Border Wars: From Mayhem to Mindfulness
Wednesday: November 20, 9:30 a.m. – 12 noon
Bethany Congregational Church 556 N. Hope Avenue, Santa Barbara
VISTAS member price: $20; non-member price $30
Presented by Nicholas Stein
Nicholas Stein, the former showrunner of the National Geographic hit TV series “Border Wars,” has a remarkable journey to share. From capturing the heroic work of law enforcement personnel at the U.S.–Mexican border to later offering the tools of mindfulness and meditation to those same officers and agents he’d been embedded with, Stein’s story is timely, captivating, and informative. While producing “Border Wars” from 2009 to 2012, Stein and his crews gained unparalleled access to frontline units of law enforcement agencies, such as Border Patrol, ICE, DEA, and sheriff’s and police departments. From jumping from helicopters to track down armed smugglers to pulling drowned immigrants from the Rio Grande River, this work left Stein depleted and burnt out. Seeking relief after the series wrapped, he turned to Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, a secular contemplative system. As a professional mindfulness teacher, he’s shared his hard-won understanding with those same agents and officers he embedded with at U.S. Customs and Border Protection while making “Border Wars.” This presentation tells this story using images and footage from his hit series and employs instructive visual teaching tools to share effective mindfulness techniques with the audience.