Despite her best efforts, comedian Julia Sweeney is forced to tell a little white lie when her 8-year-old begins learning about frog reproduction -- and starts to ask some very smart questions.
Known for her four-year run on Saturday Night Live and her powerful solo shows, Julia Sweeney is carving out her own territory in entertainment, one that moves between the personal and the political, the controversial and the comical. Her most recent piece, Letting Go of God, traces a spiritual journey that takes an unexpected turn toward science (a turn that, incidentally, also led her to TED) and ends with atheism.
In this, as in all her performances, Sweeney projects a warmth and sincerity on stage that's unmatched in today's theater; you immediately feel you're chatting with an old friend. And this gift of intimacy allows her to achieve the impossible: an utterly disarming show that honestly confronts the most controversial topic of our times. Her earlier shows, God Said “Ha!” and In the Family Way also garnered praise and prizes for their pairings of humor and poignant truth.
"Without breaking her affably conversational tone, in Letting Go of God she inhabits the emotional memory of each step on her path."New York Times
Philip Zimbardo knows how easy it is for nice people to turn bad. In this talk, he shares insights and graphic unseen photos from the Abu Ghraib trials. Then he talks about the flip side: how easy it is to be a hero, and how we can rise to the challenge.
Philip Zimbardo knows what evil looks like. After serving as an expert witness during the Abu Ghraib trials, he wrote The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil. From Nazi comic books to the tactics of used-car salesmen, he explores a wealth of sources in trying to explain the psychology of evil.
A past president of the American Psychological Association and a professor emeritus at Stanford, Zimbardo retired in 2008 from lecturing, after 50 years of teaching his legendary introductory course in psychology. In addition to his work on evil and heroism, Zimbardo recently published The Time Paradox, exploring different cultural and personal perspectives on time.
Still well-known for his controversial Stanford Prison Experiment, Zimbardo in his new research looks at the psychology of heroism. He asks, "What pushes some people to become perpetrators of evil, while others act heroically on behalf of those in need?"
"Professor Zimbardo deserves heartfelt thanks for disclosing and illuminating the dark, hidden corners of the human soul."Václav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic
Filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy takes on a terrifying question: How does the Taliban convince children to become suicide bombers? Propaganda footage from a training camp is intercut with her interviews of young camp graduates. A shocking vision.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy makes documentary films. She's the founder of the Citizens Archive of Pakistan, dedicated to preserving Pakistan's history.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is a film producer and journalist who has worked on 14 films for major networks in the United States and Britain. Her films include Children of the Taliban (with Dan Edge), The Lost Generation (about Iraqi exiles) and Afghanistan Unveiled. Her work has taken her around the world, where she has filmed and worked with refugees, women’s advocacy groups and human rights defenders. By bringing their voices to the outside world, she has often helped them bring about a critical change in their community.
Obaid-Chinoy helped found the Citizens Archive of Pakistan, a nonprofit, volunteer organization that fosters and promotes community-wide interest in the culture and history of Pakistan. Citizens Archive works with thousands of children, teaching critical thinking skills and instilling a sense of pride about their history and identity.
Obaid-Chinoy is a TED2010 Fellow.
"By bringing the voices of the ordinary people faced with extraordinary challenges to television screens around the world, I hope to affect change in one community at a time."Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy in BusinessWeek
Democracy thrives on civil debate, Michael Sandel says -- but we're shamefully out of practice. He leads a fun refresher, with TEDsters sparring over a recent Supreme Court case (PGA Tour, Inc. v. Martin) whose outcome reveals the critical ingredient in justice.
Michael Sandel teaches political philosophy at Harvard. His new book, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?, explores some of the most hotly contested moral and political issues of our time.
As of fall 2009, some 14,000 Harvard students have taken Michael Sandel’s legendary course, "Justice." His lectures draw a thousand-plus students eager to discuss big questions of modern political life: bioethics, torture, rights versus responsibilities. Sandel's class is a primer on thinking through the hard choices we face as citizens. The course has been turned into a public TV series with companion website and, this past fall, a best-selling book: Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?
"Michael Sandel is one of the world's most interesting political philosophers," the Guardianwrites. "Politicians and commentators tend to ask two questions of policy: will it make voters better off, and will it affect their liberty? Sandel rightly points out the shallowness of that debate and adds a third criterion: how will it affect the common good?"
Calling Sandel "one of the most popular teachers in the world," the London Observer explains what makes his voice distinctive: "He sets himself at odds with one of the reigning assumptions of modern public life -- that moral and religious notions are private matters that should be kept out of public political debate."
"The responsibility of political philosophy that tries to engage with practice is to be clear, or at least accessible."Michael Sandel
Κατά Ματθαίον, (Κεφ. στ΄ 22 – 33.)
Ο λύχνος του σώματός εστιν ο οφθαλμός, εάν ούν ο οφθαλμός σου απλούς ή, όλον το σώμά σου φωτεινόν έσται, εάν δέ ο οφθαλμός σου πονηρός ή, όλον το σώμα σου σκοτεινόν έσται. ει ούν το φώς το εν σοί σκότος εστί, το σκότος πόσον? Ουδείς δύναται δυσί κυρίοις δουλεύειν, η γάρ τον ένα μισήσει και τον έτερον αγαπήσει, η ενός ανθέξεται και του ετέρου καταφρονήσει. ου δύνασθε Θεώ δουλεύειν και μαμωνά.
ΚΑΤΑ ΜΑΤΘΑΙΟΝ 22:21 Greek NT: Tischendorf 8th Ed. with Diacritics
λέγουσιν· Καίσαρος. τότε λέγει αὐτοῖς· ἀπόδοτε οὖν τὰ Καίσαρος Καίσαρι καὶ τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ τῷ θεῷ.
