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Si notre Système solaire cache une planète, voici où elle se trouve

De nombreux indices suggèrent qu’il existe une planète non encore découverte aux confins de notre Système solaire. La « planète 9 ». Et des astronomes proposent aujourd’hui l’estimation la plus précise jamais réalisée de l’endroit où elle pourrait se cacher.

Des pluies de diamants à l'origine du champ magnétique de Neptune et Uranus ?

Il se confirme, grâce à des expériences de hautes pressions, que du diamant se formerait dans les conditions de pression et de température extrême des géantes glacées du Système solaire, Uranus et Neptune. Mais les nouvelles expériences derrière cette affirmation suggèrent aussi qu'elles donnent...

The Best PG-13 Movies to Watch With Your Kid

Par : Jason Keil

My oldest son and I have a tradition every Sunday afternoon: we watch a movie that his younger brother isn’t old enough to see yet. We started with the Toho Godzilla series and moved to live-action Disney movies, free from language and intense violence.

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How to Protect Your Child From Weight Talk at the Doctor's Office

People with disordered eating and body image issues can often trace their experience to an early childhood doctor’s appointment when their weight or size was characterized as a problem to solve. And whether you were prescribed diets as a child or not, you are right to want to protect your own children from the shame…

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When You Should (and Shouldn't) Replace Your Deadbolt With a Smart Lock

Par : Emily Long

Installing either a high-quality deadbolt or a smart lock can make your front door more secure. The mechanisms inside of each are actually pretty similar (as long as your smart version has a deadbolt). The difference is largely in how you unlock the door: with a physical key versus a code, biometrics, or an app.

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How to Freeze Apples so You Don’t Ruin Them for Later

Apples are a hearty fruit. They’ll stay fresh for a whole week on the counter (berries could never), and up to two months in the refrigerator, or a cool, dark cellar. It is, however, easy to get a little overenthusiastic while apple-picking, which is when the freezer becomes your friend. Here’s how to store apples in…

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Add These 12 Killer Supersets to Your Next Workout

Who doesn’t love a superset? Pairing two exercises saves time in your main workout, provided the routine allows. And if you’d like to do a quick bit of extra work at the end of the day, a superset is an efficient way to fit it in. So let’s look at a few perfect pairings you can add to your next workout.

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Open: The talks of TED@DestinationCanada

TED senior curator Cyndi Stivers hosts TED@DestinationCanada at the TED Theater in New York City on February 23, 2023. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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

Throat singers Silla perform at TED@DestinationCanada at the TED World Theater in New York City. February 23, 2023. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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:

Biologist and conservationist Alysa McCall speaks at TED@DestinationCanada at the TED Theater in New York City. February 23, 2023. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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.

Social psychologist Azim Shariff speaks at TED@DestinationCanada at the TED Theater in New York City. February 23, 2023. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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.

Chemist Normand Voyer speaks at TED@DestinationCanada at the TED Theater in New York City. February 23, 2023. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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.

Indigenous artist and entrepreneur Matricia Bauer speaks at TED@DestinationCanada at the TED Theater in New York City. February 23, 2023. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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.

Cultural storyteller Lori McCarthy speaks at TED@DestinationCanada at the TED Theater in New York City. February 23, 2023. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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.

Psychologist Paul Bloom speaks at TED@DestinationCanada at the TED Theater in New York City. February 23, 2023. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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 speaks at TED@DestinationCanada at the TED Theater in New York City. February 23, 2023. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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.

AI researcher Alona Fyshe speaks at TED@DestinationCanada at the TED Theater in New York City. February 23, 2023. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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.

Philanthropic adviser Rebecca Darwent speaks at TED@DestinationCanada at the TED Theater in New York City. February 23, 2023. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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 speaks at TED@DestinationCanada at the TED Theater in New York City. February 23, 2023. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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.

Youth leader Cameron Davis speaks at TED@DestinationCanada at the TED Theater in New York City. February 23, 2023. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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.

Behavioral scientist Jiaying Zhao speaks at TED@DestinationCanada at the TED Theater in New York City. February 23, 2023. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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 speaks at TED@DestinationCanada at the TED Theater in New York City. February 23, 2023. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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.

Professor of video game design Kris Alexander speaks at TED@DestinationCanada at the TED Theater in New York City. February 23, 2023. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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.

Mélissa Laveaux performs at TED@DestinationCanada at the TED Theater in New York City on February 23, 2023. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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Wellbeing: Notes from Session 6 of TED2022

Attendees gather at Session 6 of TED2022: A New Era on April 12, 2022 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED)

The feeling of wellbeing has been in short supply the last couple years. In Session 6 of TED2022, we took a crack at restocking that supply — featuring a return of Bill Gates to the TED stage (talking about how to make COVID the last pandemic), a compelling case for the four-day work week and much more.

The event: Talks from TED2022, Session 6: Wellbeing, hosted by TED’s Helen Walters and Whitney Pennington Rodgers

When and where: Tuesday, April 12, 2022, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Bill Gates, Jason W. Chin, Juliet Schor, Sergiu P. Pasca, Bevy Smith, Shankar Vedantam

The talk in brief:

Bill Gates speaks at Session 6 of TED2022: A New Era on April 12, 2022 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED)

Bill Gates, technologist, philanthropist

Big idea: We can make COVID-19 the last pandemic.

How? COVID has killed millions, upended economies and increased inequity. Now we must seize the opportunity to learn from it and ensure everyone has a chance to live a healthy and productive life. Taking lessons from ancient Rome, where a devastating fire led Emperor Augustus to create a permanent firefighting organization, Gates thinks we need to invest in and practice pandemic prevention through the creation of a global fast-response pandemic-fighting outfit could get to the epicenter of newly detected pandemics in a matter of days, not months, with the right tools and resources. He calls it the GERM team (GERM = Global Epidemic Response & Mobilization): a full-time group made up of specialists in epidemiology, data science, logistics and more whose mission is to stop outbreaks before they become pandemics. Like firefighters, the GERM team would constantly drill to make sure they could respond quickly and work to improve local health systems in the absence of burgeoning outbreaks and new pathogens. Their goal would be to stop an outbreak within 100 days — a goal which, had it been achieved with COVID, would have stopped 98 percent of the death associated with the disease. In addition to GERM, better diagnostics, infection-blocking tools and easier-to-distribute vaccines will be key to stopping the next pandemic. Finally, and most expensive, we need to invest in improved health systems. The cost to prevent the next pandemic will be tens of billions of dollars, a massive sum but far less than the estimated 14 trillion dollar cost of COVID. “We need to spend billions in order to save trillions,” Gates says.


Jason W. Chin speaks at Session 6 of TED2022: A New Era on April 12, 2022 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Jason W. Chin, synthetic biologist

Big Idea:  Making a virus-resistant organism by reprogramming the genetic code is not just about stopping the spread of disease — it’s about making a sustainable, circular bio-economy based on nature.

How? The universal DNA code used to make proteins in all life forms and viruses is something we can exploit in multiple applications: from virus-resistant crops to improved drugs to cleaner manufacturing. Jason Chin began with the question, “Does all life need multiple synonymous codons to encode a single amino acid?” and completely replaced and compressed the genetic code of an E.Coli cell, creating the largest synthetic genome ever made. The resulting live cell no longer had the code or machinery that would allow a virus to read its code or depend on it for its own replication, showing that rewriting genetic code could be a route to creating broadly virus-resistant life. Further, by adding synthetic DNA deleted from the genome back into the cell alongside new, engineered translational machinery that reads it, Chin can program cells to make new molecules, or polymers, used to make plastics, materials and drugs including antibiotics, anti-tumor agents. These polymers could enable low-energy, renewable processes — a favorable alternative to plastics derived from crude oil. By reprogramming the universal genetic code, Chin seeks to unlock pathway to closed-loop, low-energy, cellular manufacturing processes. “By taking inspiration from nature and building on the powerful paradigms nature has created, we have the opportunity to build the sustainable industries of the future,” he says.


Juliet Schor speaks at Session 6 of TED2022: A New Era on April 12, 2022 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Juliet Schor, economist

Big idea: A four-day week sounds great. But is it realistic?

The answer: Actually, yes — and it not only benefits workers but also companies and society writ large, says Juliet Schor. For almost a decade, companies and governments have been experimenting by offering shorter work hours without pay cuts. The result? Employees are less stressed, value their jobs more, have better lives outside of work — and get as much done in four days than they did in five. As for companies, Schor shares evidence that they’re benefiting from lower turnover, higher-quality applicants and savings on health care. What’s more, shorter work hours reduces carbon emissions: if people are commuting to and spending less time at the office, everybody’s carbon footprint goes down. Schor admits that it’s not feasible for everyone to take advantage of a compressed four-day work week — namely public school teachers and frontline health care workers. But pandemic-driven anxiety and burnout call for brave new experimentation in how we work and live.


