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How to Make Your Idea Impossible to Ignore | Chicago | TED Idea Search

TED46:09Added Aug 30, 2026

In the Windy City, 10 Chicagoans step onto the iconic red circle, each with six minutes to prove they have an idea that could change everything. Among them: ...

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  1. Intro

  2. 00:00The big red dot, the dream come true. Give the talk of your lives. This is the
  3. 00:07real deal. I'm feeling excited. The streets of I messed up. Woo.
  4. 00:12The way that you said that just is bringing tears to smile. Made me cry. Perfect timing. Well done.
  5. 00:17To be declared the winner. That would be the dream. I'm attempting something extraordinary.
  6. 00:23He struggled. Chemists can be first responders in the fight against extinction. I didn't know
  7. 00:29it could get better, but I think it just did. You have to try this. I'm gonna kick it.
  8. 00:36No.
  9. 00:42My name is Reggie Watts and my life changed forever when I got the opportunity to speak at TED.
  10. 00:49Now TED is searching the globe for ideas that could change everything.
  11. 00:56Nine TEDx events around the world. Giving a global voice to the unknown.
  12. 01:03Six minutes that can inspire, motivate, and change their lives forever.
  13. 01:09But that's not all. Coached by an expert panel, one lucky speaker will be
  14. 01:14surprised with the opportunity of a lifetime. A chance to speak on the TED Main stage
  15. 01:21and have their voices heard by millions. This is the TED idea search.
  16. 01:41Chicago, a place where industry, creativity, and innovation meet.
  17. 01:48Now we're in the Windy City to see what great ideas have blown in as a crop of
  18. 01:53fresh new speakers arrive to take the TEDex stage. TED is an incredible platform to reach a
  19. 02:01very diverse audience of thinkers.
  20. 02:07My name is Tim Cernac. I'm a professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Michigan.
  21. 02:14I'm here to talk about making medicine for endangered species. It's a new field
  22. 02:19called conservation chemistry. We imagine that we could use chemistry as a
  23. 02:24conservation tool. The cool thing is that you can make medicines today really, really quickly.
  24. 02:30I've worked in the pharmaceutical industry for a lot of my career and now I work in a pharmacy school and I just
  25. 02:36can't look around at this biodiversity crisis that we're in right now looking at all the diseases that are wiping out
  26. 02:42uh endangered animals and and we're trying to make medicines to make the situation better.
  27. 02:47With such great ideas to share and 24 hours till showtime, the panel spend time with the speakers
  28. 02:54as they rehearse their talks, giving them invaluable coaching and lastminute refinement that could make all the
  29. 03:00difference. This is a rehearsal that is like meant

  30. Rehearsals

  31. 03:07to support you and so you know everybody's in really good shape. You guys have worked so hard on these talks.
  32. 03:13The feedback that you'll get from us is just maybe little tweaks. Rehearsing it in front of other people
  33. 03:20kind of makes it real in a way. It's that whole tree falling in a forest thing. No, it doesn't make a sound if no
  34. 03:25one's there to hear it. A speech given to an empty room, you might as well just
  35. 03:31shut up cuz there's nothing happening. It is time for us to reconnect, even to
  36. 03:37the people we despise. All you really need are a generous heart and a curious
  37. 03:42mind. My name is Joshua Johnson. I live in Chicago. I am originally from West
  38. 03:48Palm Beach, Florida.
  39. 03:53I am here to try to help people talk to one another without strangling one another. That's basically helping to
  40. 04:00moderate conversations and meet people and depict people in ways that helps us
  41. 04:05see one another more clearly and deal with whatever it is that we see. We can't have a democracy if people can't
  42. 04:12talk. We can't be free people if people can't talk. As simple as that is, it's
  43. 04:17really not simple at all. But nowadays, a little civic CPR could save someone's
  44. 04:24life. Rehearsals are fun. I think one of the reasons why it's it's a little bit
  45. 04:29easier in rehearsal is because people don't necessarily expect you to have everything together. I forgot the whole
  46. 04:35time that I was supposed to be advancing slides. Oh no. Wow.
  47. 04:42Yeah, that's why we practice, right? The other speakers are phenomenal. They are um really really knowledgeable of
  48. 04:50their subject matter. Honeybees are dying rapidly and at the center of this problem is veroa. My name
  49. 04:56is Sammy Ramsey. I'm from Boulder, Colorado.
  50. 05:02My big idea that I want to share with the world today is that empathy is a
  51. 05:07skill. It typically isn't thought of that way, but it's something that can serve the scientific community really
  52. 05:13well. I've been employing empathy even before
  53. 05:18I knew the word and before I knew it was a skill to understand how insects function and how to keep them alive.
