Some great ideas make you want to get up and dance. Ever wondered what Stewart Brand’s talk on de-extincting animals would sound like set to music? Even if the answer is no, which it likely is, today is your lucky day. A band called Grupo TEDx has written such a song, giving Brand’s talk some serious Latin flair. […]
Sylvia Earle is always on a mission. She launched the ocean conservation campaign Mission Blue in 2010 after winning the TED Prize, establishing protected marine “hope spots” around the world. And last weekend, Earle dove 63 feet beneath the ocean’s surface to visit Fabien Cousteau, the grandson of legendary underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau, on his Mission 31. Earle, […]
Jane Chen knew that, for her low-cost baby incubator to save lives, moms would need to love it. But she had no idea that one of the world’s most famous moms—Beyoncé—would become one of her biggest supporters. Last week, Beyoncé announced a $125,000 donation to Embrace Innovations, Chen’s organization that makes the low-cost infant warmer, […]
By Krystian Aparta When Kazakh journalist Asqat Yerkimbay learned about TED’s Open Translation Project, he realized it could be instrumental in reviving his native tongue. Under Soviet rule, communicating in Kazakh became viewed as a sign of ignorance, and although it regained its standing as the national language after Kazakhstan declared independence in 1991, Russian […]
This spring, I turned 30. And it’s true what they say: the younger you are, the more you think you know. I spent my 20s building Flying Kites, a small non-profit serving orphaned children and vulnerable families in Kenya. It took lots of energy and lots of traveling, and was a ton of fun. Cue a […]
When Naheed Nenshi spoke at TEDxCalgary, he was a university professor. Now, he’s the mayor of Calgary. In May of 2010, just a month after giving a TEDx talk, Nenshi launched a successful campaign for mayor—one dubbed the “purple revolution” because of his aim to bring together conservative red and liberal blue. He won the […]
On a drizzly spring day in Boston earlier this month, three dozen musicians mingled in the President’s Library of the New England Conservatory (NEC), one of the most prestigious music institutions in the country. The weather did not dampen the infectious enthusiasm in the room. After all, 10 of these musicians were about to mark […]
Happy 10,000th event, TEDx! Since its start in 2009, TEDx events have been held in 167 countries at an average rate of 8 per day. These events have taken place at locations as far flung as Mount Everest and the Sydney Opera House but, beyond that, these events have transformed individuals and their communities. Below an infographic—created by designer […]
What’s funny in one language isn’t necessarily funny in another. Maysoon Zayid’s “I got 99 problems … palsy is just one” presented many challenges for TED translators bringing the hilarious talk into their language. As she tells stories from her life as a Palestinian-American comedian with cerebral palsy, Zayid cracks with wordplay. For translators, it’s […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-yzTSrjkxc&w=983&h=553] If you ever find yourself in Brazil, advises Misha Glenny, try to look past the samba, soccer and sea. The journalist, who is currently researching a book on the underground drug trade in Rio de Janeiro, sees a Brazil of challenges, contradictions and opportunities that are far more complex than the celebrations on Ipanema […]
TEDGlobal 2014 is venturing “South!” In October, we’ll gather in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for a five-day conference that will flip your thinking on innovation, problem-solving and, well, the world. Today, we’re revealing the first 40 speakers who’ll appear on the TEDGlobal stage. (Which, by the way, is being built on Copacabana Beach). They range from a “satellite datacaster“ to a […]
In 2008, Patricia Zougheib was at work in Beirut, Lebanon, when she came across a video of Jill Bolte Taylor describing her own stroke. She was awed, and Googled the three red letters she noticed in the background—T-E-D. “I started watching one talk after the other,” she says, “and I got hooked, big-time.” For a […]
Beliefs run deep, influencing not just whether we follow a religion but also the choices we make about every aspect of our lives. Belief is something we at TED think a lot about, and last night we held a session in our office dedicated to exploring what we believe and why we believe it. The […]
We’re launching a new way of exploring ideas. Ideas are the lifeblood of TED. They are the focal point of every talk, the fulcrum of every conversation and discussion. They’re also impossible to pin down, forever evolving, growing and adapting as the world around them changes. ideas.TED.com is built to celebrate this: to track ideas […]
The Maxi Taxi is Port of Spain’s answer to the subway. In the capital city of Trinidad and Tobago, this network of mini buses shuttles commuters along set routes—a red line, a yellow line, a green line—bringing them from neighborhoods to business districts and back. Like commuters in many cities, Maxi Taxi riders generally avoid […]
The illness hit me on a beautiful summer weekend. I woke up early and did an hour of exercise, feeling very excited to take my children to a local festival that evening. We all put on our summer kimonos, called yukata—my then 5-year-old son turned into a little samurai and my 2-year-old girl became a princess. […]