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À partir d’avant-hierTED Blog

Dilemmas: Notes from Session 3 of TED Countdown Summit 2023

TED’s David Biello and Lindsay Levin host Session 3 of TED Countdown Summit on July 12, 2023, at the Fillmore Detroit in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

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

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

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

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

Sustainable investing leader David Blood and investment decarbonization expert Nili Gilbert speak at Session 3 of TED Countdown Summit on July 12, 2023, at the Fillmore Detroit in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

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

Economist and professor Avinash Persaud speak at Session 3 of TED Countdown Summit on July 12, 2023, at the Fillmore Detroit in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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

Energy access innovator Tombo Banda speak at Session 3 of TED Countdown Summit on July 12, 2023, at the Fillmore Detroit in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

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

Nestlé North America CEO Steve Presley speaks at Session 3 of TED Countdown Summit on July 12, 2023, at the Fillmore Detroit in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

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

Fashion designer Amy Powney speaks at Session 3 of TED Countdown Summit on July 12, 2023, at the Fillmore Detroit in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

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

Environmental justice advocate Payton M. Wilkins speaks at Session 3 of TED Countdown Summit on July 12, 2023, at the Fillmore Detroit in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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

Hiker, biker and storyteller Xiaojun “Tom” Wang speaks at Session 3 of TED Countdown Summit on July 12, 2023, at the Fillmore Detroit in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

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

Attendees applaud at Session 3 of TED Countdown Summit on July 12, 2023, at the Fillmore Detroit in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo: Nick Hagen / TED)

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Nadya Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot delivers powerful message to Vladimir Putin at TED2023

In an electric talk at Session 4 of TED2023, Pussy Riot founding member Nadya Tolokonnikova delivered a powerful message to Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding his war in Ukraine: “You have already lost. You know it … The world is with Ukraine.”

Courage is contagious, and it’s a strength we all have inside us,” Tolokonnikova says. In 2011, she cofounded the Russian protest and performance art group Pussy Riot in opposition to Vladimir Putin’s oppressive regime. After a string of protests and arrests, she and her fellow members were sentenced to two years in prison for their “Punk Prayer,” performed in a central Moscow cathedral. She was 22 years old at the time, wondering, “Can one person change the world? … Am I going to be able to achieve my dreams, or am I inevitably going to be smashed by the system?” 

Since her release from the Siberian penal colony in late 2013, Tolokonnikova has continued her fight. She founded the investigative news agency Mediazona, a rare independent media organization in Russia. Her other initiative, UnicornDAO, is supports female artists. Now living in exile, Tolokonnikova stands as a leading voice in the fight for freedom in Russia and was named a top enemy of Putin simply because, in her words, “Courage is contagious.” She calls for everyone to embrace the courage within themselves.

Nadya Tolokonnikova speaks at Session 4 of TED2023: Possibility on April 18, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Behind her is a photo of the Pussy Riot protest “Punk Prayer,” performed in a central Moscow cathedral in 2012. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

 

Nadya Tolokonnikovaspeaks at Session 4 of TED2023: Possibility on April 18, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

 

Nadya Tolokonnikova speaks at Session 4 of TED2023: Possibility on April 18, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

 

Nadya Tolokonnikova speaks at Session 4 of TED2023: Possibility on April 18, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Behind her is a photo of her sentencing in 2012. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

 

Nadya Tolokonnikova speaks at Session 4 of TED2023: Possibility on April 18, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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Celebrating the unbridled power of imagination: Notes on Session 11 of TED2023

Poet Sarah Kay co-hosts Session 11 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Session 11 of TED2023 was a celebration of the unbridled power of imagination. What is imagination, exactly? According to poet and session co-host Sarah Kay, it’s the ability to notice, see and observe what is — and then to dream, build and expand on what is not but could be. Eight speakers and one performer led the way in doing just that for this classically eclectic evening session.

The event: Talks from Session 11 of TED2023: Possibility, hosted by poet Sarah Kay and TED’s head of curation Helen Walters

When and where: Thursday, April 20, 2023, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Lonneke Gordijn, Vinu Daniel, Misan Harriman, Melissa Villaseñor, Imran Chaudhri, Lucas Rizzotto, Ersin Han Ersin

Opening poem: Poet Sarah Kay shares some of the amazing things she sees “wandering the streets of Bewilderville” in New York City, encouraging us all “to pick up when the universe calls.”

Performance: A self-described “dance floor demon,” singer-songwriter Tolliver rocks the house with a performance of “Say What” and “I’m Nervous.”

The talks in brief:

Experiential artist Lonneke Gordijn speaks at Session 11 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

Nature is never static, says experiential artist Lonneke Gordijn, whose work with creative partner Ralph Nauta is informed by that principle. Together they’ve created artworks that evoke nature and border on magic, founding Studio Drift to tap into the world’s mysteries. Gordijn describes Shylight, an installation of lights that float down from the ceiling, opening and closing, interacting like flowers, and how it became an ongoing art piece exploring different mechanisms and rhythms that spark different reactions in their audience. Fascinated by murmurations (creatures going places, leaderless, moving together), Gordijin shares the evolving process of their research-backed, software-driven environmental art piece made of a building-sized swarm of drones that flew across the desert at Burning Man, enchanting all. Unexpectedly, she reveals a massive block of concrete hiding in the shadows of the TED Theater, as — like magic — it becomes weightless and begins to float over Gordijn … over the audience … almost like it came to life and was trying to find its way back home.

Vinu Daniel speaks at Session 11 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

What if we could put waste to work building a better world? Climate-responsive architect Vinu Daniel is doing exactly that, having developed new, natural building techniques that utilize local, discarded materials such as plastic, tires and mud to create magnificent yet utilitarian spaces. His design firm, Wallmakers, builds dreamlike homes, schools and more that blend with the landscape, showing what’s possible when we build with our planet in mind.

Misan Harriman speaks at Session 11 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Given a warm video introduction by his friend, Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, arts advocate Misan Harriman‘s love for rich cultural experiences was ignited in his youth by the internet. It was an “endless library of the extraordinary,” he says, especially for a dyslexic Nigerian boy like himself who felt under-stimulated in his boarding school classes. Harriman went from observer of content to artist after he saw an image of Coretta Scott King at the funeral of her late husband Martin Luther King Jr. — it showed him that photography had the power to expose the work we need to do in this life. When George Floyd was murdered, Harriman took his camera to the protests that erupted in London and captured one of the greatest civil rights movements in our lifetimes — and Martin Luther King III shared one of his images on social media and millions saw what his work illuminated. Pointing to the hunger crisis in the Horn of Africa, he urges us all to take an unflinching look at what needs to be done in the world around us — and then do something.

Melissa Villaseñor Session 11 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

While Saturday Night Live alum Melissa Villaseñor earned comedic success through her uncanny celebrity impressions, too often she felt the laughs weren’t for her but rather for the characters. She shares how she learned to combine personal vulnerability with her classic voice bits (think: Sandra Bullock, Britney Spears, Dolly Parton and many more), centering her identity and family story on stage. Through her touching, hilarious journey, Villaseñor encourages everyone to be themselves and believe in their dreams — even if you don’t know what to do after you achieve them.

Imran Chaudhri speaks at Session 11 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

From the desktop computer to the laptop to the smarthphone to the smartwatch, in recent decades our devices have grown smaller and more powerful. User experience visionary and Humane cofounder Imran Chaudhri says the next step in this progression will be far more radical. Using the power of AI, our devices will disappear completely, and the human-technology relationship will become “screenless, seamless and sensing.” To make his point, Chaudhri previews his company’s unreleased device, which sits in his breast pocket and can translate his words — and voice — into French, ask for local shopping suggestions and assess if a chocolate bar meets his dietary restrictions. He forecasts a future where AI-powered tech will do away with screens, helping us to be more present and efficient in our everyday lives.

Lucas Rizzotto speaks at Session 11 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

What is the relationship between art and technology? In the past, says mixed reality experiential artist Lucas Rizzotto, artists often imagined new realities that engineers later built (think of the influence of sci-fi writers, for instance). But as powerful technology grows more accessible, Rizzotto wants to reverse this formula by encouraging artists to express themselves through technology — because it’s perspective, even more than technical skill, that leads to a vision worth creating. He shares how his own free-ranging exploration has led to various unexpected and delightful innovations: a suit you can play like an instrument and a game for lonely people now being adapted as group therapy. “When you take the technology we don’t understand and approach it as an artist, you do things a conventional engineer would never do,” Rizzotto says.

Ersin Han Ersin speaks at Session 11 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

What’s it like to be a tree — to host a vast web of relationships that anchor an entire ecosystem? In a mind-blowing talk, artist Ersin Han Ersin asks us to step into a giant sequoia tree, peering through its bark into the tapestry of life within. He gives a tour of his multisensory, mixed-reality installations — co-created with the art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast along with teams of scientists, programmers, structural engineers and more — and shares how they explore the concept of umwelt, or the unique sensory world of different organisms. The work is an effort to rethink the primordial relationship between plants, animals and fungi — and to dismantle the myth of human separation from the natural world. “We are as much trees as trees are us,” he says.

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Preparing for the inevitable chaos ahead: Notes on Session 9 of TED2023

TED’s head of curation Helen Walters speaks at Session 9 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

As we barrel into the future at breakneck speed, there can be a sense of perilous vertigo. How do we prepare for constant upheaval and change? The answer may lie in a combination of close listening, careful thought and inspiration from people committed to creating peace and progress. In Session 9 of TED2023, seven speakers and performers took up this mantle, exploring topics ranging from reproductive justice and the future of girls’ education to rethinking parenting and the end of life.

The event: Talks from Session 9 of TED2023: Possibility, hosted by TED’s head of curation Helen Walters

When and where: Thursday, April 20, 2023, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Angeline Murimirwa, Carlos Rodriguez-Pastor, Mark Edwards, Jessie Reyez, Sean Goode, Becky Kennedy, Alua Arthur

Education activist and 2023 Audacious Project grantee Angeline Murimirwa speaks at Session 9 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

We’ve all heard the story of how girls’ education is as close as we may get to a silver bullet for making the world a better place. But there’s more that needs to be done beyond putting a diploma in a girl’s hand, says education activist and 2023 Audacious Project grantee Angeline Murimirwa. Asking so much of young girls places an unimaginably heavy weight on them to beat the odds on their own and make the world a better place without radically reshaping the systems and environment that oppress them. That’s where Murimirwa’s organization CAMFED comes in, helping to lift the burden and ease the pressure by providing a strong social and financial network of 250,000 women mentors and supporters who have made the same difficult journey. A sisterhood, if you will, that not only works but also pays it forward to those who walk alongside them. Murimirwa is living proof, she shares, as one of the first in Zimbabwe helped by the organization years ago — and look where she is now, as its CEO.

TED business curator Corey Hajim (left) and Intercorp founder Carlos Rodriguez-Pastor speak at Session 9 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

If Peru is to become a fully developed country, Peruvian businesses must lead the way, says Intercorp founder Carlos Rodríguez-Pastor, one of Peru’s financial icons. By partnering with companies across the nation, he’s implementing numerous programs to nurture the country’s growing middle class. In conversation with TED business curator Corey Hajim, Rodríguez-Pastor breaks down Peru’s problems into three barriers: education, health care and infrastructure. Working on the ground rather than in the boardroom, he’s found innovative solutions to these problems, partnering with companies to build better schools that are also profitable (which, he says, equates to sustainable), bolstering health care through Peru’s existing pharmacy system and leveraging Peruvian tax law to funnel improvement funds directly to local infrastructure projects.

Reproductive health advocate and 2023 Audacious Project grantee Mark Edwards speaks at Session 9 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

According to reproductive health advocate and 2023 Audacious Project grantee Mark Edwards, almost half of all pregnancies in the US are unplanned, and — astonishingly — six out of ten typical birth control pill users will become accidentally pregnant over a span of ten years. These jaw-dropping statistics underscore the sobering fact that many pregnancies occur not because women aren’t using birth control but because they aren’t using the most effective type for their particular circumstances.  In fact, there are 18 FDA-approved forms of birth control, all of which vary in effectiveness for different women and, more importantly, aren’t all available to the women who need it most. Edwards believes contraception is a basic health care right. With his organization Upstream USA, he’s improving birth control education and access for women who lack adequate health care in a post-Roe world where contraception has become critical for family planning.

Speaking during a break between powerful performances of her songs “STILL C U” and “Figures,” singer-songwriter Jessie Reyez tells us she’s “made a profound discovery: we’re born, we grow, we die, and life is suffering.” Indeed, her own struggles with suffering led her to write her music, with roots tapping both sadness and hope. She says we all need to create our own solace from the ruins at our feet — or more succinctly: “Life is what we make it.” Mirroring the message of her spoken words, Reyez’s songs illuminate their painful roots, showcasing her raw powers of creation in sparsely accompanied vocal vignettes that are direct, immediate and often incendiary.

TED community member Sean Goode speaks at Session 9 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

“Will you forgive me, no matter what I do, no matter what I say?” asked TED community member Sean Goode. He believes saying yes to this question provides the opportunity for greater connection, giving space to discuss different experiences and disagreements without harm. By providing grace, says Goode, we’re able to look past difficult histories and envision a more hopeful future together.

Parenting whisperer Becky Kennedy speaks at Session 9 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Every parent loses their temper, but what comes next? As with any relationship, clinical psychologist and parenting whisperer Becky Kennedy believes the best choice is repair: go back to the moment of disconnection, take responsibility for your actions and state what you’ll do differently next time. Where a parent’s lack of repair can force the child to form unproductive coping mechanisms seeped in self-blame, a 15-second intervention can foster healthy emotional regulation and teach effective communication. Kennedy offers straightforward guidance on how to repair, with tips on self-forgiveness, accountability and seizing the opportunity for growth in all relationships — no matter how big the obstacle may seem.

Death doula Alua Arthur speaks at Session 9 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Just as it’s healthy and helpful to think about our lives, so too is it healthy and helpful to think about how they’ll end, says death doula Alua Arthur. As someone who provides non-medical, holistic support for dying people as well as their friends and family, Arthur spends a lot of time thinking about the end of life. The central question she asks people through her work is this: “What must you do to be at peace with yourself so that you may live presently and die gracefully?” By encouraging people to view their present life from the vantage point of a graceful death, Arthur helps them retrofit their lives, seeing clearly who they want to be and what kind of legacy they want to leave behind. Humans are meaning-making machines, she says. Rather than waiting until our deathbeds to figure out our grand life purpose, why not make meaning and magic out of the daily mundane? “The greatest gift of mortality is the sheer wonder that we get to live at all,” she says.

The TED Theater during Session 9 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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Delightedly and unapologetically nerding out: Notes on Session 8 of TED2023

TED current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers hosts Session 8 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

It wouldn’t be a TED conference without a session devoted to nerding out. Session 8 of TED2023 featured speakers covering the future of digital property rights and blockchain, new thinking on health and medicine, a deep look at the problems facing the oceans and how a few simple lines can evoke both life’s challenges and its wonder.

The event: Talks from Session 8 of TED2023: Possibility, hosted by TED current events curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers

When and where: Thursday, April 20, 2023, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Yat Siu, Anna Greka, Jeff Chen, Amy Baxter, Nina Tandon, Tony Long, Liana Finck

Future-focused technologist Yat Siu speaks at Session 8 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

What does it mean to own something online? Most of us spend hours each day online, but we own very little there. You don’t own your Instagram account or the data your TikTok usage creates — data that generates profit and feeds TikTok’s superior algorithm. Future-focused technologist Yat Siu believes the “open metaverse,” a decentralized version of the internet also known as web3, is laying the foundation for a freer, fairer, more prosperous internet by ensuring robust digital property rights. Around the world, the freest, wealthiest countries enjoy strong property rights — so should we be concerned that more and more of our lives are being mediated by a version of the internet that doesn’t guarantee those same rights to its users?

Cellular (dys)function researcher Anna Greka speaks at Session 8 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Molecular scientist Anna Greka studies the world’s rarest diseases using advanced technology to analyze billions of cells via millions of images. With hypothesis-driven research, or “molecular sleuthing,” as she calls it, Greka and her team have been able to determine the cause of a previously mysterious string of kidney failures — and even developed a promising treatment. Their work could lead to treatments for more than 50 different diseases plaguing humanity, from ALS to Alzheimer’s, underlining Greka’s belief that studying the most niche medical cases could really help us all.

Health tech entrepreneur Jeff Chen speaks at Session 8 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

What if there was an easy way to prove the effectiveness of natural products? With AI-driven, crowdsourced clinical trials, health tech entrepreneur and TED community member Jeff Chen believes these supplements can have their chance to prove efficacy with a diverse dataset that includes populations historically excluded from trials — and that’s exactly what he and his team at Radical Science are doing. By sending products directly to a diverse grouping of consumers for testing and collecting that data, they offer an avenue to bypassing the slow-moving process of FDA approval — while giving some of nature’s oldest medicines the chance to be put to the test.

Pain management pioneer Amy Baxter speaks at Session 8 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

What is pain, really? If you whack your thumb with a hammer, you might think, “The pain is in my thumb.” But the reality is that nerves are sending an alarm to your spine, and then pain happens in your brain … somewhere. It’s kind of vague, says pediatric emergency physician and pain management pioneer Amy Baxter. What we do know is that pain’s not in one place, but rather is a symphony of connections. This includes connections to areas of the brain that trigger things like fear, memory, meaning and control. (“The same punch on the arm hurts more from a bully than a buddy,” she says.) Baxter has used this insight to find alternative treatments to pain, in an effort to reduce use of addictive opioids like oxycontin. She explains how methods ranging from vibration and cold to distraction, counting and relaxation can help block pain — without the potentially fatal side effects of opioid use. We have power over our pain, she says: it just takes some practice.

Bioengineer Nina Tandon speaks at Session 8 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jason Redmond / TED)

As humans injure earlier and live longer than ever before, we need our implants to last as long as we do, says bioengineer and TED community member Nina Tandon. In both her 2011 and 2012 TED Talks, she championed the use of stem cells as an ingredient to grow spare parts for repairs on the human body. At TED2023, she gives an update on how far her organization has come in developing bone and cartilage replacements. (For the curious, it takes three weeks to engineer bone, and four for cartilage — plus they can do any of the 207 bones or 360 joints in the body.) As of 2021, they became the first biotech company greenlit by the FDA to use this approach. She asks: “Would we rather have spare parts made from metal, plastic and ceramic, or connect to our own internal fountain of cellular youth?”

Ocean conservation expert and 2023 Audacious Project grantee Tony Long speaks at Session 8 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jason Redmond / TED)

Today, a fifth of all seafood is thought to be caught illegally, a crime worth up to 23.5 billion dollars per year. Pirate fishing threatens the health of our ocean and the well-being of millions of people — and it’s not the only crime at sea that goes undetected. Oil spills go unpunished, oil and gas exploration unmonitored. Why are Earth’s oceans such a Wild West? The problem is they’re vast, says Tony Long, president and CEO of Global Fishing Watch and 2023 Audacious Project grantee. You can’t manage the entire ocean from the decks of ships — but you can from space. Using machine learning and GPS data, Global Fishing Watch has built the first-ever livestream map to track the movements of industrial fishing fleets and made it freely available to the world — part of a plan to illuminate all human activity in the ocean and transform ocean management.

Intuitive illustrator Liana Finck speaks at Session 8 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jason Redmond / TED)

In an illustrated journey through an often-baffling world, cartoonist Liana Finck‘s drawings hold our hands through life’s most confusing predicaments (large and small): pondering what to make for dinner, how to leave a party without being rude. She also takes on more complex things that take many drawings, like creating her own version of God; think more human, less confident. After a breakup, Finck realized drawing from her own life not only helped her understand herself better — but also helped her connect to other people. With the power of pen and paper, she shows us we can navigate life’s complexities together with levity, humor and line.

The TED Theater during Session 8 of TED2023: Possibility on April 20, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jason Redmond / TED)

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Breathing deep and embracing humanity’s full potential: Notes on Session 7 of TED2023

Head of TED Chris Anderson and Audacious Project Executive Director Anna Verghese host Session 7 of TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

In the soul-seeking Session 7 of TED2023 a group of extraordinary individuals considered counternarratives to the doom-and-gloom that pervades much of modern media and sought to recalibrate our thinking on what it means to be human.

The event: Talks from Session 7 of TED2023: Possibility, hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson and Audacious Project Executive Director Anna Verghese

When and where: Wednesday, April 19, 2023, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Natalie Cargill, Sixto Cancel, Richard V. Reeves, Coleman Hughes, Anne Morriss, Kevin Stone, Sarah Jones, Sheena Meade

Singer-songwriter Maria Arnal performs at Session 7 of TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Performance: Singer-songwriter Maria Arnal lit up the TED stage, weaving together folk and techno-pop to create a dazzling soundscape.

The talks in brief:

Philanthropic mastermind Natalie Cargill speaks at Session 7 of TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

What would you do with 3.5 trillion dollars? Philanthropic mastermind Natalie Cargill has used this thought experiment, grounded in thousands of hours of expert research, to investigate what it would take to actually solve some of our most pressing problems. With this amount of money, she says, we could tackle extreme poverty, pandemic prevention, climate change, nuclear war, runaway AI and more – with just one year’s worth of funding. Where would this money come from, you may ask? If everyone in the global top one percent of earners (i.e., people making $60,000 a year or more after tax) gave away just ten percent of their income for a year, we’d be there. Cargill’s point is that we’re not doomed to suffer through unnecessary and avoidable issues. “Huge problems can be solved, and philanthropy can be good,” she says.

Foster care transformation advocate and 2023 Audacious Project grantee Sixto Cancel speaks at Session 7 of TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

As adults, foster youth are two times more likely than war veterans to experience and suffer from PTSD, says child welfare advocate and 2023 Audacious Project grantee Sixto Cancel. He shares his story of entering foster care at 11 months old, being placed with a foster family at nine years old and then, at 15, collecting enough evidence to prove he was unsafe in that home and re-entering the system. Eventually, Cancel was reunited with relatives who happened to live only 58 miles away from where he grew up, and while he was grateful, he couldn’t help but think about how different his life could have been had he been raised by people who loved him all along. With this in mind, Cancel founded Think of Us: a nonprofit dedicated to engaging with youth, parents and relatives to redesign foster care into a system where children are raised by kin in supportive and safe environments. He shares three urgent messages: (1) Children should be raised by their families and the majority of foster care should be replaced with kinship care. (2) We need to center those who have been impacted by the system when redesigning it. (3) We all have a role to play in this cause. “Together … we can literally ensure that millions of children are living in a home where they can say, ‘I am loved,'” says Cancel.

Social mobility scholar Richard V. Reeves speaks at Session 7 of TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

While researching gender inequality in education, social mobility scholar Richard V. Reeves made a surprising discovery: when it comes to a school without barriers, girls have the academic advantage. It’s not a question of intelligence; it’s simply that the part of the brain associated with organization and impulse control develops later in boys than girls — meaning doing chemistry homework can be a lot more difficult for male students. Reeves suggests a more equitable school system would start boys a year after girls and makes the case for hiring more male teachers — particularly in English, where more young men struggle — to give boys role models in the classroom. “The future cannot be female. Nor of course, can the future be male. The future has to be for every single one of us … We have to rise together,” says Reeves.

Podcast host Coleman Hughes speaks at Session 7 of TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

The percentage of Black and white Americans who felt good about race relations nosedived from 2013 to 2021. Given this concerning trend, writer and podcast host Coleman Hughes thinks we need a new racial paradigm. Our current fixation on racial identity — where “we let racial essences define who we are” — does more harm than good, he says. He advocates for rehabilitating a now-controversial ideology: colorblindness. Far from being conservative or white supremacist, as some critics allege, Hughes says colorblindness has its roots in the US antislavery movement and is the “best principle with which to govern a multiracial, multiethnic democracy.” But wouldn’t a colorblind approach render us unable to fight racism, gutting key policies like affirmative action? Hughes thinks replacing race-based policies with class-based ones would both reduce inequality and ease racial tensions. Class is almost always a better proxy for disadvantage than race, he says, and class-based policies are less divisive because they “do not penalize anyone for immutable biological traits.”

Leadership visionary Anne Morriss speaks at Session 7 of TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Leadership visionary and cohost of the TED Audio Collective podcast Fixable Anne Morriss offers five steps to solve any workplace problem, starting with curiosity. First, she says, ask questions that get to the root of the issue, being open to the idea that it could be you. Next, formulate a “good enough plan,” and then talk to those with different perspectives to build trust and improve your plan. Finally, honor the past as you set a vision for the future, recognizing what people don’t want to lose. In the last step, take action with urgency, effectively putting into place everything you’ve learned in the previous steps. “The most effective leaders we know solve problems at an accelerated pace, while also taking responsibility for the success and the wellbeing of their customers and employees and shareholders,” says Morris. “They move fast and fix things.”

Orthopedic surgeon Kevin Stone speaks at Session 7 of TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

From synthetic embryos to lab-grown skin, we live in a brave new world of stem cell advances. So why can it still take years to recover from a knee injury? When you tear your ACL, the stem cells in your body produce daughter cells called progenitor cells that orchestrate the body’s healing response. But this response only activates after the initial injury and can prove insufficient over time. By strengthening this response, orthopedic surgeon and TED community member Kevin Stone hopes to make ACL injury recovery a matter of weeks, not months or years. 

Polymorphic filmmaker Sarah Jones speaks at Session 7 of TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

With chameleonic ease, polymorphic filmmaker Sarah Jones slips into and out an array of characters in a talk exploring cancel culture, which she defines as when people (both powerful and marginalized) are “silenced, excluded, disempowered and disinvited from the larger conversation.” Jones shares her own painful experience being canceled ahead of the release of her 2022 film Sell/Buy/Date, digging into the nuances of this much-discussed, often nebulous phenomenon. In her view, cancellation doesn’t improve the larger culture of inequality but instead creates more hurt and angry people. She thinks the solution to actually holding others to account is to start by being self-accountable — noticing any tendencies in ourselves that could be hurtful and trying to unlearn them — and then doing the hard work of trying to help others see the biases they may be blind to.

Second chance advocate and 2023 Audacious Project grantee Sheena Meade speaks at Session 7 of TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

“For many Americans, a criminal record — even for a petty offense — can hold them back forever,” says Desmond Meade, introducing his wife, Sheena Meade, CEO of the Clean Slate Initiative and a 2023 Audacious Project grantee. Like many, her future was heavily affected by a minor conviction (bouncing a check to pay for her family’s groceries), and this was enough to bar her from housing and education opportunities for years later. Around 100 million Americans — or one in three — have an arrest or conviction record. More than 30 million of them are eligible for clearance, but fewer than 10 percent pursue it because it’s expensive and many don’t even know it’s an option. Meade makes the case for clean slate laws that automate the sealing of arrest and conviction records after people have completed their sentence and remain crime-free for a set period of time. In the last three years, she and her team have helped pass laws in six states, helping millions move on with their lives. With the Audacious Project, they’re working towards passing these laws in 50 states, so an additional 14 million people get a true second chance.

TED community members applaud the speakers of Session 7 of TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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Imagining a pathway to a sustainable future: Notes on Session 5 of TED2023

Head of TED Chris Anderson speaks at Session 5 of TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jason Redmond / TED)

How do we strike a balance between sounding the alarm about the devastation wrought by climate change and telling the story of an actual pathway forward? Session 5 of TED2023 sought to stem the despair and cultivate hope and action on the most pressing issue of our time.

The event: Talks from Session 5 of TED2023: Possibility, hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson

When and where: Wednesday, April 19, 2023, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Hannah Ritchie, Garry Cooper, Nicole Rycroft, Shane Campbell-Staton, George T. Whitesides, Steve Long, Wanjira Mathai

The talks in brief:

Environmental data scientist Hannah Ritchie speaks at Session 5 of TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

According to a recent international survey, more than half of young people think humanity is doomed. But environmental data scientist Hannah Ritiche says that far from being the “last generation,” as some climate activists call themselves, today’s youth have the opportunity to be the first generation in human history to achieve true sustainability. For Ritchie, this would mean both protecting our environment and providing a good life for everyone alive today. In the past, improving human lives came with an environmental price tag, but Ritchie says that no longer has to be true. With technological advances, such as the rapid acceleration of solar power, we now have the capacity to improve life globally while also stewarding Earth for future generations. To do so, we must push for zero emissions and frame sustainability as an opportunity, not a sacrifice.

Circular economy builder Garry Cooper speaks at Session 5 of TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jason Redmond / TED)

Cities are a great place to initiate new economic models. Circular economy builder Garry Cooper cites Chicago, for instance, as a place already working to transform its traditional linear economy into a circular one. This means creating a system of sharing resources and repurposing items that are no longer needed, from basic materials to furniture and beyond. To transition any city toward a circular economy, Cooper lays out three main steps: first, establish a digital infrastructure (like universal access to internet) so that all can be involved; second, build a tried-and-true way to operationalize reusing and recycling materials (think Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace, but expanded); and third, incentivize every person and business to participate through smart public policy. Circular economies can create a better future though reinventing economic opportunity, strengthening community ties, uplifting citizens and protecting the climate, says Cooper. “We’re all neighbors, not competitors, not strangers. We need each other and whatever city or town we reside in.”

Biodiversity champion and 2023 Audacious Project grantee Nicole Rycroft speaks at Session 5 of TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Every year, billions of trees are cut down for the production of paper packaging or fabrics like rayon and viscose. If we’re going to beat climate change, we need to make these supply chains more sustainable, says 2023 Audacious Project grantee and biodiversity champion Nicole Rycroft. Her organization, Canopy, partners with key industry leaders to overhaul their supply chains in favor of next-generation wood pulp alternatives, such as used cotton fabric, microbial cellulose or agricultural residues like leftover wheat straw. With these substitutes, Canopy has already shifted more than 50 percent of global viscose production out of the world’s ancient and endangered forests, setting a transformative precedent for the future of pulp production — and creating a sustainable playbook for other industries in need of reform. “For every sector, there is a more sustainable path forward,” says Rycroft.

Megafire fighter George T. Whitesides speaks at Session 5 of TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Wildfires like those in Santa Rosa in 2017 and Australia in 2020 are a large and growing global challenge — and fire experts say things are likely to get worse before they get better. Billions of dollars are being spent to fight this blazing issue, explains George T. Whitesides, who left a successful aerospace career to take on megafires, or those that burn more than 100,000 acres. Working with experts across disciplines, from firefighters and tribal communities to scientists and policymakers, Whitesides cofounded Megafire Action, an organization dedicated to building fire-adapted communities. He shares three emerging solutions to this alarming problem: (1) build resilient communities that design with fire safety in mind, (2) take measures to control fire spread, like reducing the amount of overgrowth in landscapes, and (3) innovate fire-management technologies that can rapidly detect and put out fires.

Evolutionary biologist Shane Campbell-Staton speaks at Session 5 of TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

We tend to think of evolution as a slow, gradual process playing out over thousands or millions of years. But evolutionary biologist Shane Campbell-Staton shows how evolution is now rapidly reshaping life in response to the world humanity has built. Small lizards in Puerto Rico have evolved longer limbs and larger toe pads to use buildings as perches, for example, while the genome of wolves living in the Chernobyl exclusion zone appears to be changing in response to decades of radiation exposure. “We live in a time when we are literally etching our decisions into the DNA of the species that live in, on and around us,” Campbell-Staton says. Now the question is: When we consider the story that we’re writing, what do we want our chapter in this grand book of life to say?

Crop sustainability scientist Steve Long speaks at Session 5 of TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Photosynthesis is one of the most important processes on the planet: it helps produce the air we need to survive. For more than a decade, crop sustainability scientist Steve Long has used genetic simulations and experimental farms to make this process more efficient. But why haven’t millions of years of evolution already optimized photosynthesis? Because our crops did not evolve to thrive in our now carbon-rich atmosphere, nor can they adjust to light fluctuations in densely cultivated fields, Long says. His team has genetically optimized crops like soybean to account for these human-driven changes, sometimes increasing yields by more than 20 percent. By boosting photosynthesis, Long hopes we can start a 21st-century green revolution: improving food access for the 10 percent of humanity experiencing food insufficiency — while also reducing carbon emissions. 

Environmental restoration champion and 2023 Audacious Project grantee Wanjira Mathai speaks at Session 5 of TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

2023 Audacious Project grantee Wanjiri Mathai recalls that her mother, Nobel laureate and Green Belt Movement founder Wangari Maathai, used to tell her: “Nature is the source of everything good.” Today, the lush landscapes Wangari Maathai knew in Kenya have been denuded and degraded; overall, 60 percent of the soil in Africa is unproductive. But, relying on local leadership and local wisdom, a continent-wide coalition of stakeholders and entrepreneurs is working to revitalize Africa’s land. This coalition, AFR100, has an ambitious goal: the restoration of 100 million hectares on the continent by 2030. By re-greening Africa, Mathai said, AFR100 can help secure livelihoods, mitigate climate change and secure communities against the worst effects of our changing climate.

The TED Theater during Session 5 of  TED2023: Possibility on April 19, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

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Ideas that are way, way out there: Notes on Session 4 of TED2023

Comedian Pardis Parker and TED’s head of curation Helen Walters speak at Session 4 of TED2023: Possibility on April 18, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

In a session that was by turns soul-stirring, uproariously funny, deadly serious and brilliantly colorful, seven speakers transported the TED audience to a solar engineering project in outer space, a 24-hour concert and performance, a movement to prove that birds aren’t real and more.

The event: Talks from Session 4 of TED2023: Possibility, hosted by comedian Pardis Parker and TED’s head of curation Helen Walters

When and where: Tuesday, April 18, 2023, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Yara Shahidi, Ali Hajimiri, Nadya Tolokonnikova, Tavares Strachan, Machine Dazzle, Doris Mitsch, Peter McIndoe

The talks in brief:

Actor and producer Yara Shahidi speaks at Session 4 of TED2023: Possibility on April 18, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

You may know actor and producer Yara Shahidi from the hit shows black-ish and grown-ish. Sure, she may be in a unique position, but like anybody growing up, she juggles multiple interests, passions and jobs. From her vantage point, she sees that the best way to create a truly fulfilling life is to lead with curiosity — and she invites us all to join her in recommitting to wherever our minds and hearts take us. Don’t second-guess what “distracts” you, she says: that’s your curiosity coming through, an act of creation in itself. Denying your imagination only limits the infinite possibilities just over the horizon.

Space solar-power experimenter Ali Hajimiri speaks at Session 4 of TED2023: Possibility on April 18, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

From laptops to phones and AirPods, wireless technology permeates modern life. What if the energy powering these technologies was also wireless? Space solar-power experimenter Ali Hajimiri sees this future, once the stuff of science fiction, on the near horizon. By exploiting the interference property of waves, we can already direct energy from a generator to a wireless light bulb. Now imagine scaling up this capability: the generator becomes a solar panel orbiting Earth, the light bulb a remote village or a war-torn city with power outages. Recently, Hajimiri’s team made a key step toward this vision, launching a rocket that will unfold in space into an array of flexible solar panels designed to transmit energy to Earth. 

TED community member Terry Moore speaks at Session 4 of TED2023: Possibility on April 18, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

In a quick, fascinating talk, TED community member Terry Moore discusses the mathematics behind what’s known as Penrose tiling, a type of design characterized by aperiodicity, where simple patterns expand infinitely in any direction without ever repeating. He shows how, when you take a closer look, this type of design shows up in human cultures across millennia (long before Roger Penrose “invented” it in 1974). The takeaway? This pattern is like life — complicated, impossible to predict, unfolding differently based on every decision — yet, underlying everything, there’s a hidden unity that holds things together. “When we see these amazing designs, we can know they’re not decorations,” Moore says. “They’re a statement, they’re a message. Look, listen. You can hear their voices.”

Conceptual artist and activist Nadya Tolokonnikova speaks at Session 4 of TED2023: Possibility on April 18, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

In 2012, conceptual artist and activist Nadya Tolokonnikova and her resistance group, Pussy Riot, were sentenced to two years in prison for speaking out against Vladimir Putin’s regime. Since her release, she’s founded the independent investigative news agency Mediazona and organized support for a number of international art and women’s movements. While she now lives in exile, Tolokonnikova stands as a leading voice in the fight for freedom in Russia, named a top enemy of Putin simply because, in her words, “courage is contagious.” Now she calls for everyone to embrace the courage within themselves and delivered a powerful message to Putin himself: “You have already lost. You know it. … The world is with Ukraine.”

Conceptual artist Tavares Strachan speaks at Session 4 of TED2023: Possibility on April 18, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Conceptual artist Tavares Strachan has always been hungry for uncovering and sharing novel experiences. On his journey to the Arctic, he learned about the lesser-known travels of African American explorer Matthew Henson, who was part of the first human crew to reach the North Pole, sparking a pivot in his artwork towards a quest to tell lost stories. Strachan created the Encyclopedia of Invisibility, a 3,000-page leather-bound book with more than 17,000 entries on things often left out of history courses, from Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the mother of rock and roll, to the Minos, an all-female military regiment from the Kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Benin), and many more. He also shares the story of Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., the first Black astronaut, for whom Strachan worked with SpaceX to produce a satellite and blast a golden bust called ENOCH with the astronaut’s likeness into space — launching his legacy to the stars.. “If you really pay attention, you start to see these lost stories all around you,” says Strachan. “When you find them, you realize that they can speak with a very loud mouth.”

Unapologetic maximalist Machine Dazzle speaks at Session 4 of TED2023: Possibility on April 18, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

“My approach is maximal,” says Machine Dazzle, a self-described radical, queer, emotionally driven, instinct-based concept artist and thinker. He takes us on a stunning tour of his boundary-pushing work — including costumes such as a bouffant made out of metallic pipe cleaners, a dress made of hot dogs and barbwire and a headdress made out of dynamite and toilet paper (to name just a few) — and demonstrates the power of tapping into the full complexity of yourself. He’s joined onstage by his friend Matty Crosland, who undergoes a costume-fueled transformation as Machine Dazzle speaks.