Sergiu P. Pasca speaks at Session 6 of TED2022: A New Era on April 12, 2022 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Sergiu P. Pasca, neuroscientist

Big Idea: By growing live neural circuits of the human brain in lab settings, we can gain new insight into human biology and usher in a new era of brain disorder research and treatment.

How? Though we’ve studied how the human brain functions through the brains of other animals, the intricate workings of the human brain — and human brain disorders — remain a mystery. This could all change thanks to new research on brain organoids, which are living cellular clumps of neural tissue. Brain organoids are grown by turning skin cells into stem cells, then instructing those stem cells to organize into brain-related structures. Organoids can then be combined into assembloids, creating miniature living circuits that help us better understand how brain biology and activity works. Developing treatments for brain disorders like autism and schizophrenia is especially difficult because we aren’t able to access or replicate live brain tissue from patients — until now. By growing and studying these neural circuits, we can revolutionize our understanding of human brain function, evolution and disease.


Bevy Smith speaks at Session 6 of TED2022: A New Era on April 12, 2022 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED)

Bevy Smith, pop culture queen

Big idea: Life gets greater, later.

How? It takes getting to know yourself and settling for nothing less, says Bevy Smith. Once a globe-trotting fashion advertising executive, she realized that while she had succeeded in the traditional sense, she had also settled for a life and persona that didn’t reflect her true self. Her revelation (or “Bevelation”) pushed her to reconsider how settling for cliché goals can be insidious and lead to unhappiness, spurring a renewed life of world travel, cultural immersion, rediscovering the selfhood she had repressed and embracing the art of extending grace to others. Smith recognizes that while her mother’s strength and clarity of self throughout her own life helped give her a blueprint on where to start, she also asked herself three questions that she hopes will help anyone looking to foster positive growth. First: Who am I at my core? Delve deep into yourself to excavate your personhood. Second: How am I being perceived? Be honest with your behaviors and how you affect the people around you. And third: How would I like to be perceived? Do the work and show up for yourself in ways most authentic to pursuing a better life and you’ll love the person who comes forward. Better to bloom late than not at all.


 

Shankar Vedantam speaks at Session 6 of TED2022: A New Era on April 12, 2022 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Shankar Vedantam, journalist, podcast host

Big idea: The predictions we make about our lives tend to be largely misguided because, as we grow and evolve, we chart paths for ourselves that are inevitably different from what we once envisioned. By embracing discomfort, being humble and finding the courage to embark on new adventures, we could work proactively to curate the best version of our future selves.

How? It’s tempting to imagine that the person looking back at you in the mirror many years from now is immediately recognizable, with all your hopes, desires and dreams still intact — but Shankar Vedantam believes this way of thinking can be misleading. It’s what he describes as the “illusion of continuity”: the idea that our future will be much like the present, with little to no change. Vedantam explains that when we have a change of heart about anything — from our career trajectory to end-of-life care — there’s a lot more at play than we think. Our ever-changing psychological make-up and the plasticity of our brains means we’re constantly evolving — and so, too, are our wants and needs. The illusion of continuity plays out in larger contexts, too: spouses, politicians and defenders of the law often make lasting proclamations and commitments which, with time, grow incompatible with the realities of the future. So how do we tackle this problem? Vedantam makes three suggestions that could help us rise to the occasion. First, accept and welcome change and constantly seek out new ventures and relationships. Second, practice humility, making space for new perspectives that we may have disagreed with in the past. And finally, face challenges bravely, confident that we can develop the skills and abilities to overcome them in the future. “If you can practice these things, your future self will look back and say thank you,” he says.

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A pathway opens: Notes from Session 1 of Countdown Summit

Hosts Lindsay Levin, Chris Anderson and Bruno Giussani speak at Session 1 of the TED Countdown Summit on October 12, 2021 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Follow Countdown on Twitter and InstagramSubscribe to the Countdown newsletter

Countdown is the most ambitious initiative TED has endeavored upon. A meeting point and invitation to all, from any walk of life, to participate in the story of solving the climate crisis in urgent and crucial ways. A call-in to businesses, governments, society, investors and everyday people to drive action with passion, energy and a deep desire for change.

Bringing together individuals who have spent decades pushing toward a zero-emission future and highlighting the new generation of dedicated changemakers, Session 1 took the first step on the marathon path to curtailing the world’s biggest existential threat with ambition, realism — and an invigorating dose of optimism.

The event: Countdown Summit: Session 1, hosted by Future Stewards cofounder Lindsay Levin and TED’s Chris Anderson and Bruno Giussani, at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland on Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Speakers: Zac Goldsmith, Amina J. Mohammed, Selina Neirok Leem, Johan Rockström, Gabriel Kra, Nigel Topping, Jim Hagemann Snabe, Monica Araya and Melati Wijsen

Performances: Let It Happen, a dance trio comprised of Dutch twin sisters Norah and Yarah along with younger sister Rosa, who vibrantly lit up the TED stage to remixes of classic American songs “Get On the Good Foot” by James Brown and “Hit the Road Jack” by Ray Charles.

Let It Happen performs at Session 1 of the TED Countdown Summit on October 12, 2021 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)


The talks in brief:

Zac Goldsmith speaks at Session 1 of the TED Countdown Summit on October 12, 2021 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Zac Goldsmith, UK Minister for the Pacific, environmental advocate

Big Idea: Restoring and preserving natural systems is humanity’s single greatest mission in the fight against climate change — but in order to achieve this, governments need to prioritize protecting nature.

How? Despite knowing that Earth’s ecological systems make life possible, forests continue to be cut down and oceans filled with trash as climate change reaps its effects. Clean technology has made big leaps towards curbing the destruction by pushing for green energy and renewables, explains UK Minister for the Pacific Zac Goldsmith, but tech can’t compare to the solutions nature has to offer if restored. Take mangroves, for example, which absorb carbon from the air and protect coastal communities from storms but are not as prioritized as cement defenses that function at only a fraction of the efficiency mangroves naturally provide. The issue lies in what solutions the economy values most. “Markets barely register the cost of destroying those natural systems, and until governments change that … we are always going to be playing catch up,” says Goldsmith. He urges governments to pass laws that protect at least thirty percent of land and sea by 2030, to support the world’s Indigenous peoples and to remove deforestation and degradation from supply chains. By redirecting incentives (and budgets), nature can recover from the damage of all the systems in place set against it — and thrive.


Amina J. Mohammed speaks at Session 1 of the TED Countdown Summit on October 12, 2021 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Amina J. Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General

Big idea: As we work to decarbonize the global economy, we should prioritize projects like the Great Green Wall that use climate action as a vehicle to deliver dignity, economic opportunity and equality for all.

How? When UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed was a young girl, Lake Chad looked like an ocean — it touched the border of four countries and sustained over 30 million people. Today, more than 90 percent of this freshwater basin has dried up, along with the economic opportunities it once provided for millions of farmers, fisherfolk and marketplace sellers. The devastation grows with extreme weather events like the dry, windy Harmattan, meaning “more jobs lost, hunger and families displaced — a perfect storm for instability and, sadly, more violence.” But Mohammed remains hopeful; she believes we can decarbonize our planet and meet the aims of the Paris Climate agreement through strategic climate action that invests in human potential. She provides the Great Green Wall — a project aiming to plant 100 million trees on the edge of the Sahara to stop desertification, restore degraded land and improve water harvesting — as an example. Beyond the climate benefits, Mohammed believes the project will create green economic opportunities for half a billion people. She acknowledges that transformative climate actions like this will require massive investments from rich countries and, perhaps more importantly, vocal solidarity from people worldwide. “Friends,” she says, “it’s time to make some serious noise.”


Selina Neirok Leem speaks at Session 1 of the TED Countdown Summit on October 12, 2021 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Selina Neirok Leem, youth climate activist

Big idea: Communities at the frontlines of climate change like the low-lying Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean are at risk of losing everything to something they didn’t contribute to creating. Climate adaptation is now their only choice.

Why? For 23-year-old climate warrior Selina Neirok Leem, climate change isn’t a distant threat to be negotiated over decades-long timelines — it’s the ever-present reality of her home in the Marshall Islands. The youngest delegate at the COP21 conference that adopted the Paris Agreement in 2015, Leem and her fellow Marshall Islanders now bear witness to floods from continually rising seas that routinely send them seeking shelter on hard-to-find high ground, threatening livelihoods, access to clean water and their way of life. In a stirring poem and talk, she explains that climate adaptation is the only choice for her people now. “We’ve been told to move. To become climate change refugees,” she says. “I’m not even sure who would even take us in. But to those who think that we should just accept our fate, I want to say: adaptation and indigenous knowledge are the solutions.”


