Upcoming Speaker & Assignment

Our speaker for semester II is scheduled for Wednesday, February 2nd after school from 1:55-3:00 and it is looking to be a unique and interesting experience, so please come.

Piers Gibbon is a British author, explorer, tv host and voice-over, speech writer, and more. He has worked with Discovery Channel, the BBC, National Geographic and others. Piers is currently living in France so our presentation/discussion will take place over google meet.

For global scholar students, you must complete the worksheet assigned to you in your google classroom, all other interested students are encouraged to create a few questions before coming as Piers would like the presentation to be more of an interview/ question and answer experience rather than lecture. If non global scholar students would like to complete the provided worksheet to help build some background and generate questions for Piers, feel free. Otherwise watch at least one tv episode and the interviews that are available down below to get a sense of some of his work. You can also check out is book Tribe from our library. You can also see Mr. Montanye in room 228 for additional information.

Piers Gibbon Speaker.odt

Download ODT • 187KB

Background on Piers Gibbon

Piers Gibbon has hosted a number of television shows which can provide us a little bit of background on the type of work he does. Our connection with Piers is actually a result of one of his shows, "The Witch Doctor Will See You Now" where Piers travelled to other parts of the world with United States citizens to try non western medicines to cure their ailments. One of our own Mukwonago teachers, Mr. Lambrecht (World History teacher and Global Scholar mentor) was on the show and travelled to India to experience some non western medicine to cure his tinnitus. Piers also traveled to China and Cameroon with guests for various ailments. Two of those episodes are below with the India episode & Mr. Lambrecht on the left, and the China episode on the right.

The Witch Doctor Will See You Now

The episode to the right involves two "westerners" travelling to China to try and cure themselves of back pain and a lost sense of smell.

The episode to the left has our own Mr. Lambrecht travelling to India to try and cure his Tinnitus and eczema and another guest looking to cure his chronic migraines.

"Dining with Cannibals"

The third episode we have for students to preview is from a show that was aired on National Geographic's "Expedition Week" which is called "Eating with Cannibals." In this 45 minute show Piers travelled to Papua New Guinea to find and interview indigenous tribes that historically and may possibly still practice cannibalism. He finds people who have participated in the practice and interviews them to find the cultural purpose of why groups may practice something that in our culture (and many parts of the world) is so taboo. (Disclosure: This episode has some historical images which may contain brief nudity in cultural dress. All images are culturally representative of the dress and everyday look of an indigenous group of people in Papua New Guinea. If families are not comfortable with this then it is recommended not to watch this episode)

Interviews

While we recommend students watch the episodes above to help develop questions for our conversation with Piers Gibbon, watching other interviews can also provide some insight on his work before we meet with him. So below are interviews Piers did with Steven Colbert on the Colbert Report on Comedy Central (please keep in mind the context of a show on Comedy Central) and an interview with Fox News Insider.

Tribe: Endangered Peoples Around the World

The book Tribe is an anthropological book that discusses various cultural traits as they are practiced by indigenous people all around the world. The traits focused on include food, shelter, clothing, religion, music & leisure, warfare, social structure, etc. For those interested in indigenous cultures it is highly

recommended and can be checked out from our library at the high school.

We are looking forward to our conversations with Piers and we are very grateful he is taking the time to meet with us. Stop by Mr. Montanye's room (228) if you have any questions.