There are 365 days in a year. So it feels like a telling coincidence that the organizers of both TEDxCapeTown and TEDxJohannesburg—independently organized events in two of the biggest, busiest cities in South Africa—opted to hold their events within a single week. This confluence of timing shows just how powerful the TEDx platform is for […]
“Hi. My name is Zak Ebrahim and I’m the son of a convicted terrorist,” said a soft-spoken man in a checkered button-down shirt, sitting in your average white-walled room. “With my story, I hope to show that if I can choose a peaceful, non-violent path that anyone can.” This was my formal introduction to Zak […]
Why, hello there—you middle or high school student in the New York City area. One thing you’ll want to do today, besides your homework: apply to attend TEDYouth 2014. Applications are now open! A free day of TED Talks and assorted hijinx, TEDYouth 2014 will take place at the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday, November 15, […]
It’s a challenge for anyone with a cause: How do you frame the issue so that people feel excited to get involved? For some causes, the answer is asking people to dump a bucket of ice on their head. For others, making that personal connection is even more tricky. This is exactly how a small […]
Lon Hodge and his labradoodle, Gander, are at a McDonald’s near the Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois, a quick stop for a bite as they travel across the United States. “He never leaves my side,” Hodge explains to a curious woman, patting Gander on the flank. “He’s special.” Hodge and Gander are on the […]
TEDGlobal 2014 is themed “South!,” and it will be the first official TED conference held in South America. Focusing on themes emerging around the world, this conference will take a bold look at the ideas flowing from the Global South, discussing innovation as well as social and political issues, art as well as education, resources […]
Shortly after model Geena Rocero gave the TED Talk “Why I must come out,” she was Skyping with an LGBTQ activist in Hong Kong. This activist mentioned how powerful it would be for Chinese speakers to be able to watch the talk. Rocero logged on to TED.com to find out how she could get her […]
Pets: they are just like us. Well, maybe. In her TED Talk, “Depressed dogs, cats with OCD—what animal madness means for us humans,” Laurel Braitman shares her seven years of research on the mental health of animals. “What I discovered is that I do believe they can suffer from mental illness, and [that] trying to […]
My high school English class had just finished reading Madame Bovary, and we were all confused. (For those of you who have not read it, please skip to paragraph two. Spoiler alert!) Emma Bovary, a listless housewife in search of the passionate love she’s read about in books, has many sordid affairs, falls deeply […]
For many, the words “professional development” conjure up memories of sitting in a human resources office, watching a series of awkward training videos and then taking a mandatory quiz. The TED Distribution Team realized: it doesn’t need to be this way. Earlier this year, they started to think about how companies could use TED Talks […]
If you were to map out all 10 TEDx events that Felipe Spath has organized, you’d have a constellation of waypoints zigzagging through Colombia’s countryside—passing farms, mountains, lakes, coffee fields and mines. The tireless Colombian native organized his first TEDx event in 2012 and has been going nonstop ever since, working to bring ideas from […]
In the chaotic heart of downtown Brooklyn, a door greets you with an illustration of a man in a pink tutu and leopard print leggings tossing up a peace sign. Welcome to Space-Made—the art lab where Cameron Russell and her collaborators create Interrupt, a magazine that lets marginalized communities tell their own stories. It’s a […]
There’s a bit of a back story behind today’s TED Talk, in which Nick Hanauer issues a powerful warning to his fellow zillionaire ‘plutocrats’ that it’s time to take the inequality issue seriously, and makes the case to dramatically raise the minimum wage. Some of you may remember that two years ago there was an online spat between […]
The animal you see in this watercolor-washed illustration is not a camel. This is, technically, a dromedary. Anja Kantowsky, a communications consultant who lives in Germany, created this image at the TEDSalon Berlin in June as she watched a talk from nine-time TED speaker Hans Rosling and his son Ola Rosling that used the differences […]
Last night, four authors stepped onto an Edison-bulb-lit stage in our New York office to share the bold ideas at the center of their books. “Tonight will bring to life the nonfiction section of the library,” promised the evening’s host, June Cohen, Executive Producer of TED Media. From a new vision for healthcare, to a […]
To attend a TEDxMadrid conference, residents of the city must fill out an application and have a ticket in hand. But on a balmy evening this July, more than 800 people spontaneously stumbled into a TEDxMadridSalon event held in El Campo de Cebada, an outdoor square that used to be a hole for the city’s […]