Johan Rockström, climate impact scholar

Big idea: There are three key messages about the climate crisis that you need to know.

What are they? First, a message from the scientific community: the Sixth Assessment Report the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the latest in a series of landmark reports that assess the threat of climate change, is a code red for humanity, vividly explaining the alarming extent of the global crisis. As climate impact scholar Johan Rockström says, the alarm bell of climate change has been ringing for decades, but humanity kept hitting the snooze button. Now is the time to wake up and act. Message two: tipping points. We are now forced to consider the real risk of destabilizing the planet, as the big biophysical systems that regulate climate — from the Greenland ice sheet to the Amazon rainforest — approach their irreversible tipping points that could make Earth uninhabitable for humanity. As Rockström puts it: “We’re sleepwalking in a minefield.” Finally, message three: the window of opportunity is still open, but barely. He stresses the importance of all countries participating in the transformation to sustainability, going from billions to trillions in investment and putting end dates on coal and the combustion engine.


Gabriel Kra, climate tech investor

Big idea: We need to stop thinking about climate change as a problem and regard it more as an opportunity.

Why? We have better technologies, policies and, most importantly, a clearer sense of urgency bundled with some of the best minds of our time dedicated to solving the climate crisis. As an investor, Gabriel Kra knows this firsthand from his experience in Silicon Valley, where he has a bird’s-eye view of the entrepreneurs, inventors and fellow investors focused like never before on what he calls “the great business opportunity of our generation.” From his soaring optimism, he offers a few on-the-ground details from electric cars and alternative energies to sustainable architecture and optimized software that should be cause to share in his building excitement for these burgeoning technologies. And these examples are just the beginning, Kra explains. Each new or improved aspect paves a better and more realistic path toward a greener future. By constantly developing and revolutionizing innovations, we are on track to solve one of the biggest problems of our time — and that’s something to be wildly optimistic about.


Nigel Topping, UN High Level Climate Action Champion for COP26

Big idea: There are distinct pathways to transform the economy and ratchet up climate ambition.

How? As High Level Climate Action Champion for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26), Nigel Topping works to help economies scale up their climate ambitions in support of local governments ahead of the landmark meeting. So, what’s changed since the Paris Agreement of 2015? Topping says there’s a much stronger sense of urgency, driven in part by our lived experiences — the disruptions of climate change feel closer to home than ever — and the reality that we can not just achieve sustainability but instead make it the key development story of this century. The focus now should shift to positively disrupting the patterns of the global economy that keep us from climate action and creating ambition loops between policy and the private sector to accelerate progress.


Jim Hagemann Snabe, Chairman, Mærsk and Siemens

Big idea: We need dramatic, exponential scale expansion in solar, wind, green hydrogen and green fuel plants to deliver on the growing demand for green shipping.

How? At Mærsk, the world’s largest maritime shipping company, Jim Hagemann Snabe is leading an effort to decarbonize logistics by 2050. After looking at carbon-reducing options like “slow steaming” — slowing down the speed of a vessel so it uses less fuel — and running ships on battery power and liquid natural gas, Mærsk, the A. P. Moller Foundation and the Center for Zero Carbon Shipping in Copenhagen think they’ve landed on a viable path towards carbon neutrality for the shipping giant: Power-to-X. Through a special process, Power-to-X turns green electricity into a green liquid fuel that can be used in combustion engines, meaning existing ships can be retrofitted to run on renewable energy. While still expensive, the benefits of Power-to-X greatly outweigh the costs — and Hagemann Snabe urges governments to show leadership by imposing a global price on CO2, which would eliminate the affordability argument completely. “We have the technologies needed to create a sustainable future. What we need is leadership to get us there faster,” he says.


Monica Araya, electrification advocate

Big Idea: A global movement towards emissions-free transport is one of the key steps towards a sustainable future in the face of climate change — and everyone has a role to play.

How? Leading the shift towards clean transport, 70 organizations have come together to establish the Drive Electric campaign, an initiative pushing for all new road vehicle sales to be electric by 2035. Spearheading this movement over the crucial next five years, electrification advocate Monica Araya is working to set the world on a path towards completely emissions-free transportation — which will potentially cut 160 billion tons of cumulative carbon dioxide emissions. To reach these goals, she explains, we have to work with all levers of change, from cities to politicians to corporations to citizens so this goal can be funded — and realized. The price tag for change? Araya says the switch to all-electric will cost $1 billion — and announces that the Audacious Project, TED’s initiative to inspire and fund global change, has recently secured a breakthrough $300 million in funding towards this effort. With hopes of inspiring other industries to follow suit, these big leaps towards climate stability show that scalable change is possible and every effort towards it counts.


Melati Wijsen speaks at Session 1 of the TED Countdown Summit on October 12, 2021 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: TED)

Melati Wijsen, climate activist, social entrepreneur

Big idea: When starting on the journey of activism, young people need tools and support to lead and make the change they want to see in the world.

How? Activism is a tough job, especially for young people yearning for immediate change — something climate activist Melati Wijsen has learned over ten years of pushing for environmental protection, starting at age 12 in her home on the island of Bali, Indonesia. How can young changemakers acquire the skills they need and keep from burning out? First, Wijsen says, activists must take care of themselves. When exhaustion sets in, it’s time to take a break and rely on colleagues to continue the work. Second, create support networks to share resources, information and inspiration — like Circle of Youth within YOUTHTOPIA, an educational platform where activist peers learn from each other. Third, look out for companies touting youth activism to advance their brands — a tactic Wijsen calls “youthwashing.” Young people seeking change need seats at the bargaining table, not lip service for their causes.

Mark your calendar: Tune in to the Countdown Global Livestream on October 30, 2021. This virtual event will lay out a credible and realistic pathway to a zero-carbon future. Save the date.

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Up, up and away: Notes from Session 8 of TEDMonterey

“Life makes our planet an incredibly exotic place compared to the rest of the known universe,” says Betül Kaçar. She speaks at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism on August 4, 2021. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

TEDMonterey’s final session brought with it a reflection of the magic and generosity of spirit that grew with each talk throughout the week. In a town hall-style discussion, gratitude flooded the stage as attendees took to the spotlight to share which ideas from the conference inspired them most and how they plan to bring a brighter outlook back home and to their own communities. To close out the conference on a note of hope and possibility, five speakers shared a spectrum of uplifting ways to soar into the future.

The event: TEDMonterey: Session 8, hosted by TED’s Chris Anderson and Helen Walters on Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Speakers: Greg Brockman, Kevin Kelly, Amir Nizar Zuabi, Betül Kaçar, Alex Smith

Host Chris Anderson speaks with Greg Brockman about the not-so-distant future potentials of AI at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism on August 4, 2021. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Programmer and engineer Greg Brockman, in conversation with head of TED Chris Anderson

Big idea: The dawn of AI may not be playing out like people predicted, but it’s still developing promising applications.

How? Looking at current examples of artificial intelligence — head-scratching art, at-times laughable wordings — Greg Brockman believes that we should already view it as a time capsule, a moment froze in time when generative AI was young and naive. On the TEDMonterey stage, he shares the burgeoning potential displayed by these advancing neural networks and explains why these systems should be seen more like an “autocomplete” function rather than a declaration of unprecedented creativity. What really excites Brockman is the spark of understanding and glimmer of real intelligence already peeking through in these early days, and the how that can be directed and built upon. One such example is OpenAI Codex, an AI that has seen the entire internet and all the public source code it’s built from, which is being used to develop a helper product in partnership with GitHub and Microsoft for programmers. But one query hangs over the AI industry: How do you prevent unintended consequences with something that will one day be so powerful? Brockman believes this is a question in need of heavy consideration, an essential piece of the puzzle when it comes to moving forward with AI. So, while things like fabricated images of dogs giving TED Talks may seem like quaint and humble beginnings today, we must remember leading with humanity will be critical to society’s tomorrow.


Kevin Kelly, editor, author

Big idea: We have a moral obligation to be optimists.

Why? Every great breakthrough has required some sense of optimism, says Kevin Kelly. Quite simply: if people didn’t believe something was possible, it would have never gotten off the ground. With this idea as his lodestar, Kelly is a proponent of what he calls a “protopia” — not a delusional utopia, but rather a world where things get better incrementally, yield more good than bad and supply us with more reasons to hope than to fear. Three factors support this form of optimism: first, from life expectancy to decreased rates of violence, it is a fact of history that things have been getting slightly better over the decades; second, our capacity to solve problems will grow as we pass on the world to future generations; and third, problems are opportunities in disguise, landscapes that help push humanity forward. If we want to shape the future for the better, Kelly says, we first have to believe we can do it.


