When he set out to create a photo essay on “poverty in America” in 2005, photographer Aaron Huey had no idea what was in store for him. But what started as one story soon consumed his life as he became a committed activist devoted to raising awareness about Native American treaty rights. Just last month, […]Read more
Aerialist Nik Wallenda looks down and sees the 1,500-foot drop to the bottom of the Grand Canyon below him. All that stands between him and a lethal landing is the 2-inch tightrope that he has decided to traverse on camera, the moment being broadcast around the world on live television. If most people were to […]
Back to school brings with it a slew of emotions. On the one hand, there’s the promise of seeing friends daily and the buying of new school supplies — new possibilities encapsulated in shrink-wrapped blank notebooks. But on the other hand, there’s the end of summer and the transition back to structured days, not to […]
Extreme swimmer Diana Nyad has completed her longest swim yet … at the age of 64. Over the weekend, Nyad attempted the swim from Havana, Cuba, to the coast of Florida for the fifth time, and this time finished the ambitious 110-mile swim. The swim took Nyad a total of 53 hours — and made […]
Adam Spencer isn’t just the host of the Australian radio program Triple J Breakfast Show. He also has a degree in pure mathematics and, in today’s talk, he ascends into “geek heaven” to explains his deep love of massive prime numbers, the largest of which was discovered earlier this year and is 17.5 million digits […]
Our office might be closed for summer vacation, but the TED Fellows are hard at work at the very first TED Fellows Retreat, happening now in Whistler, British Columbia. Because the Fellows have proliferated since the program officially launched in 2009, many of these extraordinary thinkers have never had a chance to meet and conspire. And thus, the TED […]
Time off is a beautiful thing. It’s also an essential — the thing we all need to breathe deeply, enjoy life, and come back to work refreshed. This was the point of Stefan Sagmeister’s talk, The Power of Time Off. In it, he shares that every seven years, he takes a year-long sabbatical. We in […]
[ted id=853] Malaria kills about 2,000 people every day. The mosquito-borne disease has ravaged the equatorial areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia, where a combination of poverty and climate make a dangerous breeding ground for disease. There is currently no vaccine. But Nathan Myhrvold has a solution. In his talk and demonstration […]
The venue that housed TEDxKalamata certainly had some history: held in an ancient amphitheater, this was the first TEDx event in an archaeological site. To be specific, the location was an ancient outdoor ekklesiasterion (assembly hall) in Messene, Greece, that has been used for public gatherings since 369 B.C. At TEDxKalamata, 18 speakers and 50 volunteers […]
While the TED Blog chills for the next two weeks, take a break to read some of our favorite pieces from around the Internet over the past seven days: A fascinating, at times hilarious, look at business management practices in high-threat terrorist organizations. [Foreign Affairs] A profile of Laura Poitras, the documentary filmmaker who helped […]
Yes, a marathon is about running 26.2 miles. But as May El-Khalil describes in today’s talk, a marathon can also be about so much more — a chance for people to come together and celebrate the human spirit. El-Khalil is the founder of the Beirut Marathon and, in this talk, she describes how a personal […]
Engineer and health entrepreneur Zubaida Bai is passionate about improving women’s lives. Through her company AYZH, she develops health products — such as the $2 Clean Birth Kit — designed to reduce maternal and infant mortality in underprivileged communities around the world. AYZH is about to launch an Indiegogo funding campaign to produce an impact […]
Planting a vegetable garden beside a road is no longer a fineable action in Los Angeles. In a major victory for TED speaker Ron Finley, otherwise known as the renegade gardener of South Central, the Los Angeles City Council voted 15-0 on Tuesday to allow the planting of vegetable gardens in unused strips of city […]