Selected to further our diversity, equity, and inclusion work, the following TED talks are offered to help us reflect on and engage in conversation of how we understand ourselves and others.
- The videos will play from this page.
- Use the associated hyperlinked text to read the corresponding transcripts.
- Access to a transcript may help you select your sentence, phrase, and word for our discussion in the fall.
You are invited to add your sentence, phrase, and word in the comment section below as you watch and reflect. (Please be sure to include the title of the talk in your comment.)
Susan Cain – The power of Introverts
Justin Baldoni – Why I’m done trying to be “man enough”
Jackson Bird – How to talk (and listen) to transgender people
Caroline Paul – To raise brave girls, encourage adventure
Victor Rios – Help for kids the education system ignores
Yasmin Abdel – What does my headscarf mean to you?
The Double Edged Sword: Derrick Gay at TEDxSpenceSchool
Susan Cain – The Power of Introverts
S – Introverts feel at their most alive and their most switched-on and their most capable when they’re in quieter, more low-key environments.
P – solitude a crucial ingredient often to creativity
W – solitude
Justin Baldoni – Why I’m done trying to be “man enough”
S “The world of humanity is possessed of two wings, the male and the female. So long as these two wings are not equivalent in strength, the bird will not fly.”
P how to be good humans
W toxic
Jackson Bird – How to talk (and listen) to transgender people
S. Talk to trans people.
P Amplify our voices
W Listen
Caroline Paul – To raise brave girls
S – Why wasn’t bravery expected of women?
P – face something outside their comfort zone
W – fear
Victor Rios – Help for kids the education system ignores
S – She believed in me so much that she tricked me into believing in myself.
P – assets that they bring to the education system
W – “at-promise”
Yasmin Abdel – What does my headscarf mean to you?
S – There’s evidence that that unconscious bias exists, but we all just have to acknowledge that it’s there and then look at ways that we can move past it so that we can look at solutions.
P – diversity is magic
W – mentor
Derrick Gay – The Double-Edged Sword
S – I argue that the word diversity itself undermines the goals of diversity, in large part because of a very significant structural flaw, which is that diversity now is envisioned as an identity
P – excellence and equity
W – inclusivity
The Power of introverts
S – I could have told you 50 others just like it — all the times that I got the message that somehow my quiet and introverted style of being was not necessarily the right way to go, that I should be trying to pass as more of an extrovert.
P- culturally, we need a much better balance.
W- Wilderness
Why I’m done trying to be “man enough”
S- Growing up, yeah, like every boy, I had my fair share of issues, but now I realize that it was even thanks to his sensitivity and emotional intelligence that I am able to stand here right now talking to you in the first place.
P – subconsciously communicated to hundreds of millions of young boys and girls all over the world
W – Vulnerability
How to talk (and listen) to transgender people
S- Take the heat off of us and educate those around you so we don’t have to every time.
P – if we can change from calling Puff Daddy to P. Diddy, and if we apologize profusely when we’ve used the wrong gender pronoun for someone’s pet cat — I mean, I think we can make the same effort for the real humans in our lives.
W- Misconceptions
To raise brave girls, encourage adventure
S – And remember that often what you’re really telling her is that she shouldn’t be pushing herself, that she’s really not good enough, that she should be afraid.
P – raising our girls to be timid, even helpless, and it begins when we caution them against physical risk
W – Bravery
Help for kids the education system ignores
S- She believed in me so much that she tricked me into believing in myself.
P- Job training, mentoring, counseling
W – Dropouts
What does my headscarf mean to you?
S- I can walk down the street in the exact same outfit and what the world expects of me and the way I’m treated depends on the arrangement of this piece of cloth.
P –unconscious bias, or implicit prejudice.
W – Perceptions
The double edged sword
S – Why are we so uncomfortable acknowledging difference?
P – something you are and something you can never be
W – Diversity
Susan Cain
Power of Introverts
S- When it comes to creativity and to leadership, we need introverts doing what they do best.
S- Our most important institutions, our schools and our workplaces, they are designed mostly for extroverts and for extroverts’ need for lots of stimulation.
P- no wilderness, no revelations
W- spectrum, balance
Justin Baldoni
Why I’m done trying to be “man enough”
S- We need balance, and the only way things will change is if we take a real honest look at the scripts that have been passed down to us from generation to generation and the roles that, as men, we choose to take on in our everyday lives.
P- create a daily practice of authenticity and vulnerability
W- transformation
Jackson Bird
How to talk and listen to transgender people
S- Being trans is awkward because everyone else gets awkward when they’re around me. People who support me and all other trans people wholeheartedly are often so scared to say to wrong thing, so embarrassed to not know what they think they should, that they never ask.
P- educate those around you
W- listen
Caroline Paul
To Raise Brave Girls, Encourage Adventure
S- So what message does this send to both boys and girls? Well, that girls are fragile and more in need of help, and that boys can and should master difficult tasks by themselves. It says that girls should be fearful and boys should be gutsy.
P- bravery is learned
W- practice
Victor Rios
Help for kids the education system ignores
S- The reason I’m here today is because a teacher that cared reached out and managed to tap into my soul.
P- stories of overcoming insurmountable odds are so powerful
W- community
Yassmin Abdel
What does my headscarf mean to you?
S- The thing is, if we want to live in a world where the circumstances of your birth do not dictate your future and where equal opportunity is ubiquitous, then each and every one of us has a role to play in making sure unconscious bias does not determine our lives.
P- looking beyond your bias
P- diversity is magic
W- mentor
Derrick Gay
The Double Edged Sword
S- I would argue quite simply that perhaps the goal of diversity is excellence and equity that we strive to foster society that no matter who you are no matter where you come from no matter what you have or what you don’t have no matter whom you love or matter whom you worship or choose not to worship that you can quite simply flourish.
P- why is it that we’re so uncomfortable with acknowledging difference
W- diversity
The Power of Introverts
S – Schools & businesses are designed for extroverts; students need to learn to work on their own – not everything has to be groupwork.
P – 1/3 to ½ of the population are introverts
W – Ambiverts – (living the best of both worlds)
Why I’m done trying to be “man enough”
S – Am I man enough to shut the hell up and listen?
P – Redefining what it means to be masculine
W – Vulnerability
How to talk and listen to transgender people
S – Being trans is awkward because everyone else is awkward around me.
P – We are so much more scared of you than you are of us
W – Bathrooms
To raise brave girls, encourage adventure
S – Fear and exhilaration feel very similar.
P – Bravery is learned
W – Pro-bravery
Help for kids the education system ignores
S – Let’s value the stories these young people bring to the school house
P – At-risk to at-promise
W – Group hug
What does my headscarf mean to you?
S – Lack of opportunity due to unconscious bias
P – Find someone to mentor
W – Perceptions
The Double Edge Sword: Derrick Gay
S – Diversity….as a goal that will add value to society and individuals.
P – Normal is not named
W – Community life