  54. 05:28I have seen how empathy can lead us to some really great solutions in science.
  55. 05:33And I've also seen how it's often ignored and thought of as something that's foreign to being a real researcher. That doesn't serve us well
  56. 05:41in the long run. I'm realizing that a larger audience could also be served by having this
  57. 05:47information. And as I can tell you, fear and lack of imagination make for lousy
  58. 05:52guiding principles in science.
  59. 05:59You really nailed it. So good. So good. So good. It was like informative. It was
  60. 06:04inspiring. It was everything and impressive to say the least. Okay. I love love love Dr. Sammy. The only
  61. 06:12thing is that today he did not have his talk memorized. He was definitely reading majority of the time. It's
  62. 06:18mostly memorized, but there are those points where I knew if I tried to say the whole thing verbatim from memory, I
  63. 06:23would like just end up with these long pauses where I'm like, what's the next thing? I really appreciated the feedback. People were very encouraging,
  64. 06:30but also the constructive elements of the feedback were really targeted towards things that could truly help
  65. 06:36this talk be better. You landed it really well, too. You left a little pause there. First, like maybe
  66. 06:4110 to 15 seconds were a little bit fast. I was a little concerned that my speech was too long and it came in under time
  67. 06:47and I could slow down just a little bit. So, I feel better. 8 seconds under. That was like perfect
  68. 06:53timing. Well done. I don't know. I loved it. It was so good. It really lands. It really makes us feel
  69. 06:58a connection. You own this material. That was just beautifully delivered.
  70. 07:04I tie this around. Oh my gosh.
  71. 07:10I need to practice this. Uh
  72. 07:16yeah, you got rehearsals are never perfect. You're
  73. 07:22never going to have the perfect talk and I've learned a lot. I sometimes froze.
  74. 07:28We need to explore the streets of I messed up, but that's okay. Can I look at the script really quickly?
  75. 07:34My name is Job and I am originally from Brazil and now I live here in Chicago.
  76. 07:45My big idea for this talk is basically going to be me talking about my experiences of running all the streets
  77. 07:52of Chicago. People kind of have this idea that
  78. 07:58Chicago or just any big city, they have this idea that the news portrays that it's very dangerous.
  79. 08:05I want to change how people view cities like Chicago. Not dangerous places that
  80. 08:11people shouldn't go to, but places full of ordinary life, ordinary people. So,
  81. 08:17this is the idea that I want to share with the world. I do wish like in some parts the slides were up longer.
  82. 08:23I got some good feedback on some things I could adjust in my talk, which was very helpful. So, rehearsals were
  83. 08:29fantastic. Yeah, out of all the cities, definitely this is one of our strongest lineups. And what made it even better on top of that
  84. 08:36is the camaraderie within the speakers is so strong. Your talk benefits so much from just you
  85. 08:42going slow and letting like the things just sit with us. The environment is so supportive. I
  86. 08:49think that everyone here is here to lift each other up. And so to get that kind of really constructive feedback in a
  87. 08:54really warm, welcoming environment is quite special. What helped me like with hand motion is to have the clicker on my
  88. 09:01non-dominant hand. Cuz normally like with your dominant hand, you're doing more of the action.
  89. 09:07So have it in like your non-dominant hands. Very clever. The feedback was enormous. That actually
  90. 09:13touches me right now. Like almost brings me to tears because people were actually in tears. When you make room for others,
  91. 09:22your path to self-discovery is lit. I'm Darling Jackson, also known as DJ Lady
  92. 09:28D, and I'm from Chicago.
  93. 09:34I'm here to share a way for people to feel comfortable with themselves and to
  94. 09:41live a life that's free of judgment and full of grace. People are really caught up in the
  95. 09:48criticism of themselves and other people. And what I've learned from my
  96. 09:54many years and thousands of dance floors that I've been on is that real house
  97. 09:59music dance floors, nobody cares about all of that stuff. And it's the first
  98. 10:05way to liberate yourself and to really release yourself from the shackles that
  99. 10:10say you have to confine yourself to a certain way of being. So I think people
  100. 10:16should just chill out. when you said that thing about like when
  101. 10:23you find your space and like that's that's your dance floor like I mean just meant a lot.
  102. 10:30Darlene the queen of house like just the way that she talks about kind of losing yourself on the dance floor. It's just
  103. 10:37this equalizer among people. That one really really speaks to me. The way that you said that just is
  104. 10:43bringing tears. Darlene had an amazing performance in the rehearsal room today. I think
  105. 10:50everyone really connected with it. There were tears and also the topic is just really Chicago based. So, I'm hoping
  106. 10:56that effect is, you know, resonates with the audience tomorrow. It's making me emotional. I want everybody in the world
  107. 11:02to feel that. For me, I have so many that are kind of even and really up high and tomorrow whatever happens is going
  108. 11:08to push someone over the line. And as we are learning time and time again,
  109. 11:14anything can happen on the day. rehearsals, not a predictor of the actual event day.
