What a Year

Hi! Remember me?

It's been awhile since I have visited you through my blog. While there are several reasons, I'll share two and some of my thoughts about them.

First, I was very busy running an unsuccessful campaign to be elected as the Toastmasters' International Director for Region 4. While it was an unsuccessful run, I would not change the experience for anything. It was wonderful to sit and visit with District Leaders from around the world. I give many thanks to them for their time. I would also like to thank the many people that worked on my team and supported me in this effort. All of you are truly an incredible group of people. I am honored to have your support. It's humbling to see so many give of themselves and their time to help you be successful. What can we learn from this?

Second, my company, specifically the teams that I work with, are going through a reorganization. While no one lost their jobs, a lot of people, including myself were shifted to new managers. There is a lot of behind the scenes work that is in the works with new team names, and building new relationships. So far, it has been time consuming, but has been a smooth transition. I love change. I work in an industry that changes constantly, healthcare. I also work in the Information Technology field, which seems like it changes hourly. Change bring opportunities that we wouldn't have without the change. 

Take the time to appreciate those people that make a difference in your life. Also, when change happens, look for those opportunities that present themselves. I look forward to spending more time with you here.

Take the Time to Learn

To be great at any endeavor, one must study that endeavor.  To be a good doctor, one must study medicine. To be a great engineer, one must study engineering.  Most great leaders achieved excellence through continuous learning, and they understood that to stay great, they had to continue to learn. 

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.  Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”     ~Henry Ford

We live in a world where we have an abundance of information available to us. Internet, Apps for our phones and tablets, books and e-books, seminars, webinars, audio and video programs, magazines, and the list goes on.

With all of this information available, am I suggesting that we need to study Leadership 24/7?  Not at all.  We all have other interests, however, to stay in the leadership game and to continue to be effective, I would suggest at least a few minutes each day in the pursuit of learning to lead.

I try to spend at least 15 minutes a day perusing an article, reading a chapter out of a book, or perhaps watching a YouTube video or TED talk.  Some days I do even more. Most of the time, I learn new ideas or concepts.  Sometimes it’s a new way of looking at leadership.  Other times, I might relearn or reinforce something that I already knew.

“Days are expensive. When you spend a day you have one less day to spend. So make sure you spend each one wisely.”    ~Jim Rohn

Take a few minutes every day to truly learn about leadership.  Not only will you become a more effective leader, but you will also continue to grow and develop in that role.  Then and only then can you help others to grow in their endeavors.

An Attitude of Service

We all have a variety of managerial skills available to us when encountering situations that require our leadership. We may be experts with some skills, yet recognize the need to improve or expand other leadership abilities. Each situation will require different combinations of leadership to fulfill the needs of the situation. Regardless of our skill level, and what we need to accomplish, there is one ingredient in successful leadership that needs to rise above all other skills.

No matter how skilled we are as a leader, we need to make sure that we are taking the right attitude into every leadership situation. One of the skills that leaders struggle with is conflict management. These situations are never easy and can end with less than stellar results.

One situation that I have dealt with is when I am approached with  a complaint that so-and-so isn’t doing their job. My first question is, “Why?” The response is usually, “I don’t know.” I’m never really sure how this person expects me to solve a problem when they aren’t certain what the problem is.

We need to find the root cause by asking why. Until we know this, no one will be able to make progress. Before asking this, I will take a step back and ask myself one of the most important questions a leader can ask, “How can I be of service here?” By asking this question, I can enter any leadership situation with a service attitude.

By moving forward with a service attitude, all of our other leadership skills will be elevated to new levels, and we will be able to offer solutions that benefit all parties.

Humor Me

I was working with an intern that had made a mistake in his work. It was not a big deal, as I don’t give work to interns that could be catastrophic if mistakes are made. However, I could see that this person was petrified that he was going to be in big trouble.

I started the conversation by asking what happened. He explained what he was trying to do, what he thought he had done, and how his efforts had completely backfired and messed up our data. I then looked at him and said, “Boy, I’m glad I’ve never done that.” He looked at me while holding his breath, and I smiled. He realized I was just kidding and let out his breath.

I explained that I didn’t mind when people made mistakes. I shared some of the big mistakes I had made in my career, including the time I had completely deleted one of our databases.