Amir Nizar Zuabi introduces us to Amal, a giant puppet who is walking across Europe to share her perspective on the refugee experience. He speaks at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism on August 4, 2021. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Amir Nizar Zuabi, theater writer, director

Big idea: New models of storytelling can help us re-engage with the global refugee crisis and honor the journey that hundreds of thousands of refugees have taken in search of safety. 

How? Amir Nizar Zuabi seeks to challenge the narrative around refugees. As a theater practitioner who works in Palestine, he tells stories that capture the complexity of the refugee experience — both its beauty and hardship. For his latest project, Zuabi partnered with the theater company Good Chance to create an experience that honors the hundreds of thousands of people who have traversed the European continent since the height of the refugee crisis in the summer of 2015. “The Walk” is a roaming festival that follows a nine-year-old girl from Syria named Amal, represented by a giant, life-like puppet, as she makes her way literally step-by-step across Europe from Syria’s border with Turkey to Manchester, England. It’s an uplifting portrayal of the refugee journey and a reminder of the creativity and community that shared experiences of art can provide.


Betül Kaçar, NASA astrobiologist

Big Idea: Understanding the chemical circumstances that create life could help us seed it in other parts of the cosmos.

Why? “Life makes our planet an incredibly exotic place compared to the rest of the known universe,” says Betül Kaçar. Recognizing the unique opportunity we earthlings have to study how life forms from nonliving materials, she emphasizes how close we are to understanding the chemistry behind life, including how it develops under a broader array of circumstances — and in other parts of the universe. Kaçar and her lab engineer ancient DNA and environments to understand the recipe of life and the link between living and nonliving materials. Inviting us to imagine cultivating life on other planets, she asks: What if instead of bringing Earth’s life to other parts of the universe, life could be created from the materials that already exist there? With her extraordinary propositions come extraordinary quandaries that dig deep into the purpose of life — and bring with them the ethical dilemmas of spreading life throughout the cosmos. Kaçar asks us to look up and broaden our gaze, because the possibilities of life are endless.


Alex Smith tells the TED audience about the exact moment his life changed forever. He speaks at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism. on August 4, 2021. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Alex Smith, former NFL quarterback 

Big idea: To get through the anxiety of life’s challenges and setbacks, hold onto the people and things that inspire you to dream and live fully.

How? As Alex Smith awoke in the hospital after a catastrophic injury that all but destroyed his leg, his doctor broke the bad news: “Flesh-eating bacteria is crawling up your leg,” he said. “It’s getting closer to your vital organs every minute.” At that moment, as at many points throughout his career, Smith felt deep anxiety and fear. Taking us on his road to recovery that required around-the-clock medical care and intense physical therapy, he shares how he was able to mentally recover by leaning on the wisdom and support of those around him. From his former coach Jim Harbaugh, he remembered to stop worrying about the pressure. From his teammate Blake Costanzo, he learned to focus on living  every moment as it came. From his wife, he understood that he needed to face his fears head-on in order to deal with them and move forward. “I’ve learned that so much of the anxiety that holds us back is self-inflicted. And it’s ok if we need someone else to help us,” he says. “You might not have a leg like this. But I bet you’ve got some scars. And my hope for you is this: look at them, own them. It’s the best reminder you’ll ever have that there’s a whole world out there, and we’ve got a whole lot of living left to do.”

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Leadership: Notes from Session 2 of the Countdown Global Launch

Countdown is a global initiative to accelerate solutions to the climate crisis. Watch the talks, interviews and performances from the Countdown Global Launch at ted.com/countdown.

Actor, musician and activist Jaden Smith cohosts session 2 of the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

The climate crisis demands leadership at every level. Governments, cities and businesses are three key players in designing and implementing the necessary transition. In Session 2 of the Countdown Global Launch, cohosted by climate advocate Al Gore and actor, musician and activist Jaden Smith, speakers discussed putting climate back on the political and social agenda, rethinking cities and what businesses can do to transform.

Gore and Smith opened the session by talking about how young people are at the forefront of climate activism, and discussed the global art collaboration between Countdown and Fine Acts: ten public artworks on the topic of climate change, аll launching on 10.10.2020 in ten cities around the world, all created by TED Fellows.

Climate advocate Al Gore cohosts session 2 of the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

The talks in brief:

Severn Cullis-Suzuki, environmental educator

Big idea: Nearly 30 years ago, 12-year-old Severn Cullis-Suzuki spoke at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit in hopes of reversing the planet’s slide into ecological disaster. Some at the summit listened, producing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, among other then-radical documents. But for the rest of the world, it was business, politics and full-steam-ahead economic growth. Now in 2020, with the Paris Agreement once again stoking the fervor to fight climate change, it’s time to make sure governments actually listen. 

How? Cullis-Suzuki believes that crises can show us not only the potential for societies to react decisively against existential threats, but also expose the inequities, injustices and weaknesses of our infrastructure. COVID-19 is one such crisis: it has sparked calls for social justice and shown just how deadly indecision can be. Cullis-Suzuki believes it’s a warning. She reminds us that if we don’t change, next time could be far worse. This time, if we can make our actions reflect our words around climate change, we can work towards a better world for our children.  


Ursula von der Leyen discusses the EU’s ambitious plan to become the first carbon-free continent by 2050. She speaks at the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission

Big idea: The European Union has committed to becoming the first carbon-free continent by 2050, with the goal of reducing emissions by at least 55 percent by 2030. These ambitious goals are vital — and possible — and they require everyone’s participation. 

How? The evidence of climate change is unfolding before us: melting glaciers, forest fires, unpredictable weather. This is only the beginning. Such extreme circumstances call for extreme action, and that is exactly what Ursula von der Leyen has laid out in response. Resolving not to be derailed by COVID-19, the EU’s commitment to climate action milestones is now stronger than ever, von der Leyen says. She details some of the 50 actions in the European Green Deal aimed at building a more sustainable world, such as planting trees, creating a circular economy, recycling and more. With the crisis escalating every day, she calls for action from every direction.


Olafur Eliasson, artist

Big idea: Known for big, attention-grabbing installations — like his four towering waterfalls in New York’s East River — Olafur Eliasson has scaled down his latest project: an art platform for kids designed to spur budding climate activists to lead discussions on some of the biggest issues on the planet.

How? Inspired by world-shaping movements helmed by the planet’s youngest environmentalists, Eliasson built Earth Speakr, an app that helps concerned kids get serious messages in front of adults in a fun, novel way. The app uses AR to let kids animate photos of anything — trees, rocks, water — and record a message from nature, speaking in their own voices. These recorded messages help get the word out about the issues kids care about most — conservation, climate change, pollution and more.


Rebecca Henderson, capitalism rethinker

Big idea: Capitalism is driving climate change — but for-profit businesses can also help fix it. 

How? “We let capitalism morph into something monstrous,” says economist Rebecca Henderson. Companies emit massive amounts of greenhouse gases that wreck the environment and harm human health, and governments don’t hold them accountable to pay for the damages. If governments won’t do it, Henderson says, it’s time for businesses themselves to step up on their own. Sound counterintuitive? Henderson thinks it may be the only option: it’ll be hard to stay in business if the world continues to be rocked by the negative effects of climate change. She’s confident that business leaders can start to marshal change with a four-pronged framework: start paying for the climate damage they cause; persuade competitors to do the same; let investors know there’s money to be made in a clean economy; and convince governments to implement these changes far and wide. “The truth is: business is screwed if we don’t fix climate change,” Henderson says.


If trees could talk, what would they say? Novelist Elif Shafak shares her answer at the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Elif Shafak, novelist and political scientist

Big idea: There is a sublime art at the heart of storytelling: the art of foregrounding silence, bringing to light things that we don’t talk about, and using these things to “speak louder than demagoguery and apathy.” Writers can learn to voice the unspoken loudly enough to inspire action.

How? “One of the many beauties of the art of storytelling is to imagine yourself inside someone else’s voice,” says writer Elif Shafak. Surprisingly, we can learn a lot from imagining the voices of trees, whose experience of time, stillness and impermanence are utterly different than our own. Listen to the trees, she says, and discover that “hidden inside [their] story is the past and the future of humanity.” 


Jesper Brodin, CEO of Ingka Group (IKEA), in conversation with Pia Heidenmark Cook, CSO of Ingka Group (IKEA)

Big idea: Success in business doesn’t mean being at odds with the Earth. What’s good for climate can be good for business, too. 

How? Jesper Brodin and Pia Heidenmark Cook discuss the company’s ambitious commitment to go climate positive (going beyond net-zero emissions by actually removing carbon from the atmosphere) by 2030 — and still remain profitable. The popular Swedish furniture and design company is rethinking how to make their entire business sustainable, from their raw materials and supply chain and to their products’ disposal. Their plan includes sourcing sustainable cotton for fabrics, buying wood from solely sustainable sources by the end of 2020 and committing to fully renewable and recycled materials for all their products by 2030. They’re also thinking about how to extend the life of products, once people have already bought them, through reuse, repurposing or recycling. The exciting part about their plan, Brodin and Cook say, is that none of these innovations will affect the quality, form, function and affordability of their products.


