
An idea is the one gift that you can hang onto even after you’ve given it away. Welcome to TED Radio Hour hosted by Guy Raz – a journey through fascinating ideas: astonishing inventions, fresh approaches to old problems, new ways to think and create.
Based on Talks given by riveting speakers on the world-renowned TED stage, each show is centered on a common theme – such as the source of happiness, crowd-sourcing innovation, power shifts, or inexplicable connections – and injects soundscapes and conversations that bring these ideas to life.
TED Radio Hour is a co-production of NPR and TED.
About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown into a global platform for identifying and spreading those world-changing ideas. The annual TED Conference and TEDGlobal Conferences invite the world’s leading thinkers and doers to speak for up to 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com and through TED distribution partners. Follow TED on Twitter or on Facebook.
About Guy Raz
Guy Raz is the host of TED Radio Hour, a co-production of NPR and TED that tackles astonishing inventions, fresh approaches to old problems and new ways to think and create. Each radio show is based on talks given by riveting speakers on the renowned TED stage, bound together by a common theme such as the thrill of space exploration, going to extremes, the source of happiness or ‘when rights goes wrong’ in our justice system.
Previously, Raz was weekend host of NPR News’ signature afternoon newsmagazine All Things Considered. Raz was named host of that program in July 2009. During his tenure, Raz transformed the sound and format of the program, introducing the now-signature “cover story” and creating the popular “Three-Minute Fiction” writing contest.
Raz joined NPR in 1997 as an intern for All Things Considered and he worked his way through the ranks of the organization. His first job was the assistant to NPR’s legendary news analyst Daniel Schorr. Raz then served as a general assignment reporter covering stories ranging from the early 2000 presidential primaries to a profile on the Doors’ song “Light My Fire.”
In 2000, at the age of 25, Raz was made NPR’s Berlin bureau chief where he covered eastern Europe and the Balkans. Later, he was transferred to London as the bureau chief and covered the war in Iraq. Raz left NPR in 2004, to work as CNN’s Jerusalem correspondent chronicling everything from the rise of Hamas as a political power to the incapacitation of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Two years later Raz returned to NPR to serve as defense correspondent where he covered the Pentagon and the US military.
During his six years abroad, Raz reported from more than 40 countries, with a focus on Iraq, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Afghanistan, Eastern Europe and the Balkans. He profiled and interviewed dozens of world leaders, including former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Shimon Peres, General David Petraeus and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen.
For his reporting from Iraq, Raz was awarded both the Edward R. Murrow Award and the Daniel Schorr Journalism prize. His reporting has contributed to two duPont Awards and one Peabody awarded to NPR. He’s been a finalist for the Livingston Award four times. For his reporting from Germany, Raz was awarded both the RIAS Berlin prize and the Arthur F. Burns Award. In 2008, he spent a year as a Nieman journalism fellow at Harvard University where he studied classical history.
Raz’s written work has appeared in Salon, Washington City Paper, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor and the German daily, Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
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Twenty years ago, Gene Luen Yang taught high school and wrote comics on the side. Now, he's the author of American Born Chinese and other bestsellers. He says comic books belong in every classroom.
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Bacteria coordinate attacks using their own chemical language. What if we could decode these messages and thwart their plans? Fatima AlZahra'a Alatraktchi invented a tool to spy on bacterial chatter.
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Poachers can make a lot of money killing whales. But what if a living whale fetched a bigger price? Ralph Chami uses the language of dollars and cents to conserve nature and fight climate change.
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Using spectral imaging, Gregory Heyworth can bring new life to old manuscripts. He is able to decipher texts that haven't been read in hundreds of years, and in the process, change history.
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Learning a new language can be daunting, especially if you don't think you have the skill for it. But polygot Lýdia Machová says the secret is in the process of learning itself.
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Economics jargon can be intimidating. That's why Jack Corbett decided to make educational TikTok videos that make economic concepts and financial literacy simple... and silly.
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Men dominate trade work. But Emily Pilloton-Lam says it's time to put the power (and power tools) into the hands of young women and gender-expansive youth.
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Water bills in Detroit are twice the national average, and in 2014 thousands faced shutoffs because they couldn't afford to pay them. When programmer Tiffani Ashley Bell learned this, she took action.
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When Kate Stone was gored by a stag in 2013, tabloids made the story about her transgender identity. So she set a goal: to change how the press writes about transgender people.
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Iranian artist Shirin Neshat is known for her images of women that pose probing questions about the female body within Islam and Iranian culture. This hour, she reflects on her life and work in exile.