What Now … for the future? Notes from Session 6 of TEDWomen 2021

Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 technical lead of the World Health Organization (WHO), speaks with TEDWomen curator Whitney Pennington-Rodgers at Session 6 of TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 3, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Over three days and six sessions at TEDWomen 2021, more than 40 speakers and performers shared ideas that spanned the globe and drew from across cultures and disciplines to answer the question: What now? For the final session, speakers explored the biggest question of all — What now for the future? — and encouraged us to imagine another world and fight for it.

The event: TEDWomen 2021: Session 6, hosted by TEDWomen curators Pat Mitchell, Helen Walters and Whitney Pennington Rodgers, in Palm Springs, California on December 3, 2021

Speakers: Maria Van Kerkhove, Kathryn Kolbert, Aarathi Krishnan, Michèle Lamont, Candace Parker

Melanie Charles performs at Session 6 of TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 3, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Music: Brooklyn-based singer, songwriter and musician Melanie Charles is on a journey to “make jazz trill again.” With a sound that spans jazz, soul, experimental and roots music, she performs an eclectic flute-infused set. “Don’t let anyone try and make you dim your light,” she says.

Tiana Epps-Johnson speaks at Session 6 of TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 3, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Marla Aufmuth / TED)

Special guest: Are we sleepwalking into losing democracy in the United States? What’s our role in building social justice movements to protect peoples’ basic rights? In conversation with TEDWomen curator Pat Mitchell, Tiana Epps-Johnson, founder of the Center for Tech and Civic Life, shares two hard truths about American democracy: nearly 100 million Americans don’t vote regularly, and elected officials — from federal to state to county levels — are still nowhere near representative of their populations. She has a vision for a system where every voter is invited into a delightful, smooth voting process, and thinks the way to get there is for more people to start voting as often as possible — not just for president. Civic engagement, she says, means a commitment to showing up every time.

The talks in brief:

Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 technical lead of the World Health Organization (WHO), in conversation with Whitney Pennington Rodgers, TED current affairs curator

Big idea: We must remain vigilant — in ways both big and small — in order to beat this pandemic and be better prepared for the next.

How? First, and most importantly, Maria Van Kerkhove emphasizes that we will get out of this current pandemic. But there is always another crisis around the corner (the recent debut of Omicron not withstanding), and there are many things the world can learn from in terms of how COVID-19 has been handled (or not) thus far. It was, in ways, a tale of two perspectives: the experienced and inexperienced. Countries that had experienced SARS, MERS, avian influenza, Ebola and similar health crises knew the threat firsthand and didn’t need all the data in front of them to understand the risk, acting aggressively early on. Meanwhile, other national leadership took the stance of “not our problem” — with detrimental results. We must look to and replicate what the experienced countries have done, investing in virus surveillance, a robust health care system, contact testing and changing public health laws to be able to act when necessary, Van Kerkhove says. WHO has taken a big first step in ensuring that is the case by bringing together governments and ministries of its member states for a special session of the World Health Assembly to develop a pandemic preparedness protocol and create a binding agreement that all countries must follow. Considerable communication, collaboration and accountability — on a macro and micro scale — will get us out of this pandemic and ready us for the next. But demanding things such as vaccine equity now can help make us safer, faster. In the meantime, Van Kerkhove has one request for anyone and everyone out there: remain vigilant.

Kathryn Kolbert speaks at Session 6 of TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 3, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Marla Aufmuth / TED)

Kathryn Kolbert, reproductive rights attorney

Big idea: Roe v. Wade will be overturned within a year. It’s time to change tactics to ensure reproductive freedom in the United States.

