There are many Dystonia symptoms.  Primarily, it is a movement disorder that can literally cripple people.  It sends erroneous signals to one’s muscles. Many with Parkinson’s Disease have Dystonia as well.

I mention to Rogers Hartmann, “You strike me as a fighter and you are an activist. Sometimes what strikes us is what makes us.”

She shares her story – She, in her fight to overcome and conquer the disease, does not give up. She has gone from a wheelchair, to a walker to a cane and now actually runs 2 miles a day.  Her comment, “I try to push myself. I can’t do more to myself than what’s already been done… so why not!”  She states, “Dystonia has changed my life so deeply. It’s hard to express to people. I’ve always felt a sense of purpose, but this has left me totally ignited. It gave me such purpose.”

Rogers Hartmann has founded a Foundation that looks for causes and cures and is set up to help people with the disorder. Join us for an inside look at her sense of mission.

As always we’re talking about things that matter with people who care…

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Niki Nicastro McCuistion

“The timing was right,” she tells us. “I had no pets, no boyfriend and I wanted to do something important. If I was going to give back, I thought, now’s the time.”

Tanya, also one of the presenters at TEDx SMU, says,

“I really wanted to work in an orphanage. My Grandpa was an orphan. So here I was, an Indian girl who had never lived in India, the country of my birth. So I went to Mother Teresa’s orphanage. There were 300 kids, 27 in a class. I washed nappies, changed diapers and taught.”

Tanya tells us of a people who have so little and yet are happy. She played with street children and got to know them and their names. There are 1 billion people in India and of these, 18 million are street kids and 40 % of the kids in India suffer from malnutrition.  The turning point for Tanya was a quote by Mother Teresa that she saw on a wall in a Calcutta classroom, “If you can’t feed 100 people, then feed just one.”

Tanya chose to focus on that on. “I can raise money, I can feed one or two kids, and I can improve conditions.”

Join us and Tanya Pinto at TEDx SMU and hear more about her work.

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Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/Producer the McCuistion Program

Turk visited 20 countries to gain a perspective on what ennobles us and what are the most pressing problems needing solutions, today and in the future.  We asked him what is one of the most critical issues we face:

“Water. It’s a huge problem. We interviewed one couple who work in Ethiopia. They founded A Glimmer of Hope.”

Turk tells us, “Here is one couple working with the problems of 2 million people.” A Glimmer of Hope tackles 3000 projects surrounding the water issue. “They will dig 2000 wells, 60 feet deep. It costs them $4000 to provide water for 500 people” Not bad at $8 a head.

Join us and Turk Pipkin as we talk about what an average person can do to make something noble happen that produces radical change.

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Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/Producer
The McCuistion Program

A truly remarkable story, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is the story of William Kamkwamba, a young man from Malawi, who, in 2002, at fourteen years of age endured one of the worst famines in Malawi’s history. The famine killed thousands of people and forced the Kamkwamba family of 20 to the brink of starvation. William had to drop out of school since his father, a corn and tobacco farmer, could not afford the $80 a year school fees.

But William was just as hungry for education as he was food. William tells us,

“I looked at my father in those dry fields and knew it was a future I could not accept.”  Becoming a farmer “who farmed to live rather than for profit was unacceptable.”

So he continued studying on his own at a local library which had just opened in his old school. The library was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. Even though his English was very rudimentary he taught himself basic physics, primarily through studying the diagrams and photos in the bedraggled fifth grade science book, Using Energy. In his autobiography, he says, “The book has since changed my life.”

While his villagers poked fun and thought him crazy, William rummaged through junk at scrap yards and used garbage- discarded tractor fans, shock absorbers, plastic pipes, and bicycle parts and built a windmill that generated enough electricity to produce twelve volts that powered four lights. A second windmill was able to irrigate the family garden. Since electricity is a luxury that fewer than 2 percent of Malawians enjoy, news spread. In his book he says, “A windmill meant more than just power. It was freedom.” He tells us, “My family would never go hungry again.”

Bryan Mealer, whose work has appeared in Esquire and Harper’s, among other publications, is the author of All Things Must Fight to Live: Stories of War and Deliverance in Congo and a former Associated Press staff writer, had been based in Kinshasa, Congo for four years. He was despondent and burned out, constantly reporting on the bad news that comes out of Africa. He happened to read a Wall Street Journal story about William, after William had gone to a TED conference, and said to himself, “This is the story I’ve always wanted to write.”  He believes a reporter has a responsibility to tell the news, good or bad, but “to find good stories you have to look for them.” The two teamed up to write an inspiring work.

