Original Thinkers 2024: Event Overview, 10/3 – 10/6!

17 Sep Original Thinkers 2024: Event Overview, 10/3 – 10/6!

Telluride-based Original Thinkers (OT) is a media company that curates creative, fresh, thought-provoking programming to shine a spotlight on a host of major voices, artists, thinkers, storytellers and visionaries.

Passes for OT 2024 are now available can can be purchased through the festival’s website, originalthinkers.com . 

“OT2024 is a celebration of the power of ideas and the remarkable individual who bring them to life. We are excited to welcome an exciting lineup of speakers and performers who will challenge us, inspire us while sparking new conversations that can lead to real world change.,” said David Holbrooke, Founder and Ringleader.

Go here for more on Original Thinkers.

Original Thinkers celebrates innovative ideas and fresh perspectives. The happening is thrilled to announce its 2024 lineup. From October 3-6th, Telluride will once again transform into a hub of creativity and intellectual exploration with events taking place throughout the picturesque town and centering at the iconic Sheridan Opera House.

This year’s festival promises to deliver an inspiring array of speakers, performers and thought-leaders from diverse fields including science, art, journalism and social justice.

Original Thinkers will feature smart films, sharp speakers, dazzling art and musical performances all designed to challenge conventional thinking and spark meaningful dialogue.

“Telluride provides a unique backdrop for our festival as its beauty and charm create and ideal environment for deep thinking and meaningful dialogue. We are honored once again to host this event at the Sheridan Opera House and look forward to the incredible exchanges that will take place over the weekend,” said Holbrooke.

Featured Guests include:

VICKI ABELES

Math is not an obvious subject for a documentary, but filmmaker Vicky Abeles knew that it had potential to be a powerful story. As she shows in the film “Counted Out,” numbers matter – but not for the reasons we expect.

“I uncovered a movement of scholars, activists, and educators who also see math as more than an academic subject. For them, math is a tool for understanding and harnessing the beauty, wonder, and possibility of the world we live in. And our lack of access to that tool is, in their view, the critical civil rights issue of our time.”

BEVERLY CRILLY

Inspired by Telluride’s Deep Creek Mine, artist Beverly Crilly’s painting “Evoke” is the stunning image in the poster for this year’s festival. After several visits to the decommissioned limestone mine that has morphed into a subterranean site for art, she created a show called “Making Meaning Mine,” scheduled to be on display at Telluride’s Slate Gray Gallery.

“Often it feels I find my work in the world around me, the aged, chipped paint on a factory door, the lichen on a boulder, textured stones, shaped rocks, the play of shadows and light. That summer day, exiting the mine and seeing that treasure was an affirmation- that the beauty exists and it is ours to see. In this show, I am holding onto and sharing the beauty and meaning found as I emerged into the sun from the impossibly dark, vast, softness of the mine. Acknowledging the beauty and meaning that is always there when we can attune to feel it,” said Crilly.

PETER HESSLER

China is a wildly complicated place to understand, which is why author Peter Hessler has been writing about it for nearly three decades. This is a time span when the country experienced incredibly dramatic changes economically, educationally and societally, yet its political system has only become more absolute and restrictive. This curious paradox fascinated Hessler whose latest book, “Other Rivers, A Chinese Education,” explores how that could have happened. His approach was to find characters to write about who are ordinary Chinese far away from the levers of power.

Pete also writes for The New Yorker about rural Colorado as he lives in Ridgway with his wife Leslie T. Chang, who has spoken at OT twice along with their diabolical twins Ariel and Natasha.

PETE MULLER

Math and music go hand in hand so that Pete Muller does both at such a high level is no surprise. He learned to play the piano well enough as a teenager to get regular gigs that continued at Princeton University where he excelled at the study of mathematics. Parlaying those crucial skills into the world of finance, he helped revolutionize quantitative trading, creating a whole new way of doing business on Wall Street.

All that success distanced Pete from what he loved most – making music:

“I have these two sides. One part of me is a very practical, analytical thinker; the other is this creative artist who can’t help but express what’s going on in his soul. For a long time, I thought I had to choose between the two, but I’ve realized that I can love and nourish both sides of myself. That it’s AND, not OR.”

Pete will perform in the Saturday night “Singers in the Round” and speak about math and its essential part of our society. He also creates crossword puzzle for the New York Times and other publications, so will lead a competition for one of his puzzles.

BETSY GAINES QUAMMEN

The making of the American West has a lot of layers. What fascinates historian and writer Betsy Gaines Quammen is how religious views shape our relationships to this sacred landscape. Her latest book is “True West: Myth and Mending on the Far Side of America,” which looks at how the false narratives of how “the west was won” contribute to polarization in this country and a dangerous sense of false identity. To create this book, Betsey traveled across the West, meeting an array of people whose belief systems were both deluded and deeply felt.:

“Americans need to know Western history to understand our relationship with land, but we can’t use its history as a template for its future.”

Betsy lives in Bozeman, Montana, with her husband David Quammen,  a regular guest at OT.

KING RAAM

Born in Iran, King Raam is a multi-hyphenate artist who emigrated to the States when he was young. His family returned to their homeland where Raam started a successful alternative band called Hypernova. The band inspired other Iranian artists to express themselves. That all changed in 2018 when Raam’s father, a prominent environmental scientist and activist, was sent to the notorious Evin Prison outside of Tehran where he died shortly after. That tragedy resulted in creation for King Raam as he wrote a one-man storytelling performance piece about his father’s life and legacy called “Departures,” which he will perform at Original Thinkers 2024.