Design-minded artist Doris Mitsch speaks at Session 4 of TED2023: Possibility on April 18, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Have you ever been curious about what the world gets up to as it passes you by? Not the world you know, but the one outside human perception and awareness. Design-minded artist Doris Mitsch invites us into the wonder and awe of nature’s everyday feats — the ones that surpass humanity’s five senses — through her dazzling photography. Starlings in flight and formation, trout tracking their way by waves of light, bats that shriek louder than we can hear. Hidden, invisible intelligence that redraws the maps of our own understanding of the world when we stumble upon the truths of our fellow earthlings. In that spirit, Mitsch encourages us to embrace their otherness and revel in the experience. In the words of the poet and naturalist Jarod K. Anderson: “Bats can hear shapes. Plants can eat light. Bees can dance maps. We can hold all these ideas at once and feel both heavy and weightless with the absurd beauty of it all.”

Bird truther Peter McIndoe speaks at Session 4 of TED2023: Possibility on April 18, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

In 2018, bird truther Peter McIndoe founded a movement behind a fake conspiracy theory claiming that birds aren’t real but are instead robots created by the government in the middle of the 20th century to spy on all of us. As he fed the lie — hiring actors to play retired CIA agents speaking out, holding rallies populated by thousands of “bird truthers” — McIndoe learned about the power behind a conspiracy theory and why people will go so far for a story others find completely, ridiculously false. He explores the loneliness and polarization that he believes leads people to find community wherever they can (even in movements defined by outrageous claims) and offers steps we can take as a society to increase our collective empathy, build constructive community and combat the growth of harmful conspiracies. “Let’s direct our attention to the crisis of belonging, and then maybe we’ll understand the crisis of belief,” he says.

Pussy Riot cofounder Nadya Tolokonnikova receives a standing ovation at Session 4 of TED2023: Possibility on April 18, 2023, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

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Off with a bang: Notes on Session 1 of TED2023

Hosts Whitney Pennington Rodgers, Chris Anderson, and Helen Walters open Session 1 of TED2023: Possibility on April 17, 2023 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

It’s time for TED! In an eclectic and interdisciplinary opening session, artists, scientists, activists, entrepreneurs and more explored the breadth of transformative possibilities that lie ahead of us, from understanding animal communication to breakthroughs in artificial intelligence to the theory of the “adjacent possible.”

The event: Talks from Session 1 of TED2023: Possibility, hosted by TED’s Chris Anderson, Helen Walters and Whitney Pennington Rodgers

When and where: Monday, April 17, 2023, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Angus Hervey, Stuart Kauffman, Jennifer Doudna, Golshifteh Farahani, Tom Graham, Karen Bakker, Wangechi Mutu, Benjamin Zander

AI opera Song of the Ambassadors perform at Session 1 of TED2023: Possibility on April 17, 2023 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Opening performance: AI opera Song of the Ambassadors, created by Refik Anadol and K Allado-McDowell, kick off the session and beckon us into a new era of opera, co-created by humans and artificial intelligence, presenting a hymn to nature and existence.

The talks in brief:

Journalist Angus Hervey speaks at Session 1 of TED2023: Possibility on April 17, 2023 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Why are we so good at reporting bad news and so bad at reporting good news? That’s a question journalist Angus Hervey spends a lot of time thinking about as the editor of Future Crunch, a newsletter that cuts through the usual doom and destruction we see on news channels and reports on stories of progress. Delivering a mock newscast from the TED stage, Hervey takes us on a whirlwind tour of the “good news” stories you might have missed from the past year — from the acceleration of the world’s clean energy transition to advancements in public health, human rights, astronomy and more — and clarifies why, if we want to change the story of humanity this century, we have to start changing the stories we tell ourselves.

“Adjacent possible” originator Stuart Kauffman speaks at Session 1 of TED2023: Possibility on April 17, 2023 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

Theoretical biologist Stuart Kauffman thinks we can explain the historical pattern of long periods of nothing happening followed by explosive growth (from the Cambrian explosion to hockey-stick growth of global GDP to the present computing revolution) through math — what he calls the theory of the “adjacent possible.” Tracing the arc of human history through the tools and technologies we’ve invented, Kauffman explains that humanity has so far used its creativity to bring about the Anthropocene and the destruction of the biosphere, and provides examples in soil regeneration for how we can reverse the damage and feed the world in the process.

Nobel Laureate, biochemist and 2023 Audacious Project grantee Jennifer Doudna speaks at Session 1 of TED2023: Possibility on April 17, 2023 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

A brave new world is upon us, and in its dawn emerges a collaboration between two breakthrough technologies — metagenomics and the Nobel Prize-winning technology CRISPR — to birth a new field of science: precision microbiome editing. Jennifer Doudna, co-inventor of CRISPR and a 2023 Audacious Project grantee with the Innovative Genomics Institute, details the deep potential of this new science and its focus on not just one organism but entire populations of organisms called microbiomes that exist in every living thing, influencing things like the development of asthma, obesity, diabetes and Alzheimer’s in the human body and methane production in cows. The opportunities to improve the future health of humanity and the planet are here now, and precision microbiome editing is the way forward, Doudna says.

Live from Rome, actor, musician and activist Golshifteh Farahani speaks at Session 1 of TED2023: Possibility on April 17, 2023 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

“I am the raised fist of young girls with their hair flowing in the wind,” says actor, musician and activist Golshifteh Farahani. In a moving tribute to individuals who have lost their lives during protests in response to the death of Mahsa Amini in her home country of Iran, Farahani draws connections between those fighting for freedom in Iran and the other places in the world where ignorance and fear separates instead of unites humanity.

Head of TED Chris Anderson and AI developer Tom Graham — face-swapped live with Chris — speak at Session 1 of TED2023: Possibility on April 17, 2023 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)Tom Graham, AI developer

In conversation with head of TED Chris Anderson, AI developer Tom Graham explores how AI-generated content that looks and sounds exactly like the real world (known as “deepfakes”) will come to permeate our lives over the next decade. He offers a proof of concept directly from the stage: a startlingly realistic deepfake of Tom Cruise outside TED2023 in Vancouver, and then a real-time demo of Anderson’s face overlaid first on Graham’s head and then on TED community member Sunny Bates, seated in the first row of the TED Theater. Together they discuss the creative and educational potential of this technology — along with its risk for exploitation — and explain the new legal rights we’ll need to ensure we maintain control over our photorealistic AI avatars.

Conservation technology researcher Karen Bakker speaks at Session 1 of TED2023: Possibility on April 17, 2023 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Conservation technology researcher Karen Bakker uncovers how the animal kingdom communicates in ways as complex as our own human speech – from microscopic coral larvae listening for the sounds of their home reef to the varying dialects in the dictionary of elephants’ trumpeting. Much of nature’s acoustics are ultra- or infra-sonic, lying outside our natural ability to hear (consider a bat’s shrill speech or a hydrothermal vent’s deep hum), but technological breakthroughs are changing that, allowing us to tune into a world previously unheard. Scientists are even able to translate some variations of animal speech, while generative AI is able to imitate some of these sounds, allowing us to communicate with nature like never before – and bringing along some difficult challenges, too. “In nature, sound is everywhere and silence is an illusion,” Bakker says.

Visual artist Wangechi Mutu speaks at Session 1 of TED2023: Possibility on April 17, 2023 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)

“We’ve left messages for each other using art. Messages that travel across vast expanses of time and culture, reminding us of where we came from,” says visual artist Wangechi Mutu. From ancient carvings deep in the Sahara to her own chimeric art, Mutu traces evolving representations of divine femininity and the presence of women in African art. She shares her otherworldy sculptures that merge nature, history and lore, pointing to how art gives voice to those rendered invisible — and reminds us of the freedom found in creation.

Conductor Benjamin Zander speaks at Session 1 of TED2023: Possibility on April 17, 2023 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

In a rousing talk and piano performance to close out the opening session, legendary conductor Benjamin Zander (watch his 2008 TED Talk) explains his view on the difference between “positive thinking” and “possibility,” saying, “Positive thinking is a fraud, and possibility is a language of creation.” And he waxes lyrical about Beethoven, asking us to listen a little deeper to the very familiar “Moonlight Sonata” and inviting the audience to a sing-along (in German) of the original words to “Ode to Joy.”

The entrance to the TED Theater at TED2023: Possibility in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

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More than $1B catalyzed for 2023 Audacious Projects

Par : TED Staff

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

The 2023 Audacious Project grantees are:

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

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

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

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


ABOUT THE AUDACIOUS PROJECT

 

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

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

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

Par : TED Staff

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

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

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

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

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

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TEDWomen Presents: Women leading the future, with Heidi Hammel and Nadia Drake

Heidi Hammel in conversation with Nadia Drake at TEDWomen Presents. October 24-28, 2022. Photo Courtesy of TED.

Nothing says “future” quite like humanity’s quest to understand our cosmic surroundings.

The fourth day of TEDWomen Presents — an online festival featuring interviews with leading women, interactive workshops, specially curated film screenings and more — focused on science and the future, with a conversation between astronomer Heidi Hammel and science journalist Nadia Drake.

Big idea: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the most powerful ever built by humanity, has transformed the field of astronomy — and our search for life beyond Earth.

How? JWST has been orbiting Earth since late 2021; its highly sensitive, innovative instruments allow us to see new wavelengths of infrared light with incredible clarity. Beyond the beautiful photography it creates, this breakthrough telescope means we can learn more about the very origins of the universe. “Different wavelengths of light tell you different parts of the story,” says Heidi Hammel, an interdisciplinary scientist working on JWST. In conversation with science journalist Nadia Drake, she discussed the telescope’s construction and how scientists use tools called spectrographs to analyze the colors in the light it captures. Since certain molecules light up differently, they can use these colors to see which molecules are present in a far-off object — molecules like H2O, which could be a sign of circumstances suitable for life. More than this, “We don’t just have a static picture,” says Hammel. Studying the imagery can reveal the molecules’ temperature, pressure and movement, too. “That’s where the real deep science takes place,” she says. All this information will help us fill in gaps in the knowledge of the universe’s history, how our solar system formed and where else life may have evolved. For example, we’ve learned that one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa, has more water inside it than Earth does on the surface, and that the dust, gas and existing stars of nearby galaxies interact to create new stars. “It touches us as humans. How did we come to be?” asks Hammel.

Q&A: Following the interview, the TEDWomen Presents audience had the opportunity to ask Hammel questions during a live Q&A, hosted by TED Current Affairs Curator Whitney Pennington-Rodgers. In her day-to-day work, Hammel says she experiences both the mundane and the awesome. While sometimes she can be so deep in analysis that she loses sight of the awe she’s experiencing, other times she’ll get to observe an image that shocks or amazes her. While working on the Hubble Space Telescope, she watched a comet crash into Jupiter, exploding into massive black clouds. And when JWST first launched, she saw Neptune (and its rings) glowing in the infrared. Looking towards the future, Hammel says scientists are already thinking about the next generation telescope — one even larger than JWST — to find another planet able to sustain life. Wherever it may be, Hammel says we might be able to answer the question of whether life exists beyond our planet within this lifetime.

Hammel also spoke on the evolution of gender equity in her field since she first began her career in the 1980s. At that time, there were less than ten women in her field. Now she attends conferences filled with women. “It makes me joyful,” she says, because the attention they’ve put towards including women has created a younger, more diverse generation of astronomers. Today, Hammel does outreach with a broad range of communities, working to change everyone’s understanding of what an astronomer looks like. Yes, a scientist can look “like an ordinary mom!”

Heidi Hammel in conversation with Nadia Drake at TEDWomen Presents. October 24-28, 2022. Photo Courtesy of TED.

Join the TEDWomen Community newsletter list to be the first to hear updates from the community and announcements about TEDWomen 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia — October 11-13, 2023.

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TEDWomen Presents: Women leading work, with Anjali Sud and Stephanie Mehta

Anjali Sud in conversation with Stephanie Mehta at TEDWomen Presents. October 24-28, 2022. Photo Courtesy of TED.

How do we chart a path forward for the future of work during a time of unprecedented change?

The second day of TEDWomen Presents — an online festival featuring interviews with leading women, interactive workshops, specially curated film screenings and more — focused on leading change in the workplace, with a conversation between Anjali Sud, CEO of Vimeo, and Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures.

Big idea: Agile leaders meet uncertainty with flexibility. 

How? As a leader, your workforce looks to you for certainty, says Vimeo CEO Anjali Sud. But amid a global pandemic, a racial reckoning and the start of a war, Sud couldn’t provide her 1300-plus employees with the assurance they sought — there were just too many factors outside her control. Her solution: to stay agile and change as circumstances change.

In conversation with Mansueto CEO (and former editor-in-chief of Fast Company) Stephanie Mehta, Sud shares what agile leadership looks like at Vimeo and why offering your employees flexibility makes for a happier, more productive workforce. Early in the pandemic, when everyone in the company felt so isolated, Sud enhanced face-to-face communication at Vimeo by promoting a video-first model. Instead of email and chat, company leaders used live video to communicate with their employees whenever possible. Sud also created a framework for people to discuss what’s not working in meetings so they could pivot when necessary. As for her changing workforce, Sud recognizes that newer generations of workers, specifically millennials and Gen-Z, have different preferences and priorities than previous generations. They’re more mission-driven and want to understand the “why” behind their jobs, not just the “what.” No matter the circumstances, Sud emphasizes that CEOs should respond to challenges with empathy and humanity: “I think the best leaders and cultures deliver results and treat people well.”

Q&A: Following the interview, the TEDWomen Presents audience had the opportunity to ask Sud questions during a live Q&A, hosted by TED Current Affairs Curator Whitney Pennington-Rodgers. This wide-ranging discussion covered the importance of honest, transparent communication in moments of turbulence and change; how companies can take a stance on social change issues; the future of video; how to create deep connections with virtual teams; the extra pressure women leaders face and much more.

Sud outlined how recent layoffs at Vimeo challenged her to rethink how leaders can be accountable to the people affected. “Careers are long, but relationships are longer,” she says. Sud also discussed how Vimeo — an open, user-generated content platform — has a responsibility to make sure that the content on their platform doesn’t create harm in the real world. She emphasized the need for companies like hers to recognize that the world is changing, and how the old rules of engagement may no longer apply. And she also shared some lessons for future generations: get used to the idea that your career path will be winding, not linear, and don’t shy away from hard decisions. “Leadership looks like whatever we want it to look like. So be yourself,” she says.

Anjali Sud in conversation with Stephanie Mehta at TEDWomen Presents. October 24-28, 2022. Photo Courtesy of TED.

Join the TEDWomen Community newsletter list to be the first to hear updates from the community and announcements about TEDWomen 2023 in Atlanta, Georgia — October 11-13, 2023.

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Brighter future(s): The talks from TED@BCG 2022

Hosts Julia Dhar and Whitney Pennington Rodgers speak at TED@BCG: brighter future(s) at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 15, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Predicting the future can sometimes feel impossible, but there are clear paths we can follow to take action on the issues of the day. In a day of talks and performances, 16 leading minds gathered to present promising and hopeful solutions to problems related to health care, the economy, modern leadership and more.

The event: TED@BCG: brighter future(s) is the thirteenth event TED and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have co-hosted to uplift forward-thinking speakers from around the globe. Hosted by TED current affairs Curator Whitney Pennington Rogers and BCG managing director and partner Julia Dhar (a past TED speaker herself!).

When and where: Thursday, September 15, 2022 at the TED World Theater in New York City

Speakers: Aparna Bharadwaj, Gareth Thomas, Tolu Oyekan, Dave Sivaprasad, Phnam Bagley, Tessa Clarke, Alex Koster, Gitte Frederiksen, June Sarpong, Zineb Sqalli, Will Guidara, Cristina Junqueira, Elena Crescia, Keenan Scott II, Veronica Chau, Nithya Vaduganathan, Paul Catchlove

KERA performs at TED@BCG: brighter future(s) at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 15, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Music: Musician KERA performed their serene and soulful songs “Bright Future Ahead” and “Vitamin T” for the audience.

The talks in brief:

Aparna Bharadwaj speaks at TED@BCG: brighter future(s) at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 15, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Aparna Bharadwaj, global consumer strategist

Big idea: People can benefit from finding the hidden connections and secret similarities.

Why? Businesses tend to focus on what separates consumers in one country from another. Aparna Bharadwaj shows that it’s much more interesting for businesses to instead look for unexpected similarities across borders. Her research has revealed insights like: Chinese and Indonesians like to share snacks in groups, rather than eating alone; car-buying habits in China look similar to those in Nigeria, motivated by status more than utility; and Americans and Russians share similar motivations when shopping for clothes, looking for on-trend apparel instead of performance wear. “These are patterns where you least expect them,” Bharadwaj says, as businesses wouldn’t normally think to group consumers in these countries together. These commonalities go beyond commercial opportunities — they provide a message of hope for the world. “If only people knew that we are similar in the most profound ways, in our everyday activities … maybe we would understand and empathize with each other,” she says.


Gareth Thomas speaks at TED@BCG: brighter future(s) at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 15, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Gareth Thomas, former pro rugby player, stigma challenger

Big idea: Together, we can tackle stigma.

How? The tattoo on Gareth Thomas’s knee is dark, ghoulish and threatening — a skeleton that represents the imminent death he felt when he first was diagnosed with HIV. The wings beneath it symbolize the freedom he felt once he finally found his voice: “Like a dead man coming back to life,” he says. The crown atop the skull embodies leadership against discrimination and misinformation. Each adornment represents his journey living, celebrating and reclaiming his truth in the face of stigma and shame. Now he’s on a mission to fight for the same for others. Thomas demystifies and redefines what it means to live with HIV, urging us to normalize conversation around all vilified conditions. The more people who know the facts — and stand up against stigma — the more the truth can spread, reducing shame and giving the world more of a fighting chance to make right what has been wrong for so long.


Tolu Oyekan speaks at TED@BCG: brighter future(s) at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 15, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Tolu Oyekan, inclusive finance promoter

Big idea: To meet developmental goals on the African continent (and beyond), historically non-profit objectives must be treated with the same urgency that for-profit initiatives enjoy. 

How? In the for-profit sector, a business’s top priority is ensuring that the benefits of their efforts outweigh the investments. Tolu Oyekan believes that non-profits should borrow a page from their playbook. He sets up a crucial example of this approach: access to financial services across his native Nigeria is extremely scarce. Oyekan shows us how data-driven and scalable solutions can transform banking for rural and urban communities alike. Treating this critical lack of access with a lean approach that empowers citizens, Oyekan explains how agent banking — an individual acting on behalf of a bank and providing financial services from established local businesses — could be an affordable fix, as opposed to expensive solutions like adding physical ATMs and bank branches. This way, people can access banking resources at their local grocery store, barber shop or anywhere an agent sets up shop. “When we include the profit motive in the development work that we do, we can go fast and far, together, to address development challenges and change the world for the better,” Oyekan says.


Dave Sivaprasad speaks at TED@BCG: brighter future(s) at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 15, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Dave Sivaprasad, coastline resilience advocate

Big idea: When it comes to mitigating the impact of climate change on coastal areas, it’s not about finding a singular solution — it’s about finding the right mix of solutions.

Why? Around forty percent of humanity lives near a coast, and their livelihoods are dependent on the conditions of the environment. From flooding and ocean acidification to stronger storms and changes in wind patterns, Dave Sivaprasad lays out the ever-increasing risks climate change poses to these areas. To deal with these more intense conditions, he shares a multitude of approaches coastal populations can implement to brace themselves for the (metaphorical and literal) storm. Sea walls, stone barriers, mangrove restoration, land reclamation are all viable options, but the challenge is choosing the right mix to meet each community’s needs. “No two coasts are alike” says Sivaprasad — and neither are their respective paths to climate resilience.


Phnam Bagley speaks at TED@BCG: brighter future(s) at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 15, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Phnam Bagley, designer and creative director

Big idea: With creative thinking and innovative design, people traveling beyond Earth could eat nourishing, flavorful food reminiscent of home.

How? When astronauts are hurtling through space, they typically eat what Phnam Bagley kindly calls “goop-in-a-bag.” The lack of gravity, limited storage and distance from Earth make it difficult for an explorer to enjoy a fresh, delectable meal. Meal time becomes even more complicated when you plan to send astronauts to Mars, a roundtrip journey of 2.5 to 3 years. To take on the challenge of making better astronaut grub, Bagley and her team designed the Space Culinary Lab with flavor, nutrition and practically in mind. The system can mix coffee granules, hot water, ghee and collagen powder to make a coffee with both satisfying flavor and healthy omega-3 fatty acids. A hydroponic garden grows lettuce and microgreens for salad, while lasers cook rehydrated freeze-dried chicken with the same enticing pattern of grilled meats. For snacks, they grow carbon-negative microalgae like spirulina onsite, then mix it with oats, nuts, powdered berries and spices. Bagley’s designs have the potential to make space feel more human. They could improve life here on Earth as well, replacing non-regenerative agricultural methods with low-resource creative cooking.


Tessa Clarke speaks at TED@BCG: brighter future(s) at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 15, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Tessa Clarke, sharing economy entrepreneur

Big idea: There’s a super simple solution to the climate crisis – sharing.

Really? Household consumption is directly responsible for 65 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. Tessa Clarke thinks the most effective solution is something humans have been doing for thousands of years: sharing more and wasting less. Globally, one-third of all the food we produce each year is thrown away, a trillion-dollar squandering that ends up in landfills, producing carbon dioxide’s deadlier cousin, methane. And half of that waste comes from households. According to leading scientists, solving the food waste problem is even more important than transitioning to electric cars, solar panels or plant-based diets. To take on the problem, Clarke cofounded Olio, a free app that connects local communities around giving food away before it’s thrown away. They’ve empowered people to share 66 million portions of food, and this is just a tiny fraction of what’s possible. Users can also share home items, books, appliances, toys and more. “Sharing instead of shopping needs to become the default,” she says.


Alex Koster speaks at TED@BCG: brighter future(s) at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 15, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Alex Koster, mobility and software visionary

Big idea: The automobile industry is busy building the “Software Dream Car.”

How? The future of the automotive industry goes beyond clean fuels software is poised to be a transformational force as well. If we take driverless cars as an eventual given, it’s time to dream up what their interior spaces will look like, says Alex Koster. As computer vision technology continues to advance, we’re moving towards what he calls the “Software Dream Car” an augmented reality vehicle that fuses science fiction and luxury into a real-world environment overlaid with information and entertainment. What we see out our window will be limited only by our imaginations, says Koster, as our cars pilot us through rich virtual worlds in addition to taking us from point A to point B.


Gitte Frederiksen speaks at TED@BCG: brighter future(s) at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 15, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Gitte Frederiksen, leadership champion

Big question: Modern organizations are complex, multidirectional organisms, so why are we so invested in hierarchical leadership structures?

Some thoughts: When it comes down to it, leaders are only human. And when there’s only a small group of leaders moving at their own speed, bottlenecks are inevitable, organizational decisions flounder and leaders lose sight of the great ideas that often lie unnoticed in the margins. Gitte Frederiksen offers an innovative solution: leadership networks without labels, replacing the power of the few with the influence of many by emphasizing sharing and kindness. These complex human networks not only increase feelings of ownership, reduce stress and create better products, but they’re also “more beautiful, more multidimensional, more dynamic, more like nature,” says Frederiksen.


June Sarpong speaks at TED@BCG: brighter future(s) at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 15, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

June Sarpong, diversity leader

Big idea: The next big disruption in business is in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

How? “Rock star” leaders are those that disrupt business as usual — and June Sarpong thinks the same strategy can be used to move us forward on DEI. It all starts with uncomfortable connections, breaking with the status quo and developing a vision for a better future. When it comes to the workplace, people in power need to make the big leaps first. Consider FX Networks, which disrupted its previously lily-white programming roster and invested significantly in diverse directors and writers. In the process, it created critically and commercially successful content – which Sarpong says is truly “rock star behavior.”


Zineb Sqalli speaks at TED@BCG: brighter future(s) at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 15, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Zineb Sqalli, gender and climate researcher

Big idea? The next few decades will see trillions invested in infrastructure improvement in the name of fighting climate change, but women will only benefit from these policies and programs as much as men if we are intentional about their inclusion.

How? Climate action has historically been designed with a “gender neutral” lens, but continuing in this manner could set gender equality back by fifteen years, says Zineb Sqalli. We need to consider women’s specific needs upfront, involve women in the design process and measure results so that we can correct course if needed. Cities like Vienna, Austria have already done this. With a diverse urban planning board, Vienna restructured its parks so teenage girls would feel more welcome; created a public campaign to educate the city on the new approach; and integrated a gender assessment into social housing and infrastructure contracts. These changes benefit everyone. By abandoning the gender neutral mindset and intentionally designing for women, Sqalli says, we could build both an environmentally sustainable and gender equitable world.


Will Guidara speaks at TED@BCG: brighter future(s) at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 15, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Will Guidara, restaurateur, author

Big idea: Unreasonable hospitality turns ordinary transactions into extraordinary experiences.

How? What does it take to earn the title “best restaurant in the world?” Ask Will Guidara, and he might tell you that the secret is a two-dollar, off-menu hot dog. Guidara is the former owner of Eleven Madison Park, a restaurant that claimed this distinction in 2017 under his leadership by pursuing a strategy of “unreasonable hospitality.” It all started when Guidara overheard a table of out-of-town guests regretting that their trip to New York City hadn’t included a taste of one of the city’s finest (and cheapest) culinary classics: a New York City hot dog. Eleven Madison Park is an exceptionally fancy establishment, but Guidara decided that if his guests wanted a hot dog, he’d make it happen. He ran out to the street, bought a hot dog from a sidewalk vendor and persuaded his chef to serve it. This simple gesture gobsmacked his guests — and it forever changed Guidara’s approach to service. He recounts other incredible experiences the Eleven Madison Park orchestrated for their patrons and offers strategies for anyone to make their hospitality a little more “unreasonable” — whether it be serving a guest or buying a gift (and creating a memory) for a loved one.


Elena Crescia (left) interviews Cristina Junqueira for TED@BCG: brighter future(s) at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 15, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Cristina Junqueira, entrepreneur, in conversation with Elena Crescia, social entrepreneur

Big idea: To disrupt an industry’s status quo, take customers’ pain seriously. 

How? “It felt a little bit like going to prison,” says Cristina Junqueira, describing the heightened security and long wait times that were typical at Brazilian banks when she cofounded her online bank, Nubank. She was drawn to banking by this pain, which she identified as an opportunity to disrupt a stagnant industry in need of improvement. Fast forward nine years and Nubank has redefined how Brazilians access their money and participate in commerce. In conversation with social entrepreneur Elena Crescia, Junqueira discusses the transformative impact her decision to center customers’ experience has had in Brazil. According to Junqueira, Nubank serves more than five million people who had never previously engaged with the country’s financial system. The company’s efficient digital platform is imitable, she says, but what’s harder to emulate is Nubank’s customer-first mindset. As she puts it: “That’s where the real competitive advantage lies.”


Keenan Scott II speaks at TED@BCG: brighter future(s) at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 15, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Keenan Scott II, playwright, poet, TED Fellow

Big idea: As a kid, Keenan Scott Il loved words, stories and superheroes — a passion that fueled his journey to becoming a celebrated playwright, producer, director and actor.

How? In every superhero narrative, says Keenan Scott II, there’s always an event that pushes the superhero to realize their power. For Scott, it was a poetry assignment in his eighth-grade English class. He struggled with dyslexia as a kid, but he soared when it came time to write a poem. He discovered that he already understood advanced literary devices like simile, assonance and slant rhyme because he’d encountered these techniques in the music he loved by artists like Tupac Shakur and Lemon Andersen. Scott continued to develop his craft outside the classroom by paying attention to words and the world around him. He listened to speech patterns in different parts of the city and heard the stories of his neighbors; he explored the work of other artists, poets and jazz artists whose creativity inspired his own. On the TED stage, Scott performs three stunning spoken word pieces that testify to the superheroic talent he cultivated despite the obstacles (read: kryptonite).


Veronica Chau speaks at TED@BCG: brighter future(s) at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 15, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Veronica Chau, sustainable investment professional

Big idea: To improve financing for sustainable and equitable housing, we need policies that stimulate demand and create a favorable investing environment.

Why? Faced with the climate crisis, financial institutions have pledged trillions to transform the economy — but right now, says sustainable investing expert Veronica Chau, that money is not flowing at the speed it needs to. Taking the housing sector as a case study, Chau explains that the US is facing two challenges at once: housing is scarce and the buildings we live in are a major contributor to climate change. To reconcile and overcome these two challenges, we need to radically increase financing for sustainable housing. Banks want to reach net-zero, she says; the problem is that government housing policy is not doing enough to create a low-risk environment for investment. By creating robust investment incentives; strengthening requirements for energy efficiency; investing in programs that help low-income communities retrofit their homes; and offering permits for affordable, energy-efficient housing, local governments can create a favorable financing environment and ensure financing flows to areas where it’s needed most.


Nithya Vaduganathan speaks at TED@BCG: brighter future(s) at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 15, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Nithya Vaduganathan, talent strategy expert

Big idea: To find hidden talent, take a fresh look around.

How? Something interesting is happening in the labor market: there are lots of job openings, yet many employers are struggling to find the right people to fill them. Why is that? Nithya Vaduganathan thinks it’s in large part because employers are using outdated practices to retract and retain talent – for instance, by focusing on features like college degree or time in role, which are not necessarily predictive of success. Vaduganathan offers five tips that will actually help employers fill open positions — while also helping job seekers advance their careers. First: leaders and managers must figure out what actually needs to get done, as opposed to listing Frankenstein job posts searching for impossibly qualified candidates. Second: “screen in” candidates, as opposed to screening out based on certain criteria like college degrees. (Great candidates don’t need to check every box, she says.) Third: start with coffee – or, in other words, start small. Try out micro-internships: small-scale, paid projects that create a low-risk path to hiring, particularly of college and grad students from overlooked schools. Fourth: look beyond your floor – there may be talent hiding inside your organization, just a floor above you. And, lastly: let your people go so they can grow. Companies that allow their people to move around internally report more diverse, innovative and effective teams. 


Paul Catchlove speaks at TED@BCG: brighter future(s) at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 15, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Paul Catchlove, reflective leader

Big idea: Self-reflection can add value to your work life, increasing performance and helping you make better decisions and build better relationships.

How? Reflection is about learning, says Paul Catchlove: looking at our lives without judgment, but with a critical lens. So how do we do it? Catchlove recommends making reflection a habit, whether it takes the form of purposeful thinking, journal entries, audio notes or discussions with a mentor or friend. In the workplace, this would look like consistently setting aside time to distill learnings on what worked, what didn’t and why – and then making a personal commitment to do things differently next time. So next time a meeting leaves you feeling agitated, take some time to sit down, take a breath and reflect (whether it’s after work or the next morning). Over time, cultivating a habit of reflection will glean deeper insights as you begin to recognize patterns of behavior – whether it’s a problematic relationship with a boss or client or an aspect of your job that you begin to realize leaves you feeling happy and fulfilled.

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Thrive: TED Talks from Indigenous leaders, in partnership with Nia Tero

Michael Painter and Sally Kohn host TED Salon: Thrive, presented in partnership with Nia Tero, at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 22, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

The first-ever TED Salon co-created in partnership with Nia Tero featured five extraordinary Indigenous leaders, collectively representing thousands of communities worldwide. Speaking on issues connected to Indigenous environmental guardianship, the speakers laid out a compelling vision for how to better steward the Earth.

The event: TED Talks from five Indigenous leaders, hosted by Nia Tero’s managing director of programs Michael Painter and TED curator Sally Kohn

When and where: Thursday, September 22, 2022, at TED World Theater in New York City

Opening remarks: From Katsitsionni Fox, who opened the space by giving thanks to everything from the strawberries and bugs to the winds and the Moon; and from Nia Tero’s CEO Peter Seligmann, who spoke on the importance of centering Indigenous voices in climate action and finding new ways to love Earth.

Mia Kami performs at TED Salon: Thrive, presented in partnership with Nia Tero, at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 22, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Music: From singer-songwriter Mia Kami, who performed two songs — “Mana” and “Salt Water” — and filled the room with the sounds of the Pacific.


The talks in brief:

Jupta Itoewaki speaks at TED Salon: Thrive, presented in partnership with Nia Tero, at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 22, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Jupta Itoewaki, environmental activist

Big idea: Although Indigenous people comprise five to six percent of the world’s population, 80 percent of the world’s biodiversity is within Indigenous territory. So why do non-Indigenous people and institutions so often question Indigenous environmental wisdom and stewardship?

Some context: Jupta Itoewaki’s native Suriname, with 93 percent of its surface area covered by pristine forests, is one of the world’s greenest countries — in no small part due to the efforts of its Indigenous people, who are dedicated protectors of the natural world. These stewards of the world’s biodiversity should lead the world’s efforts to preserve the habitats in which unique biomes thrive, says Itoewaki. She shares five “Rs” to help understand Indigenous guardianship. First, responsibility — we are all responsible for decolonizing Indigenous lands, and for listening to Indigenous voices. Second, respect Indigenous voices, knowledge and autonomy. Third, cultivate relationships with Indigenous communities rather than exerting power. Fourth, reciprocity — share power and resources. Finally, redistribute ancestral lands to their rightful stewards and owners. 


Jennifer “Jing” Corpuz speaks at TED Salon: Thrive, presented in partnership with Nia Tero, at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 22, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Jennifer “Jing” Corpuz, lawyer

Big idea: Although colonialism has softened its face over the years from violent oppression to development, the outcomes have remained the same: Indigenous people are exploited for the developer’s gain, without the consent of their communities. Jennifer “Jing” Corpuz shares the long struggle of her people (the Kankana-ey Igorot People of Mountain Province in the Philippines) against the changing tactics of their would-be exploiters — and shows why this struggle is important for the whole planet.

How? Exploitation has followed the same sad script for most of history — moving into a place and stripping it of resources, so that the wealthy few can grow wealthier, while the people whose lands they have appropriated fall into servitude. Some of them, like Jennifer Corpuz, fight to advance the Indigenous values of the common good, community health and stewardship of lands — and, in the process, hope these values prevail and save our planet.


Emmanuel “Manu” Peni speaks at TED Salon: Thrive, presented in partnership with Nia Tero, at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 22, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Emmanuel “Manu” Peni, human rights defender

Big idea: Modern ideas aren’t always better ideas. We must understand how Indigenous wisdom can work in harmony with new science and technology if we want to save the planet.

Why? Consider the ingenuity of the thatch roof, a shelter made from locally harvested leaves and vines. In Papua New Guinea, people have relied on thatch roofs for centuries to weather strong tropical winds and keep their homes cool and breezy. Emmanuel “Manu” Peni instead decided to build his home there using modern techniques with steel beams and an iron roof. He ignored the merits of traditional building practices and suffered the consequences — the winds tipped his brand new house sideways and ripped off part of his roof. Now Peni wants to prevent the world from making the same mistake of underestimating the value of Indigenous knowledge, especially when it comes to solving the climate crisis. Indigenous people are experts at healing and protecting the planet, Peni says, because they have lived in harmony with their environments for thousands of years. He provides powerful examples of how traditional practices in his community already enact sustainable land management and closes with a plea to anyone listening: “Pay attention, learn, try to understand, respect and heed Indigenous guardianship,” he says. “Or else, like me, the next great wind will blow us all over.”


Valérie Courtois speaks at TED Salon: Thrive, presented in partnership with Nia Tero, at the TED World Theater in New York City on September 22, 2022. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Valérie Courtois, forester

Big idea: If we all join Indigenous peoples in the fight to protect Earth’s biodiversity, we can heal our planet together.

Why? Valérie Courtois has witnessed firsthand the devastating impact of climate change in her homelands of Nitassinan, in what is now known as Canada. Two decades ago, she watched hundreds of thousands of caribou cross the Trans-Labrador highway. Today, that same caribou herd has dwindled to 8,000. But Courtois still has hope for Nitassinan and the world. Her inspiration: the Indigenous guardians who steward the region’s boreal forests, monitoring water quality, conducting climate research and working to restore species like caribou, salmon and moose. In return, she says, the forests are caring for their guardians too: helping people like Jarett Quock — a former heavy equipment operator who battled addiction and racism — heal from centuries of intergenerational trauma. Guardians already care for some of the largest protected areas on the planet, including a section of the Northwest Territories the size of Costa Rica. If we all join Indigenous peoples in the fight to protect Earth’s biodiversity — if we honor Indigenous knowledge and commit to sustained political action — we can heal our planet together. As Cortois puts it: “If we take care of the land, the land takes care of us.”

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How a letter by Pope Francis became a movement, a TED Talk and now a film

Par : TED Staff

In October 2020, for the launch of TED’s climate initiative, Countdown, HH Pope Francis gave a TED Talk (his second) on the moral imperative to act on climate change. It was inspired by his encyclical letter (book) Laudato si’, “On caring for our common home.”

An excerpt from that TED Talk is now featured in a new documentary film centered on the Pope’s message.

First published in 2015, Laudato si’ became a rare papal encyclical that permeated mainstream discourse. It hit a nerve and became a global sensation, widely commented on (and criticized).

It also gave rise to the Laudato si’ Movement, which has now brought together a stellar production team (whose previous works include the global hit My Octopus Teacher) to make the new film called The Letter – A message for our Earth. (See the trailer). It is supported by YouTube Originals, where it will premiere on October 4 at 9am US Pacific time and 6pm Central European time.

We have asked Tomás Insua, the executive director of the Laudato si’ Movement and executive producer of the film, to tell us about it.

Why turn Pope Francis’ encyclical letter Laudato si’ into a movie?

Pope Francis wrote Laudato si’ not only for Catholics but, as he says, “to all men and women of good will.” Indeed, this letter’s message comes from a deep reflection, listening to his predecessors, leaders from other denominations, and numerous scientists, philosophers, theologians and civic groups. Since not everyone is able to read a full, dense book, we decided to tell the Laudato si’ story in a different way, to spread the immensity and urgency of the challenge we face.

The film doesn’t follow the structure of the book: it rather tries to bring its essence into a dialogue between Pope Francis and voices from the world.

This idea of dialogue is central to Pope Francis’s letter, in which he says he wants to “enter a dialogue with all people about the future of our common home.” He’s so humble and willing to listen – which is in marked contrast with many of the world’s most powerful people, who continue to lead us closer to planetary collapse and are not interested in listening.

Sadly, even many who are committed to environmental solutions often don’t listen, and true dialogue with people of different perspectives is astonishingly rare. Supporting dialogue between Pope Francis and the communities that often go unheard seemed like a good way to reflect the world the Pope is calling for.

Who are those voices and how did you pick them?

The voices that are present in the dialogue documented in the film come from communities of the Indigenous, poverty, youth and science.

