Enchanters: Notes on Session 10 of TED2024

Session 10 of TED2024 plumbs the depths of human emotions, celebrating the beauty of community art, the everyday bravery of family life, the power of sound and more.

The event: Talks from Session 10 of TED2024: The Brave and the Brilliant, hosted by TED’s Helen Walters

When and where: Thursday, April 18, 2024, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Jaime Rojo, Lily Yeh, Mark Grimmer, Kelly Corrigan, Felipe Sánchez Luna, Kylan Gibbs, Lear deBessonet

Performance: Joined onstage by a marching band, broadway legend Brian Stokes Mitchell belts “The Impossible Dream (The Quest)” accompanied by pianist Todd Almond — and participation from TED-attendees-turned-singers throughout the TED Theater.

The talks in brief: 

Photographer Jaime Rojo shares his experience photographing the migration of monarch butterflies across North America each year, diving into the latest research behind how these mesmerizing insects make their multi-thousand-mile journey.

From Rwanda to North Philadelphia to the Chinese countryside, barefoot artist Lily Yeh uses the world’s streets and walls as her canvas, collaborating with local communities to weave beauty and healing through the vibrant tapestry of their collective stories and talents.

We are living in the age of immersive experiences, says Mark Grimmer, cofounder of 59 Productions. Redefining narrative possibilities, he shares several multidisciplinary projects, including a multi-sensory exhibit of David Bowie that re-animated his kaleidoscopic career through a whirlwind of objects, costumes and videos — and showed what happens when diverse ideas collide.

Kelly Corrigan ponders the “Olympic achievements” of everyday bravery: the mundane triumphs each of us racks up simply navigating life’s tribulations, big and small. While bravery may consist of simply hanging around and listening (regardless of whether times are tough or boring), its reward is a “maximum dosage” of total human emotion.

In an astounding sonic experience, Felipe Sánchez Luna takes the audience on a journey of music and code, mixing notes and rhythms with ones and zeroes. His composition combines real recordings with data, AI-driven music and human creativity to tap into the transformative power of sound to evoke a deeper, emotional understanding of our world.

Video games are increasingly immersive, but they can still make you feel like you’re in a “closed” system, taken from one scripted point to another based on the buttons you press. Inworld cofounder Kylan Gibbs is helping expand this world with “AI agents” — characters powered by AI that have depth, realism and “brains.” He explains how these agents generate new game outcomes unique to each player’s decisions, augmenting our ability to tell stories.

Church pageants, football games and Mardi Gras aren’t just spectacles — they’re universal human experiences. Theater director Lear deBessonet‘s productions ignite the communal, healing thrill of collective expression by drawing their huge casts (often involving scores of performers) from a cross-section of their host communities.

TED2024, held April 15-19, 2024, in Vancouver, BC, Canada, is a week of talks, discovery sessions, excursions, dinners, performances and more celebrating “The Brave and the Brilliant.” Special thanks to our strategic partners PwC, Adobe, Schneider Electric and Northwestern Mutual.

Shapeshifters: Notes on Session 9 of TED2024

In Session 9 of TED2024, great minds working on world-shifting innovations shared their work, from a biologist who raised mice with two dads to a computer scientist with a more democratic crowdfunding model. Whether at home or on the global stage, these big ideas have the potential to shape what’s possible.

The event: Talks from Session 9 of TED2024: The Brave and the Brilliant, hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson

When and where: Thursday, April 18, 2024, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Katsuhiko Hayashi, Carole K. Hooven, Chris Duffy, Anima Anandkumar, Kevin Owocki, Gibran Huzaifah

Performance: Writer, musician and comedian Elle Cordova personified the most beloved fonts, including Futura, Times New Roman, Garamond and more. The funny and smart typographical adventure included a nod to TED’s preferred Helvetica, as well as an audition from Comic Sans to represent the org with a new motto: “thinky thoughts are good.”

The talks in brief:

Biologist Katsuhiko Hayashi dives into the science behind how his team used breakthrough assisted reproductive technology to raise healthy young from the skin cells of two male mice. The accomplishment has implications for endangered species — and the shape of all future families.

Exploring the intersection of science, parenthood and societal norms, behavioral endocrinologist Carole K. Hooven delves into the evolutionary biology and cultural influence behind the differences between sexes — starting with how and why kids play.

Before he was a comedian and host of the TED podcast How to Be a Better Human, Chris Duffy taught elementary school. He shares what he learned from his fifth graders about nurturing your grown-up sense of humor, proposing that there are perks in seeing the world as a kid does: full of hilarious, amazing and extremely weird things.

Perhaps generative AI can write a competent song lyric, but by itself, it lacks the physical knowledge to build a better airplane. To model physical processes, says AI professor Anima Anandkumar, these systems must grasp the finest details of the real world, from molecular bonds to ocean currents. She shares recent AI projects that demonstrate this ability — forecasting weather, designing medical devices and more.

Gitcoin founder Kevin Owocki introduces quadratic funding, a new kind of crowdfunding model. Unlike Kickstarter or Patreon, quadratic funding uses a mathematical formula to match contributions based on the number of contributors rather than the amount given. The more people who care about a project, the more funding it will get.

When Gibran Huzaifah started an aquaculture farm in Indonesia, he was quickly confronted by the lack of technology in the industry. Farmers had insufficient data insights into murky ponds and spent huge sums on manual feeding. So he launched a start-up to automate feeding, eliminate resource waste and solve supply disadvantages for small farmers.

TED2024, held April 15-19, 2024, in Vancouver, BC, Canada, is a week of talks, discovery sessions, excursions, dinners, performances and more celebrating “The Brave and the Brilliant.” Special thanks to our strategic partners PwC, Adobe, Schneider Electric and Northwestern Mutual.

Explorers: Notes on Session 8 of TED2024

From redefining the boundaries of artificial intelligence to unraveling the mysteries of the human genome, Session 8 of TED2024 inspired us to reimagine our relationship with technology and its impact on society.

This session’s explorers offered profound insights into the intersection of technology and human experience — and envisioned a future where innovation fosters greater understanding and connection.

The event: Talks from Session 8 of TED2024: The Brave and the Brilliant, hosted by TED’s Helen Walters

When and where: Thursday, April 18, 2024, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Ray Kurzweil, Keolu Fox, Cliff Kapono, Catie Cuan, Pau Garcia, Peace Itimi, Anjan Sundaram, Amy Kurzweil

The talks in brief: 

We’ve always used technology to enhance our capacities, but the rapid progress of AI is poised to transform our world in radical and beautiful ways. From nanocomputers to “longevity escape velocity,” AI visionary Ray Kurzweil shares why he believes the advent of artificial general intelligence will revamp human life for the better.

Tapping into Indigenous wisdom and cutting-edge technology, Keolu Fox, cofounder of the Native BioData Consortium, and professional surfer and scientist Cliff Kapono propose an eco-friendly approach to data storage — one that relies on the genomes of living organisms like sugar cane. This approach not only mitigates environmental impact but also honors Indigenous heritage by fostering resilience within ecosystems.

Robot choreographer Catie Cuan gives insight into the curiously beautiful world of robotic movement, proposing that robots who can dance — i.e. move with intention and grace — will be better caregivers, teachers and companions who can more seamlessly function among us.

What’s your favorite memory? This is a question that Pau Garcia often explores as part of his project Synthetic Memories, which uses generative AI to create visualizations of people’s memories. He explores the poignant power of this work — from reconnecting people with long-gone moments to potentially helping Alzheimer’s patients tap into lost memories — and shows how we might use technology to understand the past.

Peace Itimi takes us inside Africa’s thriving tech ecosystem starting with MainOne, a Nigerian company that laid West Africa’s first privately owned undersea cable and brought faster connectivity to the region. She introduces us to a range of start-up success stories — from the East African fintech company Kopo Kopo to South Africa’s open-banking platform Stitch.

Small Indigenous communities make up only five percent of the world’s population, but they defend 80 percent of the biodiversity that remains on Earth, says war reporter Anjan Sundaram. He takes us to our planet’s bloody ecological frontlines, where invisible heroes are battling corporations and cartels to save our planet’s last natural ecosystems.

What if AI could breathe new life into the words of a deceased loved one? Cartoonist Amy Kurzweil’s grandfather, Fred, fled Vienna before World War II. When she set about building a chatbot with his archives, she thought the project might feel like a resurrection. Instead, conversations with Fred became a journey into the past, one that changed her ideas about art.

TED2024, held April 15-19, 2024, in Vancouver, BC, Canada, is a week of talks, discovery sessions, excursions, dinners, performances and more celebrating “The Brave and the Brilliant.” Special thanks to our strategic partners PwC, Adobe, Schneider Electric and Northwestern Mutual.

Trailblazers: Notes on Session 7 of TED2024

We’re about halfway through TED2024, and Session 7 was a whopper — covering everything from preventative medicine for one of the world’s rare diseases to quantum computing, the future of audio computing and a sprinkle of musical improvisational comedy.

The event: Talks from Session 7 of TED2024: The Brave and the Brilliant, hosted by TED’s Chris Anderson and host of TED Radio Hour Manoush Zomorodi

When and where: Wednesday, April 17, 2024, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Sonia Vallabh, Diabaté Abdoulaye, Reggie Watts, Hartmut Neven, Tammy Ma, Jason Rugolo

The talks in brief:

Biomedical researcher Sonia Vallabh’s life was turned upside down when she learned she had the genetic mutation for a rare and fatal illness, prion disease, which could strike at any time. Fifteen years later, Vallabh’s search for a cure has led her to new insights about the importance of preventative medicine.

Malaria is a disease as old as humankind, says scientist Diabaté Abdoulaye. He shows the path to a malaria-free world by harnessing the potential of “gene drive” technology — which augments the genetics of mosquitos to reduce disease transmission — combined with community support and funding.

“No one loves perception more than people who are conscious,” jokes musician and comedian Reggie Watts. In an absurdist ode to improvisation, he beatboxes, raps, loops his own rhythms and philosophizes on how we’re all making it up as we go along.

By replacing the binary logic of ones and zeroes with the laws of quantum physics, quantum computing allows us to perform computations with way fewer steps. Hartmut Neven, the founder and lead of Google Quantum AI, sees exciting commercial applications on the horizon; imagine, for instance, a phone that could warn you if you enter a room with dangerous viruses or detect allergens in your food.

In 2022, physicist Tammy Ma and her team used a giant laser to achieve a scientific breakthrough: fusion ignition, or the combining of two hydrogen atoms for energy generation. She explains the science behind this groundbreaking success and explores what’s needed to make a fusion-powered world a reality.

Deeptech inventor and designer Jason Rugolo introduces a new hands-free, screen-free computer you can wear on your ears and talk to like a friend. In contrast to digital assistants like Siri — which require you to issue specific commands — Rugolo shows how audio computers will use LLMs and machine learning to understand your intentions and engage with you like a person.

TED2024, held April 15-19, 2024, in Vancouver, BC, Canada, is a week of talks, discovery sessions, excursions, dinners, performances and more celebrating “The Brave and the Brilliant.” Special thanks to our strategic partners PwC, Adobe, Schneider Electric and Northwestern Mutual.

Bridge-Builders: Notes on Session 6 of TED2024

In Session 6 of TED2024, we heard from bridge-builders — inspiring speakers working to unite people across political divides, conflicts, differences and more.

The event: Talks from Session 6 of TED2024: The Brave and the Brilliant, hosted by TED’s Helen Walters and Dave Isay, the founder of StoryCorps and winner of the 2015 TED Prize

When and where: Wednesday, April 17, 2024, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Gabrielle Rifkind, David Finnigan, Ketakandriana Rafitoson, Spencer J. Cox, Daniel Lubetzky

Performance: The Jerusalem Youth Chorus (JYC) is a choral and dialogue program for Palestinian and Israeli youth in Jerusalem. JYC’s founder Micah Hendler and executive director Amer Abu Arqub discuss the impetus behind the program, how music creates cross-cultural understanding and introduce the chorus itself for a rousing performance.

Gabrielle Rifkind is director of the Oxford Process, an organization devoted to ending armed conflict with the tools of mass psychology and geopolitics, rather than the weapons of war. With inclusive negotiating strategies, she believes we can create a world where nations rush to the bargaining table rather than to their guns.

In the wake of his production Kill Climate Deniers, playwright David Finnigan received countless messages from everyday individuals defending their beliefs. While climate deniers still refuse to believe science, says Finnigan, they’re right about one thing: climate action requires us to change how we live — and that’s something we all should embrace.

In Madagascar, activist Ketakandriana Rafitoson empowers citizens to protect their rights in the face of systemic exploitation. In the absence of strong democratic traditions, her grassroots toolkit of citizen assemblies, legal aid and collective action is helping to organize Madagascar, one community at a time.

​​When he felt his faith in the peaceful transfer of power in the US eroding, Governor of Utah Spencer J. Cox reached out to his political opponent to produce a campaign ad — together. It sparked a nationwide conversation about bridging political divides and fostering a united society. On the TED stage, he shares three things we can all do to disagree without hate.

We’re being programmed to think every issue is binary: “us versus them.” But Daniel Lubetzky says the real enemy is not a person but a mindset: extremism that hijacks the agenda and foments division. He previews a new initiative that aims to bring together “builders” (instead of “dividers”) from around the world and across the political spectrum, to replace eternal conflict with practical problem-solving.

TED2024, held April 15-19, 2024, in Vancouver, BC, Canada, is a week of talks, discovery sessions, excursions, dinners, performances and more celebrating “The Brave and the Brilliant.” Special thanks to our strategic partners PwC, Adobe, Schneider Electric and Northwestern Mutual.

Provocateurs: Notes on Session 5 of TED2024

Bold ideas often meet resistance — but what if they were met with curiosity? Session 5 of TED2024 didn’t shy away from audacious ideas. Instead, it invited us all to embrace the discomfort of considering the impossible and unfamiliar, to find the courage to step into someone else’s shoes and assume goodness in those around us — because that’s what catalyzes imagination and possibility.

From the search for extraterrestrial life to the future of democracy, speakers delved into topics that challenge conventions and will spark conversation long after they stepped off the red circle.

The event: Talks from Session 5 of TED2024: The Brave and the Brilliant, hosted by TED’s Chris Anderson

When and where: Wednesday, April 17, 2024, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Avi Loeb, Bill Ackman, Alison Taylor, Andrew Yang, Bari Weiss, Scott Galloway

Performance: Xochimilco artist Xiuhtezcatl (or X) performed the songs “Careful” and “Veils,” seamlessly blending influences from his Indigenous and Mexican heritage with a fervent dedication to environmental activism.

The talks in brief:

Diving into theories around interstellar phenomena such as the Oumuamua asteroid, astrophysicist Avi Loeb suggests we haven’t found scientific proof of alien life simply because we haven’t dedicated the proper funding. He explores the research needed to find the higher intelligence potentially residing galaxies away, imagining a future where otherworldly knowledge helps improve life on Earth.

In a wide-ranging conversation, Bill Ackman, the founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, sits down with business professor Alison Taylor to discuss the activist investor playbook and how it applies to the social and political realms. They dig into free speech, Ackman’s notoriously long posts on X, the conversation around Harvard and DEI as well as the intersection of power, voice and wealth.

American politics has an incentives problem, says political reformer Andrew Yang. The current system caters to primary voters, which has created a disconnect between overall Congressional approval and reelection rates. How do we realign incentives to make government work for more people? Yang shows why nonpartisan primaries and ranked-choice voting could be the answer.

In an unflinching look at issues that widen the political divide in the US, journalist and editor Bari Weiss highlights why courage is the most important virtue — and shares examples of people who have wielded it. She urges us all to say what we believe in the face of conformity and silence.

NYU marketing professor Scott Galloway dissects the data showing that, in the US, younger people are worse off financially than their parents were at the same age. He shows the knock-on effects of this theft of generational wealth, asking: If we allow this to keep happening, do we really love our kids?

TED2024, held April 15-19, 2024, in Vancouver, BC, Canada, is a week of talks, discovery sessions, excursions, dinners, performances and more celebrating “The Brave and the Brilliant.” Special thanks to our strategic partners PwC, Adobe, Schneider Electric and Northwestern Mutual.

Illuminators: Notes on Session 4 of TED2024

For Session 4 of TED2024, illuminators from diverse disciplines explored the bright future of their fields. From AI as a digital species to explosive art that climbs into the sky, speakers looked at how light (literally and figuratively) can shape our climate, social interactions, scientific discoveries and more.

The event: Talks from Session 4 of TED2024: The Brave and the Brilliant, cohosted by head of TED Chris Anderson and executive director of the Audacious Project Anna Verghese

When and where: Tuesday, April 16, 2024, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Mustafa Suleyman, Nour E. Rawafi, Millie Chu Baird, Sarah J. Doherty, Sara Giusto, Cai Guo-Qiang

An audacious update: Videos throughout the session provided updates on the Audacious Project’s 2018 cohort, including Girl Trek, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Sightsavers, The Bail Project and Living Goods + Last Mile Health. Learn more about their work.

Performance: Jordan Johnson and Aidan Carberry’s JA Collective perform a hypnotic exploration of movement, alternating between the abrupt and fluid, moving one another across the stage accompanied by stunny visual art.

The talks in brief:

Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman offers a vision of a future infused with AGI, proposing that AI’s ubiquity and skillset make it more than just a tool — it should instead be considered a digital species. While the metaphor may not be perfect, he suggests this framework can allow us to better consider how we want AI to grow and where we need to be more cautious.

From sustaining life on Earth to its potential for catastrophic solar storms, astrophysicist Nour E. Rawafi sheds light on why understanding the sun is crucial to our future. He illuminates its enduring mysteries and humanity’s next technological steps to unraveling them — like sending probes on a galactic journey into the atomosphere of our fiery neighbor.

Even though its atmospheric volume is dwarfed by that of CO2, methane is 80 times more effective at trapping heat. Thus, cutting methane emissions is key to tackling climate change, says environmental advocate Millie Chu Baird. With the help of a new satellite called MethaneSAT, supported by the Audacious Project, she hopes to improve ourunderstanding of where all that methane comes from as well as our ability to address its impacts.

