There’s a bit of a back story behind today’s TED Talk, in which Nick Hanauer issues a powerful warning to his fellow zillionaire ‘plutocrats’ that it’s time to take the inequality issue seriously, and makes the case to dramatically raise the minimum wage. Some of you may remember that two years ago there was an online spat between […]
Chris Anderson invited Bill and Melinda Gates to the TED2014 stage for what turned out to be a personal and charming Q&A. This is an edited version of that conversation. Anderson began with the provocation, “On the basis that a picture’s worth a thousand words, I asked them to dig from their archive to explain […]
How does being rich affect the way we behave? In today’s talk, social psychologist Paul Piff provides a convincing case for the answer: not well. “As a person’s levels of wealth increase, their feelings of compassion and empathy go down, and their feelings of entitlement, of deservingness, and their ideology of self-interest increases,” he says in […]
Chrystia Freeland writes about the power of money. As a journalist, she examines how money shapes society, impacts politics and essentially makes the world go ‘round. In today’s talk, given at TEDGlobal 2013, Freeland tackles the growing global plutocracy, looking at how 21st century democratic capitalism is making the rich richer while pulling up the […]
“If there is this big difference, with some people worth everything and other people worth nothing, where do you come?” So asks Richard Wilkinson in the trailer for the forthcoming documentary based on his influential book The Spirit Level. Wilkinson, an epidemiologist, spent his career examining health issues caused or worsened by poverty and inequality — […]
June is otherwise known as Pride Month, a time to celebrate both the struggles and victories on the road to equality. So it feels very fitting that today, June 26, on the final day of their term, the Supreme Court delivered a pair of rulings that bolster gay marriage. Today, explore this compilation of talks about […]
Anne-Marie Slaughter, public policy expert and author of the widely read 2012 article “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” closes the first session of TEDGlobal with a talk about how she became a woman she never imagined. In 2010, Slaughter, says, “I had the chance to be considered for promotion from my job as […]
It’s been a hard week for many Americans, as the Boston bombings continue to raise more and more questions. Here is some weekend reading as you await answers. A poignant ode to the city of Boston, its annual marathon and the victims of the April 15 bombings. [NY Review of Books Blog] Far, far away […]
Freeman Hrabowski was a 9th grader in Birmingham, Alabama, when he heard a dynamic, impassioned speaker at church — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time, King was organizing a march for children, and Hrabowski begged his parents to let him be a part of it. Hrabowski won their blessing to march in the […]
iO Tillett Wright remembers the moment she decided to start living as a boy — age 6 when the kids at school barked at her that girls weren’t allowed to play basketball. As a teenager and adult, Tillett Wright went on to fall in love with a woman, and then to fall in love with […]