New “TED Radio Hour” three-part series explores “Mind, Body, Spirit”

For millennia, humans have debated the connection between the mind, body and spirit. But today, the phrase sounds trite — a hallmark of the #selfcare industry. Over three episodes of this special series on TED Radio Hour, TED speakers will investigate fresh perspectives on how we think, move and feel.

In the first hour: the mind. The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. It gives us control over our bodies and shapes our thoughts, memories and emotions. But how? And can we coach ourselves to think better? The series kicks off with an investigation into the different ways we think and understand the world, what new brain-computer interfaces could do for sharing our thoughts and a story about taming that voice in our head that makes us miserable. Plus, a poem about preparing your mind to be more open to creative ideas. Mind-blowing stuff? Hell yes. Guests explore the internal and external influences on our minds, including animal behaviorist and autism activist Temple Grandin, podcast host and meditation advocate Dan Harris, neurointerventionist Tom Oxley and poet Sarah Kay.

The second hour focuses on the body. We know it’s important to listen to our bodies and trust how we feel, but it’s not always easy. In part 2 of our series, TED speakers explore ideas about movement, pleasure and rest. Guests include choreographer Ryan Heffington, news anchor Lee Thomas, aerialist Adie Delaney and therapist KC Davis.

In the third and final episode we hear from speakers who’ve found unique ways to rekindle the human spirit and, as the saying goes, stay “true” to themselves. Guests include author, researcher and podcaster Tania Lunar, renowned artist JR and serial entrepreneur Artur Sychov. Their challenges include invasions of privacy, incarceration, exile and simply facing human mortality. Their tactics? Sidestepping linear time with innovation, embracing uncertainty by incorporating surprise into our daily lives and using beauty to overwhelm the ugly side of humanity. Their stories will spark your zest for life, too.

You can get all three episodes of our “Mind, Body, Spirit” series, as well as more episodes of TED Radio Hour, on Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Dare to discover: TEDinArabic hosts third regional event in Ben Guerir, Morocco

TEDinArabic brought together some of the world’s brightest minds to share ideas on the importance of outside-the-box thinking to change minds, embrace our shared humanity and shape the future.

The event: TEDinArabic, hosted by Al Jazeera correspondent Mohamed Errammach, included four talks centered on the theme “Dare to Discover,” a series of interactive workshops curated by partners at afikra, a performance by students of the Joudour Sahara music school and a series of interstitials by Arab artists. The event was attended by a number of dignitaries from Qatar, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, 50 students from across the region and more than 900 participants from Morocco. It was the third in a series of TEDinArabic regional events organized in the lead-up to the TEDinArabic Summit in March, 2023 in Doha, Qatar. The summit will feature 16 speakers from the Arabic-speaking world sharing their ideas for the first time with a global audience — all in Arabic.

When and where: Thursday, October 13, 2022 at the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University in Ben Guerir, Morocco

Opening remarks: Moza Al-Hajri, a student at Georgetown University in Qatar and a youth advocate for the Education Above All Foundation, emphasized the importance of the Arabic language to Arab identity and upholding cultural heritage.

The talks in brief:

Charles Mouhannad Malek, molecular and cellular biologist 

Big idea: We can build bridges and increase empathy through science.

How? Dr. Charles Malek thinks the only way for the Arabic-speaking world to transition from a consumer to a producer market is through investing in scientific research and technology here at home. Many students decide to work abroad because their home countries don’t provide them with the necessary tools and infrastructure to pursue their scientific research. The key to solve this problem is to teach with the scientific method – which relies on empirical observation, information gathering, analysis, conclusion and critical thinking – as opposed to lectures and rote memorization. Malek emphasizes the need to develop and promote scientific content in the Arabic language as a vehicle to build knowledge across the region. “If we decide to prioritize science education and make that the compass of the north, change will come,” he says.

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Aziza Chaouni, civil engineer, architect, professor 

Big idea: A model for sustainable living and preserving cultural heritage lies in the desert.

How? The creation of oases, through careful land and building management, has made desert living possible for centuries. Increased tourism and climate change, however, are forcing local communities to leave, abandoning their cultural heritage as the desert creeps in. Aziza Chaouni is focused on reversing the damage by designing a new approach to sustainability and cultural heritage preservation. In her hometown of Fez, Morocco, the oasis of M’hamid Al Ghizlan was on its way to extinction until Chaouni established Joudour Sahara, a music school built with sustainable, local materials – such as rammed earth, stone, wood and bamboo – and powered by an autonomous, photovoltaic energy system. Thanks to the project, the desert has stopped trying to eat M’hamid, residents are staying in their homes and their cultural heritage is now thriving. She concludes her talk with a live performance by the students of Joudour Sahara.