Aerosol emissions are responsible for the deaths of between four and 10 million people, but they also cool the planet (by about half a degree, scientists estimate) by making clouds more reflective, bouncing sunlight back into space. Atmospheric scientist Sarah J. Doherty explains how we might both reduce pollution and lower temperatures by replacing toxic aerosols with their natural counterparts.

Sara Giusto is a talent manager — but not in the way you might imagine. Her biggest client is imma: a pink-bobbed, CGI-created “virtual human” influencer. Giusto shares how imma’s influence extends to real-world issues and emotions, raising an important question: In an increasingly virtual world, what’s really real?

Speaking in Mandarin translated live with an AI-generated imitation of his voice powered by technology from Metaphysic, multidisciplinary artist Cai Guo-Qiang shares how he creates captivating spectacles from gunpowder and fireworks, enchanting audiences worldwide with scenes of alien footprints, mushroom clouds and more.

TED2024, held April 15-19, 2024, in Vancouver, BC, Canada, is a week of talks, discovery sessions, excursions, dinners, performances and more celebrating “The Brave and the Brilliant.” Special thanks to our strategic partners PwC, Adobe, Schneider Electric and Northwestern Mutual.

System Changers: Notes on Session 3 of TED2024

Many of the world’s systems, big and small, could use an upgrade. In a dynamic Session 3 at TED2024, six speakers explore how to do just that — taking on everything from global development and capitalism to robots and vertical farming.

The event: Talks from Session 3 of TED2024: The Brave and the Brilliant, hosted by TED’s Helen Walters

When and where: Tuesday, April 16, 2024, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Karthik Muralidharan, Daniela Rus, Rumman Chowdhury, Hiroki Koga, Zeynep Ton, Pete Stavros

Special appearance: Lily James Olds, the director of the TED Fellows program, announces the 2024 cohort of TED Fellows, whose work spans five continents and represents 11 countries — including, for the first time, Georgia. Read more about them here.

The talks in brief:

Spoiler: There is such a thing as a free lunch in global development, says economics professor Karthik Muralidharan. Although key indicators like school enrollment rates reached historic highs, most children are surviving, not thriving. He explains that with smarter resource allocation and evidence-based interventions, we can achieve more — without spending more.

Despite breathtaking advances, the worlds of AI and robotics remain siloed. Roboticist and computer scientist Daniela Rus describes how “liquid networks” — a more flexible, efficient and sustainable AI paradigm — promise to shatter the barrier between AI and robotics, creating a future where bespoke machines shape our everyday lives.

Will AI systems dominate our lives, or will they enhance human agency? Rumman Chowdhury, CEO and cofounder of Humane Intelligence, says that for AI to achieve its full potential, we must invite non-experts into the development process and empower people to shape and train new technologies.

Inside a vertical farming facility, you can control every environmental factor (temperature, humidity, light, pollination, etc.). You can also experiment regularly, improving practices to generate the sweetest strawberries year-round, says Hiroki Koga, CEO of Oishii. He shares how innovations in big data are making vertical farming an affordable, eco-friendly alternative to traditional farming.

Essential work doesn’t pay well, but MIT management professor Zeynep Ton believes it should. She points to companies like Costco or the Spanish supermarket chain Mercadona, which have reduced costs and worker turnover — and increased profits and productivity — by paying their workers decent, livable wages.

What if all employees had stock ownership in the companies they worked for? Investor Pete Stavros turned over stock ownership of a manufacturing company to its 800 workers, drastically improving the company’s productivity, profitability and the lives of its workers — a testament to the power of employee ownership.

TED2024, held April 15-19, 2024, in Vancouver, BC, Canada, is a week of talks, discovery sessions, excursions, dinners, performances and more celebrating “The Brave and the Brilliant.” Special thanks to our strategic partners PwC, Adobe, Schneider Electric and Northwestern Mutual.

Meet the 2024 class of TED Fellows

In this complex world, it’s easy to believe that the future is out of our hands. But there are some who understand that the future doesn’t just happen — it’s made. Among these are the TED Fellows: innovators, activists, artists, inventors and dreamers. The TED Fellows program, now celebrating its fifteenth year, provides communication training, professional tools, network-building opportunities and amplification on the global stage to early-stage innovators working across multiple disciplines in over 100 countries.  

We are thrilled to announce the 2024 cohort of TED Fellows, whose work spans five continents and represents 11 countries — including, for the first time, Georgia. This year’s TED Fellows include an entrepreneur who is reshaping health care in conflict zones, an engineer who created a cold chain solution saving lives in rural African communities and a scientist pioneering new, safer AI technologies — to name just a few. 

Each TED Fellow was selected for their remarkable achievements, the potential impact of their work and their commitment to community building. TED is honored to welcome these new Fellows into this dynamic global network of 500+ Fellows creating meaningful change in their communities and the world.

Mohamed Aburawi
Health systems entrepreneur | Libya + Canada
Mohamed Aburawi is a surgeon and founder of Speetar, a digital health platform reshaping health care in conflict zones across the Middle East and Africa, especially his native Libya. Through this work, Speetar is helping to dismantle barriers to quality care and advocate for health care as a fundamental human right.

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Sahba Aminikia
Composer, artistic director | Iran + US
Iranian-born composer, pianist and educator Sahba Aminikia is the founder and artistic director of Flying Carpet Children Festival, an annual mobile arts festival and artist residency for refugee children escaping conflict zones.

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Joel Bervell
Medical mythbuster | Ghana + US
Joel Bervell is a medical student educating people about health care disparities and biases through viral social media content. By sharing stories and studies with his audience of more than one million about the neglect of marginalized groups, he advocates for change in the health care system.

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Lehua Kamalu
Ocean navigator | Hawaii + US
Lehua Kamalu is a captain and navigator of traditional Hawaiian ocean-voyaging canoes. She preserves and teaches these ancient sustainable navigation practices by integrating them into digital storytelling and daily life for future generations.

Huiyi Lin
Visual artist, poverty researcher | Singapore + China
Huiyi Lin is an economic policy researcher and one half of Chow and Lin, an artist duo using statistical, mathematical and computational techniques to address food insecurity and poverty. Chow and Lin combine research, design and photography to raise awareness about global inequality in visually arresting ways.

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Ramin Hasani
AI scientist, entrepreneur | US, Austria + Iran
Ramin Hasani is cofounder and CEO of Liquid AI, where he helped invent liquid neural networks: a new AI technology inspired by living brains and physics. These revolutionary networks are more flexible and efficient than current AI solutions, shaping the future of machine learning and artificial intelligence research.

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Paule Joseph
Chemosensory researcher, nurse | Venezuela + US
Taste and smell researcher Paule Joseph explores how conditions such as COVID-19, obesity, neurodegenerative disorders and substance abuse affect the chemical senses. Her lab combines clinical research, behavioral neuroscience, genomics and molecular biology, offering insights on how taste and smell affect our daily lives.

 

Norah Magero
Mechanical engineer | Kenya
Norah Magero is a mechanical engineer and creator of VacciBox, a cold chain solution saving lives in rural communities. She is working to build an Africa that manufactures and produces its own climate-health care technology.

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Royal Ramey
Wildland firefighter | US
Royal Ramey is the cofounder of the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program (FFRP), a nonprofit providing career opportunities to formerly incarcerated firefighters in California. A 12-year wildland firefighter veteran, Ramey draws on his own lived experience, rethinking job training for the formerly incarcerated and addressing the challenges they face re-entering the workforce.

Daro Sulakauri
Photojournalist, visual artist | Georgia
Photojournalist Daro Sulakauri chronicles social and political issues in the Caucasus. By focusing on issues that are considered taboo, such as early marriages and the impact of Russian occupation, she defends against the erasure of Georgian culture, history and borders.

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Erika Moore Taylor
Equity bioengineer | US
Biomedical engineer Erika Moore Taylor researches how ancestry and sociocultural data affect disease development. Unlike many researchers, she accounts for diverse populations when building regenerative tissue models to create more equitable disease models.

Mind Expanders: Notes on Session 2 of TED2024

AI is reshaping how we interact with the world around us and within us, expanding creative possibilities and bringing us closer together by dissolving barriers of all kinds. But anyone who’s paying attention can spot its obvious flaws and potential pitfalls.

From trailblazing platforms making software accessible to micro-robotics revolutionizing health care (including a mind-blowing demo you won’t want to miss), Session 2 of TED2024 explored the frontiers of tech with visionary entrepreneurs, scientists and creators. They offered glimpses of what good AI could do for the world when governed with empathy and curiosity.

The event: Talks from Session 2 of TED2024: The Brave and the Brilliant, hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson and creative technologist and host of The TED AI Show Bilawal Sidhu

When and where: Tuesday, April 16, 2024, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Vinod Khosla, Fei-Fei Li, Thomas Dohmke, Niceaunties, Alex Luebke, Vivek Kumbhari, Helen Toner

A special challenge: President and CEO of the Bezos Earth Fund Andrew Steer announces the AI for Climate and Nature Grand Challenge, a groundbreaking initiative set to distribute up to $100 million in grants to harness AI in the fight against climate change and nature loss.

The talks in brief:

Vinod Khosla is a self-proclaimed techno-optimist who believes in the power of “foolish ideas.” He shares his predictions for how technology will continue improving human lives, discussing expanded medical care through AI doctors, a massive robotic workforce, planes that can travel 4,000 miles per hour and more.

AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li proposes that the progress of AI’s understanding of spatial intelligence – the ability to derive predictions and insight from objects’ relationships to one another – is catalyzing robotic learning, bringing us closer to a world where AI not only sees and creates but also interacts with the world around us.

Software development has long been the purview of specialized workers. By removing the barrier between programming languages and human ones, GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke shows how AI is poised to change that forever. He demos never-before-seen software his team has been developing that promises to empower people to create code using just their spoken words — in any language.

From sushi-bedecked cars with legs to elderly women wearing cat-shaped masks made of cereal, artist Niceaunties’ surreal “Auntieverse” — a mind-bending homage to “auntie culture” prevalent in Asian communities — charmingly showcases the creative potential of human-AI partnerships.

Meet PillBot: a wireless micro-robot that can go inside the human body and take a look around. In a (literally) stomach-turning demo, engineer and entrepreneur Alex Luebke swallows a PillBot and physician-scientist Vivek Kumbhari navigates it around his stomach with a game controller, showing how the device allows direct visualization of internal organs and could move us past the age of invasive, expensive endoscopies.

No one understands AI — not even experts, says policy expert Helen Toner. But that doesn’t mean we can’t govern it. She makes the case that people and policymakers need to push for more research into AI interpretability (measuring what these systems can do) as well as regulations that require AI companies to share what they’re building and why.

TED2024, held April 15-19, 2024, in Vancouver, BC, Canada, is a week of talks, discovery sessions, excursions, dinners, performances and more celebrating “The Brave and the Brilliant.” Special thanks to our strategic partners PwC, Adobe, Schneider Electric and Northwestern Mutual.

Dreamers: Notes on Session 1 of TED2024

It’s time for TED! And this year’s conference marks a big year: the 40th anniversary of TED, honoring the inaugural conference in 1984.

With that in mind, TED2024 kicked off with a classically eclectic opening session, ranging from a powerful conversation on how Israel and Palestine can find peace to the future of AI to visual storytelling as you’ve never before seen it.

The event: Talks from Session 1 of TED2024: The Brave and the Brilliant, hosted by Chris Anderson, Monique Ruff-Bell and Helen Walters

When and where: Monday, April 15, 2024, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Aziz Abu Sarah, Maoz Inon, Demis Hassabis, Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, RuPaul Charles, Willie Williams, Angus Hervey

Performance: Writer, musician and comedian Elle Cordova shares a poem she wrote about the Big Bang and, joined by guitarist Toni Lindgren, plays “Carl Sagan” — an original song about the endless scroll of social media and our desire to reach out to others across the void.

The talks in brief:

Peacemakers Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon discuss the immeasurable tragedies they’ve experienced growing up in Palestine and Israel, respectively — and how they choose reconciliation over revenge, again and again. With a fierce belief in a better future, they work to foster opportunities for connection and understanding across divides, collectively building hope for peace.

DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis shows how AI might solve humanity’s “big questions” by identifying patterns in impossibly huge (and humanly incomprehensible) datasets. In conversation with head of TED Chris Anderson, Hassabis explores AI from its game-playing, algorithmic roots to the current high-powered arms race.

Since the 1990s, Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, the president of Tompkins Conservation and the former CEO of Patagonia, has worked with her husband to rewild more than two million acres of crucial habitat in the southernmost regions of Argentina and Chile. She explains how actively restoring natural territories and bringing back missing species can heal the planet amidst our ongoing climate and extinction crises.

In an engaging dish session, drag superstar RuPaul Charles takes the stage to debut “On the Spot,” TED’s new interactive Q&A format. Giving rapid-fire responses to a stream of unexpected questions, Ru enlightens us on everything from the power of drag to expand our definitions of self to the value of not taking anything too seriously.

Redefining the boundaries of live entertainment, multimedia show director Willie Williams showcases his work designing and directing transcendent shows for artists like U2, David Bowie and many more. He shares his thinking on how to weave cutting-edge tech with imaginative visuals to create unforgettable experiences and connections.

Whether or not you believe that world is on track for imminent doom might depend on where you get your news, says Angus Hervey, founder of Fix The News. He delivers good news for humanity that the media cycle missed last year, from advances in clean energy technologies to declining rates of extreme poverty, crime and disease.

TED2024, held April 15-19, 2024, in Vancouver, BC, Canada, is a week of talks, discovery sessions, excursions, dinners, performances and more celebrating “The Brave and the Brilliant.” Special thanks to our strategic partners PwC, Adobe, Schneider Electric and Northwestern Mutual.

Introducing TED’s new tagline

To celebrate TED’s 40th anniversary, we’re ushering in a new chapter and a new tagline.

For the first half of TED‘s existence, we were an annual conference, bringing together a few hundred people every year to think about Technology, Entertainment, Design and all that connected them. We discovered that this convergence sparked powerful new ideas capable of deeply inspiring the people who attended.   

Just under 20 years ago, online video gave us the chance to start sharing that inspiration more broadly. And we encouraged anyone who saw a TED Talk to play their own role in sharing with the tagline “Ideas Worth Spreading.”

Those words have served us well. It’s estimated that TED Talks have been seen or listened to more than 30 billion times. 

But now they’re part of a gushing torrent of online content of all sorts. We are all deluged with endless snippets of dopamine-sparking provocation from our social media feeds and streaming services. 

As we look forward to the next 40 years, we think it’s time for us to make a more confident assertion of what makes TED content special. 

We’re in awe of the fact that our speakers may spend months crafting their TED Talks. And that those talks may be based on a lifetime’s work. We’re in awe of the things that can happen when a talk ignites and inspires a sense of possibility in millions of minds. Like when architect Michael Murphy heard Bryan Stevenson’s epic TED Talk and was inspired to help create the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. Or when Supriya Paul heard Sir Ken Robinson’s plea for an education revolution and decided to start one of her own in India in the form of Josh Talks, which now reach millions of people every month. Or when Monica Lewinsky plucked up the courage to come to the TED stage, reclaim her narrative and inspire countless kids to no longer be intimidated by online bullies.

These talks are not for doom-scrolling pleasure. They matter. They can give an individual hope. They offer motivation to discover our better selves. 

And sometimes the ripple effects are bigger still. They can ignite technological revolutions and inspire initiatives that impact millions. Politicians come and go. Ideas are forever. And for everyone. 

And so … we proudly unveil our new tagline. Are you ready?

Ideas Change Everything.

We believe this to our core. And we’re proud to play a role in discovering, debating and sharing the best of them. 

Everyone has their own part to play. I invite you to double down on your commitment to lifelong learning and join us in sparking a brighter tomorrow.

With determined hope,

Chris Anderson
Head of TED

3 ways you can take action

1. Watch these great talks and be inspired
2. Learn more about the TED organization
3. Become a TED Member today

Scam alert related to “TED India,” “TED Studios India,” “TEDIND,” “TED Bharat” and “TED Coaches”

TED has been alerted to a fraudulent marketing scam referred to as “TED India,” “TED Studios India,” “TEDIND,” “TED Studios,” “TED Bharat” and/or “TED Coaches” that have misrepresented that they are affiliated with the TED organization. These entities claim to produce TED events in India, most recently in Delhi in September 2023, and seek payment from individuals to speak at events or for TED coaching and TED franchise opportunities. These entities have no affiliation with TED, and are not authorized to speak or use TED branding in any way. Please do not engage with these organizations. The brands that we have found to be fake include: As a reminder, TED and TEDx never charge speakers to give talks. Any event that requires payment in exchange for the opportunity to speak is not an official TED event. TED also does not offer franchises or charge individuals to become TED coaches. Please be wary of any solicitations you receive claiming otherwise as such communications are not affiliated with TED and are likely a scam. If you have been contacted or involved with these organizations, please fill out this form so that we can track the fraudulent activities.

The Way We Work: Practical wisdom for your career

How can you best communicate your work experience, succeed at your current job and secure the future of your career? The Way We Work, a TED original video series, helps business leaders and innovative thinkers answer those questions and more.

Whether you’re starting a new job, freelancing or want to future-proof your career, season six of The Way We Work offers practical wisdom on how you can best pitch your ideas and connect with your coworkers. It also delves into how other facets of your life tie into your job, like caregiving and resting. 

Here’s how to make a great first impression at your new job:

Have great ideas? Here’s how to pitch them:

What skills are you building for future work?

5 tips on finding fulfillment and stability while freelancing:

Connecting with your coworkers is an important part of any fulfilling work-life — here’s how:

When it comes to productivity and creativity, rest matters just as much as work:

How can your job help support your caregiving responsibilities — and why they should:

Imagining our common future: The talks of TED Democracy

The question of our democratic future is more urgent, complex and exciting than ever. As the world stands at a crossroads, more than 140 world leaders and experts convened in New York City for the launch of the TED Democracy initiative, a project that aims to shift the narrative on democracy, accelerate solutions to support a robust civic culture and contribute to a more collaborative pro-democracy community globally. This landmark event spotlighted more than 20 influential speakers from seven countries, charting a course for a democratic future fueled by innovative tactics and transformative visions.

