Crossing Changes and knot invariants Sketchy notes from a Colloquium talk.

Jones polynomials and hyperbolic geometry Conference on ``The Geometry and Topology of Knots", Oklahoma State University, March 2009.

Polynomials invariants for links in 3-manifolds: Part1, Part2 ``Moab Topology Conference", Moab, Utah, May 2009.

Guts of surfaces and the colored Jones polynomial,``Knots in Poland III", Banach Center, Warsaw, July 2010 (All Figures by Jessica Purcell).

A talk on the same project describing the latest developments Polyhedral decompositions, essential surfaces and colored Jones knot polynomials Topology seminar 2011(LSU, Rice, Iowa).

Cosmetic crossing changes on knots JMM, Boston, January 2012.