Fresh Perspectives at PINC Talks in Sarasota

A crowd of 230 people welcomed speaker after speaker to the Florida Studio Theater in downtown Sarasota on Thursday.

A breathless British author told the story of the Earth — from Big Bang to hip-hop — in 20 minutes by pulling spaghetti, balloons, trilobite fossils and other seemingly random objects from colorful pockets sewn into his black magician’s cloak.

A tall, gay, African-American journalist with dreadlocks explained his love for country music, and an internationally renowned orthopedic surgeon showed how salamanders can regrow their limbs and asked: Why can’t we?

And that was before lunch.

A crowd of 230 people welcomed speaker after speaker to the Florida Studio Theater in downtown Sarasota on Thursday, where they gathered for PINC — People, Ideas, Nature, Creativity.

Founded 15 years ago in the Netherlands and lured to Sarasota by Ringling College of Art and Design president Larry Thompson, PINC aims to stir the imagination and bring fresh perspective to a variety of topics.

Its co-founder, Nelleke van Lindonk, expressed amazement at the fascinating people she has met over the years and how she and her late husband became collectors of great storytellers — 18 of whom traveled to Sarasota for the first PINC presentation in the United States.

Buoyed by the expectation of meeting so many adventurous thinkers — and perhaps energized by Thursday’s full moon — the chatter in the Palm Avenue theater downtown was buzzing even before the first speaker took the stage.

Perfumed and elegant women in leggings and dresses mingled with hipster men, their shirt tails spilling out over tight blue jeans and pointy shoes.

Even the breakfast display was joltingly original.

Eggs and bacon and granola and yogurt were dressed up to look like flowers in vases.

When the theater’s lights came down, David Gallo, the special projects director for Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, introduced attendees to creatures that inhabit deep, black waters where sunlight never reaches.

“We have waterfalls in the ocean between Iceland and Greenland,” he said. “They are five times higher than the biggest waterfall on Earth — Angel Falls.”

Dickson Despommier, the founder of the Vertical Farming Project, explained how indoor, hydroponic agriculture in urban areas will transform the way the world feeds itself in years to come.

Then came Bunker Roy, the scion of a wealthy Indian family.

Roy founded Barefoot College, where poor and often illiterate Indians and Africans learn to become solar engineers and community leaders.

“When I told my mother I wanted to work in a village, she nearly went into a coma,” Roy said. ” ‘What about all the jobs that are all laid out for you? Why do you want to be an unskilled laborer digging ditches.’ ”

Roy’s answer: “I want to start a college for the poor.”

Alexander Kumar, a doctor and scientific explorer who is heading to West Africa to treat Ebola patients, talked about his polar winter in Antarctica.

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” he said.

John Barker, the orthopedic surgeon who performed some of the first hand and face transplants, explained how genomic research might unlock a human being’s own ability to regrow a limb and regenerate skin.

He showed pictures of a beautiful young girl whose face was burned to a crisp in an accident. She was so badly deformed by the fire that she would make you feel uncomfortable just looking at her, Barker said.

“Imagine how she feels,” he added.

LZ Granderson, a journalist who has interviewed the likes of Roger Federer and David Beckham, recounted how he, a gay black man from Detroit, fell in love with country music.

When it came time to propose to his long-time partner, Granderson did so with Randy Travis playing in the background.

“What is wrong with you?” his partner said. “Why can’t you be a normal black man?”

You don’t have to be a white racist to love country music, Granderson replied.

“It’s the most powerful story-telling genre we’ve got,” he said.