Entries by Angela

Mar 2014

Isabel Allende

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Allende presents a challenge to her audience – that they live a life of passion, no matter what they’re age. Allende talks about some of the fears that she has faced herself as she’s aged and about the choice that she made to make sure that her life was lived fully and without regrets for what might have been.

And, on a final note, retirement in Spanish is jubilación. Jubilation. Celebration. We have paid our dues. We have contributed to society. Now it’s our time, and it’s a great time.Unless you are ill or very poor, you have choices. I have chosen to stay passionate,engaged with an open heart. I am working on it every day. Want to join me?

Isabel Allende: How to live passionately—no matter your age | TED

17 Sep, 2014

Hans & Ola Rosling

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Global health expert, Hans Rosling, challenges his audience with an interactive quiz to see just how much they actually know about the world. Then his son Ola, the founder of Gapminder Foundation, presents 4 tips on how to become more mindful of the world in which we live.

Now the question, is this important? Yeah, it’s important to understand poverty, extreme poverty and how to fight it, and how to bring girls in school. When we realize that actually it’s succeeding, we can understand it. But is it important for everyone else who cares about the rich end of this scale? I would say yes, extremely important, for the same reason. If you have a fact-based worldview of today, you might have a chance to understand what’s coming next in the future.

How not to be ignorant about the world | Hans and Ola Rosling

Mar 2014

Shubhendu Sharma

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Shubhendu Sharma, a reforestation expert, presents a lecture on a method that he has devised that has allowed for the process of the regrowth of forests to take place ten times faster than would be seen in the natural world. Because of this he says that he is hopeful that there might be hope for the destroyed forests to thrive once again.

This methodology, I believe, has a potential. By sharing, we can actually bring back our native forests.

Shubhendu Sharma: How to grow a tiny forest anywhere

Jim Holt

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Writer and philosopher, Jim Holt, talks about the origins of the question “Why does the universe exist?” and the path that has been taken by theorists to answer it.

So I’m going to talk about the mystery of existence, the puzzle of existence, where we are now in addressing it, and why you should care, and I hope you do care.

Why does the universe exist? | Jim Holt | TED

Jul 2014

Jill Shargaa

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Jill Shargaa, comedian and designer, presents a talk to challenge her audience to reconsider the usage of the word “awesome”. She points out that we are no longer using it properly in the English language. Shargaa seeks to return the “awe” back into the word.

So when you use the word “awesome” to describe the most mundane of things, you’re taking away the very power of the word. This author says, “Snowy days or finding money in your pants is awesome.”

Jill Shargaa: Please, please, people. Let's put the 'awe' back in 'awesome'

Oct 2012

Colin Grant

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Author and historian, Colin Grant, talks about the father that abused and rejected him to the point where he felt moved to kill him. However, he explains about how this man’s choices effected his path in life and how he eventually came to find a heart of forgiveness or compassion.

Each generation builds up an edifice which they are reluctant or sometimes unable to disassemble, but in the writing, my version of the story began to change, and it was detached from me. I lost my hatred of my father. I did no longer want him to die or to murder him, and I felt free, much freer than I’d ever felt before. And I wonder whether that freedness could be transferred to him.

Colin Grant: The son of a difficult father

Mar 2014

Zak Ebrahim

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Zak Ebrahim, the son of one of the terrorists that planned the attack on the World Trade Centers, presents a talk on how a person that is brought up in a world of violence and dogma can choose another path. Despite being groomed for a life of hatred, he talks about how he chose another direction for his life and how others can do the same.

For the victims of terrorism, I will speak out against these senseless acts and condemn my father’s actions. And with that simple fact, I stand here as proof that violence isn’t inherent in one’s religion or race, and the son does not have to follow the ways of his father. I am not my father.

I am the son of a terrorist. Here's how I chose peace | Zak Ebrahim

Uldus Bakhtiozina

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Photographer and artist, Uldus Bakhtiozina, presents a lighthearted talk on her native home in Russia. Using photography, she pokes fun and shows the audience how we should never take ourselves too seriously.

I’m 27 years old. For Russian society, I’m an old maid and hopeless to ever get married. That’s why you see me in a Mexican fighter mask, in the wedding dress, all desperate in my garden. But remember, irony is the key, and this is actually to motivate girls to fight for goals, for dreams, and change stereotypes.

Uldus Bakhtiozina: Wry photos that turn stereotypes upside down

15 Jul, 2014

Dan Barasch

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Dan Barasch gives a talk on a project that he is working on with his partner, James Ramsey. Together they have taken an abandoned trolley terminal in underground New York City and have begun to design a park that will thrive there. With the help of modern technology to bring the sunlight into the underground, this park and its vegetation will be able to live even in winter.

If my grandparents and my parents were really focused on building the city up and out, I think my generation is focused on reclaiming the spaces that we already have, rediscovering our shared history, and reimagining how we can make our communities more interesting, more beautiful and more just.

Dan Barasch: A park underneath the hustle and bustle of New York City

Oct 2013

Jackie Savitz

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Savitz, a marine biologist and ocean advocate, gives a talk on the most important ways that we can go about cleaning up and healing our oceans so that fisheries can begin to produce more heavily. In doing so she believes that we will not only help to preserve our oceans and its wildlife but will also be able to look towards fixing the hunger problems all across our world.