  110. 11:21I'm looking forward to rehearsing on the main stage to standing on the big red dot cuz that's when I'll know for sure.
  111. 11:33Um, the red dot feels bigger when you're standing on it than it looks when you
  112. 11:38actually see a TED talk. Just the opportunity to actually be out there on
  113. 11:44the big red dot though, it meant a lot to me. I've watched so many TED videos, so just
  114. 11:49to see what that carpet feels like under my feet was fun. The lights were
  115. 11:54brighter than I thought they were going to be. I'm feeling nervous because I have a
  116. 12:03really ambitious idea to attempt to deliver here and I really wish that I had more time to sit down and memorize
  117. 12:10every aspect of my talk the way that I would like. Walking out in front of a large audience. I've done it before.
  118. 12:16I've spoken twice at graduation. But yeah, I'm feeling excited. Uh, and also
  119. 12:21I've got home advantage because I'm talking about Chicago in Chicago and I'm also going to be going out with a
  120. 12:27Chicago flag. So hopefully get the audience riled up and excited for for
  121. 12:33speaking about Chicago.
  122. 12:39You know, I'm a DJ. I've performed in front of thousands of people. But even when I hadn't been doing it long, I had
  123. 12:45to do it scared. So if I'm scared, I still know that I can be fearless and fierce.
  124. 12:53So the dream scenario for tomorrow would be to give the speech of my life and to
  125. 12:59be declared the winner. That would be the dream.
  126. 13:05After a long day, rehearsals come to a close. But the work doesn't stop there. into
  127. 13:12the night. The speakers prepare for the six minutes that could change everything.
  128. 13:26If you're in the room, you are participating. All right, we're going to get our shoulders all the way up to ears
  129. 13:32and inhale and then a big exhale with a sigh and let them down. Oh, you all know what
  130. 13:38you're doing. Let's do it again.
  131. 13:43My hope for today is that I walk out onto that stage and I deliver my thoughts clearly and that it resonates
  132. 13:50with the audience. Bagada.
  133. 13:58I'm kind of a little bit of a bundle of jitters and nerves right now. Greek grapes.
  134. 14:04Greek grapes. My anxieties for today are that I
  135. 14:11trip up and miss a line or two. Greek grapes.
  136. 14:16Greek grapes again. Greek. Greek grapes. Greek grapes.
  137. 14:21This is the real deal. And I really have to have all of my thoughts composed for
  138. 14:26this. Exhale. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.
  139. 14:35I'm going to just go out there and have fun, you know? I'm going to have so much fun. So, that's what I'm looking forward
  140. 14:41to. Like, when it's finally over, then I'm going to kick it.
  141. 14:48You all are so ready. Let us know if you need anything. Let's have a great second.
  142. 14:54You are superstars.
  143. 15:01The audience begins to arrive as the speakers prepare backstage for their big moment.

  144. The Talks

  145. 15:06Thank you all for being here with the TED Global Idea Search. Thousands of
  146. 15:12people applied and from the selected speakers you will hear today, one of them will be chosen to go on to the TED
  147. 15:19Main Stage in the spring. That is the biggest global stage for ideas in the
  148. 15:25world. So, the stakes are really high for these guys today. I'm really hoping that I can actually
  149. 15:31make it to the main stage for TED because I have a really big talk that I
  150. 15:37want to give. There's a lot of content that I had to snip away to make this into 6 minutes and I really think that
  151. 15:43all of it together is going to hit really hard.
  152. 15:48Speaking at TED in Vancouver would give me the chance to be in a room of the kinds of people I always want to be
  153. 15:55around, which are believers, doers, passionate people.
  154. 16:02It would make me feel amazing if I got to the TED Vancouver stage, speaking in
  155. 16:09front of so many of the world's greatest leaders, CEOs, just get my story out
  156. 16:15there. That would be absolutely incredible. Please welcome to the stage job verbosa.
  157. 16:24Yes. Thank you my friend. Appreciate it.
  158. 16:30My name is Joe. Thank you very much.
  159. 16:35Kelly. Kelly. Hi. I'm so excited. This room is full.
  160. 16:42People are excited. Everyone's feeling good. I'm so excited to get started.
  161. 16:49I'm just an ordinary bloke, but I'm attempting something extraordinary.
  162. 16:55I want to become the first person in history to officially run every single
  163. 17:00street in the city of Chicago. Every corner,
  164. 17:06every block, every neighborhood. And this is how I run.