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Suzanne Talhouk, author, poet

Big idea: Embrace the vibration of the Arabic language to shape your life and the life of those around you.

How? Words carry a vibration that can affect your other senses, says Suzanne Talhouk. She makes an impassioned case to get in touch with your inner voice and to embrace a world that stays away from using inflammatory, charged words. “If you want to improve your life and the life of those around you, start by using words that express love, harmony and forgiveness,” she says. She concludes by exploring the power of the Arabic language, saying that words shape the way we think and act. Arabic is one of the many languages that has a myriad of words that carry vibrations and high energy – so why are we abandoning our mother tongue so easily?

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Hayat Sindi, biotechnologist 

Big idea: A new model to foster innovation, address social challenges and build a bridge between possibility and hope.

How? Dr. Hayat Sindi has established a social entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem for scientists and innovators to address pressing issues in their communities in the Middle East and beyond. The i2 Institute – launched in partnership with Harvard Innovation Lab, MIT, National Geographic, Pop Tech, PWC and McKinsey – was the beginning of Sindi’s journey to bring tangible solutions to the most vulnerable. Through its flagship program “Transform,” Sindi and her team worked with a group of innovators around the globe to launch a number of projects: battery-powered refrigerators that use solar energy in the borders of Uganda and Mozambique to store and preserve produce (and, later, COVID-19 vaccines); solar-powered houses in refugee camps in Bangladesh; and an electronic medical platform that employs 60,000 female doctors in Pakistan, providing dignified medical assistance to 100 million women and children in the outskirts of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Iraq. “We can come up with amazing and visionary ideas,” she says. “However, they will become real and stronger only when they are connected to society.”

This piece was written by Lobna Hassairi and Doha Summaqah.

Imagination: Notes from Session 10 of TED2022

The wondrous, expansive, absurd creativity of humanity was on full display at Session 10 of TED2022, which featured seven brilliant speakers, one deeply beautiful and imaginative performance and a much-needed comedic interlude.

The event: Talks from Session 10 of TED2022, hosted by TED’s Helen Walters

When and where: Wednesday, April 13, 2022, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Anil Ananthaswamy, Sutu, Gina Gutierrez, Dan Widmaier, Tiffani Ashley Bell, Anicka Yi, JR

Performance: A talented trio of dancers brought choreographer and creative director Nina McNeely’s contemporary dance piece “Once There Was III” to life. The performance featured a mesmerizing combination of choreography, music and projection mapping.

Comedy: Comedian Pardis Parker made his return to the TED stage with a lively stand-up routine, quipping on Canadian etiquette, the mind-boggling wealth of billionaires and the real secret to leaving a legacy (hint: it involves candy).

The talks in brief:

Anil Ananthaswamy, science writer

Big idea: Experiences of “altered selves” — from schizophrenia to Alzheimer’s to foreign limb syndrome — challenge our most basic assumptions about the self.

How? The self is a slippery subject, says science writer Anil Ananthaswamy. If you ask yourself, “Who am I?” you’ll most likely answer in the form of a story. Yet people with Alzheimer’s disease lose the capacity to tell accurate stories about themselves, and still their sense of self remains. What about the body? Surely, our embodied selves are integral to who we are. But people with foreign limb syndrome often see their own body parts as horrendous and unfamiliar, and they retain a sense of self. Similarly, many view agency as integral to the self, but not everyone feels this way. People with schizophrenia, for example, don’t always feel like the agent of their actions — so, even without a sense of agency, the experiencing self persists. In light of these diverse human experiences, Ananthaswamy considers the constructed nature of the self and calls for empathy for those experiencing “altered selves.”

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Sutu, multimedia artist

Big idea: We can use metaverse technology to create digital art that enhances and enriches our physical spaces.

How? When many people imagine our metaverse future, they envision a reality where they’ll spend more and more of their lives at home, online and interfacing with others through a digital avatar. But if you’re anything like augmented reality designer Sutu, you don’t want to be stuck inside staring at screens anymore. Sutu’s work shows us how digital art and digital experiences can heighten our experiences of community, creativity and connection in the real world. He introduces us to the LovePunks, a group of young people (and five grandmas) in Western Australia with whom he created a videogame and a digital comic by first getting dressed up, making costumes, painting faces, building sets and brainstorming stories by acting them out. He also shares how he and augmented reality programmer Lukas Karluk started covering the world in augmented art and sharing these tools with other digital artists. (They even AR- hacked The New York Times!) Finally, Sutu invited the TED audience to create a digital doodle that he then wove into a magical metaverse tapestry, delighting even the most techno-hesitant among us.

