Daniel Enger

Activist, Brainstormer, Change Agent, Concerned citizen, Connector, Event planner, Global soul, Idea generator, Parent, Producer, Project manager, Social entrepreneur, World traveler

using the magic of storytelling to make our world a more empathetic and compassionate place.

I learn a lot from the men I work with in prisons. One of them, a friend who is serving a long sentence, shared with me this beautiful idea: "You know, I was sent to prison young, before I ever drove a car. But I see my life's journey like driving a car." He put his thumbs and index fingers together to make a long oval. "In the car of my life, there's this thing up there shaped like this -- it's called a rear-view mirror. And when I look into the rear-view mirror of my life so far, well, it doesn't look very good back there. But, tell me: what would happen if a driver spent their whole time staring into the rear-view mirror?" I answered that that driver would surely crash. "Exactly!" he exclaimed. "I know I've got to look into the rear-view mirror from time to time to remember what's back there. I feel remorse and sadness whenever I do that." Then, he stretched his arms out wide, smiled and said with great enthusiasm: "But there's this other piece of glass in front of me in the car of my life -- the windshield -- and it's big and wide, like this! I know that that's what I've got to pay most attention to as the driver, and it's huge, filled with opportunities to become a better man and to help others do the same. I'll look into that rear-view mirror now and then as I'm supposed to, but otherwise I'm keeping my eyes on the road ahead. I'm going to drive the car of my life to real good places, you'll see."

community based participatory research, community engagement, cross-cultural communication, film language versioning, film production, fundraising, languages, non-profit management, project management, public speaking, scriptwriting, storytelling, team building, YouTube

I'm an avid viewer of TED and TEDx talks online and incorporate some of them into public speaking courses I offer in schools, prisons, addiction treatment facilities and transitional living centers. I've been a TEDx speaker (TEDxEmory, February 2015), master of ceremonies (TEDxEmory, February 2018), chief organizer (TEDxDecatur in Atlanta: live in July 2018 and September 2019, virtual in January 2021), and co-organizer (TEDxStroudsRun in Appalachian Ohio, September 2018 and October 2019). At the end of 2019, I joined the TED Translators community.