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Billingsley Lecture 2023
Collin Shapiro

Tuesday, April 18th the Salisbury community welcomed Michael Easter to campus as the 2022-2023 Billingsley speaker. In addition to Easter, Salisbury also welcomed back one of its own, Will Tortorella class of 2017 as the introductory speaker. 

“Michael Easter is the author of The Comfort Crisis, a contributing editor at Men’s Health magazine, columnist for Outside magazine, and professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). His work has appeared in over sixty countries and can also be found in Men’s Journal, New York, Vice, Scientific American, Esquire, and others. He is the co-founder and co-director of the Public Communications Institute, a think tank at UNLV that conducts science communications research and helps public and private organizations adapt complex messaging for a general audience. He’s spoken to or consulted for various top-tier universities, medical schools, Fortune-500 companies, government agencies, and some of the country’s largest nonprofits. He lives in Las Vegas on the edge of the desert with his wife and two dogs.”

Easter gave a talk on the main ideas of his book, The Comfort Crisis. There were five highlighted points, and they are as follows:

 

  • Misogi

    • Find a challenge where there is a 50/50 chance of you being able to complete it. Make it hard and don’t die.

  • 20-5-3

    • 20 minutes outside for three days a week. 5 hours each month you should spend in nature (no phones). 3 days you should spend off the grid each year.

  • Embrace Boredom

    • Boredom allows space for creativity, thoughts, and emotions. 

  • Suck at Something

    • Doing things that you inevitably will suck at is actually a good thing for you. It forces you to turn off your autopilot mode and actually be present and focused on what you are doing at the moment.

  • Be a 2%er

    • A person who would take the stairs instead of the escalator if presented with the opportunity.

Our knights thoroughly enjoyed listening to Michael talk about his experiences that led him to write a book on the "Comfort Crisis." It was a great day to be a knight.