We then had a great conversation where I asked him what he learned from the experience and how we could prevent the same kind of mistake in the future. With the pressure off, he was open to suggestions and even came up with some great ideas on his own.

Are there times when I need to be more serious? Absolutely, but they aren’t as often as you think. By using a positive attitude filled with some fun and humor, and releasing any associated tension, we can experience big breakthroughs. In this “laughing” atmosphere, we learn better and are also open to new ideas. I also find that people are more willing to bring problems to my attention.

When you find yourself in a stressful situation, be a leader that can take a step back, and look for the humor in the situation. Your teams will be grateful. 

Amazing Individuals

This past week, I had the opportunity to do a magic show (with my co-magician, Greg) at an event called Private Pink Party. The event was sponsored by The Circle Of Hope Duluth. The Circle of Hope is an organization dedicated to serving breast cancer patients. I have performed at events like this before, and I always enjoy the positive nature of these events.

The Private Pink Party is a special evening for cancer patients where they are the star. They have a great meal, and enjoy various speakers and entertainers. It truly is a fun event.

I was walking around mingling with the guests, and as you can imagine, most of the ladies were wearing hats or scarves over their heads. I walked up to one of the tables where five women were beginning dinner. There were a couple of empty chairs where meals were placed. There were a few last minute cancellations due to the extreme cold (-18 degrees with a wind chill about -30 degrees.)

One of the ladies asked me if I would be joining them for dinner. I explained that I would not be joining them, but looked forward to doing some magic for them. She looked at me and asked me if I would like a free meal. Before I could answer, she grabbed one of the napkins from the table and said, "Here, wrap this around your head and no one will know the difference." As we all laughed, I thought, "What a priceless moment." She had a wonderful sense of humor.


Here is a group of people that have some major challenges in their lives, and yet have the ability to keep a positive outlook. So many times in our lives, we make a big deal out of the little things. We take something small and allow it to ruin our day. Then if something major happens, we have no idea how to handle it. 

"Don't Sweat the Small Stuff . . . and it's all small stuff"  ~Richard Carlson

We can learn from these amazing individuals. They live every day to the fullest, even in the face of great uncertainty. If we adopted that same attitude, what could we accomplish? How much better would we be able to handle major challenges in the future? 

A Year with TED

I heard my first TED Talk in 2013. I watched a few of the TED videos that Fall and heard some talks that I really enjoyed. One talk was by Simon Sinek. I immediately wanted to learn more from him and so I purchased and read one of his books. After that, I read a second of his books and have heard him speak in other venues.

As a result of this experience, I thought that just maybe, there might be other speakers on TED that I could learn from. To find out, I set a goal to watch one TED talk every day in 2014. Could I really watch 365 talks? I wasn't sure, but I wanted to challenge myself and take advantage of this opportunity, so I set out on the journey.

I set some ground rules. While there were plenty of talks on subjects I was interested in, I wanted to spend some time on other subjects as well. Also, if I started a talk and I immediately felt like I wanted to go find something else, I needed to complete the talk and hear what they had to say. I'm glad I did. While I heard a few messages that I totally disagreed with, I still learned from the talk. 

Every speaker spoke with passion, which is something that I try to do as well. Where I could, I tried to gauge audience reaction. There were some talks that I thought rose above the rest. They are highlighted below in yellow. I enjoyed these because I liked the message, the delivery, the content or just had a good time watching. These were also talks that I tended to share with others.

I did learn a great deal from these talks and also bought some books by other speakers that I heard. I also listened to a few musical numbers and I became interested in doing something music related again. It's been a while. In these talks, I found ideas, motivation, inspiration, courage, amazement, and experienced many other emotions. Spending a few minutes each day to learn and exercise my mind was time well spent.

Below is the list of the talks that I watched for the year. I share them as a starting point. Pick the ones that sound interesting to you. Or go search the TED site for your own. Enjoy and learn. There are some truly amazing messages and ideas in those videos. 

Happy 2015! You are AWESOME!

Dec 31 – Arthur Benjamin: The magic of Fibonacci numbers

Dec 30 - Ameenah Gurib-Fakim: Humble plants that hide surprising secrets

Dec 29 - Carol Dweck: The power of believing that you can improve

Dec 28 - Michael Rubinstein: See invisible motion, hear silent sounds. Cool? Creepy? We can't decide!

