The importance of talking to strangers | Samantha Weinberg | TEDxKish

What if travels was redefined, what if we all travelled like immigrants and felt the places we visited like locals. This is an exploration to discover the power of talking to strangers.

Samantha Weinberg was born in London in 1966 to South African parents. She has a degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge, but dates the start of her real education to 1989, when she moved to pre-independence Namibia and began seeing the world through other people’s lives. She has reported from five continents for most of the major publications in the UK, South Africa and America, and written six books, including the international best-seller, “A Fish Caught in Time: the Search for the Coelacanth”, and “The Moneypenny Trilogy”. Currently, she works at The Economist Group’s Intelligent Life Magazine, where she edits the Places section.

[janika]

Her article on giving a TEDx talk was erally inspiring and eye-opening .

[lgcseer]

This is a very important and necessary requirement for people to develop their social skills and emotions. We understand the need to connect, explore, live the true unforgiving circumstances that others face night n day. Major news companies have been brainwashing n distracting people from learning the truth, suffocated the helpless, distorting image of the goal needed to assist those in this great age of modern understanding n technological revolution.

[maryfallon]

What an amazingly honest and insightful lead into the need for us all to look outside ourselves and in the words of Samantha Fletcher, "take a deep breath of the air" as you arrive in a new land and being alongside whatever presents itself and in her openhearted way to meet all in trust. To dispel that fear of the 'stranger' by living alongside accepting and eventually being accepted in a vastly different way of life than the comfortable West. And her beautiful children showing a wisdom beyond their years, by simply taking their shoes off and sharing the 'disgusting porage' instead of eating their sandwiches, becoming one in the community in which they had come to live. But to those who find it difficult to face the bravery of anyone such as Samantha in an Iranian audience and reveal herself so intimately and miss the value in her conclusion of 'Talking to Strangers' in how we can interact in a world that is making itself more remote from that physical and cultural experience by our supposed advances in technology and only having virtual experiences in the isolation of our comfortable lives. Thank you Sam. We are sisters in so many ways.

[Ariza]

I think she's doing an extraordinary amount of projecting. It's not true that you can't immerse yourself in the local flavors of peoples/cultures just because you stay in a hotel. And globalization is doing just fine. The global language is English, providing a wonderful connection with every corner of the globe. I would not want to be the child of a mother who would take advantage of my childhood innocence, vulnerability, and openness, to fulfill her neediness that radically different cultures should live and adapt to each others' way of life. I just don't think this is necessary in order to become aware of the multiplicities of cultures around the world. In fact, upon growing up, I'd be angry at her for robbing me of childhood experiences that I would have enjoyed more, instead of trying to adapt to cultures and climates completely unsuited to my genetic. For the full story, I wonder what her grown-up kids will think of their childhood experiences.

[PlutoniaFreeBandz]

To ask "why can't I be brown" equates to empathy????

[mariarosales]

Gracias por compartir interesante tema.

[rubankumar]

Inequalities should be blown away... We are all same..."Human"... We often don't talk with our neighbors,  egoes, status, money, wealth, health, all that "n0things" make us our life to believe the way it That shackles need to be cut down.... Thanks for inviting me to your home.... :)

[upgradeiself]

Are these speakers all briefed? Because they sound all the same.

[yossarianmcnulty]

Came here after reading your piece in 1843. You made a mess of an otherwise good subject. But the piece was well written. Cheers.

[erwindejose]

Was this recorded in Kish, Iran? I love that place.

[pathanmoulali]

Clayton: its the easy way to connect with the people.

[caninbar]

In French there are two different words: inconnu and étranger.

[fosforlukalem]

I don't like when people talk so slowly give me everything i will think about it later damn it.

[patrickvangelder]

Life would be much better if we stop flying around the globe, polluting it.

[newbeequilter]

I listened to the first five minutes to hear why as a newly-wed, she abandoned her husband. With no valid explanation, I didn't care to hear the rest of this speech. This is not a woman who's advice I'd respect.

[nigeltown]

Oh dear; you totally missed the one point at which you could actually make a difference. When your children cast off their shoes and tried to integrate they were doing what you could not - becoming human

[tylermills]

shes an author of books but hers are always politically motivated.  does anyone know of similar authors who explore different cultures but arent so politically correct?

[solamano]

I had to stop listening. Hug a tree, leftist, love the world bs.