Dave Clark, SVP of worldwide operations at Amazon, and Kara Hurst, head of worldwide sustainability at Amazon

Big idea: Amazon is making a commitment to sustainability across its expansive array of businesses — and inviting other companies to do the same.

How? In 2019, Amazon cofounded the Climate Pledge, a commitment to become a net-zero carbon company by 2040. Dave Clark and Kara Hurst discuss how they’re working together to reduce Amazon’s carbon footprint across all aspects of business, from embedding sustainability teams throughout the organization to rethinking entire supply chains. For instance, last year Amazon ordered 100,000 electric delivery vehicles from the startup Rivian in an effort to begin converting the company’s fleet to renewable energy. The scale of transformation will be massive, Clark and Hurst say, and they’re encouraging other companies to follow suit. “One thing we know about the scale of the urgent challenge we have in front of us is that it’s going to take everyone. We cannot do it alone,” Hurst says, “It’s going to take companies and governments, communities and individuals, to come up with solutions, new innovations and technologies.”


Aparna Nancherla, comedian

Big idea: Taking out the trash can be fun.

Why? If you love garbage, you can get an endless supply with “the stuff that our modernist, consumer, carbon-powered culture makes us buy endlessly, and often for no good reason,” says Aparna Nancherla. She runs through the pleasure and pain of garbage, from “micro-decluttering” by throwing things away, to the fact that only 10 percent of our plastic gets recycled. Nancherla shares the dire state of our recycling industry (imagining the Pacific garbage patch as a wedding destination), but there’s also plenty of humor around just how hard it is to stay green in a world that’s choking on ever-larger piles of trash.


Carlos Moreno introduces the 15-minute city: a new way of redesigning urban spaces that puts people’s basic needs within a 15-minute walk, at all times. He speaks at the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Carlos Moreno, scientific director, Panthéon Sorbonne University-IAE Paris

Big idea: Urban areas should be built to function as “15-minute cities,” so that inhabitants have access to all services they need to live, learn and thrive within their immediate vicinity.

How? City life has become more inconvenient than ever, with long commutes, underutilized spaces and lack of access. Our acceptance of this dysfunction has reached a peak. Carlos Moreno invites us to ask ourselves: “What do we need to create a 15-minute city?” This would mean access to necessities like school, work, parks, cultural centers, shops and living space all within a 15-minute walk, at all times. Moreno’s ideas to create cities like this are guided by four principles: ecology, proximity, solidarity and participation, with inhabitants actively taking part in their neighborhoods’ transformations. He calls for urban areas to adapt to humans, not the other way around. 


Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, the Mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone, shares how her city is planting one million trees in just two years. She speaks at the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, Mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone

Big idea: Trees offer us a crucial way to trap carbon and save the climate. Get planting.

How? Driving home one day outside Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr gazed out at the landscape in horror. The lush green forest she used to know had disappeared, replaced with barren hills. The shock wasn’t merely visual. Without trees standing as a critical bulwark against land erosion, the citizens of Freetown — where more than 70 informal settlements have sprung up in the last two decades — are at great risk of catastrophic effects of climate change, a fact driven home in August 2017, when a massive landslide killed 1,000 people there in less than five minutes. In that moment, Aki-Sawyerr vowed to save her city in the most direct way she could — she ran for mayor, won and has now committed to making Freetown a “tree town” once again. She’s on track to increase vegetation cover in the city by 50 percent by the end of her term in 2022, planting one million trees along the way. Freetown citizens have planted half a million seedlings so far, all tracked using a custom app, setting the stage for a safer environment and stirring collective civic pride. “A million trees is our city’s small contribution to increasing the much-needed global carbon sink,” Aki-Sawyerr says.


Actress and musician Yemi Alade performs “True Love” at the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Actress and musician Yemi Alade joins the show to close out the session, singing and dancing to the upbeat tune “True Love.”

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TED and Future Stewards announce Countdown, a global initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis

Par : TED Staff

Prince William, His Holiness Pope Francis, Yemi Alade, Monica Araya, Xiye Bastida, Jesper Brodin, Don Cheadle, Dave Clark, Christiana Figueres, Al Gore, António Guterres, Chris Hemsworth, Kara Hurst, Lisa Jackson, Rose Mutiso, Johan Rockström, Prince Royce, Mark Ruffalo, Sigrid, Jaden Smith, Nigel Topping and Ursula von der Leyen join scientists, activists, artists, schools and leaders from business and government to accelerate and amplify solutions

Countdown, a global initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis, will launch on October 10, 2020 with a free five-hour live virtual event featuring leading thinkers and doers. This is the moment to act, and they will outline what a healthy, abundant, zero-emission future can look like—turning ideas into action. The event will combine TED’s signature blend of actionable and research-backed ideas, cutting-edge science, and moments of wonder and inspiration. Countdown is one part of a broader series of actions and events this fall including the Bloomberg Green Festival, Climate Week NYC and others, all with the collective objective of informing and activating millions in the lead-up to a successful UN Climate Change Conference in November 2021.

The Countdown launch will be streamed live on TED’s YouTube channel. This global event will be the first-ever TED conference that is free and open to the public. Segments from the event, including the biggest talks and performances, will be made available immediately across all digital platforms. The program includes 50+ pieces of content—talks, performances, animations and more. Speakers will touch on topics such as:

  • Climate science and the climate crisis: Where are we today?

  • Why climate justice matters

  • Putting climate back on the political and social agenda

  • What businesses can do—and are doing—to transform and transition

  • Rethinking our cities

  • Stepping up at work and at home

  • The path to a safer, cleaner, fairer future for people and the planet

A full agenda and speaker list can be found here.

In addition to the live global event, over 500 TEDx Countdown virtual events in nine languages are planned around the world, encouraging communities and citizens to take action locally while also feeding local solutions and ideas into the global conversation. Countdown has also convened a global Youth Council of recognized activists who will help shape the Countdown agenda throughout the year. Additionally, Countdown is working to engage people through art with ten public art installations in global cities around the 10.10.20 event and open calls for art––illustration and photography––to run throughout the year on the Countdown website.

“The moment to act on climate change has been upon us for too long, and now is the time to unite all levels of society—business leaders, courageous political actors, scientists and individuals—to get to net-zero emissions before 2050,” said Chris Anderson, Countdown founding partner and Head of TED. “Climate is a top priority for TED and members of our community, and we are proud to fully dedicate our organization in the fight for our collective future.”

Countdown brings together a powerful collaboration of partners from all sectors to act on climate change,” said Lindsay Levin, Countdown founding partner and CEO of Leaders’ Quest. “We need to work together with courage and compassion to deliver a healthy, fair, resilient future for everyone.”

With so many people who have already committed to addressing climate change, Countdown is about radical collaboration—convening all stakeholders to build on the critical work already underway and bringing existing, powerful solutions to an even broader audience. Powered by TED and Future Stewards, Countdown aims to answer five fundamental, interconnected questions that inform a blueprint for a better future:

  • ENERGY: How rapidly can we switch to 100% clean power?

  • TRANSPORT: How can we upgrade the way we move people and things?

  • MATERIALS: How can we re-imagine and re-make the stuff around us?

  • FOOD: How can we spark a worldwide shift to healthier food systems?

  • NATURE: How do we better protect and re-green the earth?

Countdown is asking companies and organizations to join the Race to Zero through Business Ambition for 1.5°C, which is a commitment to set science-based targets aligned with limiting global warming to 1.5°C, and through The Climate Pledge, which calls on signatories to be net-zero carbon by 2040—a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement goal of 2050.

“We can inspire others through action and example, because there is no hope without action,” said 17-year-old climate justice activist Xiye Bastida, a lead organizer of the Fridays for Future youth climate strike movement. “We are fighting to ensure this planet survives and flourishes for future generations, which requires intergenerational cooperation. Countdown is about coming together across ages and sectors to protect the earth and ensure we leave it better than we found it.”

“Five years after the unanimous signing of the Paris Agreement, many countries, companies and citizens are doing what they can about the climate crisis. But this is not enough,” said Christiana Figueres, former UN climate chief (2010-2016), now co-founder of Global Optimism. “We have this decisive decade to achieve what is necessary—cutting global emissions in half over the next ten years is vital to meeting the goal of net zero by 2050. I am delighted to partner with Countdown to increase the global stock of stubborn optimism that is needed to push every company and country—and engage citizens—in actions that decouple carbon from our economy and way of life in this decade.”

Following the launch, Countdown will facilitate a number of sector leader working groups along with the initiative’s network of partner organizations through November 2021. These will focus on delivering breakthrough progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the lead-up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow. During next year’s Countdown Summit (October 12-15, 2021, Edinburgh, Scotland), the initiative will share an actionable blueprint for a net-zero future and celebrate the progress that’s already been made.

