From Wall Street to Grameen Bank, the experiences of Durreen Shahnaz’s life are coming together to propel her next project: a stock exchange for socially conscious companies. What are the most important projects you’re involved with? I am creating two companies. My first company is Impact Investment Exchange, which is a trading platform. It’s a […]
Created by the team behind An Inconvenient Truth and starring TED2010 speaker (and former CIA covert operative) Valerie Plame Wilson, Countdown to Zero began playing theaters of select cities this week. At TED, Plame spoke about the compelling need to bring the number of nuclear weapons in the world to zero and the film delves […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaFY760OasE&hl=en_US&fs=1] Being announced right now in Washington, DC: A brand-new X Challenge to combat oil spills. The Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X Challenge is a $1.4 million prize to promote development of new technologies and techniques to capture spilled oil. As Peter Diamandis said at the announcement: “We are not rewarding someone for existing technology. […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od0eTtJw7Ms&hl=en_US&fs=1] Tonight (Tuesday, July 27) on NBC TV stations, Tony Robbins debuts his first-ever TV series, Breakthrough with Tony Robbins. In the six-episode series, Robbins works with six people facing an extreme life challenge, inspiring them to become more resilient and find the inner resources to build better lives and relationships. Find more information on […]
Jeff Bezos: What matters more than talents In this Princeton University graduation address, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos makes the case that our character is reflected not in the gifts we’re endowed with at birth, but by the choices we make over the course of a lifetime. Watch Jeff Bezos’ talk >>
Seth Raphael believes in blending technology and magic. That’s right, magic. As a magician and tech-guru, he combines his passions to help people realize the impossible. In this interview, learn about Seth’s unique approach to fostering wonder, his results-oriented workshops, and his love of libraries. Your work is rather unusual, even for TED. Can you […]
Earlier this week, Californian-born, French-resident entrepreneur and musician Caroline Phillips told the TED University participants at TEDGlobal about the hurdy-gurdy, a polyphonic instrument that is over 1,000 years old and was played throughout Europe — while only a handful of people play it today, including Phillips. Her short performance captivated the audience, which asked for […]
As Session 9 was due to start at 2pm, everyone in their seats — boom: power outage! We had house lights but no stage lights, no sound, no mics, no slides. While the crew from the Oxford Playhouse and PSP found the source of the trouble and started everything back up, host Bruno Giussani curated […]
Jane Chen has helped develop and market a low-cost device that could save millions of premature babies in the developing world. Read this TED interview to discover Jane’s inspirations, love of music and penchant for making pies. (Watch her talk from TEDIndia 2009.) Tell us about your work. I am the co-founder of a non-profit […]
Before her talk from TEDxEast posted today, Ellen Gustafson had a quick chat with the TED Blog to give us more insight into her ideas about combating hunger and obesity through The 30 Project. She also gave some background on her initial foray into social entrepreneurship, the FEED bag created with Lauren Bush, and explained […]
Today in Ontario, Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister of Canada, announced $20 million CDN in federal funding to expand the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) into five new locations across Africa by 2015, including Ethiopia, Ghana and Senegal. AIMS was founded by TED Prize winner Neil Turok, the director of the Perimeter Institute in […]
Soft cars, jet packs and houses made of meat are all in a day’s work for urban designer and architect Mitch Joachim. Check out this interview to learn how ancient horticulture techniques, Star Trek and Homer Simpson inspire this super-proud dad. (Watch his talk from TED2010.) What are you working on right now? I’m co-founder […]
Mohan Kandaswamy commercializes a first-of-its-kind device that cleans aquaculture systems without the use of chemicals. Based in India, Mohan is expanding this technology beyond shrimp and prawn production to conserve endangered species and cleanup wastewater from mining and other industries worldwide. Can you tell us briefly about the work you do? I am the founder […]
The following is a cross-post from the TEDxOilSpill Expedition blog. This past week the TEDxOilSpill Expedition team spent time in the Southern states that line the Gulf of the Mexico documenting the disaster that is slowly unfolding in Gulf waters. Exactly two months ago the Deepwater Horizon oil well owned by British Petroleum sprung a […]
Practicing physician Nassim Assefi gets a kick out of saving lives and celebrating life. Working on her second novel and first film, she continues to be a powerful voice in global health policy while organizing a TEDx event in Seattle. Learn her thoughts on the importance of courage, education and salsa dancing in this Fellows […]
Before her TEDTalk posted today, the TED Blog caught up with classical Indian dancer Ananda Shankar Jayant. After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, she continued dancing and gave an amazing performance at the TEDIndia conference in November 2009. Now in remission and still enjoying life to its fullest, she gives an update on […]