  165. 17:13Now, here's the thing. This journey didn't start because I love running. It
  166. 17:20started because, well, let me take you back. In March of 2024,
  167. 17:25I climbed Mount Washington in New Hampshire, home to the world's worst
  168. 17:31weather. And as it turns out, this world's worst weather slogan isn't just
  169. 17:36clever marketing. Because on the way down, hurricane force winds threw me onto a rock. I was knocked unconscious.
  170. 17:43Hypothermia set in frostbite began eating at my skin. Even though I made national headlines for all the wrong
  171. 17:50reasons, I survived. But recovery wasn't simple. My first lap in the marathon of
  172. 17:58healing began when doctors told me I need to get my blood flowing again. So, I started running. At first, it was just
  173. 18:07rehab. But then I discovered the truth.
  174. 18:13I hate running. You know, in rehearsal yesterday, he
  175. 18:18tried putting the flag on during his talk, and I think that kind of slipped him up. So, I'm glad to see that he just
  176. 18:24started with the flag on. Yes. But then it hit me. What if running
  177. 18:29didn't have to be boring? What if I gave it a little bit of purpose? What if I
  178. 18:35ran the entire city of Chicago? Today, this is my progress within the city. The
  179. 18:42purple is where I've ran over half of Chicago complete.
  180. 18:48But what I found has surprised me because if you listen to the news, Chicago's chaos, violence, crime,
  181. 18:55division, danger, that's the narrative. But the reality, the one I see on foot
  182. 19:01is something different. It's ordinary life. I've run into kids riding their
  183. 19:06bicycles, challenging me to races in which I always win.
  184. 19:11Neighbors chatting on porches, saying hi to me, but wondering why I'm going down
  185. 19:16a dead end as I pass by. Moments which are mile markers of connection.
  186. 19:23Challenges exist, but exploration has shown me that the stories we're told don't always match reality. And
  187. 19:29sometimes the only way to find out is to go see for yourself. Because the world profits off fear. Headlines sell
  188. 19:36division and polarization. Algorithms feed us reasons to stay home, to stay afraid, to stay in our lanes. But
  189. 19:42exploration, the act of stepping outside, of seeing for yourself, shows us reality is far more beautiful and far
  190. 19:49more ordinary than what fear wants us to believe. So my invitation to you is
  191. 19:54simple. despite what you're told. Explore the streets of life in every
  192. 20:01sense. Thank you very much.
  193. 20:09I think what he's doing is incredible. I'm not sure if the core of his idea is
  194. 20:15something that will be new to people or is something that is so grand that like
  195. 20:22everyone will take away. learning something really really new.
  196. 20:27I'm buzzing. I got everything out and yeah, when you're there it's just it's
  197. 20:32just good cuz um yeah, you you you're in that moment and it's like the pressure
  198. 20:38is on but the pressure is good. So yeah, amazing. Yeah,
  199. 20:45Dr. Sammy yesterday he struggled. It was a rough rehearsal and he had a lot of
  200. 20:52work to do a lot. I really hope that he went home and focused. You know,
  201. 20:58sometimes in rehearsals that stuff happens and it's a motivator. Yeah. Hi, I'm Dr. Sammy, your friendly
  202. 21:04neighborhood entomologist. But I wasn't always. See, I used to be terrified of insects as a kid. I
  203. 21:11couldn't think of anything more disturbing. It actually got to a point where my mom got a call from my second
  204. 21:17grade teacher. Um, hi Mrs. Ramsay. Um, I I just wanted to give you a call. Um,
  205. 21:22Sammy hasn't been out to recess all week. He said he doesn't want to meet any insects, quote, on their own turf.
  206. 21:29So, so my mom took me to our local library and parked me in the entomology section
  207. 21:36all summer long. That very summer, I told my parents, I'm going to be an entomologist when I grow up. And uh, one
  208. 21:44day in my backyard, I imagined myself as a millipede. Hm. Uh, I don't like that
  209. 21:51everything can see me really well, but I can't see them because I don't have any eyes. I didn't realize it at the time,
  210. 21:57but I was solving scientific problems via empathy, something that I had no
  211. 22:02idea was a skill, but I didn't realize just how well well
  212. 22:10how difficult it would be to be empathic in the scientific community at times.
  213. 22:15When I became a graduate student, I was so excited to be pursuing my lifelong dream of being an entomologist.
  214. 22:22Uh I can still remember my first committee meeting. My adviser looked at me and said, "Sammy, something about you
  215. 22:29just doesn't seem like doctoral material. So, I've decided to dismiss you from the program."
  216. 22:35Now, Sammy, Sammy, you just don't have the right skill set for science. You have to trust me on
  217. 22:41this one. Uh, and this isn't something that you can learn.
  218. 22:47Now look, some folks just want to play in your face.
