What is a soul? Lesley Hazleton, an "accidental theologist," prodded the TEDSummit audience with this provocative question, tracing the cultural, religious and societal origins of a remarkably intangible human hallmark. The body and soul used to be considered two equal physical entities -- in fact, Descartes theorized the soul was located in...

A few years ago, Lesley Hazleton, self-described “accidental theologist,” found herself waking each morning with the same question: What happened to Muhammad the night he received the revelation of the Koran? An agnostic Jew, Hazleton was writing a biography of the man who stood in the desert outside of Mecca in the year 610 at the moment th...

The core mystical moment of Islam took place in the year 610, or “half the world and almost half of history away,” as Lesley Hazleton, biographer of Muhammad, puts it. On a hot desert night, this previously ordinary man received the first revelation of the Koran on a mountain outside Mecca. “What struck me even more than what happened was...

In her luminous TEDxRainier talk, Lesley Hazleton, a writer and “accidental theologist,” described herself as “a tourist” in the Koran, and shared her discovery of the musicality, ambiguity, and depth of a text known by name to billions, but read intimately by far fewer. We met Lesley by phone and asked her to share more of her impressions o...

"It’s about discarding assumptions about the Middle East, Latin America, and the way you think the world works," Nassim Assefi described in an interview before we all got to Edinburgh for TEDGlobal 2013. This session, which she co-curated with fellow TED Fellow Gabriella Gomez-Mont, features a host of speakers who'll be prompting us to think dif...

TEDGlobal 2013, themed “Think Again,” takes place June 10-14, which may be too long to wait. So until then, we’ve compiled a list of conference speakers who tweet -- an amazing 61 of them. Start following these bold thinkers now -- individually or in a single click -- so you can get to know them before they’re on the TEDGlobal stage. San...

TEDGlobal 2013: Think Again is right around the corner -- and the program is packed with illustrious speakers addressing some of the most challenging and fascinating questions we face today. So how should you prepare for this influx of ideas from politics, science, the arts and beyond? To familiarize you with our speakers’ past work and poin...

TEDSummit is a gathering of TED's tribes -- our speaker community, volunteer translators, TED Fellows, TEDx organizers, partners and  more. In Session 1, we shared mainstage talks that sparkled with optimism for humanity -- now and deep into our unknown future. Ideas that stand the test of time. TED's curator, Chris Anderson, opened TEDSummit...

The number is 110: One hundred and ten past and new TED speakers are part of our newest conference, TEDSummit, happening in Banff, Canada, 26–30 June 2016. And you are invited to join us! Some of the most popular TED speakers of all time, including Dan Pink, David Gallo, Esther Perel, Kelly and Jane McGonigal, Pico Iyer and dozens more...

Few sensations feel better than when your mind does a backflip and, all of a sudden, you are suddenly able to see things in new and unexpected ways. At TEDGlobal 2013, themed “Think Again,” you’ll have this feeling often. "The approach we adopted," explains TEDGlobal curator Bruno Giussani, "is to take a closer look at the global remix happeni...

Session 6 of TEDGlobal 2013 has a captivating title: "World on Its Head." Guest curated by Nassim Assefi and Gabriella Gómez-Mont -- both from the inaugural class of TEDGlobal 2009 Fellows -- the session will be a chance to turn our conceptions of the Middle East and Latin America upside down, and to rethink staid assumptions about politics, r...

Three fascinating speakers have been added to the lineup for TEDGlobal 2013, which kicks off in Edinburgh, Scotland, June 10 to 14. First, Anne-Marie Slaughter, who exploded the conversation about women’s work-life balance with her July/August 2012 The Atlantic article, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All,” will join the conference to lend her e...