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Jonna Mendez was the CIA’s Head of Disguise (and She’s Speaking at Dent 2020)

February 5, 2020 by Jesse Roth

Jonna Mendez will be speaking at Dent 2020 in Santa Fe, NM (March 22-25). You can request an invitation here.

The theme of Dent 2020 is Reinvention.

That might mean reinventing your career, your product, your team, or your business model.

But with Former CIA Head of Disguise Jonna Mendez, the reinvention is literal: she disguised spies, making them nearly unrecognizable. We can’t wait to hear her ripped-from-the-blockbusters stories at Dent 2020 in Santa Fe, March 22-25 2020.

mage result for jonna mendez

Jonna Mendez served in the CIA for over 25 years, rising to the position of Chief of Disguise, running a multi-million-dollar program with staff positioned all over the world. Her specialties were identity transformation, disguise, and clandestine photography (including spy gadgets like tiny cameras in pens!).

She and her husband (Antonio J. Mendez, also a CIA officer) have written three books together. First, Spy Dust about their work against the Soviets in Moscow during the last decade of the Cold War. They also wrote Argo, the true story of her husband’s rescue of six U.S. diplomats from Tehran (which was adapted into the 2013 Academy Award-Winning film). Most recently, they published The Moscow Rules also about their work in Moscow.

Jonna’s popcorn-worthy true stories have us ready to hear more at Dent 2020. Haven’t you always wanted to know the behind-the-scenes of spy work? Is it just like the movies? And can acting like a secret agent help me in my daily life?

First, In this TED talk, Jonna discusses the “Moscow Rules:” the key rules of espionage that you could implement in your personal or professional life:

  1. Trust your gut
  2. Don’t look back, you are never completely alone.
  3. Stay consistent over time.
  4. Know the opposition and their terrain intimately
  5. Pick the time and the place
  6. Keep your options open
  7. There is no limit to a human being’s ability to rationalize the truth.

Though these may seem like common sense, when you hear them described with life-and-death, global political stakes, you’ll see why they’re essential.

Second, In this video for Wired, she breaks down the (often fiendishly simple, but just as often elaborate) disguises she creates—altering everything from your mustache to your walk to how you use silver wear.

Finally, here she breaks down spy disguise scenes from 30 spy movies and shows. Haven’t you always wondered how realistic those are?

There are clearly a lot more stories where they came from and we’re on the edge of our seats to hear them at Dent 2020.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

How Barbara Rae-Venter Reinvented Herself and Created Investigative Genetic Genealogy

January 30, 2020 by Jesse Roth

A previously retired, hobby genetic genealogist helps catch a serial killer. Though it sounds like a procedural on TNT, for Barbara Rae-Venter it’s a true story. And unlikely, cross-disciplinary, post-career reinvention stories are exactly what Dent is all about.

Barbara Rae-Venter helped catch the Golden State Killer. At the 2019 Dent conference, she told us the (binge-worthy) story. 

And she’ll be back attending Dent 2020, in Santa Fe, March 22nd-25th 2020.

Barbara Rae-Venter’s talk at the 2019 Dent Conference

Barbara had gotten a Ph.d in Biology early in her life, but then went on to become a patent lawyer, specializing in biotech. When she retired, she expected to be“working on [her] tennis game” and dabbling in some genealogy research. After successfully volunteering to help an adoptee find their birth parent, she began to get approached by law enforcement asking for her help, including Paul Holes, the detective working on the Golden State Killer case.

After creating a profile of the perpetrator (blue eyes, likely balding, etc) Barbara cross-referenced DNA from the crime scene with DNA uploaded to an online service to construct a family tree. By looking for ancestors of the perpetrator, she was able to narrow the field to a few suspects. And abracadabra, only one had blue eyes: Joseph James DeAngelo. In 2019, He was arrested and charged with eight counts of first-degree murder.

Through this work, Barbara created a new field: Investigative Genetic Genealogy. Since then, Barbara has been featured as one of Nature’s 10, Time’s 100 Most Influential People, and a profile in The New York Times. She’s gone on to help solve more cases, including the recently solved “Clearfield Rapist” case.

Barbara at the TIME 100 Gala. Photo Credit: Zimbio.com

In addition to speaking at Dent 2019, Barbara is a Dent Passport member (learn more about Dent Passport here.) Every quarter, we send Passport members a book. This quarter, we all read Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. In Range, David J. Epstein describes“slow bakers” or“late specializers:” people who dabble and experiment in a variety of practices before becoming “elite.” Though there is a fetishization of prodigies and hyper-specificity, (Gladwell’s 10,000 hours for example) Epstein’s research reveals that generalism can triumph.

The theme of Dent 2020 is “Reinvention.” Too many cultural myths tell us that“dents in the universe”are the dominion of the young, the myopic, and the prodigies. Barbara’s journey is a powerful counter-narrative: Broad curiosity, hobbies, and dabbling pays off. It’s never too late to make a new dent in the universe.

Apply for Dent 2020 here.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Meow Wolf is Putting a Dent in the Universe (So Come Join us at the Party)

January 17, 2020 by Jesse Roth

We’re kicking off the Dent 2020 conference with a party at Meow Wolf, Santa Fe’s world-changing arts collective making a big dent in the worlds of the arts, startups, and plenty in between.

Our Dent 2020 theme is reinvention – and what better way than to experience how the interactive art of Meow Wolf while you get to know your fellow attendees (and enjoy some excellent music). A few more reasons why you won’t want to miss this private party:

First, Dent celebrates the boundary-pushers, the innovators, and the weirdos. Meow Wolf has revolutionized the relationship between art and commerce, inaugurated the experience economy, and (let’s not forget) made some really weird, really cool art. Let’s get inspired by them – and see how these reinventions might apply to our work.