Cacique Odair “Dadá” Borari comes from the Borari people in Brazil’s Amazon region, where he has led groundbreaking work on environmental defense in a very dangerous place.

Arouna Kandé comes from Saint Louis in Senegal, a city he was forced to move to as a climate refugee. He now studies sustainability in order to bring new solutions to his village.

Ridhima Pandey comes from Haridwar in India, where she has led youth movements for the climate since the age of nine. Now 14 years old, she is in school and continues her leadership.

Scientists Greg Asner and Robin Martin come from Hawai’i in the United States, where they have developed an innovative technique to map underwater heat waves that kill coral reefs.

No one person is completely representative of millions of other people. But by listening to these frontline champions describe their experiences, we hope that viewers will have some sense of the world beyond them.

That gives an interactive angle to the project.

Yes, through the film’s website we also ask viewers to respond, access more information, and support the people in the film.

The five participants traveled to Rome, and then to Assisi. What happened there?

None of the people described above is traditional Catholic. And they hadn’t met before the trip. Before speaking with Pope Francis, they sat down for several days of conversation and broke bread together. During the meeting with the Pope, there was lots of laughter and even a few tears. The group then traveled to Assisi to reflect on their experiences. Tragically, while they were there one of them received devastating news about an event related to the planetary crisis that had taken place in his home territory at that very moment. In the film, we see him receive the news and how the others rallied to support him. They truly became friends. They are aware of each other’s stories, and they trust each other. They continue talking and supporting each other to this day. That kind of empathy and closeness is so important for everyone who is working on climate.

What learnings do you think they brought home from the experience chronicled in the film?

Probably one of the biggest learnings is that they have more power than they knew. All of these leaders developed incredible initiatives in their home regions long before traveling to the Vatican. But they left that meeting with Pope Francis with an even greater sense of how much they matter. They are people who are protecting this planet on behalf of all humanity. Pope Francis spent more time with them than he usually spends with heads of state and visiting dignitaries. After the meeting, which was reported by the media in his region, Cacique Dadá, the Borari leader who has been a powerfully effective land defender in a very dangerous place, said: “They will think twice before trying to kill me now.”

Tell us about the title, The Letter.

Pope Francis’ encyclical letter Laudato si’ is addressed to “every person living on this planet.” It is meant for all of us. In the film, the Vatican invites these grassroots champions through letters sent to them. We see the letters traveling along rural roads across the world. We see the letters arriving in the hands of these people whom we will come to know so well through the film. The letters connect them, and they connect us as viewers in a wider dialogue. We are called to respond to this letter.

What do you expect viewers to take away from the film?

Let me answer by quoting two very important things Pope Francis says in Laudato si’. The first is that everything is connected. What I do is based on how I value the people who will be affected by my actions. Nothing is in isolation. The second is that “we have to realize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.” This realization that the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor are one and the same is transformative.

Who filmed and produced the movie?

The film was produced by the Laudato si’ Movement, along with an Oscar- and BAFTA-winning team at Off the Fence (which has produced many great documentaries, including the global hit My Octopus Teacher). It is presented by YouTube Originals.

Tell us about the Laudato si’ Movement.

The mission of the Laudato si’ Movement is to inspire and mobilize the Catholic community to care for our common home and achieve climate and ecological justice. Like Pope Francis, we are truly worried about the state of the climate. We do believe in the power of the Laudato si’ message and believe that showing it through a movie is a great way to inspire people.

You started this project before the pandemic and had to suspend it during it. What impact did that have on the final story?

The pandemic was definitely a big challenge. Every place we worked in was very vulnerable to the virus, as we worked in places that were either isolated or had very limited healthcare services. Our production partners at Off the Fence could not in good conscience send camerapeople and staff to those locations. Instead, we sent cameras in. Over messages and video calls, we trained the local people in the use of cameras, and we gave them salaries. These constraints forced us to be creative, to go beyond what frankly had been our own limited ways of thinking. We developed much deeper and more real relationships that ultimately flowered in the film and beyond.

Has Pope Francis seen the film?

Pope Francis is a humble person. He makes it a practice to never watch films about himself.

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A New Era: Notes from Session 1 of TED Fellows Talks at TED2022

TED Fellows director Shoham Arad and TED Fellows deputy director Lily James Olds host Session 1 of TED Fellows Talks at TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

The TED Fellows program is built around a deep belief in and commitment to socially engaged innovation and human ingenuity. The mission: to shift the balance of power by supporting whole individuals, both personally and professionally. At Session 1 of TED Fellows talks at TED2022, 11 speakers and two performers shared world-changing ideas and innovations from the fields of astrophysics, conservation, social change, art and so much more.

The event: Talks from Session 1 of TED Fellows Talks at TED2022, hosted by TED’s Shoham Arad and Lily James Olds

When and where: Sunday, April 10, 2022, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Jessie Christiansen, Adetayo Bamiduro, Gautam Shah, Micaela Mantegna, Ryan Gersava, Enzo Romero, Bree Jones, Lam Ho, Kyra Gaunt, Bektour Iskender, Constance Hockaday

Music: Visual artist and composer Paul Rucker put his strikingly masterful cello technique on display with a haunting yet meditative rendition. And musician “Blinky” Bill Selanga thrilled the audience with his Afrocentric beats and dynamic energy, performing “Kilamu” and “Ama Aje”.

The talk in brief:

Jessie Christiansen speaks at Session 1 of TED Fellows Talks at TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Jessie Christiansen, planet hunter

Big Idea: The discovery of 5,000 exoplanets (and counting) is more than impressive; their data could answer timeless questions about our very existence.

How? When Jessie Christiansen joined NASA’s Kepler mission in 2010, she’d already spent four years combing through 87,000 stars, searching for an exoplanet. On her second day of the mission, she’d found her first and second. As of March 2022, 5,000 exoplanets have been found, and the new data means we can finally ask bigger questions: Can planets exist without a star? Can they orbit each other? How many are like Earth? How are planets made? And perhaps most famously: Where do we come from, and how did we get here? “There’s a saying that this generation was born too late to explore the Earth and too soon to explore space. That’s not true anymore,” Christiansen says.


Adetayo Bamiduro speaks at Session 1 of TED Fellows Talks at TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Adetayo Bamiduro, motorcycle financing entrepreneur

Big idea: Africa is being left behind in the transition to clean mobility. Motorcycles are the secret to a cleaner, more profitable future for the continent.

How? By 2050, Lagos, Nigeria will outgrow many cities in the world including New York City and Mexico City, becoming home to more than 32 million people. Currently, Lagos and other African mega-cities like it suffer from inadequate road infrastructure, pollution, congestion and poor conditions. One of the many impacted by these issues is the African motorcycle taxi driver, who is excluded from the formal economy, left to the mercy of polluting vehicles and high costs due to exploitative loans sharks. At MIT, Bamiduro met his business partner, and together they embarked on a fix: an integrated approach to the design, manufacturing and financing operations targeted at highly vulnerable informal groups. Broken down into three parts, their solution provides motorcycle taxi drivers with access to electric vehicles and batteries, maintenance and insurance and emergency assistance, helping more than 15,000 drivers renew their livelihoods. By 2025, their goal is to provide electric mobility solutions to 150,000 drivers, paving the way towards a more sustainable and prosperous future for the world’s youngest and fastest-growing continent.


Gautam Shah speaks at Session 1 of TED Fellows Talks at TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Gautam Shah, conservationist

Big idea: Wildlife conservation efforts could be more successful if we create and strengthen our relationships with other species. Advanced technologies like the metaverse could play an essential role.

How? If we want to preserve all life on Earth, we need to create relationships with all life on Earth,” says Gautam Shah, whose combined passion for wildlife and technology makes him acutely aware of the disconnect between humans and other species. Technology has helped us collect lots of data about our fellow non-human inhabitants of Earth, but Shah observes that this data hasn’t been fully contextualized for the millions of people around the world who express interest in wildlife. His solution? A unique digital identity for animals that allows them to exist in virtual spaces like the metaverse, bringing their stories closer to us. By digitally recreating the events that happen in nature — from elephant migration to deforestation — Shah believes that humans could use the metaverse to feel less detached from and more engaged with their natural environment.


Micaela Mantegna speaks at Session 1 of TED Fellows Talks at TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Micaela Mantegna, video game lawyer

Big idea: How do we save the metaverse from becoming a bad internet sequel? Basic human qualities of kindness and connection.

How? “The metaverse is here and is already on fire,” says Micaela Mantegna. At a cross-section between augentmented and physical reality, the metaverse has the frightening potential of inheriting the worst traits of the internet, with VR and neurotechnology using involuntary data to create, as Mantagna puts it, “a capitalism of corporeal surveillance.” To save us from this fate, a coordination of engineering and law, based on kindness and connection, must be implemented to ensure content portability across different software environments and identical legal standards throughout. “It’s not every day that humanity has the chance to create new a reality, so, my invitation to you: let’s make it a good one,” she says.


Ryan Gersava speaks at Session 1 of TED Fellows Talks at TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Ryan Gersava, social innovator, educator

Big idea: Building a world where all people — including those with disabilities and chronic illnesses — can find belonging starts with healing. 

How? Social innovator, educator Ryan Gersava is one of the nearly billion people worldwide living with a disability, which often leads to chronic illness and decreased chances of employment, lack of social protection and extreme poverty. His healing journey led him to start an online vocational school in the Philippines, Virtualahan, which provides training to people with disabilities, recovering addicts and others who struggle to find employment. So far they’ve graduated hundreds of people in more than 60 cities and provinces all over the Philippines, setting them up to earn an average of 40-60 percent above minimum wage. Now he’s calling on organizations to invest in talent with disabilities, and for all of us to investigate our biases around disability and chronic illness, which makes it difficult and painful for people to disclose their conditions. “There’s no need to suffer in silence anymore,” Gersava says. “I invite you to be part of this movement.”


Enzo Romero speaks at Session 1 of TED Fellows Talks at TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Enzo Romero, bionic innovator

Big idea: Prosthesis for developing nations should be designed locally, with the needs of the communities they are built for in mind.

Why? As a child born without his right hand, Enzo Romero was astonished and inspired by the prosthetics he would see his favorite movie characters (like Luke Skywalker) wearing. But in his home country of Peru, they are far too expensive for the majority of amputees. With the intent of creating functional and affordable options, Romero and his team at LAT Bionics isolated the most used occupational gestures: pinch, cylindrical and lateral, and designed mechanical and myoelectric prostheses around them. Their devices, such as the Maki, which runs on mechanical activation, and the Pisko, which runs on electronic activation, cost a fraction of what imported tech does. Why? The parts are 3D printed with materials mainly sourced from recycled plastic bottles. “We have the capacity to develop our own technology, having the necessities of our people in mind, so then people with disabilities and limited resources can live life again,” Romero says. 


Bree Jones speaks at Session 1 of TED Fellows Talks at TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Bree Jones, equitable housing developer

Big idea: Development and homeownership opportunities in overlooked neighborhoods are possible — without the displacement of existing residents.

How? Systemic barriers like redlining have (and continue to) keep Black communities from building wealth through real estate and other assets. Housing advocate Bree Jones explains how developing neighborhoods often are subjected to two trajectories: people move away and the area is deemed a risky investment, so either the quality of life there decays or the neighborhood is gentrified and new residents capitalize off of the distress of legacy residents by scooping up undervalued real estate and selling it back at a higher price. To end these toxic cycles of the racial wealth gap, Jones founded Parity, a nonprofit that creates upfront demand for homeownership in neighborhoods experiencing hyper vacancy by tapping into existing social networks. They’re doing this by leading the purchase and construction of vacant homes and selling them at affordable prices; helping people attain creditworthiness; and preventing displacement, allowing current residents to accrue wealth they can pass on to the next generation. “We’re healing the social fabric of the neighborhood as we’re rebuilding the built environment,” Jones says.


Lam Ho speaks at Session 1 of TED Fellows Talks at TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Lam Ho, legal aid activist

Big idea: The way the American legal system works needs to change. Clients deserve to have agency over their own cases in court – and lawyers should support them with their knowledge of the law. 

How? As a lawyer, Lam Ho witnessed the same thing happen in courtrooms across the US: clients aren’t given the chance to contribute their perspective during their own legal proceedings. Ho’s mother didn’t have a say in her divorce because she didn’t have an attorney and Ho thought by becoming a lawyer he could help people like her but instead, Ho realized he became a part of the problem. Instead of forcing families with limited resources to accommodate lawyers and their voices being silenced, Ho wants the dynamic of the US legal system to flip. He founded Beyond Legal Aid so lawyers can change the system from within by allowing clients to be participants in the process –  rather than be subjected to it. By inviting clients to tell their own stories in court, their own way, justice can be created – even when the law is wrong. “We can give advice and empower them to navigate the law, but ultimately follow their lead and defer to their decisions.” says Ho. 


Kyra D. Gaunt speaks at Session 1 of TED Fellows Talks at TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Kyra Gaunt, ethnomusicologist

Big idea: Musical play could be an empowering experience for young Black girls through which they can learn to love their own voices and disrupt the trends of anti-Black, patriarchal music.

How? As an ethnomusicologist, Kyra Gaunt studies the consequences of intimate bedroom musical play in Black girls, trying to understand how they could preserve the integrity of their own voices while technology and the media often misrepresent them. After years of viewing thousands of viral dance videos posted to the internet, she has made a few disturbing realizations, like the fact that many girls perform to songs that are produced, engineered and written by men, singing along to lyrics that often express anti-Black, patriarchal sentiments. Music and dance are therapeutic in many ways, particularly for Black girls whose musical play happens during their formative years, but many songs topping today’s charts are peppered with musical mansplaining that can have damaging implications for girls as they grow up to navigate situations like dating. Gaunt believes that Black girls could disrupt the stereotypes and stigmas created by algorithms on online platforms by learning to love their own voice. Whether this means producing their own dance songs or supporting female musicians, they could chart their own revolution in sound.


Bektour Iskender speaks at Session 1 of TED Fellows Talks at TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Bektour Iskender, independent news publisher

Big idea: Journalism is a sword and shield against international crime and its leaders.

How? What makes criminal organizations strong? Their strong cross-border connections. They operate over long distances, build efficient logistics and hide their wealth across man jurisdictions. Iskender is one of the founders of Kloop, a self-described, very unusual media organization that reveals these secret operations. Initially a new website and journalism school, Kloop evolved as its students grew older and more ambitious alongside the stories they sought to cover — and became part of an expansive media network reporting on international organized crime. Their investigations put Central Asia on the map like never before. His organization’s work uncovered a corruption scandal that rocked his home country of Kyrgyzstan and sparked protests that eventually forced the president himself to resign, among several other revelations. The story Iskender shares only exemplifies the takeaways he’d like the world to understand. First, journalism networks are incredibly efficient, important and provide safety. Two, support local media organizations all around the world for their unique insights and connections. Recently, Kloop had started to branch out, making a second home in Ukraine. Highlighting his points, Iskender posits that a better linked and funded local journalism collaboration could have saved many lives preceding Russia’s war in Ukraine. Which leads to his third and final point: We must expand the cross-border networks outside of the media world, too. Because every exposed corrupt official, every organized crime leader is a chance to protect our world not only from smugglers and thieves, but also dictators and warmongers.


Constance Hockaday speaks at Session 1 of TED Fellows Talks at TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Constance Hockaday, artist

Big idea: To achieve our hopes and goals individually and as a society, we need to fundamentally remodel our leadership styles to be more inclusive, collaborative and compassionate.

How? Though we live in a diverse and ever-changing world, our leadership models are archaic, narrow-visioned and stagnant. To illuminate new modes of leadership, Constance Hockaday invited artists from various backgrounds to design, write, create and perform public addresses as part of her Artists In Presidents project. She learned that leadership begins when one can express their autonomy, agency and desires: we need to be able to believe that our hopes and ambitions for a better world are possible. Belief does not form in a vacuum and it cannot be sustained alone—it’s crucial that we come together to share and build our interconnected dreams. Leadership, Hockaday says, is the ability to listen to these hopes and goals, however fragmented or vague, and guide people towards the truth of what they want and how they can achieve it. Leadership is a commitment to people; it is a way to help those around us understand how their individual dreams for the future are aligned with community-created, shared visions for a better world.

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Play: Notes from Session 7 of TED2022

Head of TED Chris Anderson and actress Meg Ryan host Session 7 of TED2022: A New Era on April 12, 2022 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Session 7 of TED2022 focused on play, with talks on the science behind what it really means to “have fun”, finding your personal groove through dance, the next era of video games, foraging for food in your backyard and more.

The event: Talks from Session 7 of TED Fellows Talks at TED2022, hosted by TED’s Chris Anderson and vintage TEDster and actress Meg Ryan

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

Speakers: Catherine Price, Agnes Larsson, James Hodge, Noah Raford, Ryan Heffington, Alexis Nikole Nelson

Music: Joined by vocalist KAZU, drumming virtuoso Ian Chang thumped through a set of songs he dreamed up in his living room, creating fully realized music using the physicality of drums.

Ian Chang performs at Session 7 of TED2022: A New Era on April 12, 2022 in Vancouver, BC, Canada.. Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED

The talk in brief:

Catherine Price speaks at Session 7 of TED2022: A New Era on April 12, 2022 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED)

Catherine Price, recovering science journalist

Big idea: We use the word “fun” to describe all kinds of activities that are frivolous and optional — but only a few of these activities truly trigger joy and create memories. Far from being frivolous, fun is the secret to feeling alive.

How can we have more fun? We tend to describe fun in terms of activities rather than the actual enjoyment we derive from them — but according to Catherine Price, these activities have little to do with what really matters when we have fun. Leisure activities, despite our best efforts to cram more of them in, aren’t a sure prescription for fun. Rather, fun consists of playfulness (i.e., not taking ourselves too seriously), connection (a shared experience with loved ones) and flow (a sense of engagement that leads to a loss of a sense of time). If we can cultivate these spontaneous mental states, Price believes we can drop our guard and learn how to truly thrive within each moment.


Agnes Larsson speaks at Session 7 of TED2022: A New Era on April 12, 2022 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Agnes Larsson, game director

Big idea: We’re entering the era of the metaverse. As people spend more of their time online in 3D digital landscapes, we should ensure that we design and build metaverses for fun, creativity and inclusivity.

How? For the gaming world, the metaverse is nothing new. Every day, millions of people log into games like Minecraft and use virtual building blocks to create remarkable metaverses, like big cities or castles or underwater playgrounds for fish. As game director at Minecraft, Agnes Larsson has seen how these digital spaces allow people to spend time together online in a fun and meaningful way. She describes a dad who created a Minecraft server specifically for children on the autism spectrum and an organization that uses metaverses as a neutral playground to foster dialogue, friendship and trust between young people in conflict zones. In a future where we’ll spend more time in the metaverse, Larsson advises developers to design for delight and longevity, not for quick profits. She also encourages us to build online spaces that are equitable and accessible to everyone. Because what we create online can have a profound impact on the real world.


James Hodge speaks at Session 7 of TED2022: A New Era on April 12, 2022 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED)

James Hodge, data-driven technologist

Big idea: Technology is closing the gap between esports and in-person sports, making elite competition more accessible than ever before

How? At age 16, Rudy van Buren won a high-profile Dutch racing championship, but his dreams of going pro slipped away because the sport was too expensive. Fast forward 15 years: Rudy won a worldwide gaming competition and scored a contract as a simulation driver — and then he did something even more amazing. He made the jump from “world’s fastest gamer” to pro racing in the physical world. According to data strategist James Hodge, Rudy’s story is emblematic of how new gaming technology is revolutionizing our understanding of sports, closing the gap between virtual and real-world competition — and making elite competition more accessible than ever. These days, you don’t need a racecar to be a Formula 1 driver, Hodge says. All you need is a video game console and a gaming steering wheel.


Noah Raford speaks at Session 7 of TED2022: A New Era on April 12, 2022 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED)

Noah Raford, futurist

Big idea: People on the internet believe weird things — and, if the rise of QAnon and the uprisings of January 6, 2020 are any indication, bizarre beliefs will begin to bleed into everyday reality more and more as we move further into the metaverse. Futurist Noah Raford sees this not as a cause for despair nor a sign of impending apocalypse, but rather as a reason to hold out hope for humanity.

How? Virtual worlds lend “a sense of meaning and purpose” when the real world becomes unstable, confusing and seemingly hostile — and this is the reason internet forums descend into fantasy and fanaticism. Video games, with their immersive realities (and the immediate satisfaction they provide for our deepest psychological needs), are potential powder kegs for generating escapist realities. Many kids already live primarily in virtual worlds — and it’s only a matter of time before they’re mobilized by virtual leaders promising a simpler, better reality. And while social change driven from within these virtual worlds may seem ominous, Raford thinks that they also could lead to greater justice in the real world.


Ryan Heffington speaks at Session 7 of TED2022: A New Era on April 12, 2022 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED)

Ryan Heffington, dancer, choreographer

Big idea: By turning off our critical minds and tuning into our most basic daily movements, we can all become our own choreographers and find joy in dance.

How? Each of us has our own unique way of moving, according to choreographer Ryan Heffington, but in order to unlock our “dance magic,” we have to set aside our preconceived notions about what “good” dance is. The most unlikely experiences can offer inspiration — tying a shoe, rocking a baby, cleaning your mustache or whisking up some mac-n-cheese. “Once you have the perspective that life is dance,” Heffington says, “you’ll begin to see dance everywhere around you.” Guided by this philosophy, Heffington started an online dance party during the first COVID lockdown, helping people find joy and release in anxious times. After Heffington’s talk, in a dazzling proof of concept, dancers Nico Lonetree and Ryan Spencer perform a routine infused with the humor and beauty of our daily movements.


Alexis Nikole Nelson speaks at Session 7 of TED2022: A New Era on April 12, 2022 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Alexis Nikole Nelson, foraging enthusiast

Big idea: You can find your next healthy — and planet-friendly — snack growing on your neighbor’s lawn or in between cracks in the sidewalk.

Why? As a self-proclaimed “dirty vegan” and a forager, Alexis Nikole Nelson takes pride in identifying, collecting, preparing and eating wild foods. On her popular TikTok, she shows her followers how she can turn foraged puffballs into pizza bagels or make a sweet syrup with wisteria petals. But the veggies, fruits and fungi Nikole Nelson forages aren’t just tasty; they’re often healthier than produce in the grocery store and better for our planet because they require no watering, fertilizer, labor or long-distance transportation. Now Nelson wants to get more people in on the wild food game — even if convincing others isn’t always easy. “Tell an omni to try something vegan, and you might get some hesitation already. But tell them it’s vegan and you pulled half of it out of the ground?” While preparing sweet and salty kelp chips (Dasima Twigak) live on the TED stage with local Vancouver bull kelp, she shares her often-hilarious tips for introducing foraged food to skeptical mouths.

The TED Theater at TED2022: A New Era in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED)

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Intelligence: Notes from Session 3 of TED2022

TED’s head of curation Helen Walters hosts Session 3 of TED2022: A New Era on April 11, 2022 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

The quest to better understand human intelligence — and to build more advanced artificial intelligence — is complex, knotty and exhilarating. In a wonderfully eclectic session, seven speakers explored the concept of intelligence as it applies to everything from a brain-computer interface to dragonflies, AI-powered art and meditation.

The event: Talks from TED2022, Session 3: Intelligence, hosted by TED’s Helen Walters

When and where: Monday, April 11, 2022, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Tom Oxley, Frances S. Chance, Andrew Ng, Holly Herndon, Dan Harris, Sofia Crespo, Jeanette Winterson

The talk in brief:

Tom Oxley speaks at Session 3 of TED2022: A New Era on April 11, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Tom Oxley, neurotech entrepreneur

Big idea: A revolutionary, scalable way for those with paralysis and disability to communicate — directly with their minds.

How? At the end of 2021, Tom Oxley surrendered his Twitter to a paralysis patient so that he could tweet thoughts directly from his brain — literally, no finger movement involved — thanks to a tiny implant. Don’t worry: Oxley agrees not everyone should be allowed to post on social media directly from their brain. But for people with paralysis and disability, being able to text using a brain-computer interface (BCI) could be a life-changing privilege. With implants connected to screens via Bluetooth, the device is invisible to the outside world and its keyboard navigated with clicks directly coming from brainwaves. One of the biggest requests patients had before the BCI was for ways to reconnect with their loved ones through text, email, social media and control over their smartphone. But in its current stage, the BCI requires open-brain surgery and has an expiration date due to the brain’s rejection of the implant over time. So Oxley and his team redesigned the way in which the BCI collects crucial feedback from the brain — through a specially designed stent that sits in the bloodstream instead of an implant adhered to the tissue. Paired with an antenna inserted into the chest, the device communicates raw brainwaves to external devices such as a smartphone and translates and reassigns existing brain signals into relevant digital gestures. What does this mean for the future of humanity? Far out, sci-fi wonders made fact. But right now? Restoring the lives of those with disability and paralysis who feel trapped, giving them autonomy, independence and, most important, dignity.


Frances S. Chance speaks at Session 3 of TED2022: A New Era on April 11, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Frances S. Chance, computational neuroscientist

Big idea: By studying and replicating the natural neurological specialities of insects, we can make great advancements in AI technology.

How? The human brain is incredibly complex: we each have 86 billion unique neurons in our brains that are constantly communicating with each other. When designing AI technology, it might make sense to look first to our own brains as the model, but Frances S. Chance believes we can gain much by thinking a lot smaller. Using VR technology, she studies African dung beetles, Sahara desert ants and dragonflies, because each is a natural expert in a different vital task. For example, dragonflies capture an astonishing 95 percent of the prey they hunt thanks to their innate talent at interception, or aiming for where the prey will be rather than where it is at any given moment. Chance has developed a model of this particular neural circuit that enables dragonflies to hunt so accurately and quickly, and she believes that if we can identify how these neurons function together, we can better understand how all brains make calculations and problem solve. This could have far-reaching effects for the field of AI — for instance, she imagines we could one day upgrade our GPS systems with Sahara desert ants’ remarkable navigation skills or create tiny drones that function like dragonflies for backyard mosquito reduction. The world of insects may be small, but the potential positive impact of insect-inspired AI on human technology could be enormous.


Andrew Ng, AI visionary

Big idea: Everyone — not just highly trained computer scientists and engineers at large tech companies — should have the opportunity to write the future of AI.

Why? AI systems are expensive to build and often require many highly skilled engineers (and millions of dollars) to maintain. Large tech companies have been better than anyone else at making that kind of investment pay off, but Andrew Ng thinks it’s time to change that. Gone are the days of needing huge data sets and thousands of lines of code to create effective AI, he says, as now just a few data points could help small business owners — like the half a million independent restaurants in the US — make decisions that will benefit their businesses. What would it be like if smaller, local businesses, had access to AI technology? Ng sees benefits in demand forecasting, product placement and supply chain and quality control, to name a few — all stemming from just a few data points uploaded to a custom system that knows what to look for. For example, a t-shirt manufacturer training a system to recognize tears in fabric would only need a few pictures and instructions to create a system capable of scanning a company’s entire inventory, helping them stop defective products from ever reaching shelves. “In the coming era for AI, we’ll be able to empower every individual to build AI systems for themselves,” Ng says.


Holly Herndon performs at Session 3 of TED2022: A New Era on April 11, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Holly Herndon, multidisciplinary artist

Big idea: “Spawning,” the 21st-century corollary of sampling, gives musicians the ability to perform as somebody else based on AI-trained information about them.

How? Using a machine learning process called timbre transfer, musician Holly Herndon trained an AI on hours of her singing to create a digital twin of her voice. Known as Holly+, this twin can sing songs in Hendon’s voice that she herself has never before sung — and in languages she doesn’t speak. She muses about the potential of using another person’s voice as your instrument, a musical tradition she’s named “spawning,” and invites us to consider both its perils for intellectual property and its wild possibilities. Seattle-based musician and songwriter Pher joins her onstage for a mind-blowing demonstration of this new technology. Singing into two microphones — one that amplified his natural voice and another that mapped his voice onto a live version of Holly+ — Pher performs an epic, one-person duet of his song “Murky.”


Dan Harris speaks at Session 3 of TED2022: A New Era on April 11, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Dan Harris, meditation advocate

Big idea: Meditation, and becoming your own supportive coach, can silence your inner demons and help you become a more loving person.

How? Have you ever been stuck in a “toilet vortex”? That’s how Dan Harris describes the feeling of taking out your self-criticisms on others. After spending more than two decades as an anchor for ABC News, an on-air panic attack sent his life in a new direction. Harris overcame his skepticism to embrace meditation, and now he explores how to quiet that inner critic with quiet reflection and positive self-talk. After a particularly scathing 360 review from his friends and colleagues, he took a chance on loving-kindness meditation, even if he wasn’t into all the touchy-feely stuff. We all take our trips down the toilet vortex, Harris says, but he hopes he can get you to engage in what he calls the “cheesy upward spiral” instead. In his experience, it’s made him a better colleague and communicator. “Self-love, properly understood not as narcissism but as having your own back, is not selfish,” he says. “It makes you better at loving other people.”


Sofia Crespo speaks at SESSION 3 at TED2022: A New Era. April 10-14, 2022, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Photo: Bret Hartman / TED

Sofia Crespo, neural artist

Big idea: By merging AI and art, artists can create work alongside technology that helps us imagine and render the unknown — and reconnect with our own natural world.

How? Sofia Crespo’s artwork uses AI to envision and create creatures that are both familiar and strange, such as insects with elephant trunks, birds with petals for necks. Humans have always created artistic renditions of the unknown — in the Middle Ages, illustrators would often draw the exhilarating creatures described by explorers who had returned from expeditions. These artistic renditions looked like hybrid animals, much like Crespo’s art. AI, she says, helps her explore the boundaries of what she can imagine. The AI distills and rearranges patterns, leading to stunning images of animals that look like they were lifted from myth. For her project Artificial Natural History, Crespo fed thousands of illustrations from natural history archives to a neural network, which then designed new 3D variations of the images. The animals looked mysteriously realistic, which led Crespo to design their anatomy and scientific definitions. This inspired her latest project, Artificial Remnants, which seeks to celebrate the natural diversity of Earth and highlight endangered animals that don’t receive as much attention. Using text-based prompts, Crespo tasked a neural network trained with millions of images of the natural world to generate 3D renditions of actual endangered creatures, resulting in incredible mash-ups of natural elements. Crespo believes that these chimeras can help us expand our imagination about the ecosystems we live in. Though we may not spend our lives exploring new lands on risky expeditions, our imaginations are boundless — and AI can help us bring those ideas to life.


Jeanette Winterson speaks at Session 3 of TED2022: A New Era on April 11, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Jeanette Winterson, writer

Big idea: We have the chance to change human nature for the better.

How? Believe it or not, through AI — but not the “geeks will inherit the earth” kind, says Jeanette Winterson. When she talks about AI, she means “alternative intelligence”: a blurring of the boundaries between human and machine, leaving both changed for the better. From this perspective, the wildly diverse possibilities for machine learning and computing power — like the creation of “hybrid humans” whose brains are linked to the internet (and each other) — provides an opportunity for humanity to break away from “us vs. them” binary thinking and step into a new age of cooperation. It’s a thrilling vision of the future, but first the whole world would need to come together — working across race and gender, the sciences and the arts — to bring this alternative intelligence to life.

The TED Theater at TED2022: A New Era on April 11, 2021 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED)

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Courage: Notes from Session 1 of TED2022

Particle Ink performs at Session 1 of TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

It’s been three years since TED’s last flagship conference in Vancouver, BC, Canada; to say a lot has changed in the intervening years would be an understatement. We return for this year’s conference not for more of the same but to celebrate a new era — in AI, clean energy, the ways we work and learn, and in the fundamental economic and social systems that underpin everything else.

The conference’s opening session explored the theme of courage, from the fight for freedom in Ukraine to the rapid creation and deployment of the mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 to Pulitzer-prize winning journalism in China.

The event: Talks and performances from TED2022, Session 1: Courage, hosted by TED’s Chris Anderson, Helen Walters and Whitney Pennington Rodgers

When and where: Sunday, April 10, 2022, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Speakers: Garry Kasparov, Zoya Lytvyn, Allyson Felix, Melissa J. Moore, Alison Killing, Platon

Opening performance: Particle Ink kicked off the conference with an interdimensional performance that combined music, dance and VR, playfully incorporating the TED letters and giant screens of the custom-built theater.

Music: Evoking timely messages of resilience and triumph in the face of adversity, R&B musician Mereba rendered a divinely captivating performance of “Go(l)d” and “Black Truck.”

Mereba performs at Session 1 of TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

The talks in brief:

Garry Kasparov speaks Session 1 of TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED)

Garry Kasparov, chess grandmaster, human rights advocate

Big idea: Ukraine is on the front line of a war between freedom and tyranny. The rest of the world must wake up and act now.

How? “The price of stopping a dictator always goes up with every delay and every hesitation,” says democracy advocate Garry Kasparov. “Meeting evil halfway is still a victory for evil.” In a blistering call to action, Kasparov traces Vladimir Putin’s decades-long threat to democracy — from Russia’s 2008 invasion of Georgia to their 2014 annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and the current invasion of Ukraine — and details his own path to starting a pro-democracy, anti-Putin movement in Russia. Now, in the wake of a series of atrocities in Ukraine — Mariupol, Bucha, the Kramatorsk train station — Kasparov calls for the world to choose action over apathy and rise to the occasion in support of Ukraine. The people of Ukraine are fighting right now to remind us not to take liberty for granted, he says — they deserve every resource they need to win.


Zoya Lytvyn speaks at Session 1 of TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Zoya Lytvyn, Ukrainian education pioneer

Big idea: Even in wartime, Ukraine continues to educate its children — whether they remain in the country or have fled to refugee camps abroad.

How? During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukrainian government tapped education pioneer Zoya Lytvyn and her non-profit team to develop the country’s first national online education platform. When social-distancing measures closed classrooms, the Ukrainian Online School enabled secondary school students to continue learning remotely. Lytvyn says she never imagined a scenario worse than COVID creating a need for her non-profit, until Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Since the war began, more than 900 Ukrainian schools have been critically damaged and at least 84 have been destroyed. The Ukrainian Online School now serves more than 400,000 remote students whose lives have been disrupted by violence and destruction. Why prioritize online education when your country is under attack? According to Lytvyn, these few hours of instruction each day allow Ukraine to invest in its children and its future as a prosperous, free country. “As long as our children keep learning and our teachers keep teaching — even while they are starving in shelters under bombardment, even in refugee camps — we are undefeated,” she says.


Allyson Felix speaks at Session 1 of TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED)

Allyson Felix, Olympian, entrepreneur

Big idea: The feeling of being terrified is an invitation. When we bet on the power of individual voices and values, we create systemic change.

How?: The agonizing secret Allyson Felix kept in order to maintain her Nike sponsorship forced her to train at 4am, in the dark, and be terrified of being found out. Being told as a female athlete that she could “do anything” — while at the same time being aware of her sponsor’s punitive maternity policy — was a hypocrisy she couldn’t withstand. Felix left Nike, and the sacrifice manifested meaningful change for others: Nike and other prominent athletic sponsors added contractual protections for professional athlete-mothers. With a new sponsor, Athleta, Felix went on to win gold and bronze medals at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in sneakers designed by her own company, SAYSH. Most important, her daughter was there to witness and cheer her on. No matter the field, it’s time to stop forcing a choice between career and family, she says, encouraging us to acknowledge our fears and use our voices to create change for ourselves and each other. “You don’t have to be an Olympian to create change for yourself and others,” she says. “Each of us can bet on ourselves.”


Melissa J. Moore speaks at Session 1 of TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Melissa J. Moore, RNA researcher

Big idea: Our bodies are built of many proteins, from those that keep our skin pliable to those that form the mechanisms that transport oxygen through our veins. Medicines using messenger RNA — such as COVID vaccines — can teach our body to build proteins that not only fight infections when they strike but also help treat previously intractable diseases.

How? Proteins build the structure of our bodies and direct our inner workings through mind bogglingly complex biological algorithms — so it’s not surprising to discover that sometimes our internal programs make mistakes. With mRNA medicine, doctors and scientists can correct metabolic errors by replacing proteins that our bodies lack. Soon, these medicines will be able to retrain our immune systems to attack pathogens (or even cancer cells). But for now, we can enjoy the benefits of mRNA’s most visible benefit — the COVID vaccines that enable us to gather again face-to-face, safely.


Alison Killing speaks at Session 1 of TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED)

Alison Killing, journalist, architect

Big idea: In a world where governments routinely obscure human rights abuses by limiting journalist access on the ground, remote studies of intentional erasures, missing data and third-party satellite imagery can provide clues to horrific realities hiding behind official authoritarian narratives.

How? In 2021, while investigating Chinese oppression in Xinjiang — and attempting to locate detention camps in a region four times the size of California — Allison Killing noticed something strange on her maps: large, blanked out squares that she could not attribute to software error. When comparing these gaps to satellite imagery, she was able to pinpoint the location of 348 “re-education” camps where China was imprisoning minority Uyghur populations. By calling for more reliable archives for ephemeral data from social media, mapping software and other sources, Killing seeks to expand this innovative approach to remote journalism, which could help shed light on events like the Russian invasion of Ukraine.


Platon speaks at Session 1 of TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED)

Platon, portrait photographer

Big Idea: Empathy can help us unlock the political, economic, social and cultural strife of our times — and it is the greatest possible gift we can give ourselves and each other.

How? Through his many experiences photographing world leaders across industries and geographies, Platon has tried to capture the truth. Through this process, he’s discovered that despite all that separates us, empathy provides a path for us to find common ground with every person on Earth, even those with fundamentally opposing views. In times of tremendous division, it’s important not to lose our capacity to be kind to one another. Walking us through some of his most memorable photography shoots, Platon highlights the humanity behind some of the most influential — and divisive — people on the planet, including Michelle Obama, Muhammad Ali, Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Stephen Hawking. For Platon, the eye of the camera enables him to find moments of true humanity. He believes that if we open our own eyes, ears and hearts, we too can deeply connect with those around us and discover the astounding potential within every person we meet.