  219. 22:52A lack of empathy is a failure of imagination. She couldn't imagine that
  220. 22:58someone like me could be a scientist, but I could. Watching this, you would have no idea
  221. 23:03that yesterday he struggled. After six months or nine months of
  222. 23:08fighting through an appeals process, I returned to the program, but with my confidence on shaky footing. So, of
  223. 23:14course, I chose the simplest, easiest project that I could think of, global honeybee health decline.
  224. 23:21Simple, simple. But as it turns out, the right skill set for understanding that
  225. 23:27complicated subject was curiosity co-mingled with empathy. See, our bees are dying rapidly. And at the center of
  226. 23:34the problem is veroa, this tiny tick-like might that's apparently eating their blood.
  227. 23:40The difference between yesterday and today is
  228. 23:45gargantuan. I know. I looked at the parasites feeding on the bees and found that they only fed near
  229. 23:51the liver. I fluorescently stained the liver and found it inside of the mite's
  230. 23:57gut. But if I really wanted to prove that these mites were feeding uh on the
  231. 24:02bee's liver and that it was essential to their diet, I would have to find a way to feed them blood and liver and track
  232. 24:09which ones were surviving and reproducing. And that is not easy when you're working with parasites. You have
  233. 24:15to figure out every little detail of how the host interacts with the parasite that triggers the parasite to feed. And
  234. 24:22if you don't, they just die. And look, for several months, these parasites
  235. 24:27dying was my entire life, just watching them die. I even made their food look like a
  236. 24:34little baby bee in hopes that they would feed on that. And they still did not feed.
  237. 24:40My gosh, I was missing something. And if I was going to figure it out, I would
  238. 24:45have to from the parasites vantage point. So, I did what I did as a kid. I I went through my empathy exercise. And
  239. 24:52y'all, I face palmed almost immediately. Why did I spend all that time trying to
  240. 24:58make this decoy bee look like a bee when these little doofuses can't even see?
  241. 25:05No eyes. Look at that. Not a single eye on that face. I love that part. And he just changes
  242. 25:12his tone. It's got so much energy. When I imagined myself as one of these mites,
  243. 25:18I realized that my world was only smell, taste, and touch. And so I took this really thin membrane that felt like bee
  244. 25:25skin and rubbed it up against a bee so that it got the bee's smell and taste and then wrapped that around my decoy
  245. 25:30bee. And voila, the parasites ate. And they lived long, fruitful lives and they
  246. 25:37had babies. But only if fed the bee's liver. So, I
  247. 25:44had cracked the case. All these years, these parasites were killing our bees
  248. 25:49with liver disease. And now that we know that, we can give our bees a fighting chance.
  249. 25:56Thank you. Right. I mean,
  250. 26:02but consider this. That study critical for saving the bees almost didn't happen
  251. 26:08because of how we have intentionally structured science. All of the policies that allowed me to
  252. 26:13be booted from my program on a mentor's whim are still in place uh at my former
  253. 26:20institution and at many others around the country. This is actually the part where I feel like we're going into another talk
  254. 26:27maybe, you know. Yeah. Yeah. So let's embed in the
  255. 26:32pursuit of knowledge ethical intelligence as we train the next generation of researchers because
  256. 26:38curiosity without empathy is observation without understanding. And as Mama
  257. 26:43Ramsay will tell you, people fear what they don't understand. And as I can tell you, fear and lack of imagination are
  258. 26:51lousy guiding principles in science. Thank you.
  259. 27:00Thank you. He really, really, really did it. And I
  260. 27:05am so happy to see it. Yeah. And there's something about seeing someone struggle so much in rehearsal. I
  261. 27:12just feel so proud for him to have done that. Yes. Oh my gosh, the audience was so kind. I
  262. 27:19got a standing ovation at the end of that and I wasn't expecting that and now I'm just like, "Yeah, I did it." Please
  263. 27:25welcome to the stage Joshua Johnson.
  264. 27:33Now we're going to hear from Joshua who is a journalist and really he's a
  265. 27:38professional communicator giving a talk about how to have difficult conversations. I think that's something
  266. 27:44that a lot of people are wondering how to do right now. He was a real standout yesterday. So I'm excited to see if he
  267. 27:51can deliver in the same way today. When you have to deal with someone whose
  268. 27:56views you despise, what principles guide you through that?
  269. 28:02I had to do that a bunch in my 20 plus years of broadcasting, including three years hosting the NPR talk show 1A.
