Larry Lessig has been referenced twice this morning, first by Wikihouse's Alastair Parvin and secondly by the musician Amanda Palmer. So it seems only right and proper that the Harvard Law professor should round off this session of TED2013. He's here to talk about Lesterland, a fictional land with a population of 311 million people of whom th...

Lawrence Lessig may be running for President of the United States. But he isn’t looking to big donors to fund his exploratory campaign. Rather than do the usual candidate song and dance of courting wealthy donors and corporations, Lessig is using the Kickstarter method for his campaign. He’s collecting small donations from individuals thr...

When it comes to US politics, many are frustrated that gridlock and grandstanding so often substitute for the hard job of getting things done. Just 14% of Americans say they approve of the work that Congress is doing, according to a recent Gallup poll. (Which, as a recent TED speaker notes, is lower than the approval rating for cockroaches, thou...

Larry Lessig is about to complete a 185-mile walk across the state of New Hampshire. He began this journey on January 11 and has walked despite rain, sleet, snow, ice and freezing cold, as the temperature in this state ranges anywhere from the lower thirties to the negative teens in the month of January. Lessig undertook this walk to hamm...

Please enjoy your weekly roundup of TED-related news: This week, the New York Times took a look at Krista Donaldson’s nonprofit, D-Rev, which designs medical equipment for the developing world. (Watch her  talk about their $80 prosthetic knees.) The article reads, "D-Rev is one of dozens of small Silicon Valley start-ups aiming to use marke...

“Once upon a time, there was a place called Lesterland,” Lawrence Lessig begins today’s talk. “Of its 311 million people, it turns out 144,000 are called Lester,” Lessig says. In Lesterland, this .05% of the population is granted extraordinary power. Each election cycle, there’s a general election, in which the people get to vote, and a Leste...

One of the things that baffles mere mortals about the 2008 financial crisis is that no one seems to have been held accountable for what went on. Sure, there’ve been a few public mea culpas, and sure, multimillion-dollar fines have been paid. But actual admissions of guilt? Not so much. A grand total of one Wall Streeter has gone to jail for his ...

Freeman Hrabowski was a 9th grader in Birmingham, Alabama, when he heard a dynamic, impassioned speaker at church -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time, King was organizing a march for children, and Hrabowski begged his parents to let him be a part of it. Hrabowski won their blessing to march in the Children’s Crusade, a pivotal moment i...

Day 3 at TED2014 was dense with science, design, conversation. Here's a quick recap of some highlights: Hugh Herr and Adrianne Haslet-Davis's surprise dance Hugh Herr is a bionics designer and multiple amputee. He gave a talk that was half mind-blowing -- full of extraordinary advances in prosthetics, like bionic designs that produce t...

Before we can tackle climate change, financial reform, education reform or, well, anything, there is a single issue that we in the United States must confront. As legal activist Lawrence Lessig says in today’s talk, before we can bring about change on any of the thousands of issues that matter to us, we must change a central corruption at the ro...

As usual, the TED community has lots of news to share this week. Below, some highlights. Surface-level brain stimulation. The delivery of an electric current to the part of the brain involved in movement control, known as deep brain stimulation, is sometimes used to treat people with Parkinson’s disease, depression, epilepsy and obsessive...

From all the breathless hype that surrounds the topic, you'd be forgiven for thinking that disruptive innovation was a common force throughout the world. Reality proves otherwise. In this session, we brought together a collection of individuals who have some right to the title of disruptor. Their work pushes at the boundaries of what's expected ...

On Friday, Aaron Swartz -- the 26-year-old internet innovator who helped create RSS and had a hand in the building of Reddit -- was found dead in his apartment in an apparent suicide. Swartz, who suffered from depression, had reportedly found out just days before that a plea bargain deal with federal prosecutors had fallen apart. A longtime ...

By Liz Jacobs and Ben Lillie Taking stock of our moment in history helps us better understand ourselves, our societies and the present moment itself  -- which often gets lost in the temptation to look backwards or forwards. And at TED2014: The Next Chapter we're doing plenty of both. But we're also designating this All-Stars session to th...

TED Talks are available in 102 languages, from Albanian to Vietnamese, thanks to the tireless work of our volunteer translators. So far, more than 10,000 volunteers have created upwards of 44,000 talk translations — and today, the TED Blog brings you a Q&A with one of them. Here, meet Wataru Narita of Tokyo, Japan. 1. What do you do b...

Just a few of the intriguing headlines involving members of the TED community this week: Jill Sobule's new album, Dottie's Charms, is streaming free at Harper's. Each song is inspired by a charm on a vintage bracelet, with lyrics penned by a writer Jill admires, including Jonathan Lethem and Sam Lipsyte. (Watch Jill sing "Global warming's t...

Last week we announced our first-ever video audition for TED. Make a one-minute application video to get started -- video deadline is April 25, 2011, at 11:59pm Eastern. Finalists will be invited to our May 24 audition in New York City. (Get more details, and learn how to enter.) As the entries start coming in, TED's Content Director, Kelly...

Today, we are absolutely ecstatic to announce the speaker program for TED2013, themed “The Young. The Wise. The Undiscovered.” With speakers ranging from a deep-sea explorer to a beatboxer, economists to a roboticist, from a photo journalists to an eco-designer to a yo-yo master, many of this year’s speakers have spent decades building their...

Drew Curtis is not a politician. The curator of Fark.com, the legendary online community of news jokes and funny Photoshops, he proudly proclaims this fact on homepage of his latest website. This declaration is only surprising because, just a few inches above, the intention of the website is revealed: “Drew Curtis for Governor.” See, poli...

Today on TED.com, you’ll notice some changes. That’s because we have launched our first major redesign since the site debuted in 2007, back when online video was just a twinkle in the Internet’s eye. You might notice that this redesign responds to the things that you, the TED community, have told us on repeat. First: You need TED to be as ea...

Why government leaders should publish the data they're collecting -- and why citizens everywhere should push them to do so. Think about governments and data and your mind likely turns to secrecy, surveillance, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning. And it’s true: as long as we've had governments they've gathered data on us, and lots of it. Now a newi...

Counting the days until TED2013 starts on February 25? In the meantime, curl up with a book by one of the talented, scholarly, funny and wise speakers who will grace the stage in Long Beach, California. These books are organized below by session. And make sure to tune in to the TED Blog starting on the 25th for exclusive -- and extensive -- live...

Find repose by exciting the mind. Some of the world's leading thinkers offer the books that inspired them and their work. Skim the list for your favorite speakers, or get nerdy on a topic you've always wanted to know more about. Below find 52 books, recommended by TED speakers. Creativity Creative Confidence, by Tom Kelley and David Kelley Cr...

All TED Talks are good. Why do only some go viral? Over the last year, a human behavior consultancy called Science of People set out to answer this question. To do so, says founder Vanessa Van Edwards, they polled 760 volunteers, asking them to rate hundreds of hours of TED Talks, looking for specific nonverbal and body language patterns....

In 2013, TED published more than 250 talks, each with an idea worth spreading. And yet, certain ideas seemed to resonate throughout the year, as if speakers at different events were singing parts of the same choral symphony. As 2013 draws to a close, here is a look at some of the big ideas we parsed this year. Consider it the rousing finale ...