Head of TED Chris Anderson hosts Session 1 of TED2022: A New Era on April 10, 2022 in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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Reimagine: TED Talks from five inspiring youth leaders, in partnership with UNICEF

Young people across the world are reimagining the future and catalyzing the changes we need today. One thing is clear: we need to listen to youth voices now more than ever. In two days of virtual talks, we heard from five inspiring youth leaders about their most pressing concerns and the opportunities they see to deliver a fairer, greener world for everybody.

The event: TED Salon: Reimagine, hosted by Sally Kohn and presented in partnership with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

Cause for celebration: For 75 years, UNICEF has been working tirelessly for child rights and for the well-being of every child. Whoever they are. Wherever they live. Learn more about their 75-year journey.

The talks in brief:

Education rights champion Makhtoum Abdalla speaks at TEDSalon: Reimagine, presented in partnership with UNICEF. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Makhtoum Abdalla, education rights champion

Big idea: For children in refugee camps, schools and education are powerful tools of liberation. Makhtoum Abdalla, displaced as a child in Sudan and now living in a refugee camp, is using education as a springboard for his deepest dream: to ensure all children are educated and taught the skills needed to build a brighter future and become “captains of their destiny.”

How? Scoring one of the highest scores on South Sudan’s Grade 8 exam while living in the Otash refugee camp in Darfur, Abdalla caught the attention of UNICEF Sudan, who made him a Youth Advocate in 2020. He shares his goals of going to Columbia University to become a doctor and save children from malnutrition and hunger. As a youth advocate, he’s a voice for the ambitions of refugee kids like himself, championing easily accessible education so that everybody can tap into the world’s most powerful resource: knowledge.


Climate justice advocate Nkosilathi Nyathi speaks at TEDSalon: Reimagine, presented in partnership with UNICEF. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Nkosilathi Nyathi, climate justice advocate

Big idea: Although the climate crisis is largely caused by irresponsible adults in developed countries, it’s the children of developing nations — like Nkosilathi Nyathi’s Zimbabwe — that suffer from climate disaster the most. In a world where the clock is ticking off the minutes until climate disasters become unstoppable, we must involve everyone in finding solutions — including the children who suffer most acutely.

How? Since the age of 10, Nkosilathi Nyathi has engaged youth in the struggle to reduce emissions in Zimbabwe and to teach them that even small gestures can make a difference. Nyathi believes that a deeper commitment to climate education will give young people the tools they need to come up with their own solutions, and to help implement them once they’re discovered. But before that can happen, adults must listen — which is why Nyathi mobilizes youth to protest Zimbabwe’s climate policies, and why UNICEF has appointed him as a Youth Advocate to help spread his message to leaders all over the world.


Family reunification visionary Elizabeth Zion speaks at TEDSalon: Reimagine, presented in partnership with UNICEF. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Elizabeth Zion, family reunification visionary

Big idea: Fleeing religious persecution, Elizabeth Zion’s mother and siblings left Nigeria for Ireland — without her father, who to this day has been prevented from joining his family in the country where his daughter was born. Without him, Zion’s mother faced not only the struggles of raising five children as a single parent but also seven months of homelessness. Zion’s story is not unique — and each time that story is relived, its tragedy is underscored by the fact that it’s entirely avoidable.

How? Being raised by a family is a basic human right — one which is typically passed over by immigration regulations in countries the world over. Zion’s father has been trying to join her for 18 years — her entire life — and his absence, due entirely to red tape, has been devastating for her family. In order to keep families like hers together, Zion says, governments must not only commit to this right but also open up legal pathways — and reduce bureaucratic barriers — for families to enter their countries together, not one by one, whether they’re fleeing war, famine or religious persecution.


Accessibility champion Jane Velkovski speaks at TEDSalon: Reimagine, presented in partnership with UNICEF. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Jane Velkovski, accessibility champion

Big idea: Freedom of movement is a human right. We should make assistive technology available to anyone who needs it.

How? “This chair is my legs — this chair is my life,” says 13-year-old disability advocate Jane Velkovski. Born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) — a condition that causes his muscles to grow weak even as his mind grows stronger — he relies on a motorized wheelchair to provide the freedom and independence every teenager craves.  Most kids can walk by the age of two, says Velkovski, but he wasn’t eligible for a government-provided power chair until the age of six. At age five, Velkovski says he got lucky when a family overseas sent him a power chair after their child with SMA outgrew it. But he worries about other kids who aren’t as fortunate. He argues that kids need to move independently from the earliest age possible, and policymakers must provide assistive technology to children with disabilities. “I see this world as a playground where people and governments are like a team,” he says. “We need to make sure everyone is able to play.”


Mental well-being motivator Peachy Liv speaks at TEDSalon: Reimagine, presented in partnership with UNICEF. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Peachy Liv, mental well-being motivator

Big idea: Social media is a powerful tool. It can amplify your voice and broadcast your ideas to a global audience, but it can also make it easier for others to criticize or attack you. We can — and must — make social media more user-friendly.

How? When Peachy Liv was 12 years old, she started creating videos for YouTube to share her ideas about education with other students her age. The platform helped her connect with millions of viewers but also made her vulnerable to harmful online criticism. If you have a strong voice online, she says, especially as a young person or as someone trying to make change in the world, people think you’re putting yourself on a pedestal — and they try to knock you down. According to Liv, more than one-third of teenagers have experienced a form of cyber-bullying. As individuals, she says, we can build our resilience to online negativity by practicing self-acceptance and seeking out support from friends and family or trusted mental-health professionals. We can also create better online spaces by committing to treat each other with kindness and respect. And if you ever need a break from social media, that’s OK, too. “Technology is my generation’s tool to fight for our future,” Liv says. “It should help us, not hurt us.”

Makhtoum Abdalla speaks at TEDSalon UNICEF: Reimagine. Photo Courtesy of TED.

What Now … for ingenuity and invention? Notes from Session 5 of TEDWomen 2021

Multi-instrumentalist and healer Geminelle performs at TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 2, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

In Session 5, we turn to collective moments of joy. Seven speakers and a performer dove headfirst into creativity, helping us see the silver lining, embrace artistry and boldly chart out the world we want to live in.

The event: TEDWomen 2021: Session 5, hosted by TEDWomen curators Helen Walters and Whitney Pennington Rodgers, in Palm Springs, California on December 2, 2021

Speakers: Emily Pilloton-Lam, Cecilia Aragon, Temie Giwa-Tubosun, Fariel Salahuddin, Emma Hart, Gala Marija Vrbanic, Christina Tosi

Music: Singer, multi-instrumentalist, producer and healer Geminelle performs a hypnotic set, featuring “Everything I Need,” “Find Your Tribe” and “I Am Free”

The talks in brief:

In a first-of-its-kind TED demo, youth educator Emily Pilloton-Lam uses power tools to build a wooden toolbox onstage … while giving her talk. She speaks at TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 2, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Marla Aufmuth / TED)

Emily Pilloton-Lam, builder, youth educator

Big idea: Our image of construction workers is overwhelmingly male — and for good reason, as only four percent of workers on construction sites are women. Through her nonprofit Girls Garage, Emily Pilloton-Lam is teaching girls and non-binary kids (with a focus on people of color) the skills needed to take up this well-paid and satisfying vocation. What will it take to actualize a future built (literally) by women as well as men?

How? According to Pilloton-Lam, there are more than 300,000 unfilled jobs in construction, and the industry is struggling to fill them. But unlike other fields, the gender wage gap in construction is a mere 99 cents to the dollar. Considering these statistics, it’s a no-brainer that women represent a huge, untapped pool of labor resources. On top of the stereotype that women aren’t strong enough for the job (which, considering most of the work is done by power tools, is absurd), women and non-binary people face numerous other artificial barriers, including a work culture that is unwelcoming at best and hostile at worst. To fight this, Girls Garage provides mentorship and education to train and inspire girls and gender-expansive youth to take their places in this industry. And, in a first-of-its-kind TED demo, Pilloton-Lam uses power tools to build a wood toolbox onstage … while giving her talk.


Cecilia Aragon, professor, pilot, author

Big idea: Fanfiction deserves a closer look for its creativity, criticism and community. 

Why? When she was 10 years old, Cecilia Aragon fell in with the Lord of the Rings trilogy but was disappointed with the lack of female characters. So she rewrote the story to her liking with reimagined protagonists and new scenes that reflected what she wanted to see. Today, what Aragon wrote is known as fanfiction (or transformative fiction): a story based on characters or settings from another’s work. As an adult, she decided to do a deep data dive into the vast world of online fanfiction to study the impact creating these stories has on the writer and their craft. And what she and her research partner found surpassed her wildest imagination — over 60 billion words in more than 44 languages, written primarily by millions of young people over the past 20 years. An outpouring of creativity culminating in a kind, supportive community that’s generous with its feedback and constructive criticism in a way that encourages and emboldens. Aragon sees this organic network of writerly love as a blueprint for more formal learning tools to help develop students in schools and as an opportunity to foster connections across the country.


Entrepreneur Temie Giwa-Tubosun shares the hero’s journey she went on to start her company. She speaks at TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 2, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Temie Giwa-Tubosun, entrepreneur

Big idea: Black women entrepreneurs are founding game-changing start-ups in Africa and across the globe. It’s time for investors to give them the funding and support they need to grow and scale.

How? Temie Giwa-Tubosun is the founder of LifeBank, a start-up that connects remote cities, towns and villages with life-saving medical supplies. Since 2016, they’ve saved more than 40,000 lives — yet it proved nearly impossible for Giwa-Tubosun to raise funds when she first set out to start her company. And she’s not alone: in 2020, less than six percent of venture capital funding for African startups went to companies with women cofounders, despite their proven track records. Giwa-Tubosun issues a challenge to investors to think harder when it comes to deciding which founders to back — and to close the funding gap for Black women-led startups and innovations.


Fariel Salahuddin, TED Fellow, alternative currency enthusiast

Question: Who gets to decide what is and isn’t money?

Answer: Fariel Salahuddin’s favorite way to be introduced at social gatherings is as “the foremost goatherd in Pakistan,” a vocation she happened upon through a combination of fate and curiosity. She works with smallholder farmers in developing countries, enabling them to use their livestock as currency. After visiting a small town in Pakistan where people live without access to basic necessities like water, she took a chance and asked a village elder if they’d be willing to pay for a solar water pump (which are very expensive in Pakistan) with goats (which are abundant there). This idea blossomed into a now-booming trade, tokenizing goats as a form of currency and helping get desperately needed water to remote areas — and leading Salahuddin to question how money really works. Tracing the history of money from Sumerians trading in barley to paper money backed by central banks to the blockchain, she shows how value and the way it’s exchanged has changed over time — and that there’s great opportunity in leveraging the economic assets of varied communities.


In a mind-blowing talk, computer scientist Emma Hart explains how robots could evolve like biological organisms, autonomously optimizing themselves over time. She speaks at TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 2, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Marla Aufmuth / TED)

Emma Hart, computer scientist

Big idea: What if we could create robots that evolve like biological organisms, autonomously optimizing themselves over time?

How? Think of it as a robot building itself, says Emma Hart. She and her collaborators are working on a radical new technology that would enable robots to be created, “reproduce” and evolve in real-time, successively “breeding” more and more optimized versions of themselves. This would allow robots to design themselves on the fly when sent to far-off, unknown or dangerous places (think: an asteroid, the bottom of the ocean or a nuclear reactor meltdown), potentially saving years of wasted effort and creating machines uniquely adapted to the environment and task at hand. So how exactly does a robot self-evolve? Hart and her team are turning to nature for help, replicating the three essential ingredients of biological evolution: a population in which individuals exhibit physical variations; a method of reproduction in which offspring inherit traits from their parents (and sometimes acquire new ones via mutation); and natural selection. Using a mixture of software and hardware, they’re able to guide the evolution of robots. For instance, they develop digital versions of DNA that combine and mutate; use 3-D printers to create skeletons; and oversee a virtual version of the “survival of the fittest” whereby robot designs are scored and prioritized based on their ability to conduct tasks. By repeating this cycle over and over, scientists could produce successive generations of new robots that — just like in nature — get better than the last. Call it “digital evolution” — a groundbreaking new process that could unlock new designs freed from the constraints of our current understanding of engineering, science and design.


Gala Marija Vrbanic, digital fashion maven

Big idea: With the advent of virtual and augmented reality, avatars are becoming more complex, demanding out-of-this-world couture that’s unchained from physical reality. Gala Marija Vrbanic is at the forefront of this brave new world.

How? Gamers have been dressing up their video game characters for years. The next logical step, Marija Vrbanic tells us, is the advent of virtual clothing for social media and VR spaces — and in fact, this latest step has already become a reality, with virtual Gucci bags now selling for more than their physical counterparts. As founder and CEO of the virtual fashion house Tribute Brand and YCY, Marija Vrbanic has put Croatia on the fashion map with her weird and wonderful AR and VR garments.


Christina Tosi shares the sugary jolt of her first food memory — and the vision behind Milk Bar. She speaks at TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 2, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Christina Tosi, baker

Big idea: Break the rules to create some delicious magic. 

How? Most people think of magic as a trick, says Christina Tosi — a seemingly impossible act put on for the sake of entertainment. But Tosi wants to challenge that belief: real magic, she says, is not an illusion but the feeling of experiencing life shift from ordinary to extraordinary. It can be found in the spark of a moment, the simple act of believing, belonging, understanding or being understood. And she has found that magic is often created by breaking some sort of rule: pushing boundaries, challenging norms, asking why or why not. Seeing people experience magic by eating baked goods, Tosi was inspired to recreate that feeling with her quirky, unexpected confectionery combinations. Simple, approachable, accessible and nostalgia-tinged flavors — rooted in known, safe and loved delights — form the basis of her desserts, almost as if “fancy was the enemy of delicious.” With rebelling against convention baked into both her business and creative ethos, Tosi has developed a brand recognized for its ingenuity, invention and generosity of spirit. “That’s what you do when you benefit from what came before you and plan on passing it along long after you — when you know you’re here to give and not take, and leave this place better than you found it,” she says. And it all starts with a decision to act: to see the magic, capture it before it can disappear and share it … perhaps one bite at a time.

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What Now … for planet Earth? Notes from Session 4 of TEDWomen 2021

Change catalyst Halla Tómasdóttir urges each of us to use our vote, wallet and voice to act on climate change. She speaks with TEDWomen curator Pat Mitchell at TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 2, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

If we’re going to continue to live, breathe and thrive together on this planet, we’re going to have to answer a couple of very important questions: What now for the Earth? And how do we balance the urgency of the climate crisis while still dreaming of a bright future? With actions and answers, six incredible speakers joined Session 4 of TEDWomen 2021, sparking hope, innovating solutions and uplifting humanity.

The event: TEDWomen 2021: Session 4, hosted by TEDWomen curator Pat Mitchell, in Palm Springs, California on December 2, 2021

Speakers: Halla Tómasdóttir, Resson Kantai Duff, Sonali Prasad, Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli, Ozawa Bineshi Albert and Katie Paterson

TEDWomen 2021 music curator and multidisciplinary artist Niama Safia Sandy sings Donny Hathaway’s “Someday We’ll All Be Free” at TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 2, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Music: Music curator of TEDWomen and multidisciplinary artist Niama Safia Sandy kicks off the session with a chilling rendition of “Someday We’ll All Be Free” by Donny Hathaway. Powerful vocals and breathtaking lyrics fill the room as Sandy invites the TEDWomen audience to join her in singing.

Writer and environmentalist Katharine Wilkinson shares updates on her 2018 TED Talk with TEDWomen curator Pat Mitchell at TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 2, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED)

Special guest: Writer and environmentalist Katharine Wilkinson gives an update on her 2018 TED Talk, where she spoke about empowering women and girls to help stop global warming. In conversation with Pat Mitchell, Wilkinson shares a crucial truth: that the predatory forces keeping transformation at bay still exist yet collective courage is growing, reflected in the surge of youth climate action, Indigenous land defense and actions of frontline communities. Wilkinson also talks about her 2020 book, All We Can Save, that she edited with marine biologist and policy expert Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, which is an anthology of poetry, essays and art from those leading in climate action.

The talks in brief: 

Halla Tómasdóttir, change catalyst in conversation with TEDWomen curator Pat Mitchell

Big idea: Use your vote, your wallet and your voice to act on climate.

How? Halla Tómasdóttir — CEO of the B Team, former presidential candidate of Iceland and longtime friend of TEDWomen — is recently back from the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow. She explains that while the generational trust gap on climate is widening, there are some things to be hopeful about coming out of the gathering. First, the climate agenda is becoming more holistic — we’re talking about nature, justice and inclusion now — not just greenhouse gasses. Next, this was the COP where business and finance really showed up, knowing that governments can’t solve the crisis on their own. She also saw some unlikely alliances form, notably between business leaders and the Global South, resulting in massive monetary commitments. And finally, she saw accountants become unlikely change catalysts with the creation of the International Sustainability Standards Board, which aims to change everything about the norms of business. “The most difficult work of our lifetimes has to happen in the next few years,” says Tómasdóttir. She asks us all to not underestimate our power, especially as collectives of employees — and to mobilize and put pressure on CEOs and politicians to act.


Conservationist Resson Kantai Duff speaks about empowering local communities to protect African wildlife at TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 2, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Resson Kantai Duff, conservationist

Big idea: Typically, conservation efforts in Africa have been led by “parachute” conservationists — outsider superheroes who drop in with all the answers, hire locals to implement them and then disappear. Instead, Africans should lead the way in saving wildlife, using their own knowledge and strategies.

Why? The world has lost 68 percent of its wildlife in the last 50 years, says Resson Kantai Duff. This shocking statistic demands new solutions — and they need to be implemented by the people on the frontlines. Too often, Africans have been seen as barriers to conservation, painted as poachers, squatters and encroachers rather than as the stewards of wildlife that they have been for generations, he says. But tribes like the Samburu of Kenya, who have tracked and hunted lions for generations, are their logical stewards. They are the instigators of programs like Warrior Watch, where hunters shadow lion prides not to kill them but to warn other herders away. Most importantly, Resson believes that women must be more than merely involved — as traditional guardians of wildlife, they must spearhead conservation efforts.


Sonali Prasad, TED Fellow, writer, artist

Big idea: Disaster can strike at any moment, but stories can teach us how to cope with life-changing events we can’t predict and navigate unexpected ruptures in our lives.

How? Sonali Prasad unearths the stories buried in disasters. She says that after a rupture like a weather catastrophe or the recent pandemic, the stories we tell take one of two shapes: they are either hideous or hopeful. In a talk that blurs poetry with narrative storytelling, Prasad returns to the Aceh province in India, an area ravaged by the 2004 tsunami, and speaks to the strangeness that follows a disaster. She recounts the grief and struggle she witnessed among the tsunami’s survivors alongside accounts of fortitude, imagination and hope. Why must we revisit sites of such devastation? she asks. “Because in their dust lies the possibilities for navigation of the fog of ecological disruption.”


Social entrepreneur and innovator Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli talks about fixing our broken food system at TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 2, 2021 in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli, social entrepreneur and innovator

Big idea: We can create a more affordable, sustainable and just food system by changing how we grow, produce and distribute food.

How? As a social entrepreneur focused on global agriculture, Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli examines the true cost of food. She reports that our current food system is value-destroying — meaning it harms human health, our planet’s climate and the economic viability of small to medium-scale food enterprises. But we can take steps to fix it. First, we must make sure that healthy food is accessible to everyone, especially people from lower-income communities. A healthy diet, one low in processed food and high in fresh produce, supports positive health outcomes which can lower hospitalization rates and medical costs. Next, we have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from food waste and shorten our supply chains, so that food doesn’t travel so far from farm to mouth. And last, we need to support entrepreneurs with sustainable food practices, from farmers to seed entrepreneurs, logistics providers and even cooks. Small- and medium-scale enterprises like these create jobs in their communities and make nutritious food more widely available. So the next time you sit down to eat, Nwuneli encourages all of us to think about our food choices and consider the power we wield with our plates.


“We can’t rely on those who created the problem to fix it,” says Ozawa Bineshi Albert as she talks about climate change solutions at Session 4 of TEDWomen 2021: What Now? on December 2, 2021, in Palm Springs, California. (Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED)

Ozawa Bineshi Albert, climate justice organizer

Big idea: When it comes to climate change, we need a drastic shift in leadership.

Why? To date, the majority of viable climate solutions have been crafted and defined by corporations, governments and some scientists, says Ozawa Bineshi Albert. Much of this effort has been seen through the lens of the economy, ensuring the survival of capitalism within climate change rather than the survival of humanity and the planet. That’s why Albert is calling for a full-throated change in leadership, one that centers the wisdom and solutions of those communities most impacted by the climate crisis. People on the frontlines are the actual experts, Albert says: they’ve directly experienced climate disasters for decades and have a deep sense of the urgency of the crisis. With these people at the helm, we could shift focus away from net-zero emissions (a type of “masquerade” for corporate inaction or participation in a few offset programs, Albert says, while they still dump waste into local communities) and instead begin to cut off toxic pollution at the source. “We can’t rely on those who created the problem to fix it,” Albert says. But if we change two things — our sense of urgency and the people leading the solutions — the planet, and everybody on it, will benefit.


Katie Paterson, conceptual artist

Big idea: Conceptual artwork can help situate human beings in our cosmic timeline and bring distant, primordial landscapes closer to our lives.

How? Short-sightedness may be the greatest threat to humanity, says Katie Paterson. As a conceptual artist, her work engages the concept of deep time: the Earth’s history over millions of years. Her projects include a telephone line connected to a melting glacier, a map of every dead star in our universe and a necklace whose beads are carved from ancient fossils and strung in geological order, epoch by epoch. Whatever the medium, Paterson uses artwork to expand our human sense of scale. She calls her Future Library project a century-long prayer. Every year for the next 100 years, a different author will submit an unread manuscript to the Future Library. In 2114, the library will publish these manuscripts on paper made from a forest of 1,000 spruce trees that Paterson and her team planted on the outskirts of Oslo in 2014. Although 100 years isn’t vast on a cosmic scale, the project reminds us of our invisible ties to future generations. “To be human,” Paterson says, “is to understand that we are part of a long continuum.”

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Free to Dream: TED Talks in partnership with American Family Insurance

Resistance Revival Chorus performs at TED Salon: Free to Dream, presented in partnership with American Family Insurance at the TED World Theater in New York on November 17, 2021. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

We all deserve the right to dream and to pursue better, richer and fuller lives. In fact, this ideal is often referred to as the American Dream. And yet, the country’s criminal justice system denies many people the freedom to truly dream — even after they have been technically “freed” from incarceration. In an evening of talks, four speakers and a performer challenged the definition of the word “freedom” and laid out new ideas for how to engage in systems change, close equity gaps and reimagine what it means to be free to dream.

The event: TED Salon: Free to Dream, curated and hosted by Whitney Pennington Rodgers, in partnership with American Family Insurance

Opening remarks: Bill Westrate, president and CEO-elect of American Family Insurance, welcomes the audience to the salon.

Music: A soaring musical interlude from The Resistance Revival Chorus, a collective of women artists and activists who use their voices to amplify freedom, justice reform and the power of dreaming.

Reuben Jonathan Miller speaks at TED Salon: Free to Dream, presented in partnership with American Family Insurance at the TED World Theater in New York on November 17, 2021. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Reuben Jonathan Miller, sociologist, writer

Big idea: For the nearly 20 million Americans with a felony record, punishment doesn’t end with a prison sentence. We need to embrace the politics of radical hospitality, where we make a place in society for all people, even those who’ve done harm.

How? When a previously incarcerated person comes home, they return to a hostile world — what Reuben Jonathan Miller calls an alternate legal reality. In the United States, more than 44,000 laws and policies dictate where a person with a felony record can live, what jobs they can hold, how they can spend their time and whether or not they can vote or see their kids. As a sociologist, Miller has spent more than two decades “following the people we’ve learned to be afraid of.” For people like a man Miller calls Jimmy, who was released from prison into Detroit, punishment never ends. Miller explains how the terms of Jimmy’s release required that he find housing, report to his parole officer for weekly drug screenings, complete a workforce development program and get a job — without providing him with any resources or support. His mother wanted him to come home, but he couldn’t even sleep on her couch because landlords can evict families for housing relatives with criminal records. What’s the solution? How do we end perpetual punishment? We need to change the laws, Miller says, but we also need to change our commitments. He points to Ronald Simpson Bey as someone who models the politics of radical hospitality. Bey spent 27 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, and since he’s come home has become one of the nation’s leading advocates for justice. When a 14-year-old boy murdered his son, Bey even advocated on behalf of the boy to ensure that he would be tried as a minor, giving the boy a second chance in life. As Miller says, people like Bey help us imagine alternatives for the formerly incarcerated; they invite us “to help remake the world, so we all belong, simply because we’re fully human participants in a human community.”


Nyra Jordan speaks at TED Salon: Free to Dream, presented in partnership with American Family Insurance at the TED World Theater in New York on November 17, 2021. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Nyra Jordan, social impact investor

Big idea: Corporations can engage in justice reform by making it easier to hire someone with a criminal record.

How? Corporate commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) often leave out people impacted by the criminal justice system, even though employment is one of the best ways to prevent someone from returning to prison. As social impact investment director for American Family Insurance, Nyra Jordan has pioneered fair chance hiring for people with a criminal record. Under her leadership, the company eliminated any “check here if you have a criminal record” boxes from their job applications and started including programs that train incarcerated individuals in their talent pipeline. Now, she shares four steps to implement fair chance hiring at your company.  First, she says, hire based on skills. If a person has the skills they need for the job, then a gap in their resume for time spent in prison shouldn’t matter. Second, make sure there’s a clear path for promotion for justice-impacted individuals. Third, help justice-impacted employees adjust to your corporate culture. And last, include criminal justice education and anti-bias training as part of your company’s DEI strategy to ensure a positive work environment for all fair chance hires. Someone who’s been involved in the criminal justice system can very much be a qualified candidate. “For many reasons, they might end up being your most motivated, most dedicated, most hard-working employees because their stakes are so much higher,” Jordan says.


Brittany K. Barnett speaks at TED Salon: Free to Dream, presented in partnership with American Family Insurance at the TED World Theater in New York on November 17, 2021. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Brittany K. Barnett, attorney, entrepreneur, author

Big idea: The freedom journey doesn’t end when someone is released from prison. In many ways, it begins. True liberation must include a vision for restoring, investing in and nurturing the creative ingenuity of justice-impacted people.

How? Brittany K. Barnett realizes that we cannot rely on the glacially slow legislative process, or on lawmakers indifferent to those suffering behind bars. Instead, she champions “sustainable liberation” — a concept by which economic freedom, equity and access to resources and capital opens doors for incarcerated creatives to impact their communities both inside and outside of prison walls. In addition to numerous initiatives investing in the businesses of the formerly incarcerated, Barnett and her clients cofounded the Buried Alive project — a joint effort fighting to free those snared by outdated drug laws. Through these programs, Barnett helps restore the dreams of those whose lives have been shattered by prison. “When we lose sight of the humanity of those we unjustly sentence, we lose sight of all of the brilliance they might bring into the world,” she says.


Nick Turner speaks with TED curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers at TED Salon: Free to Dream, presented in partnership with American Family Insurance at the TED World Theater in New York on November 17, 2021. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Nick Turner, president and director of Vera Institute of Justice, interviewed by TED current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers

Big idea: With the Vera Institute, Nick Turner seeks to transform the “criminal legal system” — referred to as such because the so-called “criminal justice system” does not dispense justice. Instead, this system feeds America’s oppressive legacy of racial injustice, established through centuries of slavery and “Black Codes.” Disguised by euphemisms such as “War on Crime,” rather than fixing social problems, our current legal system preserves racial divides and economic inequities. 

How? Democracy can do better than this, Turner says. We must shrink the system, make it less brutal and ensure that there is “some modicum of justice that is provided.” Among other initiatives, the Vera Institute helped overturn the congressionally imposed ban on Pell grants for incarcerated students, which extended to 20,000 students the opportunity to earn a degree. There’s a lot of work to do to build a just justice system, Turner says, but it’s crucial that we recognize the humanity of those caught in it, rather than bow to our fear of violent crime (which police and prisons do relatively little to minimize).

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Protecting: Notes from Session 6 of Countdown Summit

Hosts Bruno Giussani and Christiana Figueres open Session 6 of Countdown Summit on October 15, 2021 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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It’s the last morning of Countdown Summit, and we have a better sense of the exciting climate initiatives that are scaling up — but also of the size of the mountain we’re climbing.

In Session 6, eight speakers take it all on — from forests and soil, to markets and law, to arts and communication.

The event: Countdown Summit: Session 6, hosted by Paris Climate Agreement architect Christiana Figueres and TED’s Bruno Giussani, at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland on Friday, October 15, 2021

Speakers: Farwiza Farhan, Jane Zelikova, Sathya Raghu Mokkapati, Sandrine Dixson-Declève, Solitaire Townsend, Lucas Joppa, James K. Thornton, Naima Penniman

Performance: Poet and “freedom-forging futurist” Naima Penniman delivers a stunning spoken word poem — an evocative, moving tribute to the natural world and our connection to it.

The talks in brief:

TED Fellow Farwiza Farhan talks about our greatest untapped environmental resource at Session 6 of Countdown Summit on October 15, 2021 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Farwiza Farhan, TED Fellow and forest conservationist

Big idea: Farwiza Farhan is well-known for her fight to preserve the Leseur ecosystem, one of the last places on Earth where orangutans, rhinos, elephants and tigers still roam the wilderness together. But for Farhan, the true warriors are the women on the ground fighting day-to-day conservation battles.

How? Farhan is inspired by women like Sumini, an Indonesian conservationist helming the first woman-led ranger team at the front lines of forest preservation. Working within a patriarchal tribe where women are typically subservient, Sumini led the efforts to map her native forest, a crucial first step for both government recognition of her homeland and for saving its crucial environmental and economic resources. In a country where forestry initiatives usually benefit male elders (and strengthen existing inequalities), social and environmental justice requires nurturing women like Sumini in every local community, Farhan says.


Jane Zelikova, climate change scientist

Big Idea: From growing crops to storing carbon, healthy soil matters more now than ever — and we need to protect it.

Why? Under your feet, soil is teeming with hardworking and diverse microbial life that has the potential to stop global warming in its tracks, says climate change scientist Jane Zelikova. The “wee beasties” (or microbes, as described by Dutch scientist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek centuries ago) help accumulate and store massive amounts of carbon, clean water, nourish crops and reduce pollution — but ​​over the last 12,000 years, we have lost billions of tons of that carbon in our soils. Zelikova urges us to rethink agricultural practices to protect our soils and the carbon they hold; to get more carbon in the ground by growing diverse, climate-adapted crops; and to leave the microbes alone to do what they do best. “Soils are the literal foundation of life on this planet — the reason that we eat and the climate solution just waiting to be unlocked,” says Zelikova. “Let’s build back our soils and help our planet by looking down to the ground.”


TED Fellow Sathya Raghu Mokkapati presents his work on a greenhouse-in-a-box that can help raise small farmers out of poverty. He speaks at Session 6 of Countdown Summit on October 15, 2021 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Sathya Raghu Mokkapati, TED Fellow and green farming innovator

Big idea: Small-scale farmers need a dependable, regular income to avoid poverty. “Greenhouse-in-a-box” technology can help.

How? For small-scale farmers in India, farming has long been an unreliable source of income, as crops that flourish one season can fail the next. Climate risk is now making the profession nearly impossible. According to TED Fellow and green farming innovator Sathya Raghu Mokkapati, one farmer in India dies by suicide every 51 minutes. The Indian entrepreneur is determined to improve the plight of small farmers and provide them with dependable income even amidst the ongoing threat of climate change. That’s why he and his team developed what they call a greenhouse-in-a-box. The small, easy-to-build structure is covered with netting to cut off heat, prevent bugs and increase crop yields using less water. Raghu Mokkapati estimates that this low-cost technology can bring a farmer an extra $100 per month in profits. So far, nearly 2,000 farmers in South India have joined Raghu Mokkapati in his movement — he hopes to reach 100,000 farmers in the next five years.


Sandrine Dixson-Declève, co-president of the Club of Rome

Big idea: In the 50 years since The Limits to Growth report was published by the Club of Rome, the alarming climate trends that it warned about have drastically increased.

What have we learned since then? Updated models of humanity’s growth continue to show that the business-as-usual scenario isn’t working, demonstrating that we must shift our growth patterns, says Sandrine Dixson-Declève, co-president of the Club of Rome. With the launch of the EarthforAll initiative, Dixson-Declève and the Club of Rome have identified five turnarounds that will enable us to thrive: energy, food, inequality, poverty and population (including health and education). Previewing the Club’s next report, Dixson-Declève explains that now is the time to do things differently, transitioning new and existing capital towards solutions. She estimates that the cost of shifting to sustainable growth will be around five percent of global GDP each year — an achievable, single-digit number. The cost of inaction is much greater. “We have too much bad news for complacency, but we have too much good news for despair,” says Dixson-Declève, quoting The Limits to Growth coauthor Donella Meadows. “Let’s kick complacency out the door.”


Solitaire Townsend, sustainability solution seeker

Big idea: The industry of “professional services” — such as advertising and PR firms, big management consultancies and finance companies, corporate law firms and lobbyists — have a massive but largely unnoticed influence on climate.

How? Solitaire Townsend calls it the “X-industry,” where “X” stands for influence. Even though the direct carbon footprint of this sector is relatively small, the “brainprint” of the X-industry is felt everywhere — they’re the storytellers and problem-solvers who act as “the grease in the wheels of all businesses on Earth,” Townsend says. For instance: big consulting groups provide financial modeling for new oil and gas exploration; lobbyists fight for less regulation of those projects; and PR firms protect the reputations of companies that do the drilling. In this sense, the greenhouse gas impact of the industry is enormous — if uncalculated. Building off the three groups of carbon emission measurement (referred to as Scopes 1, 2 and 3), Townsend believes we need a new “Scope X” — a way to calculate the “emissions of influence” of the X-industry and hold it to account. Armed with this data, the X-industry could move from being an abettor in environmental destruction to part of the solution.


Can we “code” the program for net-zero emissions? Lucas Joppa, Chief Environmental Officer at Microsoft, shares his answer at Session 6 of Countdown Summit on October 15, 2021 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Lucas Joppa, Microsoft’s Chief Environmental Officer

Big idea: By treating the plan to achieve net-zero carbon emissions as a coding challenge, we can identify and resolve “bugs” in the system.

How? The developers of any net-zero carbon program face the same challenge as software engineers, says Lucas Joppa, Chief Environmental Officer at Microsoft. Issues with the program are bugs in the code. Joppa identifies three of these “bugs” in our plan to achieve net-zero and explains how to fix them. First, we need a common definition for the term net-zero. Without one, our progress as a planet remains difficult to track. Second, we struggle to define the impact or benefit of different carbon offsets on the climate because we lack a universal unit of measurement for carbon offsets. We need to standardize both how we record carbon outputs and how we measure carbon offsets. Third, we should support the fledgling market for carbon removal and ensure that it’s as robust as the market for carbon offsets. Although we’re working against the clock, Joppa believes we will rise to what has become the greatest challenge of our time: recoding our current course on climate change.


James K. Thornton, eco-lawyer and author

Big idea: There are signs that China is becoming a global environmental leader.

How? James K. Thornton is the founder of ClientEarth, a nonprofit law firm working to address the climate crisis. He tells the story of his team’s work in China, where they’ve been training judges and prosecutors on climate law and litigation in a growing effort to use the power of the legal system to create positive environmental impact. He estimates that their cooperation with China’s environment ministry, judiciary and federal prosecutors has initiated some 80,000 environmental cases — ranging from environmental NGOs suing polluting companies to large financial institutions ending their investments in coal. More needs to be done, Thornton says, but the current, systematic commitment to change is a sign of hope.

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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Transforming: Notes from Session 3 of Countdown Summit

“Breathing clean air is every child’s human right,” says Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah at Session 3 of the TED Countdown Summit on October 13, 2021 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

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When looking to make big change, you can’t be shy about it — and Countdown is as much about boldly transforming the systems already in place as it is about creating new ones.

Working to reshape harder-to-abate industries like oil, gas, cement and aviation, the pioneering speakers of Session 3 share tangible solutions and groundbreaking ideas that will get us all to a healthier planet.

The event: Countdown Summit: Session 3, hosted by Future Stewards cofounder Lindsay Levin and TED’s Chris Anderson, at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland on Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Speakers: Bjørn Otto Sverdrup, Ryah Whalen, Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, Shweta Narayan, Hongqiao Liu, Mahendra Singhi, Rachel Kyte, Vera Songwe, Susan Ruffo

Performance: Inviting the audience to clap and sway to their vibrantly playful sound, legendary Scottish indie-pop band Belle and Sebastian give a bright rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” and their own “Song for Sunshine.”

The talks in brief:

“Daring to say ‘net-zero’ changes minds — it shifts your mindset from defensive to proactive, from incremental change to having your eyes on the end goal,” says Bjørn Otto Sverdrup at Session 3 of the TED Countdown Summit on October 13, 2021 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Bjørn Otto Sverdrup, Chair of the Executive Committee of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, sustainability expert

Big idea: Bringing the oil and gas industry to a net-zero emissions state is key to curbing climate change.

Why? Responsible for a significant chunk of global carbon emissions, the oil and gas industry needs to make a sharp turn into sustainable territory. Bjørn Otto Sverdrup leads the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, an organization that brings together twelve of the world’s largest oil and gas companies in an effort to spearhead what he calls the 1/4/20 challenge, named after the 20 gigatons of emissions produced annually by the industry. Their goal is for the industry to achieve net-zero emissions — a daunting pivot that demands brazen policy changes, new technologies and a top-down rethink of how we consume energy. But before logistical difficulties can be fully solved, we need a fundamental transformation of how we think and what we believe is possible. “Daring to say ‘net-zero’ changes minds,” says Sverdrup. “It shifts your mindset from defensive to proactive, from incremental change to having your eyes on the end goal.”


Ryah Whalen talks about decarbonizing aviation at Session 3 of the TED Countdown Summit on October 13, 2021 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Ryah Whalen, innovator and aviation expert

Big idea: There are three big things that need to be addressed if the flying industry is to get off the ground on climate action.