Dec 27 - Rives: A mockingbird remix of TED2006

Dec 26 - Victor Frankl: Why believe in others

Dec 25 - Murry Gell-Mann: the ancestor of language

Dec 24 - David Poque: The music wars

Dec 23 - Nancy Lublin: Texting that saves lives

Dec 22 - Erin McKean: Go ahead, make up new words!

Dec 21 - James Burchfield: Playing invisible turntables

Dec 20 - Julian Treasure: The 4 ways sound affects us

Dec 19 - Matthew White: The modern euphonium

Dec 18 - Mundano: Pimp my ... trash cart?

Dec 17 - Rokia Traore: "Kounandi"

Dec 16 - Dave Troy: Social maps that reveal a city's intersections — and separations

Dec 15 - Taylor Mali: What teachers make

Dec 14 - Kirk Citron: And now, the real news

Dec 13 - Alan Siegel: Let’s simplify legal jargon

Dec 12 - David Byrne, Ethel + Thomas Dolby: "(Nothing But) Flowers" with string quartet

Dec 11 - Jackson Browne: A song inspired by the ocean

Dec 10 - Improv Everywhere: Gotta share!

Dec 09 - Robert Hammond: Building a park in the sky

Dec 08 - Inara George: "Family Tree"

Dec 07 - Sleepy Man Banjo Boys: Teen wonders play bluegrass

Dec 06 - Ryan Merkley: Online video -- annotated, remixed and popped

Dec 05 - Kid President: I think we all need a pep talk

Dec 04 - Sanjay Dastoor: A skateboard, with a boost

Dec 03 - Kitra Cahana: A glimpse of life on the road

Dec 02 - Rob Harmon: How the market can keep streams flowing

Dec 01 - Oren Yakobovich: Hidden cameras that film injustice in the world’s most dangerous place

Nov 30 - Nathaniel Kahn: Scenes from "My Architect"

Nov 29 - Christopher C. Deam: The Airstream, restyled

Nov 28 - Gever Tulley: 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do

Nov 27 - George Dyson: The story of Project Orion

Nov 26 - Lisa Bu: How books can open your mind

Nov 25 - Ben Saunders: To the South Pole and back — the hardest 105 days of my life

Nov 24 - ShaoLan: Learn to read Chinese ... with ease!

Nov 23 - Catherine Crump: The small and surprisingly dangerous detail the police track about you

Nov 22 - Rosie King: How autism freed me to be myself

Nov 21 - Joe Landolina: This gel can make you stop bleeding instantly

Nov 20 - Will Marshall: Tiny satellites show us the Earth as it changes in near-real-time

Nov 19 - Anastasia Taylor-Lind: Fighters and mourners of the Ukrainian revolution

Nov 18 - Drew Dudley: Everyday leadership

Nov 17 - David Grady: How to save the world (or at least yourself) from bad meetings

Nov 16 - Diane Benscoter: How cults rewire the brain

Nov 15 - Gary Flake: Is Pivot a turning point for web exploration?

Nov 14 - Tierney Thys and Plankton Chronicles Project: The secret life of plankton
Nov 13 - Matt Killingsworth: Want to be happier? Stay in the moment

Nov 12 - Skylar Tibbits: Can we make things that make themselves?

Nov 11 - Robin Nagle: What I discovered in New York City trash

Nov 10 - Ivan Oransky: Are we over-medicalized?

Nov 09 - Peter Norvig: The 100,000-student classroom

Nov 08 - Munir Virani: Why I love vultures

Nov 07 - Judy MacDonald Johnston: Prepare for a good end of life

Nov 06 - Taryn Simon: Photographs of secret sites

Nov 05 - Roberto D'Angelo + Francesca Fedeli: In our baby's illness, a life lesson

Nov 04 - Frans Lanting: Photos that give voice to the animal kingdom

Nov 03 - Qi Zhang: An electrifying organ performance

Nov 02 - Nick Sears: Demo: The Orb

Nov 01 - Kamal Meattle: How to grow fresh air

Oct 31 - Jake Wood: A new mission for veterans -- disaster relief

Oct 30 - Jinha Lee: Reach into the computer and grab a pixel

Oct 29 - Kare Anderson: Be an opportunity maker

Oct 28 - Elliot Krane: The mystery of chronic pain

Oct 27 - David Hanson: Robots that "show emotion"

Oct 26 - Sergei Lupashin: A flying camera ... on a leash

Oct 25 - Gary Kovacs: Tracking our online trackers

Oct 24 - Rachelle Garniez: "La Vie en Rose"

Oct 23 - Fabien Cousteau: What I learned from spending 31 days underwater

Oct 22 - Joy Sun: Should you donate differently?