  270. 28:09Doing that work supercharged my ability to deal with highly problematic people without losing my integrity or missing a
  271. 28:16chance to connect. Back in 2017, there was a white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia. One of the
  272. 28:23early episodes of 1A dealt with Confederate Civil War statues, which were a focal point of the marches. One
  273. 28:28of our guests was a descendant of Confederate soldiers who supported preserving those statues. Now, as a
  274. 28:35black man, I felt enormous pressure to remain objective, so I decided I'm just going to deal with the pros and the cons
  275. 28:40of the argument. Well, among other things, he argued that we focus too much
  276. 28:46on slavery as a cause of the Civil War when there are all these other causes like the economy.
  277. 28:51Slavery was the economy. Eventually, he just deflated and he said, "It really doesn't matter what I
  278. 28:58say." And the moment he said that, I knew I had failed.
  279. 29:04I had missed a huge opportunity. See, I asked the questions everybody would have asked to interrogate his beliefs. What I
  280. 29:10failed to do was find out why he believed them. What if I'd asked better
  281. 29:16questions? Questions like, "Who influenced you the most in forming these views?" Or, "What if I had asked?"
  282. 29:23Suppose we let all of these monuments stand just as they are. What would that mean to you? If I had let myself get a
  283. 29:30little closer, I might have seen him, the real him. And that missed
  284. 29:36opportunity kind of broke everything for me. He works a sage so well. He really does.
  285. 29:43No one is objective, but we can all be skilled at objectivity. In other words,
  286. 29:49objectivity is an ability, not an identity.
  287. 29:54Hold it, Joshua. Hold it. Hold it. Learn without judgment. Park my emotions. So, you just want me to sit there and smile
  288. 30:00at some who's about six McNuggets short of a happy meal? Is that what you want? No, be engaged, but do it strategically.
  289. 30:09Here are three tips for your next unbearable conversation. Ready? Tip one, keep your questions short. 10 seconds or
  290. 30:15less. Long questions feel like a setup. Tip two, find the narrative. Get the
  291. 30:20story behind the belief. Help them talk about everyone's favorite subject themselves. And third, don't agree, just
  292. 30:29acknowledge. Hey, I know this was a tough conversation, but you leveled with me. So, thank you. If you're going to write a book on how
  293. 30:36to give a talk, I think you could study this one. It's really got all the elements in both the content and the
  294. 30:43delivery. All you really need are a generous heart and a curious mind. And unlike a trained
  295. 30:50clinician, I am not asking anyone to do emergency surgery on the heart of the nation. Because believe it or not, just
  296. 30:58a little civic CPR could save someone's life. I really appreciate y'all making time
  297. 31:04for me today. Thanks for listening. Bye everybody. Thank you so much. Thank you.
  298. 31:13Thanks.
  299. 31:19He was amazing during rehearsal yesterday. I didn't know it could get better, but I think it just did.
  300. 31:25He's going to be tough to beat. I'm glad I did not make eye contact with my parents cuz then I would have been like
  301. 31:32an inconclusion and it would have been over with. So wherever they are, I'm glad that they threw a jacket over their
  302. 31:38heads or something so I couldn't see them. Next up, we have Tim who is talking about using medicines to bring species
  303. 31:46back from the brink of extinction. This is a big idea. And I didn't know
  304. 31:52chemistry could make me cry, but it definitely did yesterday during rehearsal.
  305. 31:57Sadly, we lost 98% of elephant seals in Argentina last year to aven flu.
  306. 32:04The state tree of Pennsylvania, the majestic hemlock, is in a battle against an invasive insect, and it's not
  307. 32:10winning. The greatest pandemic this planet has ever known is a fungal infection called
  308. 32:18kitrid. It has driven the extinction of hundreds of amphibians already.
  309. 32:23I'm a chemist who has dedicated my life to improving health and I cannot look away from these diseases.
  310. 32:31I needed to do something about it. When I met Pebbles, the Hila monster, she had already lost 30% of her body
  311. 32:38weight. She was infected with a parasite called cryptoperidium. And for a reptile,
  312. 32:44crypto is basically a death sentence. There's there's no treatment.
  313. 32:49And yet, you know those diabetes and obesity drugs you keep hearing about in the news? The first one came from the
  314. 32:56saliva of a Hila monster. How is it that we built a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical empire on the biology of
  315. 33:02this animal? But for pebbles, there was nothing. My lab hopped into action and
  316. 33:08from the Creature Conservancy, a wildlife rescue center that cares for pebbles, we received a very generous gift of Hila Monster poop.
  317. 33:15poop jokes always a favorite and from it extracted the parasite that
  318. 33:22I show here. This is the first electron microraph of cryptosperidium verani. You
  319. 33:28cannot kill this parasite with bleach. My lab built an AI agent that could hunt
  320. 33:33through the entire medicinal literature trying to find a molecule that might be relevant to this situation.
  321. 33:39And the one that popped out was called peromy. In the lab, we mixed this chemical with
  322. 33:45the parasite in a test tube and obtained this image. And as you can see, we have
  323. 33:51abused this bug. Its protective layer is dissolving. Its insides are exploding.