What are they? Air travel builds bridges and connects us, it takes people to new lives and experiences — but it also comes at a cost to the planet. Ryah Whalen points out that it’s not an easy task to decarbonize flying; planes manufactured today have a lifespan of about 30 years, meaning the planes we create and fly in today will still be in the skies come 2050. If nothing’s done in the industry, air travel stands to create almost a quarter of the world’s emissions yearly moving forward. To reroute from a polluted future, Whalen breaks the problem down into three sections of the industry that need to be addressed to stave off emission growth. First, aircraft design must be coupled with a thorough change of every layer of air traffic management, down to individual pilot behaviors. Second, we need to switch to biofuels and bring their costs down. And finally, sustainable innovations like hybrid-electric aircraft and green hydrogen need to create rapid progress at scale. While challenges lie ahead — notably the billions in investments needed for change — the world and lives are at stake. Individual choices to limit flying can only get us so far. If we want any hope of getting to zero emissions, it will take collective action from all parts of the air travel industry.


Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, grassroots campaigner 

Big idea: Breathing clean air is every child’s human right, and governments have a duty to protect it.

Why? Linked to premature deaths across the globe, air pollution is an invisible calamity — and unsafe air is especially bad for children. Grassroots campaigner Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah shares the heartrending story of her daughter Ella, whose asthma was triggered to a fatal point by unsafe levels of air pollution, and tragically, was the first person in the world to have air pollution listed as a cause of death on her death certificate. “8.7 million people a year are dying from heart attacks, asthma, cancer and other illnesses,” explains Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, and the fossil fuels causing air pollution are a contributor to this tragic statistic. She urges the world to embrace a solution that already exists: to shift from toxic fuels to clean, electrified, public transport and, most importantly, to mobilize and demand clean air.


“It’s impossible to have healthy people on a sick planet,” says Shweta Narayan at Session 3 of the TED Countdown Summit on October 13, 2021 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Shweta Narayan, climate and health campaigner

Big idea: As greenhouse gases and toxic pollutants encroach on both our atmosphere and our bodies, ancient wisdom offers humanity hope in this new phase of civilization, where individual well-being and environmental health intersect. 

How? Environmental destruction is the biggest global health issue threatening humanity today — straining infrastructure and power grids, spurring pandemics and causing pollution. Shweta Narayan introduces a new perspective: by viewing climate change and degradation through the lens of the Hippocratic Oath — an ancient set of ethical standards sworn by physicians — every person has a role to play in ecological survival. Narayan encourages us to place “first do no harm” to the planet at the heart of our all of our choices. “It’s impossible to have healthy people on a sick planet,” says Shweta Narayan.


Hongqiao Liu talks about China’s role in curbing climate change at Session 3 of the TED Countdown Summit on October 13, 2021 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Hongqiao Liu, journalist and policy expert

Big idea: As the world’s largest carbon emitter (and its second-largest economy), China plays a pivotal role in mitigating climate change. The steps it takes towards becoming net-zero by 2060 are crucial on a global scale. 

How? In 2020, Chinese president Xi Jinping pledged to the UN that China would both peak its emissions by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2060 — a change that will require action at an unheard-of scale and speed, explains environmental journalist Hongqiao Liu. While it’s still reliant on fossil fuels to drive its economy, China is also a world leader in renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure. This is already transforming energy consumption — but is it enough? Citing economist Zou Ji, Liu is hopeful for change. In addition to burgeoning green energy production, which may allow China to reach peak emissions years ahead of its goal, the country’s leaders are also now downplaying GDP as a metric of economic health, which could be a crucial step towards sustainable growth — and one which could inspire a paradigm shift around the world.


Mahendra Singhi, CEO, Dalmia Cement

Big idea: With carbon-capture and neutralizing technology, notoriously hard-to-abate sectors like cement could transform it into carbon-negative industries.

How? Cement is vital to modernizing infrastructure of all kinds in the developing world — but manufacturing it comes at an enormous environmental cost. Producing and transporting a single ton of cement still emits half a ton of CO2, even after decades of efforts to reduce its carbon footprint. At Dalmia Cement, one of the largest producers of cement in India, Mahendra Singhi is determined to transform the industry into a sustainable one. To make cement carbon-negative, the company is targeting the two largest sources of CO2 emissions in the manufacturing pipeline: the fossil fuels used to process and transport the material and clinkerisation, the chemical process that makes cement a usable product. And while adopting renewable energy sources like electric cars and green fuel is relatively straightforward, the more difficult challenge is turning the CO2 produced by the clinkerisation process — which represents up to half of the CO2 emissions associated with cement — into a productive material. Large-scale carbon capture plants might be the ticket to sparing this CO2 from the atmosphere and transforming it into something usable. Though still a nascent technology, Dalmia’s recent feasibility study on the subject “proved that it is technologically and economically viable,” says Singhi. “From 2040, my cement manufacturing process will not emit a gram of CO2.”


Rachel Kyte, sustainable development diplomat and activist

Big idea: If we want clean cooling systems that don’t contribute to global warming, we must tackle issues of sustainability and fairness at the same time.

How? Global surface temperatures are at an all-time high — but the way we cool down is heating up the planet even more. Most traditional cooling methods are energy inefficient and depend on polluting refrigerants like hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Activist Rachel Kyte, who works to identify paths to cleaner energy systems, outlines four steps to climbing out of this intensely pollutive and disparate system. First, we need to move away from building designs that center on traditional air conditioning — think ultra-white, heat reflective paint and garden-rich rooftops. According to Kyte, the cooling technologies we use need to be at least 50 percent more efficient than today’s most sustainable unit. Next, governments must commit to HFC-free technologies on a global scale. Finally, we need cold chains for perishable medicines, food and other products — for every community on the planet. While some bask in air-conditioned suburban homes, billions of people around the world don’t even have access to the basics. “What is scary is that we are not having enough conversations in enough places and driving enough investments into affordable, non-polluting efficient solutions for cooling for everyone,” says Kyte.


“We must collectively ask the markets to recognize and adequately reward Africa’s contribution to slowing climate change by putting a price on carbon,” says Vera Songwe at Session 3 of the TED Countdown Summit on October 13, 2021 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Vera Songwe, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa

Big idea: The peatlands of the Congo Basin are an invaluable resource in the fight against climate change, and protecting them via a responsible development plan should be a global priority.

Why? Recently identified as one of the world’s most efficient carbon sinks, the peatlands of the Central African Congo Basin absorb a sizeable portion of global emissions. But, like many other biodiverse territories, it’s on the verge of being churned into grist for the capitalist mill. Vera Songwe believes that money and resources should flow in the other direction. At a price of $50 per unit of the 30 billion tons of carbon the peatlands soak up, a $1.5 trillion Peatlands Development Fund could be established to transform the economic realities of communities in the region. A budget that size would ensure robust local infrastructure, create jobs  and, most importantly, nudge regional economic development in the direction of preservation instead of exploitation. “This is not just about decarbonization, it is about development with dignity,” says Songwe. “We must collectively ask the markets to recognize and adequately reward Africa’s contribution to slowing climate change by putting a price on carbon.”


Susan Ruffo, ocean expert

Big idea: The ocean is an unsung hero in the story of climate change, providing readymade solutions to the climate crisis — if we are smart enough to recognize them.

Why? A vital part of our life support system here on earth, the ocean produces half of the earth’s oxygen (that’s one in every two breaths you take). It helps regulate the planet’s temperature and absorbs anywhere from a quarter to a third of the CO2 we put into the atmosphere — making it the world’s largest carbon sink. The ocean does a lot for us already — our first priority should be not messing that up, says Susan Ruffo, Senior Advisor for Ocean and Climate at United Nations Foundation. Beyond that, there’s a thrilling range of ocean-based climate solutions we could tap into — from the carbon-absorbing power of mangroves and salt marshes to dense oysters reefs that could lower the risk of major flood damage — if we start to appreciate the ocean’s role in helping us address the climate crisis.

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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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)

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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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Recalibrate: The talks of TED@BCG 2021

Lisa Choi Owens, TED’s Head of Partnerships, welcomes the audience to TED@BCG: Recalibrate 2021, held at the TED World Theater in New York City. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

As the world opens up and we move out of crisis mode, the most important lesson might be that change and disruption will continue to happen frequently and dramatically. So the question becomes: How can we adapt? In a day of talks and performances, a range of speakers explore how to harness creativity and imagination to redefine tech, business, government and society for the better.

The event: TED@BCG: Recalibrate is the eleventh event TED and Boston Consulting Group have co-hosted to spotlight leading thinkers from around the globe. Hosted by TED’s Head of Partnerships Lisa Choi Owens, with opening remarks from Rich Lesser, Global Chair of BCG.

Music: A serene, smoldering performance from the French band Kimberose along with the East-African retro-pop sound of singer-songwriter Alsarah.

The talks in brief:

Warren Valdmanis, private equity investor

Big idea: Good jobs make for committed employees, profitable companies and interested investors. 

How? Oftentimes, investors pride themselves on leaning out a company to boost its profit — but Warren Valdmanis believes that there is another way. By shifting the focus to creating good jobs, rather than cutting labor costs, companies have the opportunity to create a thriving environment that attracts employees, customers and investors. But what is a “good job”? Valdmanis breaks it down to four parts: Fair treatment, a promising future, psychological safety and a sense of purpose. When all these elements come together, mission-driven companies take care of the people bringing that vision to life and, in turn, they get creative, profitable returns. “Good jobs aren’t just good for society,” Valdmanis says. “They are good business.” 

What will the next generation of smart digital assistants look and sounds like? Karen Lellouche Tordjman offers answers at TED@BCG: Recalibrate 2021. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Karen Lellouche Tordjman, customer experience professional

Big idea: There are two key challenges to crack in order to usher in the age of smart digital assistants.

How? From Siri to Alexa, digital assistants already permeate our lives. But, according to Karen Lellouche Tordjman, engineers must still overcome two crucial obstacles before digital assistants start to feel like a truly indispensable part of our lives. Obstacle one: voice. Currently, digital assistants have a relatively limited level of fluency, struggling with such things as accent, background noise and the different meanings of words within different contexts. But, with 10,000 Amazon employees working on Alexa’s voice technology alone, we could soon see leaps in the performance of voice interfaces. Which brings us to obstacle two: breadth of recommendations. Right now, most recommendation algorithms stay in one lane, specifically recommending things like videos, music, clothing items and the like. The next generation will be able to do everything, Lellouche Tordjman says, offering an integrated and wide range of recommendations across product categories. Once that happens, smart assistants may soon feel as necessary as our smart phones.

Massimo Russo, data cooperation expert

Big Idea: Sharing data can help us solve climate change. Here are three research-backed ways for companies to actually do it. 

How: We are in a dilemma, says Massimo Russo. If we want to defeat climate change, we need to optimize our cities and systems — and that requires sharing data. (In researching the most effective climate change solutions, Russo and his team found that 85 percent of the best plans require more data sharing.) But the companies that have this crucial data are often reluctant to share it, falling susceptible to what he calls “FOMA”: fear of missing out on competitive advantage. But there is a ray of hope — companies are more likely to share their data when it serves a greater common goal, like solving climate change. Russo offers three ways for companies to jumpstart an altruistic cycle of innovative data sharing: first, companies should look for new, unexpected sources of and partners for data. For example, farmers could look to satellite information systems to help them decide when and what to plant. Second, companies should quickly develop new sustainability solutions, which includes hiring climate scientists to use data and digital innovations together to create effective solutions. Finally, companies should act together for change. In cities, this could look like transportation hubs and utility companies sharing data so each can optimize their operations. We need data to find our way out of climate change — and the quickest way is to share.

Richard Thompson Ford takes a fascinating historical walk through the rise and power of fashion at TED@BCG: Recalibrate 2021. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Richard Thompson Ford, civil rights and gender equity lawyer

Big idea: Let’s try to check our biases before calling the fashion police.

Why? The fashion police are real — or, at least, the laws and policies that empowered them, which still echo and influence modern biases everywhere from school to the workplace. Richard Thompson Ford takes a fascinating historical walk through the rise and power of fashion, and how it’s more about status than statement when what’s considered appropriate is often clouded by stereotypes, snap judgements and limited experiences. But dismissing dress codes doesn’t instantly dissolve the tensions around who should wear what, Ford explains. There’s nuance to be understood when it comes to culture, self-expression and archaic beliefs of what constitutes professional dress. And while no tailor-made solution exists to divest society of such haute judgment, he encourages everyone to outfit themself to think twice about clothing and the people in them.

Zoe Karl-Waithaka, development visionary

Big Idea: Marketing can dramatically improve the lives of African farmers.

How? The development community (NGOs, philanthropies and international development agencies) traditionally focuses on helping African farmers grow their foods — but they should help them grow their markets, too. Zoe Karl-Waithaka points to the success of avocado and milk campaigns in the United States as examples of how marketing created a whole generation of guacamole eaters and milk drinkers. She says there are three ways marketing can help African farmers grow a market for their products. First, the development community can fund world-class marketing campaigns to promote African foods, both in domestic and international markets. Second, as a large procurer of food, African governments can provide a consistent market for farmers’ goods. And finally, farmers should band together to promote their crops, like jointly funding marketing campaigns through cooperatives. By pooling their resources together, farmers would be able to make a bigger marketing splash. These principles of marketing don’t just apply to African farmers, says Karl-Waithaka. They could be used to promote healthier and more climate-friendly foods, too!

Dustin Burke, supply chain expert

Big idea: We’re overdue for a true streamlining of supply chains to create real resiliency in the face of major crises.

How? Supply chain challenges are real, but they’re not new, says Dustin Burke. Some chains are simple — like buying strawberries from a local farm — but others are complicated, such as the approximately thirty thousand parts from numerous separate manufacturers that it takes to build a car. Even in light of disruptions ranging from natural disasters to pandemics and political instability, Burke asks why companies have yet to make their supply chains more resilient. The answer is straightforward: steep competition and clashing priorities always win when there’s no apparent crisis. Burke suggests developing better ideas that could potentially beat out those constant pressures, which boil down to sharing risk, radical transparency and automated recommendations. He believes that with the assistance of AI and machine learning today, companies (paired by need) could share resource costs and help create a more resilient, efficient tomorrow.

Charlotte Degot, green technologist

Big Idea: To reduce emissions, companies need to measure them accurately — and AI can help.

How? Colorless, scentless and invisible — greenhouse gases are hard to measure, explains Charlotte Degot. But getting an accurate estimate of pollution is vital to setting meaningful goals to reducing it. Enter: artificial intelligence. AI can help process and optimize massive amounts of data to help wean out misinformation and turn the data into useful patterns. For example, Degot points to an international wine and spirits company — from the glass that makes up their bottles to the liquid inside them, they have countless processes to track. Without AI, most of the information is inaccessible to the corporation. But, by having more reliable figures instead of rough estimates, corporations can set meaningful climate targets, identify concrete initiatives and recalculate emissions over time. To put it simply: “You cannot reduce what you cannot measure,” Degot says. 

James Rhee shows the value of not only investing dollars in your business, but also time and heart. He speaks at TED@BCG: Recalibrate 2021. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

James Rhee, goodwill strategist

Big idea: Goodwill and kindness can reshape a business for the better. 

How? Lots of people are demanding that we rethink capitalism — how we treat our employees and one another. But are we focused on the right things? What really creates value? James Rhee, the former CEO of the fashion brand Ashley Stewart, shares the story of how he pulled the company back from the brink of bankruptcy by cultivating the transformative power of kindness at work. By creating a culture of goodwill, inviting customers into marketing and creative efforts and centering people over profits across all operations, Rhee shows the true value of not only investing dollars, but also time and heart. 

Martin Reeves, business strategist

Big idea: Play isn’t just about fun. It’s also a helpful and advantageous business exercise in imagining what could be. 

How? Martin Reeves shows how in business, play is not only possible but urgently essential in a world that demands companies reinvent themselves in order to stay afloat. He invites the audience to play a series of games that he uses to get executives to stretch their thinking. These thought experiments inspire a fresh look at business-as-usual by flipping it on its head in ways that both humble and motivate the thinker in the direction of new possibilities. Failures to imagine in business are really failures in leadership, Reeves says. By unlocking and harnessing the innate creativity within, companies have the opportunity to uncover new disruptive strategies and keep a foothold on the future.

Larry Irvin, TED Fellow and education innovator

Big idea: Representation and diversity in teaching is vital to a student’s education. In the US, Black men make up less than three percent of teachers in schools — and this needs to change.

How? While teaching a summer program, Larry Irvin wanted to gain a better understanding of his students. So he asked them the age-old question: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” The answers he heard from his young students of color existed within the confines of outdated narratives that Irvin is committed to changing by working to increase teacher diversity. He created a program called Brothers Empowered to Teach that provides education, opportunity and job placement through a holistic, people-centered approach. By recruiting and training more Black teachers, educators provide a mirror to their students — and vice versa. “Just one Black male teacher in third, fourth or fifth grade for a low-income Black boy substantially reduces his chances of dropping out of high school by almost 40 percent,” Irvin says. 

How should we reimagine work coming out of the pandemic? Debbie Lovich says we must do three key things. She speaks at TED@BCG: Recalibrate 2021. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Debbie Lovich, work futurist

Big idea: We have an opportunity to create a future of work that is more engaging, productive and humane.

How? Over the past 18 months of the pandemic, there’s been no shortage of conversations about the future of work. To Debbie Lovich, it’s abundantly clear that going back to a work life dictated by a fixed time, place and job description doesn’t make any sense. Employees have enjoyed unprecedented autonomy during the pandemic, and they’ve developed great work practices along the way. Now’s the time to bottle those practices and do away with the rigid, sluggish, bureaucratic ways of the past. To get the future of work right, Lovich says we must do three things: first, trust your people (they’ve proven they deserve it); second, be data-driven (survey people to see what they like about the new way of working, and experiment based on that feedback); and third, think beyond the schedule (reimagining, or even eliminating, things like long commutes, recurring meetings and silo work). If we do all this, we can stop contorting our lives around work — and instead reshape work to better fit our lives.

Axel Reinaud, biochar entrepreneur

Big Idea: Biochar is an exciting climate, agricultural and a renewable energy solution that can help farmers increase crop yields while reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. 

How? Photosynthesis is the most effective form of carbon sequestration … but what happens when plants and trees are burned? All the carbon that was captured by the plants is released back into the atmosphere. Enter: biochar. Biochar is a form of carbon made when organic ingredients are superheated without oxygen. It remains stable for hundreds of years and when sown into soil, its porous structure helps plants retain the important water, nutrients and microbes they need to thrive. Moreover, the production of biochar produces an abundant renewable source of energy. So why isn’t biochar more popular? Axel Reinaud explains that the price of biochar is too high — but things are changing. He outlines three ways to bring biochar to scale: first, improve access to the biomass needed to produce biochar; second, develop more efficient production systems that can create biochar and power a renewable energy grid 24/7; and third, encourage farmers to use biochar more, which would help reduce the amount of damaging fertilizers used and increase crop yields. 

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Climate hope: Notes from Session 4 of TEDMonterey

Maria Gallucci comes ferrying good news: there’s a way to clean up the shipping industry that’s green, economically lean and can be made with planet-friendly machines. She speaks at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism on August 2, 2021. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

The scale of the climate crisis is so daunting that it can be easy to get dragged down into pessimism. But at Session 4, six speakers — call them unexpected heroes of the future — told a different story of how we might beat this thing. They speak on an exciting range of phenomena and possibilities that could make a huge difference in our effort to draw down gigatons of CO2 and regain a livable environment.

The event: TEDMonterey: Session 4, hosted by TED’s Chris Anderson on Monday, August 2, 2021

Speakers: Ma Jun, Carlos M. Duarte, Maria Gallucci, Susan Graham, Jamie C. Beard

Special guest: Nigel Topping, the UK’s High-Level Climate Action Champion for COP26, chats with Chris Anderson about the prospects of increased climate ambition ahead of the UN climate conference this November and gives an update on Race to Zero, a global campaign to mobilize leadership on this crucial issue.


Seagrass is an unsung hero in the fight against climate change, says Carlos M. Duarte. He talks about his work mapping seagrass locations across the world’s oceans with the help of turtles and tiger sharks at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism on August 2, 2021(Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Carlos M. Duarte, marine scientist

Big idea: Seagrass is an unsung hero in the fight against climate change. But disease, dredging and the deterioration of our oceans’ water quality threaten to wipe out this vital species — unless we take immediate action to protect it.

How? You’ve likely seen seagrass — it grows along the shore of every continent except Antarctica — but did you recognize this humble plant as a champion of carbon sequestration? According to Carlos M. Duarte, seagrass is responsible for drawing down one-third of the carbon that accumulates in the seafloor each year! Seagrass also filters plastic from our oceans and, during hurricanes and tropical storms, its massive roots and rhizomes reinforce the seafloor and act as the first line of defense for our coastlines. The bad news: a disease in the Atlantic killed off vast colonies of seagrass in the 1930s and, since then, water pollution, dredging, trawling and anchor damages have worsened this plant’s plight. But Duarte and the team at Beneath the Waves are working to save our seagrass. They are mapping seagrass locations across the world’s oceans (using turtles and tiger sharks!), promoting policies to improve water quality, restoring damaged seagrass meadows and planting new ones. With enough action, Duarte believes we can protect plant heroes like seagrass and rebuild marine life by 2050.


Maria Gallucci, journalist

Big idea: The maritime shipping industry must become climate-friendly — but have no fear, green ammonia is here.

How? Every day, tens of thousands of cargo ships criss-cross the ocean carrying the food we eat, the clothes we wear and the cars we drive. At the same time, they spew fumes and black smoke from heavily polluting fossil fuels into the atmosphere. But Maria Galluci comes ferrying good news: there’s a way to clean up the industry, beyond reverting to pre-industrial sailing ships, that’s green, economically lean and can be made with planet-friendly machines. Green ammonia could be a game-changing way to turn the tides for the shipping industry, as it’s not carbon-based; rather, it’s made up of nitrogen and hydrogen (the molecules that make up air and water). Galluci lays out how this alternative fuel could become an industry-standard reality — from environment-friendly manufacturing processes combined with plunging renewable energy costs to combustion engines and fuel cells. So, what will it take to get an ammonia-powered shipping industry mainstream? She says a rough parallel can be found in the rise of electric cars. Hopefully, one day soon, the incoming freighters will not bring the smell of diesel and carbon emissions, but the scent of a fresh sea breeze.


Susan Graham, environmentalist, entrepreneur

Big idea: We can use drone technology and ecology-trained AI to restore degraded land and revive complex, biodiverse ecosystems.

How? Land restoration is more than planting trees, says Susan Graham. If we want to revive the more than two billion hectares of degraded land on the planet, we need to embrace complex solutions. According to Graham, drones and AI can help us restore areas damaged by industrial activities, natural disasters and invasive species by planting the right mix of native vegetation. In Australia, for instance, Graham and her team are helping restore the forest ina territory depleted and degraded by coal mining. Plus, this technology can work at enormous scales — meaning we can use it to revive the beauty and complexity of native ecosystems both in a single forest and across the planet.


Is it possible to eat a hamburger without killing a cow? Isha Datar explores the exhilarating future of cellular agriculture at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism on August 2, 2021 (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Isha Datar, cellular agriculture ecosystem builder

Big idea: Cellular agriculture makes it possible to eat meat without the negative consequences of industrial farming and processing.

How? What if you could eat chicken nuggets without ever killing a chicken? Or a hamburger without killing a cow? It’s possible through cellular agriculture, says Isha Datar, and this new means of meat production will transform our food systems. Here’s how it works: scientists take a biopsy from a living animal (like a chicken), extract the cells and then put them in a liquid medium that provides everything these cells need to grow. Instead of cramped cages stuffed with genetically modified hens, large bioreactors will produce boneless, skinless white meat without byproducts like feathers, beaks and bones. But this process isn’t just better for the birds; it’s better for all of us. Early estimates suggest cultured meat would require 99 percent less land, produce 78 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions and use 82 percent less water than industrial meat farming and production. And meat is only the beginning! We could use this technology to grow vanilla without clear-cutting the rainforest or produce silk without silkworms. As Datar says, this isn’t a new product — this is our once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get a second chance at agriculture.


Climate Action Tracker, a tracking initiative holding governments accountable for their Paris Agreement commitments

Big idea: The actions governments take in 2021 to reduce emissions will determine if the world is on track to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, so the time to act is now. Is there a way to hold them accountable for the goals set at the 2015 Paris Agreements?

An answer: In 2015, countries participating in the Paris Agreements agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and bring carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2050. Climate Action Tracker is a platform designed not only to keep track of our progress towards reaching the Paris benchmarks, but also to pinpoint exactly who isn’t shouldering their fair share of the burden. The platform gives us a status update on what’s working, and what isn’t.


Ma Jun, environmentalist, scholar

Big idea: By making pollution information public in China, citizens can hold global brands accountable for pollution control. 

How? Transparency is the key to speeding environmental change at scale in China, says Ma Jun. He’s the creator of Blue Map, an app that tracks pollution violations and color codes factories based on their records of environmental contamination: green and blue are good; red and yellow are bad. This data makes it possible, at a glance, for citizens to monitor corporate violations and micro-report these offenses to government agencies. To help China achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by 2060, Ma and his team have also developed the Blue Map for Carbon Zero, which color codes cities and provinces based on carbon emissions. And he plans to expand the Blue Map project to include plastic, waste and even biodiversity to motivate more companies and more people to reduce their environmental impact and leave a healthier world for all of us. 


Jamie C. Beard explains how recent innovations in drill technology, such as the ability to drill in curves, have made geothermal energy enticingly feasible. She speaks at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism on August 2, 2021 (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Jamie C. Beard, technologist, climate activist

Big idea: Geothermal energy could provide us with a clean way to power the globe.

How? What if oil and gas companies could equip us with the infrastructure needed to clean our power grids? Jamie C. Beard advocates for geothermal energy, which requires drilling deep into the earth to access the planet’s natural heat, and explains how recent innovations in drill technology, such as the ability to drill in curves, have made this alternative energy feasible. But to bring geothermal energy to scale, we need to drill all over the world — and drill a lot. Fortunately, the oil and gas industry already has the technology, infrastructure and training to bring geothermal energy online fast. In fact, she says, many geothermal startups are founded by oil and gas veterans. The industry known for its dirty pollution could easily become a pioneer in curbing climate change. “We flip the switch, and we have green drilling,” she says. “This is simply a pivot — from hydrocarbons to heat.”

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Shaping the future: Notes from the TED Fellows Session of TEDMonterey

“Sensor data can change the game by providing a common source of truth that enables coordinated action required to maintain life-saving equipment,” says Nithya Ramanathan during the Fellows Session at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism on August 2, 2021. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

The TED Fellows are known to be a range of multifaceted souls, making possible the impossible. The eight speakers and one performance on stage at TEDMonterey exemplified this year’s (and every year’s) cohort of amazing people shaping the future and rising to the challenge of making the world better than it’s been left.

The event: TEDMonterey: Fellows Session, hosted by TED’s Shoham Arad and Lily James Olds on Monday, August 2, 2021

Speakers: Daniel Alexander Jones, Tom Osborn, Jenna C. Lester, Alicia Chong Rodriguez, Jim Chuchu, Germán Santillán, Lei Li, Nithya Ramanathan

In a breathtaking performance, Daniel Alexander Jones opens the TED Fellows Session at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism on August 2, 2021. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Opening the session, performance artist and writer Daniel Alexander Jones evoked the spirit of the Civil Rights Movement with an abridged, rousing performance of the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and closed with a holistic, poetic summary of the talks and the spirit they contained.


Tom Osborn, mental health innovator

Big idea: In areas with limited access to psychologists and psychiatrists, youth trained in evidence-based mental health care can provide support for their peers.

How? Growing up in rural Kenya, Osborn faced enormous pressure to succeed in school and chart a path out of poverty for his family. He suffered from symptoms he now recognizes as anxiety and depression but went without any resources to help him navigate these difficult emotions. As an adult, Osborn works to ensure that the youth in Kenya today have access to mental health support through his organization, the Shamiri Institute. With too few clinicians to serve the population (only two for every one million citizens), the organization trains 18 to 22-year-old Kenyans to deliver evidence-based mental healthcare to their peers. Youth treated through the institute pay under two dollars a session and have already reported reductions in symptoms of anxiety and depression. As Osborn looks to the future, he hopes to use this community-first, youth-oriented model as a template to help kids across the globe lead successful, independent lives.


The harmful patterns and limited scope of diagnosis taught in textbooks and perpetuated in classes around dark skin must end, says Jenna C. Lester during the Fellows Session at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism on August 2, 2021. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Jenna C. Lester, dermatologist

Big idea: Dermatologists need to get comfortable with all types of skin colors — and that starts with changing what they learn.

How? Just under half of new dermatologists admit they don’t feel comfortable identifying health issues that make themselves known via skin indicators — such as Lyme disease’s “bullseye” — that may show up differently on darker skin. Lester believes this discomfort leads to poorer health outcomes for people with dark skin and proves ultimately detrimental to the patient-physician relationship. So, she founded the Skin of Color Clinic, a program on a mission to help doctors unlearn the harmful patterns and limited scope of diagnosis taught in textbooks and perpetuated in classes around dark skin. She hopes that with her efforts, combined with other similar initiatives around the US, to right the equilibrium of over- and underrepresentation in the dermatological field so that everyone — no matter their skin tone — can have access to quality health and wellness.


Introducing a smart bra that can track and support women’s heart health, Alicia Chong Rodriguez aims to close the gender gap in cardiovascular research. She speaks at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism on August 2, 2021. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Alicia Chong Rodriguez, health care technology entrepreneur

Big idea: A smart bra that can track and support women’s heart health.

How? About 44 million women in the US live with heart disease, but helpful data is severely lacking. Why? Because most cardiovascular research is performed on men, resulting in therapies largely designed for male bodies. Rodriguez wants to close that data gap — with a bra. By wearing an everyday bra fit with special biomarker sensors, life-saving data could be gathered continuously in real time. The sensors track heart rhythm, breathing, temperature, posture and movement and update this information to the wearer’s records — so that doctors can understand their health better with troves of information to back it up. By simply wearing a bra, she says, we could close the data divide and finally usher women’s health care into the 21st century.


Jim Chuchu, filmmaker

Big idea: Stolen African art and artifacts showcased around the world should be returned to museums and cultural institutions on the African continent.

Why? Why are stolen African artifacts still in the possession of Western museums? Chuchu reminds us, many of these cultural artifacts wound up in cities like London and New York because they were looted by colonial forces. Working to return Kenya’s material heritage to the country, he and the International Inventories Programme, an organization he co-founded, are rectifying these injustices. They have created a database of cultural objects held outside of Kenya — locating over 32,000 items so far. Beyond tracking these precious artifacts, Chuchu also hopes to start a public conversation about the morality of holding stolen African art in foreign institutions. “We’re asking for the return of our objects,” he says, “to help us remember who we are.”


Germán Santillán, cultural chocolatier

Big idea: By training a new generation in Indigenous cacao cultivation and culinary methods, Germán Santillán is helping revive the culinary tradition of Oaxacan chocolate.

How? The Mixtec people in Oaxaca, Mexico have been cultivating and consuming chocolate — in ceremonies like marriage or politics — for over 800 years. However, in Mexico today, four out of five chocolate bars are produced using foreign cocoa. Santillán grew up in a Mixtec village in Oaxaca and watched as ancient Mixtec methods long-used to grow cocoa beans and prepare chocolate fell out of use. To revive the rich culinary tradition of chocolate in his region, Santillán and a small group of locals started Oaxacanita Chocolate. Unlike commercial chocolate bars, their Oaxacan chocolate uses native cocoa beans and traditional farming and roasting methods. Not only does their company produce a delicious product, but it has also helped boost his region economically and train a new generation of farmers and cooks in once-disappearing Indigenous techniques. It’s a powerful reminder of how Indigenous knowledge and practices can thrive in a modern context.


 

Lei Li shows how cutting-edge photoacoustic imagery will transform the way we see inside our bodies to detect, track and diagnose disease, during the Fellows Session at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism on August 2, 2021. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Lei Li, medical imaging innovator

Big idea: Advanced imaging using light and sound will transform how we see inside our bodies, elevating our ability to detect, track and diagnose disease.

How? The foundation of advanced photoacoustic imaging converts light energy into sound energy, also known as the photoacoustic effect. The process goes like this: Li and his team pulse painless, gentle lasers into living tissue (in this example, he used a mouse), which absorbs the light and rises in temperature, leading to the generation of acoustic waves — or sound — that medical sensors interpret into a high-resolution image. Li shows how the clarity and detail of these images far exceeds those produced by a traditional MRI, CT scan or ultrasound. The applicability of this technology is wide-reaching, from breast cancer diagnosis and human brain imaging to potentially steering medicine-delivering microrobots inside our bodies. Photoacoustic imaging is a fast-growing research field, he says, and the promise for global health is reason enough to sound-off.


Nithya Ramanathan, technologist

Big Idea: Smart sensors are a game changer when it comes to preserving life-saving vaccines.

How? After life-saving technology is deployed to countries with limited infrastructure, Ramanathan realized it is often left unsupported from thereon. Take vaccines for example, if they get too hot or cold on their journey or in storage, they could be ruined before use. Ramanathan talks through real-world examples — one case in particular took place in Stanford Children’s Hospital, where a refrigerator malfunctioning for 8 months meant that over 1,500 kids needed to be re-vaccinated — and the stakes are even higher now with COVID-19. Her solution? Smart sensors in refrigerators where vaccines are stored that monitor temperatures and send out alerts when they are unsafe — as well as data on the best routes to use in an emergency. Ramanathan and her team at Nexleaf, a non-profit she co-founded, have implemented this scalable, cost-effective and vital technology in thousands of locations in Asia and Africa. These simple yet extremely effective tools show what is possible when we invest in collecting and utilizing data.

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Mindset reset: Notes from Session 2 of TEDMonterey

Jenny Scheinman, Nels Cline and Todd Sickafoose deliver a jazz-infused performance at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism on August 2, 2021. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Session 2 kicked off the first full day of TEDMonterey with six speakers and one performance ready with an invitation for you to think differently, wonder ceaselessly and transform the ways you interact with the world — big and small.

The event: TEDMonterey: Session 2, hosted by TED’s Helen Walters on Monday, August 2, 2021

Speakers: Stephanie Kelton, Trebor Scholz, Saad Bhamla, Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas, Bozoma Saint John

Music: A jazzy, transportive set by Jenny Scheinman with Nels Cline and Todd Sickafoose, performing “A Ride With Polly Jean” and “Ali Farka Touche.”

“We have the resources we need to begin repairing our broken systems,” says economist Stephanie Kelton. “But we have to believe it’s possible.” She speaks at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism on August 2, 2021. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Stephanie Kelton, economist

Big idea: We should consider government spending as a financial surplus to the country rather than a deficit.

How? When it comes to government spending, Stephanie Kelton says we ask all the wrong questions. Instead of asking how we’ll pay to build new affordable housing or expand Medicare, she believes we should focus on two questions: Are these things worth doing? And do we have the real resources — the people, equipment, raw materials and technology — to do them? Kelton is a proponent of Modern Monetary Theory, which holds that governments should issue currency to cover their costs, rather than raise taxes to pay for infrastructure or other investments. “When the government spends more than it taxes,” she explains, “it makes a financial contribution to some other part of the economy.” With a better understanding of public money, she hopes we can stop debating about government debt and instead address the healthcare, housing and educational deficits that really matter.


Trebor Scholz, activist, author and scholar

Big idea: It’s time for more democratic workplaces (and industries) and platform cooperatives are one way to make this happen.

How? Cooperatives date back almost 200 years, powered by groups of people who together equally work and decide on how a company operates. So what does it look like when modern tech companies merge with this tried-and-true model of business? Trebor Scholz introduces the “platform cooperative,” a new way forward creating a democratic company of empowered workers. Platform users are the owners who choose things like how much they get paid, decide what customers should be charged and determine what data is collected. One such organization is Up & Go, a platform for house cleaners that’s already demonstrating a bliss point between autonomy and support for workers and invites the question: Why do these co-ops work so well? Scholz explains that companies have no obligation to fiduciary shareholders, the staff co-own the company and, in times of crisis, they have proven to be a resilient source of income. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution for business, he makes a case for hope when it comes to co-op platforms having the potential to change entire industries and create a legacy of equality.

Quote of the talk: “When markets fail and government safety nets break down, people turn to each other.”


Saad Bhamla shares his infectious curiosity about insects and insect pee at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism on August 2, 2021. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Saad Bhamla, curiosity-driven scientist

Big idea: Ever wondered how insects pee? Well, here’s your answer.

How? Meet the sapsucker Homalodisca vitripennis, also known as the glassy winged sharpshooter, an insect that flings its pee at up to 40 g-forces (or forty times faster than a sprinting cheetah). Enter the scientist who wants to know how these creepy crawlers engineered their rear ends to propel liquid with such speed: Saad Bhamla. With wild footage of bugs urinating, Bhamla explains the fascinating physics of how insects use their “butt flickers” (yes, that’s the scientific name) to capitalize on the power of surface tension to accelerate their pee droplets with astounding momentum. Bhamla suggests in studying the mechanics, we could potentially harness this genius design to expel liquid from waterlogged smartphones. But for him, the real benefit is all about sparking curiosity, making discoveries and learning about the natural world around us. 

Naomi Bagdonas and Jennifer Aaker talk about the benefits of leading with humor speak at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism on August 2, 2021. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED)

Jennifer Aaker, behavioral scientist, and Naomi Bagdonas, corporate strategist and designer

Big idea: Humor makes our lives better in tangible ways. Even if you’re not a comedian, you can prime your brain to find the funny in any situation. 

How? Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas want to make you laugh. As a behavioral scientist and a corporate strategist who co-teach a class on the power of humor in leadership at Stanford, these two women know that even a bad joke can make you feel good. “As far as our brains are concerned, laughing is like exercising, meditating and having sex — at the same time,” Bagdonas says. Plus, humor can improve almost any situation. The duo shares examples of how a little silliness from a CEO makes for a more creative workforce, or how a line of humorous advertising copy can boost a product’s sales. Don’t consider yourself funny? Don’t worry. Aaker and Bagdonas believe humor is a teachable skill and offer a few tips to help all of us find more funny moments. Start by noticing what’s true, they suggest, and the joy and the laughs will follow.


Bozoma Saint John tells us to look at the data with a grain a salt and listen more to our intuition. She speaks at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism on August 2, 2021. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Bozoma Saint John, Chief Marketing Officer at Netflix

Big idea: Don’t get bogged down in data — for great ideas, plug into your intuition.