Oct 21 - Susan Etlinger: What do we do with all this big data?

Oct 20 - Bahia Shehab: A thousand times no

Oct 19 - Kitra Cahana: My father, locked in his body but soaring free

Oct 18 - Will Potter: The shocking move to criminalize nonviolent protest

Oct 17 - Sebastian Wernicke: Lies, damned lies and statistics (about TEDTalks)

Oct 16 - Jorge Soto: The future of early cancer detection?

Oct 15 - Myriam Sidibe: The simple power of hand-washing

Oct 14 - Jeff Iliff: One more reason to get a good night’s sleep

Oct 13 - Fabian Hemmert: The shape-shifting future of the mobile phone

Oct 12 - Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy: Inside a school for suicide bombers

Oct 11 - Nina Tandon: Caring for engineered tissue

Oct 10 - Mitchell Joachim: Don't build your home, grow it!

Oct 09 - Birke Baehr: What’s wrong with our food system

Oct 08 - Arianna Huffington: How to succeed? Get more sleep

Oct 07 - Neil Burgess: How your brain tells you where you are

Oct 06 - Daria van den Bercken: Why I take the piano on the road … and in the air

Oct 05 - Suzanne Lee: Grow your own clothes

Oct 04 - Jok Church: A circle of caring

Oct 03 - Julian Treasure: 5 ways to listen better

Oct 02 - Susan Colantuono: The career advice you probably didn’t get

Oct 01 - Aparna Rao: High-tech art (with a sense of humor)

Sep 30 - Francis de los Reyes: Sanitation is a basic human right

Sep 29 - Anna Mracek Dietrich: A plane you can drive

Sep 28 - Damon Horowitz: Philosophy in prison

Sep 27 - Shilo Shiv Suleman: Using tech to enable dreaming

Sep 26 - Moshe Safdie: How to reinvent the apartment building

Sep 25 - Eman Mohammed: The courage to tell a hidden story

Sep 24 - Matthew O'Reilly: “Am I dying?” The honest answer

Sep 23 - Jon Nguyen: Tour the solar system from home

Sep 22 - Joe Sabia: The technology of storytelling

Sep 21 - Monika Bulaj: The hidden light of Afghanistan

Sep 20 - Michael McDaniel: Cheap, effective shelter for disaster relief

Sep 19 - Avi Reichental: What’s next in 3D printing

Sep 18 - JR: One year of turning the world inside out

Sep 17 - Sarah Parcak: Archeology from space

Sep 16 - Marco Tempest: The electric rise and fall of Nikola Tesla

Sep 15 - Uldus Bakhtiozina: Wry photos that turn stereotypes upside down

Sep 14 - Philip Zimbardo: The demise of guys?

Sep 13 - Sunni Brown: Doodlers, unite!

Sep 12 - Péter Fankhauser: Meet Rezero, the dancing ballbot

Sep 11 - Zak Ebrahim: I am the son of a terrorist. Here's how I chose peace

Sep 10 - Dan Barasch: A park underneath the hustle and bustle of New York City

Sep 09 - Becky Blanton: The year I was homeless

Sep 08 - Evan Grant: Making sound visible through cymatics

Sep 07 - Ravin Agrawal: 10 young Indian artists to watch

Sep 06 - Jane Chen: A warm embrace that saves lives

Sep 05 - Isabel Allende: How to live passionately—no matter your age

Sep 04 - Edward Burtynsky: Photographing the landscape of oil

Sep 03 - Gabriel Barcia-Colombo: Capturing memories in video art

Sep 02 - Tom Wujec: Learn to use the 13th-century astrolabe

Sep 01 - Sally Kohn: Don't like clickbait? Don't click

Aug 31 - Jill Shargaa: Please, please, people. Let's put the 'awe' back in 'awesome'

Aug 30 - Shubhendu Sharma: How to grow a tiny forest anywhere

Aug 29 - Jean-Baptiste Michel: The mathematics of history

Aug 28 - Meera Vijayann: Find your voice against gender violence

Aug 27 - JoAnn Kuchera-Morin: Stunning data visualization in the AlloSphere

Aug 26 - Martin Rees: Can we prevent the end of the world?

