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What I learned from 2,000 obituaries

1,854,634 views |

Lux Narayan |

TEDNYC

• January 2017

Lux Narayan starts his day with scrambled eggs and the question: "Who died today?" Why? By analyzing 2,000 New York Times obituaries over a 20-month period, Narayan gleaned, in just a few words, what achievement looks like over a lifetime. Here he shares what those immortalized in print can teach us about a life well lived.

Lux Narayan starts his day with scrambled eggs and the question: "Who died today?" Why? By analyzing 2,000 New York Times obituaries over a 20-month period, Narayan gleaned, in just a few words, what achievement looks like over a lifetime. Here he shares what those immortalized in print can teach us about a life well lived.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Volunteer! In the word clouds created using New York Times obituaries, the most common intersection was "help." In the end, a life worth remembering in death is lived by making a difference and helping others. Start exploring interesting volunteering options on Help Guide!

About the speaker

Lux Narayan

See speaker profile

Lux Narayan is a perpetual learner of various things -- from origami and molecular gastronomy to stand-up and improv comedy.

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Unless you and your ancestors have been saving NYTimes obituary pages since the mid 19th century, you'd be hard put to find a comparable collection of the most fascinating personalities captured in print. Each biographical snapshot pulls you into the life of the person and makes one ponder: "For what will I be remembered?"

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The Economist Book of Obituaries

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Talk to the Newsroom: Obituaries Editor Bill McDonald

Bill McDonald, the obituaries editor at The Times, answered reader questions about how the newspaper covers, and plans coverage of, deaths of prominent people.

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"Margalit Fox on Life, Death, and the Best Job in Journalism"

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'Died Is Died Is Died': Talking with Vanessa Gould and Margalit Fox of Obit

Vanessa Gould’s documentary Obit, which just premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, profiles the reporters of The New York Times’s obituary desk, using their jobs to examine how we memorialize these people, and why we’re drawn to do so.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Volunteer! In the word clouds created using New York Times obituaries, the most common intersection was "help." In the end, a life worth remembering in death is lived by making a difference and helping others. Start exploring interesting volunteering options on Help Guide!