How? Your intuition is a gift, says Saint John. All too often, we make decisions based solely on the data, thinking of it as a magical, more convenient shortcut to the right answer. But when we rely too heavily on numbers and facts alone, we sacrifice creativity and can miss out on our best ideas. Illustrating her point with her story of pitching an unlikely rising star at the time (revealed to be the one and only Beyoncé Knowles) for an upcoming marketing campaign to her then-boss Spike Lee, she shares how following her gut paid off in a big way. Ever since that moment early in her career, she’s followed her intuition to make key decisions that define the industry, not follow it. “Data is the pill to calm our insecurities over what we intuitively know,” she says, and she encourages us all to lean less into the data and more on ourselves.

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The path forward: Notes from Session 1 of TEDMonterey

TED’s Chris Anderson and Helen Walters welcome the audience at TEDMonterey on August 1, 2021. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

It’s time for TED!

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

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

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

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

The talks in brief:

Jamil Zaki, research psychologist

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

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

“Fighting hate should be fun,” says public intellectual Loretta J. Ross. “It’s being a hater that sucks.” She speaks at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism on August 1, 2021 (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Loretta J. Ross, public intellectual, activist

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

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


Liam Young, director, architect

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

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


Graphic journalist Wendy MacNaughton talks about how drawing can spark deeply human, authentic connections — and invites the audience to participate in an interactive illustrating experiment. She speaks at TEDMonterey: The Case for Optimism on August 1, 2021 (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Wendy MacNaughton, illustrator, graphic journalist

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

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


Adam Grant, organizational psychologist

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

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

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Evolutions: The talks of TED@BCG 2021

Would you pay two percent more for the carbon-neutral version of things you already buy? Tracing the journey of a lump of coal through the steelmaking supply chain, Jens Burchardt reveals the surprisingly cheap economics of low-carbon products. He speaks at TED@BCG on April 8, 2021. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Evolutions don’t happen overnight. After a year of slowing down and shifting priorities due to the pandemic, we can use this moment to find a better way forward. In a day of talks, interviews and performances, nine speakers and performers explored a range of innovative solutions aimed at addressing the climate crisis, cybersecurity, inequality, trust and more.

The event: TED@BCG: Evolutions is the tenth event TED and Boston Consulting Group have co-hosted to spotlight leading thinkers from around the globe and share their solutions for a better world. Hosted by TED’s Head of Partnerships Lisa Choi Owens, with opening remarks from Rich Lesser, CEO of BCG, and Chris Anderson, Head of TED.

Fun fact: TED@BCG events have generated 138 TED Talks, which have been viewed more 143 million times to date.

Music: Performance by neo-soul songstress MALIA.

The talks in brief:

Marcos Aguiar, digital trust advisor

Big idea: Trust plays a massive role in the success of businesses — and should be designed into their ecosystems.

How? Delivering on a promise or behaving in an expected way is key to earning a customer’s loyalty. Whether you’re scrolling through Facebook, hailing cars via Uber or booking a vacation on Airbnb, each business uses unique elements to win over consumers — oftentimes, with trust as their foundation. How can companies design with trust in mind? Sharing findings from a study that analyzed trust in business ecosystems, Marcos Aguiar offers a toolbox to building systemic trust that consists of seven elements: access; contracts with formalized terms and conditions; incentives to cooperate; control, or gentle guidance, that shapes behavior; transparency; intermediation; and mitigation when mishaps occur. While not all companies need every tool, he says, many will benefit greatly from three to six of them, depending on their industry. Aguiar encourages us all to consider the role trust plays in the platforms we use — and how it can improve our lives beyond them, too.


Anu Puusa, co-op enthusiast

Big idea: Cooperatives — businesses or other enterprises jointly owned, operated and controlled by their members — represent a sustainable model that can achieve long-term social, economic and environmental goals.

How? Cooperatives, also known as co-ops, are the invisible giant of the global economy, says Anu Puusa. Worldwide, there are more than three million co-ops, made up of one billion members, employing 280 million people and selling more than two trillion dollars in goods and services. How exactly do they work? Unlike most businesses, in which certain owners can buy power and influence, a co-op is fully owned by its members, who are also its customers and decision-makers. Each member has one vote, making each member an equal partner and owner in the business — whether the co-op is a farm, grocery store, bank, water supplier or any other organization. Co-ops find that sweet spot between for-profit businesses and the nonprofit world, Puusa says: while they do aim to make money, they also center members’ social and environmental goals and hope to anchor wealth in a community across generations. Because co-ops think in the long term rather than quarter to quarter, creating a sustainable business is the top priority. “Unlike capitalism, the cooperative movement is not broken,” Puusa says. “It just needs better marketing.”

Biotech pioneer Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw talks about equitable access to health care, the Indian biopharma industry and the essential role of international cooperation during the pandemic. She speaks with TED tech curator Simone Ross at TED@BCG on April 8, 2021. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, biotech pioneer, in conversation with TED technology curator Simone Ross

Big idea: Key partnerships, global cooperation and a willingness to experiment with new ideas made COVID-19 vaccine development and distribution possible.

How? Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder of Indian biopharmaceutical giant Biocon, discusses the development of COVID-19 vaccines, pointing to India’s critical role in the global vaccine supply chain and championing equitable health care access. Unlike many governments worldwide, the pharmaceutical industry formed key partnerships at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, which enabled the rapid development of vaccines and facilitated a wide-ranging distribution effort. Small biotech companies, such as BioNTech, Moderna and Novavax were first to create innovative vaccine programs when the virus hit. Importantly, they partnered with established pharmaceutical giants like Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson to fund, license and develop the vaccines and tap into the necessary networks and supply chains to distribute them. What’s more, Mazumdar-Shaw says, these “big Pharma” companies then partnered with each other to overcome production and manufacturing limitations and supply the world with millions of doses. From these partnerships, as well as equitable distribution initiatives like Cepi, COVAX and the Gates Foundation, she says, we’ve seen growing support for equitable access to health care.


Jens Burchardt, climate impact advocate

Big idea: Saving the planet doesn’t have to break the bank. By spending one to two percent more on eco-friendly products, consumers can help shift industries towards massively smaller (or non-existent) carbon footprints.

How? The steel industry is a highly competitive market — and a massive emitter of greenhouse gases. From the outset, the cost of transforming steelmaking into a low-carbon process would seem too high and potentially risky for suppliers. Jens Burchardt brings a fresh perspective to the challenge, walking us through the ins and outs of production in “hard-to-abate” (or energy-intensive) sectors. By tweaking the price consumers pay for products, he says, the world could take a huge step forward in lowering carbon emissions — and it may not be as expensive as we think. Using the example of an average European midsize sedan (which sells for approximately 30,000 euros), Burchardt breaks down the cost of materials — separate from assembly, marketing and other aspects of production — and calculates that it makes up only fifteen percent of the car’s total price. Companies could employ a low-carbon supplier and market their product as eco-friendly — for only 500 extra euros for consumers at the point of sale. For many industries, a greener world may not be as unreachable as once thought.

Want to do business in Africa? Emerging markets expert Nomava Zanazo shares four things companies need to understand about African customers. She speaks at TED@BCG on April 8, 2021. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Nomava Zanazo, emerging markets expert

Big idea: A message to businesses: stop assuming and get to know African consumers before you sell to them.

How? When looking to sell a new product or service in a country’s market, companies seek to understand the consumer base before jumping in, inquiring about aspects like shopping habits and brand loyalty. But when it comes to the African continent, they seem to abandon these considerations and lump assumptions broadly across its hyper-diverse 55 countries. Emerging markets expert (and South African) Nomava Zanazo gives a crash course on the everyday African spender. For example, Africans don’t want the cheapest product lines — but they do value brands and are much tech savvier than they’re given credit for. By debunking these misconceptions and myths, Zanazo encourages businesses to respect the African market and stop underestimating its consumers. Want your business to thrive in Africa? “Do the homework,” she says. “My continent is worth it.”


Nadya Bartol, cybersecurity leader

Big idea: We must remove the shame around cybersecurity mistakes in order to have safe digital lives.

How? We like to think of ourselves as confident and tech-savvy digital citizens. But many of us have accidentally downloaded a virus, been phished or had our identities stolen. Even software developers sometimes write insecure code without realizing it. These mistakes shouldn’t be hidden but highlighted in order to thwart future cybersecurity attacks, says Nadya Bartol — and we must start by lifting the shame. Much of modern life is computerized, from cars we drive to pacemakers that save lives, and anything digitally interconnected can be hacked. How do we truly stay safe in a digital world? Bartol suggests positive reinforcement and celebrated accountability to foster better, healthier cultures of cybersecurity. Only by being open and honest can we create an environment to learn, grow and protect ourselves in our hyperconnected world.


Beth Ford, farmer’s advocate, in conversation with TED business curator Corey Hajim

Big idea: US farmers face a wide range of challenges — from spotty broadband access to mounting climate disruptions. But there are also a variety of exciting solutions aimed at building 21st-century resilience. 

How? As the CEO of Land O’Lakes, Beth Ford works to create a future for farmers that’s both environmentally and economically sustainable. Among many initiatives, she’s focused on expanding technology infrastructure, specifically by pushing for greater broadband access in rural areas. Many farming communities have little to no internet access, leaving children without remote learning opportunities and farmers without modern agricultural tech that requires bandwidth to operate. Ford is speaking with governments and other stakeholders in order to make broadband access a priority — and establish it as a basic right nationwide. She’s also helping farmers build out sustainable business practices in the face of climate volatility. Her team’s agronomists, for instance, work with farmers to get acre-by-acre insights into soil health; they’re also helping establish carbon credits, whereby farmers who reduce their carbon emissions can sell those offsets to other industries. It’s a climate-friendly approach that’s also profitable, Ford says — part of a wave of initiatives aimed at making farmers part of the solution.

We spend a lot of time trying to gain mastery over a set of skills or knowledge base. Adam Grant shows why it might be better to aspire not for mastery but rather being able to rethink what we think we know. He speaks at TED@BCG on April 8, 2021. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Adam Grant, organizational psychologist

Big idea: Confident humility allows us to remain flexible and rethink a situation, a critical skill in a rapidly changing world.

How? Most of us love trying on new clothes, eating at new restaurants and picking up new hobbies. But when it comes to our goals, identities and habits, we don’t like change — especially if it means giving up. Adam Grant digs into how we can avoid getting stuck in our same old ways of thinking and instead broaden our thought patterns and ourselves, even if it means choosing a path we didn’t originally envision. From an unlikely career as a diver to a fateful hike in Panama and a newfound hobby performing magic tricks, Grant shares examples from his own life that illustrate the confident humility needed to know “when to grit and when to quit.” Understanding when you’re in over your head or simply recognizing that you’re not on the right path is a crucial part of remaining flexible and dodging debilitating tunnel vision, so you can achieve your bigger goals.

Jens Burchardt speaks at TED@BCG, April 8th, 2021. Photo courtesy of TED.

TED launches TED Audio Collective for podcasts

Par : TED Staff

On February 22, 2021, TED launches the TED Audio Collective to house its growing collection of podcasts.

While broadly known for its global conferences and signature TED Talk videos, TED is also one of the top podcast publishers in the world. TED podcasts are downloaded 1.65 million times per day in virtually every country on earth. Our shows have been consistently ranked by Apple Podcasts as “most downloaded” of the year, and TED Talks Daily was the second most popular show globally on Spotify in 2020. Now the TED Audio Collective expands upon that foundation, creating a home for shows co-developed by TED and our speakers as well as shows developed and produced independently by inspiring thinkers and creators.

The podcasts in the TED Audio Collective are for listeners curious about everything from philosophy and psychology to science, technology, business and unexpected pathways in between — all curated through TED’s lens of “ideas worth spreading.” Here’s a sneak peek of exciting new content to expect over the coming months.

New in the TED Audio Collective:

Body Stuff with Dr. Jen Gunter

Dr. Jen Gunter is on a mission to make us experts on the way our bodies work. Body Stuff is an original show developed by TED that aims to demystify the systems of the body while debunking medical myths along the way. Did you know that you don’t actually need eight glasses of water a day? That you can’t “boost” your immune system?

With humor and wit, Dr. Jen Gunter, a celebrated OB/GYN, pain medicine physician and TED speaker, aims to share accurate, evidence-based medical information in a fun and accessible way.

(Season 1 launches May 2021)

Lost Birds with Mona Chalabi

From COVID to electoral politics, people are turning to data to make sense of the world as never before. But how well do we understand what those numbers actually mean? Interpreting data has never been more timely or relevant to fight misinformation and understand the world around us.

In this original, sound-rich series, data scientist Mona Chalabi will take listeners on an inquiry into the central question: How can we use data to make sense of our lived experiences, and what are the limits of that data? Along the way, she will tackle urgent, random and sometimes deeply personal questions: How does Google calculate walking speeds? What happens when cities get louder? When will my heartache end?

(Season 1 launches June 2021)

Conversations with People Who Hate Me 

TED alum Dylan Marron is joining the TED Audio Collective to continue exploring what happens when online feuders step out from behind the keyboard and get to know the human on the other side of the screen.

In an internet era characterized by comment section wars, devastating clapbacks and anonymous vitriol, Dylan Marron connects people who have clashed online — from old friends to complete strangers — to explore why we believe what we believe, how we relate to each other on the internet and just what a phone call can accomplish. Don’t be fooled by the title! It’s actually a loving show that fosters unlikely connections in an age of increasing digital isolation. 

(New episodes launching Fall 2021)

Design Matters 

The iconic Design Matters with Debbie Millman pulls back the curtain on how incredibly creative people design the arc of their lives. It’s the world’s first podcast about design — an inquiry into the broader world of creative culture through wide-ranging conversations with designers, writers, artists, curators, musicians and other luminaries of contemporary thought. Design Matters joined the TED Audio Collective in October 2020 and is produced independently, with TED amplifying the podcast to its global audience. 

(New episodes every Monday. Watch out for upcoming conversations with Adam Grant, Jacqueline Woodson, Nick Cave and many more.)

Plus, new episodes from:

ZigZag 

Hosted by Manoush Zomorodi, ZigZag is a business show about being human. Manoush takes listeners on a journey to discover new ways we can align our business ambitions with systemic change that’s good for our fellow human beings and the world. In March 2021, Manoush will release season six: “The Zig Zag Project.” Over six weeks, she’ll lead a boot camp for listeners who want to make big changes in their work life by finding ways to align their personal values with their professional ambitions.

(Season 6 launches March 2021)

TED Business 

Columbia Business School professor Modupe Akinola hosts TED Business, a show that explores the most powerful and surprising ideas that illuminate the business world. After hearing a TED Talk, listeners get a mini-lesson from Modupe on how to apply the ideas from the talk to their own lives. Because whatever your business conundrum — how to land that new promotion, set smarter goals, undo injustice at work or unlock the next big thing — there’s a TED Talk for that.

(New episodes every Monday)

WorkLife with Adam Grant 

WorkLife with Adam Grant is back with its fourth season! Organizational psychologist Adam Grant takes listeners inside the minds of some of the world’s most unusual professionals to explore the science of making work not suck. Season four kicks off with a bonus episode where JJ Abrams interviews Adam Grant about his new book, Think Again

  • Taken for Granted: TED is also launching a companion series inspired by Adam’s popular long-form interviews with luminaries like Esther Perel. Starting with Brené Brown, Malcolm Gladwell, Jane Goodall and Glennon Doyle, he’ll sit down with his favorite thinkers about the opinions and assumptions we should all be revisiting. 

(Season 4 launches March 2021, and Taken for Granted launches February 2021)

The TED Interview 

In The TED Interview, Head of TED Chris Anderson speaks with some of the world’s most interesting people to dig into the most provocative and powerful ideas of our time. From Bill Gates to Monica Lewinsky, Chris follows his curiosity across myriad topics and disciplines, diving deep with the most compelling thinkers from the TED stage and beyond. Entering the sixth season of the show this year, Chris investigates “The Case for Optimism” and why there’s still reason for tremendous hope in these trying times.

(Season 6 launches April 2021, featuring interviews with climate activist Xiye Bastida, inventor of CRISPR Jennifer Doudna and many more.)

TED Radio Hour

In each episode of TED Radio Hour, host Manoush Zomorodi explores a big idea through a series of TED Talks and original interviews, inspiring us to learn more about the world, our communities and, most importantly, ourselves. TED Radio Hour is a co-production of NPR and TED.

(New episodes every Friday. Watch out for an exciting episode in March called “Through The Looking Glass” about the tools that scientists, physicians and artists use to extend our perception of what we can see and our boundaries of consciousness — featuring TED speakers Emily Levesque, Ariel Waldman, Rick Doblin and more.)

Our Partners: TED Partnerships, working in collaboration with the TED team and podcast hosts, strives to tell partner stories in the form of authentic, story-driven content developed in real-time and aligned with the editorial process — finding and exploring brilliant ideas from all over the world. Past and current partners are wide-ranging and diverse, including Accenture, Bonobos, Unilever, Hilton, JP Morgan Chase & Co, Lexus, Marriott Hotels, Morgan Stanley, Warby Parker, Verizon, Women Will, a Grow with Google program and more. Learn more here

Other podcasts in the TED Audio Collective: Far Flung with Saleem Reshamwala, Sincerely, X, Checking In with Susan David, TED Talks Daily, TED Health, How to Be a Better Human, TEDx SHORTS, TED en Español and TED in Chinese.

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TED launches “How to Be a Better Human,” a new original podcast hosted by Chris Duffy

Par : TED Staff

TED will launch a new original podcast — How to Be a Better Human — on January 11. Most of us want to be better, but we’re not sure where to begin. Hosted by comedian and television writer Chris Duffy, How to Be a Better Human isn’t your typical self-improvement podcast. Each week, Chris will talk to guests and past TED speakers who will offer actionable insights on how to be a little less terrible.

On the heels of a year that has prompted global reflection, How to Be a Better Human encourages us to take a look within and beyond ourselves. From your work to your home — and your head to your heart — the podcast looks in unexpected places for new ways to improve and show up for one another. Inspired by the popular series of the same name on TED’s Ideas blog, How to Be a Better Human will help you become a better person from the comfort of your own headphones. Upcoming episodes will feature psychologist Guy Winch, film and television producer Franklin Leonard, sociologist Robb Willer, resilience expert and researcher Lucy Hone, comedian Aparna Nancherla, climate activist Luisa Neubauer and more.

“Like a lot of people, I want to improve myself but I often get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of advice out there,” says Chris Duffy. “So what do the smartest people in the world do? What practical steps do they take every day to make themselves better people? And how can I do it, too? Luckily, TED is letting me force their speakers to tell me their secrets and advice. And I am sharing it all with you.”

Produced by TED in partnership with PRX, How to Be a Better Human is one of TED’s ten original podcasts, which also include TEDxSHORTS, Checking In with Susan David, WorkLife with Adam Grant, The TED Interview, TED Talks Daily, TED en Español, Sincerely, X and TED Radio Hour. TED’s podcasts are downloaded more than 420 million times annually.

A writer for Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas on HBO, Chris Duffy is also the creator and host of the comedic science podcast You’re the Expert. His writing has been featured in The New Yorker, the Boston Globe, National Geographic Glimpse and elsewhere. In a previous life, he was a fifth-grade teacher. And prior to that, he was a fifth-grade student.

How to Be a Better Human launches January 11. New 30-minute episodes air weekly on Mondays and are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever you like to listen to podcasts.

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Symbiotic: The talks of TED@BCG 2020

Is TikTok changing the way we work and learn? Qiuqing Tai talks about the rise of short-form videos at TED@BCG on October 21, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

How can we make advances in technology that don’t require massive job losses? Work with nature to protect both the planet and humanity? Ensure all people are treated equitably? In a day of talks, interviews and performances, 17 speakers and performers shared ideas about a future in which people, technology and nature thrive interdependently.

The event: TED@BCG: Symbiotic is the ninth event TED and Boston Consulting Group have partnered around to bring leaders, innovators and changemakers to the stage to share ideas for solving society’s biggest challenges. Hosted by TED’s Corey Hajim along with BCG’s Seema Bansal, Rocío Lorenzo and Vinay Shandal, with opening remarks from Rich Lesser, CEO of BCG.

Music: The group Kolinga, fronted by lead singer Rébecca M’Boungou, perform the original song “Nguya na ngai” — a stunning rendition that’s equal parts music, poetry and dance.

The talks in brief:

Qiuqing Tai, video visionary

Big idea: Short-form videos — 60 seconds or less, made and shared on apps like TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram — are changing the way we work, communicate and learn.

How? More than 1.5 billion people around the world regularly watch short videos, and more than half of them are under the age of 24, says Qiuqing Tai. This bite-sized content is quickly becoming the new normal, with people turning to it not only for entertainment but also to discover new interests and skills. Meanwhile, businesses use short-form videos to find new customers and diversify their audiences. In 2019, Tai led a research study with TikTok, finding that the platform’s short-form content generated an estimated $95 billion in goods and services sold, and helped create 1.2 million jobs globally. There has also been an explosion in short-form educational content, as social enterprises and education startups experiment with 15-second videos for people who want to learn on the fly. There are valid concerns about this young medium, Tai admits — data privacy, the addictive nature of the format, the lack of contextual nuance — but, with the right investment and policymaking, she believes the benefits will ultimately outweigh the drawbacks.


Matt Langione, quantum advocate

Big idea: If not traditional supercomputers, what technology will emerge to arm us against the challenges of the 21st century?

What will it be? For nearly a century, we’ve relied on high-performance computers to meet critical, complex demands — from cracking Nazi codes to sequencing the human genome — and they’ve been getting smaller, faster and better, as if by magic. But that magic seems to be running out due to the physical limitations of the traditional supercomputer, says Matt Langione — and it’s time to look to newer, subatomic horizons. Enter quantum computing: an emerging hyper-speed solution for the urgent challenges of our time, like vaccine development, finance and logistics. Langione addresses fundamental questions about this burgeoning technology — How does it work? Do we really need it? How long until it’s available? — with a goal in mind: to disperse any doubts about investing in quantum computing now rather than later, for the sake of lasting progress for business and society at large. “The race to a new age of magic and supercomputing is already underway,” he says. “It’s one we can’t afford to lose.”


Ajay Banga, CEO of Mastercard, discusses financial inclusion and how to build a more equitable economy. He speaks with TED current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers at TED@BCG on October 21, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Ajay Banga, CEO of Mastercard

Big idea: Let’s introduce those who are un-banked or under-banked into the banking system via a mobile, digital economy.

How? Roughly two billion people don’t have access to banks or services like credit, insurance and investment — or even a way to establish a financial identity. These people must rely solely on cash, which can be dangerous and prone to fraud by middlemen (and costs about 1.2 percent of a nation’s GDP to produce). As an advocate of “financial inclusion,” Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga believes that banks, fintech and telecom companies, governments and merchants can build a new, more equitable economy that relies on digital transactions rather than cash. How would its users benefit? As an example, a grocer may not be able to afford supplies for the week if she’s paying cash, but with a mobile payment system, she could build enough of a transaction history to establish credit, and with enough credit, she could build a “financial identity.” Such identities could revolutionize everything from small business to distributing aid — all using tech that’s already in place, and that doesn’t require a smartphone.


Nimisha Jain, commerce aficionado

Big idea: For Nimisha Jain, shopping was once an activity full of excitement, friends, family and trusted sellers. But for many like her in emerging markets worldwide, online shopping is intimidating and, frankly, inhuman, full of mistrust for unscrupulous sellers and mysterious technology. Is there a way for online sellers to build genuine human interactivity into virtual shopping, at scale?

How? Fortunately, it’s possible to combine the convenience of online shopping with a personalized experience in what Jain calls “conversational commerce,” and some companies are doing exactly this — like Meesho in India, which allows shoppers to interact with the same person every time they shop. Over time, the agent learns what you like, when you would like it and, once trusted, will fill your shopping cart with unexpected items. But this model is not only for the developing world; Jain’s research shows that customers in the West also like this concept, and it might someday transform the way the world shops. 


Emily Leproust, DNA synthesizer

Big idea: We need to rethink what modern global sustainability looks like — and pursue a new kind of environmentalism.

How? By working with the environment, rather than against it. As it stands, nature has been adapting and reacting to the presence of human developments, just like we’ve been adapting and reacting to nature’s changing climate, says Leproust — and we must course-correct before we destroy each other. She advocates for a path paved by synthetic biology and powered by DNA. Embracing the potential of biological innovation could help across the board, but Leproust singles out three critical areas: health, food and materials. If we focus our energy on pursuing sustainable outcomes — like lab-developed insulin, engineering foods to be immune to disease and harnessing the potential of spider silk — human civilization and the natural world could thrive in tandem without worry.


“Technology is fundamentally infiltrating every aspect of our daily lives, transforming everything from how we work to how we fall in love. Why should sports be any different?” asks esports expert William Collis. He speaks at TED@BCG on October 21, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

William Collis, esports expert

Big idea: We revere traditional athletic prowess, but what about the skills and talent of a different sort of athlete?

What do you mean? Video games should no longer be considered children’s play, says esports expert William Collis. They’ve grown into a multibillion-dollar sporting phenomenon — to the point where traditional sport stars, from David Beckham to Shaquille O’Neal, are investing in competitive games like Fortnite, League of Legends and Rocket League. It takes real skill to be good at these video games, reminds Collis, which he breaks down into three main categories: mechanical (much like playing an instrument), strategic (equivalent to tactical choices of chess) and leadership. Beyond that, being a pro-gamer requires adaptability, creativity and unconventional thinking. Collis’s message is simple: respect the game and the valuable traits developed there, just as you would any other sport.


Bas Sudmeijer, carbon capture advisor

Big idea: Carbon capture and storage — diverting emissions before they hit the atmosphere and burying them back in the earth — is not new, but analysts like Bas Sudmeijer think it could both contribute to the fight against climate change and allow big polluters (who are also big employers) to stay in business. But for carbon capture to make a significant contribution to emission reductions, we must spend 110 billion dollars a year for the next 20 years.

How can we offset this enormous cost? Sudmeijer believes that “carbon networks” — clusters of polluters centered around potential underground carbon sinks — could solve the economic barriers to this promising technology, if they’re created in conjunction with aggressive regulation to make polluting more expensive. And the clock is ticking: current carbon capture operations trap only .1 percent of greenhouse gases, and we need to increase that number 100- to 200-fold in order to slow global warming. Fortunately, we have a historical model for this — the push to supply gas to Europe after World War II, carried out in a similar time frame during a period of similar economic stress.


“One of the best ways to safeguard democracy is to expose everyone to each other’s stories, music, cultures and histories,” says Mehret Mandefro. She speaks at TED@BCG on October 21, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Mehret Mandefro, physician, filmmaker

Big idea: A robust and well-funded creative industry drives economic and democratic growth. A thriving creative industry isn’t just “a nice thing to have” — it’s a democratic necessity. 

How? With a median age of about 19, Ethiopia’s youth are rapidly graduating into a labor market with an astronomical 19-percent unemployment rate and few opportunities. To create enough good-paying jobs for its expanding workforce, Mehret Mandefro says the government should expand the creative sector. She says that putting culture on the agenda could boost industries like tourism and drive the country’s overall economic growth. The creative industry also plays an important social and democratic role. In a period of strained relations and rising ethnic divisions, society must make a choice, she says: “From my perspective, the country can go one of two ways: either down a path of inclusive, democratic participation, or down a more divisive path of ethnic divisions.” For Mandefro, the answer is clear. She sees the arts as the best way for people to share in one another’s culture, where music, fashion, film, theater and design create connection and understanding between groups and strengthen democratic bonds. “One of the best ways to safeguard democracy is to expose everyone to each other’s stories, music, cultures and histories,” she says.


Antoine Gourévitch, deep tech diver

Big idea: The next chapter in the innovation story, driving us into the future, is the potential and promise of deep tech.

How? Antoine Gourévitch believes deep tech — tangible, intentional collaboration at the crossroads of emerging technologies (think synthetic biology, quantum programming and AI) — will change the ways we produce material, eat, heal and beyond. Deep tech ventures — one of the most notable examples being SpaceX — focus on fundamental issues by first identifying physical constraints that industries often encounter, and then solve them with a potent combination of science, engineering and design thinking. Thousands of companies and start-ups like this currently exist worldwide, sharing an ethos of radical possibility. They’re governed by four rules: be problem-oriented, not technology-focused; combine, intersect and converge; adopt a design thinking approach, powered by deep tech; and adopt an economical design-to-cost approach. In understanding these guidelines, Gourévitch wants us to embrace the idea that innovation requires rethinking, and that this cross-disciplinary approach could offer a revolution in making what seemed impossible, possible. 


Tilak Mandadi, empathy advocate

Big Idea: Empathy training should be part of workplace culture. Here are three ways to implement it. 

How? After the trauma of losing his daughter, Tilak Mandadi’s decision to return to work wasn’t easy — but his journey back ended up providing unexpected support in processing his grief. At first, he was full of self-doubt and sadness, feeling as if he was living in two completely different worlds: the personal and the professional. But over time, his coworkers’ friendship and purpose-driven work helped transform his exhaustion and isolation, shedding light on the role empathy plays in a healthy work culture — both for people suffering with loss and those who aren’t. Mandadi offers three ways to foster this kind of environment: implement policies that support healing (like time away from work); provide return-to-work therapy for employees who are dealing with grief; and provide empathy training for all employees so that they know how to best support each other. Empathy can be a learned behavior, he says, and sometimes asking “What would you like me to do differently to help you?” can make all the difference. 


Documentary photographer Olivia Arthur presents her work at TED@BCG, including this photo of Pollyanna, who lost her leg in an accident at the age of two and now dances with the aid of a blade prosthesis. (Photo courtesy of Olivia Arthur)

Olivia Arthur, documentary photographer

Big idea: Across the world, people are merging technology with the human body in remarkable ways, sparking radical meditations on what it means to be human.

How? Through photography, Olivia Arthur intimately examines the intersection of humanity and technology, capturing the resilience and emotional depths of the human body. In her latest project, she collaborated with amputees who have integrated technology into their bodies and researchers who have invented robots with strikingly human traits. Inspired in part by photographer Eadweard Muybridge, Arthur focused on gait, balance and motion in both human and machine subjects. These included Pollyanna, a dancer who mastered the delicate skill of balance while using a blade prosthesis; Lola, a humanoid robot who confidently navigated an obstacle course yet looked most human when turned off; and Alex Lewis, a quadruple amputee who challenges perceptions of humanity’s limitations. Arthur describes her photos as studies of our evolution, documenting how technology has catalyzed a profound shift in how we understand, enhance and define the human body. 


Wealth equity strategist Kedra Newsom Reeves explores the origins and perpetuation of the racial wealth gap in the US — and four ways financial institutions can help narrow it. She speaks at TED@BCG on October 21, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Kedra Newsom Reeves, wealth equity strategist

Big idea: We need to narrow the racial wealth gap in the United States. Financial institutions can help.

How? As last reported by the US federal government, the median wealth for a white family in the United States was 171,000 dollars, and the median wealth for a Black family was just 17,000 dollars — a staggering tenfold difference. During a global pandemic in which inequities across finance, health care, education and criminal justice have been laid bare, Kedra Newsom Reeves says that we must make progress towards reducing this gap. She tells the story of her great-great-grandfather, who was born into slavery, and how it took four generations for her family to accumulate enough wealth to purchase a house. Along the way, she says, a range of policies purposefully excluded her family — along with marginalized communities across the country — from building wealth. Now, financial institutions can help undo that damage. She offers four critical actions: ensure more people have bank accounts; increase awareness of checking and savings accounts specifically made for low-income communities; find alternative ways to establish creditworthiness, and then lend more credit to marginalized groups; and invest, support and promote Black-owned business, particularly by increasing the amount of venture capital that goes to Black founders.


Ishan Bhabha, constitutional lawyer

Big idea: Debate can broaden perspectives, spark creativity and catalyze human progress, so instead of censoring controversial speech, private entities should create pathways for productive discussion.

Why? In the United States, the First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech but only protects citizens against censorship by the government — not by private entities. But just because a conference center, university or social media platform can ban speech on their own turf doesn’t mean they should, says Ishan Bhabha. When faced with the decision to allow or prohibit meritless speech, he argues that more often than not, more speech is better. Instead of restricting speech, groups should err on the side of allowing it and work to create an open dialogue. “Ideas that have little to no value should be met with arguments against it,” he says. Private groups should protect against hate speech that can cause lasting damage or even violence but should respond responsibly to other ideological speech and mediate discussion, which can promote productive disagreement and lead to a valuable exchange of ideas. Universities, for instance, can offer students mediated discussion groups where they can openly try on new ideas without the threat of sanction. Twitter now responds to unsubstantiated posts on their platform by flagging content as either misleading, deceptive or containing unverified information and provides links to verified sources where users can find more information. Bhabha argues that these practices add to a rich and vigorous discussion with the potential to improve the arena of debate by raising the standard.


Johanna Benesty, global health strategist

Big idea: Discovering an effective COVID-19 vaccine is just the first step in ending the pandemic. After that, the challenge lies in ensuring everyone can get it.

Why? We’ve been thinking of vaccine discovery as the holy grail in the fight against COVID-19, says Johanna Benesty, but an equally difficult task will be providing equitable access to it. Namely, once a vaccine is found to be effective, who gets it first? And how can we make sure it’s safely distributed in low-income communities and countries, with less robust health care systems? Benesty suggests that vaccine developers consider the constraints of lesser health care systems from the outset, building cost management into their research and development activities. In this way, they can work to ensure vaccines are affordable, effective across all populations (like at-risk people and pregnant women) and that can be distributed in all climates (from temperature-controlled hospitals to remote rural areas) at scale. It’s the smart thing to do, Benesty says: if COVID-19 exists anywhere in the world, we’re all at risk, and the global economy will continue to sputter. “We need all countries to be able to crush the pandemic in sync,” she says.


Rosalind G. Brewer, COO of Starbucks, explores how to bring real, grassroots racial changes to boardrooms and communities alike. She speaks with TED current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers at TED@BCG on October 21, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Rosalind G. Brewer, COO of Starbucks

Big idea: When companies think of DEI — diversity, equality, inclusion — they too often think of it as a numbers game that’s about satisfying quotas instead of building relationships with those who have traditionally been excluded from the corporate conversation. Rosalind G. Brewer believes that the current moment of racial consciousness is an “all-in” opportunity for hidebound leadership to step out of their comfort zones and bring real, grassroots racial changes to boardrooms and communities alike.

How? With Black Lives Matter in the headlines, the pandemic illuminating inequalities in health care and income, and so many brands engaging in “performative justice” PR campaigns, it’s a crucial time to not only include more BIPOC in the corporate workplace, but also to listen to their voices. As brands like Starbucks diversify and absorb the stories of their new partners, Brewer believes they will do far more than satisfy quotas — they will nurture future leaders, open minds and bring ground-up change to communities.


Kevin Roose, technology journalist

Big idea: By leaning into our creativity, empathy and other human skills, we can better collaborate with smart machines and “future-proof” our jobs.

How? Artificial intelligence has become smarter, faster and even more integrated into our lives and careers: algorithms have been trained to write financial articles, detect diseases and proofread legal documents at speeds and scales dramatically faster than any individual human could. But this doesn’t necessarily mean robots will inevitably replace us at work, says Kevin Roose. While an algorithm may be able to scan exams and detect disease faster than a human, a machine can’t replace a doctor’s comforting bedside manner. Instead of trying to compete with smart technologies at what they do best, we need to invest in developing the skills that machines aren’t capable of — creativity, compassion, adaptability and critical thinking.

Qiuqing Tai speaks at TED@BCG, October 21st, 2020. Photo courtesy of TED.

Action: Notes from Session 5 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, producer and activist Priyanka Chopra Jonas cohosts session 5 of the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

It’s time to take action. This closing session of the Countdown Global Launch explored the road ahead: How to think urgently and long-term about climate change. How to take into account the interests of future generations in today’s decisions. How we as individuals, communities and organizations can contribute to shaping a better future. 

Session 5 was cohosted by the actors and activists Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Chris Hemsworth, exploring the many facets of climate action. The session also featured a number of highlights: a stunning spoken word piece by poet Amanda Gorman on ending the devastation of climate change; a call to action from filmmaker and writer Ava DuVernay about “voting for the planet” and electing sustainability-oriented leaders into office; a short video from Make My Money Matter titled “Woolly Man,” urging us to check where our pension money is going; and an announcement of the launch of Count Us In, a global movement focused on 16 steps we can all take to protect the Earth. 

Finally, head of TED Chris Anderson and head of Future Stewards Lindsay Levin closed the show, laying out the path forward for Countdown — including next year’s Countdown Summit (October 12-15, 2021, Edinburgh, Scotland), where we’ll share an actionable blueprint for a net-zero future and celebrate the progress that’s already been made. The Countdown is on!

Actor Chris Hemsworth cohosts session 5 of the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

The talks in brief:

Roman Krznaric, long-view philosopher

Big idea: We don’t own the future — our descendants do. We need to strive to become good ancestors to future generations and leave behind a legacy of sustainability, justice and radical care for the planet.

How? Though they have no influence or say now, our decisions and actions have a tremendous impact on the lives of future generations. A growing movement of people across the world are looking beyond our short-term timelines and envisioning how we can create change that benefits us and our descendants. In Japan, the Future Design Movement structures community-led town and city planning sessions in a remarkable way: half of the residents participate as themselves in the present day, and the other half are tasked with imagining themselves as future citizens from 2060. By prioritizing the needs of their descendents, participants are empowered to pitch bold and ambitious solutions for climate change, health care and more. From a global campaign to grant legal personhood to nature to a groundbreaking lawsuit by a coalition of young activists suing for the right to a safe climate for future generations, the movement to restore broken ecosystems and protect the future is fierce and flourishing. Roman Krznaric names these visionaries “Time Rebels” and invites us to join them in redefining our lifespans, pursuing intergenerational justice and practicing deep love for the planet.


Sophie Howe, Future Generations Commissioner of Wales

Big idea: When well-being is the measure of a society’s success, governments will naturally trend towards lowering carbon, promoting wellness and nurturing social justice. What if a nation could create an agency to promote well-being rather than economic growth?