Aug 25 - Ziyah Gafić: Everyday objects, tragic histories

Aug 24 - Sonaar Luthra: Meet the Water Canary

Aug 23 - Sue Austin: Deep sea diving ... in a wheelchair

Aug 22 - Malcolm London: “High School Training Ground”

Aug 21 - Jarrett Krosoczka: Why lunch ladies are heroes

Aug 20 - Marc Koska: 1.3m reasons to re-invent the syringe

Aug 19 - Clint Smith: The danger of silence

Aug 18 - Aziza Chaouni: How I brought a river, and my city, back to life

Aug 17 - Peter Molyneux: Meet Milo, the virtual boy

Aug 16 - Bruno Bowden + Rufus Cappadocia: Blindfold origami and cello

Aug 15 - Billy Collins: Two poems about what dogs think (probably)

Aug 14 - Megan Washington: Why I live in mortal dread of public speaking

Aug 13 - Ray Zahab: My trek to the South Pole

Aug 12 - Pete Alcorn: The world in 2200

Aug 11 - Michael Pritchard: How to make filthy water drinkable

Aug 10 - Yves Behar: A supercharged motorcycle design

Aug 09 - Joachim de Posada: Don't eat the marshmallow!

Aug 08 - Janet Iwasa: How animations can help scientists test a hypothesis

Aug 07 - Kary Mullis: A next-gen cure for killer infections

Aug 06 - Cameron Sinclair: The refugees of boom-and-bust

Aug 05 - Carolyn Porco: Could a Saturn moon harbor life?

Aug 04 - Saul Griffith: High-altitude wind energy from kites!

Aug 03 - Gever Tulley: Life lessons through tinkering

Aug 02 - Brian Cox: What went wrong at the LHC

Aug 01 - Sam Martin: Claim your "manspace"

Jul 31 - Richard St. John: 8 secrets of success

Jul 30 - Rives: If I controlled the Internet

Jul 29 - Aimee Mullins: My 12 pairs of legs

Jul 28 - John La Grou: A plug for smart power outlets

Jul 27 - Arthur Benjamin: Teach statistics before calculus!

Jul 26 - Dan Dennett: Cute, sexy, sweet, funny

Jul 25 - Sarah Kay: If I should have a daughter ...

Jul 24 - Blaise Agüera y Arcas: Augmented-reality maps

Jul 23 - Renny Gleeson: Our antisocial phone tricks

Jul 22 - Kiran Bedi: A police chief with a difference

Jul 21 - Stewart Brand: What squatter cities can teach us

Jul 20 - Dean Kamen: Luke, a new prosthetic arm for soldiers

Jul 19 - Jane McGonigal: Massively multi-player… thumb-wrestling?

Jul 18 - Ze Frank: Are you human?

Jul 17 - Nikolai Begg: A tool to fix one of the most dangerous moments in surgery

Jul 16 - Marco Tempest: The magic of truth and lies (and iPods)

Jul 15 - David Merrill: Toy tiles that talk to each other

Jul 14 - Siegfried Woldhek: The search for the true face of Leonardo

Jul 13 - Daniel Kraft: A better way to harvest bone marrow

Jul 12 - David Bismark: E-voting without fraud

Jul 11 - Richard Turere: My invention that made peace with lions

Jul 10 - Richard St. John: Success is a continuous journey

Jul 09 - Pearl Arredondo: My story, from gangland daughter to star teacher

Jul 08 - David Kwong: Two nerdy obsessions meet -- and it's magic

Jul 07 - Eric Whitacre: A choir as big as the Internet

Jul 06 - Stacey Kramer: The best gift I ever survived

Jul 05 - Peter Haas: Haiti's disaster of engineering

Jul 04 - Nathalie Miebach: Art made of storms

Jul 03 - Shih Chieh Huang: Sculptures that’d be at home in the deep sea

Jul 02 - Marisa Fick-Jordan: The wonder of Zulu wire art

Jul 01 - David Hoffman: What happens when you lose everything

Jun 30 - Jon Bergmann: Just how small is an atom?
Jun 29 - Alisa Miller: The news about the news
Jun 28 - Julian Treasure: How to speak so that people want to listen

Jun 27 - Taylor Wilson: Yup, I built a nuclear fusion reactor

Jun 26 - Lorrie Faith Cranor: What’s wrong with your pa$$w0rd?