The event: The launch of the TED Democracy initiative, hosted by TED’s senior director of impact Logan McClure Davda, TED curator Cloe Shasha Brooks

When and where: November 14-15, 2023 at the TED World Theater in New York City

Speakers: Ian Bassin, Tessza Udvarhelyi, Yordanos Eyoel, Bret Stephens, Fatma Karume, Olesya Khromeychuk, Divya Siddarth, Samar Ali, Clint Brewer, Sarah Longwell, Gabriel Marmentini, Jordan Klepper, Saket Soni, Katie Fahey, Sam Gregory, Lindiwe Mazibuko, Daniella Ballou-Aares, adrienne maree brown, Baratunde Thurston, Sofia Ongele

Music: Vocalist, composer and teacher Sarah Elizabeth Charles brings her signature, soulful jazz vocals to the TED stage, performing “Blank Canvas” and “One World.”

The talks in brief:

Ian Bassin, lawyer and writer

The authoritarian playbook has seven steps – all of which have already been attempted in the US, says lawyer Ian Bassin. He explains that we can all make choices that will protect and strengthen democracy, inviting everyone to reconsider their role in the everyday fight for freedom.

Tessza Udvarhelyi, movement builder

A democracy requires more than a constitution and elections, says activist Tessza Udvarhelyi. She shares how the people of Budapest, Hungary are overcoming authoritarian norms to rebuild a local democratic government, offering a daunting lesson: “Enjoy your democracy when you have it, but don’t ever get too comfortable with it,” she says.

Bret Stephens, journalist and editor

Democracy’s strength doesn’t rely on citizens always agreeing with one another, but rather in navigating and managing their disagreements. In conversation with democracy entrepreneur Yordanos Eyoel, columnist Bret Stephens shares simple ways that we can disagree more effectively, challenge our own views and strengthen democracy in the process.

Fatma Karume, lawyer and human rights advocate

Democracy may be an abstract concept, but it holds the very essence of our autonomy and humanity, says lawyer and human rights advocate Fatma Karume. She tells the harrowing story of Tanzania’s slide into autocracy in 2017, how she found the will to keep speaking out under personal attack and the importance of community in the fight for democracy.

Olesya Khromeychuk, historian and writer

“A flourishing democracy next door is a scary thing for an autocrat,” says Ukrainian historian Olesya Khromeychuk. She details the history of Ukraine’s long struggle for democracy — against Russian tsars, communist dictators and now the Kremlin’s army — and shares three lessons for anybody facing their own fight for democracy.

Divya Siddarth, social technologist and political economist

We don’t have to sacrifice our freedom for the sake of technological progress, says social technologist Divya Siddarth. She shares the story of an AI built by and for the people, offering a vision of a world where technology doesn’t destroy democracy — but expands it.

Samar Ali, law professor and peacemaker, and Clint Brewer, public affairs strategist

Professor Samar Ali (a Democrat) and journalist Clint Brewer (a Republican) seem very different on the surface, but their friendship illustrates the value in discarding the “scare script” — the process by which we demonize others. Together, they share simple ways to fight polarization in everyday life.

Sarah Longwell, strategist

In 2020, political strategist Sarah Longwell initiated a campaign to convince her fellow centrist Republicans to vote against Donald Trump. Sharing what the experience taught her about tribalism and voting in the US, she explores why asking people to choose democracy over their political party doesn’t work — and what does.

Gabriel Marmentini, civic educator

For civic educator Gabriel Marmentini, citizenship is about more than voting and paying taxes. It means recognizing that the state cannot solve all our problems alone, moving from being a policy-taker to a policy-maker — and promoting democratic values locally.

Jordan Klepper, writer and comedian

Democracy depends on compromise and discourse. So how do we get better at talking to each other? Comedian Jordan Klepper offers three steps to become more open-minded when talking to someone you disagree with — starting with a willingness to say “I don’t know.”

Saket Soni, labor organizer

Drawing from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and personal experience, labor organizer Saket Soni details the transformative and vital work of immigrants, mostly undocumented, in rebuilding disaster zones, reflecting on where renewed, resilient hope for US democracy really comes from.

Katie Fahey, activist

One person can spark the changes democracy needs. Activist Katie Fahey shares how she went from writing a social media post to leading a successful grassroots campaign to ban partisan gerrymandering in Michigan, proving you don’t need power to make a difference. 

Sam Gregory, technologist and human rights advocate

Deceptive and manipulative audiovisual AI is not the cause of societal problems, says technologist Sam Gregory, but it can make them worse. As the line between real and fabricated blurs, he lays out a three-step plan to retain transparency, accountability and liability — and promote AI-infused media literacy against disinformation and deepfakes. 

Lindiwe Mazibuko, public leader

In South Africa, a country with some of the world’s highest levels of inequality, many struggle to meet their basic needs. Public leader Lindiwe Mazibuko makes the case that democratic institutions like the country’s constitution aren’t the problem — poor leadership is. Through her nonprofit Futurelect, she’s working to elect a new generation of civic leaders ready to deliver on democracy’s promise.

Daniella Ballou-Aares, business and social impact leader

For too long, businesses in the US have remained on the sidelines while democratic institutions falter. But societal instability has begun to threaten their bottom line. Social impact leader Daniella Ballou-Aares shows us how businesses possess both the ability and the responsibility to help preserve democratic societies.

adrienne maree brown, author and doula, and Baratunde Thurston, writer and comedian

Democracy is dying, and new democratic norms and practices are being born, says writer and activist Baratunde Thurston in conversation with author and doula adrienne maree brown. The two discuss why democracy as we know it is failing — and how we can create more just futures through imagination, replacing leaders with facilitators, and generous acts of care and repair.

Sofia Ongele, coder and activist

Anyone living in some semblance of democracy has the tools to influence government, says Gen-Z coder and activist Sofia Ongele. It’s just a matter of getting creative, embracing your unique powers and having some mischievous fun along the way.

The most popular TED Talks of 2023 — and inspiration for 2024

As 2023 draws to a close, join us in reflecting on a year brimming with inspiring ideas and transformative insights from the TED stage. Our end-of-year playlists feature talks that capture the essence of the year’s challenges and triumphs — and offer glimpses of hope for 2024.

From AI and the future of learning to a mysterious, millennia-old pattern and a radical way to repair your relationships, these TED Talks took off the quickest in 2023:

Dive into one of the most buzzed-about topics of the year with these must-watch TED Talks on AI, showcasing groundbreaking advancements and thought-provoking perspectives on the future of this world-changing innovation:

From the science behind stretching muscles and crooked teeth to the everyday mysteries of food expiration dates and airplane mode, these TED-Ed animations captured our attention in 2023:

Uncover the unexpected and enlightening with this selection of TED Talks from 2023 that you didn’t know you needed. From the value of thinking about your mortality to the quirky world of Wikipedia and beyond, these talks offer an intellectual adventure and a captivating blend of education, inspiration and wonder:

As we look with hope toward a new year, these TED Talks offer inspiration from speakers addressing some of the world’s most pressing issues — from sustainable living and justice reform to breakthrough technology and the power of grassroots movements.

Embark on a journey of self-improvement with this selection of TED Talks on personal growth. From innovative parenting strategies and mental health support to fostering self-confidence and sustainable habits, these ideas offer practical advice and fresh perspectives for a transformative year ahead:

Head of TED Chris Anderson publishes new book, “Infectious Generosity”

In the face of the world’s daunting problems, our kindness can seem pretty inadequate. But what if there were a way to turbocharge it? We live in the connected age. What would it take for kindness to go viral? This is the question Head of TED Chris Anderson explores in his new book, Infectious Generosity, on sale January 23, 2024. Under the radar, countless heroic individuals have discovered how to give in a way that inspires others. This book is filled with their stories, creating a playbook that can help usher in a more hopeful view of human possibility in the 21st century.

As the curator of TED for more than 20 years, Anderson has seen first-hand how ideas can spread. Through the power of the internet, he has helped the world’s boldest thinkers share their most uplifting and world-changing concepts. With Infectious Generosity, he encourages all of us to harness the internet as a force that brings people together instead of driving them apart. Through a combination of inspiring stories, cutting-edge psychological research and practical guidance, Infectious Generosity serves as both a manifesto and a playbook for embarking on a journey of generosity.

Learn more and preorder your copy of Infectious Generosity here.

As part of the publication and its larger mission, Anderson will donate his proceeds from Infectious Generosity to TED, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation dedicated to discovering and spreading ideas that spark conversation, deepen understanding and drive meaningful change. For every copy purchased in the US, the Crown Publishing Group will also donate a portion of its proceeds to TED-Ed in support of its missions to spark and celebrate the ideas of teachers and students around the world. Finally, Aevitas Creative Management will be donating a portion of its proceeds to The Peace Studio, an organization that gives artists and journalists the tools to transform conflict in the US.

As Anderson shows, each of us as individuals can be a catalyst for the amplification of human kindness — in sometimes surprising ways. Through acts of generosity great and small, we have within us the power to create a ripple effect that could truly transform the world. Learn more at InfectiousGenerosity.org.

Flipside futures: The talks of TED@BCG 2023

Today is good, but tomorrow can always be better. There are new possibilities for our future if we use our uniquely human creativity. In a day of talks and performances, 16 leading minds gathered to flip expected thinking on its head and map out how we might build a brighter future.

The event: TED@BCG: Flipside Futures is the fourteenth event TED and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have co-hosted to uplift forward-thinking speakers from around the globe. Hosted by TED’s head of media and curation Helen Walters.

When and where: Thursday, November 16, 2023 at the BCG office in Paris, France

Speakers: Catalina Lotero, Adam Whybrew, Jessica Apotheker, Diarra Bousso, Hanjo Seibert, David Kwong, Sylvester Chauke, Annalee Newitz, Adriann Negreros, Shruthi Baskaran-Makanju, Slava Balbek, Paul Hudson, Beth Viner, Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak, Sagar Goel, Bonnie Hancock

Opening and closing remarks: Francois Candelon, the global director of the BCG Henderson Institute and TED@BCG 2018 speaker, welcomes the audience while Olivier Scalabre, the head of BCG France and TED@BCG 2016 speaker, closes out the day.

The talks in brief:

Catalina Lotero, purposeful designer

What might Latin America look like if colonization hadn’t broken the evolution of its ancient iconography? Catalina Lotero presents stunning images of “Pre-Columbian futurism” that infuse Latin American design with Indigenous symbolism — a testament to the power of aesthetics to rewrite historical narratives and envision new futures.

Adam Whybrew, depression truth-teller

We can’t get rid of anxiety and depression, so we might as well talk about it, says Adam Whybrew. He shares how talking about his own debilitating mental health struggles with his coworkers created unexpectedly positive outcomes, offering a comforting message of hope for those in need of support. 

Jessica Apotheker, marketing expert

Research shows AI is poised to explode marketers’ performance — but there’s a problem, says Jessica Apotheker. AI may make marketers more productive but, if not harnessed correctly, it might also homogenize and clog the marketing landscape.

Diarra Bousso, designer, mathematician

Growing up in Senegal, getting a new outfit for Diarra Bousso was never an impulse purchase; her clothes were made to order by local artisans and designed to last. Through her brand, Diarrablu, she’s working to bring this sustainable fashion model to modern e-retail, using digital tools to crowdsource designs, limit excess inventory and reduce overconsumption and waste.

Hanjo Seibert, economic crime fighter

Hanjo Seibert spends his time fighting economic crime, a wide field ranging from drug trafficking and human trafficking to fraud, cybercrimes, tax evasion and more. He explains how gangsters, criminals and terrorists launder their money through this shady underground economy — and how all of us can take small steps to make it harder for them to do so.

David Kwong, magician 

“We live in a time that’s more wondrous than our ancestors ever could have imagined, and technology isn’t the barrier to unlocking that wonder: it’s the key,” says David Kwong. He explores how tech elevates our capacity for bewilderment — and invites an audience member to the stage for some ChatGPT-powered magic.

Sylvester Chauke, branding disruptor

After years of brand building, marketing veteran Sylvester Chauke realized that his industry had sold the world on overconsumption, with devastating consequences. He shares how marketers could instead promote sustainability and responsible consumerism with “honest ads.”

Annalee Newitz, journalist, sci-fi author

“Escapist stories allow us to reimagine our relationship with the places we live,” says Annalee Newitz. Inviting you to the whimsical world of sci-fi, cosplay (short for “costume play”) and goblincore (an internet-born aesthetic that celebrates the “ugly” side of nature), Newitz shares why, sometimes, the best way to solve our problems is to escape them.

Adriann Negreros, change management expert

Nearly three billion people have frontline jobs: work that requires them to be in person, whether it’s as baristas, Uber drivers, factory floor workers or anything else. Adriann Negreros is on a mission to make these jobs more rewarding by getting employees what they need but often lack – like respect, better pay, more flexibility and safety gear that actually fits.

Shruthi Baskaran-Makanju, food systems advocate

Sub-Saharan Africa needs more meat consumption to solve its nutrition challenges, says Shruthi Baskaran-Makanju. Instead of building feedlots, she makes a case for scaling meat and milk production in the region by supporting its millions of nomadic livestock herders. 

Slava Balbek, architect, humanitarian

The Russian invasion of Ukraine forced architect Slava Balbek to rethink the nature of his craft. From a tool that develops localized blueprints to rebuild your home to the construction of comfortable, stylish temporary housing, Balbek and his team are exploring the healing power of architecture with a simple motto: “Dignity no matter what.”

Paul Hudson, healthcare innovator, in conversation with Lindsay Levin, the head of TED Countdown

Rather than resisting AI, Paul Hudson has welcomed the opportunity to let it completely disrupt Sanofi, the healthcare and pharmaceutical company he leads. In conversation with Lindsay Levin, he discusses how AI can propel daily decision-making, its impact on data transparency and the role it might play in decarbonizing the pharmaceutical industry.

Beth Viner, culture strategist

We often venerate dreamers: the innovators who smash through barriers. But for every dreamer, says Beth Viner, a team of doers works hard to transform that vision into reality. The best companies succeed by harnessing this synergy.

Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak, economist 

Economic models always seem to predict disaster, creating financial losses that could have been avoided if shoppers and business owners were more rationally optimistic, says economist Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak. He calls for everyone to be their own judge, evaluate the doomsday narratives with a careful eye and embrace the inevitable uncertainty.

Sagar Goel, skill-building strategist

People are worried that AI will replace them at work — but upgrading skills and lifelong learning can help. Sagar Goel shares insights from a partnership with the Singaporean government on a digital reskilling program that helped people gain experience for jobs for which they previously wouldn’t have qualified.

Bonnie Hancock, Ironwoman, paddler, record breaker

In 2020, Bonnie Hancock began paddling her sea kayak in a clockwise loop around Australia. It took her 254 days to circumnavigate the continent, breaking the previous world record by more than two months. She shares the ups and downs of her 12,700-kilometer journey — including brushes with crocodiles, sharks and hypothermia — and how she learned to find resilience and beauty in the toughest moments.

Powerful perspectives: The intimate and beautiful interstitials of TEDWomen 2023

As part of the world-class curation for TEDWomen 2023, a small but moving selection of shorts offered a reflection of the collective power of movement, art and community. Among dozens of nominations from across the web, these shorts were presented for their electrifying creativity and unique view of the moment. Watch the selections below.

The short: “SCAD Fashion 2022’” (excerpt)

The creator: Squire Fox

In brief: SCAD School of Fashion senior and graduate students debut their collections in a sublime cinematic experience, a runway crossover featuring exquisite, high-concept looks.

Shown during: Session 2: Not always a straight path

 

The short: “They say Atlanta Influences Everything”

The creator: Atlanta United FC and Atlanta Influences Everything

In brief: A short showcasing the 404 Kit for Atlanta United FC, inspired by Atlanta’s cultural and global impact from the 90s to now.

Shown during: Session 2: Not always a straight path

 

The short: “Kylie” (excerpt)

The creator: Sterling Hampton IV

In brief: A Black ballerina speaks her truth about being a dancer in the ballet community while she performs in the city streets of Los Angeles.

Shown during: Session 3: In love and life

Moving on up: Talks from day 3 of TEDWomen 2023

For the final day of TEDWomen 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia, a multidisciplinary group of experts took on the challenges and opportunities of navigating change — from reimagining migration for political power and addressing the real threats of AI to championing inclusivity, celebrating nature’s wildness and pondering life’s myriad complexities through art.

The event: Sessions 4 and 5 of TEDWomen 2023, hosted by TEDWomen editorial director Pat Mitchell, TED’s head of curation Helen Walters and activist, filmmaker and entrepreneur Maya Penn

When and where: Friday, October 13, 2023, at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia

Speakers: Charles M. Blow, Sasha Luccioni, Ruha Benjamin, Melonie D. Parker, Sherrell Dorsey, Mary Ann Sieghart, Dyhia Belhabib, Rebecca McMackin, Lucy McBath, Valerie Montgomery Rice, Maira Kalman, Freada Kapor Klein, Sheila Ngozi Oparaocha, Chantale Zuzi Leader

Music: Darkwave artist Abra captivated the TEDWomen audience with her signature blend of gothic, R&B and electronic music.

Societal progress often feels like two steps forward, one step back — how do we change that? New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow calls for a peaceful, reverse migration of Black Americans to southern US states, to write over legacies of oppression and wield political power to change history.

We’ve all heard it recently: “AI could kill us all.” Instead of catastrophizing, AI ethics researcher Sasha Luccioni wants to address AI’s more pressing risks — like carbon emissions, copyright infringement and biased data — by creating tools and legislation that promote transparency.

In the era of superintelligent AI, are health care and housing for all really beyond reach? From the outcry against Atlanta’s “Cop City” to tech-driven democracy in Barcelona, researcher Ruha Benjamin imagines a future where tech and people-power work in tandem, not in opposition.