How? In 1992, reproductive freedom pioneer Kathryn Kolbert argued Planned Parenthood v. Casey before the United States Supreme Court. In only her second appearance in front of the country’s highest court, Kolbert is credited with saving Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision protecting a pregnant person’s right to have an abortion. That right is now under unprecedented attack, with two cases from Texas and one from Mississippi being taken up by the Supreme Court; Kolbert believes that before 2022 is over, the US Constitution will no longer protect reproductive freedom. But there is still hope for people to be able to choose whether or not to become parents. Kolbert says it’s time to focus on two strategies: building a “badass social justice movement” that brings allies together for a shared purpose and electing legislators who will protect abortion rights. She imagines a world where birth control is available over the counter and quality sex education is taught in public schools, and she wants to pass a gender equity amendment to the Constitution that would protect everyone’s ability to make decisions about their bodies. It’s time to get politically active, vote and work for champions of choice — and run for office. “The end of Roe is not the end of the story,” she says.

Aarathi Krishnan speaks at Session 6 of TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 3, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Marla Aufmuth / TED)

Aarathi Krishnan, tech and human rights ethicist

Big idea: Humanitarians need to consider the cost of a digital future — and what it means for the people they’re protecting.

Why? Having spent nearly two decades working in humanitarian aid, from Rwanda to Afghanistan, Aarathi Krishnan defines this field as “emergency help for people who are in desperate need.” Over the last decade, Krishnan explains, the humanitarian aid system has embraced digitalization, from registering refugees using biometric ID systems to commercial drones. This may sound enticing to technologists, but in reality Western interests are using untested approaches on African and Asian populations with limited consent — which is colonialist in nature, she says. Targeted identification of persecuted peoples has been a tactic of genocidal regimes, and digitalization can give quicker, more scalable access to information. Krishnan points to how the Myanmar government collected much more than biometric information on Rohingya refugees in 2017 when they digitally registered to get access to services. This happened without consent, and they were given no other option. “In our quest to do good in the world, how can we ensure that we do not lock people into future harm, future indebtedness and future inequity as a result of these actions?” she asks. Taking a clear-eyed look at how these technologies can be tools of disempowerment, Krishnan lays out ethical principles that question the intent of techno-solutions — and hold humanitarians accountable for the futures they help create.

Michèle Lamont speaks at Session 6 of TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 3, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Michèle Lamont, sociologist

Big idea: To fight the harm of social stigmatization, we must recognize the value and dignity of all people.

How? According to sociologist Michèle Lamont, how we define who matters in society — or who doesn’t — depends on recognition and stigmatization. We recognize those we value and stigmatize those we don’t. On both ends of the political spectrum, from the #MeToo movement to MAGA, Lamont sees people staking recognition claims, asking society to identify (or recognize) them as valuable. She also sees agents of change like Joey Solloway, creator of the hit TV show Transparent, transforming the portrayal of certain stigmatized groups. Whether or not we find ourselves with an audience, we all have the power to make the societies we live in more inclusive and equal, Lamont says. We can start by expanding our ideas of who matters.

Candace Parker speaks at Session 6 of TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 3, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Candace Parker, WNBA superstar, activist

Big idea: Breaking down barriers is about not accepting limitations.

Why? When Kamala Harris was elected vice-president, Candace Parker turned to her daughter and said, “Now you can be vice-president too.” Her daughter looked at her. “Why couldn’t I before?” she asked. As someone who has spent her life breaking barriers and achieving success — she’s a two-time NCAA champion, an Olympic gold medalist and a two-time WNBA Champion — Parker says she didn’t realize that her own limitations created barriers for her daughter where they didn’t exist. That’s why Parker thinks we can learn from kids her daughter’s age. She says that younger generations are changing the world through conversation and collective action — and they’re cheering each other on. “It’s men showing up for women’s pay disparity. It’s Black people showing up for white people, white people showing up for Black people. It’s LGBTQ allies.” While success might look different for Parker than it does for her daughter, she says that older generations can show up for young people by empowering their choices. After all, “There’s more ways to break through barriers than just with records,” she says.

Conversations on capitalism and climate change: Week 6 of TED2020

For week 6 of TED2020, experts in the economy and climate put a future driven by sustainable transformation into focus. Below, a recap of insights shared throughout the week.

