Tell us a bit about your personal journey into politics. What has been your driving force?

I didn’t really have an interest in politics when I first entered the workforce. What I wanted to do was help people who grew up like me.

When I was a kid growing up in Tucson, my father lost his job and we lost everything — including our home. We lived in an abandoned gas station for two years until we were able to get back on our feet. I worked hard to get good scholarships and got to Arizona State University with the help of Pell Grants. After I graduated, I got to work as a social worker in a part of town that was mostly populated by hardworking immigrant and refugee communities.

I got frustrated because I saw that no matter how hard these families worked, the system always worked against them. For them, making the choice between taking care of a sick family member and putting food on the table was a daily reality. And their kids’ pathway to success was being closed off by a system that underfunded their education.

After talking to my local elected representatives, I could see that nothing was going to change. Since then, I have worked a social worker and as a lawmaker with those families in mind. They are the reason I do what I do.



What does it mean to you to be the first openly bisexual member of Congress? What effect do you think this might have on LGBT issues in Arizona and beyond?

I’m thrilled that the 113th Congress is the most inclusive in our nation’s history — and I’m honored to be a part of that. My goal is to help make our country become more inclusive by helping to restore our middle class and protecting opportunity for every person. Arizona has had a unique history of electing openly LGBT folks from every party, in every level of government. We’re proud to see representation becoming more diverse with each election year. We now have more people of color, people of different faiths and different orientations serving in our state than ever before. It’s great step in the right direction.

Can you set the scene of finding out that you had won the race? Where were you, and what ran through your head in that moment?

While we were 2,100 votes ahead on election night, many votes remained to be counted. Over the next few days, our lead grew. Now that’s a nice feeling! On Monday morning, the race still hadn’t been “called” by the Associated Press. I got on a plane to go East for freshmen orientation, and when I landed and turned on my phone, I saw that I had 78 new text messages. I knew immediately it was about the election, and my first thought was, “Let’s get to work!”

What surprised you most about campaigning for the House of Representatives?

I was humbled by the force of our community, which stood up to millions of dollars in negative advertising. Our campaign faced a staggering number of TV attack ads aimed at my character. It was surprising to see huge wealthy corporations fuel that kind of ugly campaign. While this was happening, thousands of volunteers fueled our campaign by knocking on doors and making phone calls to talk to their neighbors about what this election was really about. In the end, it was ordinary people that helped us win this election, and that’s who I am going to look out for in Congress.

What issues do you hold nearest and dearest that you will be taking with you to Washington?

The number one thing I will take with me is my experience as a social worker who saw what happened to families who couldn’t find jobs, struggled to take care of their health and saw opportunity slipping away for their kids. I ran for Congress because politicians were fighting with each other instead of looking out for these families. In our campaign we said that if we wanted to change Congress, we have to change the people we send there. I think that’s what happened in this election. I’m optimistic about what we can accomplish in the 113th Congress by putting our sole focus on the families that elected us to get things done.

In your TED2012 Fellows Talk, you discussed building trust with politicians and companies by finding shared values. Can you talk a bit more about this approach, and give an example of what can be accomplished with it?

It’s the approach that I’ve learned works best in communities with so many diverse and differing opinions. There’s no better proof of this than my work in Arizona’s state legislature.

While I was always in the minority party and I disagreed with many of my colleagues on important issues, the one thing that we had in common was our love for our state and country. We were all elected to do something good for our communities. I took that simple principle to form authentic relationships with folks who were very different from me. It was through those relationships that we learned what we could accomplish together.

I’m thankful to have learned this early on, because it was through that work that I was able to pass bills that helped families and veterans — and stopped bills that hurt education and kids’ healthcare.


In what ways has the TED Fellowship experience affected your life and work?

I’ve had the great privilege of learning from some of the brightest innovators in the country. The exchange of ideas and ingenuity that TED promotes is exactly what we need in American government today — an openness to new ideas, and a willingness to experiment.

What are you most excited about once you take office? What are you most nervous about?

I’m excited to sit at the table with my new colleagues and get to know them right away. There’s a lot of work to do and little time to waste.

Last night at the TED offices, we held a special event: a miniature TED all about voting. Three amazing speakers took the stage to present ideas and stories related to our electoral process.

