Emily Bazelon
Staff writer for The New York Times Magazine and the Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing and Law at Yale Law School
Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying with Character and Empathy
In her just-released first book Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy, author and investigative reporter Emily Bazelon explores the shifting landscape of teenage cruelty and harassment and its sometimes devastating consequences. Bullying has changed in the Internet era: Social networking and texting have given kids new opportunities to be mean to each other—just as a series of teen suicides have been blamed on bullying. Parents who care deeply about understanding this milieu need to know what’s important to pay attention to, and what’s misleading hype. The latest research shows how the Internet does (and doesn’t) pose problems for kids, and offers clues about how adults can help. Other work offers important wisdom about teen suicide, both about the way cruelty from peers hurts vulnerable kids and about the danger of the oversimplified “bullying” narrative that often obscures important truth and complexity. Bazelon writes: “Character and empathy are the qualities I care most about instilling in my children. To me, the effort to prevent bullying isn’t primarily about punishment, and it’s definitely not about some kumbaya dream of the perfect childhood. It’s about learning how to make it through life’s rough patches, and how to help other people through them, too.”
Bazelon is a senior editor at Slate, a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine, a frequent guest on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, and the Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing and Law at Yale Law School. Before joining Slate, Bazelon was a Soros media fellow. She also worked as an editor and writer at Legal Affairs magazine and as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. She is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School.
Event Sponsors
- Carleton Washburne School
- Central School (Glencoe)
- Character Counts! Glenview
- Compass Health Center
- ECGC Parent Group at NTHS
- Highcrest Middle School
- The Joseph Sears School
- Marie Murphy School
- Martin and Mary L. Boyer Foundation
- New Trier High School D203
- North Shore Academy
- North Shore Community Bank
- Sunset Ridge School
- The Book Stall
- Tina & Byron Trott
- Wilmette Junior High School
Upcoming Events
Dad Brain: The New Science of Fatherhood and How It Shapes Men’s Lives
Darby Saxbe, Ph.D.
Clinical psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Southern California
Richard V. Reeves, Ph.D.
Founder and president of the American Institute for Boys and Men
ON ZOOM
Agency: The Psychological History of Human Progress
Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D.
Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the Positive Psychology Center
James O. Pawelski, Ph.D.
Professor of practice and director of education in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania
ON ZOOM
Girlhood, Translated: Understanding Young Women in the Age of Therapy Speak and Self-Diagnosis
Suzanne Garfinkle-Crowell, MD
Psychiatrist and Founding Director of the Academy for Medicine and the Humanities at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Erica Ghignone, MD
Medical Director at Compass Health Center Chicago
North Shore Country Day Auditorium
Note: Event start time is Central Time (CT).
NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED.