Economist Mariana Mazzucato talks about how to make sure the trillions we’re investing in COVID-19 recovery are actually put to good use — and explores how innovative public-private partnerships can drive change. She speaks with TED Global curator Bruno Giussani at TED2020: Uncharted on June 22, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Mariana Mazzucato, economist

Big idea: Government can (and should) play a bold, dynamic and proactive role in shaping markets and sparking innovation — working together with the private sector to drive deep structural change.

How? In the face of three simultaneous crises — health, finance and climate — we need to address underlying structural problems instead of hopping from one crisis to the next, says Mariana Mazzucato. She calls for us to rethink how government and financial systems work, shifting towards a system in which the public sector creates value and take risks. (Learn more about value creation in Mazzucato’s talk from 2019.) “We need a different [economic] framing, one that’s much more about market cocreation and market-shaping, not market fixing,” she says. How do you shape a market? Actively invest in essential systems like health care and public education, instead of justing responding once the system is already broken. Mazzucato calls for businesses and government to work together around a new social contract — one that brings purpose and stakeholder value to the center of the ecosystem. To motivate this, she makes the case for a mission-oriented approach, whereby public entities, corporations and small businesses focus their various efforts on a big problem like climate change or COVID-19. It starts with an inspirational challenge, Mazzucato says, paving the way for projects that galvanize innovation and bottom-up experimentation.

“When survival is at stake, and when our children and future generations are at stake, we’re capable of more than we sometimes allow ourselves to think we can do,” says climate advocate Al Gore. “This is such a time. I believe we will rise to the occasion and we will create a bright, clean, prosperous, just and fair future. I believe it with all my heart.” Al Gore speaks with head of TED Chris Anderson at TED2020: Uncharted on June 23, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Al Gore, climate advocate

Big idea: To continue lowering emissions, we must focus on transitioning manufacturing, transportation and agriculture to wind- and solar-powered electricity.

How? As coronavirus put much of the world on pause, carbon emissions dropped by five percent. But keeping those rates down to reach the Paris Climate Agreement goal of zero emissions by 2050 will require active change in our biggest industries, says climate advocate Al Gore. He discusses how the steadily declining cost of wind- and solar-generated electricity will transform transportation, manufacturing and agriculture, while creating millions of new jobs and offering a cleaner and cheaper alternative to fossil fuels and nuclear energy. He offers specific measures we can implement, such as retrofitting inefficient buildings, actively managing forests and oceans and adopting regenerative agriculture like sequestering carbon in topsoil. With serious national plans, a focused global effort and a new generation of young people putting pressure on their employers and political parties, Gore is optimistic about tackling climate change. “When survival is at stake, and when our children and future generations are at stake, we’re capable of more than we sometimes allow ourselves to think we can do,” he says. “This is such a time. I believe we will rise to the occasion and we will create a bright, clean, prosperous, just and fair future. I believe it with all my heart.” Watch the full conversation here.

“We collectively own the capital market, and we are all universal owners,” says financier Hiro Mizuno says. “So let’s work together to make the whole capital market and business more sustainable and protect our own investment and our own planet.” He speaks with TED business curator Corey Hajim at TED2020: Uncharted on June 24, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Hiro Mizuno, financier and former chief investment officer of Japan’s Government Investment Pension Fund

Big idea: For investors embracing ESG principles (responsible investing in ecology, social and governance), it’s not enough to “break up” with the bad actors in our portfolios. If we really want zero-carbon markets, we must also tilt towards the good global business citizens and incentivize sustainability for the market as a whole.

How? Hiro Mizuno believes that fund managers have two main tools at their disposal to help build a more sustainable market. First, steer funds towards businesses that are transforming to become more sustainable — because if we just punish those that aren’t, we’re merely allowing irresponsible investors to reap their profits. Second, fund managers must take a more active role in the governance of companies via proxy voting in order to lead the fight against climate change. “We collectively own the capital market, and we are all universal owners,” Mizuno says. “So let’s work together to make the whole capital market and business more sustainable and protect our own investment and our own planet.”