First up, was TED’s own Lisa Bu, our Content Distribution Manager, who spoke about her experience traveling from China in 1995 to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Because individual bank accounts are not the norm in China, Bu shared that she came with her tuition and living expenses money all in cash, stuffed in her pockets. She felt “very important” being able to open her first account.

Bu also found herself surprised to find that everyone — not just politicians and celebrities — get obituaries in American newspapers. “Every life, even a baby’s, is worth remembering publicly. I was moved deeply,” says Bu. “That kind respect and appreciation for individual life — for me, that’s the essence of democracy.”

Bu’s basic point: that if it isn’t a right you are born with, the fact that we all can vote is pretty amazing. After all, in China the American Idol-like television show Super Girl was canceled because officials worried it was promoting democratic fervor.

Computer scientist Barbara Simons, co-author of the book Broken Ballots: Will Your Vote Count?, spoke next, explaining why internet voting may not be such a good idea. “I call this talk, ‘If I can bank online, why can’t I vote online?’” said Simons. “My goal is to tell you it’s not safe to do either.”

As Simons explained, no website is immune from outside attacks — not the FBI, not Google and certainly not online voting systems developed by localities for elections. She shared what is referred to as the “DC Hack.” In 2010, Washington, D.C., did a pilot test of its online voting system, inviting computer experts to give breaking into the system their “best shot.” Students at the University of Michigan succeeded almost instantly, recoding the system to play their college’s fight song anytime someone cast a vote. Even worse — election officials didn’t realize the system had been hacked. They later discovered the attack after reading message boards.

And hacks and viruses aren’t the only issues with online voting. Online voting would make it too easy to disrupt voting in specific areas, by launching “denial of service attacks,” i.e. having outsiders intentionally overwhelm the network. Furthermore, it would make it too tempting for someone inside the election process — from those who code the voting system to poll volunteers — to tamper with results. If a voting system is comprised, there is no way to do a recount. That very situation happened in a recent election in Estonia, where 25% of the election ballots were cast online. Many believe that the voting system was rigged, as the online ballot results were inconsistent with paper votes, but there is no way to prove it.

Overall, Simons stressed that that any voting system has security risks. She called for us to be more thorough with post-election audits, even if it means an election cannot be called the same night. But, she said, her warnings are not an excuse to skip voting. “The easiest way to be disenfranchised is to note vote,” she concluded.

New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen, of the website PressThink.org, ended the evening with a talk about why he is continually drawn to — and repulsed by — election journalism. As he shared, only 33.5% of countries in the world are rated as having a truly free press. As one of the few, why does our press make the coverage decisions it does?

Rosen points to a few disturbing phenomena he has noticed in this election year — that while newscasters were once active voices, both in debates and in the framing of issues, they are letting themselves be pushed out of the frame by allowing candidates to do this work themselves.  In the past, Rosen says, journalists have been afforded respect on the principle of, “I’m on the scene, you’re not, let me tell you about it.” Recently, he sees journalists and broadcasters giving up this authority. One consequence: that for the first time since 1988, the issue of climate change was not brought up all election.

So what can be done? A lot, says Rosen. He would love to see citizens build the agenda for which issues are most important to them, and then have newscasters and journalists flex their reporting muscles to make sure answers are given. Second, he’d love to see a distortion index — that in addition to fact checking, there be some measure of how far and wide pieces of misinformation have spread. And finally, he wants news networks and publications to look to answer questions for the public, rather than letting talking heads from both sides debate without conclusion.

Overall, last night’s event was a lively discussion that made us excited to vote today.

It’s voting day in the United States. As Americans line up at the polls to vote for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, eyes around the world are fixed on the contest, which predictions say will come down to a few key issues. So what has mattered most to Americans in this election? The TED Blog read this Gallup poll, which reveals the issues citizens want the next president to prioritize. Since these topics are ones speakers often address on the TED stage, for the past two months, we’ve brought you a series of playlists focusing on the top-rated issues. Today, the final installment.

It’s no surprise that “making healthcare available and affordable” is an issue Americans examined closely this election. 74 percent of US citizens surveyed indicated that healthcare was either “extremely important” or “very important” to them as they decided who to vote for. While some believe that healthcare reform can benefit us all exponentially, others say it’s far too complex and costly an institution to change. While the breadth of this issue can only begin to be scratched, the following 9 TED Talks provide a range of big ideas on improving corners of our health systems. (Also, check out the essay “Who’s really serious about fixing healthcare?,” part of our first-ever TEDWeekends on the Huffington Post.)

