When I worked with Morgan Webb on the tech podcast WebbAlert, we loved devoting special episodes to our favorites of the TED speeches available on line. These were always my favorite WebbAlerts to put together. We would pick our own theme and run with it. The only problem with writing these episodes was that they were monumentally time consuming – I’d start watching a speech and get caught up in what that person was talking about – even after I realized that it had NOTHING to do with the theme we had chosen. Start multiplying 18 minutes and you get a sense of how much time I spent glued to my computer. But it’s time well spent – so many of the talks are passionate and inspiring.
I thought it might be nice, in honor of TED, to revisit some of my favorites and share them with the Geek Moms, so here we go:
Jill Bolte Taylor is a brain researcher who has taken a first-hand look at the inner workings of the mind – she had the unprecedented opportunity to study her own brain as she experienced a stroke. This experience literally changed her as a person, and she’s made it her mission to tell people that a deeper connection with the universe is only as far as your right brain. An absolutely mesmerizing speech.
Luckily, you don’t have to have a stroke to to see how your brain works: Neuroscientist Christopher DeCharms shows us a way to see inside our own brains using Functional Resonant Imaging.
Or maybe you’d like to hear from Sherwin Nuland, an author and surgeon who’s had a little experience with Electroshock Therapy, and says it worked…
I hope you enjoy these, and you can always see more over at www.TED.com.
Please feel free to recommend the talks that are your favorite. Even with a toddler, I’ve got several chunks of 18 minutes I can spare when it comes to TED.