Citizens are the critical component of this initiative and anyone can #JoinTheCountdown by:

Connect at Countdown@ted.com

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, often in the form of short talks delivered by leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED conferences, intimate TED Salons and thousands of independently organized TEDx events around the world. Videos of these talks are made available, free, on TED.com and other platforms. Audio versions of TED Talks are published to TED Talks Daily, available on all podcast platforms.

Follow TED on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and on LinkedIn.

About Future Stewards

Future Stewards is a coalition of partners (Leaders’ Quest, Global Optimism and We Mean Business) working together to build a regenerative future – where we meet the needs of all, within the means of the planet. Founded after the Paris Agreement, Future Stewards equips individuals, businesses and communities with the awareness and tools required to tackle systemic problems, scale what works and build cross-sector collaboration.

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Ignite: The talks of TED@WellsFargo

TED curator Cyndi Stivers opens TED@WellsFargo at the Knight Theater on February 5, 2020, in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

World-changing ideas that unearth solutions and ignite progress can come from anywhere. With that spirit in mind at TED@WellsFargo, thirteen speakers showcased how human empathy and problem-solving can combine with technology to transform lives (and banking) for the better.

The event: TED@WellsFargo, a day of thought-provoking talks on topics including how to handle challenging situations at work, the value of giving back and why differences can be strengths. It’s the first time TED and Wells Fargo have partnered to create inspiring talks from Wells Fargo Team Members.

When and where: Wednesday, February 5, 2020, at the Knight Theater in Charlotte, North Carolina

Opening and closing remarks: David Galloreese, Wells Fargo Head of Human Resources, and Jamie Moldafsky, Wells Fargo Chief Marketing Officer

Performances by: Dancer Simone Cooper and singer/songwriter Jason Jet and his band

The talks in brief:

“What airlines don’t tell you is that putting your oxygen mask on first, while seeing those around you struggle, it takes a lot of courage. But being able to have that self-control is sometimes the only way that we are able to help those around us,” says sales and trading analyst Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez. She speaks at TED@WellsFargo at the Knight Theater on February 5, 2020, in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez, sales and trading analyst

Big idea: As an immigrant, learning to thrive in America while watching other immigrants struggle oddly echoes what flight attendants instruct us to do when the oxygen masks drop in an emergency landing: if you want to help others put on their masks, you must put on your own mask first.

How? At age 15, Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez found herself alone in the US when her parents were forced to return to Mexico, taking her eight-year-old brother with them. For eight years, she diligently completed her education — and grappled with guilt, believing she wasn’t doing enough to aid fellow immigrants. Now working as a sales and trading analyst while guiding her brother through school in New York, she’s learned a valuable truth: in an emergency, you can’t save others until you save yourself.

Quote of the talk: “Immigrants [can’t] and will never be able to fit into any one narrative, because most of us are actually just traveling along a spectrum, trying to survive.”


Matt Trombley, customer remediation supervisor

Big idea: Agonism — “taking a warlike stance in contexts that are not literally war” — plagues many aspects of modern-day life, from the way we look at our neighbors to the way we talk about politics. Can we work our way out of this divisive mindset?

How: Often we think that those we disagree with are our enemies, or that we must approve of everything our loved ones say or believe. Not surprisingly, this is disastrous for relationships. Matt Trombley shows us how to fight agonism by cultivating common ground (working to find just a single shared thread with someone) and by forgiving others for the slights that we believe their values cause us. If we do this, our relationships will truly come to life.

Quote of the talk: “When you can find even the smallest bit of common ground with somebody, it allows you to understand just the beautiful wonder and complexity and majesty of the other person.”


Dorothy Walker, project manager

Big idea: Anybody can help resolve a conflict — between friends, coworkers, strangers, your children — with three simple steps.

How? Step one: prepare. Whenever possible, set a future date and time to work through a conflict, when emotions aren’t running as high. Step two: defuse and move forward. When you do begin mediating the conflict, start off by observing, listening and asking neutral questions; this will cause both parties to stop and think, and give you a chance to shift positive energy into the conversation. Finally, step three: make an agreement. Once the energy of the conflict has settled, it’s time to get an agreement (either written or verbal) so everybody can walk away with a peaceful resolution.

Quote of the talk: “There is a resolution to all conflicts. It just takes your willingness to try.”


Charles Smith, branch manager

Big idea: The high rate of veteran suicide is intolerable — and potentially avoidable. By prioritizing the mental health of military service members both during and after active duty, we can save lives.

How? There are actionable solutions to end the devastating epidemic of military suicide, says Charles Smith. First, by implementing a standard mental health evaluation to military applicants, we can better gauge the preliminary markers of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression. Data is a vital part of the solution: if we keep better track of mental health data on service members, we can also predict where support is most needed and create those structures proactively. By identifying those with a higher risk early on in their military careers, we can ensure they have appropriate care during their service and connect them to the resources they need once they are discharged, enabling veterans to securely and safely rejoin civilian life.

Quote of the talk: “If we put our minds and resources together, and we openly talk and try to find solutions for this epidemic, hopefully, we can save a life.”

“We all know retirement is all about saving more now, for later. What if we treated our mental health and overall well-being in the same capacity? Develop and save more of you now, for later in life,” says premier banker Rob Cooke. He speaks at TED@WellsFargo at the Knight Theater on February 5, 2020, in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Rob Cooke, premier banker

Big idea: Work-related stress costs us a lot, in our lives and the economy. We need to reframe the way we manage stress — both in our workplaces and in our minds.

How? “We tend to think of [stress] as a consequence, but I see it as a culture,” says Rob Cooke. Despite massive global investments in the wellness industry, we are still losing trillions of dollars due to a stress-related decrease in employee productivity and illness. Cooke shares a multifaceted approach to shifting the way stress is managed, internally and culturally. It starts with corporations prioritizing the well-being of employees, governments incentivizing high standards for workplace wellness and individually nurturing our relationship with our own mental health.

Quote of the talk: “We all know retirement is all about saving more now, for later. What if we treated our mental health and overall well-being in the same capacity? Develop and save more of you now, for later in life.”


Aeris Nguyen, learning and development facilitator

Big idea: What would our world be like if we could use DNA to verify our identity?

Why? Every year, millions of people have their identities stolen or misused. This fact got Aeris Nguyen thinking about how to safeguard our information for good. She shares an ambitious thought experiment, asking: Can we use our own bodies to verify our selves? While biometric data such as facial or palm print recognition have their own pitfalls (they can be easily fooled by, say, wearing a specially lighted hat or using a wax hand), what if we could use our DNA — our blood, hair or earwax? Nguyen acknowledges the ethical dilemmas and logistical nightmares that would come with collecting and storing more than seven billion files of DNA, but she can’t help but wonder if someday, in the far future, this will become the norm.

Quote of the talk: “Don’t you find it strange that we carry around these arbitrary, government assigned numbers or pieces of paper with our picture on it and some made-up passwords to prove we are who we say we are?  When, in fact, the most rock-solid proof of our identity is something we carry around in our cells — our DNA.”

“To anyone reeling from forces trying to knock you down and cram you into these neat little boxes people have decided for you — don’t break. I see you. My ancestors see you. Their blood runs through me as they run through so many of us. You are valid. And you deserve rights and recognition. Just like everyone else,” says France Villarta. He speaks at TED@WellsFargo at the Knight Theater on February 5, 2020, in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

France Villarta, communications consultant

Big idea: Modern ideas of gender are much older than we may think.

How? In many cultures around the world, the social construct of gender is binary — man or woman, assigned certain characteristics and traits, all designated by biological sex. But that’s not the case for every culture. France Villarta details the gender-fluid history of his native Philippines and how the influence of colonial rule forced narrow-minded beliefs onto its people. In a talk that’s part cultural love letter, part history lesson, Villarta emphasizes the beauty and need in reclaiming gender identities. “Oftentimes, we think of something as strange only because we’re not familiar with it or haven’t taken enough time to try and understand,” he says. “The good thing about social constructs is that they can be reconstructed — to fit a time and age.”

Quote of the talk: “To anyone reeling from forces trying to knock you down and cram you into these neat little boxes people have decided for you — don’t break. I see you. My ancestors see you. Their blood runs through me as they run through so many of us. You are valid. And you deserve rights and recognition. Just like everyone else.”

Dancer Simone Cooper performs a self-choreographed dance onstage at TED@WellsFargo at the Knight Theater on February 5, 2020, in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Dean Furness, analytic consultant

Big idea: You can overcome personal challenges by focusing on yourself, instead of making comparisons to others.

