We are in the throes of planning our next event for the Spring of 2024. Join our team! We’re always looking for friendly, curious, detail-oriented problem-solvers to join our small, radically collaborative team. All roles are volunteer positions. We are always taking applications for volunteers.
TEDx is a platform for ideas worth sharing.
Featured Talks From TEDxSantaCruz 2019: The Art of Hope
Our fifth all-day live event TEDxSantaCruz 2019 The Art of Hope was a rousing success that occurred Saturday, December 7, 2019 at the Rio Theatre.
You can see the videos of speakers and performers who explored The Art of Hope from nearly every angle, from civic engagement to climate change, from space exploration to self-exploration.
As TEDx Official uploads TEDxSantaCruz talks to their channel, we are actively uploading them here, on the website.
Thieves of Hope: Moving Past Your Worst Mistakes by Lara Love Hardin
Lara Love Hardin shares her story of redemption and brings to attention "Thieves of Hope."
Lara Love Hardin is the COO and Editorial Director of Idea Architects, a literary agency and media company based in Santa Cruz that represents and works with luminaries such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bryan Stevenson, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Steven Hawking, Jane Goodall, John Gottman, and many other academics and thought leaders. She has an MFA in creative writing and is a 4-time New York Times bestselling writer, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Designing Your Life by Dave Evans and Bill Burnett, and recent Oprah Book Club pick, The Sun Does Shine, which she co-authored with Anthony Ray Hinton. In 2019 she won a Christopher Award for her work “affirming the highest values of the human spirit”. In 2019 she was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award and short-listed for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
Novelist, essayist, journalist, translator, and screenwriter
Jonathan Franzen
Novelist, essayist, journalist, translator, and screenwriter
Jonathan Franzen is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Letters and the author of five novels, including The Corrections, Freedom, and Purity, and five volumes of nonfiction, most recently The End of the End of the Earth. Among his honors are the National Book Award for fiction, and the EuroNatur Award, for his work in conservation. He lives full-time in Santa Cruz.
Novelist, essayist, journalist, translator, and screenwriter
Share
Local Government: Where Democracy Goes to Live
Former mayor and current chair of Santa Cruz county board of commissioners pleads to the audience: “This is the time when we need your love & hope to engage in local democracy, serve on a local board or county commission.”
Chair of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and former Mayor of Santa Cruz
Ryan Coonerty
Chair of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and former Mayor of Santa Cruz
Ryan Coonerty is Chair of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and the two-time former Mayor of Santa Cruz. He is also an entrepreneur, author, and educator. He is currently the host of "An Honorable Profession" podcast and a lecturer on law and government at UC Santa Cruz. Previously, he cofounded NextSpace Coworking, co-authored of The Rise of the Naked Economy – How to Benefit from the Changing Workplace and wrote Etched in Stone – Enduring Words from our National Monuments. Ryan was selected by the Aspen Institute to be a Rodel Fellow in Public Leadership as one of "the nation’s most promising young elected officials.” Ryan graduated from Santa Cruz’s public schools and the University of Oregon. He received a master’s degree from the London School of Economics and a law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Chair of the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and former Mayor of Santa Cruz
Former mayor and current chair of Santa Cruz county board of commissioners pleads to the audience: “This is the time when we need your love & hope to engage in local democracy, serve on a local board or county commission.”
"Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You: The 6th Mass Extinction"
Dr. Barry Sinervo
"Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You: The 6th Mass Extinction"
Dr. Barry Sinervo leads a multinational research team of scientists, working from the equator to the polar regions. The UCSC professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology was recently awarded $2 million to study impacts of climate change on California ecosystems at the UC Natural Reserve System, the world's largest system of university-administered natural reserves, featuring examples of most major California habitats.
Climate Cancer Crisis: An Allegorical Tale
Dr. Barry Sinervo
"Coming Soon to a Neighborhood Near You: The 6th Mass Extinction"
Share
The Future? Yes…And. Business As a Force for Change
Sandy believes in the power of business as a platform for disruption and mobilization to help customers, investors, partners, communities, governments, and employees create a regenerative and equitable world. She’s worked more than 30 years driving business value by aligning purpose, messaging and communications with business strategy. Over the years, her work with corporations, nonprofits, and NGOs has been focused on everyday products, recycling and waste, renewable energy, supply chain, social justice and LGBTQ and gender issues. She sits on numerous boards including Sustainable Brands, Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County, and Mini Mermaid Running Club. In Santa Cruz, she founded 100 Women Who Care, Breaking the Glass Ballot, and was appointed to a four-year team on the County's Human Services Commission.
Co-founder of the Center for Public Philosophy at UC Santa Cruz
Kyle Robertson
Co-founder of the Center for Public Philosophy at UC Santa Cruz
Kyle Robertson holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from UC Santa Cruz and a J.D. from UC Berkeley. In 2015, he co-founded the Center for Public Philosophy at UC Santa Cruz. He has a passion for all things public philosophy, including high school ethics bowl programs, teaching inside San Quentin State Prison, and philosophy for children. He regularly speaks on public philosophy topics and publishes on the challenges of doing public philosophy. In addition to this work, he is a Lecturer in the Philosophy Department at UC Santa Cruz.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxSantaCruz, where x = independently organized TED event. At our TEDxSantaCruz event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.