How can we create safe and inclusive work cultures for all? Google’s chief diversity officer Melonie D. Parker joins journalist and host of the TED Tech podcast Sherrell Dorsey in a nuanced conversation about creating a sustainably inclusive company where every employee can thrive.

We still take women less seriously than men, says author, journalist and broadcaster Mary Ann Sieghart. She explains how we can tackle what she calls the “authority gap” by questioning our biases against women’s intelligence (like judging a woman by the pitch of her voice) and actively promoting female experts.

Criminal groups use sophisticated technology to perpetrate crimes on the ocean: drug smugglers pilot autonomous submarines; pirates use satellites to detect ships they plan to capture and ransom. Maritime crime fighter Dyhia Belhabib introduces Heva, a tool that uses AI to aggregate international criminal records with the goal of detecting and stopping maritime crime.

Ecological horticulturist Rebecca McMackin explores the beauty of letting your garden run wild, surveying the success she’s had increasing biodiversity on the piers of Brooklyn Bridge Park and offering tips for creating wildlife-friendly habitats at home.

Following the death of her only son, US Congresswoman Lucy McBath was elected to office with one major goal: pass comprehensive gun safety legislation. She shares the power of a personal story to bridge divides and make real, impactful change.

“There are challenges and fears that catapult us to become the greatest versions of ourselves, to become great leaders,” says health equity advocate and president and CEO of Morehouse School of Medicine Valerie Montgomery Rice. She shares three lessons in leadership and shows how they can guide anyone hoping to break through fear, stand up for what’s right and build opportunity for all.

Multidisciplinary artist Maira Kalman delivers a delightfully wry, sneakily profound reflection on time, death, work, art, family, dreams and more. Backed by her wise, witty illustrations, her talk seems to embody the entirety of life itself, in all its absurd glory.

Impact investor Freada Kapor Klein is building fairness into the core of tech companies. Her VC fund, Kapor Capital, only invests in businesses that commit to hiring diverse teams, fostering inclusive workplaces and creating products and services that close opportunity gaps.

The dominant narrative of energy transition has a problem, says energy equity expert Sheila Oparaocha: it ignores the billions of people without energy access. For just and inclusive climate solutions, Oparaocha says we must empower women and prioritize universal access to sustainable energy.

After surviving devastating violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chantale Zuzi Leader found safety in the US. She urges everyone to consider the problem of displacement with curiosity and compassion — and offers refugees like her a powerful message of hope: “It is possible to break through.”

Life, love and finding a path: Talks from day 2 of TEDWomen 2023

Day 2 of TEDWomen 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia featured an interdisciplinary array of ideas from speakers who are disrupting poverty, creating bold art, restoring Indigenous rights, exploring bioluminescence in nature and much more.

The event: Sessions 2 and 3 of TEDWomen 2023, hosted by TEDWomen editorial director Pat Mitchell and activist, filmmaker and entrepreneur Maya Penn

When and where: Thursday, October 12, 2023, at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia

Speakers: Tracie Revis, Diana Greene Foster, Aisha Nyandoro, Andre Dickens, Rosita Najmi, Esha Chhabra, Paige Alexander, Jay Bailey, Karinna Grant, Laetitia Ky, Glenn Close, Laurel Braitman, Wan Faridah Akmal Jusoh, Gary Barker, Lindsay Morris, Reed J. Williams, Maria E. Sophocles

A warm welcome: From Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, who shared how the city has partnered with the Carter Center on a campaign called Inform Women, Transform Lives, which is aimed at raising awareness about women’s right to information.

Music: An enchanting, genre-bending performance of her songs “Universe,” “Statues” and “Liberation” by singer-songwriter and producer Buzz.

Tracie Revis’s ancestors were forcibly removed from their homeland in what is currently known as Georgia. Now, she’s working to reclaim part of that land, the Ocmulgee Mounds, and turn it into Georgia’s first national park and preserve, which would be co-managed by the Muscogee Creek tribe — tapping into the immense power of their ancestral homeland to heal generational trauma.

Does having an abortion negatively impact a woman’s life? Demographer Diana Greene Foster’s research, known as The Turnaway Study, shows that women who want abortions and get them experience better mental and physical health and socioeconomic well-being than those who are denied.

For Black mothers receiving guaranteed income through the Magnolia Mother’s Trust, a first-of-its-kind guaranteed income program in the US, a steady check meant having the power to uplift those around them. Inspired by their example, poverty disruptor Aisha Nyandoro wants people to redefine wealth in terms of the good it can create.

Don’t fret about your leadership style, says global development economist Rosita Najmi — focus instead on your leadership languages. She explains why the best leaders are “multilingual,” fluent in the languages of business, philanthropy and public policy.

“Sustainability” has become a business buzzword, but environmental business journalist Esha Chhabra thinks it’s time to dig deeper. She outlines the growing wave of regenerative companies — which take a far more holistic approach to operations, with every aspect of business driving towards solving a social problem — and shows how many of them are already making big changes in fashion, energy, food, agriculture and beyond.

Access to information is the key to unlocking human rights for all, says equality champion Paige Alexander. Leading The Carter Center, she and her team are connecting women to vital resources to get educated, start businesses and transform lives around the world.

When creating an incubator for Black entrepreneurs, Jay Bailey drew inspiration from Motown and HBCUs — two great models for economic mobility. What do they have in common? Bailey says both cultivate belonging and give people the freedom to believe.

What if you could buy the latest fashions without crowding your closet or growing your carbon footprint? Digital fashion entrepreneur Karinna Grant says that future is already emerging: NFTs and augmented reality are expanding possibilities for creative consumption while decreasing waste.

Artist Laetitia Ky creates incredible sculptures using the hair on her head (and a bit of wire), transforming it into surprising forms — an umbrella, a sunflower, wings, a raised fist — that promote bodily autonomy and self-acceptance.

In 2009, Jessie Close confessed to her sister, actor Glenn Close, that her son’s struggle with schizophrenia had filled her with thoughts of suicide. She recounts how this revelation inspired their mental health advocacy organization, Bring Change To Mind, which is seeking to transform society’s negative perceptions of mental illness.

“Life is just one endless sushi conveyor belt of things that are going to test you and teach you at the same time,” says writer Laurel Braitman. Sharing the story of growing up as her dad battled cancer, she shares wisdom on why you can’t have joy without sorrow, bravery without fear.

There are more than 2,000 firefly species that we know of, and they’re found on every continent except for Antarctica. Wan Faridah Akmal Jusoh explores the mysteries of these luminous beetles — which are an essential part of a healthy ecosystem — and details her quest to discover new firefly species and safeguard them as their habitats disappear.

From childhood, boys have violent impulses imbued in them by a society that emphasizes independence at any cost. Unsurprisingly, most violent crimes are committed by men. Gary Barker shares ways to overcome violence by cultivating male empathy.

After bringing her son to a summer camp for gender-nonconforming children, photographer Lindsay Morris launched a project to share the kids’ stories with the world. One of them, Reed J. Williams, is now a powerful advocate for transgender youth. Together, Morris and Williams reveal two sides to the LGBTQ+ experience — one as a mother, one as a trans woman — and offer poignant insight into the power of community.

Gynecologist Maria E. Sophocles explains the science behind menopause — and its unsexy impacts in the bedroom. From estrogen to advocacy, she offers some solutions for women to bridge “the bedroom gap” and get back to comfortable, pleasurable sex.

A world view: Talks from day 1 of TEDWomen 2023

TEDWomen 2023 kicked off in its new home of Atlanta, Georgia with a moving and wide-ranging session of talks and performances about the future of global democracy, the pursuit of freedom in Russia and Ukraine, the path to recovery for survivors and more.

The event: Session 1 of TEDWomen 2023, hosted by TEDWomen editorial director Pat Mitchell, TED’s head of curation Helen Walters and activist, filmmaker and entrepreneur Maya Penn

When and where: Wednesday, October 11, 2023, at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia

Speakers: Yordanos Eyoel, Irina Karamanos Adrian, Oleksandra Matviichuk, Jane Ferguson, Dasha Navalnaya, Ava DuVernay, Christine Schuler Deschryver, Chris Anderson

Music: Introduced by Atlanta Symphony Orchestra music director Nathalie Stutzmann, chamber music group The Merian Ensemble open the week with an evocative and transporting performance of Nicole Chamberlain’s “Atalanta” for flute, oboe, bass clarinet, harp and viola.

It’s not news that democracy is under attack globally. In order to encourage new democracies (and protect established ones), we need more than robust institutions — we need grassroots action, says democracy entrepreneur Yordanos Eyoel, who explores innovative ways to nurture nascent pro-democracy groups wherever they’re threatened.

As a feminist, Irina Karamanos Adrian was not thrilled to become Chile’s First Lady. She shares how she overturned the position’s institutionalized responsibilities in an effort to make them more transparent, asserting that it’s undemocratic for an unelected position to have such power.

How do we defend people’s freedom and dignity against authoritarianism, asks human rights lawyer Oleksandra Matviichuk. In the face of Russian troops occupying Ukraine, she emphasizes the extraordinary capabilities of ordinary people — and urges us all to stand together.

Women journalists shape the way the world sees wars, says war reporter Jane Ferguson. Illuminating the historic impact of female-led reporting, she highlights the perspective-broadening power of humanizing stories from war zones.

Dasha Navalnaya is the daughter of an important man: Alexey Navalny, the leader of the Russian opposition and one of Vladimir Putin’s top critics. She shares the story of her father’s poisoning and imprisonment — and why Russians need your help to bring down Putin’s authoritarian regime.

In conversation with TEDWomen editorial director Pat Mitchell, writer, producer and filmmaker Ava DuVernay discusses how she turned Caste — Isabel Wilkerson’s Pulitzer-Prize winning nonfiction analysis of race in the US — into Origin, a gripping narrative film exploring both the book’s thesis and the author’s life story.

Human rights activist Christine Schuler Deschryver shares how her organization, City of Hope, is modeling a new recovery program for women survivors of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, one that allows women to reclaim their bodies while developing skills to become future community leaders.

We’re well aware of how quickly hate and misinformation go viral. But in a one-of-a-kind preview of his upcoming book, head of TED Chris Anderson argues generosity can be infectious as well — creating powerful ripple effects that help us thrive.

Closing performance: Mahogany-N-Motion, a student-run women’s dance group from Spelman College — a historically Black liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia — close out the session with an energetic, drumline-infused performance that brought the TEDWomen crowd to its feet.

Transforming business for a sustainable future: Insights from the 2023 TED Countdown Summit

In July 2023, over 750 global innovators, business leaders, scientists, policymakers, artists, activists and more came together in Detroit, Michigan, to explore the solutions, tools and partnerships that will bring us closer to achieving an equitable, zero-carbon world.

The TED Countdown Summit also hosted the inaugural gathering of the TED Future Forum, an initiative of TED Countdown focused on the role of business in accelerating solutions to the climate crisis and transforming the global economy.

“I know from experience that transforming a company requires a combination of dreams and details,” said Jim Hagemman Snabe, TED Future Forum Vision Council chair, chairman of Siemens AG and vice chairman of Allianz SE. “We need to dream big, before we have the answers, and then to work really hard on the details to figure it out. TED Future Forum is about helping companies to find the courage and know-how to speed up their green transition because it makes good business sense — and it’s the right thing to do.”

So how can business leaders level up their climate ambition? We’ve created this resource to synthesize and share insights from four days of TED Talks, workshops, experiential visits in Detroit and serendipitous conversations sparked by gathering together. We hope you’ll find wisdom and inspiration in the following stories, case studies and reflection prompts – and that you share it widely.

Download the report here.

Remembering Karen Bakker

It is with immense sadness that we commemorate the legacy of Dr. Karen Bakker, who died on August 14. Karen’s talk at TED2023, Could an orca give a TED Talk?, demonstrated the beautiful promise afforded by technologies such as AI to help us understand the natural world more deeply.

A Guggenheim Fellow and professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Karen was known for her work on digital transformation, environmental governance and sustainability. Her 2022 book, The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants, was a literary tour de force that won numerous awards, as of course did Karen herself. She earned her PhD from Oxford University, where she studied as a Rhodes Scholar.

Everyone at TED sends their deepest condolences to Karen’s family and friends.

Are men welcome at TEDWomen?

Many people hear TEDWomen and wonder: Are men welcome? The answer is an unequivocal “yes!” TEDWomen is a platform for progress, where we amplify ideas that build a better, more equitable future for all. It’s a space for all people — including men — to actively contribute to the global pursuit of equity.

Let’s explore the ways men are welcome at TEDWomen and break down the barriers that might prevent them from joining.

Why men should come to TEDWomen

TEDWomen fosters an environment of learning, collaboration and collective action that transcends gender barriers and empowers everyone to be part of the solutions. After all, we’re all in this together. Men actively contribute to our mission by leading and participating in workshop sessions, and of course, giving TED Talks. This year we’ll be hearing from Jay Bailey, Gary Barker, Charles M. Blow and more!

Seize opportunities to learn, grow and elevate your work 

TEDWomen is a unique environment for cross-collaboration and learning, where individuals from diverse backgrounds come together to share luminous new thinking, stories and ideas in ways that will enchant, uplift and inspire us all. Participants elevate their understanding of equity issues, so we can all break down barriers and practice dismantling unconscious biases. Our programming fosters a profound appreciation of the contributions of women, non-binary and trans individuals AND men who are building a more inclusive society.

Diversify your network 

TEDWomen helps you grow one of your most valuable assets: your professional network. By participating in our Discovery Sessions, networking receptions, dinners and exhibits, you’ll build deep connections with like-minded leaders, trail-blazers and catalysts across all industries. This is your opportunity to form new partnerships and collectively imagine different ways forward.  

Access a rich talent pool of visionaries 

Looking for your next board member, cofounder or c-suite executive? TEDWomen attendees have remarkable resumes and an impressive commitment to making a positive impact on the world. Half of all attendees hold senior executive positions such as CEO, CTO, CMO, president, founder, partner, chairperson and more. 

Strategize around your role in the fight for equity 

TEDWomen is all about building a better, more equitable future for all. As a result, the conference attracts individuals with a deep commitment to social impact and equity. Men who choose to align with this mission elevate their influence in the world by gaining insights from diverse perspectives and experiences. They can walk away as effective advocates for change.

Have a kickass time 

Prepare for way more than just mind-blowing TED Talks! You’re in for a dazzling celebration of the complicated, messy, rich reality of humanity. From dynamic networking breaks to captivating musical performances and unexpected surprises, we’re packing every moment with excitement. Join us for an unforgettable experience filled with inspiration, deep connection, transcendent joy and delight. 

So, are men welcome at TEDWomen? 

YES! The notion that TEDWomen is exclusively for women is a common misconception — one you can help to change. 

Men have a critical role to play in the quest for a more equitable future. If you’re a man who sees himself at the TEDWomen conference, ready to work toward new models of equity and help build a brighter future for all, apply now. 

TEDWomen will take place in Atlanta, GA on October 11-13, 2023 at the Woodruff Arts Center. Join a welcoming community dedicated to fostering an inclusive and collaborative environment to inspire positive action and drive meaningful change for all.

Apply for TEDWomen today!

Momentum: Notes from Session 7 of TED Countdown Summit 2023

TED Countdown Summit 2023 concluded with a wide-ranging session featuring eight inspiring takes from around the world on how to ensure a fast, fair transition to a clean energy future.

The event: Talks from Session 6 of TED Countdown Summit 2023, hosted by TED’s David Biello and Lindsay Levin with journalist Orlando P. Bailey.

When and where: Friday, July 14, 2023, at the Fillmore Detroit in Detroit, Michigan

Speakers: Kala Constantino, Rebecca Collyer, Rich Powell, Zainab Usman, Amir Nizar Zuabi, Sims Witherspoon, Ramón Méndez Galain, Mike Posner

There’s a green energy wave swelling in the Philippines. Kala Constantino, director of the ecology advocacy group Tara Climate Foundation introduces us to a cross-section of the actors working to build a grid for cheap and clean renewable power throughout Asia. Electricity consumers in the Philippines pay one of the highest bills in Southeast Asia due to imported fossil fuels. Yet, as an island nation, the country also loses hundreds of millions of dollars every year to the impacts of climate disasters aggravated by carbon emissions. Activists have already encouraged the government to set aside funds for renewables and slow down the construction of coal-fired plants. With their help, Constantino hopes to see the Philippines become energy independent through solar and wind power, which will not only reduce electricity costs but also create jobs in a new, profitable sector.

Rebecca Collyer is the executive director of 2023 Audacious Project grantee ReNew2030, a global coalition to scale the use of wind and solar energy. In conversation with TED science curator David Biello, Collyer explores how to ensure the transition to renewable energy is fast and fair — a crucial task, as the power sector produces more carbon emissions than any other sector in the world. She shows how, by mobilizing governments, businesses and local communities around the world, ReNew2030 aims to scale wind and solar power capacity by 2030 and set the world up for a climate-secure future — all while creating local jobs and clean air.

We’ve all heard of the dangers of NIMBY-ism (“not in my backyard”). Climate innovation leader Rich Powell takes it a step further, saying that the true barrier to immediate implementation of clean energy projects is BANANA-ism: “build absolutely nothing anywhere near anything.” This means that critical infrastructure like windmills, nuclear plants and flexible power grids can get bogged down for years in the permitting process — or killed by wealthy lobbyists seeking to keep wind farms or solar panels away from their property. Powell believes that the quickest way to solve our clean energy crisis is to remove these barriers, while keeping environmental protections like the Clean Water Act. If voters and regulators can find common ground, then he says we’ll be well on our way toward replacing our existing power grid with one focused on renewables.

Solving the climate crisis requires collective action on a global scale, but today’s economy is becoming fractured between four regions: the US, China, Europe and the rest of the world. Political economist Zainab Usman says the solution lies with policymakers, business leaders and activists. Working together worldwide, they can distribute low-carbon technology globally; prioritize consumer welfare to make green tech more accessible; and set global standards to govern the sourcing of strategic, nonrenewable materials (such as the minerals in solar panels and other green products). With these goals, Usman says, we don’t have to live out the divided, dystopian future predicted by George Orwell and other such writers long before.