Jun 25 - Beau Lotto: Optical illusions show how we see

Jun 24 - Candy Chang: Before I die I want to...

Jun 23 - Alexis Ohanian: How to make a splash in social media

Jun 22 - Robin Ince: Science versus wonder?

Jun 21 - Sebastian Thrun: Google's driverless car

Jun 20 - Jamila Lyiscott: 3 ways to speak English

Jun 19 - Grégoire Courtine: The paralyzed rat that walked

Jun 18 - Mark Bezos: A life lesson from a volunteer firefighter

Jun 17 - Christopher deCharms: A look inside the brain in real time

Jun 16 - Danielle de Niese: A flirtatious aria

Jun 15 - Laura Trice: Remember to say thank you

Jun 14 - Roy Gould + Curtis Wong: A preview of the WorldWide Telescope

Jun 13 - David Hoffman: Sputnik mania

Jun 12 - Pranksters: Improv Everywhere

Jun 11 - Matt Cutts: Try something new for 30 days

Jun 10 - Stella Young: I’m not your inspiration, thank you very much

Jun 09 - Yves Rossy: Fly with the Jetman

Jun 08 - Thomas Suarez: A 12-year-old app developer

Jun 07 - Erik Johansson: Impossible photography

Jun 06 - Robert Full: The secrets of nature's grossest creatures, channeled into robots

Jun 05 - Stephen Friend: The hunt for "unexpected genetic heroes"

Jun 04 - Dan Gilbert: The psychology of your future self

Jun 03 - Ramsey Musallam: 3 rules to spark learning

Jun 02 - Ray Kurzweil: Get ready for hybrid thinking

Jun 01 - Bruno Maisonnier: Dance, tiny robots!

May 31 - Thomas Thwaites: How I built a toaster -- from scratch

May 30 - Theo Jansen: My creations, a new form of life

May 29 - Kitra Cahana: Stories of the homeless and hidden

May 28 - Rives: Reinventing the encyclopedia game

May 27 - Eric Whitacre: Virtual Choir Live

May 26 - Louie Schwartzberg: The hidden beauty of pollination

May 25 - Becci Manson: (Re)touching lives through photos

May 24 - David Gallo: Underwater astonishments

May 23 - Sheila Nirenberg: A prosthetic eye to treat blindness

May 22 - Imogen Heap: "Wait It Out"

May 21 - Matthew Childs: 9 life lessons from rock climbing

May 20 - Stefan Sagmeister: Designing with slogans

May 19 - Simon Sinek: Why good leaders make you feel safe

May 18 - Rives: A story of mixed emoticons

May 17 - Rives: The Museum of Four in the Morning

May 16 - Neil Pasricha: The 3 A's of awesome

May 15 - Deborah Gordon: What ants teach us about the brain, cancer and the Internet

May 14 - Rives: The 4 a.m. mystery

May 13 - Anand Agarawala: Rethink the desktop with BumpTop

May 12 - Steve Jurvetson: Model rocketry

May 11 - Dean Ornish: The killer American diet that's sweeping the planet

May 10 - William Kamkwamba: How I built a windmill

May 09 - Randall Munroe: Comics that ask “what if”

May 08 - Stanley McChrystal: The military case for sharing knowledge

May 07 - Kenichi Ebina: My magic moves

May 06 - Alex Laskey: How behavioral science can lower your energy bill

May 05 - Allison Hunt: How to get (a new) hip

May 04 - Marco Tempest: And for my next trick, a robot

May 03 - Lucy McRae: How can technology transform the human body?

