to pick people to put in a house and to have the basis of that house is resources that are working together this is an attempt to get a little bit closer it's not again that's the re-civilized aspect is it's not trying to go back and create the exact same original model and the idea again being that if we set it up in a way that visiting our neighbors was more more necessary and appealing maybe we could actually get a lot more interaction than we have had when we've been kind of secluding ourselves based on that nuclear unit so there's the two ways that it's trying to come at that so thanks. Hi Marty. Stephanie that was fantastic. I just want to dovetail off Dr. Mew inspired me to say how some of these things can actually happen in our lives in an organic fashion so Stephanie has impacted my life for the last two or three years just getting an opportunity to hear about her theories so I was about to divorce my husband and he had a girlfriend and so eventually she ended up living with us before the divorce was final and we he was on the way out I didn't push him out in an aggressive fashion because I was raising finishing raising his son my stepson 17 years old at that time trying to get him through high school so as it turned out this gal and a couple of times when you and I have been together she's called me with issues so it's it's very interesting I didn't realize how much this kind of just feeling less competitive even with my first husband for some reason I was not feeling competitive about other women I thought that was unusual about me so as it turned out this woman in the household and then my ex-husband has just naturally gone to live somewhere else but she has taken up part of the mothering role for my stepson so when I was too busy to do things she would drive him places and and do things for him so my lack of competitiveness regarding her made it easy for the whole thing to dissolve into a better you know the the marriage dissolve and now she's still in the household being supportive and it's I understand that's just a small slice of what you're talking about here but the it's untenable trying to financially afford these households the way we have them now and as you clearly said and it's so true people put too much responsibility on the spouse and then not knowing the neighbors so have you seen other situations that have started to blossom in this fashion and or do you have households or or living situations that you envision for the future well yeah that's that's part of what I'm hoping to create in Austin so I've been working on moving there for a while and creating environments like this so the the term Amazonia is our the term that we've been using for the style of women living together and it's complementary counterpart affectionately has been called Manzonia to create create groups that that can create this kind of so the two houses just as you said here that's how it's a little different from just polyamory yes it's definitely different from polyamory it's yeah it's it's splitting the splitting the relationship out of the household model so you inspired me and just help my household just kind of settle into something quite different so thanks thank you hi Brett hi Stephanie you know i'm going to ask you the the tough one right so with monogamy which may have led to the rise of civilization you had to kind of fitness matching it's called we're tens pair bond with tens eight pair bonds with other eights and so on down more or less that's what happens people can accumulate wealth and transmitted across generations what what would happen in this scenario if it were a happen at a large scale certain men would might get shut out of the reproductive around and they would become the term now is in sales or like sexual refusenics what would what would prevent the build up of these surplus males they're not as attractive from running around causing trouble yeah i actually agree that is a serious problem that we need to address and that's part of the intent here is to actually find ways to do that and by taking it for women taking it upon ourselves to help facilitate and encourage and teach and reach out to men who are having difficulty like that and between resources like the even the jeffrey miller and tucker max's book mate that's like a advice for guys i distribute more copies of that book definitely for people who want to support that for men who want to support the communities but maybe they have some challenges that would be one of the things that i would believe in as encouraging women working together to help guys who are struggling and try to try to teach try to share try to like that one of the things i mentioned earlier in terms of like helping share what we want and help encourage them to provide it so that we can actually kind of raise everybody up on this that's all the time we have for questions now thank you so much stephanie thank you


Hi everybody. I planned on doing daily videos this week, but jumping back into things without talking about everything that's been happening just didn't feel right. What a time to be alive. I don't know where you are, but in LA, the Sirens and Helicopters are a constant reminder of everything that's happening all over the city. There's little to be happy about these days, but one of the most encouraging things to me has been the momentum that this movement has gathered. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Amon Arbery are all household names, and their legacies are being carved out in the actions of tens of thousands of peaceful protesters every day. And before I go any further, this is not a political issue. This is not about which side of the aisle you or I stand on. This is a humanitarian issue, and if you think I'm wrong, ask your black friends how many times in their life they've been pulled over by cops with guns drawn.  If you don't think you have certain privileges in this country as a white person, take a look at this photo. If the man with his hand on the gun were black, the cop wouldn't be trying to talk him down. There would just be one more dead son, husband, brother, or father. I don't care if George Floyd was on drugs or had a criminal record. He was a human being made in God's image, and he didn't deserve a knee on his neck for almost nine minutes from someone whose job it is to serve and protect. We did some volunteer work on Friday. There was a cleanup effort in South Central. For a couple hours, we joined about a thousand other people picking up trash and cleaning graffiti. No looting, no tear gas, just a bunch of people wanted to help. It was a beautiful thing to be a part of, but I know it's not enough. We're investigating other ways to further help our community, but while we do that, I'm getting back to making videos, just not every day. We'll be talking about what's happening right now for a very long time, as well as what we did during this time, and I don't want to tell my grandkids that I spent it at home making videos on the internet. I'm not committing to a schedule because I want to be free to attend events around town, but yeah, break over. Stay safe, and let's all listen to each other more.