Tapping into the power of theater and its ability to turn pressing issues into human stories that spark hope, theater director and playwright Amir Nizar Zuabi shares the journey of Little Amal — a 10-year-old refugee girl (who is actually a 13-foot puppet) that went on an epic, 5,000-mile migration across eight countries in a globe-trotting art piece called “The Walk.” She embodied the broken global refugee system that has left so many people vulnerable and displaced. Inspired by the impact Little Amal had on the communities she passed through, Zuabi unveils for the first time his next piece: “The Herds,” a massive migration of animal puppets that will start in West Africa and end in Norway, set to begin their travels in 2025. Evolving as they move, the herds will take on new species native to each country they encounter, raising awareness about climate change and the threat it poses to animals and humans alike in a devastating, powerful and beautiful way.

Sims Witherspoon wants to use artificial intelligence to tackle climate change. When building a sustainable future, she believes AI can help us better understand the impact of climate change on Earth’s ecosystems, accelerate the breakthrough science we need to create a carbon-free energy supply and speed up the transition to renewable energy sources. Witherspoon explains how she and her team recently partnered with Google to develop an AI that accurately predicts wind availability on one of Google’s wind farms. They trained a neural net on weather forecasts and Google’s historical turbine data and then deployed it on the wind farm to test its accuracy. Their AI ultimately performed 20 percent better than Google’s existing system, and Google has since decided to scale the technology — a win for the company and the planet.

Fifteen years ago, Uruguay was experiencing an energy crisis; today, the tiny nation produces 98 percent of its electricity from renewable sources — and even exports extra energy to countries like Argentina and Brazil. Former particle physicist Ramón Méndez Galain charted the country’s transition to renewables as head of the country’s National Energy Agency. He shares how they achieved energy stability with widespread political support by shifting away from fossil fuels toward clean energy sources like wind, solar and sustainable biomass made from rice hulls, bagasse and pulp. Uruguay also developed technologies to predict the availability of intermittent sources, like wind and solar, to determine which energy sources to rely on and when. Although the transition required massive effort, coordination and innovation, the country can now depend on a stable, sustainable and, yes, profitable energy sector.

Singer-songwriter Mike Posner performs two hit songs, “I Took a Pill in Ibiza” and “Could You Do the Same,” and delivers an inspiring talk about how he walked nearly 3,000 miles across the United States. A lot happened along the way, he says — including a life-threatening rattlesnake bite — but the journey left him with five crucial life lessons and a sense of deep, true happiness.

Community: Notes from Session 6 of TED Countdown Summit 2023

From innovative technologies upgrading our buildings to age-old Aboriginal wisdom on fire management and more, the five speakers of Session 6 of TED Countdown Summit 2023 offered transformative insights on how we can redefine our relationships to both our stuff and the world, with a focus on sustainability and resilience.

The event: Talks from Session 6 of TED Countdown Summit 2023, hosted by TED’s Logan McClure Davda and Lindsay Levin

When and where: Friday, July 14, 2023, at the Fillmore Detroit in Detroit, Michigan

Speakers: Josephine Philips, Aruna Rangachar Pohl, Oral McGuire, Donnel Baird, Gopal D. Patel

The fashion industry emits more carbon than travel from all airlines worldwide, combined. And all those clothes we toss in the charity box to make room for new ones? Many end up in landfills in Ghana or buried in a pile in the Atacama Desert so big astronauts can see it from space. To make fashion more sustainable, Josephine Philips says we need to buy less and value more the clothes we already own. When a shirt is torn, we should repair it, not toss it. Before giving away that old sweater, we should recall every experience we’ve had while wearing it, plus the time, labor and resources that went into making it — from the field that grew its cotton to the hands that stitched it together. When we value things correctly, she reminds us, we’re less wasteful, which reduces our negative impact on the planet.

Sustainable development leader Aruna Rangachar Pohl takes us on the long journey of one of India’s most beloved snacks: biscuits — revealing how the production of these treats and other highly processed goods that rely on industrial farming are hurting the planet and our health. Armed with a vision to rejuvenate productive landscapes in India equitably and sustainably, Rangachar Pohl established the India Foundation for Humanistic Development, and she shares stories of small-scale farmers in their incubator who are joining forces, acting as shareholders and purchasing resources in bulk together. Training farmers to adopt natural practices and calculate their carbon sequestration with a focus on revenue, Rangachar Pohl shows how green production really pays off. By creating a climate-resilient agricultural sector where people’s rights are protected, farming can mean a greener, tastier and healthier future for everyone.

“I acknowledge fire as a friend, as a part of my being and my spirit,” says Oral McGuire, a fire practitioner and member of the Mangarda Balladong Nyungar First Nations in southwestern Australia. A professional firefighter for 18 years, McGuire acknowledges the threat uncontrolled fire can pose to our natural environment. Connecting Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities and practices, he shares the importance of applying the right kind of fire in a sacred practice known as “kaarl-ngariny,” to maintain the health and balance of the land. By protecting and preserving nature through proper fire management, McGuire says can heal the spirit of the land and promote biodiversity at the same time.

Powering the United States’s 125 million buildings accounts for 30 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. To make matters worse, older ovens, furnaces and hot water heaters have been found to leak benzene, methane and nitrogen dioxide into homes, threatening the health of those inside. Energy upgrader Donnel Baird aims to solve this problem by moving buildings off of fossil fuels and onto renewably sourced electric power. His company BlocPower has trained thousands of people to install tech like solar panels, electric induction ovens and heat pumps. The company also works with financing to plan electrification costs into a home’s mortgage in an effort to make it more affordable, and with data accessibility so homeowners can understand the electrification plan they need.

To tackle the climate crisis, we’ll need to keep building resiliency and momentum. Gopal D. Patel is here with some good news: there’s already a time-tested, millennia-old framework to do just that. As cochair of the United Nations Multi-faith Advisory Council, Patel mobilizes faith communities for environmental advocacy and action around the world. He explains how the ideas and wisdom of faith traditions can apply to the climate movement, namely in three areas: nourishing and uplifting community; finding rituals and tradition that give a sense of belonging; and working with purposeful action. You don’t have to be religious to take advantage of these learnings, Patel says: they’re guides for anyone looking to advance climate action with a sense of renewed purpose and intention.

Renewal: Notes from Session 5 of TED Countdown Summit 2023

For Session 5 of TED Countdown Summit 2023, seven speakers underscored the urgency for collective action, highlighting the growing frequency and severity of extreme weather events; insights on the electric vehicle revolution; the interconnectedness of deforestation, pandemics and climate change; the crucial role of leadership in climate justice and more.

The event: Talks from Session 5 of TED Countdown Summit 2023, hosted by TED’s Logan McClure Davda and journalist Orlando P. Bailey

When and where: Thursday, July 13, 2023, at the Fillmore Detroit in Detroit, Michigan

Speakers: Al Roker, Cynthia Williams, Neil Vora, Ludmila Rattis, Louise Mabulo, David Lammy, Justin J. Pearson

Music: Multidisciplinary artist, musician, creative producer and Flint, Michigan native Tunde Olaniran explores themes of identity, injustice and empowerment across the worlds of music, dance, film, literature and performance art. Joined on the TED Countdown stage by four incredible dancers, Olaniran smolders through a set of songs powered by experimental electronic beats.

Al Roker is known as “America’s weatherman,” and he’s been in the weather business for a long time, reporting live from some of recent history’s worst storms and natural disasters. All this has made one thing abundantly clear to him: extreme weather is increasing in frequency and severity, and the consequences will be devastating. Offering a comprehensive overview of the knock-on effects of extreme weather, Roker encourages all of us to take small collective actions and unite in our efforts to address climate change in order to create a more sustainable, hopeful future for all.

Cynthia Williams‘s family has long worked in the auto industry — her grandfather started with General Motors during the 1940s boom, followed by her father a generation later along with nearly all her uncles. They witnessed a total transformation in the era of transportation, and today, as a sustainability executive for Ford, Williams is seeing another: the electric vehicle revolution. She explains how the car industry is already advancing towards a sustainable future by building new carbon-neutral manufacturing plants and training hundreds of thousands of workers. They’re also investing in supportive infrastructure (making sure EV charging stations are as plentiful and convenient as gas stations) and developing products that consumers want. Electric vehicles are sustainable, says Williams; they should be desirable, too.

The first rule of physicians is to do no harm — and that extends to trees, says actor and activist Rainn Wilson as he introduces Neil Vora, who leads pandemic prevention at Conservation International. Having worked at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for more than a decade previously, Vora shares his unique journey of transitioning from treating patients to protecting forests and the species in them. Highlighting the importance of preventing pandemics (not just reacting to them), Vora exposes three crucial ways deforestation impacts human health: (1) Animals living alongside humans are more likely to carry germs that can infect us; (2) When people move into deforested areas, there is more exposure to new viruses; (3) And animals are more likely to spread illness when their homes are threatened. “We have solutions to address deforestation. And if we implement them wisely, we can prevent outbreaks and mitigate climate change,” Vora says.

Ecologist Ludmila Rattis reveals the surprisingly fruitful benefits of letting nature take care of business, sharing how the digestive habits of tapirs in Amazonia spread seeds throughout the region, regenerating the forest. As tapirs walk, they eat fruit, slowly digest them and then poop, transporting the fruit seeds to new land. In a single tapir dropping, Rattis’s lab found an average of 733 seeds belonging to up to 24 different species. Creatures like dung beetles help reduce the competition in this concentrated pile of life — spreading the seeds as they roll, tunnel and bury the poop — and show how the somewhat undignified parts of nature are intertwined with our planet’s future more than we realize.

Louise Mabulo grew up on seemingly strange advice from her parents and grandparents about planting toward a full moon or burying a rock under root crops for a better yield. While others tended to regard her family’s beliefs as superstitious, Mabulo has since discovered the profound wisdom in them. She works in restorative agroforestry, and through her initiative, The Cacao Project, which works to build sustainable and climate-resilient livelihoods for farmers, she’s seen even the most bizarre stories proven true. Crops planted during a full moon do bear more fruit; root crops do thrive when planted with rocks because rocks keep the soil loose enough for air pockets to form and encourage growth. Invisible knowledge, Mabulo says, might hold the key to helping us adapt our ecosystems to a changing climate. It also affirms our spiritual and cultural connection with nature and our place in it.

In a wide-ranging and inspirational interview, Tennessee state representative Justin J. Pearson and British MP David Lammy discuss the pressing issue of climate justice and the nuances of leadership within the movement. Pearson shares his journey in the movement that began with a fight against a pipeline project in Memphis, Tennessee, emphasizing the significance of empowering the most affected communities and acknowledging the interconnectedness of different social issues. Lammy explains the need for a collective focus on large-scale issues and the role of climate justice as a unifying objective that transcends identity politics. They collectively emphasize the necessity for unifying and authentic leadership — and the need to hold powerful nations accountable for environmental action.

Magnitude: Notes from Session 4 of TED Countdown Summit 2023

To rise to the challenge of climate change, we need big, bold, gigaton-scale solutions. Session 4 of TED Countdown Summit 2023 focused on the clean technologies that need to scale fast — and made space for ideas on radical climate leadership, the use of art for environmental activism and the push for climate-friendly alternatives to the world’s most-consumed foods.

The event: Talks from Session 4 of TED Countdown Summit 2023, hosted by TED’s Lindsay Levin and systems innovator Ryan Panchadsaram

When and where: Thursday, July 13, 2023, at the Fillmore Detroit in Detroit, Michigan

Speakers: Olivia Breese, Jim Snabe, John O’Donnell, Isabella Kirkland, Marcelo Mena, Jim Whitaker, Jessica Whitaker Allen, Tao Zhang

Energy innovator Olivia Breese imagines a “love story” between green electrons and water molecules, the result of which is a molecule that can store and release energy without emitting carbon dioxide — a flexible and vastly more sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. Similar to how wind energy has scaled up to become affordable and efficient, Breese calls for global investment in green molecule production. “A world which runs entirely on green energy, it’s not a luxury. It’s a necessity,” she says.

Throughout his career, Jim Snabe has helped lead companies working to accelerate decarbonization. Now, he’s also serving as Vision Council chair for the TED Future Forum (TFF), a new initiative focused on the role of business in advancing solutions to the climate crisis. He outlines TFF’s plans to be a catalyst and community for companies committed to stepping up with greater climate ambition, issuing an invitation for anyone interested in joining the massive, collaborative effort to transform the global economy. “If we want to avoid a climate disaster, we need much more radical leadership,” he says.

Electrified industrial heat is the next trillion-dollar market, but manufacturing needs constant heat, requiring a way to store energy when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. Engineer John O’Donnell offers a solution: his company, Rondo, produces heat batteries consisting of thousands of bricks stacked in a grid, heated with renewable energy. When heated, a brick can store as much energy as a lithium battery per pound, but costs less and lasts longer. O’Donnell proposes that this “boring” (his word) but effective system could scale fast, helping to green industrial processes worldwide.

Investigating humanity’s relationship to nature, artist Isabella Kirkland paints species that once lived along the Hudson River in her work “Palisades,” showcasing the profound beauty and rarity of the diverse life that once inhabited our planet — and advocating for the conservation of that which is still here. “I think of my paintings as alarm clocks,” she says. “They’re reminders of what’s at stake; the only problem is we keep pushing the snooze button.” Using art as both a poignant record of loss (like her painting “Gone,” which depicts extinct flowers, fish and snails) and discovery (like her painting “Canopy,” which shows mosses, insects and tiny orchids all new to Western science), Kirkland highlights the danger that wildlife trade poses to nature. Creation is her form of activism, and she uses it to celebrate and advocate for all living creatures that were, are and will be, inviting us all to do the same.

Deadly and polluting methane that forms in massive landfills in places like Ghazipur, India, or Santiago, Chile, often causes fires — and heatwaves are only making the issue worse. Reducing these emissions is the most efficient way to lower Earth’s temperature within our lifetime, says biochemical engineer Marcelo Mena. But time is running out and this harmful gas needs to be cut in half by 2050 in order to effectively combat global warming. Working in more than 10 cities, Mena’s team created the Waste MAP (Methane Assessment Platform), which uses satellite information to pinpoint pollution sources ranging from organic waste, food production and enteric fermentation (a fancy way to say cow farts). Mena also introduces the enteric fermentation R&D accelerator: an ambitious, 200-million-dollar research effort to reign in livestock emissions and point the way toward a cleaner, safer future for everyone.

Rice is the world’s most consumed food source — and it accounts for 10 percent of the world’s methane emissions. Jim Whitaker (a fifth-generation rice farmer) and his daughter Jessica Whitaker Allen (a builder of conservation solutions) are seeking to grow sustainability awareness within the agricultural communities where they live in southeast Arkansas. Together, they’ve defined farming protocols that could slash rice’s environmental impacts, cutting water use, methane production and the need for fertilizer. While her dad works literally on the ground to refine irrigation methods, Jessica (a waterfowl conservationist by day) pursues funding to spread green practices — and SmartRice, a sustainable grain hybrid — first to their neighbors and, eventually, to the rest of the world. While it’s not easy to convince struggling farmers to invest in new methods, Jim and Jessica make strong arguments that the best way to preserve a farm’s bottom line is to preserve its land for future generations.

A Chinese saying goes: “There is no pleasure in eating without meat.” Every year, China consumes 26 percent of the world’s meat, 43 percent of its pork and 45 percent of its seafood. But unlike other major meat-eating countries like the United States, China has yet to embrace more climate-friendly alternative proteins because, as Tao Zhang explains, consumers there regard mock meat as a cheap, unhealthy and flavorless substitute. Since the world can’t solve climate change without China, Zhang sees swaying Chinese eaters towards these new proteins as a climate-positive business opportunity. He discusses the potential impact of investing in food innovation in China, emphasizing why more research and development are needed to create, market and distribute tasty, affordable, regionally appropriate and meat-free proteins.

Dilemmas: Notes from Session 3 of TED Countdown Summit 2023

Session 3 of TED Countdown Summit 2023 tackled some of the knottier issues related to climate change — from the massive amount of money needed to finance the global green transition, to the struggle for energy access in developing nations and the ecosystem effects of fast fashion — and offered glimpses of the world-changing solutions already underway to lead us into a clean, prosperous future for all.

The event: Talks from Session 3 of TED Countdown Summit 2023, hosted by TED’s Lindsay Levin and David Biello

When and where: Wednesday, July 12, 2023, at the Fillmore Detroit in Detroit, Michigan

Speakers: Nili Gilbert, David Blood, Avinash Persaud, Tombo Banda, Steve Presley, Amy Powney, Payton M. Wilkins, Xiaojun “Tom” Wang

How much money is required to decarbonize the world? Sustainable investment experts Nili Gilbert and David Blood provide both macro and on-the-ground perspectives on the kinds of finance flowing to climate solutions. While some progress has been made, hard-to-abate sectors and the Global South are still being left out of solutions. The good news? There’s certainly enough capital; there are no legal barriers to allocating capital to sustainable solutions; there are amazing entrepreneurs and business people doing the work; and public policy is on the move (like the Inflation Reduction Act in the US). The key is to get money moving to the right places and, as Gilbert says, to see this moment for what it is: a massive, multigenerational opportunity for sustainable growth — greater in scale than the Industrial Revolution and on pace to transform the world in less than 30 years.

After Hurricane Maria decimated Dominica in 2017, the country declared its intention to become the first climate-resilient nation in the world. But as they sought to organize their response to future climate disasters, economist Avinash Persaud says, they quickly realized that the only real solution was to halt climate change entirely. For the developing world, the path to a greener, more sustainable future looks different than for wealthier countries. Developing nations can’t ban emissions, tax carbon or shift to renewables without hurting their growing economies and leaving large portions of their workforce unemployed. Persaud introduces the Bridgetown Initiative, a proposal to finance the green transformation of global systems, as a solution. Beginning with reducing barriers to private investment in green technologies in developing nations, the initiative also calls for more generous lending policies for resilience investments and a revenue stream created by taxing emissions from the shipping industry.

