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• Michael Chorost

  • When
    December 02, 2020
  •  
    7:00 AM - 8:30 AM (CST)
  • Location
    Zoom
  • Registered
    10 registrants

  Register

  The Advantages of Deafness

  It’s common to talk about “overcoming” a disability. But what about making it into a positive advantage? Michael, a UT-Austin PhD grad, will discuss how his deafness and cochlear implants have shaped how he wrote his two books and novel-in-progress. Being deaf, and having technology integrated into his body, gives him a fresh perspective that has proven to be fascinating and valuable.

  About our speaker:

  Dr. Chorost is a book author and public speaker. His first book, Rebuilt: How Becoming Part Computer Made Me More Human (Houghton Mifflin, 2005) is a memoir of going deaf and getting a cochlear implant. It won the PEN/USA Award for Creative Nonfiction in 2006 and was applauded by the L.A. Times as “the first cyborg memoir.” His second book, World Wide Mind Free Press, 2011) is about the science of brainscanning and the prospect of enabling direct communication from one brain to another. He has written for Wired, Technology Review, New Scientist, Slate, the Chronicle for Higher Education, among others. He has a B.A. from Brown University and a Ph.D. in Rhetoric & Composition from the University of Texas at Austin. After graduating in 2000 he worked at a dot-com in San Francisco and then at SRI International, a research institute in Silicon Valley. He now lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and their two cats. He is working on his third book, a science-fiction novel with a deaf protagonist.

  
  

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• Maureen Brown, Mosie Baby

  • When
    December 09, 2020
  •  
    7:00 AM - 8:30 AM (CST)
  • Location
    Zoom
  • Registered
    2 registrants

  Register

  A Fertile Imagination — Family Planning in the 21st Century

  Maureen will share recent developments in the field, including her and her husband's journey trying to conceive, and how it led them to create the first and only syringe designed for home insemination. 

  About our speaker:

  After struggling to conceive their first child, Maureen and her husband Marc received a diagnosis of unexplained infertility. Desperate to avoid invasive and costly procedures at the doctors office, they looked for an at-home way to inseminate. When they couldn’t find it, they decided to make it. And that’s how Mosie was born (pun fully intended)!

  Mosie is the first syringe designed to help you get pregnant at home. Simple, safe, private, affordable, and MD endorsed, Mosie has helped thousands of people inseminate at home, including Maureen. After getting pregnant with a prototype, she gave birth to the world's first Mosie Baby in 2016.

  Maureen Brown is Co-Founder & CEO of Mosie Baby
  
  

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• Abby Ross, Author

  • When
    December 16, 2020
  •  
    7:00 AM - 8:30 AM (CST)
  • Location
    Zoom
  • Registered
    2 registrants

  Register

  The Poop Diaries: An Inside Look at Plumbers' Most Awkward, Hilarious and Memorable Service Calls

  They come inside our homes. They see us in our most private, and sometimes embarrassing moments. They know us inside and out, but have you ever asked to learn more about them? The Poop Diaries is a nonfiction, humorous book that features stories from plumbers—men and women—about their most awkward, hilarious, memorable and frightening service calls. Abby Ross, an Austin-based former journalist, current marketing professional and first-time author spent two years interviewing plumbers. She was inspired to write the book after her toilet clogged on a Wednesday evening. One eye opener from the book—it is not only about poop. Drugs, nudity, ghosts, sex toys, rats...The Poop Diaries has a little bit of everything. Join Abby's live reading of some of the best stories and bring your questions!

  About our speaker:

  Abby Ross has specialized in communications, public relations and marketing since 2003. She began her career as a television news reporter, transitioned into public relations, and is currently a marketing leader, specializing in cybersecurity. Throughout her windy career journey, writing has always been her favorite part of the job. In 2018, a clogged toilet inspired Abby to write her first and only book (so far), The Poop Diaries. The book was published by Black Rose Writing in February 2020. Shortly after its release, the book was listed as the #2 top new release on Amazon in the humor and business section. The audio version is currently in narration and will be released soon.
  
  When she is not working, Abby loves boxing, kickboxing and HIIT training. She also loves spending time with her husband and two boys, Felix and Heller.

  
  

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• December Book Club

  • When
    December 16, 2020
  •  
    8:30 AM - 9:15 AM (CST)
  • Location
    Zoom after our meeting

  Imagination House by Lee Walker 

  Join fellow MBC members for lively discussions in a relaxed atmosphere, right after our meeting on Zoom!

  When twenty-one-year-old Michael Dell asked E. Lee Walker to be the president of his fledgling computer company, PC’s Limited, Walker, in his mid-forties, immediately thought about all the people who had helped him through life—as an undergraduate at Texas A&M (class of ’63), a graduate student at Harvard, and a once-young entrepreneur himself. As he and Dell created the foundation of what would become one of the most successful companies in the world, Walker was guided by the lessons of his past business ventures, by his belief in the power of imagination, and by his relationships with people who had provided encouragement when he most needed it. When he left Dell Computer Corporation to teach, Walker discovered that the stories he took with him—of his aspirations, of his failures and triumphs, and of his friends and mentors—were the key to engaging and inspiring his students.
  
  Here, Walker records those stories in a memoir that spans five decades and reveals a man whose curiosity, resourcefulness, and luck led him out of South Texas and into corporate boardrooms, university lecture halls, and community activism. In fast-paced tales about life as a high-tech entrepreneur, adjunct professor, civic leader, and environmental advocate, Walker manages to convey the importance of creative thinking and communal effort in all his endeavors.
  
  

  Originally offered to a small group of college students in Italy for study abroad, this affecting memoir will introduce to a wider audience not only a seasoned executive and philanthropist but also a wise and delightful storyteller.

  8:30 on Zoom after our December 16th meeting.

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• Happy Holidays!

  • When
    December 23, 2020
  •  
    (CST)

  
  

  
  

  
  

  No more meetings until January 6th, 2021. Enjoy the holidays, and see you soon!
  

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• January Book Club

  • When
    January 13, 2021
  •  
    8:30 AM - 9:15 AM (CST)
  • Location
    Zoom after our meeting

  Evil Geniuses by Kurt Andersen 

  Join fellow MBC members for lively discussions in a relaxed atmosphere, right after our meeting on Zoom!

  NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • When did America give up on fairness? The author of Fantasyland tells the epic history of how America decided that big business gets whatever it wants, only the rich get richer, and nothing should ever change—and charts a way back to the future.
   

  8:30 on Zoom after our January 13th meeting.

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