Join the conversation about finding solutions to end bias. Attend this jointly-hosted Jewish Book Council Author Talk by Acclaimed Journalist Jessica Nordell on her Book The End of Bias

Thursday, October 13 at 7pm on Zoom and broadcast live on FCTV Public Channel 13 and https://www.fctv.org

Register for this Zoom event at: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEucOqhqjMuEt2Tfe4EL09XWtDePkcZmY1Y

"Jessica Nordell’s powerful book is a breakthrough. With state-of-the-art science and gripping narratives, she reveals what concrete steps individuals, groups, and institutions can take to fight prejudice.”  ―Adam Grant, author of Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know and host of the TED podcast WorkLife

“Jessica accompanies her incredible depth of research with the kind of attention to nuance, self-examination, and genuine compassion that marks the difference between information and wisdom.” — Jenny Odell, author of How to Do Nothing

Named a Best Book of the Year by World Economic Forum, AARP, Greater Good, and Inc.

FINALIST FOR THE NYPL HELEN BERNSTEIN AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN JOURNALISM, THE LUKAS BOOK PRIZE, AND THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE

2022 NAUTILUS BOOK AWARD SILVER MEDAL * AMERICAN SOCIETY OF JOURNALISTS AND AUTHORS HONORABLE MENTION IN GENERAL NONFICTION

The End of Bias is a transformative, groundbreaking exploration into how we can eradicate unintentional bias and discrimination, the great challenge of our age. We hope that you will join this program and this ongoing and necessary conversation.

This is part of a series of Jewish Book Council author talks hosted by Falmouth Jewish Congregation throughout the year. Visit FJC's home page for a complete list of the diverse topics and speakers.

Bias is one of our thorniest obstacles to thriving at work and to having an equitable society. If we’re going to end bias, it’ll take a new tactic: Jessica Nordell offers us one.  She tackles unconscious yet pervasive biases we may not realize we have. Her book The End of Bias is the most vital, acclaimed book about what really changes people and cultures. The New York Times bestselling author Adam Grant said her work on bias was “the single most fascinating and useful exploration of it that I’ve read. Ever.” In her engaging talks, Jessica shares stories about how unexamined bias affects us, drawing from the corporate world, health care, education, and criminal justice. She’ll teach you to learn from these stories so that you can break bad habits, build inclusive cultures, recognize patterns, cultivate more trusting relationships, and address biases without shame. Her warmth and compassion speak across differences to show you how to fight bias right where you are.

Jessica Nordell is so committed to her mission to end bias because she sees that it stops us from living in a world where we all get to prosper. When bias undervalues women or historically marginalized groups, we all lose something from that homogeneity: a new opinion, an essential lived experience, a fresh set of eyes that can solve critical, collective problems. But since so many biases are unexamined, we may not realize they’re there. This is why well-meaning diversity and inclusion programs have inconsistent results, and why the barriers to women’s advancement in the workplace often go unnoticed. But we can do something about it. We can uncover bias—even the biases that we don’t know about it—and we can create a workplace culture and a society that is so much more equal and exciting.

Using an unforgettable blend of neuroscience and real life stories, Jessica lays out what she discovered from a decade of work on her book The End of Bias. She dives deep into the causes of bias and how we can push back against it, sharing stories about the preschool that uprooted gender stereotypes with gender-neutral language, and Johns Hopkins doctors who eliminated discrimination by putting into place a new diagnostic checklist. She shows you how to learn from these lessons and how to create a plan for changing the way you work, create, and lead. Bad habits can be hard to break, so she’ll teach you how to find out you have them and how to stamp them out. Inclusive cultures are hard to build, so she’ll teach you where you start and where you go next. Beverly Tatum, the bestselling author of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?, called The End of Bias a “cause for hope”, and readers have described it as “life-changing.”

Deeply engaged with connecting across differences to expand and heal the human experience, Jessica's own early-career experience with workplace bias inspired her passion for tackling discrimination and for seeing others in their full complexity and humanity. Jessica is optimistic, honest, and refreshing; she is willing to hold her own biases up to scrutiny, giving you a model for how to do that work in your own lives and in your own workplaces and communities. This is why Jennifer Szalai of the New York Times Book Review called her “a reflective and capacious thinker.” More than anything, Jessica’s warmth, relatability, and openness touches people who are completely different from each other. She makes sure that everyone listening feels safe, respected, and heard—while preparing them for the real work of doing better.

Jessica has led an incredible career as a science and culture journalist, and her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, the New York Times, The New Republic, and many other publications. Jessica’s work on The End of Bias was shortlisted for the Lukas Prize for Excellence in Nonfiction and the Royal Society Science Book Prize, is a finalist for the 2022 NYPL Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism, and was named a Best Book of the Year by the World Economic Forum, Greater Good, AARP, and Inc. Jessica holds degrees from Harvard and University of Wisconsin, and her work as a writer and producer earned her the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio and Television.