When electricity arrived in Zomba, Malawi in 1994, energy access innovator Tombo Banda says it brought her village significant changes to the health, comfort and happiness of its residents. But the reality is that 500 million people still lack access to electricity in Sub-Saharan Africa, relying on highly polluting materials like diesel and firewood. How do we get more people access to clean electrification quickly? Enter mini-grids, or localized renewable energy systems. By making the mini-grid business model more profitable, these systems can become more scalable — and enticing for private investors. Innovative approaches like using less expensive batteries and appliance financing to increase revenues can also accelerate electrification, Banda says, ultimately making electricity more accessible — and creating better lives for millions of people.

In conversation with TED’s Lindsay Levin, Nestlé North America CEO Steve Presley discusses how one of the world’s largest food companies aims to reach net zero by 2050. Their efforts include sourcing ingredients from regenerative farming, improving packaging to contain less plastic, powering manufacturing with renewable energy and offering financial incentives to local farmers who use sustainable practices. Presley shares where Nestlé has made progress and where it’s still investing for change, encouraging transformation at every step of the food production process.

Fashion designer Amy Powney designs for sustainability first, ensuring all aspects of the clothing made by Mother of Pearl, where she is creative director, are environmentally friendly and ethically produced. That ethos stands in contrast to the fast fashion garments that are often produced by underpaid workers with materials sourced from fossil fuels, endangered forests or plastics. She delves into the problems surrounding our pursuit of cheap clothing, from health and pollution to landfills that are visible from space, calling for everyone to reconsider the value of each item of clothing they own, its connection to the Earth and the lives touched by its creation.

Shutting down the fossil fuel industry means cleaner air and healthier citizens in the long term. But in the short term, it also means fewer jobs and shrinking livelihoods. While green jobs could, in time, supply a needed paycheck, the immediate impacts of closing a mine or refinery are devastating. We can protect both workers and the environment with an age-old solution: unions. As union leader and environmental justice advocate Payton Wilkins tells it, the multi-generational, multi-ethnic and multi-gender trade union movement could become a formidable force in the fight against climate change — and in places like Denmark, where unions spearhead the ascendance of clean energy, they already are. By showing workers that environmental justice and workplace equity are not mutually exclusive, Wilkins hopes to lead US unions to the front lines of the fight against climate change.

Xiaojun “Tom” Wang grew up in the Chinese province of Shanxi, the world’s largest coal producer. Each year, more than a billion tons of coal are dug out from underneath Shanxi’s mountains, helping heat and power at least 24 other provinces in China. Wang narrates the devastating impacts of coal mining — accidents in coal mines, massive landslides, damage to cultural sites — and calls for Beijing to ease the pressure on Shanxi’s coal industry. Shanxi needs support in breaking free from its coal addiction, he says, not only to transition to a clean economy, but also to protect its rich cultural heritage.

Lessons: Notes from Session 2 of TED Countdown Summit 2023

What lessons are already available to us as we tackle climate change? For Session 2 of TED Countdown Summit 2023, science, solutions and the role of industry in stemming the threat of the climate emergency took center stage.

The event: Talks from Session 2 of TED Countdown Summit 2023, hosted by TED’s Lindsay Levin and David Lammy, Member of Parliament for Tottenham, England and Shadow Foreign Secretary

When and where: Wednesday, July 12, 2023, at the Fillmore Detroit in Detroit, Michigan

Speakers: Jonathan Foley, Emma Nehrenheim, Cedrik Neike, Susan Lozier, Morten Bo Christiansen, Bo Cerup-Simonsen, Mike Duggan, Laprisha Berry Daniels

To solve climate change, the International Monetary Fund estimates that the global community needs to invest between three and six trillion dollars annually in climate solutions. Where should that money go and which projects should we fund? Jonathan Foley, executive director of Project Drawdown, uses a science-based framework to outline a plan for investing with maximum impact. First, we need to prioritize immediate actions with cumulative benefits, like stopping deforestation and cutting methane leaks. Next, we should focus our spending on cutting carbon emissions now over investing in distant high-tech solutions. Third, we must prioritize geographical hotspots with an outsized effect on climate change, like the Amazon rainforest or high-emission factories. And finally, we should invest in solutions that benefit people’s well-being, promote food security and increase access to clean water and sanitation.

Batteries will be fundamental to powering a sustainable world — but only if we don’t repeat the same mistakes of past industrialization, says battery recycler Emma Nehrenheim. She outlines the environmentally intensive impact of battery production — particularly from the extraction of minerals for lithium-ion batteries, which provide energy for electric vehicles and other key aspects of life — and proposes a shift towards a circular battery economy that uses and reuses already existing materials, vastly reducing the industry’s carbon footprint and need for mineral extraction.

We are running out of time to save our planet from climate change — and the metaverse can help. Using virtual tools like AI to cheat time in the real world, Cedrik Neike explains how “digital twin technology” (think simulated giga factories that are one-for-one digital copies of real ones) can help solve real-world problems more efficiently by providing a digital space to test solutions, without pollution. Using the example of virtually ideating the production of safer and faster-charging batteries and then bringing those learnings to the physical world, Neike points to the potential of industrial metaverses to revolutionize industries and redesign entire cities — from transportation, agriculture and housing — addressing massive challenges and avoiding the creation of excess waste at the same time.

Oceanographer Susan Lozier dives into the importance of the ocean’s natural circulation, which overturns water in a way that naturally captures carbon and regulates global temperatures. She shares the incredible research being done internationally to track changes in this overturn, as warming global temperatures could slow the circulation, lessen carbon uptake and increase the rate of climate-related disasters. While a collapse in this age-old system isn’t likely until 2100, Lozier warns of the dangers faced by future generations if we don’t change course now, calling for climate action to lower temperatures within the next 10 years.

As leader of the decarbonization team for A.P. Moller – Maersk, Morten Bo Christiansen is drawing an organizational roadmap to net zero that could help transform the global shipping industry. In conversation with TED’s Lindsay Levin, Christiansen shares his company’s ambitious goal to decarbonize their heavy-emitting business by 2040, highlighting how they’ve started implementing solutions like using green methanol as fuel in their container ships and deploying electric trucks in the US. He also points out the challenges in scaling green fuel production, price issues due to the high cost of green fuels and the need for collaborations across the value chain to manage these obstacles. Despite these challenges, Christiansen remains optimistic, making the case that the added cost to consumers for using green shipping methods is far outweighed by the urgently needed environmental benefits.

In conversation with TED’s Lindsay Levin, Bo Cerup-Simonsen, CEO of the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, discusses the essential role of their center in orchestrating systemic, global collaboration to tackle large-scale environmental challenges. Discussing the center’s origins, purpose and the strides it’s made in technological, commercial and regulatory spaces, Cerup-Simonsen highlights the push towards green alternatives, like green methanol and ammonia, in global shipping. Through tangible initiatives like “green corridors,” which enable end-to-end zero-carbon shipping between selected ports, they’re fostering cross-industry collaboration to accelerate the green transition and sharing lessons learned in combating the uncertainty hindering decisive action from companies and nations.

Mike Duggan is serving his third term as mayor of Detroit, and he’s dead set on building the city’s climate responsiveness. His proposal is a unique one: to transform blighted, vacant lots into solar farms throughout the city. He describes how, with the buy-in of Detroiters themselves, he plans to start building these farms in different neighborhoods with the aim of powering all of Detroit’s municipal buildings and cleaning up dilapidated, vacant land from the city’s manufacturing past.

Like many cities, Detroit is already feeling the effects of climate change. In the past 10 years, two major floods have cost the city more than a billion dollars in damages. The challenge of climate change may be daunting, but human beings have moved from place to place and adapted to changes in climate (both environmental and social) throughout history. For inspiration, public health social worker Laprisha Berry Daniels mines the survival strategies her grandparents learned after leaving the Jim Crow South to settle in Detroit. The climate crisis may be unprecedented, but Daniels says we can still prepare for it by embracing the lessons of the past. First, we must accept the reality of climate change and prepare for it. Second, we should embrace the power of mutual aid. Lastly, we should empower communities to adapt through community-led planning.

Compass: Notes from Session 1 of TED Countdown Summit 2023

TED Countdown Summit 2023 kicked off in Detroit, Michigan, with a wide-ranging, solution-filled session of TED Talks and performances meant to inspire action on the world’s toughest challenge: climate change. Over the course of four days, the Summit seeks to change the conversation on climate change and tell a new, true story about how a bright, clean, just, environmentally bountiful world isn’t just possible — it’s already here.

The event: Talks from Session 1 of TED Countdown Summit 2023, hosted by TED’s Lindsay Levin and David Biello with journalist Orlando P. Bailey

When and where: Tuesday, July 11, 2023, at the Fillmore Detroit in Detroit, Michigan

Speakers: Simon Stiell, Julio Friedmann, Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Changhua Wu, Paul Hawken, Anika Goss, Al Gore, Maxim Timchenko

Music: Detroit Youth Choir rocked the house with an energetic performance of “Hey Look Ma, I Made It” by Panic! At The Disco and “Believer” by Imagine Dragons, putting their creative skills and talents on full display.

Transformational climate action is closer than we think, says Simon Stiell, who leads the UNFCCC — the UN’s entity supporting the global response to climate change. Drawing a parallel to the meteoric growth of text messaging in the 1990s and 2000s, Stiell outlines why climate action is set up to transition from a linear to exponential pace — so long as each of us applies our particular skill sets to push the world towards its “green tipping points.” “If you act, the exponential change that is needed will happen,” he says.

How do we meet the energy needs of 10 billion people — sustainably and affordably? According to carbon removal expert Julio Friedmann, there are three key ingredients to cooking up a bright, clean future for everyone: infrastructure (think: transmission lines, roads and seaports) to make energy accessible; globally aligned (and actually affordable) innovation, like turning electricity into fuel; and more systemic, multi-tiered investment strategies on a global level. “Collective action, building together, is what makes the difficult possible and nourishes the soul through mission and purpose,” he says.

The Biden Administration has set the ambitious goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. But the US still gets 80 percent of its energy from fossil fuels. Inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s famous “moonshot” speech in 1962, the Biden Administration is now funding “Earthshots” to accelerate breakthroughs in abundant, affordable and reliable clean energy solutions. If the US is going to meet its climate goals, slashing emissions isn’t enough, says soil scientist and national science leader Asmeret Asefaw Berhe. That’s why her team at the Department of Energy is working to employ new technologies, inspired by organic carbon-capture, to sequester carbon from the atmosphere.

Policy analyst Changhua Wu says that today China is undergoing a green revolution. The country has accelerated electric vehicle adoption, increased usage of solar and other renewables (with the goal of producing one kilowatt of solar energy per capita by 2030) and is promoting a circular economy that recycles raw materials to enable sustainable growth. To avoid climate catastrophe, Wu says, the US should moderate its foreign policy and learn from China’s efforts to promote sustainability on a massive scale.

Activists are leading the charge into a sustainable future, but their work is never easy and rarely fully appreciated. After being invited to speak at TED Countdown Summit, environmental activist Hong Hoang (a winner of TED Idea Search: Southeast Asia 2022) was detained in her native Vietnam for her efforts to call global attention to Vietnam’s environmental abuses. Before a moment of silence in her honor, TED shared Hoang’s Idea Search submission video, where she emphasized the need her create climate activism in politically challenging contexts.

We pay plenty of attention to the role industry plays in the destruction of our ecosystems and in the emission of greenhouse gasses. But what about the role of industrial agriculture? According to environmentalist Paul Hawken, industrial agriculture (the “fossil food industry,” as he calls it) is the world’s biggest culprit in environmental degradation. Modern factory farms reduce the nutritional content of soil, encourage erosion, ooze toxic runoff and kill off microbial fungi that naturally sequester carbon. Hawken paints a picture of a transition to regenerative agriculture: farming that embraces ancient techniques to renew the soil and insure fertility for generations. He explains how it would create farms that soak up more water, nurture healthier crops and recreate habitats for indigenous species — restoring biodiversity and mitigating the worst impacts of climate change.

Climate change tests the social and economic fabric of cities like Detroit with rising temperatures that stretch power grids and “500-year” floods that leave mold and destruction in their wake. City visionary Anika Goss says financial stability is critical for Detroit’s survival in the face of the mounting climate crisis, and that the city must rebuild resilience in order to protect its citizens, who are overwhelmingly people of color already facing social inequity. By fostering entrepreneurship, restoring infrastructure and reviving abandoned urban spaces, she believes Detroit can overcome the unique challenges posed by the collapse of its manufacturing sector, creating thriving neighborhoods that embrace justice, sustainability and social connectivity.

Fossil fuel companies claim to be in favor of climate-friendly solutions, but do their efforts have any real impact? Nobel Laureate and climate advocate Al Gore returns to the TED Countdown stage to break down the data proving that the greed of fossil fuel executives has thwarted their attempts to support climate action. He reveals two obstacles to lowering global emissions — namely, how oil and gas companies deliberately slow down global efforts to move capital away from fossil fuels, and the ineffectiveness of carbon capture technology — and reminds everyone that “the will to act is itself a renewable resource.”

Ukrainian energy executive Maxim Timchenko shares how DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, has diversified the country’s power structures to survive Russian attacks, highlighting the resilience of renewable energy (such as wind turbines, which are a smaller, more difficult target for bombers). He outlines how they’ve expanded renewable energy production throughout the war with Russia, becoming a testing ground in the global fight against climate change and the future of energy independence.

Exploring possibilities at TED2023 through sustainable and creative gifts

TED2023 invited attendees to explore the edges of what’s possible and what’s on the horizon. Part of this experience included inspiring new ideas through a thoughtful and sustainable gift program.

For this year’s conference gifts, we focused on working with brands that inspire creativity and push boundaries in their respective industries while ensuring sustainable values. Each gift was carefully chosen to reflect the spirit of TED.

Here’s a look at what was offered in the TED gift bag:

• Solgaard: Optimized for daily work, life and travel, the Circular Bag protects the planet and your belongings.
• Larq: A water bottle for wherever you hydrate. Purchase of this bottle gives back, supporting clean water facilities worldwide and cleaning up plastic waste.
• JLab: With JBuds Air Pro Wireless Earbuds, JLab imagines and delivers the personal technology products that consumers want.
• agood company: The reused stone notebook is one step in the fight against the unsustainable supply chains harming our planet.
• evolvetogether: Beautiful and high-performing daily essentials that take care of people and the planet.
• Nécessaire: Body wash that shows less is better. The Necessary supports health and wellness.
• Before Self Care: Toothpaste tubes that are plant-based, 100% recyclable and celebrate conscious design and a healthy world.
• Food Huggers: Simple and sustainable, Food Huggers mimic peels found in nature to keep food fresh and delicious.
• Every.org: Philanthropy is for everyone. Camp.org provided $500 gift cards to attendees to support any of the over 1.2 million nonprofits on Every.org. 

During the conference, attendees had the opportunity to explore a range of new and exciting gifts at the TED Gift Hub. A curated selection of gifts from various partners were featured, showcasing different products throughout the week. Attendees had the chance to browse and select gifts that resonated with them, ranging from sustainable products, unique experiences and cutting-edge technology. The variety of partners and products on display showcased the diversity of innovation and possibility in the world today, providing a memorable and engaging experience at the TED Gift Hub.

Explore more about our in-kind partners: Aukai Body, B612 Foundation, BRIGHT, biom, Circular Harvest, Curio, Jabra, JLab, Manta Sleep, Mt. Kearsage Indian Museum, Oakywood, Oasense, OSEA, Outway, Pela, PYM, Rishi Tea, RoseBYANDER, Scopio, Sennheiser, Slowtide, thirteen lune, VRAI, Water & Wines and Zojirushi.

How to convince your boss to send you to TEDWomen

TEDWomen is the ultimate platform dedicated to accelerating groundbreaking ideas that build a better, more equitable future for all. It’s a captivating journey of self-discovery and professional enrichment and an opportunity to form life-altering relationships with some of the brightest minds on the planet.

But first, the true challenge: getting the time and expense approved. Fear not! We’re here to equip you with the right pitch that will leave your boss with a strong understanding of how important it is to say “yes” to TEDWomen.

Underscore the personal development benefits 

Personal development is an area most companies value greatly, and TEDWomen holds the key to unleashing your untapped potential. Engage in workshops and thought-provoking conversations with influential speakers, activists and fellow attendees; hear mind-blowing TED Talks; see captivating performances; and participate in unique, curated activities. The conference program offers a deeper understanding of radical shifts in technology, business, culture and more, helping empower you to shape your organization’s thought leadership and equity initiatives.

TEDWomen is a transformative conference experience that opens up a world of possibilities for your professional growth. Imagine being in the same room with an exceptional lineup of senior leaders, including c-suite executives, presidents, founders, EVPs, SVPs and partners. This is not your typical networking event; it’s an extraordinary gathering where distinguished leaders come to learn, share and give back. Prepare to be inspired to take the right steps forward, not just to exchange business cards.

Outline the ROI

The connections you make will not only enrich your personal and professional life, but can also help open up exciting business opportunities for your company. Need proof of the conference’s impact? Look no further than zoologist Lucy King, who presented a creative solution on how bees can foster peace between elephants and humans in Africa. Her compelling talk at TEDWomen 2019 led to critical funding, raising over one million dollars for the Elephant Coexistence Program. Imagine the possibilities when you share your own story with a community closely watched by influential donors and innovation supporters.

TEDWomen is not only a conference; it’s a joyful and inclusive space where diverse voices and perspectives shine. It’s the birthplace of careers like Maysoon Zayid‘s, whose talk at TEDWomen 2013 on living with cerebral palsy propelled her career and brought much-needed representation and diversity to the entertainment industry. You’ll get the chance to discover emerging talent and groundbreaking ideas that could benefit your company and transform your own professional path.

Here’s a bonus tip to maximize your return on investment: secure an Early Supporter membership at the lowest rate possible (expires June 15, 2023) or invite a group of five colleagues and enjoy a Group Rate. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to make the most of your TEDWomen experience personally, professionally and financially.

Now, let’s put it all together using this template, outlined below.