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Gina Gutierrez, sexual wellness storyteller

Big idea: The next time you notice you haven’t been in the mood for sex in a while, try some exercises to engage your sexual imagination.

How? The brain is our biggest sex organ, but we often forget about the importance of imagination when it comes to our sex lives, says Gina Gutierrez. As the founder of audio-erotica company Dipsea, Gutierrez wants to remind us of the mind’s power to stoke arousal and desire. Dipsea creates immersive audio stories designed to turn women on. For those who aren’t ready to dive into audio-erotica, she shares some tips to activate your sexual imagination on your own, including settling down before you fantasize (as you might before a meditation) and tapping into your senses. Gutierrez then recommends conjuring a scenario from memory or inventing an entirely new one before imagining an appealing person and how they might approach you. Whatever brings you and your brain pleasure works.

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Dan Widmaier, biomaterials investigator

Big Idea: We can transform the environmental impact of the fashion industry by replacing unsustainable materials with natural ones, like spider silk and mushrooms. 

How? While pursuing his PhD in chemistry and chemical biology, Dan Widmaier fell in love with the strength and durability of spider silk. From there blossomed a love for all nature-based materials, which he believes can replace the unsustainable, non-biodegradable materials currently used in the fashion industry. He began working to create an alternative leather product that could mimic cowhide’s dense collagen structures, which is what makes leather so strong and flexible. Looking to nature, he discovered that mushrooms contain stringy, fibrous strands called mycelium that are remarkably similar to the collagen in cowhide. He then set up a factory where he could grow and harvest mycelium at scale, and many prototypes later, Mylo — a beautiful, functional and sustainable leather-like material — was born. Mylo requires significantly less space and resources to grow than cattle, and the facilities they are grown in are powered entirely by renewable energy. It can take decades for new materials to go mainstream in the fashion industry, but due to the accelerating impact of climate change, Widmaier knows we can’t afford to wait. He launched the Mylo Consortium, a group of fashion brands including Lululemon, Stella McCartney, Kering and Adida to bring Mylo out of the lab and into the hands of designers — and ultimately, into your closet. The sustainable materials revolution is here; innovators across the world are designing green alternatives for the fashion industry. “This is our roadmap: we went looking to nature for a better alternative to leather and found mycelium hiding in plain sight,” Widmaier says. “Fashion has a golden opportunity to lead the charge to live with nature instead of against it.”

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Tiffani Ashley Bell, humanitarian programmer

Big idea: One small idea helped pay $1 million in water bills. To fight injustice, channel your outrage into simple, obvious solutions.

How? A few summers ago, Tiffani Ashley Bell learned that tens of thousands of people were facing water shut-offs in Detroit, and she decided to take action. Channeling her outrage at a system that punished Black and brown people for being poor, she attacked Detroit’s shut-off problem in the “smallest, simplest, most obvious: way possible. Using her skills as a programmer, Bell built a platform that helped strangers directly pay struggling Detroiters’ water bills. As of today, Bell’s non-profit The Human Utility has helped more than 5,000 people with $1 million dollars in water bill payments across the US. “I’m not here to tell you benevolent strangers working from home in their pajamas should replace systemic change,” Bell says. “But if you feel appalled by a problem you see in the world, start small and start simple. What change do you have the time, resources or skills to realize?”

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Anicka Yi, conceptual artist

Big idea: Modern tech designers mostly craft machines to emphasize their cold, digital forms and functions. What if we instead designed our devices to resemble and behave like biological entities? Anicka Yi imagines a world built on a symbiotic relationship between humans and our tools — a world where we connect with technology, rather than become alienated from it.

How? Taking cues from soft robotics and designs from nature, Anicka Yi and her team created what she describes as “an aquarium of machines” at London’s Tate Modern, building lighter-than-air robots that could freely roam the museum space and interact directly with visitors as autonomous life forms. Amongst machines that resemble life forms, we might feel a sense of awe rather than fear — a sense that these machines are fellow creatures, rather than alien beings. “What if our machines could be more than just our tools, and instead, a new type of companion species?” Yi asks. “What would it feel like to live in the world with machines that could live in the wild and evolve on their own?”

