I am addicted to the Ted Talks series on Ted.com. “Series” is not quite the right word. Their tagline is “Ideas Worth Spreading.” Ted.com seeks out the best and the brightest thinkers on everything from science to comedy and beyond to give a 5-to-20 minute “speech of their lives.” The speech, delivered in front of a live-audience, is taped and put on the web. Ted.com is the mothership but TedX events around the globe allow local communities to arrange and tape their own big thinkers. My friends at Kornerstone Productions had the pleasure of working on one of the local Washington, DC events.
A couple of my favorite speeches are from comedian Maz Jobrani who offers a humorous look at the challenges of being a Middle Eastern American. I also found Dan Pink’s speech on motivation very… well motivational, to the point that I booked him as a guest on a television series I was producing called Ideas In Action. But Hannah Brencher’s 5-minute speech titled “Love Letters To Strangers” really changed my life. In the three months since watching it, I have dropped at least 100 anonymous love letters in places like coffee shops, dressing rooms and the library. Some of them have been found and posted on Hannah’s website MoreLoveLetters.com.
Ted Talks is video at its best – simple, varied and inspiring. There is something for everyone. I challenge anyone to scroll through the selection and not find something to watch. And if you can’t get enough of the hundreds of topics presented in the videos, you can join one of the online discussions or start one of your own.
As a producer, I am hoping to use the Ted.com model for more streamlined topics. In that way, the very website has inspired me.
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