Thrival Innovation+ Music Festival: Keynote Series: Collision Course

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, popularly known as CTE, has shaken the sports world to its core, most notably the National Football League and its penchant for offering fans jarring hits and sensational collisions every Sunday from September through February. Dr. Bennet Omalu discovered CTE in Pittsburgh, and has since become a global phenomena, with the recent film Concussion documenting his experience going toe to toe with the NFL — an organization that fiercely disputed his findings and has found itself at the heart of the controversy. Dozens of football players and other athletes have been diagnosed, multiple have tragically taken their own lives, and numerous analysts believe this condition is not isolated, but an epidemic.THE SPEAKERS:

Following Dr. Omalu’s remarks, Jeanne Marie Laskas, author of Concussion and writer of the screenplay for the feature film starring Will Smith, will join the conversation for a deeper dive into the nature of courage, accountability, and the opportunity to tell the story for those who have lost the ability to tell it for themselves during a fireside chat and audience Q&A.