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JR, artist

Big idea: Famed for his enormous black and white portraits that tell stories and adorn surfaces from the Louvre to the favelas of Brazil, JR continues to tackle ambitious projects — most recently, a massive mural at a supermax prison in California that tells the stories of those confined inside its walls.

How? Granted unprecedented access to a California maximum-security prison, muralist JR set out to photograph and record the stories of a group of inmate volunteers — and then paste their enormous paper group portrait on the floor of the prison’s exercise yard. Viewed from above using drones (which many prisoners had never seen before), inmates were able to connect with themselves and the outside world from a new perspective — and many of them reaped positive impacts they never deemed possible. “Art can change things … but can it change the world, or can it change a man?” JR asks. “Before you answer that question, think: at some point in your life, have you changed? And if you did, why can’t they?”

What Now … for health and happiness? Notes from Session 2 of TEDWomen 2021

For Session 2 of TEDWomen 2021, seven speakers shared ideas and insights on everything from mental health and family structures to how to uplift personal and collective dignity.

The event: TEDWomen 2021: Session 2, hosted by TED’s head of curation Helen Walters in Palm Springs, California on December 2, 2021

Speakers: Charles C. Daniels, Jr., Smita Sharma, Zarlasht Halaimzai, Kaz, Francisca Mutapi and Diana Adams

Music and comedy: For a bit of comic relief, Marcia Belsky has some fun with a song about scrolling back through a date’s Instagram feed as well as “100 Tampons,” which lampoons NASA’s notorious decision to provide astronaut Sally Ride with an egregious supply of tampons for her six-day trip to the space in 1983. “And they asked: Will that be enough?” she sings.

The talks in brief:

Charles C. Daniels, Jr., scholar, therapist

Big idea: In order to be present and connected to their children, fathers need to learn and be empowered to parent themselves. 

How? An estimated 10 million children in the US see their fathers less than once a month, and research has shown that poverty rates, emotional and behavioral issues and school dropout and crime rates all increase when kids inconsistently see their fathers. Sharing his personal journey, Charles C. Daniels, Jr. recounts the profound impact of not seeing his own father — and explores the complex reasons a parent could have for not being there. The reasons that don’t get talked about are the ones that exacerbate the problem, he explains. That’s why he created Father’s UpLift, an organization that helps dads love, forgive and heal themselves and their children. They work with fathers to navigate shame, guilt and other challenges through group therapy, mentorship, coaching and support. Daniels, Jr. helps fathers reconnect with their kid and learn how to parent themselves so they, in turn, can be better parents.

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Smita Sharma, TED Fellow, photojournalist, visual storyteller

Big idea: Throughout the world, women are cast aside as unworthy of education or self-determination, relegated to tasks of parenting, household duties — and, sometimes, trafficked or enslaved. Through her moving photographs, Smita Sharma shares their stories.

How? By blending into her subjects’ lives and communities (sometimes under the guise of a researcher on “female hygiene,” something men are typically loathe to discuss), Smita Sharma gains the trust of her subjects: women born into poverty who are denied education, become victims of abduction, sexual violence or child marriage. With their consent, Sharma creates powerful visual narratives that depict these forgotten lives with grace and compassion, and that seek to inspire action around systemic issues of gender inequality.

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Zarlasht Halaimzai, writer, advocate for refugee rights

Big idea: Understanding the emotional fallout of violence and displacement is more important than ever.

Urban possibility: Notes from Session 6 of TEDMonterey

With much of the world’s population living in large, congested cities, urban life can get messy. Session 6 brings together six speakers who are solving the inefficiencies of city dwelling and finding new, smarter ways to live together — from futuristic transportation to transformative early education and an ingenious plan to combat e-waste.

The event: TEDMonterey: Session 6, hosted by TED’s Helen Walters on Tuesday, August 3, 2021

Speakers: Karoli Hindriks, Aicha Evans, Josh Giegel, Chris Bennett, Gay Gordon-Byrne, Irma L. Olguin Jr.

Music: Joan As Police Woman sings a gorgeous, tender melody about the  beauty of singing together, followed by a love song “for everybody who loves love.”

Karoli Hindriks, entrepreneur

Big Idea: Immigration needs a digital upgrade.

