[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 […]
“The Next Chapter” is already fascinating — full of great characters, plot twists and, hopefully, it’s all leading toward a happy ending. Today, we kicked off TED2014 — our 30th-anniversary conference — which will chew on this theme, offering intriguing ideas on where we are going next. So what happened in day one? Below, some highlights. […]
At the end of Session 1: Liftoff! at TED2014, DJ and producer Mark Ronson drops the TED Talk intro into a million tiny little pieces. Hair slicked to one side, Ronson mutters self-disparagingly about following Nicholas Negroponte, Chris Hadfield and Ziauddin Yousafzai: “Now I know what it feels like to follow Led Zeppelin, the Stones […]
TED was co-founded, in 1984, by Richard Saul Wurman and partner Harry Marks. As part of the 30th-year anniversary, Chris Anderson welcomed Wurman up onto the stage to recognize that achievement. “How does it feel to see your baby reach 30?” asked Anderson. Wurman said, “Well, I have 3 minutes. I thought about being clever. […]
“I create sculpture that makes me feel protected, yet connected to limitless sky,” says Janet Echelman, the artist who gave the TED2011 talk “Taking imagination seriously.” Echelman’s sculptures resemble netting — gigantic, beautifully draped, brightly colored and installed overhead. In fact, she’s noticed something about her installed works that she never expected to happen: People gather underneath the […]
In October 2012, a Taliban-affiliated gunman shot Ziauddin Yousafzai’s daughter Malala soon after she boarded a bus en route to her school. In Swat, Pakistan — where Ziauddin and Malala live — the Taliban had outlawed all girls from attending school — but Yousafzai, an educator and steadfast crusader for women’s rights in Pakistan, refused […]
Or, asks retired colonel Chris Hadfield to the crowd at TED2014, “What’s the most dangerous? And, why did you do it?” For Hadfield, an astronaut with the Canadian Space Agency and a commander of the International Space Station for 3 months, it was to ride a rocket ship into orbit. Watch Chris Hadfield’s TED Talk >> […]
Today, Negroponte is back to open TED, to reflect on predictions he’s made in the past and to spin some new ones for the future. His point is that when someone tells you that you are “dead wrong,” that you just might be onto something. Negroponte takes us on a lightning-paced tour of his career, […]
It’s time for TED! And first on our *brand-new stage* in Vancouver is the iridescent Kevin Olusola from Pentatonix, who starts the show off in a typically mind-shifting way, playing cello and, well, beatboxing. In honor of the fact that this is, after all, the 30th year of the conference, he takes us on a […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEGLql53wY4&w=586&h=330] The theme of TED2014 is “The Next Chapter.” And since it’s our 30th-anniversary conference, we begin with a look back at the chapters that came before. Enjoy this opener video, created by Mac Premo and Oliver Jeffers, which just kicked off Session 1: Liftoff! Follow the action of the session, and the rest of the conference, […]
This session is for those with a pioneering spirit: where two roads diverge in the woods … these visionaries decided to fly instead. As we fire up the engines of TED2014, our 30th-anniversary conference, expect the kind of forward-thinking ideas that turn one small step for a man into a giant leap for mankind. Watch […]