The Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi + Ben Ho

The Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi, Director of the Ethics Initiative at the MIT Media Lab, explains the Buddhist concepts of karma with behavioral economist, Ben Ho.

About the Speakers

The Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi Rinpoche is the Founder and CEO of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a non-partisan collaborative think tank focused on interdisciplinary research and programs related to the development of human and global ethics. He is Director of the Ethics Initiative at the MIT Media Lab. He is a member of the MIT Board of Chaplains and serves as Buddhist Chaplain.

Priyadarshi received his bachelor’s degree as an Integral Honors Scholar in Philosophy, Physics, and Religious Studies with minors in International Relations and Japanese. He completed his graduate studies in Comparative Philosophy of Religion at Harvard University in 2003. Priyadarshi is also the Founding Director and President of the Prajnopaya Institute and Foundation. He previously spoke at the Rubin in 2010, discussing the concept of nothingness with artist Antony Gormley.

Ben Ho is a behavioral economist who uses economic tools like game theory and experiments to understand social systems such as apologies, identity, and climate concerns. Currently an associate professor at Vassar College, he has also taught at Columbia and Cornell. His PhD in Economics is from Stanford GSB, and he holds Masters degrees in Computer Science, Political
Science, and Comparative Education from MIT and Stanford. Ho was lead energy economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers and has worked and consulted for Morgan Stanley and several tech startups.