Daniel Kraft: Medicine’s future? There’s an app for that
If the scientific method is all about theoretical deduction and experimentation, then according to this healthcare professional, we’re not effectively using health data to accelerate innovation. In this talk from TEDxMaastricht, Daniel Kraft shows that by linking advanced technologies, great young minds and social media together we can develop mobile apps that will recognize global health insufficiencies and create portable, personal solutions based on aggregated data.

Jamie Heywood: The big idea my brother inspired
After Jamie Heywood’s brother Steven — a 29-year-old father — was diagnosed with ALS, his family embarked on a long journey toward approaching healthcare in a positive way. At TEDMed 2009, Heywood shares how he created Patients Like Me, a website that provides tools for patients so that they can track their own health status. The idea is that, with better information, a patient can engage with their doctor and influence their treatment.

Jack Andraka: Detecting pancreatic cancer … at 15
Pancreatic cancer is extremely fatal because, once it is detected, it has generally spread throughout the body. During the TED Talent Search, 15-year-old Jack Andraka shared an early detection system that he is currently developing. By studying a protein that can be spotted at an early stage of pancreatic cancer, Andraka is creating a minimally invasive test that could raise the survival rate from 5.5% to over 50%.

Rebecca Onie: What if our healthcare system kept us healthy?
In 1995, Rebecca Onie was an energetic law school student looking to make a difference in the lives of her low-income clients, many of whom had medical issues. Soon, she noticed a distinct correlation between the limited time doctors spent getting to know their patients and the larger societal problems perpetuating their poor living conditions. Thus, Health Leads was born to promote a health care system, rather than a “sick care system.” At TEDMed 2012, Onie shows how prescribing basic resources can keep patients healthy.

Lucien Engelen: Crowdsource your health
Lucien Engelen did not like the fact that you could use your smart phone to find the best Chinese food in the vicinity, but couldn’t use it to locate a defibrillator. In this talk from TEDxMaastricht, Engelen shows how encouraging patients to share information can save lives. With the development of a crowdsourced worldwide AED tracking website, citizens can keep track of where they’re finding defibrillators, and companies can validate their existence in order to save lives in a flash.

Max Little: A test for Parkinson’s with a phone call
There 6.3 million people worldwide living with Parkinson’s disease. Max Little’s visionary idea takes diagnosing the disease from a high-cost neurological test to an intimate moment in the hands of the patient. At TEDGlobal 2012, Little showed how a 30-second phone call — coupled with precise voice analysis software — could be all that’s needed for a diagnosis through the Parkinson’s Voice Initiative.

William Li: Can we eat to starve cancer?
Have you heard about the angiogenesis revolution? Well, understanding angiogenesis — the process by which your body grows new blood vessels — can help us not only prevent cancer, but keep it in remission. In this talk from TED2010, William Li addresses a hypothetically life-changing approach to treating and preventing cancer.

Alexander Grey: My muscle-measuring machine
Alexander Grey paid tribute to his father’s medical legacy by founding Somaxis, a start-up challenging the medical field with kinesthetic innovations. Somaxis developed affordable sensors that measure muscle energy, allowing you to predict injuries and preserve energy for optimum performance. With this innovation, people might some day be able to see back pain coming from their chair at work, or embark on a foot race with athletes overseas.

Jay Bradner: Open-source cancer research
Jay Bradner moved to Boston 10 years ago to discover how chemistry could effectively treat and kill cancer. While doing research on a rare cancer and its untargetable protein, his lab found a way to trick cancer into developing into a normal cell. By employing the eagerness of citizens, Bradner and his team hope to open-source their chemical findings. As he revealed at TEDxBoston, they hope to take pharmaceutical companies by storm and find the effective solutions themselves.

As a New York Times article put it this morning, “The presidential campaign entered a delicate phase on Tuesday, suddenly becoming a sideshow to the hurricane.” In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, it’s hard to remember that in just a week, Americans will be heading to the polls and, with their presidential  selection, answering big questions about the future of the economy, education and their country’s place in this world.

In these 10 TEDxTalks, a global selection of speakers suggest altogether new ways of looking at these questions.

