Yo-yo champion BLACK does, in fact, wear a special costume — all black, with a red sash. But he has not always been a superhero. In his very sweet talk from TED2013, BLACK reveals that as a young teenager he struggled with feelings of worthlessness — and that it was dedicating himself to the yo-yo […]
Tom Thum wowed at TEDxSydney this week by doing strange things with his mouth. With just a microphone and his charisma, Thum brings the sounds of Michael Jackson, fifties jazz and scratched vinyl to the TEDx stage. In this talk, he demonstrates his “innate ability for inhuman noisemaking.” Thum’s talk has amassed over 2 million […]
This week’s TED Radio Hour examines “Why We Collaborate,” exploring why, and how, millions of people come together to work on online projects, sometimes for free. The episode begins with Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, who spoke at TEDGlobal 2005, back when the site was still very new. The incredible growth of Wikipedia since […]
Evolution. The concept surrounds us — it’s a standard part of science class, it’s routinely thrown out as explaining our actions in relationships, business and behavior — and yet, so many people hold subtle misunderstandings of what Darwin’s theory actually means. In this animated TED-Ed lesson, educator Alex Gendler gives a primer on the hard-to-grasp […]
Jack Andraka is not your typical teenager. The high schooler spends his free time in the science lab concocting better, cheaper ways to spot disease. One such project — a test for the early detection of pancreatic cancer — won Andraka first place in the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. As Andraka explains […]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9APO9_yNbcg&w=560&h=315] The death of Jimmy Mubenga, a political refugee who died as he was about to be deported from the UK to Angola, has been declared unlawful, thanks in large part to an investigation by TED speaker Paul Lewis and his colleague Matthew Taylor. When Mubenga died aboard British Airways Flight 77 on October 12, […]
In the past week, we’ve noticed some fascinating TED-related news. Here, some highlights. Bryan Stevenson (watch his talk from TED2012) is asking the state of Florida to reconsider its case against 14-year-old Tremaine McMillan. On May 27, McMillan was wrestled to the ground and put in a chokehold by a Miami-Dade police officer who felt […]
“Imagine yourself standing on a beach, looking out at the ocean — waves crashing against the shore, blue as far as your eyes can see.” This is the opening line of Scott Gass’ TED-Ed lesson, “How big is the ocean?” But the animated video gives you much more to think about than sand between your […]
[ted id=1499] In January of 2013, TED Fellow Cesar Harada, inventor of an open-source sailing robot, set sail on a four-month, 14-country round-the-world journey with Unreasonable at Sea, a global innovation accelerator on board a boat. Here, he tells us about how this extraordinary voyage helped crystallize his vision for how his open source sailing robot […]
Ivan Krastev’s TED book asks probing and difficult questions about democracy in societies that do not trust their leaders. For example, while Americans cling to the belief that democray represents the highest form of political organization, they also rate members of Congress amongst the least trusted professions. In his book In Mistrust We Trust, Krastev […]
TED Fellow Bahia Shehab is an Egyptian artist who, at TEDGlobal 2012, shared her love of the Arabic phrase “No and a thousand times no,” boldly revealing that she had been stenciling the words on the streets of Cairo following the revolution of 2011, saying “no to military rule,” “no to burning books,” and “no […]
In the past week, we’ve noticed some fascinating TED-related news. Here, some highlights. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has discontinued its iconic candy-hued metal admission tags. Museum director Thomas P. Campbell (watch his TED Talk) explains why to The New York Times — because of the rising cost of tin-plating. Angela Patton (watch her TED Talk) had a […]
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/69568276 w=560&h=315] The weeks after TEDGlobal require serious debriefing. Throughout the course of the conference — which took place June 10 to 14 in Edinburgh, Scotland — the mind is crammed full of so many fascinating ideas that it takes some time to process them. As we look back on the conference, and continue […]
With the increased teaching of English around the globe, world languages are dying at a rate of one every 14 days. In her classic talk from TEDxDubai, Patricia Ryan — an English speaker who has lived and taught in Arabic countries for over 30 years — argues that the focus on English is limiting creative […]
At TED2013 this spring, 34 passionate speakers made it onto the program via a worldwide, 14-city, six-continent Talent Search. The theme of the conference was “The Young. The Wise. The Undiscovered,” and the speakers discovered through the Talent Search Tour gave talks that sent the conference crowd flying to their feet. See: Rose George, Phil […]
Hyeonseo Lee’s story is a tale bound to pull at your heartstrings. She’s a North Korean refugee — and while helping her family flee the country in 2009, Lee’s mother and brother were detained in a Laos prison. At TED2013, Lee described how it was an enormously generous gift from a stranger that helped her […]