May 02 - Renny Gleeson: 404, the story of a page not found

May 01 - Steven Addis: A father-daughter bond, one photo at a time

Apr 30 - Andrew Bastawrous: Get your next eye exam on a smartphone

Apr 29 - Julia Sweeney: Letting go of God

Apr 28 - Elizabeth Gilbert: Success, failure and the drive to keep creating

Apr 27 - Wade Davis: Gorgeous photos of a backyard wilderness worth saving

Apr 26 - Camille Seaman: Haunting photos of polar ice

Apr 25 - Raghava KK: Shake up your story

Apr 24 - James Patten: The best computer interface? Maybe ... your hands

Apr 23 - Heather Knight: Silicon-based comedy

Apr 22 - Maz Jobrani: A Saudi, an Indian and an Iranian walk into a Qatari bar . . .

Apr 21 - Sarah Lewis: Embrace the near win

Apr 20 - Ian Ritchie: The day I turned down Tim Berners-Lee

Apr 19 - Terry Moore: Why is ‘x’ the unknown?

Apr 18 - Einstein the Parrot: A talking, squawking parrot

Apr 17 - Kevin Allocca: Why videos go viral

Apr 16 - Yossi Vardi: We’re worried about local warming ... in your lap

Apr 15 - Jeremy Kasdin: The flower-shaped starshade that might help us detect Earth-like planets

Apr 14 - Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly: Be passionate. Be courageous. Be your best

Apr 13 - Pilobolus perform “Symbiosis”

Apr 12 - David Brooks: Should you live your resume . . . Or your eulogy?

Apr 11 - Joshua Walters: On being just crazy enough

Apr 10 - David Sengeh: The sore problem of prosthetic limbs

Apr 09 - Louie Schwartzberg: Hidden miracles of the natural world

Apr 08 - Greg Gage: The cockroach beatbox

Apr 07 - Melissa Marshall: Talk nerdy to me

Apr 06 - Jennifer Golbeck: The curly fry conundrum: Why social media “likes” say more than you may realize

Apr 05 - Nilofer Merchant: Got a meeting? Take a walk

Apr 04 - Allan Adams: The discovery that could rewrite physics

Apr 03 - Andy Puddicombe: All it takes is 10 mindful minutes

Apr 02 - Daffodil Hudson: Is this the cure for stage fright?

Apr 01 - Hannah Brencher: Love letters to strangers

Mar 31 - Reuben Margolin: Sculpting waves in wood and time

Mar 30 - Del Harvey: The strangeness of scale at Twitter

Mar 29 - Hugh Herr: The new bionics that let us run, climb and dance

Mar 28 - Markus Fischer: A robot that flies like a bird

Mar 27 - Matt Mills: Image recognition that triggers augmented reality

Mar 26 - Marco Tempest: A magical tale (with augmented reality)

Mar 25 - Ziauddin Yousafzai: My daughter, Malala

Mar 24 - Damian Palin: Mining minerals from seawater

Mar 23 - Richard Ledgett: The NSA responds to Edward Snowden’s TED Talk

Mar 22 - Edward Snowden: Here’s how we take back the Internet

Mar 21 - Chris Hadfield: What I learned from going blind in space

Mar 20 - BLACK: My journey to yo-yo mastery

Mar 19 - Christopher Soghoian: Government surveillance — this is just the beginning

Mar 18 - Kartick Satyanarayan: How we rescued the “dancing” bears”

Mar 17 - Liza Donnelly: Drawing on humor for change

Mar 16 - Mark Shaw: One very dry demo

Mar 15 - Maria Bezaitis: The surprising need for strangeness

Mar 14 - Toby Shapshak: You don’t need an app for that

Mar 13 - Rita Pierson: Every kid needs a champion

Mar 12 - Shawn Achor: The happy secret to better work

Mar 11 - Clayton Cameron: A-rhythm-etic. The math behind the beats

Mar 10 - Sally Kohn: Let’s try emotional correctness

Mar 09 - Tavi Gevinson: A teen just trying to figure it out

Mar 08 - Manu Prakash: A 50-cent microscope that folds like origami

Mar 07 - Gabe Barcia-Colombo: My DNA vending machine

Mar 06 - Marco Tempest: A cyber-magic card trick like no other

Mar 05 - Keith Barry – Brain Magic

Mar 04 - Katherine Kuchenbecker: The technology of touch

Mar 03 - Eddi Reader: “What You’ve Got”