Why? Growing up under Soviet occupation, Estonian entrepreneur Karoli Hindriks questioned why the barriers of global travel are so high. Passports create more friction than mobility and, thanks to clunky bureaucracy, are in desperate need of a 21st-century makeover. Hindriks looks to Estonia’s digital citizenship for inspiration, which transformed the small country from one of the poorest in the world to an innovative, digital-first democracy. From voting to marriage and divorce, everything an Estonian does can be done online. She highlights the “once-only rule,” which requires users to upload their data to the system just a single time and could be a fundamental piece of modernized passports. “Your passport describes you as a resident of your country,” she says. “We say you’re a citizen of the world. A universal digital passport — one that would go beyond borders — will help move towards a world where crossing borders is not about waste of time and waste of resources.”

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Aicha Evans, autonomous vehicle entrepreneur 

Big idea: A revolution in transportation is on the horizon — and it’ll be driven by robotaxis.

How? We’ve been hearing about self-driving cars for years. But Aicha Evans, the CEO of Zoox, thinks we need to dream more daringly. Instead of personal self-driving cars that are wasteful, expensive and traffic-generating, we need to invest in self-driving shuttles that will take up less space and transport more people. These “robotaxis” will be powered by recent advances in computer vision that analyze real-time representations of the world. By supplementing computer vision with additional sensors, such as predictive LIDAR technology, night vision, thermal imaging and remote human assistance, Evans believes we can soon shift from problem-solving to problem-preventing — and drastically cut down on car crashes. There’s still much to do to create unfailingly safe driverless shuttles, she says, but the promise of computer vision is simply too alluring to not act upon.

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Josh Giegel, engineer, technologist

Big idea: The future of transportation is about to get (hyper)loopy.

How? History is full of ideas that have flopped and flourished — and Josh Giegel believes the opportunity to get hyper-speed transportation right should not be squandered. His team at Virgin Hyperloop have created a pod that speeds through a vacuum-sealed space roughly the size of a subway tunnel. This design increases velocity by diminishing friction, transforming too-long journeys and commutes from hours into minutes. Building upon the ingenuity, dedication and the infrastructure necessary, he’s dedicated his career to the hyperloop, showing us its already promising results. Giegel shares how making this vision a transportive reality, while no easy feat, could pay off big time for cities looking to move forward, faster into the future.

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Chris Bennett, entrepreneur, education advocate

Big idea: The solution to accessible childcare is closer to home than we think.

How? People often think “real” learning starts in kindergarten but, in reality, kids begin learning much earlier. In the crucial developmental years from ages zero through four, parents typically have three choices for childcare: a costly program, a family member or a trusted neighborhood caregiver. Local caregiving is where Chris Bennett sees the most benefit, opportunity and affordability for parents living in childcare deserts, where they’re often forced to choose between their children and careers. He founded Wonderschool, an organization that helps get childcare hubs up and running with state-approved professionals, such as social workers, retired teachers, nurses and passionate educators. Instead of building new, expensive commercial spaces, Bennett explains the benefits of revitalizing home-based childcare programs with certified lesson plans, conducted from the verified homes of people who are dedicated to setting up kids for a successful childhood — right around the corner.

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Gay Gordon-Byrne, right-to-repair advocate

Big idea: It’s time to empower people to fix their stuff.

How? Gay Gordon-Byrne is a self-proclaimed “repair geek.” She grew up tinkering with gadgets alongside her dad, experiencing the thrill that comes with bringing a gizmo back from the brink. Now she’s a driving force behind the “right to repair” movement, which aims to make it easier for people to fix all kinds of stuff — from computers and cell phones to tractors, appliances and other electronic products. Over the last 20 years, many manufacturers have made it increasingly difficult for consumers to repair or modify their devices, keeping the necessary tools, parts, instructions and software in their sole possession. This means spending more to buy new stuff and contributing to a growing problem of electronic waste that also widens the digital divide where millions of students go without workable, refurbished devices. The good news? Gordon-Byrne says we are finally beginning to shift away from our throw-away culture by passing right-to-repair legislation and creating jobs in the growing repair workforce.

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Irma L. Olguin Jr., CEO and cofounder, Bitwise Industries

Big Idea: Investing and leveraging talent from underrepresented communities can elevate entire cities, support livelihoods and create a more inclusive world. 

How? Computer skills aren’t what’s stopping people from breaking into the tech industry, says Irma L. Olguin Jr. Instead, things like childcare, transportation, hunger and money more often create the biggest hurdles. Her company, Bitwise Industries, focuses on removing these obstacles and providing the resources that make success possible for everyone: job training, real world experience, financial support and community. Bitwise helps people develop talent by taking into account the reality of their lives and providing things like free transit, childcare options and food. Importantly, they also hire tech students as apprentices during their training, so they can begin building their resume. These investments in talent result in improvements for the entire community, she says. By investing in people and paying them like it’s their job to learn, Olguin Jr. is encouraging the entire tech industry to address inequality and elevate “underdog” cities all over the world.