Second, Meow Wolf is constantly sold out! The lines are long and it’s hard to get a ticket. We’ve bought the place out for an exclusive evening so you get to experience it without the crowds and hassle.

Finally, we know that sometimes the best things about Dent aren’t onstage. They’re at 10 PM, or on the (wine) bus, or in the line for lunch. There’s no better place to make new friends than while playing a laser harp, sitting on a sofa embedded in the roots of a technicolor forest tree, or putting your heads in a tube that forces you to look at another person instead of your phone (to foster human connection). Like going to (a really trippy, meticulously crafted) summer camp, you’ll make deep friends fast at Meow Wolf + Dent 2020.  

If you’re not already signed up to attend Dent 2020 in Santa Fe, March 22-25, 2020, what are you waiting for? Apply to attend here.

Denters are quirky. Denters are curious. Denters are going to be excited about a collective dedicated to outsider creatives, a cave made out of sparkles,  and a start-up leading the “experience economy.”

Image result for meow wolf google images

Meow Wolf began in 2008 as a collective of starving artists who wanted to serve as an alternative to the Santa Fe art establishment. The average age in Santa Fe leans older, so there weren’t a lot of young hipsters throwing dance parties in warehouses. And while there’s a long history of art in Santa Fe (most notably, Georgia O’Keefe’s house and museum), it hasn’t recently been considered a hub for experimental work.

While we might think of Brooklyn or Berlin as the breeding grounds for really out there art, Meow Wolf serves as one of the most notable creative studios. They began by literally dumpster-diving: transforming whatever they could find into installations, initially in an abandoned hair salon. They were a scrappy, somewhat anarchic collective.

Meow Wolf devoted themselves to “immersive” art—or works that not only create interaction with patrons, but surround them and engulf them. Immersive work breaks down the traditional boundaries between artist and audience: the theatrical “fourth wall” or the pesky “no touching” rules at traditional art museums.

Image result for meow wolf exterior

Come 2015, Santa Fe resident and Game of Thrones creator George R. R. Martin teamed up with the Meow Wolf collective, buying an abandoned bowling alley to host the company’s flagship permanent exhibition, The House of Eternal Return. You’ll walk through the back of a refrigerator, look for clues in a washing machine, and walk through a neon forest while freely roaming a 20,000 square foot space searching for clues in a non-linear science-fiction narrative.

House of Eternal Return became a smash hit. In the first year, it tripled its projected revenue, with patrons waiting in sometimes three-hour lines on weekends. Buoyed by the success of “The House” The company has attracted investor funding and now has nine-figure valuation.

With permanent projects opened or soon-to-be-opened in Denver, DC, Phoenix, and Las Vegas, Meow Wolf is beginning to sweep the nation. In Santa Fe, you’ll see where it all began.   

Meow Wolf’s planned Denver Location, opening in 2021

Meow Wolf has made a Dent in the universe. And we want you to join us there. Apply for Dent 2020 here.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Cady Coleman on Living in Space

November 15, 2019 by Steve Broback

Want to get a feel for what it’s like to live in space for months at a time? Ted.com just posted a talk Dent board member Cady Coleman gave on their main stage recently.

The best part? You guessed it, the flying:

My favorite part about living up there was the flying. I loved it. It was like being Peter Pan. It’s not about floating. Just the touch of a finger can actually push you across the entire space station, and then you sort of tuck in with your toes. One of my favorite things was drifting silently through the space station, which was humming along at night. I wondered sometimes if it knew I was there, just silent. But sharing the wonder of that with the crew was also part of what was important to me.

Cady and several Dent Passport members just returned from another near-weightless environment — undersea. We recently visited our friends in Florida who manage the astronaut training facility Aquarius Reef Base. Cady spent 11 days living underwater there prior to her trip to the ISS. While in Florida, we all went on a coral planting expedition hosted by the Coral Restoration Foundation.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Schedule for Dent 2020

November 1, 2019 by Jason Preston

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Exploring like Aquanauts with Dent Aquarius

October 24, 2019 by Kriselle Laran

Less than a month after Dent descended into Sun Valley, the Dent community is already diving into a number of events and explorations across the U.S.

In less than two weeks, Dent Aquarius brings us to Key Largo, Florida, to learn more about the Aquarius Reef Base—the world’s only underwater laboratory dedicated to science and education. 

As an active research facility, the US NAVY, NASA, and academic researchers use the Aquarius Reef Base to study sensitive coral reefs as well as train astronauts for life aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Known as “aquanauts,” scientists and other researchers who use the Aquarius Reef Base live in this underwater lab at depth pressure for at least 24 continuous hours without returning to the surface. 

Guiding our Dent Aquarius experience is retired NASA astronaut and Dent board member Cady Coleman. Cady flew twice on the space shuttle Columbia and spent almost 6 months on the ISS making for a total of 180 days in space. Her first journey to space came as a mission specialist in 1995, when space shuttle Columbia carried the US Microgravity Laboratory into space for its second mission on STS-73, a precursor mission to the space station. She returned for STS-93 in 1999, also on Columbia, as the lead mission specialist for the deployment of the Chandra X-ray Observatory. In December 2010, Coleman launched into space for a third time onboard a Russian Soyuz rocket, for a six-month stay onboard the space station, serving as the lead science officer, lead robotics officer and flight engineer for Expedition 26/27. 

Dent community member Zachary Cohn captured Dent Aquarius on video during its first year. Watch below to learn more, and join the Dent community to be considered for invite-only opportunities like Dent Aquarius.

Learn MORE ABOUT DENT PASSPORT

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Aquarius Reef Base, Cady Coleman, explore, NASA, NEEMO

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