How? Wales is one of the first governments to enshrine well-being as a measure of a society’s success, and the first government to create an independent agency dedicated to the security of future generations. Sophie Howe, the world’s only future generations commissioner, tells us that such an agency must involve the people in decision-making. In Wales, the people have mandated policies to lower carbon emissions, promote wellness and cultivate justice. With the principles of well-being spelled out in laws that every institution in the country must follow, Wales is “acting today for a better tomorrow.” “Make it your mission to maximize your contribution to well-being,” Howe says.


Miao Wang, United Nations Young Champion of the Earth; Alok Sharma, president of COP26; and Nigel Topping, UK High Level Climate Action Champion, COP26

Big idea: Join Race To Zero, a global campaign to get businesses, cities, regions and investors to commit to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, at the latest.

How? Three participants of Race To Zero give us the lay of the land. To begin, marine conservationist Miao Wang discusses how young people worldwide are calling for change, demanding that leaders act with speed and urgency to create a world that’s healthier, fairer and more sustainable. Next, Alok Sharma talks about how organizations and institutions are already stepping up their climate ambition as they rebuild from the COVID-19 pandemic, making specific and science-based commitments to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. And finally Nigel Topping describes the exponential growth in sustainability commitments that we’re seeing in sector after sector of the economy, as leaders work to transform their supply chains. At this rate, he says, we can expect to see the transition to net-zero carbon emissions within 10 years — but it will take all of us to get there. Can we count you in?


Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, discusses the company’s ambitious commitment for a net-zero emissions supply chain by 2030. She speaks at the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Lisa Jackson, environment and social VP at Apple, in conversation with urbanist and spatial justice activist Liz Ogbu

Big idea: Under the leadership of Lisa Jackson, former head of the EPA and now Apple’s environment and social VP, the company is already carbon neutral within their own corporate and retail boundaries. By 2030, they hope to extend carbon neutrality to their supply chain and consumers. In conversation with urbanist and spatial justice activist Liz Ogbu, Jackson shares thoughts on leadership, tech, the environment and building a green economy.

How? In conversation with urbanist and spatial justice activist Liz Ogbu, Jackson shares Apple’s green goals, saying there’s no substitute for leadership in the climate change battle. She believes that if Apple leads by example, the nation and world will follow. Apple’s transformation starts with recycling — repurposing materials rather than mining the world’s rare earth elements and “conflict metals” — but it doesn’t end there. We will not win the ecological battle without a vision of climate justice that involves the at-risk communities who stand at the front lines of environmental disaster, Jackson says. She believes that racism and climate justice are inexorably linked, and in order for the whole world to get where it needs to be, Apple (and everyone else) must tackle injustice first, and a green economy will follow. “[There’s] always been this weird belief that we’re taught … that you can either be successful, or you can do the right thing,” Jackson says. “There’s no difference between the two. It’s a false choice.”


“Our conscience tells us that we cannot remain indifferent to the suffering of those in need, to the growing economic inequalities and social injustices,” says His Holiness Pope Francis. He speaks at the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

His Holiness Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome

Big idea: We have a choice to make: either continue to ignore the looming environmental crisis, or transform the way we act at every level of society in order to protect the planet and promote the dignity of everyone on it.

How? His Holiness Pope Francis invites us on a journey of transformation and action in a visionary TED Talk delivered from Vatican City. Referencing ideas from his new encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, the spiritual leader calls our attention to a global socio-environmental crisis — one marked by growing economic inequalities, social injustices and planetary harm. “We are faced with the moral imperative, and the practical urgency, to rethink many things,” he says. He proposes three courses of action to transform in the face of our precarious future: an education based on scientific data and an ethical approach; a focus on making sure everyone has safe drinking water and nutrition; and a transition from fossil fuels to clean energy, particularly by refraining from investing in companies that do not advance sustainability, social justice and the common good. Watch the full talk on TED.com.


Andri Snær Magnason, writer, poet

Big idea: We need to connect to the future in an intimate and urgent way in order to stabilize the Earth for generations to come. 

How? In 2019, the Earth lost its first glacier to climate change: the Okjökull glacier in Borgarfjörður, Iceland. “In the next 200 years, we expect all our glaciers to follow the same pattern,” says Andri Snær Magnason. He wrote “A letter to the future” — a memorial placed at the base of where Okjökull once stood — in poetic, poignant form: “This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.” Magnason invites us to recognize how glaciers connect us to the past, present and future. These icy bodies, that once felt eternal to people like his glacier-exploring grandparents only decades ago, are now at risk of vanishing. “The year 2100 is not a distant future — it is practically tomorrow,” Magnason says. Now is the time to act, so that future generations look back on us with pride and gratitude, because we helped secure their future.

Actor and singer Cynthia Erivo performs “What a Wonderful World,” accompanied by pianist Gary Motley, at the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

In a moment of musical beauty that calls for reflection, Cynthia Erivo performs a moving rendition of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World,” accompanied by pianist Gary Motley. With her words and voice, Erivo urges us all to do better for the Earth and the generations to come.

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Breakthroughs: Notes from Session 4 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.

Digital content creator Prajakta Koli, aka MostlySane, cohosts session 4 of the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

The world around us is mainly made of two things: nature and the materials that we extract from it. To fight climate change, we need to protect and regenerate nature and transform materials into low- or zero-carbon alternatives. Session 4 explored the nexus of protection, regeneration and transformation, using powerful examples.

This penultimate session was hosted by digital content creators Hannah Stocking and Prajakta Koli, who highlighted the global span of Countdown and the innovative climate solutions already in existence. The session also featured a TED-Ed Lesson, created by educator Brent Loken, which asked: Can we create the “perfect” farm? And finally, we heard from TEDx organizers across the globe — including Kampala, Uganda; Putalisadak, Nepal; Almaty, Khazikstan; Darlinghurst, Australia; Rome, Italy; and Sana’a, Yemen, among others — who are hosting TEDx Countdown events today. In total, more than 600 TEDx Countdown events are happening across 86 countries.

Creator Hannah Stocking cohosts session 4 of the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

The talks in brief:

Thomas Crowther, ecosystem ecology professor

Big Idea: Across the world, people are working together to restore the natural glory of biodiverse ecosystems. By gathering and openly sharing these projects, we can unite a robust movement of responsible environmental stewardship and restoration.

How? Restor is a data platform that aims to connect and share the learnings of environmental conservationists who are developing micro- or macro-level projects that reintroduce biodiversity to essential landscapes worldwide. It evolved from another climate change solution — the Trillion Trees movement, which Thomas Crowther helped bring to the mainstream. Research showed that planting a trillion trees worldwide could help capture up to 30 percent of the excess carbon in the atmosphere; however, following criticism that the Trillion Trees movement sought to simply offset carbon emissions, Crowther realized that solving the climate crisis is going to take more than planting trees. We need solutions as diverse as our ecosystems themselves. With Restor, conservationists can learn about key biodiversity restoration projects from around the world, and with machine learning, we can glean insights that will help us develop more resilient and effective solutions.


“We can’t fight the climate emergency if we cannot protect and regenerate our land,” says climate and gender activist Ernestine Leikeki Sevidzem. She speaks at the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Ernestine Leikeki Sevidzem, climate and gender activist

Big idea: We need to care for and live in harmony with the environment.

How? By nurturing a generation — young and old — to protect the nature that provides for them: a forest generation, as Sevidzem calls it. In her native Cameroon, she teaches her community a nature-first dedication to restoring the 20,000-hectare Kilum-Ijim forest that sustains and supplies livelihood for hundreds of thousands of people. Her organization also helps develop gender equality by training people as beekeepers to harness the economic opportunities present in harvesting and selling products from honey and beeswax. In educating both children and adults on what it means to love and preserve the Earth, Sevidzem stands by the need for all of us to foster generations that will inherit a mindset that works with nature, not against it. “We can’t fight the climate emergency if we can’t protect and regenerate our land,” she says.


John Doerr, engineer and investor, in conversation with Hal Harvey, climate policy expert

Big idea: Humanity has to act globally, at speed and at scale, if there’s any hope of cutting the world’s carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2030. 

How? While it’s difficult to remain optimistic in the face of ever-increasing carbon production, countries like Germany and China have implemented energy policies that have reduced solar costs by 80 percent and wind by half. As a result, it’s now cheaper to generate clean energy than it is to burn dirty fossil fuels. If the 20 largest-emitting countries — which are responsible for 75 percent of the world’s emissions — commit to green grids, electric transportation and efficient homes and factories, then scalable energy solutions could become a global reality. Although Doerr estimates that we only have 70-80 percent of the energy technology we need to avoid climate catastrophe, he and Harvey believe that committed governments and investment in amazing entrepreneurs could turn things around. “The good news is it’s now clearly cheaper to save the planet than to ruin it,” Doerr says. “The bad news is we are fast running out of time.”


Cement researcher Karen Scrivener shares a breakthrough that could lower concrete’s CO2 emissions by 40 percent. She speaks at the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Karen Scrivener, cement researcher

Big idea: We can cut down the CO2 emissions of concrete — the second most-used substance on Earth (behind water), responsible for eight percent of the world’s carbon footprint.

How? If concrete were a country, it would rank third for emissions, after China and the USA, says Karen Scrivener, who is working on new, greener ways to make this crucial building material. When concrete cools after it’s mixed, the limestone that helps hold it together breaks down, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. And while we can’t make concrete without a bonding material, it’s possible we could replace concrete with things like LC3 — a concrete-like mixture of calcine clay, limestone and cement that doesn’t require heating the limestone, slashing concrete’s carbon emissions by 40 percent. Despite its enormous emissions, concrete is still the lowest-impact building material we have, emitting less carbon than iron, steel or bricks. “The possibility to replace portland cement with a different material with [the] same properties … but with a much lighter carbon footprint, is really crucial to confront climate change,” Scrivener says. “It can be done fast, and it can be done on a very large scale, with the possibility to eliminate more that 400 million tons of CO2 every year.”


Tom Schuler, cement entrepreneur

Big idea: Over the last 2,000 years, the art of mixing cement and using it to bind concrete hasn’t changed very much — but the sad truth is that concrete, which is all around us, is one of the biggest emitters of carbon, both when it’s made and when it’s destroyed. But there’s an opportunity to take the carbon out of our infrastructure.

How? One of the key ingredients of concrete is cement, and portland cement is made of limestone — which releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when it breaks down as it is heated and cured (or destroyed). Tom Schuler’s company has figured out a way to use less limestone in making cement — and even repurpose waste carbon dioxide as a catalyst for curing concrete. This innovation could potentially save trillions of gallons of water, use existing processes and factories, and even make concrete carbon negative, cutting emissions from concrete by as much as 70 percent.


Rahwa Ghirmatzion and Zelalem Adefris, climate activists, in a video narrated by actor, author and director Don Cheadle

Big idea: Under-resourced communities are the most vulnerable to the instability of climate change — and the best equipped to create new, sustainable, resilient solutions for those challenges.

How? The rising threats of natural disasters, extreme temperatures and polluted environments are driving up energy costs and exacerbating housing insecurity across the United States. In response, marginalized communities across the country are coming together to design people-powered projects that address the issues of climate catastrophe and social inequality. These problems are all connected, and the solutions will be too, says Don Cheadle, introducing social and climate justice advocates Rahwa Ghirmatzion and Zelalem Adefris. In Buffalo, New York, Ghirmatzion shows how the nonprofit PUSH Buffalo mobilized 800 residents to transform an abandoned school into a solar-powered community center, offering affordable housing units to the elderly and mutual aid resources throughout the pandemic. And at Catalyst Miami in Florida, Adefris shares how she’s helping to build a coalition of local partners working to ensure housing is affordable and energy-efficient. One collective, Konscious Kontractors, formed in 2017 to help restore and fortify neighborhoods devastated by Hurricane Irma. To mitigate the impacts of the changing climate, we will need to work alongside our neighbors in our communities to create solutions that are inclusive, innovative and long-lasting.


From under the boughs of an ancient oak tree on the grounds of Windsor Castle, Prince William calls for an Earthshot to repair the planet. He speaks at the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Prince William, The Duke of Cambridge

Big idea: Fixing climate change is possible if we urgently focus human ingenuity and purpose on repairing our planet.

How: Speaking from beneath a nearly 1,000-year-old oak tree on the grounds at Windsor Castle, Prince William issues a challenge to every person around the globe: to show leadership on climate change. With just 10 years to fix the climate before its effects damage the Earth beyond repair, he calls this new decade the most consequential period in history, saying, “The science is irrefutable. If we do not act in this decade, the damage that we have done will be irreversible. And the effects felt not just by future generations but by all of us alive today.” But the same speed of human innovation that accelerated climate change is precisely what makes him optimistic about our future. Inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s audacious “Moonshot” mission, Prince William now calls on us to rise to our greatest challenge ever: the Earthshot. A set of ambitious goals targeted across industries and sectors, they include: protecting and restoring nature, cleaning the air, reviving oceans, building a waste-free world and fixing the climate … all in the next decade. To do it, we will need people in every corner of the globe working together with urgency, creativity and the belief that it is possible. If we succeed, we win the health of our planet for all. Watch the full talk on TED.com.


Sigrid performs “Home to You” and “Don’t Kill My Vibe” at the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED

Norwegian singer-songwriter Sigrid, standing in front of a stunning view of a forest lake, delights with uplifting vocals, warm guitar strums and delicate melodies in a performance of her songs “Home to You” and “Don’t Kill My Vibe.”

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Urgency: Notes from Session 1 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, author and director Don Cheadle cohosts session 1 of the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Today, 10.10.2020, is the climate’s day of destiny: the Countdown Global Launch, a call to action on climate change and the first-ever free TED conference.

Launching Countdown means asking ourselves the big questions: What’s the state of the climate today? How are we going to achieve a net-zero future? How do we center climate justice in our work? We heard from experts, policymakers and activists in this opening session, cohosted by actor and director Don Cheadle and actor and climate change advocate Mark Ruffalo, who reflected on their own love for the environment, as people who grew up in the midwestern United States.

The opening remarks were followed by an introduction from head of TED Chris Anderson and head of Future Stewards Lindsay Levin, who teamed up to create Countdown a year ago. They laid out what we’re hoping to achieve at the Countdown Global Launch: taking a deep look at what it will take to tackle climate change, specifically by harnessing creativity and innovation to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 and get to net-zero by 2050.

Actor, director and climate change advocate Mark Ruffalo cohosts session 1 of the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

The talks in brief:

Johan Rockström, climate impact scholar

Big idea: Earth’s climate has reached a global crisis point. We have 10 years to avoid irreparably destabilizing the planet.

How? In his TED Talk from 2010, Johan Rockström outlined nine planetary boundaries that keep earth’s ecosystems in a state of stability, allowing humanity to prosper. At that time, evidence showed that just one planetary boundary was at risk of being breached: Arctic sea ice. A decade later, Rockström warns us that nine out of the 15 big biophysical systems that regulate climate — from the permafrost of Siberia to the great forests of the North to the Amazon rainforest — are approaching tipping points, which would create a “hot-house Earth” largely uninhabitable for humanity. “These systems are all linked like dominoes: you cross one tipping point, you lurch closer to others,” Rockström says. So what are we to do? Over the next 10 years, we need to get serious about stabilizing the planet. Rockström proposes a model of “planetary stewardship” rooted in science-based targets for all global commons (i.e., the ecosystems that support the planet’s stability) and an economy based on well-being, which would decarbonize big systems like energy, industry, transport and buildings. “This is our mission,” he says. “To protect our children’s future.”


“Cities are starting to flip the script on climate change, proving to be part of the solution and not just the problem,” says climate and data scientist Angel Hsu. She speaks at the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Angel Hsu, climate and data scientist

Big idea: Tackling climate change must start in cities, and many around the world are already implementing ambitious plans.

How? Cities are at the highest risk of the damaging effects of climate change: all-time temperature highs, sweltering humidity, rising sea levels, suffocating air pollution. The irony is that cities are also the biggest offenders in causing this shift in climate, says Angel Hsu. Cities pump out 70 percent of the world’s total carbon emissions and gobble up between 60 to 80 percent of global energy resources. The good news, Hsu says, is that cities are quickly becoming leaders in the fight against climate change by forging new, low-emission pathways. Already, 10,000 cities have pledged to undertake sweeping climate initiatives. Now Hsu asks: What impact could we make if 20,000 cities made these same efforts? At the same time, she points out that cities must fairly and equitably implement these initiatives across all populations, especially for those most at risk. For example, expanded bike paths in Latin America will connect more people to jobs, schools and parks, while in Africa, green power grids have the ability to electrify nearly 73 million power-deficient households. Cities may be causing climate change, but they also have the power to mitigate it while raising the quality of life for their populations.


António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations

Big idea: The race to a zero emission world is under way. If we don’t act now, this coming century may be one of humanity’s last.

How? As the world continues to struggle through the COVID-19 pandemic, António Guterres urges us to use this moment to rebuild with ambitious climate action in mind. Momentum is increasing, he says, as companies, cities and countries commit to reaching net zero emissions by 2050. He outlines six actions that governments can take to keep ramping up their climate ambitions: invest in green jobs, drop polluting industries, end fossil fuel subsidies, put a price on carbon, take climate risks into account in all financial and policy considerations and work together in solidarity — leaving no one behind. During next year’s Countdown Summit (October 12-15, 2021, Edinburgh, Scotland), Guterres expects to share an actionable blueprint for a net-zero future and celebrate the progress that’s already been made. “We can only win the race to zero together,” he says. “So I urge you all to get on board. The countdown has begun.” 


Climate Action Tracker, an interactive online map that monitors the climate commitments of countries worldwide

Big idea: With the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, 197 countries agreed to set emission targets that would limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by capping greenhouse emissions at “net zero” — or absorbing as much carbon as they emit — by 2050. So far, only two countries (Gambia and Morocco) are hitting their targets, while the biggest emitters are falling flat, or ignoring their goals entirely. How can we hold these countries accountable?

How? Enter the Climate Action Tracker, an interactive tool that allows citizens to track the climate commitments and actions of the 36 countries that emit 86 percent of global greenhouse gases. Emissions are still rising, according to the Tracker, and there’s more bad news: the US has withdrawn from the Paris Agreements, and while China’s goals alone could drop global warming by .3 degrees, their actions are troubling, as they continue to invest in new coal plants while touting green energy. The good news: the Tracker reveals that many cities and businesses within some of the biggest economies are committed to green electricity and emission-free transportation and construction.


“The exploitation of our planet’s natural resources has always been tied to the exploitation of people of color,” says member of the UK Parliament David Lammy. He speaks at the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

David Lammy, Member of Parliament, UK

Big idea: There cannot be true climate justice without addressing racial, social and intergenerational issues. The global community must invite Black voices to lead in repairing our systems, society and planet. 

Why? Black people and people of color are most at risk of climate change due to cheap housing, polluted neighborhoods and other systemic inequities. So where are all the Black climate activists? According to David Lammy, the first Black MP to hold the Justice post in British Parliament, racial justice and climate justice have been viewed as distinct problems, with equality advocates seeing environmentalism as elitist while white climate activists rarely enlist the support of Black voices. Lammy sees the climate emergency as the direct result of generations of violent abuse, disregard and theft of minority communities. “The climate crisis is colonialism’s natural conclusion,” he says. To repair the Earth, we must solve the racial, social and economic injustices that plague communities of color. Lammy calls for environmental groups, international organizations, the press and everyone in between to support Black leaders on climate, including awarding scholarships for people of color, enacting stronger international laws to support vulnerable communities and even moving company headquarters to the urban areas most affected by the climate emergency.


“From my father, I learned stubborn optimism, the mindset that is necessary to transform the reality we’re given into the reality we want,” says climate advocate Christiana Figueres. She speaks at the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Christiana Figueres, stubborn optimist

Big idea: To face a problem as big as climate change, the world needs to adopt a new mindset: stubborn optimism.

How? Christiana Figueres, the climate leader who helped broker the historic Paris Agreement in 2015, learned stubborn optimism from her father, José Figueres Ferrer. He refused to give up on his country, Costa Rica, when it was thrown into political crisis in 1948. Instead, he took action, set out to restore democracy and bring peace to his homeland and was elected as the country’s president three times. Today, in the face of an extreme climate crisis that threatens the globe, Figueres champions her father’s special brand of optimism. “Our optimism cannot be a sunny day attitude,” she says. “It has to be gritty, determined, relentless. It is a choice we have to make every single day. Every barrier must be an indication to try a different way. ” With a remarkable fighting spirit and an unwillingness to accept defeat, she urges everyone to envision the future they want for humanity — and work to make it reality.


Prince Royce performs four fan favorites at the Countdown Global Launch on October 10, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Bronx-raised Latin music superstar Prince Royce also adds his voice to the call for action on climate. “Climate change is the defining issue of our time,” he says. “History is defined by moments when people rise up and cause change. The decisions we make as individuals add to this collective forward motion.” Backed by his band (donning face masks), he performs fan favorites “Luna Negra,” “Carita de Inocente,” “Corazón Sin Cara” and “Darte un Beso.”

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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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A smarter future: Notes from Session 7 of TED2020

For the penultimate session of TED2020, an exploration of amazing forces shaping the future — from cancer-fighting venom to spacecraft powered by lasers and much more. Below, a recap of the night’s talks and performances.

Amanda Gorman shares a powerful spoken-word poem about ending the devastation of climate change. She speaks at TED2020: Uncharted on July 2, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Amanda Gorman, poet

Big idea: We all have the power to end the devastation of climate change. Let’s get to work.

How? In a stunning spoken word poem, Gorman calls on us all to recognize the urgency of climate action. She weaves vivid imagery and metaphors to underscore searing insights on the state of global environmental damage, and hope for a sustainable future. Gorman encourages us to use our unique abilities and expertise to reverse the harm of climate change, and says that we all have a place in the movement. “We see the face of a planet anew, we relish the view … which inspires us to ask deeply, wholly, what can we do,” she says.


“Someday, snail venom might just save your life,” says molecular chemist Mandë Holford. She speaks at TED2020: Uncharted on July 2, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Mandë Holford, molecular chemist

Big Idea: Venom can kill … or it can cure. We’re now learning how it can be used as a force for good. 

How: Chemist Mandë Holford is investigating the power of venom to treat diseases and disorders, like certain cancers. Beyond common venomous snakes and spiders, Holford introduces us to the underbelly of the animal kingdom: killer snails, deadly platypuses and assassin Gila monsters. But she sees these creatures as both the supervillain and superhero, and she’s harnessing their venom to transform lives. She explains that venom’s power lies in its complex mixture of deadly peptides — a “cluster bomb” that attacks specific physiological targets like the blood, brains or membranes of the victim. Holford’s research focuses on discovering and utilizing these peptides to create therapeutics that disrupt cancer cells communications, particularly liver cancer. Venomics, or the study of venom, is an especially attractive area of research because poison has been honed and tested by nature over millennia, making for particularly potent, successful concoctions. “Someday, snail venom might just save your life,” Holford says.


Physicist Philip Lubin investigates how to use concentrated light as a propellant for spacecraft. He speaks at TED2020: Uncharted on July 2, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Philip Lubin, physicist

Big idea: By using massive quantities of concentrated light as a propellant, we can fuel spacecraft to journey to explore solar systems beyond our own.

How? We’re making huge strides in the field of laser technology that will enable us to transform how we launch and fuel spacecraft. Much like wind in a sailboat, light can be concentrated as energy to push spacecraft towards new and farther destinations. This would work by synchronizing enormous numbers of lasers into “phased arrays”, which may be as large as a city, to build up the power necessary for inter-solar system flight. Though spacecraft may initially only be as big as a human hand, the discoveries this technology could reveal are awe-inspiring. Traveling to another solar system could alter our fundamental understanding of life itself — and breakthroughs in this technology could revolutionize how we live on Earth as well. “Everything is profound in life. The same is true of the lowly photon which we use to see every day,” says Lubin, “But when we look outside and imagine something vastly greater, we can imagine things which are extraordinary. The ability to go to another star is one of those extraordinary capabilities.”


Antonio Muñoz Fernández plays “Taranta” and “Calblanque” at TED2020: Uncharted on July 2, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Guitarist and composer Antonio Muñoz Fernández keeps the session moving and lively with performances of plays “Taranta” and “Calblanque.”


“What would America look like if everyone had a seat at the table?” asks Shari Davis, executive director of the Participatory Budgeting Project. She speaks at TED2020: Uncharted on July 2, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Shari Davis, executive director, Participatory Budgeting Project

Big idea: We have to throw out the top-down processes that have hobbled democracy, and throw the doors of government open so wide that all kinds of people will be inspired to claim the reins.

How? For most of US history, government has overwhelmingly consisted of rich white men, who installed systems rewarding people like themselves, says Davis. “What would America look like if everyone had a seat at the table?” she asks. Participatory budgeting is a grassroots democratic initiative that empowers marginalized voices from young queer communities, communities of color and the economically disenfranchised, by giving them chunks of city budgets to solve problems close to their hearts. In Boston, this came about via Youth Lead the Change, an initiative to increase education, expand technology access to students and give graffiti artists a space to legally practice their art. By nurturing new political leaders drawn from those historically denied governmental access, participatory budgeting has become a global phenomenon with the potential to transform democracy. “Participatory budgeting is actually about collective radical imagination,” Davis says. Everyone has a role to play in PB, and it works because it allows community members to craft real solutions to real problems. It provides the infrastructure for the promise of government.”


“If machines can learn, or process memories, can they also dream, hallucinate, involuntarily remember or make connections between multiple people’s dreams?” asks media artist Refik Anadol. He speaks at TED2020: Uncharted on July 2, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Refik Anadol, media artist

Big idea: What does it mean to be an AI in the 21st century?

How? The year is simultaneously 1991 and 2019, media artist Refik Anadol having just seen Blade Runner and its sci-fi future for the first time — an experience which sets in motion his inspired career of using architectural spaces as canvases to make buildings dream and hallucinate via AI. Anadol brings us on a journey from that formative childhood moment to his studio’s collaborations with architects, data scientists, neuroscientists, musicians and storytellers in experimenting with ways of augmenting our perceptions to collide the virtual and physical worlds. Each project showcases the poetic, ethereal and dynamic power of data — such as “Archive Dreaming,” conceptualizing vast knowledge in the age of AI; “Machine Hallucination,” an exploration of time and space; and “Melting Memories,” which visualizes the moment of remembering — evoking a meditative experience beyond human imagination while simultaneously enveloping you into the mind of the machine. “If machines can learn, or process memories, can they also dream, hallucinate, involuntarily remember or make connections between multiple people’s dreams?” Anadol asks.


“Most people think technology and they think that’s going to lead to unethical behavior. I think it’s exactly the opposite: I think new technologies lead to more ethical behaviors,” says futurist Juan Enriquez. He speaks at TED2020: Uncharted on July 2, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Juan Enriquez, futurist

Big idea: Tech doesn’t always lead to unethical behavior. 

How? By making problematic systems obsolete, technology is actually a powerful force for ethical change. If we embrace these changes, we’ll put ourselves on the right side of history for issues like civil rights, climate change and economic justice. As ethics continue to evolve over time, technology’s explosive growth will lead to an exponential transformation of culture. Some examples: our tolerance of wasteful meat production will soon change with lab-created, cruelty-free beef, and as tech revolutionizes renewable energy, we will naturally leave behind coal and oil. “Technology is moving at exponential rates,” Enriquez says. “Technology is changing ethics, and therefore one might expect ethics could change exponentially, and that means your notion of right and wrong changes exponentially.”

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Conversations on capitalism and climate change: Week 6 of TED2020

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

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

Mariana Mazzucato, economist

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

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


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

Al Gore, climate advocate

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

Michelle Greene, president of the Long-Term Stock Exchange

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

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

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Conversations on climate action and contact tracing: Week 2 of TED2020

For week 2 of TED2020, global leaders in climate, health and technology joined the TED community for insightful discussions around the theme “build back better.” Below, a recap of the week’s fascinating and enlightening conversations about how we can move forward, together.

“We need to change our relationship to the environment,” says Chile’s former environment minister Marcelo Mena. He speaks with TED current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers at TED2020: Uncharted on May 26, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Marcelo Mena, environmentalist and former environment minister of Chile

Big idea: People power is the antidote to climate catastrophe.

How? With a commitment to transition to zero emissions by 2050, Chile is at the forefront of resilient and inclusive climate action. Mena shares the economic benefits instilling green solutions can have on a country: things like job creation and reduced cost of mobility, all the result of sustainability-minded actions (including phasing coal-fired power plants and creating fleets of energy-efficient buses). Speaking to the air of social unrest across South America, Mena traces how climate change fuels citizen action, sharing how protests have led to green policies being enacted. There will always be those who do not see climate change as an imminent threat, he says, and economic goals need to align with climate goals for unified and effective action. “We need to change our relationship to the environment,” Mena says. “We need to protect and conserve our ecosystems so they provide the services that they do today.”


“We need to insist on the future being the one that we want, so that we unlock the creative juices of experts and engineers around the world,” says Nigel Topping, UK High Level Climate Action Champion, COP26. He speaks with TED Global curator Bruno Giussani at TED2020: Uncharted on May 26, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Nigel Topping, UK High Level Climate Action Champion, COP26

Big idea: The COVID-19 pandemic presents a unique opportunity to break from business as usual and institute foundational changes that will speed the world’s transition to a greener economy. 

How? Although postponed, the importance of COP26 — the UN’s international climate change conference — has not diminished. Instead it’s become nothing less than a forum on whether a post-COVID world should return to old, unsustainable business models, or instead “clean the economy” before restarting it. In Topping’s view, economies that rely on old ways of doing business jeopardize the future of our planet and risk becoming non-competitive as old, dirty jobs are replaced by new, cleaner ones. By examining the benefits of green economics, Topping illuminates the positive transformations happening now and leverages them to inspire businesses, local governments and other economic players to make radical changes to business as usual. “From the bad news alone, no solutions come. You have to turn that into a motivation to act. You have to go from despair to hope, you have to choose to act on the belief that we can avoid the worst of climate change… when you start looking, there is evidence that we’re waking up.”


“Good health is something that gives us all so much return on our investment,” says Joia Mukherjee. Shes speaks with head of TED Chris Anderson at TED2020: Uncharted on May 27, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Joia Mukherjee, Chief Medical Officer, Partners in Health (PIH)

Big idea: We need to massively scale up contact tracing in order to slow the spread of COVID-19 and safely reopen communities and countries.

How? Contact tracing is the process of identifying people who come into contact with someone who has an infection, so that they can be quarantined, tested and supported until transmission stops. The earlier you start, the better, says Mukherjee — but, since flattening the curve and easing lockdown measures depend on understanding the spread of the disease, it’s never too late to begin. Mukherjee and her team at PIH are currently supporting the state of Massachusetts to scale up contact tracing for the most vulnerable communities. They’re employing 1,700 full-time contact tracers to investigate outbreaks in real-time and, in partnership with resource care coordinators, ensuring infected people receive critical resources like health care, food and unemployment benefits. With support from The Audacious Project, a collaborative funding initiative housed at TED, PIH plans to disseminate its contact tracing expertise across the US and support public health departments in slowing the spread of COVID-19. “Good health is something that gives us all so much return on our investment,” Mukherjee says. See what you can do for this idea »


Google’s Chief Health Officer Karen DeSalvo shares the latest on the tech giant’s critical work on contact tracing. She speaks with head of TED Chris Anderson at TED2020: Uncharted on May 27, 2020. (Photo courtesy of TED)

Karen DeSalvo, Chief Health Officer, Google

Big idea: We can harness the power of tech to combat the pandemic — and reshape the future of public health.

How? Google and Apple recently announced an unprecedented partnership on the COVID-19 Exposure Notifications API, a Bluetooth-powered technology that would tell people they may have been exposed to the virus. The technology is designed with privacy at its core, DeSalvo says: it doesn’t use GPS or location tracking and isn’t an app but rather an API that public health agencies can incorporate into their own apps, which users could opt in to — or not. Since smartphones are so ubiquitous, the API promises to augment contact tracing and help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Overall, the partnership between tech and public health is a natural one, DeSalvo says; communication and data are pillars of public health, and a tech giant like Google has the resources to distribute those at a global scale. By helping with the critical work of contact tracing, DeSalvo hopes to ease the burden on health workers and give scientists time to create a vaccine. “Having the right information at the right time can make all the difference,” DeSalvo says. “It can literally save lives.”

After the conversation, Karen DeSalvo was joined by Joia Mukherjee to further discuss how public health entities can partner with tech companies. Both DeSalvo and Mukherjee emphasize the importance of knitting together the various aspects of public health systems — from social services to housing — to create a healthier and more just society. They also both emphasize the importance of celebrating community health workers, who provide on-the-ground information and critical connection with people across the world.

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“TEDx SHORTS”, a TED original podcast hosted by actress Atossa Leoni, premieres May 18

Par : TED Staff

Launching on Monday, May 18, TED’s new podcast TEDx SHORTS gives listeners a quick and meaningful taste of curiosity, skepticism, inspiration and action drawn from TEDx Talks. In less than 10 minutes, host Atossa Leoni guides listeners through fresh perspectives, inspiring stories and surprising information from some of the most compelling TEDx Talks. 

TEDx events are organized and run by a passionate community of independent volunteers who are at the forefront of giving a platform to global voices and sharing new ideas that spark conversations in their local areas. Since 2009, there have been more than 28,000 independently organized TEDx events in over 170 countries across the world. TEDx organizers have given voice to some of the world’s most recognized speakers, including Brené Brown and Greta Thunberg. 

TEDx SHORTS host and actress Atossa Leoni is known for her roles in the award-winning television series Homeland and the film adaptation of The Kite Runner, based on Khaled Hosseini’s best-selling novel. Atossa is fluent in five languages and is recognized for her work in promoting international human rights and women’s rights.

“Every day, TEDx Talks surface new ideas, research and perspectives from around the world,” says Jay Herratti, Executive Director of TEDx. “With TEDx SHORTS, we’ve curated short excerpts from some of the most thought-provoking and inspiring TEDx Talks so that listeners can discover them in bite-sized episodes.”

Produced by TED in partnership with PRX, TEDx SHORTS is one of TED’s seven original podcasts, which also include The TED Interview, TED Talks Daily, TED en Español, Sincerely, X, WorkLife with Adam Grant and TED Radio Hour. TED’s podcasts are downloaded more than 420 million times annually.

TEDx SHORTS debuts Monday, May 18 on Apple Podcasts or wherever you like to listen to podcasts.

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We the Future 2019: Talks from TED, the Skoll Foundation and the United Nations Foundation

Hosts Rajesh Mirchandani and Chee Pearlman wave to “We The Future” attendees who watched the salon live from around the world through TED World Theater technology. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

At “We the Future,” a day of talks from TED, the Skoll Foundation and the United Nations Foundation at the TED World Theater in New York City, 18 speakers and performers shared daring ideas, deep analysis, cautionary tales and behavior-changing strategies aimed at meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the global goals created in partnership with individuals around the world and adopted at the United Nations in 2015.

The event: We the Future, presented by TED, the Skoll Foundation and the United Nations Foundation to share ingenious efforts of people from every corner of the globe

When and where: Tuesday, September 24, 2019, at the TED World Theater in New York, NY

Music: Queen Esther with Hilliard Greene and Jeff McGlaughlin, performing the jazzy “Blow Blossoms” and the protest song “All That We Are”

The talks in brief:


David Wallace-Wells, journalist

Big idea: The climate crisis is too vast and complicated to solve with a silver bullet. We need a shift in how we live: a whole new politics, economics and relationship to technology and nature.

Why? The climate crisis isn’t the legacy of our ancestors, but the work of a single generation — ours, says Wallace-Wells. Half of all the emissions from the burning of fossil fuels in the history of humanity were produced in the last 30 years. We clearly have immense power over the climate, and it’s put us on the brink of catastrophe — but it also means we’re the ones writing the story of our planet’s future. If we are to survive, we’ll need to reshape society as we know it — from building entirely new electric grids, planes and infrastructures to rethinking the way the global community comes together to support those hit hardest by climate change. In we do that, we just might build a new world that’s livable, prosperous and green.

Quote of the talk: “We won’t be able to beat climate change — only live with it and limit it.”


“When the cost of inaction is that innocent children are left unprotected, unvaccinated, unable to go to school … trapped in a cycle of poverty, exclusion and invisibility, it’s on us to take this issue out of darkness and into the light,” says legal identity expert Kristen Wenz. She speaks at “We The Future” on September 24, 2019, at the TED World Theater in New York, NY. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Kristen Wenz, legal identity expert

Big idea: More than one billion people — mostly children — don’t have legal identities or birth certificates, which means they can’t get vital government services like health care and schooling. It’s a massive human rights violation we need to fix.

How? There are five key approaches to ensuring children are registered and protected — reduce distance, reduce cost, simplify the process, remove discrimination and increase demand. In Tanzania, the government helped make it easier for new parents to register their child by creating an online registration system and opening up registration hubs in communities. The results were dramatic: the number of children with birth certificates went from 16 to 83 percent in just a few years. By designing solutions with these approaches in mind, we can provide better protection and brighter opportunities for children across the world.

Quote of the talk: “When the cost of inaction is that innocent children are left unprotected, unvaccinated, unable to go to school … trapped in a cycle of poverty, exclusion and invisibility, it’s on us to take this issue out of darkness and into the light.”


Don Gips, CEO of the Skoll Foundation, in conversation with TEDWomen curator and author Pat Michell

Big idea: Don Gips turned away from careers in both government and business and became CEO of the Skoll Foundation for one reason: the opportunity to take charge of investing in solutions to the most urgent issues humanity faces. Now, it’s the foundation’s mission to identify the investments that will spark the greatest changes.

How?

By reaching deeper into communities and discovering and investing in social entrepreneurs and other changemakers, the Skoll Foundation supports promising solutions to urgent global problems. As their investments yield positive results, Gips hopes to inspire the rest of the philanthropic community to find better ways to direct their resources.

Quote of the interview: “We don’t tell the changemaker what the solution is. We invest in their solution, and go along on the journey with them.”


“By making aesthetic, some might say beautiful, arrangements out of the world’s waste, I hope to hook the viewer, to draw in those that are numb to the horrors of the world, and give them a different way to understand what is happening,” says artist Alejandro Durán. He speaks at “We The Future” on September 24, 2019, at the TED World Theater in New York, NY. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Alejandro Durán, artist

Big Idea: Art can spotlight the environmental atrocities happening to our oceans — leaving viewers both mesmerized and shocked.