The path forward: Notes from Session 1 of TEDMonterey

It’s time for TED!

After the world was rocked by the worst health crisis in a century, we gather for TEDMonterey with a bold theme in mind: the case for optimism. It’s grounded in the stubborn belief that green shoots of hope and progress are sprouting throughout the world, if you just know where to look. In this opening session, five speakers and one performer dream up ways to build a better, wiser world and collectively find the path forward.

The event: TEDMonterey: Session 1, hosted by TED’s Chris Anderson and Helen Walters on Sunday, August 1, 2021

Speakers: Jamil Zaki, Loretta J. Ross, Liam Young, Wendy MacNaughton, Adam Grant

Music: A gorgeous rendition of “I Can See Clearly Now” from singer and Broadway star Tyrone Davis, Jr.

The talks in brief:

Jamil Zaki, research psychologist

Big idea: Cynicism is a trap that poisons our lives. Empathy and optimism can help us move on the path forward.

How? Nowadays, it’s hard to be optimistic. But focusing on the negative side of things can find you stuck in a cynicism trap, says Jamil Zaki. Drawing on years of research at the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab, he shares some revealing insights into cynicism. By believing life is a zero-sum game — where some people need to lose for others to succeed — cynics become distrustful of people and more competitive over time. They tend to pass on their suspicions and distrust to those around them, including their children, and end up perpetuating a culture of negativity that actually becomes the reality they’ve always feared. Some people might argue that cynics see the world as it is and are smarter than optimists — but that’s not true, says Zaki. Research has shown that optimists are actually more intelligent, more savvy and make more money than cynics. So how do you break out of the cynicism trap? It’s hard, Zaki admits, but swapping negativity for empathy and hope can allow you to tell a different story. Pointing to his research, he explains that reframing problems through an empathic lens can actually win people to your side, allowing you to be more persuasive — and better able to create the kind of world you’d actually want to live in.

Loretta J. Ross, public intellectual, activist

Big idea: Instead of calling people out, we need to call them in.

How? We live in a call out culture, says Loretta J. Ross. You’re probably familiar with it: the public shaming and blaming, on social media and in real life, of people who may have done wrong and are being held to account. The problem with calling people out, though, is that it comes from a place of anger and shame — leaving the receiving party feeling attacked, defensive and unlikely to change. The alternative, Ross says, is to call people in (a phrase originated by community organizer Loan Tran). In this case, you still aim to hold someone accountable for a wrongdoing, but you choose to come from a place of love and respect. For instance, you might respond by saying, “That’s an interesting viewpoint. Tell me more.” This is an invitation to a conversation, Ross says, instead of a fight. Ultimately, calling in achieves three things: 1) it makes space for the other person to grow; 2) it enlarges your capacity for forgiveness; and 3) it may unexpectedly bring friends, family and even strangers into your world, despite your disagreement on many issues.“Fighting hate should be fun,” Ross says. “It’s being a hater that sucks.”

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Liam Young, director, architect

Big idea: By building fictional worlds through virtual simulations that remain grounded in real-life science, humanity can learn valuable lessons to help us navigate through the potentially disastrous scenarios lurking among our possible futures.

How? Welcome to Planet City, an urban simulation like no other — a speculative cybercity with 10 billion inhabitants, which is (not coincidentally) the projected population of the earth in 2050. What would such a city look like, and how would its citizens survive and thrive? Inspired by a simulation proposed by Edward Wilson, which imagined a world where human development is constrained to half the globe, Planet City goes one step further and imagines all of humanity within a single city, leaving the rest of the globe to nature. Within Young’s thought experiment, we can imagine solutions to imposing problems like climate change, model green energy infrastructure and reinvent our food sources — and give ourselves a sense of hope before it’s too late.

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Wendy MacNaughton, illustrator, graphic journalist

Big idea: Drawing is the gateway to slowing down, paying attention and falling back in love with the world and everyone in it.

