Simon Sinek begins his talk with the story of former U.S. Army Captain William D. Swenson. In 2009, Swenson was on an operation in Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border, when his column was ambushed. It was bad; many were injured. During this ambush, Swenson called for air support and ran through enemy fire to rescue the wounded. […]
The Raspyni Brothers are a delightfully irreverent pair who also happen to be world-class jugglers. At TED2014, they riff on Einstein’s dancing skills, reality TV and texting — all while juggling and balancing drum heads, wooden eggs and glasses of water with perfect coordination. As six-time TED speakers, the Raspynis also take a sec to […]
We live most of our lives wired and wound up, rarely pausing to relax or unplug from the daily grind. Our speakers in this session discuss the consequences of our ever-hectic lives, and remind us of the qualities we sometimes forget to foster. They include an author discussing why modern parenthood is out of whack, […]
The wild ride continues on March 20, 2014: Day 4 at TED2014. Here are some highlights from this Thursday: NSA deputy director Richard Ledgett responds to Edward Snowden The day after Edward Snowden made a surprise visit to the TED stage via telepresence robot, the morning opened on a buzzing but tense note with Richard Ledgett joining […]
Writer, teacher and MIT Media Fellow Shaka Senghor gives the last talk of Session 10: Passion at TED2014, and he starts with a literal bang: When he was 19, he shot and killed another man. At the time, he was a young drug dealer “with a quick temper and a semi-automatic pistol.” Speaking to us […]
Author Isabel Allende is 71. Her husband is 76, her parents are in their late 90s and her dog, Olympia, is 16. So she’s confronting the issue of aging head-on and thinking hard about how to live passionately through the process. “Society decides when we are old, usually at 65,” says Allende. “But really, we start […]
Devonté Hynes is a producer, singer, composer, author, and more. He’s spent a lot of his career helping other musicians produce their work, or writing for others. But he also has an amazing solo career as Blood Orange. At TED, he plays the piano and explains how he sees music. And he really sees music […]
On October 25, 2013, adventurer Ben Saunders and his teammate Tarka L’Herpiniere set out to complete Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s failed 1912 polar expedition — a four-month, 1,800-mile journey from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole and back. At the start of the expedition, L’Herpiniere and Saunders each dragged 200 kilograms by sledge, […]
Masarat Daud wears the burka — but she didn’t always. As a younger woman at university in Dubai, she thought: “People would think I was so religious, no one would want to be friends with me!” She wore western clothes, to the amusement of her parents. But her mother began suggesting she wear the burka, […]
Art historian Sarah Lewis’s first job was at the Museum of Modern Art. While there, she was entranced by an exhibit of works by the artist Elizabeth Murray. So Lewis was intrigued to hear from the painter that she felt several pieces hanging on the walls fell short. For one piece, Murray confessed that she’d found […]
Our passions are what drive us through our lives and our work. What unexpected places can they take us? In this session, seven speakers show the incredible range of answers. Below, the speakers who appeared in this session. Click on a speaker’s name to read a full recap of their talk. Mellody Hobson advocates for financial […]
By Kate Torgovnick, Morton Bast, Thu-Huong Ha The future. When it comes down to it, it’s not about flying cars, flashy robots, jetpacks, or awesome sunglasses. It’s about the little things we can do to advance healthcare, better education, create opportunities, improve connections between each other, and make lives just a little bit easier. In […]
Photographer Frans Lanting returns to TED for a short reminder of what’s happening outside the walls of our beautiful glass box. “Humanity,” he says, “takes center stage at TED, but I’d like to add a voice for the animals.” Lanting retells a story he once heard from a tribal elder not far from Vancouver, about […]
Billy Collins returns to the TED stage to join a recent trend contemplating the cognition and emotional life of dogs. With characteristic dryness and meditative drone — and, we think, the same red sweater — he shares “A Dog on his Master” and “The Revenant.” He reads, to big laughs: “I am the dog you […]
TED invites thinkers from every walk of life to share a compelling idea onstage. And this now includes AIs. During Session 9: Signals, Chris Anderson took the stage along with Peter Diamandis, the founder of the XPRIZE. “We’re here today to join forces and announce the creation of a new XPRIZE,” says Anderson. “Here’s the concept—it will […]
Louie Schwartzberg is fascinated with exposing the world’s wonders through photography. Three years ago, his talk, “Nature. Beauty. Gratitude,” demonstrated his uncanny ability to capture the captivating beauty of our natural world — the tiniest shake of a flower petal, the stirring complexity of a bee’s wing. At TED2014, he shows a portion of his […]