What would happen if we shifted our stock-market mindset to encompass decades, lifetimes or even generations? Michelle Greene, president of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, explores that idea in conversation with Chris Anderson and Corey Hajim as part of TED2020: Uncharted on June 24, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Michelle Greene, president of the Long-Term Stock Exchange

Big idea: In today’s markets, investors tend to think in daily and quarterly numbers — and as a result, we have a system that rewards short-term decisions that harm the long-term health of our economy and the planet. What would happen if we shifted that mindset to encompass decades, lifetimes or even generations?

How? In order to change how companies “show up” in the world, we need to change the playing field entirely. And since the stock exchange makes the rules that govern listed companies, why not create a new one? By holding companies to binding rules, the Long-Term Stock Exchange does just that, with mandatory listing standards built around core principles like diversity and inclusion, investment in employees and environmental responsibility. “What we’re trying to do is create a place where companies can maintain their focus on their long-term mission and vision, and at the same time be accountable for their impact on the broader world,” Greene says.

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

Imagine If: A session of talks in partnership with the U.S. Air Force

Curator Bryn Freedman invites the audience to imagine a world we all want to live in, as she kicks off the TED Salon: Imagine If, presented in partnership with the U.S. Air Force. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

The event: TED Salon: Imagine If, curated by Bryn Freedman and Amanda Miller, TED Institute

The partner: U.S. Air Force

When and where: Thursday, February 21, 2019, at the TED World Theater in New York City

Music: Rapper Alia Sharrief, performing her songs “My Girls Rock” and “Girl Like Me”

The big idea: Imagination is a superpower — it allows us to push beyond perceived limits, to think beyond the ordinary and to discover a new world of possibilities.

New idea (to us anyway): We may be able to vaccinate against PTSD and other mental illnesses.

Good to be reminded: Leaders shouldn’t simply follow the pack. They need to embrace sustainability, equality, accountability — not just the whims of the market.

Brigadier General (Select) Brenda P. Cartier shares how we can balance our personalities and create more just societies. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Brenda Cartier, Director of Operations at Headquarters Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) and the first female Air Commando selected for the rank of general

• Big idea: “Precision-guided masculinity” allows us to maintain a killer instinct without discarding the empathetic, “feminine” traits that mitigate the “collateral damage” of toxic masculinity.
• How? Viewing gender as a spectrum of femininities and masculinities allows us to select traits as they fit each situation, without tying our identities to them. As we learn to balance our personalities, we become well-rounded human beings and create more just societies.
• Quote of the talk: “This new narrative breaks us out of a one-size-fits-all approach to gender, where we link male bodies and masculinity and female bodies and femininity. ‘Precision-guided masculinity’ begs us to ask the question: ‘Who is it that is employing those masculine traits to protect and defend?'”

Could we put a stop to mental illnesses like depression and PTSD before they develop? Rebecca Brachman explores the potential of a new class of drugs called “resilience enhancers.” (Photo: Dian Lofton / TED)

Rebecca Brachman, neuroscientist, TED Fellow and pioneer in the emerging field of preventative psychopharmacology

• Big idea: Brachman and her team have discovered a new class of drugs called “resilience enhancers” that could change the way we treat mental illness like depression and PTSD. These drugs wouldn’t just treat symptoms of the diseases, she says — they could prevent them from developing in the first place.
• How? Brachman’s research applies the fundamental principle of vaccination to mental illness, building up a person’s ability to recover and grow after stress. For example, imagine a Red Cross volunteer going into an earthquake zone. In addition to the typhoid vaccine, she could take a resilience-enhancing drug before she leaves to protect her against PTSD. The same applies to soldiers, firefighters, ER doctors, cancer patients, refugees — anyone exposed to trauma or major life stress. The drugs have worked in preliminary tests with mice. Next up, humans.
• Quote of the talk: “This is a paradigm shift in psychiatry. It’s a whole new field: preventative psychopharmacology.”

