In his TEDxMahtomedi presentation, “Why Not a U.S. Presidential Debate Focused on Science?”, Shawn discusses how science impacts every aspect of life and the need for public debate on key topics in science by presidential candidates.

Shawn Lawrence Otto is a screenwriter, novelist, and science advocate. In film, he wrote and co-produced the movie House of Sand and Fog, which was nominated for three Oscars. His novel Sins of Our Fathers, a literary thriller, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He is the producer of The Top 14 Science Questions Facing America, answered by Barack Obama and his opponents Mitt Romney and John McCain, for which he received the IEEE-USA’s 2009 National Distinguished Public Service Award, and is author of Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America, which won the 2012 Minnesota Book Award.

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