ABSTRACT

The deadliest storm in modern history ripped Pakistan in two and led the world to the brink of nuclear war when American and Soviet forces converged in the Bay of Bengal. In November 1970, a storm set a collision course with the most densely populated coastline on Earth. Over the course of just a few hours, the Great Bhola Cyclone would kill 500,000 people and begin a chain reaction of turmoil, genocide, and war. The Vortex is the dramatic story of how that storm sparked a country to revolution.

About the Speakers:

Investigative journalist and anthropologist Scott Carney has worked in some of the most dangerous and unlikely corners of the world. His work blends narrative non-fiction with ethnography. What Doesn't Kill Us was a New York Times bestseller; other works include The Vortex, The Wedge, The Red Market and The Enlightenment Trap. Carney was a contributing editor at Wired for five years and his writing also appears in Mother Jones, Men's Journal, Playboy, Foreign Policy, Discover, Outside and Fast Company. His work has been the subject of a variety of radio and television programs, including on NPR and National Geographic TV. In 2010, he won the Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism for his story "Meet the Parents," which tracked an international kidnapping-to-adoption ring. Carney has spent extensive time in South Asia and speaks Hindi. He attended Kenyon College and has a masters degree in anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He currently lives in Denver, CO where he is also the CEO of Foxtopus Ink and PokeyBear LLC.

Jason Miklian, Ph.D., is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Development and the Environment, University of Oslo (Norway). Miklian has published over 60 academic and policy works on issues of crisis, conflict, and business, based on extensive fieldwork in Bangladesh, Colombia, India, and the DRC, among others. He serves on the United Nations Expert Panel on Business and Human Rights and is Business and Peace Chair of United Nations PRME (Principles for Responsible Management Education). He has won several awards for his academic publications and serves as an expert resource for various government knowledge banks in the US, UK, EU and Norway. Miklian has also written for or been cited in an expert capacity by the New York Times, Financial Times, BBC, The Economist, Washington Post, France 24, The Guardian, The Hindu (India) and NPR, among others.