Africa has beautiful stories to tell, says Peace Anyiam-Osigwe. At 16 years old, the Nigerian published her own magazine. She later continued bringing a “voice to voiceless issues” as a talk show host and film producer. Founder of the African Movie Academy Awards, Peace now dedicates her time to building cinemas in rural Africa, and […]
Yesterday, we featured Texan councilman Joel Burns as one of our Best of the Web picks. His courageous talk at the Fort Worth city council is part of a larger project begun in September by columnist Dan Savage and called “It Gets Better.” In reaction to recent teen suicides, Savage and his partner Terry Miller […]
Joel Burns tells gay teens “it gets better” In a courageous, intensely emotional talk at the city council in Fort Worth, Texas, councilman Joel Burns reaches out to the targets of teen bullying — kids who are gay, perceived as gay, or just different — with a vital message about their lives, and the harassment […]
Benoit Mandelbrot has died, at 85. We’re honored to have had him speak at the first TED, in 1984, and at the most recent TED in Long Beach, where he talked about his life’s work: studying fractals and roughness, and helping the world understand how fractal math underpins both nature and art. Mandelbrot was, as […]
Ever since founding the first truly effective ambulance service in India, Shaffi Mather has been hooked on social enterprises. He’s gone on to set up inclusive high-quality schools, support small-scale dairy farming, and is now launching a bribe-fighting business. (Watch his talk from TEDIndia 2009.) Can you give us an overview of each of your […]
Natalie Jeremijenko’s unusual lab puts art to work, and addresses environmental woes by combining engineering know-how with public art and a team of volunteers. These real-life experiments include: Walking tadpoles, texting “fish,” planting fire-hydrant gardens and more. (Recorded at Business Innovation Factory 5, October 2009 in Providence, RI. Duration: 19:51) [ted id=980] Watch Natalie Jeremijenko’s […]
For Kellee Santiago, founder of thatgamecompany, video games are an interactive art form. Inspired by hiking, gazing at clouds, and even stories of religious conversion, her games invoke emotional responses, pushing the boundaries of video games as a communicative media. What was your first experience with video games? Well, I had played games all my […]
Designer Tino Chow helps organizations tell the stories of their Big New Ideas to make the world a better place. He also spends time on his own big ideas — from a “24 Hour Design Jam,” to a cross-country bike ride. Despite the challenges of being an awful speller, Tino is living his dream, and […]
Today, TED Fellow Darius Weems, of Darius Goes West fame, turns 21! At age 15, Darius and eleven of his best friends drove across the U.S. to attempt to convince MTV to customize Darius’ wheelchair on Pimp My Ride. Darius, born with a fatal disease called Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), was the star of the […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58mNnPeeTGs&feature=player_embedded] From the TED Prize blog: Congratulations to the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) and 2008 TED Prize winner Neil Turok on winning $2 million in funding from Google’s Project 10^100. Project 10^100 (10 to the 100th power) was a call for ideas to divide a $10 million fund into five pieces that would […]
TIME magazine’s Bryan Walsh has posted a beautiful, in-depth story about Sylvia Earle and Mission Blue. Traveling from the Galapagos to the Sargasso Sea, and through oceans around the world, the profile tells Sylvia’s story as a pioneering ocean scientist — and details her lifelong quest to protect the ocean, one “hope spot” at a […]
Founder of Acumen Fund Jacqueline Novogratz recently visited Pakistan (along with TED Curator Chris Anderson) to offer what help she could and work with local friends on their relief efforts. On returning to New York, she gave a short talk at TED HQ and shared the stories of the Pakistani people she met along with […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPp9juefl2Y] Onstage at TED2009, Tod Machover talked about his boundary-shaking musical projects (including the gorgeous Hyperscore demoed by the composer Dan Ellsey) — and hinted about a “really crazy project” called Death and the Powers, a blend of opera and robotics that was going to turn the entire stage into a robotic musical instrument, using […]
Blogging about her personal life helped Sanjukta Basu find her voice. Despite Indian social mores restricting women’s self expression, Sanjukta has opened up her heart online, empowering others to do the same. Compelled by the transformations social media created in her own life, Sanjukta develops strategies to make the voiceless’ stories heard. After quitting your […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNgG-NTlYRA] TED’s curator, Chris Anderson, was born in Pakistan, and feels an enduring tie to the country — which has recently experienced the worst floods in living memory, killing thousands and displacing tens of millions of people. Chris and his wife, Jacqueline Novogratz of the Acumen Fund, traveled the country, visiting camps and flooded cities […]
Seth Godin: This is broken Why are so many things broken? In a hilarious talk from the 2006 Gel conference, Seth Godin gives a tour of things poorly designed, the 7 reasons why they are that way, and how to fix them. Watch now »