I’m posting the three videos from her Bioneer talk. I’m still waiting on pins and needles for part 4. Hopefully you’ll go to the YouTube page and view the others, which includes talks by Michael Pollan, Naomi Klein and Annie Leonard.

TheStar.com – sciencetech – The year in Ideas:

Massaged by the medium

Metta Spencer is a peace activist and emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Toronto who argues that TV and film have already helped make the world a better place, and could make it better still. Not all TV and movies, of course, but shows with humanity, idealism and a sense of social justice. In a May interview with the Star’s Olivia Ward, Spencer – whose latest book, Two Aspirins and a Comedy: How Television Can Enhance Health and Society, had recently been published – recounted how she watched the Alaska-based series Northern Exposure while recovering from hip-replacement surgery, and “my pain would diminish for hours.”

But in her book, and the interview, Spencer went beyond the biochemical impact of laughter and positive emotions to look at how popular entertainments can spur social change. “Birth rates in the developing world are dropping ahead of schedule – TV viewers see small, happy families and emulate them,” she told Ward. “Intelligence levels are increasing by three points per decade, largely because of exposure to complicated plots in TV shows.

“In 1983, the film Gandhi brought non-violent methods to a wide audience, and activists studied that film closely and implemented those techniques in 1989, toppling Communism almost without bloodshed. It’s astounding.”

Ultimately, Spencer believes that TV and film could literally save the planet. “Motivation simply doesn’t come from information,” she said. “It comes from feelings – sentiments, affects. It comes from caring. It comes from emotional human relationships. Even fictional relationships can have emotional power.”

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a debate that goes on inside people. He said, “My son, the battle is between 2 “wolves” inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”