More banks, fewer problems: Scott Shay at TEDxWallStreet
Scott Shay is a small banker with a big idea: No more big banks. The way he sees it, the bigger they are, the harder they fall and the bigger the global disaster they can leave in their wake. At TEDxWallStreet, he appeals for a massive break-up — spreading out the risk, diversifying the field, lowering the dependency and creating a more secure financial system overall.

Be optimistic about the US and China: Geoffrey Garrett at TEDxSydney
Americans are unsure about what the future of China means for them. Many are apprehensive about its policies and even fearful of the competition escalating into a perilous rivalry. But Geoffrey Garrett thinks the US-China relationship is better than ever. At TEDxSydney, he outlines a vision of the future where codependent superpowers can peaceably exist.

A new Sudan: Tarig Hilal at TEDxKhartoum
A fresh start. It’s an idea emblazoned into the American psyche, from the Revolutionary war to westward migration and the history of immigration. Now, nations across Africa and the Middle East are looking for ways to start over for themselves. In this powerful talk from TEDxKhartoum, Tarig Hilal tells the story of a hopeful generation of Sudanese that are coming to terms with their past and setting a new direction for their country’s future. A story that can remind Americans what it means to start from scratch.

What are your universal rights? Philippe Sands at TEDxHousesofParliament
Political rhetoric for or against American involvement in global conflicts typically centers around investing in the best outcomes for America’s future — whether by swaying events to further the most amenable parties or initiating combat to topple potential security threats. In a call for consistent international conduct, Philippe Sands reframes intervention as a moral issue. He makes the case that no government should be free to abuse its citizens, that the rights of individuals supersede those of the state and that those rights must be protected by a powerful international force.

Can pre-school save the economy? Timothy Bartik at TEDxMiamiUniversity
During the course of this election candidates have put a lot of emphasis on STEM education as a way to invest in our future. There’s no doubt that it’s an essential endeavor; the benefits of creating a workforce with the skills to meet 21st century needs are self-evident. But what about early childhood education? Can a few years of structured play really make that much of a difference? Yes. Economist Timothy Bartik sheds light on the startling return on investment for each dollar we put into early childhood education.

Your engagement matters: Jefferson Smith at TEDxConcordiaUPortland
Who is responsible for making government work and for insuring that our policies and initiatives ultimately benefit everyone? Well, according to Jefferson Smith, everyone — and especially you. With a stirring call to action, he lays out the principles for a brand of civic engagement which has everyone lobby for their own needs, while being wise enough to recognize long term universal rewards.

What it means to be radical today: Julian Baggini at TEDxObserver
Many feel that the problems we face are simply too big for our current political systems and that we need to rethink our approach of capitalist democracy. But time and again — from universal suffrage to public education, from environmental regulation to social security — new legislation can dramatically change the lives of millions. Julian Baggini outlines the areas in our governments — regulations, mixed economies and proportional representation — where “piecemeal change can lead to wholesale transformation” in what he calls “rad hoc” action.

The aftermath of Occupy: Naomi Colvin at TEDxHousesofParliament
Last year, the Occupy Wall Street movement spread like wildfire across the globe. It sparked countless protests and its “We are the 99%” slogan has been canonized into the progressive lexicon. Just as quickly as it gained champions, however, it found critics from the left and right who dismiss the campaign for its inability to articulate specific demands. Naomi Colvin thinks they miss the point entirely; that the protests were not about rushing into specific negotiations based on conventional principles, but about disrupting the way we reform altogether. In this reflective talk, she lays out a new vision of political identity.

To be for the people, it must be by the people: Étienne Chouard at TEDxRepubliqueSquare
We all want an effective, efficient government that represents its citizens’ collective will. Do Americans have that kind of government? The answer isn’t so clear with a Congress locked in a spiral of partisan posturing, with financial powerhouses holding greater legislative clout than flesh-and-blood constituents and with a national electoral system that values votes differently depending on where those votes are cast. Many simply bemoan the quality of options and wait for better politicians. But what if those who could govern best don’t want power? In this impassioned talk, Étienne Chouard questions the very efficacy of voting itself.  He reaches into the deep history of democracy and urges us to reconsider a very old way of forming government: with randomly selected groups of citizens.

Who Americans will become: Priyank Shah at TEDxColumbus
Americans aren’t who they used to be. And they won’t be the same ten years from now. Demographer Priyank Shah shows you the future face of America and breaks down the effects of a rapidly diversifying society on an aging population.