How? Much of what we see is our expectations — our brains are so busy trying to process endless information, they rely on patterns as a kind of shorthand and, as a result, we miss out on a lot of the depth and detail of the world around us. As a graphic journalist and trained social worker, MacNaughton shares the beautiful, deeply human and authentic connections drawing creates between the artist and subject — and invites the audience to see the world anew with an interactive experiment anyone, anywhere can do. Ready? First, grab a pencil, a piece of paper and someone (new or familiar). Let go of being perfect, embrace the art of being and begin with only two rules as your guide: never lift the pencil from the paper and don’t look down at what you’re drawing. And when you’re done, find joy and delight from your creations! When MacNaughton taught drawing lessons to children during the pandemic, she saw firsthand how drawing unlocks the brain and transforms it into a safe space to process not just what we see, but what we feel. And what she instilled in the children then is simple, yet rich: “Drawing is looking, and looking is loving.”

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Adam Grant, organizational psychologist

Big idea: Have you found yourself staying up late, joylessly scrolling through your video queue, doomscrolling through apocalyptic news scenarios or simply navigating your day uninspired and aimless? Chances are you’re “languishing,” a psychic malaise that has become all too common after many months of quarantine.

How? Languishing is in many ways the opposite of “flow,” the feeling of being fully present, creative and productive in your chosen vocation. (It’s the feeling of immersion that binging full seasons of less-than-amazing TV shows may approximate, but provides no substitute for the real experience of flow.) Adam Grant suggests three paths out of this trap — mastery, mindfulness, and mattering — which revealed themselves to him during marathon sessions of Mario Kart with his children and brother-in-law. Mastery, the feeling of derailing his opponents with superior skills; mindfulness, complete concentration on his task at hand; mattering, the pleasure derived from creating fun for his family. And while seemingly trivial, this example is in fact profoundly important: it reveals the power of simple events to make everyday differences in our own psyches.

A new mission to mobilize 2 million women in US politics … and more TED news

TED2019 may be past, but the TED community is busy as ever. Below, a few highlights.

Amplifying 2 million women across the U.S. Activist Ai-jen Poo, Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza and Planned Parenthood past president Cecile Richards have joined forces to launch Supermajority, which aims to train 2 million women in the United States to become activists and political leaders. To scale, the political hub plans to partner with local nonprofits across the country; as a first step, the co-founders will embark on a nationwide listening tour this summer. (Watch Poo’s, Garza’s and Richards’ TED Talks.)

Sneaker reseller set to break billion-dollar record. Sneakerheads, rejoice! StockX, the sneaker-reselling digital marketplace led by data expert Josh Luber, will soon become the first company of its kind with a billion-dollar valuation, thanks to a new round of venture funding.  StockX — a platform where collectible and limited-edition sneakers are bought and exchanged through real-time bidding — is an evolution of Campless, Luber’s site that collected data on rare sneakers. In an interview with The New York Times, Luber said that StockX pulls in around $2 million in gross sales every day. (Watch Luber’s TED Talk.)

A move to protect iconic African-American photo archives. Investment expert Mellody Hobson and her husband, filmmaker George Lucas, filed a motion to acquire the rich photo archives of iconic African-American lifestyle magazines Ebony and Jet. The archives are owned by the recently bankrupt Johnson Publishing Company; Hobson and Lucas intend to gain control over them through their company, Capital Holdings V. The collections include over 5 million photos of notable events and people in African American history, particularly during the Civil Rights Movement. In a statement, Capital Holdings V said: “The Johnson Publishing archives are an essential part of American history and have been critical in telling the extraordinary stories of African-American culture for decades. We want to be sure the archives are protected for generations to come.” (Watch Hobson’s TED Talk.)

10 TED speakers chosen for the TIME100. TIME’s annual round-up of the 100 most influential people in the world include climate activist Greta Thunberg, primatologist and environmentalist Jane Goodall, astrophysicist Sheperd Doeleman and educational entrepreneur Fred Swaniker — also Nancy Pelosi, the Pope, Leana Wen, Michelle Obama, Gayle King (who interviewed Serena Williams and now co-hosts CBS This Morning home to TED segment), and Jeanne Gang. Thunberg was honored for her work igniting climate change activism among teenagers across the world; Goodall for her extraordinary life work of research into the natural world and her steadfast environmentalism; Doeleman for his contribution to the Harvard team of astronomers who took the first photo of a black hole; and Swaniker for the work he’s done to educate and cultivate the next generation of African leaders. Bonus: TIME100 luminaries are introduced in short, sharp essays, and this year many of them came from TEDsters including JR, Shonda Rhimes, Bill Gates, Jennifer Doudna, Dolores Huerta, Hans Ulrich Obrest, Tarana Burke, Kai-Fu Lee, Ian Bremmer, Stacey Abrams, Madeleine Albright, Anna Deavere Smith and Margarethe Vestager. (Watch Thunberg’s, Goodall’s, Doeleman’s, Pelosi’s, Pope Francis’, Wen’s, Obama’s, King’s, Gang’s and Swaniker’s TED Talks.)