  324. 33:58Within days, the creature conservancy started pebbles on a treatment of peromy.
  325. 34:04And I'm very happy to report that following the treatment, she tested negative for the disease. She stopped
  326. 34:10regurgitating her food and regained her appetite and vigor. and has since put on most of the body weight she loves.
  327. 34:17Thank you. He's giving the real science while also
  328. 34:22making it accessible and easy for the audience to understand, which I think is a real challenge that people struggle
  329. 34:28with. Chemists can be first responders in the fight against extinction.
  330. 34:33Today, we can make precision health products at rapid pace. I know chemists who have invented drugs for all kinds of
  331. 34:41diseases. Let us now turn our attention to those who need it most. Thank you.
  332. 34:49This could be a worldchanging idea. This is important. This is big. I think he
  333. 34:54delivered it well. I am left wondering a little bit. Was the whole talk clear
  334. 35:02enough? Yeah, the audience is so supportive. Uh and I just I feel like I was remembering uh
  335. 35:07all the tips that I had along the way. I had the clicker in the wrong hand, but it was cool.
  336. 35:13Next up is Chicago's very own Queen of House music. And for those of you that
  337. 35:20don't know this, uh, Chicago is the proud birthplace of house music.
  338. 35:25All right. Yes. Now, we're going to hear from Darlene, who is a legend in Chicago. And wow. I
  339. 35:35mean, yesterday in rehearsal, right, she was Oh my gosh. I loved Lady D yesterday. I
  340. 35:42mean, she had everyone crying in the room. She had our chemist Tim crying.
  341. 35:48Like, it's hard for me to imagine not for people to be moved today. I really
  342. 35:54came away yesterday from the rehearsal feeling like I had really learned a lot
  343. 36:00from Darlene.
  344. 36:06Oh, how many of you would start your esteemed TED talk that way? If you would
  345. 36:13leave, you are already enlightened. Namaste. If you wouldn't, I'm here to propose a
  346. 36:20way for you to feel comfortable in your skin, for you to live judgment free and
  347. 36:26have grace for others, including yourself. I'm a little worried about her holding notes because sometimes speakers
  348. 36:33tend to rely on it and I feel like it it could hurt the delivery if she relies on it too much. Let me explain a little
  349. 36:40rewind. In Chicago's basement,
  350. 36:45warehouses, and gymnasiums, house music was forged with resistance,
  351. 36:52resilience, and ingenuity. She's a little more nervous. I can feel it. Queer, straight, black, and brown
  352. 36:58kids created a new world out of the word no.
  353. 37:06The music was intoxicating. Everybody loved it.
  354. 37:12Imagine a place for yourself where you feel fully actualized,
  355. 37:17free. It was like a sanctuary for the
  356. 37:23disenfranchised, for marginalized folks, and it dissolved barriers. And so if you
  357. 37:31have a place where you have ever felt the safest and most trusted,
  358. 37:38that's your dance floor. Okay? If you've ever had a space like
  359. 37:43that, hold it up here.
  360. 37:51Oh no. Oh no. No. No. No. Oh. Darling. Part of me wants to think that like
  361. 37:56she's just so passionate about this that it's almost hard for her to talk about
  362. 38:02it out loud. It was the feeling of seeing my name on that first flyer with my first DJ gig that I knew that I had
  363. 38:10inherited real power and responsibility.
  364. 38:16Responsibility to create spaces of love and communion and justice to elevate
  365. 38:24moods and to bring people together. She's doing well. It's just it's a big
  366. 38:30shift from yesterday's rehearsal. And if you want to dance on many dance floors,
  367. 38:37literal or metaphorical, you have got to make space, come without
  368. 38:44judgment, and teach someone your dance. This completes the cycle. Give the next
  369. 38:50generation the tools to find their own rhythm. Long live your dance floors.
  370. 38:57That's it. Thank you.
  371. 39:04The competition today is so high. I mean, I just think like it is a shame
  372. 39:10and it's just hard, but you know, you've got to really deliver the best version
  373. 39:15of your talk and Darlene didn't quite get there today.
  374. 39:21Yeah. And it doesn't help that this pool of speakers is so strong. Sure. I think it went great. I mean, I had
  375. 39:28what, you know, challenges I had, but overcame them and made it to the end. So, I really had a great time.
  376. 39:41With the talks drawing to a close, it's time for the audience to reflect on which speaker has left the largest
  377. 39:48impact. It was absolutely amazing. I don't think
  378. 39:55I've been that encaptured for an hour and a half straight in a really long time.
  379. 40:01I loved it. I felt genuinely inspired. I had full body goosebumps after every single one.