With just two weeks to go before the 2012 presidential election in the US, eyes around the world are on the contest between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. As shown in last night’s debate, the election may well come down to a few key issues. So what matters most to Americans? The TED Blog read this Gallup poll on the issues that citizens want the next president to prioritize. Conveniently, these are topics that speakers often address on the TED stage. So, every week until the election, we’ll bring you a new playlist focusing on one of the top-rated issues.

While 76 percent of Americans indicated that “setting high moral standards for the nation” is one of their highest priorities for the next president, the complexity of the issue can be difficult to interpret. What should those moral standards be, exactly? Here, 8 speakers reflect on how we know what’s right, and how we can give it a prominent place in our society.

Karen Armstrong: Let’s revive the Golden Rule
Compassion is the root of all morality, says Karen Armstrong, and the world’s religious and spiritual leaders need to guide their communities back to that source. Too often, those entrusted with leadership only want to be right, or fail to grasp that being compassionate fundamentally requires action. At TEDGlobal 2009, she asks one and all for the return of Golden Rule.

Bryan Stevenson: We need to talk about an injustice
As a young boy, Bryan Stevenson’s grandmother made him promise to always do the right thing, even when it was the hard thing. At TED 2012, he shares a life’s work dedicated to that promise, fighting the social and racial inequality stemming from mass incarceration in the United States. He compels us to take a hard look at the wrongs within our system of justice and to persevere until they’ve been righted.

Nate Garvis: Change our culture, change our world
We are surrounded by cultural tools that express our values — from sexy electric sports cars to Cookie Monster’s acceptance of vegetables. Those gentle nudges are just as effective as our laws are. In this talk from TEDxTC, Nate Garvis explains that if we want to create a future for the causes we care about, we need to look outside the battle zone of politics and embrace the moral potential of trends.

Jonathan Zittrain: The Web as random acts of kindness
Though we may not like all of the Internet’s content, Jonathan Zittrain points out that there’s something deeply admirable in its underlying structure. “The Internet has no business plan,” he says at TEDGlobal 2009. Still, information gets successfully transmitted by cooperation and goodwill. If this altruistic system is what drives the Internet, which drives our lives, he says maybe the world is not doing so badly after all.

Paul Zak: Trust, morality – and oxytocin
At TEDGlobal 2011, Paul Zak shows a syringe full of morality, in the form of the hormone oxytocin. Trust, bonding and empathy have their chemical roots in oxytocin, he says, and we don’t need God or government to give us what’s already running through our veins.

Dan Ariely: Our buggy moral code
We can’t make the right moral decisions if we don’t understand what tempts us to make the wrong ones. At TED2009, Dan Ariely presents some surprising studies on the dissociative factors that contribute to lying and cheating.

Jonathan Haidt: The moral roots of liberals and conservatives
Why do our morals and values always seem to correlate with our political views? And how can we learn to appreciate those whose values are different? At TED2008, Jonathan Haidt shares the five key categories of human morality — and which three have a polarizing effect in countries around the world.

Barry Schwartz: Our loss of wisdom
It’s wisdom that gets us through the trickiest moral dilemmas, says Barry Schwartz at TED2009, because even the best of rules and guidelines can’t always provide the answers. If we want to turn out wiser professionals — from janitors to lawyers — we need to celebrate individuals of integrity, and acknowledge once and for all that brilliance isn’t enough.

Just two Tuesdays from today, Americans will head to the polls and vote for their President. But why is Tuesday the anointed day? In this hilarious TED-Ed talk, Jacob Soboroff shares that Tuesday was made the official voting day in 1845 because, back then, voters traveled to the county seat by horse and buggy. They needed a day to get there and a day to get back and, since traveling on Sunday was a no-no, Tuesday became the day of choice.

In the modern era, however, Soboroff worries that voting on Tuesdays may have a negative effect on voter turnout. His nonprofit — called Why Tuesday? — is circulating a petition asking Congress to move voting day to a weekend, to allow more people to head to the polls without fear of missing work.

With just three weeks to go before the 2012 presidential election in the US, eyes around the world are on the contest between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. As shown in last night’s debate, the election may well come down to a few key issues. So what matters most to Americans? The TED Blog read this Gallup poll on the issues that citizens want the next president to prioritize. Conveniently, these are topics that speakers often address on the TED stage. So, every week until the election, we’ll bring you a new playlist focusing on one of the top-rated issues.