Meet Sports Illustrated’s first hijab-wearing model. Model and activist Halima Aden will be the first hijab-wearing model featured in Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue, debuting May 8. Aden will wear two custom burkinis, modestly designed swimsuits. “Being in Sports Illustrated is so much bigger than me,” Aden said in a statement, “It’s sending a message to my community and the world that women of all different backgrounds, looks, upbringings can stand together and be celebrated.” (Watch Aden’s TED Talk.)

Scotland post-surgical deaths drop by a third, and checklists are to thank. A study indicated a 37 percent decrease in post-surgical deaths in Scotland since 2008, which it attributed to the implementation of a safety checklist. The 19-item list created by the World Health Organization is supposed to encourage teamwork and communication during operations. The death rate fell to 0.46 per 100 procedures between 2000 and 2014, analysis of 6.8 million operations showed. Dr. Atul Gawande, who introduced the checklist and co-authored the study, published in the British Journal of Surgery, said to the BBC: “Scotland’s health system is to be congratulated for a multi-year effort that has produced some of the largest population-wide reductions in surgical deaths ever documented.” (Watch Gawanda’s TED Talk.) — BG

And finally … After the actor Luke Perry died unexpectedly of a stroke in February, he was buried according to his wishes: on his Tennessee family farm, wearing a suit embedded with spores that will help his body decompose naturally and return to the earth. His Infinity Burial Suit was made by Coeio, led by designer, artist and TED Fellow Jae Rhim Lee. Back in 2011, Lee demo’ed the mushroom burial suit onstage at TEDGlobal; now she’s focused on testing and creating suits for more people. On April 13, Lee spoke at Perry’s memorial service, held at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank; Perry’s daughter revealed his story in a thoughtful instagram post this past weekend. (Watch Lee’s TED Talk.) — EM

Greta Thunberg nominated for Nobel Peace Prize and other TED news

The TED community is brimming with new projects and ideas. Below, a few highlights.

Youth climate change protests kick off across the world. Students from 112 countries skipped school in mid-March to join climate activist Greta Thunberg’s School Strike for Climate demanding government action on climate change. The global event was part of the Fridays for Future movement ignited by Thunberg in August 2018 when she protested in front of Sweden’s parliament for three weeks. Thunberg was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by members of Norway’s parliament for her work spearheading youth climate action. “Greta Thunberg has launched a mass movement which I see as a major contribution to peace,” said MP Freddy André Øvstegård, one of the nominators. Thunberg was also recently nominated for France’s Prix Liberte (Freedom Prize) and was awarded Germany’s Golden Camera award. (Watch Thunberg’s TED Talk.)

How many questions do kids ask in a day? Writer Emma Marris considers the effects of decision fatigue — by sharing every question her two kids asked her in a single day that required a decision. “My modern American lifestyle with its endless variety of choices … breeds decision fatigue. But it is my kids that really fry my brain,” she writes. From breakfast music choices to food requests, Marris notes how each seemingly inconsequential ask adds up — totaling a full 108 decisions! Read her piece on The Last Word on Nothing. (Watch Marris’ TED Talk.)

Six TED speakers featured at TIME 100 Summit. Chef José Andrés, civil rights activist Tarana Burke, mogul Arianna Huffington, artist JR, investor Kai-Fu Lee and biologist Pardis Sabeti will speak at the TIME 100 Summit in New York City on April 23. Alums of the TIME100 list in years past, they will introduce this year’s honorees at the Summit, which celebrates the 100 people named on TIME’s annual World’s Most Influential list. “The TIME 100 is not just a list of the world’s most influential people — it’s an opportunity to connect them,” said TIME’s editorial director, Dan Macsai. “And when you connect extraordinary people, they can do extraordinary things.” (Watch TED Talks from Andrés, Burke, Huffington, JR, Lee and Sabeti.)

A new coalition for ocean protection and prosperity. Alongside a number of leading environmental organizations, marine ecologist Enric Sala is a launch partner of the Blue Prosperity Coalition, a new coalition devoted to conserving at least 30% of the ocean and using marine spatial planning to develop and safeguard ocean economies. “We don’t need to choose between the economy or the environment,” said Sala. “By providing the right level of protection, we can restore marine environments and the local economies and livelihoods that depend on them.” (Watch Sala’s TED Talk.)

 

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