When it comes to setting grand worldwide goals for development, it’s easy to imagine global leaders in suits, wheeling and dealing in the backrooms of a UN summit, without actually accomplishing much. But Jamie Drummond -- the executive director of ONE, which fights poverty and disease by supporting smart policies -- says that when world lea...

This Monday, Sept. 20, TED and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation bring us TEDxChange: a chance to evaluate the UN Millennium Development Goals, the progress that has been made, and the long, yet optimistic road ahead. The Millennium Development Goals include: Eradicating poverty and hunger Achieving universal primary education P...

About this event: TEDxChange 2013 – April 3 Convened by Melinda French Gates. Theme: Positive Disruption Disruption is usually unwelcome. It represents conflict, chaos, and potential danger. We discourage disruptive behavior in our homes and our societies, often favoring passivity and compliance. But disruption can be a positive – sometimes vital – ca...

On September 20, live in New York and webcast around the world, TEDxChange will examine the UN's Millennium Development Goals, or MDGs. (Watch TEDxDubai's video, above, for a preview.) Established 10 years ago in September 2000, the eight MDGs are an audacious set of goals for changing the world -- with an equally audacious target of 2015...

About this event: You are cordially invited to the next TEDxTheHague salon! Our March edition — Let There Be Light — is curated by TEDxTheHague regular Richard Pearson. Richard writes: "Light is how it all started. It travels so fast it is impossible to comprehend. We are at the business end of a light beam. It has the ability to pass through the eye and inst...

About this event: TEDxChange 2012 is a TEDx event co-organized by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and TED. Convened by Melinda French Gates and hosted by Chris Anderson, TEDxChange will focus on issues surrounding global health and development. TEDxChange type events are TEDx events hosted around the live webcast of TEDxChange, and also feature local spea...

Foreign Policy magazine has picked its annual list of the 100 Top Global Thinkers and, nestled among their ranks, are many a TED Speaker. Below, watch the talks from those who appear on the 2012 list, as well as what number on the list they occupy. 3. Bill Clinton talks “rebuilding Rwanda” and Hillary Clinton makes a surprise appearance a...

On September 20, TEDxChange will take a focused look at the UN's Millennium Development Goals. Established 10 years ago, the eight goals are: 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. 2: Achieve universal primary education. 3: Promote gender equality and empower women. 4: Reduce child mortality. 5: Improve maternal health. 6: Combat ...

The TED Fellows program is turning ten years old next year, and we are looking for our most ambitious class yet. We select people from every discipline and every country to be Fellows, and we give them support to scale their dreams and scale their impact. Apply to be a TED Fellow by August 26. Who are TED Fellows? Fellows are individua...

Mark Kendall has a new medical invention that will make anyone with a fear of needles very happy: the Nanopatch, a tiny square (smaller than a postage stamp) that can deliver a dose of vaccine. But beyond solving needle-phobia, the Nanopatch could solve many other problems that now keep vaccines from being completely effective. Kendall, a...

What is the effect of violence on a life's narrative? TED Fellow and photojournalist Jon Lowenstein has lived in the South Side of Chicago for about a decade -- first working as a teacher, photographer and community liaison at an elementary school and subsequently engaging with his African American neighbors to document life in this rapidly ch...

To commence TED Fellows Session 2, multi-hyphenate Paul Rucker takes the stage with his cello. (Spoiler alert: you will see him later in this writeup showcasing another artform.) Inspired by his mother, who learned to play the organ through a mail-order course, Rucker taught himself how to play this instrument. But right here on the TED Fell...

From an unexpected reason why malaria has not been eradicated to a bold argument for why businesses can be a powerful force in solving the world's problems, TEDGlobal 2013 brought so many opportunities for us to "Think Again," as citizens of a global world. Here, some incredible images taken on site during days 4 and 5 of the conference in Edinb...

Dan Pallotta has an unconventional view of nonprofits: To innovate and really make an impact, he thinks they should function with business-minded acumen. Says Pallotta (TED Talk: The way we think about charity is dead wrong), "You want to make $50 million selling violent video games to kids, go for it. We'll put you on the cover of Wired magazin...

About this event: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a strategic partner of the TEDx program, and together we teamed up for a very special project called TEDxChange -- an initiative devoted to ideas worth spreading in the areas of global health and development. The TEDxChange team works with TEDx organizers around the world to help facilitate meaningful d...

