Doodles are more than just idle scribbles; they can distill complex ideas into useful packets of knowledge. During TED2016, artist Mia W. McNary translated 18-minute talks — on topics like what it means to be a global citizen, the psychology of introverts vs. extroverts and a prosecutor’s case for justice reform — into playful and […]
The weekend before a TED conference, each speaker rehearses their talk in the TED theater. It’s a chance for the speakers to get to know the space, for our curators to give last-minute suggestions on talk content, and for our speaker coaches to give advice to help each speaker feel their absolute best the day […]
Tides are strong. They move swiftly, sweeping all toward the shore. But TED Fellows refuse to simply drift with the water. They are innovators, advocates and artists who challenge the status quo and work in the spaces between disciplines. At the second TED Fellows Retreat — held from August 25-28, 2015, and themed “Swimming Against the Tide” — about […]
TED2015 featured more than 90 speakers, and more than 20 hours of talks. We turned our perceptions inside-out, saw some new technology, traveled to space more than once, heard astounding life stories, learned about unusual materials, rethought artistic expression and contemplated the divides of society, with an eye toward ending injustice. In the end, this collection of […]
A funny thing happens at the end of every TED — after the show wraps, first one brave person, and then duos and groups, rush the stage to get their picture taken with the red TED letters. So at TED2015, our tech team thought, why not bring the letters out to the conference floor and let everyone play? In a nights-and-weekends project, our […]
Hospice care doctor BJ Miller asks us how we can prepare for a good end of life — and find the “shock of beauty” in our own lives.
It is hard to believe that this is final session of TED2015. Luckily Session 12, “Endgame,” is our longest ever — with two full hours of talks that took us on a journey through the human experience, from anger to laughter and back again. Read a recap of these inspiring talks. An ode to anger. […]
“All my best ideas were born of anger,” says children’s rights activist Kailash Satyarthi. As the first speaker in the closing session of TED2015, Satyarthi shows how fury can be an underestimated power to make change. It’s the energy that’s informed his entire career — and led to his winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. Says […]
TED is about ideas worth spreading, and these often come wrapped up in words worth knowing. Here are some of the great words from TED2015: 10. Neurodiversity. From Steve Silberman’s talk on the history of the autism spectrum. It’s a word that began popping up in 1998, and it means “the variety of configurations of the […]
Tucked into the northeast corner of the Vancouver Convention Centre, a podium was set up for the duration of TED2015. A small camera captured what happened behind it, with a panorama of Vancouver’s mountains and harbor in the distance, complete with sea planes skimming across the water. From this vantage point, classrooms around the world Skyped in […]
Surfing in the ice. “If shivering is a form of meditation, then I consider myself a monk,” says Chris Burkard, before playing a soaring video that shows him surfing waves amidst snowfall and ice drifts, with white-topped mountain peaks in the background. See, Chris Burkard is a surf photographer who found himself burnt out on […]
When it comes to note-taking, it’s easy to try to get it all instead of just the important takeaways. Sketchnoting, a process that favors the use of image, forces you to look for the big picture. At this year’s TED, sketchnoters crossed the digital line in a big way. Over at Moleskine’s exhibit, Brad Ovenell-Carter […]
There’s a quiet corner at TED, with two comfortable chairs, a table with some paper and pencils, and a well-placed box of tissues. And on Wednesday night, after Dave Isay of StoryCorps shared his TED Prize wish, TEDsters flooded into Citi Ventures’ The Art of Listening exhibit. This social space was an homage to Isay’s oral history project — which […]
Time for a thought experiment: Imagine for a moment that global catastrophe struck and you needed to rebuild the world. How would you do it? This is a topic that astrobiologist Lewis Dartnell researched in depth for his recent book, The Knowledge. At TED2015, he shares some of the highlights. The are three important areas that have […]
“Harumph,” one TEDster smiled. “Get into a boxing ring.” “Moonwalk into the theater,” his partner grinned back. TEDsters don’t usually communicate in commands. But in a lounge on the north side of the theater, where white cushioned couches and espresso machines gleamed over the harbor below, the Target Daring Truth Cafe has turned the latte […]
Jeffrey Brown is a Baptist minister. And yet, he says, “I learned some of my most important life lessons from drug dealers and gang members and prostitutes and had some of my most profound theological conversations on a street corner.” Brown was one of the co-founders of the Boston Ten Point Coalition, a faith-based group […]