Age and Ageism
Ashton Applewhite: Let’s end ageism
It’s not the passage of time that makes it so hard to get older. It’s ageism, a prejudice that pits us against our future selves — and each other. Ashton Applewhite urges us to dismantle the dread and mobilize against the last socially acceptable prejudice. ‘Aging is not a problem to be fixed or a disease to be cured,’ she says. ‘It is a natural, powerful, lifelong process that unites us all.’” – TED2017
Jared Diamond: How societies can grow old better
“There’s an irony behind the latest efforts to extend human life: It’s no picnic to be an old person in a youth-oriented society. Older people can become isolated, lacking meaningful work and low on funds. In this intriguing talk, Jared Diamond looks at how many different societies treat their elders — some better, some worse – and suggests we all take advantage of experience.” – TED2013
Sophie Andrews: The Best Way to Help is Often Just to Listen
“A 24-hour helpline in the UK known as Samaritans helped Sophie Andrews become a survivor of abuse rather than a victim. Now she’s paying the favor back as the founder of The Silver Line, a helpline that supports lonely and isolated older people. In a powerful, personal talk, she shares why the simple act of listening (instead of giving advice) is often the best way to help someone in need.– TEDMED 2017
Disability
Stella Young: I’m not Your Inspiration, Thank You Very Much
“Stella Young is a comedian and journalist who happens to go about her day in a wheelchair — a fact that doesn’t, she’d like to make clear, automatically turn her into a noble inspiration to all humanity. In this very funny talk, Young breaks down society’s habit of turning disabled people into ‘inspiration porn.'” – TEDxSydney
Andrew Solomon: Depression, the Secret We Share
“‘The opposite of depression is not happiness, but vitality, and it was vitality that seemed to seep away from me in that moment.’ In a talk equal parts eloquent and devastating, writer Andrew Solomon takes you to the darkest corners of his mind during the years he battled depression. That led him to an eye-opening journey across the world to interview others with depression — only to discover that, to his surprise, the more he talked, the more people wanted to tell their own stories.”– TEDxMet
Maysoon Zayid: I got 99 Problems … Palsy is Just One
“‘I have cerebral palsy. I shake all the time,’ Maysoon Zayid announces at the beginning of this exhilarating, hilarious talk. (Really, it’s hilarious.) ‘I’m like Shakira meets Muhammad Ali.’ With grace and wit, the Arab-American comedian takes us on a whistle-stop tour of her adventures as an actress, stand-up comic, philanthropist and advocate for the disabled.” – TEDWomen 2013
Sangu Delle: There’s No Shame in Taking Care of Your Mental Health
“When stress got to be too much for TED Fellow Sangu Delle, he had to confront his own deep prejudice: that men shouldn’t take care of their mental health. In a personal talk, Delle shares how he learned to handle anxiety in a society that’s uncomfortable with emotions. As he says: ‘Being honest about how we feel doesn’t make us weak — it makes us human.'”– TEDLagos
Judith Heumann: Our Fight for Disability Rights – and Why We’re Not Done Yet
“Four decades ago, Judith Heumann helped to lead a groundbreaking protest called the Section 504 sit-in — in which disabled-rights activists occupied a federal building for almost a month, demanding greater accessibility for all. In this personal, inspiring talk, Heumann tells the stories behind the protest — and reminds us that, 40 years on, there’s still work left to do.”– TEDxMidAtlantic
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ)
Yoruba Richen: What the Gay Rights Movement Learned from the Civil Rights Movement
“As a member of both the African American and LGBT communities, filmmaker Yoruba Richen is fascinated with the overlaps and tensions between the gay rights and the civil rights movements. She explores how the two struggles intertwine and propel each other forward — and, in an unmissable argument, she dispels a myth about their points of conflict. A powerful reminder that we all have a stake in equality.” – TED2014
Natalie Perry: A Queerspawn View on Closeted LGBTQ Families
“When Natalie’s father came out to her immediate family 20 years ago, they all stepped into the closet. As a former Chief Judge for the Idaho State Court of Appeals, maintaining his employment and hard-earned success was vital to their family unit. Natalie chronicles the highs and lows of growing up in a closeted gay family in one of the most conservative states in the country. Natalie is an author and LGBTQ+ family advocate. Her book, Dad #1, Dad #2: A Queerspawn View from the Closet, is the first memoir written by a child growing up in a closeted LGBTQ+ family. Natalie also raises awareness for LGBTQ+ identities through art.”– TEDxBoise
Jackson Bird: How to Talk (and Listen) to Transgender People
“Gender should be the least remarkable thing about someone, but transgender people are still too often misunderstood. To help those who are scared to ask questions or nervous about saying the wrong thing, Jackson Bird shares a few ways to think about trans issues. And in this funny, frank talk, he clears up a few misconceptions about pronouns, transitioning, bathrooms and more.” – TEDMED 2017
LZ Granderson: The Myth of the Gay Agenda
“In a funny talk with an urgent message, LZ Granderson points out the absurdity in the idea that there’s a “gay lifestyle,” much less a “gay agenda.” What’s actually on his agenda? Being a good partner — and being a good parent.” – TEDxGrandRapids
Fox Fisher: My Transgender Experience
“Fox Fisher is a filmmaker who documents the vitality and diversity of the trans community. At TEDxBrighton, he reveals how he came to the decision to medically transition from female-bodied to male-bodied, and how that kickstarted a mission to help tell the unique stories of gender-variant people. It’s a narrative, he says, made up of so much more than surgery stories and hyped-up caricatures.”– TedBlog
Alice Miller: The Importance of Being Alice