Every day, most of us do something morally indefensible -- we go about our lives without sending help to the 6.9 million children under the age of 5 who will die this year from poverty-related disease. In today’s talk, philosopher Peter Singer makes the case that ignoring these kids is as inhumane as ignoring a child who's been hit by a car on...

Founder of Acumen Fund Jacqueline Novogratz recently visited Pakistan (along with TED Curator Chris Anderson) to offer what help she could and work with local friends on their relief efforts. On returning to New York, she gave a short talk at TED HQ and shared the stories of the Pakistani people she met along with a profoundly touching video cre...

The first TED was held in 1984, the year George Orwell imagined in his classic novel. The second was held in 1990. In 2006, TED Talks were offered online for the first time, free to anyone across the world who wanted to watch. In 2009, TED moved to its current home in Long Beach, California. As we prepare for TED2013 -- the anticipation of th...

Research has found that having a backup plan might actually sabotage your efforts toward Plan A. Before you set up your safety net, read these lessons from women scientists. Having a fallback plan is generally considered a good thing. When it comes to applying for colleges, jobs or mortgages, we’ve probably all heard the advice, “Don’t put all ...

Here's how to encourage new medical innovation, says genetic researcher Geoffrey Siwo: Join forces with the people who need innovation the most, all over the world. When he was a young biology student in Njoro, Kenya, with a big idea but zero resources, the genetic scientist Geoffrey Siwo once tested and confirmed a radical idea on HIV drug res...

Social violence in Guatemala, Mexican and Central American migrant communities in the United States, the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, children with cerebral malaria in Uganda -- for the past decade, photographer Jon Lowenstein has been documenting the often violent and traumatic daily lives of individuals and communities living at the ...

Take a trip back to the future with this week's TED Radio Hour, as six TED speakers share their prophecies for what lies ahead. From curing cancer to self-driving cars, these TEDsters offer exciting visions for the future, but not without cautionary warnings. The episode starts with a walk down memory lane with Nicholas Negroponte, who made s...

Please enjoy your roundup of TED-related news: This one’s for the boys. Mark Ronson takes a break from making music to have some fun in Charli XCX’s video for “Boys.” You’ll find him (suavely) combing his hair, amid scenes of other male celebs, such as Wiz Khalifa, Riz Ahmed and Joe Jonas having a pillow fight or cuddling with puppies, in...

How should we start to tackle the Zika virus? MIT's José Gómez-Márquez and Lee Gehrke share their bright idea. Not enough is known about the Zika virus, but with links to brain inflammation and microcephaly, it’s clear that it has devastating effects -- and it isn’t going away any time soon. And there’s another issue: The medical community isn’...

Prize-winning novelist and MD Uzodinma Iweala traveled to Nigeria to talk to everyday people, doctors, government officials, activists, sex workers, even Femi Kuti -- Fela Kuti’s son -- about HIV/AIDS. Our Kind of People is his highly personal account of the AIDS epidemic and its transformative effect on love, relationships and humanity. ...

Below, some intriguing news highlights from the TED community over the past month: You’ve heard of Shark Week, but what about Mosquito Week? Bill Gates declares it a thing on his blog. (Watch the legendary talk in which Bill released mosquitos into the TED audience.) David Binder cleaned up in the Tony nominations today. His revival of...

I wish that you will help me recruit the largest army of community health workers the world has ever known, by creating the Community Health Academy, a global platform to train, empower and connect. The plan A billion people around the world lack access to health care, simply because they live too far from a doctor or clinic. For them, getting m...

About this event: TEDxChange is an event created out of a partnership between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the TEDx program. It is an initiative devoted to ideas worth spreading in the areas of global health and development. The TEDxChange team works with TEDx organizers around the world to help facilitate meaningful discussions on topics including...

In 2005, Bjorn Lomborg bounced onto the TED stage in Monterey to challenge the audience to think about "the biggest problems in the world." Author of the book The Skeptical Environmentalist and the director of the Copenhagen Consensus Centre, Lomborg promptly advised the somewhat startled audience to forget about global warming. If we really wan...

Did you know that you -- as in, anyone -- can nominate a visionary leader for this year’s TED Prize? Do you have a mentor with an incredible track record? A former teacher with a big idea for change? A colleague doing incredible work that could reach new heights if given more resources? A friend with the ability to inspire collaborative acti...