The Connecticut Forum

Since 1992, more than 300 celebrated panelists have had their say about hundreds of provocative issues at Forum evenings, which are live, unscripted and completely unpredictable. Visit our website at www.ctforum.org. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-24771344-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();

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Andrew Solomon talks Adam Lanza, Violence and Mental Illness

We were lucky to have Andrew Solomon as a panelist at Friday’s Honest Look at Mental Illness Forum. Leading up to the event, we told anyone who would listen that he was going to be a phenomenal panelist. He's scary smart and has an uncanny ability to speak in fully formed, thesis-like paragraphs. Many in the audience discovered him that evening and told us how struck they were by his intelligence, compassion and articulate thoughts and stories.

In our latest Forum video (linked below) Solomon speaks about how and why we feel the need to classify violent people and acts as "crazy," giving a short preview of the insights he gathered in profiling Peter Lanza, Newtown shooter Adam Lanza's Father, for The New Yorker.

Watch the recent Forum video clip.

In the days after The Forum, The New Yorker released Solomon’s latest article, an exclusive feature on Peter Lanza. Solomon’s piece is a result of many conversations with Lanza; he is the only reporter to have had such extensive access and this article is the first we’ve heard from Lanza’s father.

Click to read the article.

This past week Solomon has been, it seems, just about everywhere. He’s appeared on The Today Show, Katie with Katie Couric, BBC America, NPR Fresh Air and so much more.

Click to see Andrew Solomon on Katie.

Click to hear Anrew Solomon on NPR's Fresh Air.

Click to see Andrew Solomon on The Today Show. 

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Consider: • Physical injuries such as concussions and knee injuries draw routine and widespread study by doctors and researchers, yet a dearth of information about athletes and mental illnesses exists. • Though more than 450,000 students competed in college sports in 2011-12, no hard data are being collected on how many athletes are coping with psychological concerns. • Athletic departments handle psychological concerns in very different ways, and at many schools, mental health resources are downright sparse when compared to those dedicated to the physical health of the athletes. Many athletic programs have medical staffs of more than a dozen people, yet fewer than 25 Division I athletic departments have a full-time licensed mental health practitioner on staff.

An exploration of mental health issues in college athletics. 

Read the entire article, here. 

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A powerful "Grantland" documentary chronicling the day of the 2012 NBA draft through the eyes of a potential draft pick, Royce White, who talks openly about his generalized anxiety disorder. 

Royce will be a panelist at the March 7 Forum, An Honest Look at Mental Illness. 

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My assortment of neuroses may be idiosyncratic, but my general condition is hardly unique. Anxiety and its associated disorders represent the most common form of officially classified mental illness in the United States today, more common even than depression and other mood disorders. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, some 40 million American adults, about one in six, are suffering from some kind of anxiety disorder at any given time; based on the most recent data from the Department of Health and Human Services, their treatment accounts for more than a quarter of all spending on mental-health care. Recent epidemiological data suggest that one in four of us can expect to be stricken by debilitating anxiety at some point in our lifetime. And it is debilitating: studies have compared the psychic and physical impairment tied to living with an anxiety disorder with the impairment tied to living with diabetes—both conditions are usually manageable, sometimes fatal, and always a pain to deal with.

From the Atlantic's compelling December cover story on anxiety by Scott Stossel. 

Read the entire piece here. 

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Do you think 6 hours, or even 24 hours, is enough time to diagnose and/or treat mental illness? Do you think that you should have to sign your child over to DCF to extend their stay in a psychiatric hospital for more than 3 days? These are questions that shouldn't have to be asked, but point to a system totally and frighteningly unprepared for treating mental illness.  Some things are NOT better left unspoken.

We will talk about these issues raised in the compelling 60 Minutes piece - and so much more - at An Honest Look at Mental Illness on March 7. 

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Why problems like homelessness may be easier to solve than to manage. 

A compelling read. 