Step 1: Start with this intro

“By attending TEDWomen, I’ll have the incredible opportunity to immerse myself in industries and sectors closely related to ours. This exposure will fuel my innovation and enable me to bring fresh ideas and perspectives back to our team. It’s the perfect chance to discover new pathways and become an even more dynamic and inventive employee.”

Step 2: Emphasize the community you’ll be a part of

“When we align our brand with TED, we tap into a global network of the most influential minds on the planet. By participating in TEDWomen, we connect with renowned thinkers, change-makers and visionaries, paving the way for potential collaborations and groundbreaking business opportunities. It’s an exciting chance to enhance our brand’s visibility and make valuable connections that can propel our success.”

Bonus: Delve into the conference program and identify speakers who align with your company’s goals and objectives; by highlighting their relevance in your pitch, you’ll demonstrate the direct value attending TEDWomen will bring to your company.

Step 3: Finish with the lasting impact

“Attending a TEDWomen conference is not just an event; it’s a true growth opportunity with far-reaching impacts. By investing in my professional and personal development, I’ll become a better leader and contributor to our organization. The invaluable insights, knowledge and inspiration gained from TEDWomen will empower me to bring innovative strategies and fresh perspectives to the table, driving our collective success forward.

“By attending TEDWomen 2023, I will unlock a world of possibilities, enabling me to contribute at a higher level and fueling our company’s growth in ways we never thought possible.”

You can apply now for TEDWomen 2023, no invite needed. The conference will be held October 11-13 at the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Make this the year you attend an event that invests in yourself and your company. Get the approval you need and get started on your TEDWomen journey. 

Download TEDWomen Conference Overview.

The Way We Work: Practical workplace wisdom, in partnership with Upwork

Work is a big part of our lives, so how can we bring our best selves to it, and how can we create workplaces that help employees thrive?

The Way We Work is a TED original video series where leaders and thinkers offer practical wisdom and insight into how we can adapt and thrive amid changing workplace conventions. The series is made possible with the support of Upwork.

Whether you’re looking to boost your productivity, help employees with disabilities excel, calm your anxiety, be a team player or establish healthy boundaries, the fifth season of The Way We Work brings in innovative workplace heroes to share their top tips. They offer advice on how to navigate some trickier situations, like quitting a job without burning bridges or thriving in a hybrid work culture. Learn how to adopt new ways of working — and how to talk about your own impact.

Looking to launch something new at work? Here’s how to make sure it’s a lasting change:

Want to leave your job but don’t know where to start? This is how you quit well:

Burnt out by collaboration overload? Here’s how to reclaim your peace of mind:

A playbook on setting healthy boundaries at work:

Could your anxiety be transformed into something useful?

We all procrastinate sometimes — here’s how to design for it instead of fighting against it:

You have a personal brand, here’s how to shape it:

A guide on how to make hybrid workplaces actually work:

Here’s what workplaces can do to help all employees excel:

TED and Culture3 to launch inaugural TED Tech event in London, England

TED and the UK-based company Culture3 have announced a collaboration to launch the first TED Tech conference, to be held September 18-19 in London, England. Together, TED Tech and Culture3 hope to build optimism and accountability around the impact of AI, blockchain and extended reality.

TED’s first all-tech conference

The inaugural TED Tech will kick off Culture3 Week, a four-day festival bringing together the world of art, business and technology to investigate the ideas shaping culture and society. It’s TED’s first all-tech-focused conference.

Why it’s different

This isn’t just another tech conference. TED and Culture3 have designed a uniquely connected experience that combines TED’s signature talks and conversations with a Culture3-curated ideas forum of real-world applications, art exhibits and industry-shaping demonstrations and announcements. Attendees will hear TED speakers and Culture3-curated experts dive into the latest advancements in tech that are radically transforming the world around us.   

TED Tech at a glance

• 1500+ Attendees 
• 10+ TED speakers
• Workshops 
• Culture3-curated idea forums 
• Demos and announcements

The ideas

Attendees will gather to consider the questions that matter most:

• What will a future driven by such extraordinary technological advancements actually look like?
• How should these advancements be monitored, governed or controlled, if at all?
• How might society, art and business change as a result of this technology?

The attendees

We’ll bring together brilliant minds — artists, creators, technologists and entrepreneurs — to discuss, debate and create the future of the internet. The first TED Tech will be hosted in London, where a vibrant ecosystem of start-ups, tech giants and universities fuel innovation.

How to attend

TED Tech will take place in London on September 18-19, 2023. If you want to be at the forefront of the conversation and join a powerful group of business and community leaders, innovators and creators, register now »

More than $1B catalyzed for 2023 Audacious Projects

Today, The Audacious Project, a collaborative funding initiative housed at TED, announced that more than one billion dollars has been committed to its newest cohort of projects. This is a significant funding milestone in the initiative’s five-year history and comes at a critical time on key issues such as climate change, migrant rights and criminal justice reform.

The 2023 Audacious Project grantees are:

• CAMFED: Helping girls in Sub-Saharan Africa thrive in school — and beyond
• Canopy: Scaling the use of next-generation pulp in key supply chains to conserve endangered forests
• Clean Slate Initiative: Clearing arrest and conviction records to unlock opportunity
• Global Fishing Watch: Leveraging the power of data to safeguard the ocean by making the invisible visible
• Innovative Genomics Institute: Engineering microbiomes with CRISPR to improve our climate and health
• Jan Sahas’ Migrants Resilience Collaborative: Unlocking life-enhancing benefits and services for India’s domestic migrant workers
• ReNew2030: Accelerating renewable energy for a climate-secure future
• Restore Local, A project of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100), led by the World Resources Institute: Accelerating locally-led land restoration of Africa’s vital landscapes and forests
• Think of Us: Transforming foster care in the US through the power of lived experience
• Upstream USA: Increasing equitable access to high-quality contraceptive care across the US

“With our 2023 Audacious Project cohort, some of the most complex and challenging problems we’re facing right now – transitioning to renewable energy, increasing access to reproductive health care, transforming our foster care system and more – are being met by some incredible idea-makers,” said Anna Verghese, Executive Director of The Audacious Project. “Each one offers an approach to shift the status quo and the systems they operate in, and will hope to breathe possibility and transformation into these critical issues.”

Each year, The Audacious Project scours the globe for big, bold ideas and collaborates with social entrepreneurs and philanthropists to drive impact on a grand scale. It is an effort that goes beyond funding, pushing for transformative change, systems overhaul and collaboration across multiple sectors. This new cohort will present their big ideas onstage at TED2023, joining an existing portfolio of 39 Audacious projects. Since 2018, more than four billion philanthropic dollars has been catalyzed to support these projects’ visions.

“We started The Audacious Project five years ago as an experiment to see what could happen when we invite changemakers around the world to dream as big as they dare, and then shape their boldest ideas into viable plans,” said Chris Anderson, Head of TED. “It’s absolutely thrilling to see this much money raised for these projects. I’m in awe of the teams behind them — and of the donors who are funding them. Our experiment is gaining traction, and we believe it can achieve even more in the coming years.”

Read more about The Audacious Project and its five years of impact.

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ABOUT THE AUDACIOUS PROJECT

 

Launched in April 2018, The Audacious Project is a collaborative funding initiative that’s catalyzing social impact on a grand scale. Housed at TED, the nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, and with support from leading social impact advisor The Bridgespan Group, The Audacious Project convenes funders and social entrepreneurs with the goal of supporting bold solutions to the world’s most urgent challenges. The funding collective is made up of respected organizations and individuals in philanthropy, including Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, ELMA Philanthropies, Emerson Collective, MacKenzie Scott, Skoll Foundation, Valhalla Foundation and more.

Each year The Audacious Project supports a new cohort. The 2023 grantees are CAMFED, Canopy, Clean Slate Initiative, Global Fishing Watch, Innovative Genomics Institute, Jan Sahas’ Migrants Resilience Collaborative, ReNew2030, Restore Local, Think of Us and Upstream USA.

TED debuts “Fixable,” a new career advice podcast with leadership experts Frances Frei and Anne Morriss

There’s a path forward from every problem at work — sometimes we just need some help finding the best direction to take. That’s where the TED Audio Collective’s newest podcast, Fixable, comes in — to guide career advice seekers towards getting unstuck.

Leading the way are hosts Frances Frei, a Harvard Business School professor, and Anne Morriss, CEO and best-selling author. This dynamic leadership power couple (yes, they happen to be married to each other) are taking real people’s career complications — no matter their industry or position — and setting them up for success. From addressing communication roadblocks to unproductive company cultures to uncertainty in how to scale up a business and more, Frei and Morriss share fast, actionable solutions to relatable issues in 30 minutes or less each week.

This isn’t your average “listen and learn” podcast experience. This show is built around participation.

True to its title, Fixable actively connects listeners with expert problem-solvers to steer them towards a thriving professional future. Do you have a work problem you’d like to solve? Call our hotline at 234-Fixable (that’s 234-349-2253) and leave a voicemail explaining your work woes for a chance to be featured on a future episode. 

The first episode drops April 3. Subscribe to Fixable on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. 

Fixable is made possible with the support of SAP. Learn more about how TED partners with best-in-class brands here.

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.

How to watch TED Talks on Plex

Unsure what to stream or where to start on Plex? Join us at a new home to watch TED Talks, Originals and TED-Ed Lessons – for free!

Cozy up on the couch and join us through your favorite ways to watch! Alongside Plex, you can find the TED channel on Samsung TV Plus, Xumo and a growing number of platforms.

See below for a step-by-step guide on how to find us on a television (or mobile device) near you.

How to watch TED Talks on Plex

• On your Smart TV: If you have a fully supported Smart TV (LG, Samsung, Hisense, Vizio or Amazon Fire TV), search for “TED” or find the TED channel listed in the “Explore” section of the Live TV guide.
• On your mobile device: Available on both iOS and Android through Apple TV and Android TV. Download your preferred watch method and search for “TED” or find the TED channel listed in the “Explore” section of the Live TV guide.
• On other devices: Through Roku, Chromecast, Playstation, Xbox or Amazon Fire devices, search for “TED” or find the TED channel listed in the “Explore” section of the Live TV guide.
• On your browser: Click here to watch! Search for TED or side-scroll to the “Explore” section at the top of the Live TV guide and select “TED”.

Available in most countries. For more information, check out the Plex FAQ or the Plex Live TV support page.

What’s on the TED channel?

We’ve got a little bit of everything for everyone, whether you’re interested in personal growth, the mysteries of the universe or you’re simply a passionate generalist with endless curiosity. On the weekends, our slate of family-friendly programming is bursting with engaging and eye-catching content from TED-Ed.

Look below to see what we’ve got on offer for your streaming pleasure!

How to watch TED Talks on Xumo

Unsure what to stream or where to start on Xumo? Join us at a new home to watch TED Talks, Originals and TED-Ed Lessons – for free!

Cozy up on the couch and join us through your favorite ways to watch! Alongside Xumo, you can find the TED channel on Samsung TV Plus, Plex and a growing number of platforms.

See below for a step-by-step guide on how to find us on a television (or mobile device) near you.

How to watch TED Talks on Xumo

• On your Smart TV: Have a VIZIO, Samsung, Hisense or Xclass Smart TV? Download the Xumo app and search for “TED” or find our channel listed in the “History and Learning” section of the Live Guide.
• On your mobile device: Available on both iOS and Android through Apple TV and Android TV. Download your preferred watch method and search for “TED” or find the TED channel listed in the “History and Learning” section of the Live Guide.
• On other devices: Through Roku, Amazon Fire, Panasonic and Xfinity (X1, Flex, etc.) devices, search for “TED” or find or find our channel listed in the “History and Learning” section of the Live Guide.
• On your browser: Click here to watch!

Available in the US and Canada. For more information, check out the Xumo FAQ.

What’s on the TED channel?

We’ve got a little bit of everything for everyone, whether you’re interested in personal growth, the mysteries of the universe or you’re simply a passionate generalist with endless curiosity. On the weekends, our slate of family-friendly programming is bursting with engaging and eye-catching content from TED-Ed.

Look below to see what we’ve got on offer for your streaming pleasure!

How to watch TED Talks on Samsung TV Plus

Unsure what to stream or where to start on your Samsung device? Join us at a new home to watch TED Talks, Originals and TED-Ed Lessons – for free!

Cozy up on the couch and join us through your favorite ways to watch! Alongside Samsung TV Plus, you can find the TED channel on Xumo, Plex and a growing number of platforms.

See below for a step-by-step guide on how to find us on a television (or mobile device) near you.

Start streaming TED on Samsung TV Plus

• On your Smart TV: Select the Samsung TV Plus app. Search for “TED” or enter channel 1405.
• On your Samsung mobile device: Visit the Galaxy Store or Google Play Store and download the Samsung TV Plus app. Search for “TED” or find the TED channel listed in the Entertainment section of the channel guide.
• On your browser: Click here to watch!

Available in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. For more information, check out the Samsung TV Plus FAQ.

What’s on the TED channel?

We’ve got a little bit of everything for everyone, whether you’re interested in personal growth, the mysteries of the universe or you’re simply a passionate generalist with endless curiosity. On the weekends, our slate of family-friendly programming is bursting with engaging and eye-catching content from TED-Ed.

Look below to see what we’ve got on offer for your streaming pleasure!

Open: The talks of TED@DestinationCanada

When we come together with open hearts and open minds, anything is possible. It was in this spirit that TED partnered with Destination Canada for a day of talks and performances featuring new ideas on living, seeing the world and reimagining our shared future.

The event: TED@DestinationCanada: Open is the first event TED and Destination Canada have co-hosted to spotlight leading minds who embody the incredible breadth and depth of Canadian culture. The event was hosted by TED senior curator Cyndi Stivers.

When and where: Thursday, February 23, 2023, at the TED Theater in New York City

Opening and closing remarks: From the Honourable Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance for Canada, and Gloria Loree, chief marketing officer of Destination Canada

Speakers: Alysa McCall, Azim Shariff, Normand Voyer, Matricia Bauer, Lori McCarthy, Paul Bloom, Cohen Bradley, Alona Fyshe, Rebecca Darwent, Michael Green, Cameron Davis, Jiaying Zhao, Kevin Smith and Kris Alexander

Music: In the verbal version of a dance-off, the Inuit duo Silla (made up of Charlotte Qamaniq and Cynthia Pitsiulak) perform the ancient art form of katajjaq, a type of Inuit throat singing found only in the Canadian Arctic. Later in the show, singer-songwriter Mélissa Laveaux delivers a musical treat, performing two mesmerizing songs alongside bassist Sébastien Richelieu.

The talks in brief:

As Arctic sea ice melts, polar bears are being forced on land – and they’re hungry. Biologist and conservationist Alysa McCall shares what to do when you find a polar bear digging through your trash and offers inspiring solutions for protecting both the bear’s shrinking habitat and their human neighbors.

Why do we think people who work hard are “good” — even if they produce little to no results? Social psychologist Azim Shariff calls this “effort moralization”: the intuitive connection we make between hard work and moral worth, regardless of what the work produces. He explores how this mindset plays out in our work environments — leading to things like workaholism — and encourages a shift towards effort that produces something meaningful, rather than just work for work’s sake.

Take a trip to Canada’s Arctic as natural product chemist Normand Voyer explores the mysterious molecular treasures hidden in plants thriving in frigid environments. These scarcely investigated organisms could hold the key to the world’s next wonder drug, he says — so long as we work quickly enough to discover them before their ecosystems are altered by climate change.

Adopted by a white family as a child, Indigenous artist and entrepreneur Matricia Bauer, or Isko-achitaw waciy / ᐃᐢᑯ ᐃᐦᒋᑕ ᐘᒋᕀ (she who moves mountains), lost touch with her Cree heritage. Beat by beat and bead by bead, Bauer reconciled lost parts of herself by exploring the songs, stories and crafts of her culture. On a decades-long journey of re-Indigenizing herself, Bauer recites a moving poem on the ways of eagles and hawks — and illustrates the power of embracing one’s true self.

In a love letter to her native Newfoundland and Labrador, cultural storyteller Lori McCarthy shares the secret magic of this Canadian province: the rich connection between the people, the land and the food. Sharing a glimpse of the tastes, sights and generations-old stories that thrive there, McCarthy invites you to become a part of wherever you go — which could start with something as simple as sitting with a local for a cup of tea.

Have you ever done something just because you knew it was wrong? In an invitation to examine your contrarian streak, psychologist Paul Bloom shares findings from “The Perversity Project”: stories he gathered from the public of harmless (but intentional) everyday misdeeds. From sticking a finger in your friend’s ice cream to a urinal that sparked the birth of conceptual art, Bloom makes the case that, sometimes, freeing yourself from the constraints of rationality and morality can be clever, creative and even beautiful.

Haida storyteller Cohen Bradley, who holds the names of Taaydal (“coming in big”) and Gidin Kuns (“powerful eagle”) in his clan and nation, shares his culture’s perspective on legacy, weaving together stories passed on by his ancestors with his own recent story of raising a memorial pole in his ancestral village. He demonstrates the resilience of his people’s legacy despite the devastating impact of colonialism.

Is AI really as smart as people give it credit for? Researcher Alona Fyshe delves into the inner workings of AI and the human brain, breaking down how talkative tech (like ChatGPT) learns to communicate so convincingly — or not.

Boxhand. Susu. Tontine. Potlatch. These are just some of the names from around the world for philanthropy centered on formal and informal ways of giving back. Philanthropic adviser Rebecca Darwent shares how community-led practices can revolutionize and overcome the systemic racism of the financial industry — and offers lessons from collective giving that could change the ways good is done.

Architect Michael Green — a mass timber pioneer who helped spark a renaissance in constructing tall buildings out of wood — introduces a new material called “FIVE,” which is derived from natural materials and based on the structure of trees and vascular plants. FIVE could revolutionize the way we build buildings, providing a strong and organic alternative to the traditional materials of concrete, steel, masonry and wood.

In a quick, inspiring talk, youth activist Cameron Davis explains why his generation — Gen Z, with its exposure to differing viewpoints online from an early age — is uniquely positioned to create meaningful change in the world by using their voices to challenge systemic biases, advocate for inclusivity and promote justice.