One of the most significant issues for Americans is concern for the environment – specifically, curbing the rapid rate of global warming. In this poll, 73 percent of Americans said that this was an “extremely important” or “very important” priority from their perspective.

To help spur some thinking — and maybe even inspire some action — we’ve compiled some of our most striking talks about the environment.

Al Gore warns on latest climate trends
In this talk from TED2009, Al Gore delivers jarring facts about global warming with footage of ice caps melting in real-time and rising water levels throughout the world. He debunks the myth of “clean” coal and presents truly clean alternatives.

Capt. Charles Moore on the seas of plastic
“Let’s talk trash,” says Capt. Charles Moore. In this talk, also from TED2009, he illustrates how we are living in a “throwaway” society with a plastic addiction. Tracking the migration of our trash, we find that they end up in massive patches of waste in the ocean that then washes onto our shores.

Vicki Arroyo: Let’s prepare for our new climate
Vicki Arroyo knows it is important to be realistic when it comes to climate change. In this talk from TEDGlobal 2012, she says that we need to start preparing for the dangerous effects now, as farmers’ dry spells are leading to threats of national security all around the world. Here, she shows examples of proper preparation, from communities who haven’t ignored the need to adapt.

Richard Sears: Planning for the end of oil
While we’re on the topic of adapting to the climate crisis, Richard Sears lays out a plan to prepare for the inevitable extinction of oil. At TED2010, he expresses the need for innovation that will take us from this age to the next.

Tristram Stuart: The global food waste scandal
In this compelling talk from TEDSalon London Spring 2012, Tristam Stuart takes us through his crusade against food waste, which began when he was 15-years-old and trying to feed his pig. The key to combating our global food hemorrhage, he says, is to make it socially unacceptable to waste food.

Dan Phillips: Creative houses from reclaimed stuff
Dan Phillips is a master of recycling. Making beautiful homes from others’ garbage, he takes us through the rooms he built from soda cans, items found in antique stores, and even eggshells. At TEDxHouston 2010, Phillips describes the social forces that lead us to pollute instead of reuse.

Lucianne Walkowicz: Look up for a change
Lucianne Walkowicz directs our eyes sky-wards in this talk from TEDxPhoenix. As she describes the dangers of light pollution, she shows us the swiftly declining beauty of space — a thing we don’t even realize we are missing out on.

Jason Clay: How big brands can help save biodiversity
In this talk from TEDGlobal 2010, Jason Clay explains that, in our consumer culture, corporations actually have a lot of power to do good. Through transformation, he assists big companies in revamping their structures in order to make more with less — a resource-friendly approach.

Graham Hill: Why I’m a weekday vegetarian
Ever unsuccessfully tried to be a vegetarian? Graham Hill has too. In this talk from TED2010, he shares why he became a “weekday veg” — to help stem the harmful environmental impacts of eating meat, without having to go all the way. With this strategy, Graham cuts his meat intake by 70 percent, and still gets a burger when he really wants one.

Natalie Jeremijenko: The art of the eco-mindshift
Natalie Jeremijenko is head of the xDesign Environmental Health Clinic at NYU – whose purpose is to give patients prescriptions to heal their environments. At Business Innovation Factory, she shares how this effort to combine public art and engineering is addressing environmental issues.

With just over a month to go before the 2012 presidential election in the US, eyes around the world are on the contest between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. The election may well come down to a few key issues. So what matters most to Americans? The TED Blog read this Gallup poll from late July on issues that citizens want the next president to prioritize. Conveniently, these are topics that speakers often address on the TED stage. So, every week until the election, we’ll bring you a playlist focusing on one of the top-rated issues.

Among the most important questions in the upcoming election is, “How can we improve the nation’s public schools?” — 83 percent indicated that improving schools is “very important” or “extremely important.”

To get you thinking, talking and voting, here are 10 talks from speakers with some very big ideas about how to reshape our school environments.

Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution!
Sir Ken Robinson gave the most watched TEDTalk of all time at TED2006, “Schools kill creativity.” In this followup four years later, Robinson shares how schools should approach the education process — with personalized learning, where students are encouraged to explore their own interests and talents.

Emily Pilloton: Teaching design for change
Education challenges can be met with design solutions, says Emily Pilloton. In one of rural North Carolina’s poorest counties, she created Studio H, a modernized, humanitarian shop class that’s “growing creative capital within the next generation.” She shares her story at TEDGlobal 2010, showing how a whole community was transformed by a little design thinking.

Stephen Ritz: A teacher growing green in the South Bronx
Inveterate educator Stephen Ritz saw his students getting more unhealthy by the year, so sprang into action and created The Green Bronx Machine. At TEDxManhattan, he makes it clear — a passionate teacher and a fresh idea can improve kids’ physical and emotional well-being, not to mention their prospects for the future.

Daphne Koller: What we’re learning from online education
Universities should not be closed-door institutions, says Daphne Koller. At TEDGlobal 2012, Koller explained Coursera, a website where anyone can take real college courses for free. But while providing a unique service, Coursera also has a larger purpose — mining a wealth of data about how students learn.

Ann Cooper talks school lunches
It isn’t only in the classroom that students are struggling; in the lunchroom, there’s a shortage of healthy, sustainable things to eat. School meals are an opportunity to nourish and to educate, says food activist Ann Cooper, and we need to seize it now. (Read the TED Blog’s Q&A with Martha Payne, who blogs her school lunches.)

Taylor Mali: What teachers make
This must-see three minute slam poetry piece tells it like it is – teachers are undervalued in every sense of the word. At the Bowery Poetry Club, Taylor Mali raises his voice in protest and pays homage to the educators who make a daily difference.

Dan Meyer: Math class needs a makeover
No problem worth solving comes in a simple formula, says math teacher Dan Meyer. He insists that conversation is key, and that real-world thinking skills require the kind of complexity not offered in most textbooks. At TEDxNYED, he shows how math can be “the vocabulary for your own intuition.”

Diana Laufenberg: How to learn? From mistakes
Diana Laufenberg knows that her students aren’t going to love American history as much as she does — unless she gets them involved, making movies and holding mock elections. At TEDxMidAtlantic, she praises an approach to learning that doesn’t just ask for right answers.

Shimon Schocken: The self-organizing computer course
Great educators don’t have to teach — they can provide a context for self-guided learning. Shimon Schocken and Noam Nisan noticed that their computer science students didn’t have the most basic understanding of how computers work. So they developed a course for students to build a functioning computer, from the ground up. The two put the course online — giving away the tools, simulators, chip specifications and other building blocks — and were surprised that thousands jumped at the opportunity to learn.

Ken Robinson: Changing education paradigms
With the help of RSA Animate’s vivid illustration, education visionary Sir Ken Robinson explains the industrial-strength problems with our model of education. We are anesthetizing our children through their schooling, he warns, and it’s imperative that we update immediately.

With just over a month to go before the 2012 presidential election, eyes around the world are on the United States. Will Americans vote to give Barack Obama another four years in the White House, or will the country opt for a turnabout and vote Mitt Romney into office? The election may well come down to a few select issues. So what matters most to Americans? The TED Blog was very surprised to read this Gallup poll from late July highlighting the issues that citizens most want the next president to prioritize. Since these are topics that speakers often address on the TED stage, every week until the election we’ll be bringing you a new playlist focusing on one of the top-rated issues.

One of the most pressing issue for our next president to think about, according to those polled, is “dealing with terrorism and other international threats.” A whopping 86% of those surveyed rated job creation as either “very important” or “extremely important.” Which makes sense because, as Obama and Romney spar over unemployment and government benefits, always present in the conversation is an elusive search for peace in an increasingly complex global community.

The 12 talks below approach the themes of terrorism and security from a number of diverse backgrounds, reflecting the multidimensional nature of 21st century military and security policy. These talks range from personal stories about how the 9/11 attacks affected the speakers’ lives to analytic explorations of the inner-workings of the Pentagon to the economics and logistics of terror operations — and everything in between. And, of course, no discussion of violence and war is complete without a discussion of its inverse, peace.

