How did human emotions evolve to help us survive? For the last decade, cultural anthropologist Chelsea Shields Strayer has studied the indigenous healing practices of the Ashante people of Ghana, discovering that emotional pain serves useful purposes — including the relief of physical pain. In this conversation with the TED Blog, she tells the fascinating […]Read more
15-year old Julia Bluhm is a ballet dancer and body image activist. That’s right. Ballet, an activity that conjures images of super slim prima ballerinas gracefully passing up french fries in favor of pirouettes. And body image activism, where passionate advocates remind us all that we’re beautiful just the way we are. You might see […]
No one is exactly sure who invented thumb wrestling. According to Wikipedia, Julian Koenig — the advertising copywriter who helped coin the slogan “It takes a licking and keeps on ticking” for Timex — claimed to have invented the game in 1936 while at summer camp. Meanwhile, author Paul Davidson says that his grandfather was […]
In a classroom in Ontario, a class of 9th graders learned the book Siddhartha, not by listening to lectures from their teacher, but by asking questions like, “How do you know when you’ve reached enlightenment?” Meanwhile, a group of 3rd through 5th graders in rural Georgia was posed a question in Spanish, even though they […]
Juliana Rotich didn’t grow up in Nairobi, but the Kenyan capital has been her official full-time home since 2011. Now, she describes the city as “another node in my network.” It’s a suitable metaphor for a woman who’s immersed in the technology business, from her work at the nonprofit data and mapping collective, Ushahidi, to […]
Juliana Rotich was not expecting our interview to end in tears. Neither was I. But on reflection, we were both completely ok with it. After all, that’s what happens when terrorism becomes personal. For Rotich, that happened at the end of September, when al Shabaab terrorists attacked the Westgate Mall in the northwestern part of […]
Four hundred middle and high school students will fill the TEDYouth auditorium this Saturday — and many of them will be put straight to work. Students who’ve expressed interest in cinematography will shadow our video production team, students who want to be event planners will hang out with our producers, and those interested in journalism will […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQBuZVQruRY&w=640&h=360] By tracking social media, it turns out, we can get much better at recognizing pandemics early. Solving epidemics has been the goal of physician Larry Brilliant’s career — and the basis for his 2006 TED Prize wish, which he updated this year in a talk at TED2013, above. His wish called for an “International System […]
Could unemployment be a factor that leads to terrorism? In today’s talk, peace strategist Mohamed Ali (not to be confused with the boxer) introduces us to the youth of Mogadishu, Somalia — 70 percent of whom are unable to find jobs. In this talk, Ali highlights just how appealing the messages of terrorist organizations and […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIhuisot7XA&w=586&h=330] Yves Rossy (watch his talk) is known as the “Jetman,” because he zips through the air on a pair of jet-powered wings. Last week, he flew around Japan’s Mount Fuji. Nine times. And then spoke to Business Insider about it. Twitter co-founder Evan Williams (watch his talk) talks to The New York Times about […]
Danish political scientist Bjørn Lomborg focuses on using economic methods and data to prioritize the world’s problems. In 2005, he gave a TED Talk, Global priorities bigger than climate change, in which he challenged the audience to decide how they might spend $50 billion to solve the pressing issues of our time. Now he’s back, with […]
TEDYouth “The Spark” is about to ignite. The annual conference for middle and high school students will take place this Saturday in New Orleans, with 400 teens from across the region gathering to listen to talks from scientists, designers, technologists, explorers, artists and performers — some of them adults and some of them peers. The […]
In today’s talk, Zambian-born economist Dambisa Moyo describes how China’s growing presence in Africa is challenging a centuries-old tenet of Western political thought. For more than 200 years, Moyo argues, liberal democracy has ruled the roost. Particularly in the West, it’s long been considered the political system most likely to deliver economic success and […]