King Raam’s work was supported by the Artists Freedom Initiative, an organization dedicated to helping refugees whose creative endeavors – films, songs, performances, painting and other creative pursuits – force them to leave their countries because of the threat they appear to pose to local regimes.

GLENN RODRIGUEZ

Featured in the documentary “Counted Out,” Rodriguez was imprisoned in New York State, which used something called “predictive algorithms” in its parole decision. Advocating for himself and many, many others. Rodriguez used math correctly to show how the State was using math incorrectly. in these algorithms.

He graduated from Bard University’s Prison Initiative in 2016.

JOANNA RUDNICK

Documentaries require a certain commitment to see your film all the way through and filmmaker Joanna Rudnick certainly has that ability. Her sweet, smart film, “Stories and Pictures By,” is about children’s picture book authors.

The film requires wonder and wisdom to work and Joanna navigates both so well. She has also made other films, including personal ones about her family, telling the story of her brother’s addiction.

ASHLEY TUCKER

The Artistic Freedom Initiative is focused on supporting artists who lives and careers are threatened in their homeland through resettlement and other ways. Ashley Tucker is a human rights lawyer who leads this challenging and essential effort to save artist’s lives and their voices, including King Raam.

EVAN WEISMAN

“Warm Cookies of the Revolution” is a remarkable org based out of Denver that calls itself the “World’s First Civic Health Club.” As founder Evan Weisman knows, civics is not a word that inspires passion or excitement, so he is determined to change that perspective.

Evan’s method is to create fun and unexpected gatherings where people engage with our government in an effort to, as he explains, “vote every day” by making real change at the most granular level.

Arts and culture play a big role in Warm Cookies’ efforts, as do access and inclusion. But the most important facet is always the same: making it all fun.

Evan will speak about his work during the festival,  then lead a picnic at the Telluride Cemetery, which is just one of the many wildly creative programs “Warm Cookies” offers.

TALITHIA WILLIAMS

Math is not easy for so many people, which is why Dr. Talithia Williams relishes translating complicated numerical problems into understandable concepts for an audience. Knowing that statistics can help us see the world in a new way, Talithia is making sure this field is inclusive and no longer dominated by white men.

Dr. Talithia Williams is also known for her popular TED Talk, “Own Your Body’s Data,” as well as being an expert in the documentary, “Counted Out,” screening at OT 2024.

Films include:

COUNTED OUT

So much of our world these days is controlled by algorithms, making our relationship with math more important than ever. “Counted Out” delves into this phenomenon by weaving several compelling personal narratives with a cogent explanation of how numbers impact our everyday lives in a myriad of ways we see and don’t see.

Director Vicki Abeles has stitched together an eye-opening and unexpectedly human story that shows us how we need to make sure our math literacy is strong enough to navigate a rapidly changing world.

TO BE DESTROYED

Book banning has become prevalent across the country in politically conservative areas, evoking totalitarian societies who fear the ideas offered in books.

This smart, short documentary focused on Rapid City, South Dakota, and its school district where five novels were taken off library shelves and put in boxes, labeled “to be destroyed.” One of those books is “The Circle” by acclaimed novelist Dave Eggers. He decides to go to Rapid City to talk with librarians who are now in the cross-hairs of angry parents, as well as with the students who are just trying to get through high school.

STORIES AND PICTURES BY

Who doesn’t remember “Goodnight Moon” with fondness and familiarity? Or “Hungry Caterpillar” or any number of other wonderful and evocative picture books?

This charming and entertaining feature documentary tells the fascinating story of these magical creations, while profiling current authors in this unusual field who want to help children understand some of the mysteries of the world.

What the film also accomplishes is a deeper understanding of how important this work is in helping young children see themselves and understand their own identity as they are emerging into a bigger world.

THE CRANES CALL

This gripping film is a true crime thriller that follows the indefatigable efforts of two incredibly brave women who work for the Clooney Foundation for Justice as they work to track down Ukrainian survivors who endured horrific acts of violence committed by Russian forces during their invasion.

It is hard – almost impossible – work, yet the investigators are deeply determined to hold the men who raped, tortured and murdered so many innocent civilians to justice.

By documenting these human rights abuses and war crimes now, the process begins of making sure the perpetrators pay for their heinous acts.

Worth noting in this compelling story is the filmmaking itself, beautifully cinematic in a way that ensures the audience cannot look away from what everyone is watching.

About Original Thinkers

VISION

Original Thinkers believes that everyone can be an original thinker if they put their minds to it, and that engaging with new ideas and authentic stories can help us better navigate thecomplex world we live in with empathy and understanding.

OT knows that great ideas take time, and that some of the most famous society shifters weren’t afraid to explore, to push the envelope, to think contrarian or even make mistakes. Their inner confidence, abundant courage and consummate belief in their work kept them moving forward until their ideas changed hearts, minds and lives.

Society is ready for change — it just takes Original Thinkers.

MISSION

OT is a media company that endeavors to discover and introduce new thinking around the complexities and challenges of our ever- changing world.

OT curates creative, fresh and thought-provoking programming that shines a spotlight on a host of new voices, artists, thinkers, storytellers, and visionaries and invites audiences on a transformative journey to listen, think deeply, see possibility and embrace new ideas.