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What I Learned About Life from Death
Jane lost her husband at the age of 47. This experience transformed every aspect of her life. She believes this level of transformation is available to every single person out there. When we don't talk about death and remind ourselves daily, (maybe hourly) that we are going to die, we run the risk of taking this magical gift called life for granted and getting all tangled up in caring about what doesn't matter.
The Geography of Inequality
American cities were not always racially segregated. Minneapolis is no exception. But in the early 20th century, something called the ‘racial covenant’ began remaking the geography of cities across the country. These covenants were legal clauses that prevented people of color from owning or occupying property. And while covenants have been illegal for over a half-century, their legacy lives on. Today, Minneapolis has some of the worst racial disparities in the United States. In this talk, Kevin Ehrman-Solberg shows how these contemporary disparities are rooted in the spatial practices of the past.
Can Virtual Reality Change Your Mind?
In this talk, Thong shares insights on how VR experiences are impacting training and development, health care, and even our own self perception. Virtual reality even has the capacity to create empathy and strengthen how we understand ourselves - and each other.
The Poet Talks of Freedom
Join Tish Jones as she takes a deep dive into Spoken Word as a radical practice of freedom, critical dialogue, knowing and community building. Learn more about the increasingly popular form of expression and its function as a means of liberation for historically oppressed and marginalized communities. Most importantly, get free.
Be better than fine
In 2014 writer, podcast host and non-profit founder, Nora McInerny, miscarried her second baby, lost her Dad to esophageal cancer and her husband to a brain tumor all within 6 hellish weeks. Bringing humor and insight to modern grief, Nora explores the truth behind the question "How are you?" and the answer "fine.”
It’s okay not to be the center of the Universe
Playwright May Lee-Yang offers insights on the burdens placed on artists from underrepresented communities and how we can avoid (accidentally) censoring artmaking.
This Unlikely 1960s Space Tech Can Help Save the Bees
One of humanity’s best and hardest-working friends has existed with us for millions of years, so why is our friend suddenly facing the risk of death and what space-race technology can help prevent it? Highlighted by the U.S. Department of Energy, National Geographic, and Al Jazeera, Rob Davis reveals an unexpected and once-in-a-generation size opportunity to help our hardworking friends. Could a system that nourishes and enriches life on Earth also increase economic prosperity? This talk focuses on bees, pollinators, energy, sustainability, habitat, monarchs, solar, birds, solar farm, agriculture
Revealing our brain’s super-listening powers
Are you listening more, but enjoying it less? In “Your Brain Hears More Than You Think,” Dr. Roger Dumas invokes The Doors and Sir Arthur Sullivan in his warning of digital audio’s Dark Side. He also offers hope in the form of cutting-edge technology that will forever change the way you hear music. He met John Lennon. He taught Prince how to program Synth. He was on the team that composed Funkytown. The work he wants to debut on the TEDx stage thrills him even more and will bring insights into how we subconsciously consume sound from the great artists we admire - the brain's relationship with music.
Singing is Your Birthright
Ariella Forstein, professional Songstress & Vocal Empowerment Coach shows us how everyone can sing, and that the act of learning to accept, and love your voice, and also your whole self, enables true self-confidence and well being to soar.
How Deep Brain Devices Open New Research into Brain Diseases
How do we find out what's going on in the brain, so that we can help people with brain disorders? Adding brain-sensing circuitry into deep-brain stimulation devices enables new scientific research into chronic brain diseases and allows prototyping of advanced approaches to manage patients' symptoms. This talk will describe a new investigational device developed to probe more deeply into the day-to-day function of the brain in patients suffering from debilitating brain diseases. This technology may allow clinicians and scientists to discover new paradigms for managing these diseases and their symptoms.
The Power of the Black Experience in the Classroom
Keith Mayes makes a compelling case for how the black experience in the classroom could have remarkable impact.
Great Cities Begin With Sidewalks
Re-thinking everyday sidewalks as the foundation of urbanism: how cities depend on sidewalks for public health, mobility, and urban design. It's easy to overlook the sidewalk. But so much depends on how we design our sidewalks, streets, and intersections. From the freedom to get around, to safety and public health, to the rich potential of people-centered urban design, understanding how sidewalks shape our lives is the key to designing great cities.
Why I Wear Purple
Active in the local, national and international arts scene, Andrea will pose the question: How do we center on our most marginalized people to see a new, more sympathetic society?
3D Printed Prosthetic Hands for the World
By 2050, there will be 50 million limb amputations all over the world! The present cost of a prosthetic hand with limited functionality is around $50,000. Desineni Subbaram Naidu has a vision to create an open source, affordable, and 3-D printed prosthetic hand with most functionality using surface based electromyography (s-EMG) to give hope and happiness to those millions of amputees.
The Human Need for Belonging
Child welfare veteran Amelia Franck Meyer describes the human need to belong and to be claimed. When we are disconnected from our tribe, and we feel as though we must make it on our own, it can have devastating life-long impacts. Listen to Amelia share the profound power of human connection.