Jessica Gross is a writer based in New York City. She's contributed to The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review Daily, The Atlantic Cities, and Scientific American Mind, among other places. Jessica has a Master's degree in cultural reporting and criticism from New York University and a Bachelor's in anthropology from Princeton University.
Playlist: 7 education ideas from unlikely placesGeoffrey Canada gives a very interesting analogy in today’s TED Talk: He compares the current education system in the United States to the era when banks were only open between the hours of 10am and 3pm. “Now, who can bank between 10 and 3?” asks Canada to a big laugh. “It went on for decades. […]
5 mnemonic devices for reading Chinese charactersTo an outsider, the Chinese language “seems to be as impenetrable as the Great Wall of China,” says ShaoLan Hsueh in today’s talk, given at TED2013. Hsueh’s mission over the past few years has been to break down that barrier, making reading and writing in Chinese accessible to people who didn’t grow up doing it. […]
7 tech tools now available in the classroom, for better or worseThe analog-to-digital shift that has seen e-readers booting out books, smartphones trumping landlines and tablets making desktops look fuddy-duddy is also bringing new tech tools to the classroom. Last month, I read this New York Times article about CourseSmart, an app that allows teachers to track whether students have done their reading in digital textbooks, […]
Walking meetings? 5 surprising thinkers who swore by themIn today’s talk, Nilofer Merchant gives a startling statistic: we’re sitting, on average, for 9.3 hours per day—far more than the 7.7 hours we spend sleeping. “Sitting is so incredibly prevalent, we don’t even question how much we’re doing it,” Merchant says. “In that way, sitting has become the smoking of our generation.” But there […]
Texting as a “miraculous thing”: 6 ways our generation is redefining communicationTexting is not a blight on the English language, says linguist John McWhorter in today’s talk, given at TED2013. Rather, texting is a “miraculous thing”: a novel linguistic mode that’s redefining the way we communicate with each other — for the better. McWhorter points out that texting shouldn’t be categorized as written language –but as […]
What motivates us at work? 7 fascinating studies that give insights“When we think about how people work, the naïve intuition we have is that people are like rats in a maze,” says behavioral economist Dan Ariely in today’s talk, given at TEDxRiodelaPlata. “We really have this incredibly simplistic view of why people work and what the labor market looks like.” When you look carefully at […]
5 great stories with double lives as allegories“Once upon a time, there was a place called Lesterland,” Lawrence Lessig begins today’s talk. “Of its 311 million people, it turns out 144,000 are called Lester,” Lessig says. In Lesterland, this .05% of the population is granted extraordinary power. Each election cycle, there’s a general election, in which the people get to vote, and […]
What does extreme poverty look like today? Some nuanced and insightful readingsIn today’s talk, Bono — U2 frontman, founder of the anti-poverty organization ONE, and 2005 TED Prize winner – reflects on the past decade’s dramatic reduction in extreme poverty worldwide. “Exit the rockstar, enter the evidence-based activist, the factivist,” he says. Since 2000, according to Bono’s data, eight million more AIDS patients are getting antiretroviral drugs; eight […]
11 entertainers who sidestepped the usual avenues and found creative ways to make a livingMusician Amanda Palmer has spent her career seeking out connection: first as a living statue on the street, who traded intimate eye contact and a rose for a passerby’s money; then, as one half of the band The Dresden Dolls, who didn’t hesitate to ask fans for support, either in person or over Twitter. “I […]
5 examples of how the languages we speak can affect the way we thinkEconomist Keith Chen starts today’s talk with an observation: to say, “This is my uncle,” in Chinese, you have no choice but to encode more information about said uncle. The language requires that you denote the side the uncle is on, whether he’s related by marriage or birth and, if it’s your father’s brother, whether […]
The best animals at TEDHorses, parrots and mosquitos: oh my! TED2013 will commence in just nine days, and the TED Blog is gearing up for our live, minute-by-minute, coverage. One thing we can’t wait to see: which speaker will bring an animal onstage with them? (Our money is on ornithologist Kees Moeliker.) Sometimes, speakers arrive with a live animal, […]
Reading list for TED2013: Books to get you readyCounting the days until TED2013 starts on February 25? In the meantime, curl up with a book by one of the talented, scholarly, funny and wise speakers who will grace the stage in Long Beach, California. These books are organized below by session. And make sure to tune in to the TED Blog starting on […]
The Best Props at TEDTED2013, “The Young. The Wise. The Undiscovered,” begins in just 20 days and we at the TED Blog are gearing up to bring you live reporting on each of the 70 speakers who’ll be ascending the stage, not to mention assorted news from the scene in Long Beach, California. One thing we hope to see […]
10 places where anyone can learn to codeTeens, tweens and kids are often referred to as “digital natives.” Having grown up with the Internet, smartphones and tablets, they’re often extraordinarily adept at interacting with digital technology. But Mitch Resnick, who spoke at TEDxBeaconStreet in November, is skeptical of this descriptor. Sure, young people can text and chat and play games, he says, […]
TED2013 speakers tweet about the lineup, their talks, and BonoEarlier this month, when we released the incredible lineup of TED2013 speakers, you couldn’t hide your excitement. But you’re not the only tweeps chirping about the conference. Below, find a sampling of posts from the speakers themselves — both about prepping their talks and about the fellow speakers they can’t wait to watch. Spoiler alert: […]