The really interesting thing about this program and it really comes out of the relationship that's been built over all these years is the level of trust that we have in the Wisconsin Technical College System, which has allowed us to build a program which is extremely unique in that anyone coming from an associate's degree in a technical area from the Wisconsin Technical College System can join this program. So if you're coming from healthcare, if you're coming from agriculture, if you're coming from mechanical engineering, any of those majors would transfer seamlessly into our program and allow you to join us as a junior. My name is Samuel Oakley. I'm currently a junior at MSOE for the Technical Business Management Program. I transferred to MSOE from Waukshire County Technical College. My associate's degree was in Automation Systems Technology. All across the automation industry, I mean, even engineers on their own are in high demand, so if you can combine your engineering knowledge and technical knowledge and expertise and pair it with being able to interact with customers and work with customers to further solve problems, I think it's just even better. I thought that my associate's was great and I loved the work I was doing, but I wanted to do a little bit more in the education side and looking around for the programs that transferred, I found that MSOE fit my needs the best. The education that WCTC provided me helped me grow and become a better person to step forward and be ready for a four-year university. I get to keep my technical knowledge and expertise that I have in my previous degree and then combine that with problem-solving and business techniques from MSOE into the best of both worlds.


TESAL, TORRENTO The home of our training course in Canada is the city of Toronto, the capital of Ontario and the most populous city in the country. This important global city is at the very heart of the country's business and finance sectors and also leads the way in terms of its arts and culture. Although Toronto is undeniably large in size, countless polls and surveys would suggest that it has avoided the fate of many North American cities by being rated as one of the world's most livable urban areas. Add the welcoming nature of the local people and you can see why the cosmopolitan city of Toronto has become a popular destination for completing our TEFL TESAL course. Toronto has steadily grown on waves of immigration since its initial founding and this continuing trend means the city is one of the most diverse in the entire region. The city's multicultural population hails from all corners of the globe which has led to a unique blend of cultural attractions to enjoy. 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Of course, there is more to this city than winter sports, why not sign up for our course in Toronto and find out for yourself. TESOL FUKIT Our TESOL courses in FUKIT, Thailand, are fully accredited both internationally and also by the Thai Ministry of Education. We therefore offer the highest standard of TESOL training available. The TESOL certificate you gain after completing the course is not only valid for teaching English in Thailand but also teaching English worldwide. The beautiful, tropical island of FUKIT, fortunately pronounced as Phuket, is frequently and justifiably referred to as the Pearl of the Andaman Sea and is the largest island in Thailand. FUKIT offers something for everyone and it really is the ideal location for a TESOL course in Thailand. FUKIT is situated in the crystal clear, tropical waters of the Andaman Sea just off the southwest coast of Thailand. Although classed as an island, FUKIT is connected to the mainland by means of a bridge. FUKIT has rightly become famous all over the world as a tropical wonderland and eyewater sports paradise. FUKIT offers a wide variety of terrain which includes gorgeous lengths of white sand beaches which are gently lapped by the warm and crystal clear Andaman Sea with forested cliffs and mountains for a backdrop, numerous waterfalls and a great variety of flora and fauna. However, FUKIT isn't just about the scenery and beaches as it hosts an amazing variety of water sports, attractions, nightlife and entertainment. FUKIT probably offers the widest variety of activities that can be found anywhere in Thailand. World famous diving and snorkeling facilities, sea kayaking, wind surfing, horseback riding, bungee jumping, elephant trekking and hiking through rain forests are just a few of the activities that you can take part in. As FUKIT is a tropical island situated close to the equator the climate is tropical and as such the island offers warm hot temperatures 356 days of the year. Days are either hot and sunny or hot and rainy and while the temperature doesn't vary greatly during the year the hottest months are usually from November through March. Despite the hot climate, the sea breeze