  380. 40:07They were all really good. I would have to say my favorite would be Joshua. He resonated a lot, especially right now
  381. 40:13with what's going on around the world. I think my all-time favorite was Dr. Sammy Ramsay.
  382. 40:18Dr. Sammy was amazing and he taught me so much and now I think I want to appreciate beans a little bit more.
  383. 40:26I think I liked Joe Barbosa the best. The guy that was actually running all of the streets of Chicago.
  384. 40:32Joe the runner. His message about seeing the good and what's around you and
  385. 40:38everything regardless of what the mainstream may be telling you.
  386. 40:43Joshua was one of the standouts. I love how he's talking about making a difference in the world and changing
  387. 40:50people's perceptions. The one that sticks out to me is the guy who invented the solution for the honeybees and he's
  388. 40:56going to change the world. But ultimately, it's the panel's opinion that counts the most as they sit down to
  389. 41:04decide who will represent Chicago on the TED Main stage.

  390. Deliberation

  391. 41:10Wow, what a day. Okay, we have a tough selection process in front of us right now. Yeah. So, should we start looking at like we
  392. 41:16got to talk through and make some decisions here? Okay. Okay. What about Job?
  393. 41:22Job killed it today. His delivery compared to yesterday's rehearsal was on
  394. 41:30point. My question around this one is like I wonder if this idea thrives the most in
  395. 41:35this local environment. That makes sense. I I feel that. Yeah. Okay. Dr. Sammy,
  396. 41:40the stage presence was incredible. You can hear the audience, you know, commenting as if they were
  397. 41:46talking to him one-on-one. They were all making noise. He They gave him a
  398. 41:51standing ovation. He did wonderful. Joshua Joshua Johnson.
  399. 42:00You kidding me right now? He is up there. You could hear viscerally how I think important what he
  400. 42:06was saying was and how badly people needed someone to articulate what his message was. It pulled something out of
  401. 42:13the audience. It's a talk for now. Tim. Oh my gosh. I didn't think that
  402. 42:19like chemistry could make me cry. Hello. It's kind of pioneering and it's also kind of like
  403. 42:26well yeah you know once you hear it it's why aren't we why aren't why aren't we doing this you know
  404. 42:33and darling it was a gift to allow that story uh of
  405. 42:40Chicago house and the foundations and that story to be told on the stage I think was a treat this audience
  406. 42:46she struggled to completely connect today when she was on the stage And that
  407. 42:52made an impact in her delivery. Yeah. But it's it's a wonderful message and it's just it's so resonating.
  408. 42:58Darling, forever. Forever. Long live the dance floor. Chicago.
  409. 43:06Deliberation complete and decision made. And for one lucky speaker, their lives
  410. 43:13are about to be changed forever.

  411. The Winner Is…

  412. 43:19Y'all, what we witnessed was so extraordinary. You guys all took the
  413. 43:26stage. You all moved people. You changed minds. You changed lives. And it was
  414. 43:31incredible. We saw the audience go crazy time and time again. It was amazing. And us deliberating after was actually
  415. 43:40the hardest thing. Um, you know, Kelly brought her like curator experience. I'm like my distribution experience. We do
  416. 43:47have to narrow it down to just one speaker who will go on to take the stage
  417. 43:53uh and join us in Vancouver. The speaker who will be coming to TED in
  418. 44:01Vancouver is Joshua Johnson.
  419. 44:18I am lost for words. It's humbling. It's amazing. I'm not going to do my happy
  420. 44:24hallelujah dance right now. These are new clothes. But soon, soon as these
  421. 44:30cameras are off, don't think we are in church. It's going to be a good day. Oh
  422. 44:35wow. I have burned enough emotional calories
  423. 44:41today and I am empty. So I'm not thinking about Vancouver until I have
  424. 44:47to. Like I'm going to go live and I'm going to just sort of like Vancouver
  425. 44:53will come to me when it's time. But right now, I'm going to go sit somewhere, play Hell Divers 2, order a
  426. 44:58big pizza, and go to the gym, and try to act like nothing happened today.
  427. 45:10I'm grateful. I'm blessed. And I'm humbled.
  428. 45:18No, you can't. I'm a star now. I'm going to town.
  429. 45:25With Joshua talking his way to a place on the TED main stage to have his voice heard by millions, our time in Chicago
  430. 45:32is over. But the TED idea search continues. Next time, Wenos and the competition has
  431. 45:41never been hotter. The adrenaline is so high. Getting within 6 minutes, that is a big
  432. 45:47challenge. Democracy needs disagreement. I'm heartbroken about this for him. It's
  433. 45:52the things we call brain rot, right? Viral material. The eyes are on fire.
  434. 45:59This is it.