The power and importance of storytelling is now widely accepted, but this book goes further to focus on storymaking. CONNECTION brings together a former scientist, a story consultant, and an improv actor to give you the critical thinking of science combined with a century of Hollywood knowledge in the creation and shaping of stories. The material is relevant to lawyers, politicians, public health workers, educators, activists-- everyone. In today's "Twitterfied" world, CONNECTION provides the narrative tools for effective communication.

Celebrated scientists Nicholas Christakis and James Fowler explain the amazing power of social networks and our profound influence on one another's lives. Your colleague's husband's sister can make you fat, even if you don't know her. A happy neighbor has more impact on your happiness than a happy spouse. These startling revelations of how much we truly influence one another are revealed in the studies of Dr. Christakis and Fowler, which have repeatedly made front-page news nationwide. In Connected, the authors explain why emotions are contagious, how health behaviors spread, why the rich get richer, even how we find and choose our partners. Intriguing and entertaining, Connected overturns the notion of the individual and provides a revolutionary paradigm-that social networks influence our ideas, emotions, health, relationships, behavior, politics, and much more. It will change the way we think about every aspect of our lives.

Philadelphia is one of America's most interesting and innovative cities for theater, rich in new theaters, new plays, and rising playwrights. This book paints a picture of the city's burgeoning scene through interviews with some of Philadelphia's most influential and successful playwrights. Featuring interviews with Bruce Graham, Michael Hollinger, Thomas Gibbons, Seth Rozin, Louis Lippa, Jules Tasca, Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon, Ed Shockley, Larry Loebell, Arden Kass, Nicholas Wardigo, Alex Dremann, Katharine Clark Gray, and Jacqueline Goldfinger, the book will be a source of inspiration for playwrights in Philadelphia and far beyond.

This incredible resource is a guide to facilitating powerful activities to create more connected and more engaged teams.

A comprehensive history of crime and corruption in Cuba, The Cuban Connection challenges the common view that widespread poverty and geographic proximity to the United States were the prime reasons for soaring rates of drug trafficking, smuggling, gambling, and prostitution in the tumultuous decades preceding the Cuban revolution. Eduardo Saenz Rovner argues that Cuba's historically well-established integration into international migration, commerce, and transportation networks combined with political instability and rampant official corruption to help lay the foundation for the development of organized crime structures powerful enough to affect Cuba's domestic and foreign politics and its very identity as a nation. Saenz traces the routes taken around the world by traffickers and smugglers. After Cuba, the most important player in this story is the United States. The involvement of gangsters and corrupt U.S. officials and businessmen enabled prohibited substances to reach a strong market in the United States, from rum running during Prohibition to increased demand for narcotics during the Cold War. Originally published in Colombia in 2005, this first English-language edition has been revised and updated by the author.

Beneath the surface we are all connected . . .'An authentically soothing, powerful, thought-provoker.'MATT HAIG'On Connection is medicine for these wounded times.'MAX PORTER'On Connection came to me when I needed it most, and reminded me that the links we have to places, people, words, ourselves, are what keep us alive.'CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMSThis is a book about connection. About how immersing ourselves in creativity can help us cultivate greater self-awareness and bring us closer to each other.Drawing on two decades of experience as a writer and performer, Kae Tempest champions the role of creativity - in whatever form we choose to practice it - as an act of love, helping us establish a deeper relationship to our true selves, and to others and the world we live in.Honest, hopeful and written with piercing clarity, On Connection is an inspiring personal meditation that will transform the way you see the world.'Persuasive and profound.' OBSERVER'Tempest's prose is crisp and thoughtful.' NEW STATESMAN

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From the celebrated author of Inward comes the second in series, a collection of poetry and short prose focused on understanding how past wounds impact our present relationships. In Clarity & Connection, Yung Pueblo describes how intense emotions accumulate in our subconscious and condition us to act and react in certain ways. In his characteristically spare, poetic style, he guides readers through the excavation and release of the past that is required for growth. To be read on its own or as a complement to Inward, Yung Pueblo’s second work is a powerful resource for those invested in the work of personal transformation, building self-awareness, and deepening their connection with others.