helps keep the island pleasant even during the hottest days. Thai culture is becoming increasingly known around the world and despite FUKIT's popularity as a tourist destination, you will also have the opportunity to witness genuine Thai culture and lifestyle. There are numerous attractive Buddhist temples on the island, outdoor markets can be found in many areas in and around FUKIT town. Thais love Muay Thai boxing and you will have the opportunity of attending matches, visiting one of the many malls or just enjoy the simple life chatting with locals. Thai people are famous for being peaceful and friendly and it is for good reason that Thailand is named the land of smiles. FUKIT is also an ideal location for visiting other provinces and regions of Thailand, as well as for traveling to interesting neighboring countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, Burma. FUKIT has an international airport and an extensive public transport system and so such travel is relatively quick, inexpensive and straightforward. This tropical paradise is guaranteed to please just about everyone and with the incredibly low cost of living, a tesol course in Thailand shouldn't work out any more expensive than taking a course elsewhere. There is a huge variety of teaching jobs available throughout Thailand and in the whole of Asia, including some of the best paid jobs in the EFL profession, FUKIT is one of the most popular locations to take a tesol course and to find employment teaching English. Tesol Rome Rome is one of our most popular tesol course locations. The combination of culture, history and the large number of English teaching jobs throughout Italy make it an ideal choice for a tesol course. Our tesol training center is in a perfect location, close to the Vatican and public transport and offers very modern training facilities and IT professional staff to ensure you have a memorable time during your course. It is easy to imagine sitting outdoors on a pleasant evening enjoying a refreshing ice cream while sitting on the world famous Spanish steps or overlooking the Colosseum and just watching as people stroll on by. This wonderful mix of the old and the new of culture and history and the unique delights that Rome offers makes it unquestionably one of the most beautiful, fascinating and famous cities in the world. Rome is widely known as the eternal city and is certainly one of the most important of all European cities in terms of the sheer wealth of history, culture and religion and has been so for thousands of years. It is hard to imagine that any other city could rival the overall depth of history and beauty that can be found here with wonderful architectural structures such as the Colosseum, Treaty Fountain, Spanish Steps, the remains of the Roman Forum the imposing presence of the Vatican and masterpiece that is Sistine Chapel and that's just beginning. However, Rome isn't only a place to experience the past. There is also a modern lively feeling to the city and it is a wonderful location in which to witness modern daily life and see how it fits uncomfortably against the backdrop of ancient culture and history. The many delightful old squares with their old fashioned cobblestone streets and courtyards are favored meeting places for both locals and tourists and are fantastic places for sitting under the warm Italian skies and people watching. Rome has a great many restaurant terraces offering authentic and sensational Italian cuisine yet at quite reasonable prices. Rome is situated along the Italian west coast and while the city is very large and spread out over an extensive area running down to the coast, the famous historical center is quite small and localized and it is certainly easy enough to visit most of the better known attractions on foot. The city, however, also has an extensive, efficient and modern public transport system for visiting further afield. Due to its close proximity to the beach, the city of Rome is ideally located for people wishing to experience a major historical city and yet at the same time, have easy access to the lovely beaches of the Mediterranean. As there is a wide range of opportunities for teaching English in Italy, it is the perfect choice of location for your Tessal course. Tessal Los Angeles. Santa Monica, although surrounded by the huge urban sprawl of Los Angeles on three sides, is actually a separate city in its own right and is situated on the fantastic California coast. More than 300 days of sunshine per year mean that there are plenty of opportunities to make the most of the beaches on this beautiful stretch of coastline. The city also provides the perfect antidote to the frenetic pace of Los Angeles life and draws a wide range of people from celebrities, artists, students and surfers all looking to enjoy the city's laid back atmosphere. Long a major draw for visitors from the wider Los Angeles region, Santa