TED (conference)

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is a global set of conferences run by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, under the slogan "Ideas Worth Spreading". The emphasis is on the entertainment aspect. TED was founded in 1984 as a one-off event; the annual conference series began in 1990. TED's early emphasis was technology and design, consistent with its Silicon Valley origins, but it has since broadened its focus to include talks on many scientific, cultural, and academic topics.

The main TED conference is held annually in Vancouver, Canada, and its companion TEDActive is held in Whistler, British Columbia. Prior to 2014, the two conferences were held in Long Beach and Palm Springs, California, respectively. TED events are also held throughout North America and in Europe and Asia, offering live streaming of the talks. They address a wide range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture, often through storytelling. The speakers are given a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most innovative and engaging ways they can. Past speakers include Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall, Al Gore, Gordon Brown, Billy Graham, Richard Dawkins, Richard Stallman, Bill Gates, Bono, Mike Rowe, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and many Nobel Prize winners. TED's current curator is the British former computer journalist and magazine publisher Chris Anderson.

Daniel Levitin

Daniel Joseph Levitin, FRSC (born December 27, 1957, San Francisco) is an American cognitive psychologist, neuroscientist, best-selling author, musician and record producer. He is James McGill Professor of psychology and behavioral neuroscience at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with additional appointments in music theory, computer science, and education; Director of the Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition and Expertise at McGill, and Dean of Arts and Humanities at The Minerva Schools at KGI. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC). He has appeared frequently as a guest commentator on NPR and CBC.

Levitin is best known for three #1 best-selling books, This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, (2006),The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature (2008) and The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload (2014). He is also known for scientific articles on absolute pitch, music cognition and neuroscience.

Monica Lewinsky

Monica Samille Lewinsky (born July 23, 1973) is a former White House intern with whom United States President Bill Clinton admitted to having had what he called an "inappropriate relationship" while she worked at the White House in 1995 and 1996. The affair and its repercussions, which included Clinton's impeachment, became known as the Lewinsky scandal.

As a result of the scandal, Lewinsky gained worldwide celebrity status; she subsequently engaged in a variety of ventures including designing a line of handbags under her name, being an advertising spokesperson for a diet plan, working as a television personality, and then leaving the public spotlight to pursue a master's degree in psychology in London. In 2014 she returned to public view, discussing the scandal and speaking out against cyberbullying.

Early life