Identifying a dangerous isolationist trend behind the election of President Donald Trump in the US and the Brexit vote in the UK, renowned author and TED speaker Andrew Solomon makes a passionate case for the personal and political benefits of travel. He argues that discovering other countries is the best way of finding ourselves, while ignorance of other cultures gives rise to fear, suspicion and war.

Andrew Solomon is a writer and lecturer on psychology, politics, and the arts; an activist in LGBT rights and mental health.

Andrew’s most recent book, Far and Away was published in 2016. His many previous books include Far From the Tree: Parents, children and the search for identity, which won the National Book Critics Circle nonfiction award, the Wellcome Book Prize and 22 other awards.

A renowned TED speaker, his previous talks have been viewed over 13 million times on TED.com.

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At TEDxExeter 2017 our speakers explored ideas of HOPE - not wishing, not optimism, but hope - to challenge us and encourage us to keep moving forward to create a better world. Our playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVN0qOZIePqF7VrocE1jgAA8Je8mRpU6B

Production Manager Andy Robertson - https://www.youtube.com/user/FamilyGamerTV
Video Production First Sight Media - http://firstsightmedia.co.uk/

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx