Papandreou is the former prime minister of Greece. He was prime minister in 2009, when the euro crisis flared up. Under pressure from the markets and from Greek citizens protesting harsh austerity measures, he resigned in 2011 to make way for a national unity government.

He has been invited to share his views on these events and other themes at TEDGlobal 2013, which will take place in three weeks. With all due respect for those who have signed the petition, the TEDGlobal program won’t change. Papandreou’s experience as the PM of his country during a phase of political and economic turmoil is an interesting lens into the broader problems that continue to trouble Europe. That’s why we invited him to TEDGlobal. What he learned from his period in office gives him a rare insiders’ viewpoint, at a crucial moment for the continent.

For the record, any politicians coming to TED are asked to give a talk that is framed around ideas and insights, rather than partisanship. And like all our speakers, Papandreou is not being paid to speak at TEDGlobal.

Paola Antonelli, MoMA’s design curator, talks about why she acquired 14 video games for the museum’s collection at an event in our office called “Design is Everywhere.” Photo: Ryan Lash

Whether we’re conscious of it or not, design affects us in hundreds — if not thousands of ways — each day. Just think back to your morning. A designer made the decisions that went into the craftsmanship of your bed, your futon, your mattress. A designer determined the form and materials of your toothbrush, your shower, your towel — helped create the experience of your first cup of coffee or tea. Less tangibly, a designer was involved in the way you caught up on the news or checked the weather. And that’s all before you’ve even left the house!

Design can be big — think of the subway systems or highways. Design can be small — think of the details in the fonts we stare at on screens and in books. But design is truly all around us. And so Thursday night in the TED office, we held a salon called “Design is Everywhere,” hosted by our Ideas Editor, Helen Walters. Over the course of the night, four speakers gave talks on their unique approaches to design.

First up was Jake Barton, whose media design firm Local Projects creates systems for museums to unearth works in whimsical ways, and to let the citizens of a city tell their stories in their own voice. In a very moving talk, he shared how the team approached creating the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. As Barton says, September 11 exists somewhere “between current events and history” and all of us – no matter where we were at the time — are witnesses to the event. He explained how the museum sees its mission as collecting stories of that day — even from museum visitors. He also explains how names on the memorial are arranged by an algorithm attuned to “meaningful adjacencies” of personal connections.

Next, came designer Ayşe Birsel, co-founder of Birsel + Seck, who has been called, among other things, the “Queen of Toilets,” for her innovative TOTO toilet seat. She calls her design process Deconstruction: Reconstruction. Birsel talked about her workshops, in which she asks people to rethink their greatest design product: their lives. She presented thoughtful maps and charts that different clients have made of their priorities, influences and loved ones, and how it helped them reconstruct — and ultimately express — what’s meaningful to them.

In November 2012, New York’s Museum of Modern Art acquired 14 video games for its design collection — causing a few gasps among art critics. How dare they place Pac-Man and Portal alongside Picasso and Picabia?! In a very funny talk, MoMA’s design curator Paola Antonelli makes the case that, yes, video games do belong in her museum. Why? Because, as one attendee tweets: ”Video games are the purest form of interaction design.”  She details how to acquire a video game for a museum (forget the game gear, get the code) and shares her wishlist for the next few acquisitions.

And finally, in a lighthearted and sharp-witted talk — the kind you could only expect from the cartoon editor for The New Yorker magazine — Bob Mankoff offered his reflections on the nature of good humor and gave tips to would-be cartoonists. (Hint: “That’s the nature of any creative activity – you’re mostly going to be rejected.”) While sharing scores of his favorite “idea drawings,” and divulging the intentions behind the magazine’s occasional abstruseness, he showed how no joke is funny unto itself. Context is everything.

“Design is Everywhere” was part of TED@250, a series of salons held at our New York office at 250 Hudson Street. Since our main conferences are only twice a year, TED@250 is an opportunity for talks that rethink headlines and respond to conversation happening in real time. It’s also a place for speakers with the kind of personal stories that simply work better on the small scale. Stay tuned. Some of these talks may be coming to TED.com.

We’d like to offer a big congratulations to TED-Ed for winning both the Webby and People’s Voice awards in the category Education, and for also being selected as the Webby Winner for Best Practices.

We’d also like to take a moment to high-five TEDxAmsterdam for their Interactive Brain, which won the People’s Voice award in Events.

While we’re very pleased to be the Webby Winner for Best Variety (Channel), we’d like to send our love to SoulPancake for winning the People’s Voice award in the category.

TED also won the People’s Voice award for Events & Live Webcasts, the Webby award for Podcast, and we are extra proud to be double winners in the categories Use of Mobile Video and Education and Discovery.

A big thanks to everyone who voted for the People’s Voice awards online, and to the Webbys for being so incredibly supportive over the years.

TED is coming to a TV screen near you. On Tuesday, May 7, our first-ever television special will air on PBS at 10pm. Called TED Talks Education, the special is a deep dive on ideas to make our education system stronger – with talks from teachers, learning experts, education researchers and more. The speaker roster includes: host John Legend, educator Rita F. Pierson, technologist Bill Gates, grit expert Angela Lee Duckworth, education reform advocate Geoffrey Canada, chemistry teacher Ramsey Musallam, poet Malcolm London and the most-watched TED speaker ever, Sir Ken Robinson.

Set your DVR or mark your calendar now: May 7, 10pm, PBS. Above, watch a 30-second trailer for this special, funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s American Graduate Program.

And stay tuned for much, much more, as TED will be kicking off Education Week on our site on May 6. Bonus: the day after the special airs, it will be available as a webcast — and we’ll be posting extended versions of the talks from it on TED.com.

TED, THNKR, SoulPancake, The Switch and Henry Review have all been nominated for The Webby’s People’s Voice Award in the category Online Film & Video Variety. Last week, both Kid President and Candace issued rousing calls on YouTube, asking for their fans’ help in catching up to us in the vote — which closes April 30.

We adore SoulPancake — heck, we’ve even posted a talk from Kid President on our site. So we’re sort of pleased to see that their campaign has changed the tide. SoulPancake currently has 58% of the vote to our 35%. That said, we like to win Webbies. Who doesn’t?

So who does the TED staff think should win this important race? We asked in the video at the top of this post …

We never posted Chopra’s talk before because, frankly, it seemed unfocused, and it used the language of quantum physics in a way we thought was misleading. We admired Deepak’s desire for a more spiritual, connected world. But in our curatorial opinion, this particular talk wasn’t right for the homepage of TED.com.

We add just one talk each weekday on our homepage, chosen from thousands of candidate talks in our archives, and strive for a broad variety of topics and styles designed to inform, entertain and inspire. We listen to, and learn from, the views of our global community, and we accept that people won’t always agree with our choices!

Journalist Joshua Foer, who wowed us at TED2012 with his simple techniques for memorizing extremely long lists of numbers and words, has been named a 2013 Fellow in Creative Arts. Watch his talk, “Feats of memory anyone can do” »

Stuart Firestein, the chair of Biological Sciences at Columbia University, opened his TED2013 talk with a puzzling proverb: “It’s very difficult to find a black cat in a dark room, especially when there is no cat.” Named a 2013 Fellow in Natural Sciences, read all about his talk in celebration of ignorance »

Jessica Green, also a 2013 Fellow in the Natural Sciences, gave an exciting talk at TED2013 about what can happen when microbiologists and architects work together. Watch her latest talk, “We’re covered in germs. Let’s design for that.” »

Education innovator Sugata Mitra accepts the 2013 TED Prize and shares his wish for the world. Could you or someone you know win the prize in 2014? Photo: James Duncan Davidson

Each year, the TED Prize is awarded to an extraordinary individual with a creative and bold vision to spark global change. Think JR’s global participatory art project, Inside Out, or Sugata Mitra’s School in the Cloud. By leveraging the TED community’s resources to support the winner and investing $1 million in their idea, the TED Prize inspires leaders to dream bigger about what’s possible.

Nominations for the 2014 TED Prize are now open. We’re looking for nominees who know how to capture imaginations and make a measurable impact. We know you share our passion for world-changing ideas. That’s why we’re counting on you to nominate a visionary you respect that is capable of leading a high-impact collaborative action.

From now through June 16, you are invited to nominate yourself or someone else – perhaps a co-worker, a friend, a mentor or even an innovator you admire from afar – for the 2014 TED Prize.

• Nominate yourself and make your wish »

• Nominate someone else (we will ask them for their wish) »

Because winning the TED Prize is a life-changing experience, we want to make sure that you fully understand the process. Applications will be reviewed by the TED Prize jury, who will consider the power of each finalist’s wish for the world and the potential impact of their execution plan. The TED Prize jury will select the winner in December of 2013 and work with them on their plan. The TED Prize winner will reveal their wish and accept their award at the TED Conference in Vancouver, BC in February 2014.

For more information about the nomination process and tips on what makes a good wish, head to the TED Prize website. Or look the very informative infographic below.

Also exciting: on Monday night, TED’s own Thaniya Keereepart accepted the Shorty Award for “Best Branded YouTube Channel.” The Shorty Awards honor the best in social media, and require all acceptance speeches to be less than 140 characters. Here is ours:

“Spreading ideas takes more than just Twitter. You need a community. Translators! TEDxers! TEDsters: This is for you!”

It’s just a teeny, tiny question: How did the universe begin?

Today, TED-Ed has unveiled a new lesson that answers this in less than four minutes, “The beginning of the universe, for beginners.” This is the first of five animated lessons developed by CERN scientists and brought to life by TED-Ed’s talented animators. The other four animations – which tackle the topics of Dark Matter, Anti-Matter, Big Data and the Higgs Boson — will premiere at TEDxCERN on May 3rd and will be shared on TED-Ed that same day.

The lesson above, “The beginning of the universe, for beginners,” was conceived by CERN physicist Tom Whyntie. It explains how cosmologists and particle physicists explore questions like, “How is the universe expanding?” by replicating the heat, energy and activity of the first few seconds of our universe — immediately following the Big Bang.

To see the premiere of the next four lessons in real time, tune in to the TEDxCERN live webcast on May 3rd, from 14:00 to 20:00 (CEST). It will be available to the public here »

TEDxCERN will feature talks from scientists and big thinkers of all kinds. For more information on TEDxCERN, visit their website, or follow them on Facebook or Twitter.