“I am so happy to be here, because I can actually breathe the air,” says Peggy Liu, who lives in China, as she steps on the TED2014 stage. Her typical day begins not with checking the time, but by checking the air pollution levels on her phone to determine whether her children will need to wear […]
Gavin Schmidt is the author of Climate Change: Picturing the Science, described by Popular Mechanics as “the first book anyone seeking a layman’s understanding of the science of global warming should read.” He’s here to talk about the environment and the models we’ve built to understand this astonishingly complex issue. Because, for one thing, you can’t just […]
Today on stage at TED2014 magician and puzzler David Kwong blew minds when he pulled an audience member onstage, asked her to color in a few animals, and then revealed he was so sure he could predict her behavior that he had her choices written into the day’s New York Times crossword. Hm: What’s a […]
Magician and cruciverbalist David Kwong is one excited nerd. On stage at the end of an intense morning at TED2014 he pulls a random attendee on stage and asks her to color in five animals with different colors as he has his back turned. Kwong then predicts the right combination of colors and animals correctly, […]
When we think of cities, we think of buildings and skyscrapers and stray cats. For Amanda Burden, who spent 12 years as New York City’s director of urban planning, they’re primarily about people. They’re about where people go and where they meet — that’s the core of how cities work. And for the people, even more important than the […]
Bob Greenberg, founder and CEO of R/GA, dreamed up the opening titles for TED4 back in 1994, designing a delightful scroll of lines that playfully dance into the formation of the block letters of TED. Greenberg comes to TED2014 to tell us about a house. More specifically, his house. “I grew up in Chicago, and I […]
Though you may call him an artist, Carter think of himself as an industrial designer whose medium is type. When one designs a font, one deals closely with the technology that renders it, Carter explains, whether that’s a mechanical printing press or a central processing unit. “Type is something we consume in enormous quantities,” he […]
For TEDx organizers, the TEDx Workshop held each year at TED and TEDActive is a way to experience the behind-the-scenes action at what organizers affectionately call “the mothership.” To date, more than 9,000 TEDx events have taken place in 157 countries. At the heart of every TEDx event is an organizer, which is why events […]
Our world is constantly changing, and it is bold ideas that push this forward. Our speakers in this session are all big thinkers who are working to reshape the ways we see, think about, and interact with the world, from the mind behind some of your favorite fonts to an urban planner transforming New York […]
So here’s a surprise. Chris Anderson takes the stage to introduce a very special guest — who’s not actually here. Beaming in from a remote location in Russia, controlling a bot he can wheel around the stage to see the assembled audience, here’s arguably the most controversial figure in contemporary culture: Edward Snowden. As he […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CajfvKf5SZY&w=900&h=506] . The Next Chapter Theater at TED2014 smells incredible. That’s because it was constructed of Douglas Fir, harvested locally in the Pacific Northwest, and assembled on-site in Vancouver, Canada, over the past four and a half days. See, the Vancouver Convention Centre is perfect for TED—it’s beautifully designed, environmentally friendly, and has sweeping views […]
November 4, 2008, the night Barack Obama was elected president of the United States, was a monumental victory for the American civil rights movement. For documentary filmmaker Yoruba Richen, who should have been over the moon, the night tore her apart. Nearly 150 years after the end of slavery in America, as Obama was being […]
“Architecture is shaping our lives in ways we don’t even realize,” says architect Marc Kushner in his talk at TED2014. Co-founder of Architizer, an online catalog of architecture projects worldwide, Kushner is dedicated to connecting people with the structures in which they spend their lives. Structures can inspire feelings like strength and power and stability, Kushner […]
Physicist Brian Green promises he will tell the audience at TED 2014 the whole history of the universe in four minutes. “Forgive me,” he says, “if I leave out a detail here or there.” He does it with two metaphors. One from the beginning till now, and another from now till the end. The universe […]
Bran Ferren’s life pivoted on a trip to Rome at age 9. He’s the son of two passionate abstract expressionist artists, who taught him that art wasn’t just decorative but about communicating ideas, and the grandson of a cabinet-making factory owner, who often took him on field trips to buy electronics to take a apart […]
This year, TED turns 30. It’s a big, round anniversary — the kind that brings with it a welcome moment of reflection. In this session, we look backward and see how far the world has come in the past three decades. These speakers turn back the clocks and offer bold new ways to think about […]