Celeste just turned me on to TED — or Technology, Entertainment, Design; on their website, this organization offers videos of more than 200 lectures by VIPs from a wide swath of industries and arts.
Here’s a sampling of talks by writers:
- Dave Eggers describes his experience working with 826 Valencia, encouraging creative people everywhere to get involved with public schools.
– Amy Tan explores “where creativity is hiding.”
- Isabel Allende discusses passion, creativity, and definitions of feminism.
– Elizabeth Gilbert gives a lecture on “genius” and creativity.
TED’s site is amazing; the talks have been a huge tool in my procrastination arsenal these past few years.
Sir Ken Robinson’s talk (http://tinyurl.com/5gsyph) might also be of interest to teachers; I used to show it in my comp. classes and often found the resulting conversations among the best of the semester. I also experimented with having students write essays in response to a TED talk and found that it was a great way to get them writing about something specific (and to help them move away from their go-to list of topics). TED!
Like TED, Celeste also rules.
Elizabeth, you make me blush. There so many great TED talks that I’ve only watched a handful. So thanks for pointing me to Ken Robinson’s talk–I’ll check it out!
Oh, and interestingly, I once saw Amy Tan lecture in person and she ended by releasing her dog onto the stage then, as well.
i adore Dave Eggers to the max. Seriously, since HWOSG came out, he’s been unparalleled in making an impact as a thrilling new writer- for me.
[...] this year, Celeste and I blogged about how much FWR loves the TED series, in which speakers give a short talk about one topic of their [...]