Michele Wucker, finance and policy strategist, founder and CEO of Gray Rhino & Company

• Big idea: Catastrophic events sometimes catch us by surprise, but too often we invite crises to barrel right into our lives despite countless, blaring warning signs. What keeps us from facing the reality of a situation head-on?
• How? Semantics, semantics, semantics — and a healthy dose of honesty. Wucker urges us to replace the myth of the “black swan” — that rare, unforeseeable, unavoidable event — with the reality of the “gray rhino,” the common obvious catastrophes, like the bursting of a financial bubble or the end of a tempestuous relationship, that are predictable and preventable. She breaks down the factors that determine whether we run from problems or tackle them, and lays out some warning signs that you may be ignoring one of those charging rhinos right now.
• Quote of the talk: “Think about the obvious challenges in your own life and how you deal with them. Do you stick your head in the ground like an ostrich and ignore the problems entirely? Do you freak out like Chicken Little over all the tiny things, but miss the big giant wolf coming at you? Or do you manage things when they’re small to keep them from going out of control?”

Curator Bryn Freedman interviews executive (and former candidate for president of Iceland) Halla Tómasdóttir about how we can transform corporate leaders and businesses for a better world. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Halla Tómasdóttir, CEO of Richard Branson’s B Team and former Icelandic presidential candidate, interviewed by curator Bryn Freedman

• Big idea: Corporate leaders — and the businesses they run — are in a crisis of conformity that favors not rocking the boat and ignores big issues like climate change and inequality. We need new leadership to get us out of this crisis.
• How? It’s not enough for corporate leaders to simply follow the pack and narrowly define the missions of their organizations. If CEOs want to avoid the pitchforks of the masses, they must also ensure that their businesses are global citizens that embrace sustainability, equality, accountability — not just the markets.
• Quote of the talk: “At the end of the day, we need to ask ourselves who are we holding ourselves accountable for — and if that isn’t the next generation, I don’t know who.”

Sarah T. Stewart, planetary scientist at the University of California, Davis, and 2018 MacArthur “Genius” fellow

• Big idea: How did the Moon form? Despite its proximity, we don’t actually know! Adding to the mystery: the Earth and Moon are composed of the same stuff, a rarity we’ve found nowhere else in the universe. In trying to solve the mystery, Sarah T. Stewart discovered an entirely new not-quite-planet.
• How? Stewart and her team smash planets together in computer simulations to learn more about how they were created. While trying to uncover the Moon’s origin, they discovered that the early Earth may have been involved in a massive collision with a Mars-sized planet, which then created a “synestia:” a super-heated doughnut of molten material previously unknown to science, out of which the Moon was born.
• Quote of the talk: “I discovered a new type of astronomical object. It’s not a planet; it’s made from planets.”

Why do teens seem to make so many bad decisions? Kashfia Rahman searches for an answer in psychological effects of risk-taking. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Kashfia Rahman, Intel International Science and Engineering Fair winner and Harvard freshman

• Big idea: Teenagers aren’t necessarily chasing thrills when they make bad decisions. Rather, repeated exposure to risk actually numbs how they make choices.
• How? After wondering why her peers were constantly making silly and irresponsible decisions, Kashfia Rahman decided to conduct an experiment testing how her fellow high school students responded to risk. She found that habituation to risk — or “getting used to it” — impacts how teenagers make choices beyond their cognitive control. With this insight, she believes we can create policies that more holistically tackle high-risk behavior among teenagers.
• Quote of the talk: “Unforeseen opportunities often come from risk-taking — not the hazardous negative risk-taking I studied, but the good ones, the positive risks,” she says. “The more risks I took, the more I felt capable.”