Top 10 TED Talks: Part I

Between four drives from Chicago to New Orleans, one drive from Chicago to Portland, and four twenty-hour bus rides in Brasil, I’ve watched over 100 TED Talks on my scuffed up, unreliable iPod. Here’s part I of my favorites.

1. Wade Davis on endangered cultures

From the paths opened up by this talk, this guy dramatically changed my thinking and broadened the scope of my interests. There are few things more tragic to me than the extinction of irreplaceable cultures. I’ve now read many of his books, and it’s led me towards cultivating interests in anthropology, shamanism, botany and ethnobotany, and perhaps most of all, the revelation that there’s no one right way of thinking or being.

*****

2. Edward Burtynsky on China

This is the among the most troubling things I’ve ever seen. I only saw the photos for the first time last week in Powell’s Books, and it was like seeing the speech again for the first time. Staggering and timely.

*****

3. Chris Jordan on excess

Here’s an artist who’s smart enough not to waste his time with art world mumbo jumbo, making work about something immediate, relevant, and affecting to all. This hits a lot harder than dry statistics.

*****

4. Jonathan Haidt on the moral roots of liberals and conservatives

SO smart and SO illuminating. Everyone I’ve ever played this for–conservative and liberal–gets the same surprised, enlightened look on their face.

5. James Howard Kunstler on suburbia

Hits home big time for me; I’m living intermittently in the middle of it. Every thirty seconds I have to stop myself from crying, “You go, girl!”