We know that we can manage our fisheries sustainably. We know that we can produce healthy meals for hundreds of millions of people that don’t use the land, that don’t use much water, have a low carbon footprint, and are cost-effective. We know that saving the oceans can feed the world, and we need to start now.

Jackie Savitz: Save the oceans, feed the world!

Mar 2014

Andrew Solomon

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Solomon, a writer on politics, psychology and culture, presents a talk on life’s adversities and how we can experience growth through the most difficult times in our lives.

The gay activist Harvey Milk was once asked by a younger gay man what he could do to help the movement, and Milk said, “Go out and tell someone.” There’s always somebody who wants to confiscate our humanity, and there are always stories that restore it. If we live out loud, we can trounce the hatred and expand everyone’s lives.

How the worst moments in our lives make us who we are | Andrew Solomon

Chris Kluwe

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Kluwe, a former Minnesota Vikings punter, talks  about a new version of augmented reality where the audience watching from home can get a sense that they are actually right there on the field with the players. He states that it is a new way for the fans to participate in the action, however, there are even more important uses for the technology.

But the question I ask you is, is that’s all that we’re content to use augmented reality for? Are we going to use it solely for our panem, our circenses, our entertainment as normal? Because I believe that we can use augmented reality for something more. I believe we can use augmented reality as a way to foster more empathy within the human species itself, by literally showing someone what it looks like to walk a mile in another person’s shoes.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgMOJC5R4F

Jan 2014

Sebastian Junger

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Junger speaks about the experiences he has had alongside of American soldiers in Restrepo and the observations that he has made when war creates a strong connection amongst them. The author poses that many soldiers end up missing war due to the isolation that they experience upon returning home.

Compared to that, war, psychologically, in some ways, is easy, compared to that kind of alienation. That’s why they miss it, and that’s what we have to understand and in some ways fix in our society.

Sebastian Junger: Why veterans miss war

Wes Moore

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Moore, an Army paratrooper and captain, recounts the difficulties he experienced upon returning from Afghanistan to the United States. He talks to his audience about how to speak to veterans about their experiences abroad and encourages them to ask veterans for their stories and to take the time to listen to what they have to say.

We signed up because we love this country we represent. We signed up because we believe in the idea and we believe in the people to our left and to our right. And the only thing we then ask is that “thank you for your service” needs to be more than just a quote break, that “thank you for your service” means honestly digging in to the people who have stepped up simply because they were asked to.

Wes Moore: How to talk to veterans about the war

Mar 2014

Jon Mooallem

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Mooallem tells the story of how Theodore Roosevelt spared the life of a black bear and thus inspired the creation of what is now called the “teddy bear”. The author explains how stories like this effect the existence and survival of various animals around the world.

In a world of conservation reliance, those stories have very real consequences, because now, how we feel about an animal affects its survival more than anything that you read about in ecology textbooks. Storytelling matters now. Emotion matters. Our imagination has become an ecological force.

The strange story of the teddy bear and what it reveals | Jon Mooallem

Kitra Cahana

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Cahana, a photojournalist and self-proclaimed vagabond, presents a brief look into her life on the road where she uses her art to show the lifestyle of nomads, hitchhikers, vagrants and tramps.Through her eyes and her camera she gives her audience a small idea of what it is like to live a wandering existence.

Until we live in a society where every human is assured dignity in their labor so that they can work to live well, not only work to survive, there will always be an element of those who seek the open road as a means of escape, of liberation and, of course, of rebellion.

A glimpse of life on the road | Kitra Cahana

Stephen Friend

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Friend, an open science advocate, presents a talk on the reason why some family members will contract certain inherited diseases through genetics while others will remain healthy. He talks about the project he is currently working on – the Resilience Project – which is a massive effort to collect genetic materials that may help decode inherited disorders.

Most of us spend our lives, when it comes to health and disease, acting as if we’re voyeurs. We delegate the responsibility for the understanding of our disease, for the treatment of our disease, to anointed experts. In order for us to get this project to work, we need individuals to step up in a different role and to be engaged, to realize this dream, this open crowd-sourced project.

Stephen Friend: The hunt for "unexpected genetic heroes"

20 Mar, 2014

Yoruba Richen

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Richen, a filmaker that focuses on the feminist, LGBT & African American communities, presents a talk on the similarities between the gay rights and civil rights movements. Despite the tensions that can be found between the two, she argues that they are in fact very similar and that both movements need to work together towards a common cause and continue to push one another forward towards a better future.

So as these movements continue on, and as freedom struggles around the world continue on, let’s remember that not only are they interconnected, but they must support and enhance each other for us to be truly victorious.

Yoruba Richen: What the gay rights movement learned from the civil rights movement

Mar 2014

Sting

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Sting gives a presentation on the early life he spent in a shipyard and the way it would eventually come to influence his music as he found inspiration in the lives of his fellow shipyard workers. He also talks about his upcoming Broadway musical and presents several selections from the work.

The fact is, whether you’re a rock star or whether you’re a welder in a shipyard, or a tribesman in the upper Amazon, or the queen of England, at the end of the day, we’re all in the same boat.

Sting: How I started writing songs again

20 Apr, 2014

Stella Young

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Young, a disability activist, leads a talk on what she calls “inspiration porn” – society’s habit of making disabled people into inspirational figures. She challenges our culture to raise their expectations of what disabled men and women are capable of doing and to look upon disability as the “norm” and not the exception.

Disability doesn’t make you exceptional, but questioning what you think you know about it does.

I'm not your inspiration, thank you very much | Stella Young