Join us in this short clip as we talk about things that matter with people who care…

Niki Nicastro McCuistion
Executive Producer/Producer The McCuistion Program

During his presentation, Art Benjamin demonstrated his ability to square numbers in his head, while the rest of us followed along and tried to beat him while using calculators. Even to the 7th percentile, he was faster than the calculator and of course the people using them. At one point he missed an answer by one point. His comment, ”I do occasionally make mistakes, like picking the wrong people.”

Art Benjamin used a book of calendars and people birthdays to ‘guess’ when someone’s birthday had fallen. He was right 100% of the time. Art has been squaring numbers for 30 years and he shows us his system that appears elegant, logical and simple. What was powerful about his presentation was that he demonstrated through logic that: (1) ordinary mortals can master this, and (2) everyday people can be better equipped to handle math.

Art Benjamin’s presentation ties in with the goal of the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) who is working to increase our competitive edge in the global marketplace through math and science, both of which are essential to move our economy forward.  America’s 50 million public school students are not getting the math and science skills they need to prepare them for good jobs and to keep America competitive in the global economy.

NMSI is the public-private partnership that provides the ideas, inspiration, and resources to help America close the competitive gap. Check out their website to get an idea of the phenomenal and necessary work they are doing to assure we stay competitive in the global marketplace by utilizing our young people’s math and science ability. Their work has truly made an impact.

As Carole says, “One step at a time. If you’re very passionate, you can change the world.” Jim echos, “Individually we can make a difference, we can, each one of us, change the world.”

Join us and our TEDx guests as we talk about things that matter with people who care. Visit the website for more information on TEDx SMU.

We recently had the privilege of interviewing some dynamic influencers and inspirational minds at the TEDx SMU Conference and are looking forward to sharing those interviews with you. TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. TED speakers have ranged from Al Gore, to Jane Goodall who in 18 minutes “give the talk of their lives”. The  world renowned TED conferences had its own smaller debut in Dallas- as a special TED xSMU independently organized TED event.

The theme of the conference was What Will Change Everything?

In their 18 minutes of the ‘talk of their lives’, the speakers educated, informed, used humor, music, inspiration, photos and  demonstrations to challenge and inspire us. Coordinated by Geoffrey Orsak: Dean of the Lyle School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University and Carole and Jim Young, ardent TED conference devotees, the conference was a success that we hope will come back again and again.

Attendees had to apply for admittance, answering fairly strict questions and submitting  an essay- as to why they wanted to attend and how they see using what they learned. Thousands applied and  500 or so  were admitted. I’m glad to report that Dennis McCuistion and I (Niki Nicastro McCuistion) were admitted- and we were sweating it. How embarrassing to be asked to conduct interviews and not “pass” the entry “exam”!  So due to our good fortune we attended, learned and interviewed. In the next couple of weeks you’ll get to see and hear  a few of the presenters who joined us:

• The organizers, Geoffrey Orsak and the Youngs,
• William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, who wrote: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,
• Amory Lovins  with the Rocky Mountain Institute who we had interviewed for a prior  McCuistion TV program, on the End Oil Game,
• Turk Pipkin with the Nobelity Project,
• Rogers Hartmann on  her life with Dystonia,
• Arthur Benjamin- the Mathemagican, Professor at Harvey Mudd College,
• Greg Harper with Harper Vision & Gadget Off, and
• Tanya Pinto, a media relations person who took off for India to work at Mother Teresa’s orphanage.

Join us and our TEDx guests as we talk about things that matter with people who care as we post a series of posts over the coming week of exclusive backstage interviews with these speakers.  And go to  TED’s  website for more information on TEDx SMU.

Here’s what some household names have to say about TED  international conferences:

Thank you a thousand times for inviting me to your wonderful TED conference. I regret not only that I was not at every moment of it, but especially that I missed all the previous ones! It was a great and stimulating experience as well as a lot of fun.”

– Rupert Murdoch, chair & CEO, The News Corporation

“I wasn’t prepared for this conference to be so profound. The combined IQ of the attendees is incredible.”

– Bill Gates, Microsoft

I wish I’d started coming earlier.”

– Richard Dawkins, biologist

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Niki Nicastro McCuistion