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We call this one either "The Gang Plans Martina Navratilova's Wedding," or "Dan Savage and Martina Navratilova on the Importance of Marriage Rights," or "Dan Savage Says Marriage Can Be Any Damn Thing You Want it to Be." No matter what you call it, it's worth watching. Take a look!

(In fact, Upworthy thought this clip was worth watching too, and endorsed it here.) 

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Celebrated gay advocates Dan Savage, Martina Navratilova, Bishop Gene Robinson and Jonathan Capehart answer the question "Is 'Gaydar' a real thing?" The consensus: it's real, 70% accurate, but thrown off by Europeans and "dickful thinking." Savage, Navratilova and Robinson participated in a panel discussion about "Being Gay" at The Connecticut Forum on Saturday, October 5, 2013. Capehart moderated the discussion.

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Dan Savage, outspoken activist and founder of the "It Gets Better" Project will be a panelist at the "Being Gay" Forum on October 5. He will join Martina Navratilova, Bishop Gene Robinson and Jonathan Capehart. 

Tickets here. 

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Pope Says Church Is 'Obsessed' With Gays, Abortion and Birth Control

Saying that the Roman Catholic Church should seek a €œnew balance, Pope Francis articulated his vision of an inclusive church, evoking gratitude and hope from liberal Catholics who had felt left out in the cold.

Looking forward to hearing Bishop Gene Robinson and the other panelists talk about this shift at the upcoming "Being Gay" Forum. 

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Your gender identity is who you are. Sexual identity is who you bounce that off of.

Andrew Solomon 

Via http://onpoint.wbur.org/2013/08/28/transgender

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Congrats to Forum alum Diana Nyad, who completed a record-breaking swim from Cuba to Florida over the weekend! 

Nyad moderated the "Explorers & Adventurers" Forum in 2000. The entire Forum is available to watch for free, here. 

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A first look at the cover of Malcolm Gladwell's highly anticipated book, David and Goliath, due out October 1. 

Some thoughts on the cover, here. What do you think? 

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Reza Aslan, whose awkward interview with a Fox News reporter went viral over the weekend, has seen sales for his book skyrocket since the interview. By Sunday, it had hit #1 on the Amazon.com sales list. 

Here's a clip from the archives, when Aslan was a panelist at The Forum in 2007 at The Great Global Debate with Richard Holbrooke, Richard Armitage and Sheryl WuDunn. 

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I’ll be perfectly honest — I’m thrilled at the response that people have had to the interview. You can’t buy this kind of publicity.

Author and scholar Reza Aslan • Discussing the success his mind-boggling interview with Fox News has had in expanding the audience for his book, “Zealot." Aslan admitted that he knew what he was in for before the interview, having read a piece by Fox News columnist John S. Dickerson published earlier in the week, which had the side effect of surfacing some negative reaction. The result? Aslan was ready for his clueless interviewer, though he probably didn’t know the clip would reach as many people as it did. (Side note: Slate totally called that.)

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Far from The Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon

This website, which pairs with Andrew Solomon's monumental new book Far From the Tree, helps tell the stories of parents who not only learn to deal with their exceptional children but also find profound meaning in doing so.

His work is both meticulously researched and profoundly moving. You can browse the website as an introduction to his work or as a partner piece to the book. 

Solomon will be a panelist at our March 7, 2014 Forum "An Honest Look at Mental Illness." 

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Though she may not look the part, Aisha Tyler’s nerd credentials are impressive. Aside from being an actor, comedian, director, author and activist, she is an avid video game player. For the past two years she has fronted the Ubisoft press conference at the annual e3 expo, the only woman to ever do so, and she has lent her voice to several video games, including Halo:Reach and Gears of War. She is also a reigning Celebrity Jeopardy champ.

Tyler will be joining Adam Savage and other panelists TBA at The CT Forum's Nerd Fest on Saturday, May 3, 2014 for a live, uncensored discussion about all things nerd!