# What fear can teach us

- Institution: TED
- Department: TEDGlobal 2012
- Speaker: Karen Thompson Walker
- Year: 2012
- Level: For everyone
- Language: English
- Source: [TED](https://www.ted.com/talks/karen_thompson_walker_what_fear_can_teach_us)
- Licence: [CC BY-NC-ND 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) (Non-commercial use only, and no changed versions.)
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (sources give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the source's own words)

Imagine you're a shipwrecked sailor adrift in the enormous Pacific. You can choose one of three directions and save yourself and your shipmates -- but each choice comes with a fearful consequence too. How do you choose? In telling the story of the whaleship Essex, novelist Karen Thompson Walker shows how fear propels imagination, as it forces us to imagine the possible futures and how to cope with them.

## Lectures

1. [What fear can teach us](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/learn/ted/karen_thompson_walker_what_fear_can_teach_us/a3cc8da533d6), 12 min (TED's player)