How? After a farming accident paralyzed Dean Furness below the waist, he began the process of adjusting to life in a wheelchair. He realized he’d have to nurture and focus on this new version of himself, rather than fixate on his former height, strength and mobility. With several years of rehabilitation and encouragement from his physical therapist, Furness began competing in the Chicago and Boston marathons as a wheelchair athlete. By learning how to own each day, he says, we can all work to get better, little by little.

Quote of the talk: “Take some time and focus on you, instead of others. I bet you can win those challenges and really start accomplishing great things.”


John Puthenveetil, financial advisor

Big idea: Because of the uncertain world we live in, many seek solace from “certainty merchants” — like physicians, priests and financial advisors. Given the complex, chaotic mechanisms of our economy, we’re better off discarding “certainty” for better planning.

How? We must embrace adaptable plans that address all probable contingencies, not just the most obvious ones. This is a crucial component of “scenario-based planning,” says John Puthenveetil. We should always aim for being approximately right rather than precisely wrong. But this only works if we pay attention, heed portents of possible change and act decisively — even when that’s uncomfortable.

Quote of the talk: “It is up to us to use [scenario-based planning] wisely: Not out of a sense of weakness or fear, but out of the strength and conviction that comes from knowing that we are prepared to play the hand that is dealt.”


Johanna Figueira, digital marketing consultant

Big idea: The world is more connected than ever, but some communities are still being cut off from vital resources. The solution? Digitally matching professional expertise with locals who know what their communities really need.

How? Johanna Figueira is one of millions who has left Venezuela due to economic crisis, crumbling infrastructure and decline in health care — but she hasn’t left these issues behind. With the help of those still living in the country, Figueira helped organize Code for Venezuela — a platform that matches experts with communities in need to create simple, effective tools to improve quality of life. She shares two of their most successful projects: MediTweet, an intelligent Twitter bot that helps Venezuelans find medicinal supplies, and Blackout Tracker, a tool that helps pinpoint power cuts in Venezuela that the government won’t report. Her organization shows the massive difference made when locals participate in their own solutions.

Quote of the talk: “Some people in Silicon Valley may look at these projects and say that they’re not major technological innovations. But that’s the point. These projects are not insanely advanced — but it’s what the people of Venezuela need, and they can have a tremendous impact.”


Jeanne Goldie, branch sales manager

Big idea: We’re looking for dynamic hotbeds of innovation in all the wrong places.

How? Often, society looks to the young for the next big thing, leaving older generations to languish in their shadow until being shuffled out altogether, taking their brain power and productivity with them. Instead of discarding today’s senior workforce, Jeanne Goldie suggests we tap into their years of experience and retrain them, just as space flight has moved from the disposable rockets of NASA’s moon launches to today’s reusable Space X models.

Quote of the talk: “If we look at data and technology as the tools they are … but not as the answer, we can come up with better solutions to our most challenging problems.”


Rebecca Knill, business systems consultant

Big idea: By shifting our cultural understanding of ability and using technology to connect, we can build a more inclusive and human world.

How? The medical advances of modern technology have improved accessibility for disabled communities. Rebecca Knill, a self-described cyborg who has a cochlear implant, believes the next step to a more connected world is changing our perspectives. For example, being deaf isn’t shameful or pitiful, says Knill — it’s just a different way of navigating the world. To take full advantage of the fantastic opportunities new technology offers us, we must drop our assumptions and meet differences with empathy.

Quote of the talk: “Technology has come so far. Our mindset just needs to catch up.”

“We have to learn to accept where people are and adjust ourselves to handle those situations … to recognize when it is time to professionally walk away from someone,” says business consultant Anastasia Penright. She speaks at TED@WellsFargo at the Knight Theater on February 5, 2020, in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Anastasia Penright, business consultant

Big idea: No workplace is immune to drama, but there are steps we can follow to remove ourselves from the chatter and focus on what’s really important.

How? No matter your industry, chances are you’ve experienced workplace drama. In a funny and relatable talk, Anastasia Penright shares a better way to coexist with our coworkers using five simple steps she’s taken to leave drama behind and excel in her career. First, we must honestly evaluate our own role in creating and perpetuating conflicts; then evaluate our thoughts and stop thinking about every possible scenario. Next, it’s important to release our negative energy to a trusted confidant (a “venting buddy”) while trying to understand and accept the unique communication styles and work languages of our colleagues. Finally, she says, we need to recognize when we’re about to step into drama and protect our energy by simply walking away.

Quote of the talk: “We have to learn to accept where people are and adjust ourselves to handle those situations … to recognize when it is time to professionally walk away from someone.”

Jason Jet performs the toe-tapping, electro-soul song “Time Machine” at TED@WellsFargo at the Knight Theater on February 5, 2020, in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Next Wave: A night of talks from TED and Zebra Technologies

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is bringing a tsunami of change that will dramatically affect how we interact with and adapt to technology. The ways we choose to ride this wave will determine the shape of our future. Will we use this as an opportunity to solve our most pressing issues, or allow it to become a calamity that divides us?

At TED Salon: The Next Wave, presented by TED and Zebra Technologies and hosted by TED’s Bryn Freedman, five speakers and one performer explored the tools and expertise we’ll harness to build the future.

Does artificial intelligence keep humans from learning too? AI is more and more important in our workplaces, but there’s a big catch, says researcher Matt Beane: it’s threatening our own ability to learn on the job. Beane studies the relationship between humans and AI, and he’s found that, in industries ranging from investment banking to surgery, the story is the same: As tools get more sophisticated, workers (especially people just starting out) get fewer opportunities for hands-on learning, the kind that involves struggle, practice and mentorship. The paradox: That’s the very experience necessary to leverage sophisticated tools. “Organizations are trying harder and harder to get results from AI,” he says, “but we’re handling it in a way that blocks learning on the job.” It’s early days for AI in most fields — though by 2030, half a billion of us will be using it in some way — so Beane’s talk is an important corrective right now. What can be done? He shares a vision that flips the current story into one of distributed, AI-enhanced mentorships that empower everyone to learn and grow wiser. 

Tiana Epps-Johnson shares her work helping local election officials learn the skills and technologies they need to run modern-day elections. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Empowering local election officials. “Voting is one of the most tangible ways that each and every one of us can shape our communities,” says civic engagement champion Tiana Epps-Johnson. And yet, compared to the rest of the world, the United States has one of the lowest voter turnout rates. Why does the US fall so far behind? Epps-Johnson identifies the main issue as outdated technology. But her approach to fixing this problem is more targeted than simply getting newer technologies out there. She focuses on an important but untapped resource for election modernization: local election officials. These are the people on the ground, the ones who are supposed to make voting the best possible experience for the voters in their counties. Currently, many of them lack the basic skills needed to achieve this goal. Epps-Johnson works with local election officials to train these officials in the skills needed for modern-day elections — such as using social media to get the word out, harnessing data to improve the voting process, or creating and maintaining a website for voters in their county. “If you’re ready to help millions, if you’re ready to close the gap between the system that we have and the system that we deserve, we need you,” Epps-Johnson says.

Automation and its discontents. What’s the future of work? That’s the question that Roy Bahat, head of the venture firm Bloomberg Beta, has spent the past two years trying to answer. He helped lead a wide-ranging project to understand how technology will impact work over the next 10 to 20 years — interviewing AI experts, video game designers, educators, truckers, inmates and everyone in between to identify concerns and emerging trends. In a candid conversation with Bryn Freedman, curator of the TED Institute, Bahat shares insights from his findings, discussing two major themes that surfaced: stability and dignity. First and foremost, Bahat says, people want a stable and secure income. Beyond that, people kept bringing up the idea of dignity — of feeling needed and finding self-worth through work. As automation increases, we need to create respect for work like caregiving and educating — jobs that can’t be replaced by robots, Bahat says. If we can do that, we’ll be prepared for the future of work.

Design technologist James Morley-Smith shares how a challenging family experience helped him come up with a new approach to design. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Start by thinking about impairments. When design technologist James Morley-Smith’s son Fintan was five months old, he was diagnosed with an eye cancer that eventually led to a complete loss of vision. Fintan, who is “incredibly resilient,” has learned Braille and excels at school and in playing the piano. This last activity led to Morley-Smith’s epiphany — he saw how Fintan’s piano instructor took his impairments into account and decided to teach him songs on only the black keys first so Fintan could use them as anchors for the white keys. In his work at Zebra, Morley-Smith designs for employees who are often in noisy, poorly lit industrial settings and clad in bulky protective gear. By following the black-keys tactic, he’s factoring in users’ limitations from the get-go. By making small changes — such as increasing type size and ensuring that interfaces can be handled easily with gloved fingers — he has increased productivity by up to 20 percent in some cases. Morley-Smith believes we can apply this thinking to every aspect of our lives. “It doesn’t matter what is impairing you from reaching your goals,” he says. “Reframe them so they are no longer a disability, and they might just be the advantage you need.”