Is it possible for climate action to make you feel happy? Behavioral scientist Jiaying Zhao believes that’s the only way we’ll create lasting, sustainable change. From treat meals to feng shui fridges, she offers eight tricks to lower your carbon emissions while increasing your happiness.

Coastal explorer Kevin Smith tells the story of how a group of eco-tourism businesses in the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia collaborated to create one of the biggest marine debris cleanups in history. The initiative was born during the COVID-19 pandemic, when tours were temporarily shut down, resulting in these once-competitive businesses coming together to propose a solution to clean up the coast and protect their livelihoods.

Where academia fails, video games often succeed, says professor of game design Kris Alexander. With high-quality audio, text and video focused with clear objectives, video games swiftly captivate minds and drive motivation — unlike a lecture hall. In an engaging display of the merits of digital play, Alexander calls for us to rethink the foundations of education and embrace the qualities of video games that can level up our learning.

Meet the speakers of the 2023 TEDinArabic Summit

In collaboration with Qatar Foundation, TED is hosting a two-day TEDinArabic summit centered around the theme “The Butterfly Effect” in Doha, Qatar, on March 18-19, 2023. The summit will feature 17 speakers from across the Middle East and North Africa sharing their ideas with a global audience — all in Arabic.

Launched in partnership with Qatar Foundation in July 2020, TEDinArabic is TED’s first-ever initiative in Arabic that seeks to highlight voices from the region. In June 2022, TED launched a TEDinArabic Idea Search, inviting all Arabic speakers to submit their ideas worth spreading for a chance to be featured at the summit. Applicants were required to submit a two-minute video of their idea. After reviewing thousands of applications, TED’s curation team selected top speakers whose ideas are unique, timely and hold the potential to move the needle on a number of pressing issues. Learn more about the summit and speakers here and read this post in Arabic here.

Meet Our TEDinArabic Speakers

• Adnan Barq, content creator
  Country: Palestine
  Idea: How to overcome trauma
  After a life-threatening experience, Barq realized that the butterfly effect has helped him cope with intergenerational trauma.

 

• Hend Al Qaderi, dental researcher
  Country: Kuwait
  Idea: Saliva as a diagnostic tool for systemic diseases
  There’s a lot to be learned from our spit, as Al Qaderi discovered while studying salivary biomarkers and the oral microbiome during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

• Ahmad Nabeel, physician + entrepreneur
  Country: Kuwait
  Idea: Holding onto reality in an ambiguous, virtual world
  The virtual world may look real, but it can be deceiving. With the right critical framework and democratization of data, Nabeel believes we can keep our bearings — and hold ourselves accountable.

 

• Ahmed Habib, accessibility specialist
  Country: Iraq
  Idea: How accessibility took center stage at the 2022 World Cup
  Fans praised the great accessibility and inclusiveness of the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar. As an organizing committee member, heres’s how Habib helped make that happen (and how other events can do the same).

 

• Imane El Khantouti, aerospace engineer
  Country: Morocco
  Idea: How to achieve sustainability using clues from space
  Satellite data and technologies developed for use by astronauts can also help those on Earth with farming, water conservation and disaster recovery, says El Khantouti — and that’s just the start.

 

• Amr Ramadan, climate change advocate
  Country: Egypt
  Idea: Can carbon taxation support climate justice?
  As someone whose home city of Alexandria, Egypt, is at risk due to sea-level rise, Ramadan is passionate about finding solutions to the climate crisis. He believes that a carbon tax is the way to help everyone, worldwide.

 

• Lama Sha’sha’a, roboticist
  Country: Jordan
  Idea: The promise of robotics in education
  Sha’sha’a makes the case that to truly prepare today’s youth for the future, educational systems must incorporate out-of-the-box thinking — using robotics, coding and AI.

 

• Belal Khaled, artist + activist
  Country: Palestine
  Idea: Calligraphy as a tool for social change
  Khaled likes to draw on any object he sees, using his work to send strong messages about politics and social justice.

 

• Mashael Al Nuaimi, textile designer
  Country: Qatar
  Idea: How to be both fashionable and sustainable
  After realizing she was wasting too much money on fast fashion, Al Nuaimi joined the fashion industry in her fifties to develop sustainable attire that also follows the trends. She’ll tell us how to spot climate-friendly clothes.

 

• Mahdi Mansour, physicist + poet
  Country: Lebanon
  Idea: The science and poetry of human creativity
  Both a physicist and a poet, Mansour believes that merging science and literature is the key to maximum creativity. An educational system that divides us between language arts and science needs an overhaul.

 

• Nasser Jaber, gastro-diplomat
  Country: Palestine
  Idea: The role of food in global peace
  Jaber will share how diners and local restaurants can fight food insecurity on the other side of the world.

 

• Mona Al Hallaq, preservation activist
  Country: Lebanon
  Idea: The urgency of saving historical buildings
  Historical buildings serve as a society’s collective memory and should be preserved, says Al Hallaq. She uses the Barakat building in Beirut to illustrate her point.

 

• Mohammed Al Shaker, the weatherman of Arabia
  Country: Jordan
  Idea: How AI can help with the climate crisis
  Obsessed with forecasts and weather from an early age, Al Shaker is now using AI and social media to help the Gulf region adapt to climate change — with lessons for the rest of the world, too.

 

• Rafiah Al Talei, women’s rights advocate
  Country: Oman
  Idea: Putting women on the political map
  Though she didn’t win when she ran for office herself, Al Talei resolved to pave the way for others. Here’s what she’s learned.

 

• Yusra Mardini, Olympic swimmer
  Country: Syria
  Idea: How sports can spur refugee self-reliance and resilience
  After escaping the war in Syria with her sister — and helping to save all 20 other refugees in their stalled boat — Mardini saw her dream come true when she participated in the 2016 Olympics as a member of the Refugee Olympic Team.

 

• Ali Al Rashid, engineer + researcher
  Country: Qatar
  Idea: Using your senses to stay safe
  Using his knowledge of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, Al Rashid developed airport security methods to detect people who are under the influence of narcotics or who have infectious diseases. Here’s how what he knows can help you.

 

• Alaa Salah, engineer + activist
  Country: Sudan
  Idea: How to keep dreaming in the midst of revolution
  After participating in the December 2018 Sudanese revolution to overthrow the Omar al-Bashir regime, Alaa Salah was shortlisted for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize for her book, Le chant de la révolte.

TED is bringing its global climate conference, TED Countdown, to Detroit in summer 2023

TED Countdown, a global initiative committed to accelerating solutions to the climate crisis, announces that its second Summit will take place in Detroit, Michigan from July 11-14, 2023. The Summit will also host the inaugural gathering of the TED Future Forum, an initiative of TED Countdown, focused on the role of business in accelerating solutions to the climate crisis.

The 2023 TED Countdown Summit will convene 700 leaders from the science, activism, innovation, business, finance, policy and philanthropic sectors. Hosted at Michigan Central, a newly opened innovation hub addressing the most pressing challenges at the intersection of mobility and society, and the historic Fillmore Detroit, the Summit will include TED Talks that highlight real-world solutions at scale; Breakthrough Sessions designed to explore the tools and partnerships we need; and immersive offsite experiences with local innovators to see how the city at the heart of the American auto industry is building an inclusive, sustainable future.

The four-day event will include:

• Seven mainstage sessions, featuring 40+ TED Talks, interviews and performances
• Offsite “field” experiences, from visits to state-of-the-art EV and battery production lines and factories upcycling waste to meetings with leaders building the “black to green” economy, climate migrants settling in Michigan and policymakers working to change the regulatory landscape
• Breakthrough Sessions to scale collaboration, including working sessions on the transition to regenerative agriculture and how we fund climate adaptation as well as pitch sessions with entrepreneurs who are creating companies to solve the toughest climate problems

Featured themes and areas of focus to include:

• The state of science + progress: Where are we for the UN’s global stock take on climate progress, and how does this reframe our understanding and actions?
• Positive tipping points: Where are we making faster progress than we realize, and what are the most important breakthrough solutions to unlock now?
• Adaptive innovation: What will improve the resiliency of 3.8 billion people who face shocks in a 1.5-degree world?
• Bridging divides: How do we find unity in diversity and make progress despite our differences?

“Michigan Central is pleased to host Countdown and the TED Future Forum as we work to create a future that is more sustainable and equitable,” said Joshua Sirefman, CEO of Michigan Central. “Accelerating solutions to the climate crisis requires cultivating innovation that enables greater social, economic and physical mobility — the mission at the heart of Michigan Central’s work. Detroit is the perfect city to host these critical conversations and we are thrilled to welcome the world to the fully restored Book Depository Building.”

TED Countdown is collaborating with Detroit-based businesses, local leaders, arts organizations and the Office of the Mayor to both contribute to the Summit design and shape additional community activations. Speakers from Detroit will be prominently featured throughout the Summit program, and local organizations are partnering with TED to design experiences in the venues and throughout the city of Detroit. Existing partners include the Visit Detroit Bureau, Detroit Narrative Agency, Keep Growing Detroit, Real Times Media and Detroit Blight Busters.

“The last TED Countdown Summit was in Edinburgh, Scotland, and I’m thrilled the next one will be hosted in Detroit, Michigan,” said Carla Walker-Miller, CEO of Walker-Miller Energy Services. “Convening 700 global leaders here is an enormous opportunity to amplify amazing work across the city and foster mutual learning and sharing with a diverse audience.”

Since its launch in 2020 in partnership with Leaders’ Quest, TED Countdown has released more than 170 solutions-focused original videos and podcasts, including 140 climate TED Talks that have generated more than 230 million views, facilitated 1,000+ local climate events in 100+ countries and, with TED’s Audacious Project, generated more than $470M in philanthropic funding for climate solutions.

TED Future Forum

Convened by TED Countdown, The TED Future Forum is a community of companies committed to stepping up with greater climate ambition to help transform the global economy and create a healthy, prosperous future for all. The Forum will work with its founding companies to identify critical business-focused initiatives where we can accelerate progress. TED will then tell transformational stories of both successes and challenges at events and via TED platforms, with the goal of inspiring businesses across the economy to action.

TED Future Forum includes diverse industries with unique concerns — and all are seriously committed to the green transition for the long haul. The 13 Founding companies are: AB InBev, BCG, Bolt Threads, CEMEX, COFRA Holding, Ford, Google, Interface, Maersk, Mars, Nestlé, Ørsted and Siemens. We look forward to welcoming other companies into the Forum following the TED Countdown Summit in Detroit, Michigan, from July 11-14, 2023.

“We cannot tackle climate change without wholehearted engagement from business,” said Lindsay Levin, Countdown founding partner and head of partnerships + impact at TED. “The Future Forum is convening leaders who have the courage to change the way business operates — and to work across divides to do so.”

“I know from experience that transforming a company requires a combination of dreams and details. We need to dream big, before we have the answers, and then to work really hard on the details to figure it out,” said Jim Hagemman Snabe, TED Future Forum Vision Council chair, chairman of Siemens AG and vice chairman of Allianz SE. “TED Future Forum is about helping companies to find the courage and know-how to speed up their green transition because it makes good business sense — and it’s the right thing to do.”

“We’re thrilled to welcome Countdown and the TED Future Forum to Detroit, where Ford is working to build the future of manufacturing and to revolutionize the way people move and connect,” said Cynthia Williams, global director of sustainability, homologation and compliance at Ford Motor Company.  “People everywhere are looking to businesses like Ford for solutions and urgency in responding to climate change. We look forward to putting our minds and resources together — in what we believe will be a powerful collaboration — to help shape a future for transportation that’s more inclusive, equitable and sustainable.”

“Every day we’re seeing the increasing impacts of climate change throughout local and global communities, supply chains and food chains. A more sustainable, equitable future will require meaningful action today across the business sector to deliver on commitments made in the fight against climate change,” said Shaid Shah, president of Mars Food and Nutrition. “By partnering with TED as a founding member of the Future Forum and joining cross-industry leaders and peers, we’re scaling up our efforts — and calling on others — through collaboration and uncommon partnerships to recruit new allies in the critical fight for a more sustainable future.”

“Information is the foundation of our company. Our founders set us an ambitious, almost audacious mission: to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” said Kate Brandt, chief sustainability officer at Google. “The challenge of climate change requires ambition on a similar scale. In many ways, it’s at the heart of how we realize our mission in the years ahead. A sustainable future depends on the decisions individuals, organizations and governments make every day. We know that businesses need to move faster, together, so we’re thrilled to be a part of a burgeoning community of businesses focused on pooling innovation and knowledge to accelerate solutions to the climate crisis — and hopefully inspiring others to join us.”

“Collaboration is key to solving the urgent climate challenges the world is facing,” said Ezgi Barcenas, Chief Sustainability Officer at AB InBev. “AB InBev is thrilled to partner with TED Countdown and the TED Future Forum and its partner companies to work toward redesigning global value chains with cutting-edge innovation to create a future with more cheers.”

A subset of uniquely positioned TED Countdown partners are supporting the TED Future Forum initiative. Partners include the B Team, Environmental Defense Fund, Fundação Dom Cabral​, Generation Investment Management, Global Warming Mitigation Project, Kite Insights, Maersk Mc-Kinney Moller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping, Project Drawdown and Stand.Earth. A small cross-sector group of leaders provides guidance to the TED Future Forum as part of a Vision Council. This includes Jim Hagemann Snabe (Chair), Manish Bhardwaj, Habiba Ahut Daggash, Nili Gilbert, Rebecca Henderson, Wanjira Maathai, Roya Mahboob, Gonzalo Muñoz, Kim Stanley Robinson, Suzanne Simard and Nigel Topping.

Learn more about TED Countdown here, and learn more about the Detroit Summit here.

About TED

TED is on a mission to discover and spread ideas that spark imagination, embrace possibility and catalyze impact. Our organization is devoted to curiosity, reason, wonder and the pursuit of knowledge — without an agenda. We welcome people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world and engagement with others, and we invite everyone to engage with ideas and activate them in your community.

TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged. Today it spans a multitude of worldwide communities and initiatives exploring everything from science and business to education, arts and global issues. Aside from the hundreds of TED Talks curated from our annual conferences and published on TED.com, we produce original podcasts, short video series, animated TED-Ed lessons and TV programs that are translated into more than 100 languages and distributed via partnerships around the world. Each year, more than 3,000 independently run TEDx events bring people together to share ideas and bridge divides in communities on every continent. Through the Audacious Project, TED has helped catalyze nearly $3 billion in funding for projects that seek to make the world more beautiful, sustainable and just. In 2020, TED launched Countdown, an initiative to accelerate solutions to the climate crisis and mobilize a movement for a net-zero emission future. View a full list of TED’s many programs and initiatives.

TED is owned by a nonprofit, nonpartisan foundation. Our aim is to help create a future worth pursuing for all. 

Follow TED on: LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Mastodon, Twitter and Facebook

About Michigan Central

Michigan Central is a hub for advancing new technologies and programs that address barriers to greater social, economic and physical mobility. Catalyzed by funding from Ford Motor Company, Michigan Central is both an open platform and a call-to-action — for city, regional and international inventors and investors, academics and entrepreneurs, civil society voices and government leaders and business owners and corporate partners — to advance a more sustainable, equitable future through a community-based approach to mobility solutions. Building on Detroit’s rich history as an engine of change, the transformative Michigan Central project aims to strengthen the city’s existing fabric of community and electrify its economy while inspiring collective action on the most pressing challenges at the intersection of mobility and society worldwide.

Contact 

Allison Bartella | press@ted.com 

TED launches “Good Sport,” new sports podcast with Jody Avirgan

TED and sports. It may not seem like the most obvious combination, but here at TED we’ve long understood that the world of sports has crucial ideas worth spreading. We’ve had Serena Williams on the TED stage talking about competitive edge, heard from Billie Jean King on perseverance and saw Alex Honnold teach us to conquer our fears. We’ve had talks from David Epstein on why athletes are getting stronger and faster and Chris Kluwe on how augmented reality can help both players and fans.

Our new podcast, Good Sport, follows our curiosity deeper into the wide world of sports, finding surprising insights and telling great stories along the way.

Hosted by veteran sports producer Jody Avirgan in conversation with superstar athletes, journalists, sports psychologists and more, Good Sport is a show that uses sports as a lens to explore big ideas around work, leadership, psychology and science. Avirgan will explore fun and puzzling questions such as: Is “the zone” a real place, and can brain stimulation enhance performance? How do stadiums influence local politics? Is it still baseball if you’re wearing a giant banana suit? How do great coaches create talent hotbeds? And is the future of sports gender-blind?

This is definitely a show for sports fans, but it’s truly for anyone who wants to understand what sports can teach us about ourselves. The first episode drops January 30 on Apple Podcasts and February 8 everywhere else.

Subscribe to Good Sport on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen.

Announcing the most popular TED Talks of 2022

What ideas intrigued and inspired the world in 2022? Our end-of-year lists feature a wide-ranging, classically TED selection of speakers and topics, with groundbreaking science, future-altering tech innovations, profound shifts in how we think about work, life and ourselves — and much more. Check out the most popular and newsworthy TED Talks of the year, as well as lists from TED’s editors, our Countdown climate initiative and TED-Ed. We hope you enjoy — and learn something new!

The most popular TED Talks of 2022: These TED Talks spread the quickest this year.

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The most newsworthy ideas of 2022: These TED Talks and interviews broke news, made history and shaped the story of 2022.

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Editor’s Picks of 2022: A look at some of the most memorable, perspective-expanding ideas from this year on the TED stage, selected by TED’s editors

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The must-watch climate talks of 2022: A selection of potentially planet-saving talks published in 2022 from Countdown, TED’s initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis

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The most popular TED-Ed lessons of 2022: The most popular lessons of 2022 from TED-Ed, TED’s youth and education initiative

TED Idea Search: Southeast Asia 2022 winners selected

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.

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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.

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Wan Faridah Akmal Jusoh, entomologist, based in Subang Jaya, Malaysia

Jusoh studies the wonders of fireflies — and even discovered a new species of firefly.

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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: