Joseph Fink, Welcome to Night Vale — XOXO Festival (2014)
Joseph Fink, a writer of the wildly popular podcast Welcome To Night Vale, shares what overnight success feels like with an emotional portrait of his year on tour. Slides are randomized, and yet it all makes a beautiful kind of sense.
Bobby McFerrin, The Power of the Pentatonic Scale — World Science Festival (2009)
Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the universality of the pentatonic scale, using audience participation, at the event “Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus.
Mike Monteiro, F*ck You, Pay Me — CreativeMornings San Francisco (March 2011)
Mike Monteiro, the co-founder of Mule Design and his lawyer deliver a powerful sermon for creative people on how to negotiate and get paid for the work they do. Contracts, lawyers, kill fees, and much more.
Ira Glass, Commencement Speech — CUNY (2012)
The host of This American Life advises graduates of CUNY’s journalism program to amuse themselves. He implores them not to ignore the business side of what they do and not to be afraid to put themselves in their stories.
Jon Ronson, How One Tweet Can Ruin Your Life — TEDGlobalLondon (2015)
Jon Ronson, noted Welsh journalist and author, delivers a passionate plea about the dangers of online shaming and harassment with examples of how it hurts not just the shamed, but society as a whole.
Jerry Seinfeld, Acceptance Speech — Clio Awards (2014)
The comedian Jerry Seinfeld, skewers the advertising industry in this punchy acceptance speech for one of the industry’s most prestigious international advertising awards — The Clio Awards.
Cabel Sasser, Panic — XOXO Festival (2013)
The cofounder of Panic shares the story of how his small software company stayed independent at all costs. His emotional speech is about the fears that come along with running a business when you don’t know the ending.
Robert Sapolsky, The Uniqueness of Humans — Stanford Class Day Lecture (2009)
World renowned professor of neurology and biological sciences, Robert Sapolsky, explores the uniqueness of humans in relation to the rest of the animal kingdom and how the ways that we’re different lead us to a moral imperative.
Special thanks to maxistentialist for the suggestion.
Maciej Ceglowski, Web Design: The First Hundred Years — How Interactive Design Conference (2104)
The creator of Pinboard, Maciej Ceglowski, uses the history of airplane design as a parable about how the web is evolving in ways nobody expected, and how we can design with the future in mind.
So elated to be featured on Tumblr’s New and Notable blogs of 2014. More great talks and a weekly schedule coming at you very soon.
(via yearinreview)
Anita Sarkeesian, Feminist Frequency — XOXO (2014)
Two years ago, Anita Sarkeesian decided to use Feminist Frequency, her video series on the portrayal of women in the media, to document sexist tropes in video games. In this talk, she discusses her work and how’s it’s been misrepresented and turned into a conspiracy theory by some.Emma Watson, He for She — United Nations (2014)
Emma Watson speaks to the United Nations about a campaign to encourage more men and boys to fight for gender equality.
Jim Holt, Why does the universe exist? — TED (2014)
Why is there something instead of nothing? Why are we even here? Philosopher Jim Holt tries to answer these questions with history, namedropping, and logic.Kevin Slavin, Toxoplasmosis — Eyeo Festival (2013)
Kevin Slavin, from the MIT Media Lab, gives a short Ignite talk on toxoplasmosis comparing it’s effects to internet memes. Not for the faint of heart.
Kurt Vonnegut, The Shapes of Stories (excerpt)
The late author Kurt Vonnegut shares the universal shapes of narratives in a short excerpt from a longer talk about creative writing.