“For years, Alice Miller worked hard to be “just a normal guy,” doing everything she could to squelch her feelings that she actually ought to be a girl. But those feelings never went away. After twenty years in the CIA, two marriages, two kids, and in the middle of a distinguished academic career, Alice transitioned to live full-time as a woman. In a moving talk from TEDxStanford, she explains why.” – TedBlog
Geena Rocero: Why I Must Come Out
When fashion model Geena Rocero first saw a photo of herself in a bikini, “I thought … you have arrived!” As she reveals, that’s because she was born with the gender assignment “boy.” In this moving talk, Rocero tells the story of becoming who she always knew she was.” – TED2014
Race and Ethnicity
Vernā Myers: How to Overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them
“Our biases can be dangerous, even deadly — as we’ve seen in the cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner, in Staten Island, New York. Diversity advocate Vernā Myers looks closely at some of the subconscious attitudes we hold toward out-groups. She makes a plea to all people: Acknowledge your biases. Then move toward, not away from, the groups that make you uncomfortable. In a funny, impassioned, important talk, she shows us how.” – TEDX Beacon Street
Kimberlé Crenshaw: The Urgency of Intersectionality
“Now more than ever, it’s important to look boldly at the reality of race and gender bias — and understand how the two can combine to create even more harm. Kimberlé Crenshaw uses the term “intersectionality” to describe this phenomenon; as she says, if you’re standing in the path of multiple forms of exclusion, you’re likely to get hit by both. In this moving talk, she calls on us to bear witness to this reality and speak up for victims of prejudice.” – TEDWomen 2016
Alice Goffman: How we’re priming some kids for college – and others for prison
In the United States, two institutions guide teenagers on the journey to adulthood: college and prison. Sociologist Alice Goffman spent six years in a troubled Philadelphia neighborhood and saw first-hand how teenagers of African-American and Latino backgrounds are funneled down the path to prison — sometimes starting with relatively minor infractions. In an impassioned talk she asks, “Why are we offering only handcuffs and jail time?” – TED2015
Dorothy Roberts: The problem with race-based medicine
“Social justice advocate and law scholar Dorothy Roberts has a precise and powerful message: Race-based medicine is bad medicine. Even today, many doctors still use race as a medical shortcut; they make important decisions about things like pain tolerance based on a patient’s skin color instead of medical observation and measurement. In this searing talk, Roberts lays out the lingering traces of race-based medicine — and invites us to be a part of ending it. ‘It is more urgent than ever to finally abandon this backward legacy,’ she says, ‘and to affirm our common humanity by ending the social inequalities that truly divide us.’” – TEDMED 2015
David R. Williams: How racism makes us sick
“Why does race matter so profoundly for health? David R. Williams developed a scale to measure the impact of discrimination on well-being, going beyond traditional measures like income and education to reveal how factors like implicit bias, residential segregation and negative stereotypes create and sustain inequality. In this eye-opening talk, Williams presents evidence for how racism is producing a rigged system – and offers hopeful examples of programs across the US that are working to dismantle discrimination.” – TEDMED 2016
Intersectionality of Weight and Healthcare Equity
Joy Nash: A Fat Rant
“Actress Joy Nash provides a humorous and wise introduction to fat acceptance.” – Association for Size Diversity and Health
Alain Gsponer: Because Who is Perfect by Pro Infirmis
“Disabled mannequins will be eliciting astonished looks from passers-by on Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse today. Between the perfect mannequins, there will be figures with scoliosis or brittle bone disease modelling the latest fashions. One will have shortened limbs; the other a malformed spine. The campaign has been devised for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities by Pro Infirmis, an organisation for the disabled. Entitled “Because who is perfect? Get closer.”, it is designed to provoke reflection on the acceptance of people with disabilities. Director Alain Gsponer has captured the campaign as a short film.” – Association for Size Diversity and Health
Jill Andrews: Fat Shaming and the Thin Epidemic
“Jill Andrew’s lively body image talk addresses fat shaming, fat euphemisms (i.e. plus fashion), and strategies to address what she calls the pervasive “thin epidemic.” Jill, a PhD student at York University, draws a parallel between ‘fatness’ and ‘blackness’ as disruptions to dominant thin centric/Eurocentric body ideals. Jill’s key message: ‘Fat is a description not a prescription, nor an invitation for hate!'” – TEDX Talks
Linda Bacon: Health at Every Size – Health Providers Edition
“Linda Bacon presents: Health At Every Size® – Health Providers Edition.” – Association for Size Diversity and Health
Religion
Kwame Anthony Appiah: Is Religion Good or Bad? (This is a Trick Question)
“Plenty of good things are done in the name of religion, and plenty of bad things too. But what is religion, exactly — is it good or bad, in and of itself? Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah offers a generous, surprising view.” – TEDSalon NY2014
Dan Dennett: Let’s Teach Religion – All Religion – in Schools
“Philosopher Dan Dennett calls for religion — all religion — to be taught in schools, so we can understand its nature as a natural phenomenon. Then he takes on The Purpose-Driven Life, disputing its claim that, to be moral, one must deny evolution.” – TED2006
Yassmin Abdel-Magied: What Does My Headscarf Mean to You?
“What do you think when you look at this speaker? Well, think again. (And then again.) In this funny, honest, empathetic talk, Yassmin Abdel-Magied challenges us to look beyond our initial perceptions, and to open doors to new ways of supporting others.”– TEDX SouthBank