Jason McCue: Terrorism is a failed brand
In today’s powerful talk, given at TEDGlobal 2012, reputation management expert Jason McCue outlines a new way to fight terrorism—by looking at it as a brand, like Coca-Cola. “If you look at terrorism as a brand, you’ll come to realize that it’s a pretty flawed product,” says McCue. “It’s bad for your health. It’s bad for who it effects, and it’s no better if you’re a suicide bomber. It doesn’t do what it says on the tin — you’re not really going to get 72 virgins in heaven and you’re not really going to end capitalism.” Because the brand of terrorism  has “an Achilles heel,” says McCue, we should be looking to attack the brand’s myths and, at the same time, demonstrate that we have a truly better product.

9/11 healing: The mothers who found forgiveness, friendship
An unlikely friendship between two mothers caught in the throes of geopolitical terrorism share their son’s stories — one a victim of the Twin Towers collapse, another on trial as a terror suspect — in this deeply moving talk from TEDWomen. Hoping to derive positivity from their suffering for other mothers, these two women bridged cultural gaps, looking to find forgiveness and learn from each other.

Loretta Napoleoni: The intricate economics of terrorism
Economist Loretta Napoleoni tracks the rise of transnational terror organizations and the under-the-table transactions that fund and enable terror activity. In this enlightening talk from TEDGlobal 2009, Napoleoni shares surprising revelations about the origins of the cash that funds the terror economy and highlights the surprisingly close proximity of western nations.

Thomas Barnett: Rethinking America’s military strategy
International security strategist Thomas Barnett’s job is to bridge the gap between war and everything else. In this candid talk from TED2005, Barnett looks at US security with a wide-angle, glancing into the past to project what is needed for the future. Honing in on specific flaws and successes, Barnett gives a realistic and intimate look at the inner goings-on of the US military.

James Stavridis: A Navy Admiral’s thoughts on global security
Navy Admiral James Stavridis advocates an open-source system of global security in this inspired talk from TEDGlobal 2012. To make ourselves safer, he argues, we need to collaborate and break down our barriers.

Hasan Elahi: FBI, here I am!
After being questioned for six months by the FBI following the attacks of September 11, artist and professor Hasah Elahi decided to cut out the FBI as the middleman in the information gathering process. He realized, having had to justify seemingly meaningless moments of his existence to the FBI, that by sharing mundane moments of his life — a precursor to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram — that he could beat the FBI to the punch and take control of the barrage of information available about him on the internet. As he explained at TEDGlobal 2011, to secure a private life, he decided to share everything.

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy: Inside a school for suicide bombers
Documentary maker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy walks through the Taliban’s five-step process of recruiting children suicide bombers in this astonishing talk with startling video clips from TED2010. Providing a perspective deeply contextualized in poverty and religion, Obaid-Chinoy explores the living conditions of the Taliban’s “sacrificial lambs.”

Joseph Nye on global power shifts
We need to redefine and realign national interests for positive-sum multi-national gain, said former assistant secretary of defense Joseph Nye at TEDGlobal 2010. As power dynamics shift and forceful power is mixed with what Nye calls soft power — the power of influence — Nye highlights the potential for the 21st century to be a period of cooperation and mutual benefit.

Marc Goodman: A vision of crimes in the future
Security expert Marc Goodman has spent his career studying criminals and terrorists, examining how groups co-opt technology for nefarious purposes. In this chilling talk from TEDGlobal 2012, Goodman outlines how burgeoning advances — like 3D printing and personalized medicine — could be exploited by terrorists. But there is a solution, he says. By making citizens a part of the security process, Goodman says that we can better anticipate threats and be prepared to counter them.

Jody Williams: A realistic vision for world peace
“We can change this world,” said Nobel Peace laureate Jody Williams at TEDWomen. Outlining women’s roles in bringing peace to violent and sometimes terror-ridden countries, she highlights the power of individuals to attain peace.

Peter van Uhm: Why I chose a gun
“Sometimes only the gun can stand between good and evil.” In this thought-provoking talk from TEDxAmsterdam, Netherlands Chief of Defense Peter van Uhm shares the experiences that lead him to go into the military to help keep the peace, and why he thinks that guns in the hands of good people are so important.

Rory Stewart: Time to end the war in Afghanistan
Rory Stewart isn’t your typical Member of Parliament. An author and adventurer, he walked across Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks and later founded a charity in Kabul. In this extraordinary talk from TEDGlobal 2011, he powerfully argues for bringing home the troops in Afghanistan, not only because deployment has lead to more violence but because the perpetual optimism of Western military leaders is making failure “invisible, inconceivable and inevitable.”