X Marks the Spot: The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosts TEDx, plus more TEDx highlights

News TEDx A view of lunch at TEDxMet, inside the Temple of Dendur. Photo: Nadia Goodman

The weekend before last, we joined hundreds of New Yorkers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the first-ever TEDx event at a museum: TEDxMet. The speakers included Nobel-winning neuroscientist Eric Kandel, artist Maira Kalman, legendary choreographer Bill T. Jones, and writer Andrew Solomon. The day was peppered with stunning music and dance performances, and thoughtful quotes that stayed with us long after it ended. (A stunner from Andrew Solomon: “The opposite of depression is not happiness, but vitality.”)

For lunch, we packed into the Temple of Dendur to eat chicken salad sandwiches among the stately ruins of ancient Egyptian temples. (If you’ve never been to the Met, you might know the Temple of Dendur from this memorable scene in When Harry Met Sally.) Not exactly an ordinary Saturday afternoon.

This is the kind of unique experience that many people have at TEDx events, which take place all over the world. Each week, we cover great TEDx talks, stories, and events on the TEDx blog. Below, some recent highlights.

From our favorite playlist, Hey girl, let’s snuggle and watch feminist TEDx talks together:

Inspiring the next generation of female engineers: Debbie Sterling at TEDxPSU
Close your eyes and picture an engineer. Chances are, you didn’t picture a woman. Debbie Sterling, a mechanical engineer and founder of GoldieBlox, wants to change that. In this inspiring talk, she explains how she’s preparing young girls to become tomorrow’s engineers.

Last week, we hosted a live chat on Twitter. Here’s the talk that inspired it:

Violence against women–it’s a men’s issue: Jackson Katz at TEDxFiDiWomen
Women lead the effort to prevent domestic violence, but according to Jackson Katz, it’s time for men to step up. Jackson is a tough-looking former football player, women’s studies major, and proud feminist who says that reducing violence everywhere starts with teaching men to practice peaceful leadership.

From a Halloween post on what we can learn from bat genomes:

The secret of the bat genome: Emma Teeling
What can bats tell us about how to cure deafness or human diseases? In this fascinating talk at TEDxDublin, Emma Teeling, director of the Centre for Irish Bat Research, explains how the bat genome may offer a key to exciting medical advances.

Plus, a mesmerizing opening video from TEDxRheinMain:

And finally, a cool doodle from a collection of TEDx idea maps:

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