“I initially celebrated the 9/11 attacks,” says Mubin Shaikh. “When the news came in over the radio that a plane had hit the building, the first words that came out of my mouth were ‘God is great.’” This was not a natural response, says Shaikh. “Extremists are made, not born,” he explains. Shaikh grew up […]
Jeffrey Brown is a Baptist minister. And yet, he says, “I learned some of my most important life lessons from drug dealers and gang members and prostitutes and had some of my most profound theological conversations on a street corner.” Brown was one of the co-founders of the Boston Ten Point Coalition, a faith-based group […]
Social violence in Guatemala, Mexican and Central American migrant communities in the United States, the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, children with cerebral malaria in Uganda — for the past decade, photographer Jon Lowenstein has been documenting the often violent and traumatic daily lives of individuals and communities living at the edges of society, both […]
Rodrigo Canales begins today’s talk by bringing us to a very confusing peace march. After a battle between Mexican law enforcement and the drug cartel La Familia Michoacana turned the city of Apatzingán into a battlefield for two days in 2010, the mayor of the town decided to hold a march for peace. Thousands of […]
What is the effect of violence on a life’s narrative? TED Fellow and photojournalist Jon Lowenstein has lived in the South Side of Chicago for about a decade — first working as a teacher, photographer and community liaison at an elementary school and subsequently engaging with his African American neighbors to document life in this […]
Earlier this month, 450 Chicago public school sophomores and juniors, plus 120 of their teachers, crowded into the city’s Harris Theater for TEDxYouth@Midwest, an event all about inspiring, motivating and empowering the young people of a city known for youth gun violence, but full of so much more — culture, history, educators and students dedicated […]
It’s been a hard week for many Americans, as the Boston bombings continue to raise more and more questions. Here is some weekend reading as you await answers. A poignant ode to the city of Boston, its annual marathon and the victims of the April 15 bombings. [NY Review of Books Blog] Far, far away […]
Are people born violent, or is violence something learned? And what can be done to keep human beings from harming one another? These are questions on our minds as Congress debates gun control measures. Today’s episode of TED Radio dives into this dark end of human nature. In this episode – the fifth in season two […]
Australian Morgan Barnes posted a TED Conversation discussion question in December that was on many people’s minds: “Has the time come for the U.S. Second Amendment to be repealed or amended?” Over the next month, TED community members chimed in to voice their opinions nearly 1,400 times. The discussion closed this week, just as President Barack Obama […]