TED curators Cloe Shasha Brooks and Whitney Pennington Rodgers host the TED Idea Search: Southeast Asia 2022 to discover new voices.
From July through September, the TED Idea Search: Southeast Asia 2022 applications were open to anyone living in or descended from Southeast Asia. Applicants were required to create a two-minute video as a part of their submission.
After sorting through hundreds of applications, the TED team selected nine finalists to participate in two virtual TED Membership events, where the finalists talked more about their ideas and participated in a Q&A with TED Members. After each Q&A, TED Members had the opportunity to vote on each finalist’s idea and speaking style.
Thanks to those ratings, the TED team selected three winners who will be invited to give a TED Talk, either virtually or in person. Those winners are:
Hong Hoang, climate activist, based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Hoang finds creative ways to conduct climate activism in politically challenging contexts.
Piyachart Phiromswad, economist, based in Bangkok, Thailand
Phiromswad studies the technological, social and economic ways we can unleash the true power of a globally aging population.
Wan Faridah Akmal Jusoh, entomologist, based in Subang Jaya, Malaysia
Jusoh studies the wonders of fireflies — and even discovered a new species of firefly.
Each winner will be paired with a TED curator to develop their idea in the lead-up to their moment onstage or direct-to-camera talk. Stay tuned for those published talks on TED.com!
Past TED Idea Search winners
Check out a selection of speakers who were discovered during past TED Idea Searches:
Adie Delaney: An aerialist on listening to your body’s signals
Adeola Fayehun: Africa is a sleeping giant — I’m trying to wake it up
Andrea Berchowitz: The link between menopause and gender inequity at work
Ariel Waldman: The invisible life hidden beneath Antarctica’s ice
Elizabeth “Zibi” Turtle: What Saturn’s most mysterious moon could teach us about the origins of life
Leo Lanna and Lvcas Fiat: The colorful, shapeshifting wonder of the Amazon’s praying mantises
Miguel Antonio Modestino: How to transform the chemical industry — one reaction at a time
Tamekia MizLadi Smith: How to train employees to have difficult conversations
Zak Ebrahim: I am the son of a terrorist. Here’s how I chose peace
Richard Turere: My invention that made peace with the lions
Robert A. Belle: The emotions behind your money habits
Sophia Kianni: Language shouldn’t be a barrier to climate action