Monica's beachfront also brings in tourists from all over the globe. The connection of the city to the National Railroad Network brought in large numbers of day trappers and the beginning of the 20th century saw the arrival of the first amusement piers. In its heyday there were several of these piers housing all manner of rides, arcades and dance halls, not to mention roller coasters. Although many of these are original attractions have since disappeared, the famous Santa Monica pier still stands as a monument to the city's golden age. The beachfront also has 3.5 miles of sand with parks to wander around, as well as plenty of beautiful spots to have a picnic. Santa Monica is also home to the original Muscle Beach, the famous hangout for bodybuilders, acrobats and gymnasts since the 1930s. As mentioned, Santa Monica is a city in its own right and though it has plenty to offer, it cannot be denied that its proximity to Los Angeles is major factor in the city's popularity. Hollywood is an ever popular draw for visitors from all over the world with the iconic sign overlooking the city, tours of major movie studios and the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame, just some of the star-studded attractions. There are also a wide range of museums and galleries to visit including the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Getty Center which houses an extensive art collection and beautiful gardens offering stunning views over the city. Whatever reason you have for choosing Santa Monica as your destination for earning a TEFL Tezal certificate, you can be confident that you have made the right choice. Our excellent facilities and dedicated IT professional trainers combined with the beautiful beaches and everything else Santa Monica has to offer ensure that you have an educational and fun experience on our TEFL Tezal course in Santa Monica. Tezal, Arizona. Due to a long history influenced by a booming copper industry, the state of Arizona was nick named the Copper State. Today, it is one of the most popular places to visit in the country with a great selection of natural sights and attractions. The most famous is probably the Grand Canyon National Park. Every year, millions of visitors come to explore the spectacular canyon carved out by the Colorado River. Since 1979, the Grand Canyon has also been the UNESCO World Heritage Site and is one of the oldest national parks of its kind in North America. We have got another example of Arizona's beauty is Sedona National Park where wind, water and time have formed sandstones that glow in hues of orange and red. Besides the unique stone formations, the National Park also has a collection of waterfalls where you can take the cooling swim. Oak Creek Canyon is another popular spot where wide expanses of greenery create a lusher ambience compared to other canyons. Visitors to the parks can also engage in a range of different activities such as biking, hiking and horseback riding. The more adventurous can also try rock climbing. As you can see, Arizona is a true paradise for outdoor lovers. Not only do the many canyons offer exciting hiking and biking trails, but Arizona's many beautiful rivers and lakes also provide a great venue for water activities. Visitors and locals can enjoy kayaking, fishing, jet skiing and swimming. Whitewater rafting is another option for those looking for a more thrilling adventure. The city of Tucson could be the perfect location to shoot a Wild West movie. However, you will also find relaxing resorts, golf courses and abundant shopping facilities. The city's fine culinary scene has earned Tucson the title UNESCO City of Astronomy, one of the first of its kind. The city of Cottonwood is another culinary gem where top quality wine making is possible due to the rich soil and favorable climate. Wine tasting among the vineyards is the order of the day in this area of the state. When in Cottonwood, be sure to stop by Oak Creek Vineyard, Javelina Leap Vineyard or Alcantara Vineyard. These family owned wineries will be happy for you. The city of Phoenix is the largest in the state and an interesting place to visit. Shop at Kyrland Commons or Biltmore Fashion Park to get the best deals while a range of luxury resorts offer the perfect place to unwind and escape the hustle and bustle. ODC Aquarium is home to sharks, turtles, penguins, jellyfish, octopus and more. Other popular attractions in Phoenix include Lloyd Wright's Winter Home and the Musical Instrument Museum. Besides being a premier vacation destination, Arizona is also a great place for your studies. Northern Arizona University has 36 different campuses across the state and offers some of the best programs in the region. Taking your TEFL TESOL course in Arizona will enable you to start an international career teaching in foreign language. Sign up for our training course today and become a qualified English language teacher.