Naia Izumi performs his own song, “Soft Spoken,” the elegantly complex tune that won him the 2018 NPR Tiny Desk Contest, during the TED Salon: The Next Wave. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

An electric, genre-bending performance. Singer and guitarist Naia Izumi has had quite a year — while the Georgia native was busking on the streets of Los Angeles, he submitted to the 2018 NPR Tiny Desk Contest, and he won! He’s now busily on tour along the East Coast, and he swung by the TED office to share his winning song. Encouraging the audience to join in the beat, Izumi played his song “Soft Spoken,” a soulful, genre-hopping tune that draws from his personal story and his musical roots, and features his innovative, percussive guitar style under heavenly vocals.

Ensuring our right to cognitive liberty. Brain reading tech is on the horizon, says bioethicist Nita A. Farahany, and we need to be prepared. The technology to translate thoughts is advancing every day; using electroencephalography (EEG) monitors similar to the fitness wristbands that track heart rate and sleep, we can decode thoughts of shapes and numbers — and even track emotional states. Real-world applications of this tech are already in practice globally in the manufacturing, automotive and entertainment industries. While the potential for this technology is groundbreaking and thrilling, Farahany warns of a darker future, in which the government can surveil and criminalize certain thought patterns, and private interests can capture and sell our brain data. The right to cognitive liberty, she says, is a fundamental human right, alongside self-determination and freedom of speech. We need to demand and secure legal protections for our brain data, she concludes, because our right to thought privacy is too important to risk.

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‘Crazy Rich Asians’ shows that diversity onscreen is a win for everyone

Actress Michelle Yeoh in a scene from "Crazy Rich Asians." (Photo by Sanja Bucko) © 2017 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and SK Global Entertainment

Michelle Yeoh, center, in a scene from “Crazy Rich Asians.” Photo by Sanja Bucko © 2017 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and SK Global Entertainment

Crazy Rich Asians, a new Hollywood film that is an adaptation of the best-selling book by Kevin Kwan, topped the box office over the weekend, proving the “power of diversity (again).”

The romantic comedy is a major motion picture with big studio backing and a reported budget of $30 million. For Hollywood it also presents something unique: an all-Asian cast. As The New York Times reported last week, “The last time a major Hollywood film set in the present day showcased a majority Asian cast was a whopping 25 years ago, with The Joy Luck Club in 1993.”

NYT writer Robert Ito called Crazy Rich Asians something of a “cinematic Halley’s comet because — before Joy Luck Club, there was The Flower Drum Song in 1961, and then what?”

The film was not only an incredible opportunity for Asian actors, but also for Asian- and Asian-American moviegoers. The filmmaker and Kwan turned down a lucrative deal with Netflix in order to get to the silver screen. “Ultimately, we decided Netflix is probably the future. But right now, it’s not,” director Jon M. Chu told Vanity Fair. “We’re really focused on the financial victory of people showing up so that other voices can be heard and other stories can be told.”

Hollywood has made depressingly little progress

Despite the big opening for Chu’s film, a recent report from Stacy Smith’s research team at the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, “Inequality in 1,100 Popular Films,” revealed some disappointing data for women and particularly women of color in Hollywood. Of the top 100 films in 2017, two thirds didn’t include a single Asian or Asian-American character. Two-thirds. Among the female leads, only 4 actors out of the 33 films that had female leads weren’t white.

None were Asian.

Courtesy of Annenberg Inclusion Initiative

The smaller screen is no better. A recent study by Asian-American Pacific Islander academics found that 64% of television shows do not include one Asian or Asian-American character.

With all the talk in Hollywood of inclusion and diversity, we’d all hoped to see some movement in these numbers over the past few years. But the study reveals just how little top-grossing movies have changed when it comes to the on-screen prevalence and portrayal of females, underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, the LGBT community and individuals with disabilities.

In order to combat ongoing inequality in film, report authors offer several solutions.

Put more women in charge.

The answer to addressing “on-screen diversity deficits may lie behind the scenes,” Dr. Stacy Smith and her co-authors of the Annenberg report write: “The presence of a female in the directing or writing role is associated with more female characters on screen. The same is true for Black directors and Black characters — particularly Black female characters.”

One woman with power agrees. In the September issue of Vogue, Beyoncé told journalist Clover Hope why she insisted on working with “this brilliant 23-year-old photographer Tyler Mitchell.” At 23, Mitchell is among the youngest photographers to have shot the cover of Vogue. He is also the first African-American photographer to have done it in the magazine’s 125-year history.

“We will all lose” without diversity, Beyoncé says. “If people in powerful positions continue to hire and cast only people who look like them, sound like them, come from the same neighborhoods they grew up in, they will never have a greater understanding of experiences different from their own. They will hire the same models, curate the same art, cast the same actors over and over again, and we will all lose.”

But first we need to get more women and people of color into those powerful positions. The Annenberg report notes that “few women or people of color have worked as directors on the most popular films across more than a decade. Of 2017’s top-grossing film directors, only 7.3% were female, 5.5% were Black, and 3.7% were Asian. Only one woman of color worked on the top movies released last year.”


New projects should make use of inclusion riders.

Dr. Stacy Smith is the founder and director of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative at the University of Southern California. She and her team have been conducting extensive research on gender equality in entertainment for over a decade. Other organizations, such as the Sundance Institute, the Representation ProjectWomen in Film, and the Women’s Media Center, also lead initiatives intended to document the diversity gap and to implement programs to close that gap.

In 2014, Stacy wrote an op-ed in The Hollywood Reporter introducing the concept of equity, or inclusion, riders and talked about it in her 2016 TEDWomen talk (watch below). A template of the rider is available at the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative website.

Set targets for inclusion goals.

One way to move toward measurable change is for companies to set target inclusion goals. These objectives, which should be transparent and public, should specify not only a company’s expectations for inclusion but also the steps it will take to achieve the goals.

One model for how studios and production companies can activate equilibrium change for inclusion comes from powerhouse producer and director Ava Duvernay. She set a goal that she met: 100% women directors for her TV series, Queen Sugar.

 

Just add five.

Most of the background speaking roles in film are awarded to men. In order to increase the percentage of women on screen and set a new overall norm for female characters, “directors could add five female speaking characters to every one of the 100 top movies next year.”

Geena Davis, founder of Institute on Gender in Media, lays out the process in two easy steps. Besides speaking roles, she encourages parity in crowd scenes and other scenes involving extras. Although you can’t “snap your fingers and suddenly half the Congress is female,” onscreen it’s much easier, she explains. “In the time it takes to make a movie or create a television show, we can change what the future looks like.”

Tax incentives that promote diversity.

Lastly, entertainment companies benefit from state tax incentives that subsidize production costs. Earlier this year, Asian-American lawmakers in California pushed through legislation that extended its film and TV tax incentive program and introduced new measures for productions receiving the credit to report on diversity. The Hollywood Reporter notes that even though productions don’t have to meet any quotas to be considered for the credit, the “objective is to motivate change by starting with self-awareness.”

“‘By including reporting on diversity above the line, this bill creates accountability,’ said Dr. Stacy L. Smith. ‘Rather than waiting for reports like mine, content creators have to tabulate their own scores on inclusion, and creating this awareness opens up a space for people to make intentional choices in who is hired, and it forces filmmakers to recognize when they have not made choices toward inclusion.’”

Other states with successful tax incentive programs, such as my home state of Georgia where more films were made last year than in Hollywood and New York, should follow California’s lead and institute inclusion reporting of their own.

Yes, we have a long way to go in getting to gender and racial equality onscreen…to getting closer to the “REEL” world looking like the “real” world, and we can’t wait for the film and TV industry to move in this direction without new strategies and incentives. But another very effective lever for this change is what you and I buy tickets to watch and listen to and what we decide to stream and read. Supporting projects that promote diversity is one very important step in that direction.

Will Crazy Rich Asians be another Halley’s Comet or a new constellation that lights up Hollywood?

As actress Constance Wu tweeted, “I know [Crazy Rich Asians] won’t represent every Asian American. So for those who don’t feel seen, I hope there is a story you find soon that does represent you. I am rooting for you. We’re not all the same, but we all have a story.”

It’s a good time to start telling the untold ones.

– Pat


TEDWomen 2018 Update

TEDWomen, the conference that I am honored and privileged to curate in partnership with the TED team, continues to do our part to equalize with an unparalleled digital platform for women’s ideas and stories.

Join us this year at TEDWomen 2018! The theme is “Showing Up” and you can be sure that we’ll be talking about ideas and strategies for equity in media, business, academia, government and health care. This year the conference will be held in Palm Springs, Calif. from November 28-30.

Registration is filling up fast, so I encourage you to register to join us today!

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