Why? From prosthetic legs to bottle caps, artist Alejandro Durán makes ephemeral environmental artworks out of objects he finds polluting the waters of his native region of Sian Ka’an, Mexico. He meticulously organizes materials by color and curates them into site-specific work. Durán put on his first “Museo de La Basura or Museum of Garbage exhibition in 2015, which spoke to the horrors of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and he’s still making art that speaks to the problem of ocean trash. By endlessly reusing objects in his art, Durán creates new works that engage communities in environmental art-making, attempting to depict the reality of our current environmental predicament and make the invisible visible.

Quote of the talk: “By making aesthetic, some might say beautiful, arrangements out of the world’s waste, I hope to hook the viewer, to draw in those that are numb to the horrors of the world, and give them a different way to understand what is happening.”


Andrew Forrest, entrepreneur, in conversation with head of TED Chris Anderson

Big idea: The true — and achievable! — business case for investing in plastic recycling.

How? Since earning his PhD in marine ecology, Forrest has dedicated his time and money to solving the global plastic problem, which is choking our waterways and oceans with toxic material that never biodegrades. “I learned a lot about marine life,” he says of his academic experience. “But it taught me more about marine death.” To save ourselves and our underwater neighbors from death by nanoplastics, Forrest says we need the big corporations of the world to fund a massive environmental transition that includes increasing the price of plastic and turning the tide on the recycling industry.

Quote of the talk: “[Plastic] is an incredible substance designed for the economy. It’s the worst substance possible for the environment.”


Raj Panjabi, cofounder of medical NGO Last Mile Health

Big idea: Community health workers armed with training and technology are our first line of defense against deadly viral surges. If we are to fully protect the world from killer diseases, we must ensure that people living in the most remote areas of the planet are never far from a community health worker trained to throttle epidemics at their outset.

How? In December 2013, Ebola broke out in West Africa and began a transborder spread that threatened to wipe out millions of people. Disease fighters across Africa joined the battle to stop it — including Liberian health workers trained by Last Mile Health and armed with the technology, knowledge and support necessary to serve their communities. With their help, Ebola was stopped (for now), after killing 11,000 people. Panjabi believes that if we train and pay more community health workers, their presence in underserved areas will not only stop epidemics but also save the lives of the millions of people threatened by diseases like malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea.

Quote of the talk:We dream of a future when millions of people … can gain dignified jobs as community health workers, so they can serve their neighbors in the forest communities of West Africa to the fishing villages of the Amazon; from the hilltops of Appalachia to the mountains of Afghanistan.”


“Indigenous people have the answer. If we want to save the Amazon, we have to act now,” says Tashka Yawanawá, speaking at “We The Future” with his wife, Laura, on September 24, 2019, at the TED World Theater in New York, NY. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Tashka and Laura Yawanawá, leaders of the Yawanawá in Acre, Brazil

Big idea: To save the Amazon rainforest, let’s empower indigenous people who have been coexisting with the rainforest for centuries.

Why? Tashka Yawanawá is chief of the Yawanawá people in Acre, Brazil, leading 900 people who steward 400,000 acres of Brazilian Amazon rainforest. As footage of the Amazon burning shocks the world’s consciousness, Tashka and his wife, Laura, call for us to transform this moment into an opportunity to support indigenous people who have the experience, knowledge and tools to protect the land.

Quote of the talk: “Indigenous people have the answer. If we want to save the Amazon, we have to act now.”


Alasdair Harris, ocean conservationist

Big idea: To the impoverished fishers that rely on the sea for their food, and who comprise 90 percent of the world’s fishing fleet, outside interference by scientists and marine managers can seem like just another barrier to their survival. Could the world rejuvenate its marine life and replenish its fish stocks by inspiring coastal communities rather than simply regulating them?

How? When he first went to Madagascar, marine biologist Alasdair Harris failed to convince local leaders to agree to a years-long plan to close their threatened coral reefs to fishing. But when a contained plan to preserve a breeding ground for an important local species of octopus led to rapid growth in catches six months later, the same elders banded together with leaders across Madagascar to spearhead a conservation revolution. Today, Harris’s organization Blue Ventures works to help coastal communities worldwide take control of their own ecosystems.

Quote of the talk: When we design it right, marine conservation reaps dividends that go far beyond protecting nature — improving catches, driving waves of social change along entire coastlines, strengthening confidence, cooperation and the resilience of communities to face the injustice of poverty and climate change.”


Bright Simons, social entrepreneur and product security expert

Big idea: A global breakdown of the trustworthiness of markets and regulatory institutions has led to a flurry of counterfeit drugs, mislabeled food and defective parts. Africa has been dealing with counterfeit goods for years, and entrepreneurs like Bright Simons have developed myriad ways consumers can confirm that their food and drug purchases are genuine. Why are these methods ignored in the rest of the world?

How? Bright Simons demonstrates some of the innovative solutions Africans use to restore trust in their life-giving staples, such as text hotlines to confirm medications are real and seed databases to certify the authenticity of crops. Yet in the developed world, these solutions are often overlooked because they “don’t scale” — an attitude Simons calls “mental latitude imperialism.” It’s time to champion “intellectual justice” — and look at these supposedly non-scalable innovations with new respect.

Quote of the talk: “It just so happens that today, the most advanced and most progressive solutions to these problems are being innovated in the developing world.”


“Water is life. It is the spirit that binds us from sickness, death and destruction,” says LaToya Ruby Frazier. She speaks at “We The Future” on September 24, 2019, at the TED World Theater in New York, NY. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

LaToya Ruby Frazier, artist 

Big Idea: LaToya Ruby Frazier’s powerful portraits of women in Flint, Michigan document the reality of the Flint water crisis, bringing awareness to the ongoing issue and creating real, positive change.

How? Frazier’s portraits of the daily lives of women affected by the Flint water crisis are striking reminders that, after all the news crews were gone, the people of Flint still did not have clean water. For one photo series, she closely followed the lives of Amber Hasan and Shea Cobb — two activists, poets and best friends — who were working to educate the public about the water crisis. Frazier has continued collaborating with Hasan and Cobb to seek justice and relief for those suffering in Flint. In 2019, they helped raise funds for an atmospheric water generator that provided 120,000 gallons of water to Flint residents. 

Quote of the talk: “Water is life. It is the spirit that binds us from sickness, death and destruction. Imagine how many millions of lives we could save if [the atmospheric water generator] were in places like Newark, New Jersey, South Africa and India — with compassion instead of profit motives.”


Cassie Flynn, global climate change advisor

Big idea: We need a new way to get citizen consensus on climate change and connect them with governments and global leaders.

How? The United Nations is taking on an entirely new model of reaching the masses: mobile phone games. Flynn shares how their game “Mission 1.5” can help people learn about their policy choices on climate change by allowing them to play as heads of state. From there, the outcomes of their gameplay will be compiled and shared with their national leaders and the public. Flynn foresees this as a fresh, feasible way to meet citizens where they are, to educate them about climate change and to better connect them to the people who are making those tough decisions.

Quote of the talk: “Right now, world leaders are faced with the biggest and most impactful decisions of their entire lives. What they decide to do on climate change will either lead to a riskier, more unstable planet or a future that is more prosperous and sustainable for us all.”


Wanjira Mathai, entrepreneur

Big Idea: Corruption is a constant threat in Kenya. To defeat it there and anywhere, we need to steer youth towards integrity through education and help them understand the power of the individual.

Why? In 1989, the Karura Forest, a green public oasis in Nairobi, Kenya, was almost taken away by a corrupt government until political activist Wangari Maathai, Nobel Prize recipient and founder of the Greenbelt Movement, fought back fiercely and won. Continuing Maathai’s legacy, her daughter Wanjira explains how corruption is still very much alive in Kenya — a country that loses a third of its state budget to corruption every year. “Human beings are not born corrupt. At some point these behaviors are fostered by a culture that promotes individual gain over collective progress,” she says. She shares a three-pronged strategy for fighting corruption before it takes root by addressing why it happens, modeling integrity and teaching leadership skills.

Quote of the talk: “We cannot complain forever. We either decide that we are going to live with it, or we are going to change it. And if we are going to change it, we know that today, most of the world’s problems are caused by corruption and greed and selfishness.”

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brianwgreene89

Not All Is Broken: Notes from Session 6 of TEDSummit 2019

Raconteur Mackenzie Dalrymple regales the TEDSummit audience with a classic Scottish story. He speaks at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders, July 25, 2019, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

In the final session of TEDSummit 2019, the themes from the week — our search for belonging and community, our digital future, our inextricable connection to the environment — ring out with clarity and insight. From the mysterious ways our emotions impact our biological hearts, to a tour-de-force talk on the languages we all speak, it’s a fitting close to a week of revelation, laughter, tears and wonder.

The event: TEDSummit 2019, Session 6: Not All Is Broken, hosted by Chris Anderson and Bruno Giussani

When and where: Thursday, July 25, 2019, 9am BST, at the Edinburgh Convention Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland

Speakers: Johann Hari, Sandeep Jauhar, Anna Piperal, Eli Pariser, Poet Ali

Interlude: Mackenzie Dalrymple sharing the tale of an uncle and nephew competing to become Lord of the Isles

Music: Djazia Satour, blending 1950s Chaabi (a genre of North African folk music) with modern grooves

The talks in brief:

Johann Hari, journalist

Big idea: The cultural narrative and definitions of depression and anxiety need to change.

Why? We need to talk less about chemical imbalances and more about imbalances in the way we live. Johann Hari met with experts around the world, boiling down his research into a surprisingly simple thesis: all humans have physical needs (food, shelter, water) as well as psychological needs (feeling that you belong, that your life has meaning and purpose). Though antidepressant drugs work for some, biology isn’t the whole picture, and any treatment must be paired with a social approach. Our best bet is to listen to the signals of our bodies, instead of dismissing them as signs of weakness or madness. If we take time to investigate our red flags of depression and anxiety — and take the time to reevaluate how we build meaning and purpose, especially through social connections — we can start to heal in a society deemed the loneliest in human history.

Quote of the talk: “If you’re depressed, if you’re anxious — you’re not weak. You’re not crazy. You’re not a machine with broken parts. You’re a human being with unmet needs.”


“Even if emotions are not contained inside our hearts, the emotional heart overlaps its biological counterpart in surprising and mysterious ways,” says cardiologist Sandeep Jauhar. He speaks at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders, July 21-25, 2019, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Sandeep Jauhar, cardiologist

Big Idea: Emotional stress can be a matter of life and death. Let’s factor that into how we care for our hearts.

How? “The heart may not originate our feelings, but it is highly responsive to them,” says Sandeep Jauhar. In his practice as a cardiologist, he has seen extensive evidence of this: grief and fear can cause profound cardiac injury. “Takotsubo cardiomyopathy,” or broken heart syndrome, has been found to occur when the heart weakens after the death of a loved one or the stress of a large-scale natural disaster. It comes with none of the other usual symptoms of heart disease, and it can resolve in just a few weeks. But it can also prove fatal. In response, Jauhar says that we need a new paradigm of care, one that considers the heart as more than “a machine that can be manipulated and controlled” — and recognizes that emotional stress is as important as cholesterol.

Quote of the talk: “Even if emotions are not contained inside our hearts, the emotional heart overlaps its biological counterpart in surprising and mysterious ways.”


“In most countries, people don’t trust their governments, and the governments don’t trust them back. All the complicated paper-based formal procedures are supposed to solve that problem. Except that they don’t. They just make life more complicated,” says e-governance expert Anna Piperal. She speaks at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders, July 25, 2019, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Anna Piperal, e-governance expert 

Big idea: Bureaucracy can be eradicated by going digital — but we’ll need to build in commitment and trust.

How? Estonia is one of the most digital societies on earth. After gaining independence 30 years ago, and subsequently building itself up from scratch, the country decided not only to digitize existing bureaucracy but also to create an entirely new system. Now citizens can conduct everything online, from running a business to voting and managing their healthcare records, and only need to show up in person for literally three things: to claim their identity card, marry or divorce, or sell a property. Anna Piperal explains how, using a form of blockchain technology, e-Estonia builds trust through the “once-only” principle, through which the state cannot ask for information more than once nor store it in more than one place. The country is working to redefine bureaucracy by making it more efficient, granting citizens full ownership of their data — and serving as a model for the rest of the world to do the same.

Quote of the talk: “In most countries, people don’t trust their governments, and the governments don’t trust them back. All the complicated paper-based formal procedures are supposed to solve that problem. Except that they don’t. They just make life more complicated.”


Eli Pariser, CEO of Upworthy

Big idea: We can find ways to make our online spaces civil and safe, much like our best cities.

How? Social media is a chaotic and sometimes dangerous place. With its trolls, criminals and segregated spaces, it’s a lot like New York City in the 1970s. But like New York City, it’s also a vibrant space in which people can innovate and find new ideas. So Eli Pariser asks: What if we design social media like we design cities, taking cues from social scientists and urban planners like Jane Jacobs? Built around empowered communities, one-on-one interactions and public censure for those who act out, platforms could encourage trust and discourse, discourage antisocial behavior and diminish the sense of chaos that leads some to embrace authoritarianism.

Quote of the talk: “If online digital spaces are going to be our new home, let’s make them a comfortable, beautiful place to live — a place we all feel not just included, but actually some ownership of. A place we get to know each other. A place you’d actually want not just to visit, but to bring your kids.”


“Every language we learn is a portal by which we can access another language. The more you know, the more you can speak. … That’s why languages are so important, because they give us access to new worlds,” says Poet Ali. He speaks at at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders, July 25, 2019, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Poet Ali, architect of human connection

Big idea: You speak far more languages than you realize, with each language representing a gateway to understanding different societies, cultures and experiences.

How? Whether it’s the recognized tongue of your country or profession, or the social norms of your community, every “language” you speak is more than a lexicon of words: it also encompasses feelings like laughter, solidarity, even a sense of being left out. These latter languages are universal, and the more we embrace their commonality — and acknowledge our fluency in them — the more we can empathize with our fellow humans, regardless of our differences.

Quote of the talk: “Every language we learn is a portal by which we can access another language. The more you know, the more you can speak. … That’s why languages are so important, because they give us access to new worlds.”

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brianwgreene89

Stages of Life: Notes from Session 5 of TEDSummit 2019

Par : Ann Powers

Yilian Cañizares rocks the TED stage with a jubilant performance of her signature blend of classic jazz and Cuban rhythms. She performs at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders, July 24, 2019, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

The penultimate session of TEDSummit 2019 had a bit of everything — new thoughts on aging, loneliness and happiness as well as breakthrough science, music and even a bit of comedy.

The event: TEDSummit 2019, Session 5: Stages of Life, hosted by Kelly Stoetzel and Alex Moura

When and where: Wednesday, July 24, 2019, 5pm BST, at the Edinburgh Convention Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland

Speakers: Nicola Sturgeon, Sonia Livingstone, Howard Taylor, Sara-Jane Dunn, Fay Bound Alberti, Carl Honoré

Opening: Raconteur Mackenzie Dalrymple telling the story of the Goodman of Ballengeich

Music: Yilian Cañizares and her band, rocking the TED stage with a jubilant performance that blends classic jazz and Cuban rhythms

Comedy: Amidst a head-spinning program of big (and often heavy) ideas, a welcomed break from comedian Omid Djalili, who lightens the session with a little self-deprecation and a few barbed cultural observations

The talks in brief:

“In the world we live in today, with growing divides and inequalities, with disaffection and alienation, it is more important than ever that we … promote a vision of society that has well-being, not just wealth, at its very heart,” says Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland. She speaks at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders, July 24, 2019, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland

Big idea: It’s time to challenge the monolithic importance of GDP as a quality-of-life metric — and paint a broader picture that also encompasses well-being.

How? In 2018, Scotland, Iceland and New Zealand established the Wellbeing Economy Governments group to challenge the supremacy of GDP. The leaders of these countries — who are, incidentally, all women — believe policies that promote happiness (including equal pay, childcare and paternity rights) could help decrease alienation in its citizens and, in turn, build resolve to confront global challenges like inequality and climate change.

Quote of the talk: “Growth in GDP should not be pursued at any and all cost … The goal of economic policy should be collective well-being: how happy and healthy a population is, not just how wealthy a population is.”


Sonia Livingstone, social psychologist

Big idea: Parents often view technology as either a beacon of hope or a developmental poison, but the biggest influence on their children’s life choices is how they help them navigate this unavoidable digital landscape. Society as a whole can positively impact these efforts.

How? Sonia Livingstone’s own childhood was relatively analog, but her research has been focused on how families embrace new technology today. Changes abound in the past few decades — whether it’s intensified educational pressures, migration, or rising inequality — yet it’s the digital revolution that remains the focus of our collective apprehension. Livingstone’s research suggests that policing screen time isn’t the answer to raising a well-rounded child, especially at a time when parents are trying to live more democratically with their children by sharing decision-making around activities like gaming and exploring the internet. Leaders and institutions alike can support a positive digital future for children by partnering with parents to guide activities within and outside of the home. Instead of criticizing families for their digital activities, Livingstone thinks we should identify what real-world challenges they’re facing, what options are available to them and how we can support them better.

Quote of the talk: “Screen time advice is causing conflict in the family, and there’s no solid evidence that more screen time increases childhood problems — especially compared with socio-economic or psychological factors. Restricting children breeds resistance, while guiding them builds judgment.”


Howard Taylor, child safety advocate

Big idea: Violence against children is an endemic issue worldwide, with rates of reported incidence increasing in some countries. We are at a historical moment that presents us with a unique opportunity to end the epidemic, and some countries are already leading the way.

How? Howard Taylor draws attention to Sweden and Uganda, two very different countries that share an explicit commitment to ending violence against children. Through high-level political buy-in, data-driven strategy and tactical legislative initiatives, the two countries have already made progress on. These solutions and others are all part of INSPIRE, a set of strategies created by an alliance of global organizations as a roadmap to eliminating the problem. If we put in the work, Taylor says, a new normal will emerge: generations whose paths in life will be shaped by what they do — not what was done to them.

Quote of the talk: “What would it really mean if we actually end violence against children? Multiply the social, cultural and economic benefits of this change by every family, every community, village, town, city and country, and suddenly you have a new normal emerging. A generation would grow up without experiencing violence.”


“The first half of this century is going to be transformed by a new software revolution: the living software revolution. Its impact will be so enormous that it will make the first software revolution pale in comparison,” says computational biologist Sara-Jane Dunn. She speaks at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders, July 24, 2019, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Sara-Jane Dunn, computational biologist

Big idea: In the 20th century, computer scientists inscribed machine-readable instructions on tiny silicon chips, completely revolutionizing our lives and workplaces. Today, a “living software” revolution centered around organisms built from programmable cells is poised to transform medicine, agriculture and energy in ways we can scarcely predict.

How? By studying how embryonic stem cells “decide” to become neurons, lung cells, bone cells or anything else in the body, Sara-Jane Dunn seeks to uncover the biological code that dictates cellular behavior. Using mathematical models, Dunn and her team analyze the expected function of a cellular system to determine the “genetic program” that leads to that result. While they’re still a long way from compiling living software, they’ve taken a crucial early step.

Quote of the talk: “We are at the beginning of a technological revolution. Understanding this ancient type of biological computation is the critical first step. And if we can realize this, we would enter into the era of an operating system that runs living software.”


Fay Bound Alberti, cultural historian

Big idea: We need to recognize the complexity of loneliness and its ever-transforming history. It’s not just an individual and psychological problem — it’s a social and physical one.

Why? Loneliness is a modern-day epidemic, with a history that’s often recognized solely as a product of the mind. Fay Bound Alberti believes that interpretation is limiting. “We’ve neglected [loneliness’s] physical effects — and loneliness is physical,” she says. She points to how crucial touch, smell, sound, human interaction and even nostalgic memories of sensory experiences are to coping with loneliness, making people feel important, seen and helping to produce endorphins. By reframing our perspective on this feeling of isolation, we can better understand how to heal it.

Quote of talk: “I am suggesting we need to turn to the physical body, we need to understand the physical and emotional experiences of loneliness to be able to tackle a modern epidemic. After all, it’s through our bodies, our sensory bodies, that we engage with the world.”

Fun fact: “Before 1800 there was no word for loneliness in the English language. There was something called: ‘oneliness’ and there were ‘lonely places,’ but both simply meant the state of being alone. There was no corresponding emotional lack and no modern state of loneliness.”


“Whatever age you are: own it — and then go out there and show the world what you can do!” says Carl Honoré. He speaks at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders, July 24, 2019, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Carl Honoré, writer, thinker and activist

Big idea: Stop the lazy thinking around age and the “cult of youth” — it’s not all downhill from 40.

How? We need to debunk the myths and stereotypes surrounding age — beliefs like “older people can’t learn new things” and “creativity belongs to the young.” There are plenty of trailblazers and changemakers who came into their own later in life, from artists and musicians to physicists and business leaders. Studies show that people who fear and feel bad about aging are more likely to suffer physical effects as if age is an actual affliction rather than just a number. The first step to getting past that is by creating new, more positive societal narratives. Honoré offers a set of simple solutions — the two most important being: check your language and own your age. Embrace aging as an adventure, a process of opening rather than closing doors. We need to feel better about aging in order to age better.

Quote of the talk: “Whatever age you are: own it — and then go out there and show the world what you can do!”

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annatted

Business Unusual: Notes from Session 4 of TEDSummit 2019

ELEW and Marcus Miller blend jazz improvisation with rock in a musical cocktail of “rock-jazz.” They perform at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders, July 24, 2019, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Dian Lofton / TED)

To keep pace with our ever-changing world, we need out-of-the-box ideas that are bigger and more imaginative than ever. The speakers and performers from this session explore these possibilities, challenging us to think harder about the notions we’ve come to accept.

The event: TEDSummit 2019, Session 4: Business Unusual, hosted by Whitney Pennington Rodgers and Cloe Shasha

When and where: Wednesday, July 24, 2019, 9am BST, at the Edinburgh Convention Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland

Speakers: Margaret Heffernan, Bob Langert, Rose Mutiso, Mariana Mazzucato, Diego Prilusky

Music: A virtuosic violin performance by Min Kym, and a closing performance by ELEW featuring Marcus Miller, blending jazz improvisation with rock in a musical cocktail of “rock-jazz.”

The talks in brief:

“The more we let machines think for us, the less we can think for ourselves,” says Margaret Heffernan. She speaks at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders, July 24, 2019, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Dian Lofton / TED)

Margaret Heffernan, entrepreneur, former CEO and writer 

Big idea: The more we rely on technology to make us efficient, the fewer skills we have to confront the unexpected. That’s why we must start practicing “just-in-case” management — anticipating the events (climate catastrophes, epidemics, financial crises) that will almost certainly happen but are ambiguous in timing, scale and specifics. 

Why? In our complex, unpredictable world, changes can occur out of the blue and have outsize impacts. When governments, businesses and individuals prioritize efficiency above all else, it keeps them from responding quickly, effectively and creatively. That’s why we all need to focus on cultivating what Heffernan calls our “unpredictable, messy human skills.” These include exercising our social abilities to build strong relationships and coalitions; humility to admit we don’t have all the answers; imagination to dream up never-before-seen solutions; and bravery to keep experimenting.

Quote of the talk: “The harder, deeper truth is that the future is uncharted, that we can’t map it until we get there. But that’s OK because we have so much capacity for imagination — if we use it. We have deep talents for inventiveness and exploration — if we apply them. We are brave enough to invent things we’ve never seen before. Lose these skills and we are adrift. But hone and develop them, and we can make any future we choose.”


Bob Langert, sustainability expert and VP of sustainability at McDonald’s

Big idea: Adversaries can be your best allies.

How? Three simple steps: reach out, listen and learn. As a “corporate suit” (his words), Bob Langert collaborates with his company’s strongest critics to find business-friendly solutions for society. Instead of denying and pushing back, he tries to embrace their perspectives and suggestions. He encourages others in positions of power to do the same, driven by this mindset: assume the best intentions of your critics; focus on the truth, the science and facts; and be open and transparent in order to turn critics into allies. The worst-case scenario? You’ll become better, your organization will become better — and you might make some friends along the way.

Fun fact: After working with NGOs in the 1990s, McDonald’s reduced 300 million pounds of waste over 10 years.


“When we talk about providing energy for growth, it is not just about innovating the technology: it’s the slow and hard work of improving governance, institutions and a broader macro-environment,” says Rose Mutiso. She speaks at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders, July 24, 2019, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Dian Lofton / TED)

Rose Mutiso, energy scientist

Big Idea: In order to grow out of poverty, African countries need a steady supply of abundant and affordable electricity.

Why? Energy poverty, or the lack of access to electricity and other basic energy services, affects nearly two-thirds of Sub-Saharan Africa. As the region’s population continues to grow, we have the opportunity to build a new energy system — from scratch — to grow with it, says Rose Mutiso. It starts with naming the systemic holes that current solutions (solar, LED and battery technology) overlook: we don’t have a clear consensus on what energy poverty is; there’s too much reliance on quick fixes; and we’re misdirecting our climate change concerns. What we need, Mutiso says, is nuanced, large-scale solutions with a diverse range of energy sources. For instance, the region has significant hydroelectric potential, yet less than 10 percent of this potential is currently being utilized. If we work hard to find new solutions to our energy deficits now, everybody benefits.

Quote of talk:Countries cannot grow out of poverty without access to a steady supply of abundant, affordable and reliable energy to power these productive sectors — what I call energy for growth.”


Mariana Mazzucato, economist and policy influencer

Big idea: We’ve forgotten how to tell the difference between the value extractors in the C-suites and finance sectors and the value producers, the workers and taxpayers who actually fuel innovation and productivity. And recently we’ve neglected the importance of even questioning the difference between the two.

How? Economists must redefine and recognize true value creators, envisioning a system that rewards them just as much as CEOs, investors and bankers. We need to rethink how we value education, childcare and other “free” services — which don’t have a price but clearly contribute to sustaining our economies. We need to make sure that our entire society not only shares risks but also rewards.

Quote of the talk: “[During the bank bailouts] we didn’t hear the taxpayers bragging that they were value creators. But, obviously, having bailed out the biggest ‘value-creating’ productive companies, perhaps they should have.”


Diego Prilusky demos his immersive storytelling technology, bringing Grease to the TED stage. He speaks at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders, July 24, 2019, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Diego Prilusky, video pioneer

Big idea: Get ready for the next revolution in visual storytelling: volumetric video, which aims to do nothing less than recreate reality as a cinematic experience.

How? Movies have been around for more than 100 years, but we’re still making (and watching) them in basically the same way. Can movies exist beyond the flat screen? Yes, says Diego Prilusky, but we’ll first need to completely rethink how they’re made. With his team at Intel Studios, Prilusky is pioneering volumetric video, a data-intensive medium powered by hundreds of sensors that capture light and motion from every possible direction. The result is like being inside a movie, which you could explore from different perspectives (or even through a character’s own eyes). In a live tech demo, Prilusky takes us inside a reshoot of an iconic dance number from the 1978 hit Grease. As actors twirl and sing “You’re the One That I Want,” he positions and repositions his perspective on the scene — moving, around, in front of and in between the performers. Film buffs can rest easy, though: the aim isn’t to replace traditional movies, he says, but to empower creators to tell stories in new ways, across multiple vantage points.

Quote of the talk: “We’re opening the gates for new possibilities of immersive storytelling.”

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Anthropo Impact: Notes from Session 2 of TEDSummit 2019

Radio Science Orchestra performs the musical odyssey “Prelude, Landing, Legacy” in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders, July 22, 2019, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

Session 2 of TEDSummit 2019 is all about impact: the actions we can take to solve humanity’s toughest challenges. Speakers and performers explore the perils — from melting glaciers to air pollution — along with some potential fixes — like ocean-going seaweed farms and radical proposals for how we can build the future.

The event: TEDSummit 2019, Session 2: Anthropo Impact, hosted by David Biello and Chee Pearlman

When and where: Monday, July 22, 2019, 5pm BST, at the Edinburgh Convention Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland

Speakers: Tshering Tobgay, María Neira, Tim Flannery, Kelly Wanser, Anthony Veneziale, Nicola Jones, Marwa Al-Sabouni, Ma Yansong

Music: Radio Science Orchestra, performing the musical odyssey “Prelude, Landing, Legacy” in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing (and the 100th anniversary of the theremin’s invention)

… and something completely different: Improv maestro Anthony Veneziale, delivering a made-up-on-the-spot TED Talk based on a deck of slides he’d never seen and an audience-suggested topic: “the power of potatoes.” The result was … surprisingly profound.

The talks in brief:

Tshering Tobgay, politician, environmentalist and former Prime Minister of Bhutan

Big idea: We must save the Hindu Kush Himalayan glaciers from melting — or else face dire, irreversible consequences for one-fifth of the global population.

Why? The Hindu Kush Himalayan glaciers are the pulse of the planet: their rivers alone supply water to 1.6 billion people, and their melting would massively impact the 240 million people across eight countries within their reach. Think in extremes — more intense rains, flash floods and landslides along with unimaginable destruction and millions of climate refugees. Tshering Togbay telegraphs the future we’re headed towards unless we act fast, calling for a new intergovernmental agency: the Third Pole Council. This council would be tasked with monitoring the glaciers’ health, implementing policies to protect them and, by proxy, the billions of who depend of them.

Fun fact: The Hindu Kush Himalayan glaciers are the world’s third-largest repository of ice (after the North and South poles). They’re known as the “Third Pole” and the “Water Towers of Asia.”


Air pollution isn’t just bad for the environment — it’s also bad for our brains, says María Neira. She speaks at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders, July 22, 2019, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Ryan Lash / TED)

María Neira, public health leader

Big idea: Air pollution isn’t just bad for our lungs — it’s bad for our brains, too.

Why? Globally, poor air quality causes seven million premature deaths per year. And all this pollution isn’t just affecting our lungs, says María Neira. An emerging field of research is shedding a light on the link between air pollution and our central nervous systems. The fine particulate matter in air pollution travels through our bloodstreams to our major organs, including the brain — which can slow down neurological development in kids and speed up cognitive decline in adults. In short: air pollution is making us less intelligent. We all have a role to play in curbing air pollution — and we can start by reducing traffic in cities, investing in clean energy and changing the way we consume.

Quote of the talk: “We need to exercise our rights and put pressure on politicians to make sure they will tackle the causes of air pollution. This is the first thing we need to do to protect our health and our beautiful brains.”


Tim Flannery, environmentalist, explorer and professor

Big idea: Seaweed could help us drawdown atmospheric carbon and curb global warming.

How? You know the story: the blanket of CO2 above our heads is driving adverse climate changes and will continue to do so until we get it out of the air (a process known as “drawdown”). Tim Flannery thinks seaweed could help: it grows fast, is made out of productive, photosynthetic tissue and, when sunk more than a kilometer deep into the ocean, can lock up carbon long-term. If we cover nine percent of the ocean surface in seaweed farms, for instance, we could sequester the same amount of CO2 we currently put into the atmosphere. There’s still a lot to figure, Flannery notes —  like how growing seaweed at scale on the ocean surface will affect biodiversity down below — but the drawdown potential is too great to allow uncertainty to stymie progress.

Fun fact: Seaweed is the most ancient multicellular life known, with more genetic diversity than all other multicellular life combined.


Could cloud brightening help curb global warming? Kelly Wanser speaks at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders, July 22, 2019, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Photo: Bret Hartman / TED

Kelly Wanser, geoengineering expert and executive director of SilverLining

Big idea: The practice of cloud brightening — seeding clouds with sea salt or other particulates to reflect sunshine back into space — could partially offset global warming, giving us crucial time while we figure out game-changing, long-term solutions.

How: Starting in 2020, new global regulations will require ships to cut emissions by 85 percent. This is a good thing, right? Not entirely, says Kelly Wanser. It turns out that when particulate emissions (like those from ships) mix with clouds, they make the clouds brighter — enabling them to reflect sunshine into space and temporarily cool our climate. (Think of it as the ibuprofen for our fevered climate.) Wanser’s team and others are coming up with experiments to see if “cloud-brightening” proves safe and effective; some scientists believe increasing the atmosphere’s reflectivity by one or two percent could offset the two degrees celsius of warming that’s been forecasted for earth. As with other climate interventions, there’s much yet to learn, but the potential benefits make those efforts worth it. 

An encouraging fact: The global community has rallied to pull off this kind of atmospheric intervention in the past, with the 1989 Montreal Protocol.


Nicola Jones, science journalist

Big idea: Noise in our oceans — from boat motors to seismic surveys — is an acute threat to underwater life. Unless we quiet down, we will irreparably damage marine ecosystems and may even drive some species to extinction.

How? We usually think of noise pollution as a problem in big cities on dry land. But ocean noise may be the culprit behind marine disruptions like whale strandings, fish kills and drops in plankton populations. Fortunately, compared to other climate change solutions, it’s relatively quick and easy to dial down our noise levels and keep our oceans quiet. Better ship propellor design, speed limits near harbors and quieter methods for oil and gas prospecting will all help humans restore peace and quiet to our neighbors in the sea.

Quote of the talk: “Sonar can be as loud as, or nearly as loud as, an underwater volcano. A supertanker can be as loud as the call of a blue whale.”


TED curator Chee Pearlman (left) speaks with architect Marwa Al-Sabouni at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders. July 22, 2019, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Marwa Al-Sabouni, architect, interviewed by TED curator Chee Pearlman

Big idea: Architecture can exacerbate the social disruptions that lead to armed conflict.

How? Since the time of the French Mandate, officials in Syria have shrunk the communal spaces that traditionally united citizens of varying backgrounds. This contributed to a sense of alienation and rootlessness — a volatile cocktail that built conditions for unrest and, eventually, war. Marwa Al-Sabouni, a resident of Homs, Syria, saw firsthand how this unraveled social fabric helped reduce the city to rubble during the civil war. Now, she’s taking part in the city’s slow reconstruction — conducted by citizens with little or no government aid. As she explains in her book The Battle for Home, architects have the power (and the responsibility) to connect a city’s residents to a shared urban identity, rather than to opposing sectarian groups.

Quote of the talk: “Syria had a very unfortunate destiny, but it should be a lesson for the rest of the world: to take notice of how our cities are making us very alienated from each other, and from the place we used to call home.”


“Architecture is no longer a function or a machine for living. It also reflects the nature around us. It also reflects our soul and the spirit,” says Ma Yansong. He speaks at TEDSummit: A Community Beyond Borders. July 22, 2019, in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo: Bret Hartman / TED)

Ma Yansong, architect and artist

Big Idea: By creating architecture that blends with nature, we can break free from the “matchbox” sameness of many city buildings.

How? Ma Yansong paints a vivid image of what happens when nature collides with architecture — from a pair of curvy skyscrapers that “dance” with each other to buildings that burst out of a village’s mountains like contour lines. Yansong embraces the shapes of nature — which never repeat themselves, he notes — and the randomness of hand-sketched designs, creating a kind of “emotional scenery.” When we think beyond the boxy geometry of modern cities, he says, the results can be breathtaking.

Quote of talk: “Architecture is no longer a function or a machine for living. It also reflects the nature around us. It also reflects our soul and the spirit.”

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A first glimpse at the TEDSummit 2019 speaker lineup

Par : TED Staff

At TEDSummit 2019, more than 1,000 members of the TED community will gather for five days of performances, workshops, brainstorming, outdoor activities, future-focused discussions and, of course, an eclectic program of TED Talks — curated by TED Global curator Bruno Giussani, pictured above. (Photo: Marla Aufmuth / TED)

With TEDSummit 2019 just two months away, it’s time to unveil the first group of speakers that will take to the stage in Edinburgh, Scotland, from July 21-25.

Three years ago, more than 1,000 members of the TED global community convened in Banff, Canada, for the first-ever TEDSummit. We talked about the fracturing state of the world, the impact of technology and the accelerating urgency of climate change. And we drew wisdom and inspiration from the speakers — and from each other.

These themes are equally pressing today, and we’ll bring them to the stage in novel, more developed ways in Edinburgh. We’ll also address a wide range of additional topics that demand attention — looking not only for analysis but also antidotes and solutions. To catalyze this process, half of the TEDSummit conference program will take place outside the theatre, as experts host an array of Discovery Sessions in the form of hands-on workshops, activities, debates and conversations.

Check out a glimpse of the lineup of speakers who will share their future-focused ideas below. Some are past TED speakers returning to give new talks; others will step onto the red circle for the first time. All will help us understand the world we currently live in.

Here we go! (More will be added in the coming weeks):

Anna Piperal, digital country expert

Bob Langert, corporate changemaker

Carl Honoré, author

Carole Cadwalladr, investigative journalist

Diego Prilusky, immersive media technologist

Eli Pariser, organizer and author

Fay Bound Alberti, historian

George Monbiot, thinker and author

Hajer Sharief, youth inclusion activist

Howard Taylor, children safety advocate

Jochen Wegner, editor and dialogue creator

Kelly Wanser, geoengineering expert

Ma Yansong, architect

Marco Tempest, technology magician

Margaret Heffernan, business thinker

María Neira, global public health official

Mariana Lin, AI personalities writer

Mariana Mazzucato, economist

Marwa Al-Sabouni, architect

Nick Hanauer, capitalism redesigner

Nicola Jones, science writer

Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland

Omid Djalili, comedian

Patrick Chappatte, editorial cartoonist

Pico Iyer, global author

Poet Ali, Philosopher, poet

Rachel Kleinfeld, violence scholar

Raghuram Rajan, former central banker

Rose Mutiso, energy for Africa activist

Sandeep Jauhar, cardiologist

Sara-Jane Dunn, computational biologist

Sheperd Doeleman, black hole scientist

Sonia Livingstone, social psychologist

Susan Cain, quiet revolutionary

Tim Flannery, carbon-negative tech scholar

Tshering Tobgay, former Prime Minister of Bhutan

 

With them, a number of artists will also join us at TEDSummit, including:

Djazia Satour, singer

ELEW, pianist and DJ

KT Tunstall, singer and songwriter

Min Kym, virtuoso violinist

Radio Science Orchestra, space-music orchestra

Yilian Cañizares, singer and songwriter

 

Registration for TEDSummit is open for active members of our various communities: TED conference members, Fellows, past TED speakers, TEDx organizers, Educators, Partners, Translators and more. If you’re part of one of these communities and would like to attend, please visit the TEDSummit website.

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