Some people might not take kindly to being called a knucklehead by their boss. Not Noah McQueen. But if your boss were President Barack Obama, you’d probably give him a pass, too. In a Storycorps interview that aired this morning, President Obama interviewed McQueen, an 18-year-old White House mentee in the My Brother’s Keeper initiative, which celebrates its first […]Read more
Ideas are best when shared in good company. So invite the gang, grab some popcorn and enjoy TED2015 via TED Live, our high-definition webstream that beams the TED Conference, either in the moment or after the fact, into your living room, office or classroom. The on-demand conference, to watch anytime, costs $100, or you can […]
As usual, the TED community has been very busy over the past week. Below, a few newsy highlights. Overlooked treasures. A bed, a watch, a shoe: all mundane items unappreciated in the moment. But through history’s eyes, they gain new meaning. In this beautiful “Portraits in Creativity” documentary, Maira Kalman talks about curating the exhibit […]
On the surface, the talk is “TED-like”: the round red carpet, the well-rehearsed speaker, the shadowy audience, the headset mic. But quickly, discordant elements begin to register: the strange parenthetical markings on the floor, the inappropriate audience responses, the fact that the speaker himself is a 10-year-old boy. Welcome to “The Thought Leader,” a satire […]
LEGOs are for building spaceships, crafting castles and getting lost in your couch. But what if they could be used not just to dream of lands long ago and times far away, but to inspire future scientists? That’s what writer Maia Weinstock had in mind when she made these STEM scientist action figures. Weinstock has […]
Counting the days ’til TED2015? Yeah: we are, too. Before the conference begins on March 16, dive into a great book written by one of our speakers. Books from speakers in Session 1, “Opening Gambit” National Insecurity: American Leadership in an Age of Fear, by David Rothkopf. The foreign policy specialist examines the way U.S. […]
In the small village of Roka in western Cambodia, 272 people have tested positive for HIV since the end of 2014. Among those diagnosed: an 82-year-old celibate Buddhist monk, several babies and 19 members of the same family. This tragic outbreak has been traced to a source: Yem Chrin, a popular medical practitioner who operated […]
TED was well-represented at the 87th annual Academy Awards last night. Documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras took home the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature for Citizenfour, and brought journalist Glenn Greenwald (watch his TED Talk) onstage with her to accept the award. The film dives into the world of Edward Snowden (watch his Q&A at TED2014), […]
Eco-entrepreneur Alasdair Harris is passionate about conserving marine biodiversity, and he’s doing it in unusual ways. While most marine conservationists focus on what’s in the water, Harris’ company Blue Ventures works with people in poverty-stricken coastal communities to engage them in rebuilding tropical fisheries and in the process of protecting both their ecosystems and livelihoods. The company’s approach: eco-tourism. We spoke […]
As usual, the TED community has been very busy over the past week. Below, a few newsy highlights. Seafaring robots. TED Fellow Cesar Harada’s startup, Scoutbots, was recently named one of Fast Company’s Top 10 Innovative Companies in China. Based in Hong Kong, Scoutbots uses open-source technology and highly bendable, durable materials to create autonomous […]
Drew Curtis is not a politician. The curator of Fark.com, the legendary online community of news jokes and funny Photoshops, he proudly proclaims this fact on homepage of his latest website. This declaration is only surprising because, just a few inches above, the intention of the website is revealed: “Drew Curtis for Governor.” See, politics […]
At the end of TED2015, curator Chris Anderson and content director Kelly Stoetzel want people to walk away feeling like “they’ve had with their worldview challenged in a productive, satisfying way.” For this conference, whose theme is “Truth and Dare,” they’ve crafted a speaker lineup that ranges from neuroscientists to machine-learning experts to newly minted […]
TED2015 promises to be our most provocative, thought-flipping conference yet. And we’ve added a few new speakers and performers to the lineup to join us March 16-20 in Vancouver. Below, a little introduction. Chris Urmson develops self-driving cars that thrive in both urban and off-roading environments. As the Director of Self-Driving Cars at Google[x], his […]