Mar 02 - Stew: “Black Men Ski”

Mar 01 - Lewis Pugh: My mind-shifting Everest swim

Feb 28 - Henry Lin: What we can learn from galaxies far, far away

Feb 27 - Ahn Trio: A modern take on piano, violin, cello

Feb 26 - Roselinde Torres: What it takes to be a great leader

Feb 25 - John Wooden: The difference between winning and succeeding

Feb 24 - Terry Moore: How to tie your shoes

Feb 23 - Joe Smith: How to use a paper towel

Feb 22 - Ramesh Raskar: Imaging at a trillion frames per second

Feb 21 - Hillel Cooperman: Legos for grownups

Feb 20 - Rob Reid: The $8 billion iPod

Feb 19 - Camille Seaman: Photos from a storm chaser

Feb 18 - Ludwick Marishane: A bath without water

Feb 17 - John Legend: “True Colors”

Feb 16 - Yann Dall’Aglio: Love—you’re doing it wrong

Feb 15 - Apollo Robbins: The art of misdirection

Feb 14 - Rupal Patel: Synthetic voices, as unique as fingerprints

Feb 13 - David Pogue: 10 top time-saving tech tips

Feb 12 - Erik Schlangen: A “self-healing” asphalt

Feb 11 - Nick Veasey: Exposing the invisible

Feb 10 - Julia Sweeney: It’s time for “The Talk”

Feb 09 - McKenna Pope: Want to be an activist? Start with your toys

Feb 08 - Aparna Rao: Art that craves your attention

Feb 07 - Alex Wissner-Gross: A new equation for intelligence

Feb 06 - Sleepy Man Banjo Boys: Bluegrass virtuosity from . . .  New Jersey? 

Feb 05 - Dan Berkenstock: The world is one big dataset. Now, how to photograph it... 

Feb 04 - Ric Elias: 3 things I learned while my plane crashed

Feb 03 - JD Schramm: Break the silence for suicide attempt survivors

Feb 02 - Leyla Acaroglu: Paper beats plastic? How to rethink environmental folklore

Feb 01 - Miru Kim: My underground art

Jan 31 - David Puttnam: What happens when the media’s priority is profit?

Jan 30 - Improv Everywhere: A TED speaker’s worst nightmare

Jan 29 - Anne Milgram: Why smart statistics are the key to fighting crime

Jan 28 - Derek Sivers: Keep your goals to yourself

Jan 27 - Angela Lee Duckworth: The key to success? Grit

Jan 26 - Maya Penn: Meet a young entrepreneur, cartoonist, designer, activist …

Jan 25 - Tania Luna: How a penny made me feel like a millionaire

Jan 24 - Joe Kowan: How I beat stage fright

Jan 23 - Yves Morieux: As work gets more complex, 6 rules to simplify

Jan 22 - Vijay Kumar: Robots that fly ... and cooperate

Jan 21 - Boaz Almog: The levitating superconductor

Jan 20 - Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation

Jan 19 - Henry Evans and Chad Jenkins: Meet the robots for humanity

Jan 18 - Amy Cuddy: Your body language shapes who you are

Jan 17 - Guy Hoffman: Robots with “soul”

Jan 16 - Edith Widder: How we found the giant squid

Jan 15 - Liu Bolin: The invisible man

Jan 14 - Krista Donaldson: The $80 prosthetic knee that’s changing lives

Jan 13 - Itay Talgam: Lead like the great conductors

Jan 12 - Ryan Holladay: To hear this music you have to be there. Literally

Jan 11 - Athletic machines: Raffaello D’Andrea at TEDGlobal 2013

Jan 10 - Frederic Kaplan: How I built an information time machine

Jan 09 - Sandra Aamodt: Why dieting doesn’t usually work

Jan 08 - Eddy Cartaya: My glacier cave discoveries

Jan 07 - David Lang: My underwater robot

Jan 06 - Maysoon Zayid: I got 99 problems... palsy is just one

Jan 05 - Bobby McFerrin: Watch me play ... the audience!

Jan 04 - Mick Cornett: How an obese town lost a million pounds

Jan 03 - Tony Robbins: Why we do what we do

Jan 02 - Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action

Jan 01 - Diana Nyad: Never, ever give up