TED Talks have been making waves since the first series of video podcasts were released back in June 2006. Take Brene Brown’s speech on vulnerability, for example. The 20-minute clip raked in millions of views, and sparked a global discussion on how our sense of belonging, shame, courage, and empathy shapes the world we live in. Travel-related TED Talks are just as thought provoking and inspiring. Here I share my favourite TED talks in this genre, and which type of traveller they’ll appeal to most…
For the expats: Taiye Selasi, ‘Don’t ask me where I’m from, ask where I’m a local‘
As an expat with ties to Dublin, London, Birmingham and Sydney, I was drawn to Taiye Selasi’s TED talk ‘Don’t ask me where I’m from, ask where I’m a local’. The writer speaks on the subject of ‘multi-local’ and how, for long term travellers, the concept of nationhood more than a few holes. In challenging the merit of the very thing that most of us identify so strongly with, nationality, Selasi opens our eyes to a new way of seeing the world – and our place, places, in it. Expats, we’ve found our messiah. Here are some of our favourite moments from the talk…
“All experience is local, all identity is experience. I’m not a national. I’m a local. I’m multi-local. Tai Selasi comes from the United States isn’t the truth. I have no relationship with the United States, all 50 of them, not really. My relationship is with Brookline, the town where I grew up. With New York city where I started work, with Lawrenceville, where I spent Thanksgiving. What makes America home for me is not my passport or accent, but these very particular experiences and the places they occured.”
For the thrill seekers: Chris Burkard, ‘The joy of surfing in ice cold water‘
Things worth having don’t come easy. This idea is what surf photographer Chris Burkard swears by. “It was the coldest I’ve ever been. But even with swollen lips, sunken eyes and cheeks flushed red, I have found that this place, right here, is somewhere I can find great joy.” He’s speaking of his trip to The Lofoten Islands just off Norway, where he photographed surfers in arctic conditions, and got caught up in an intense blizzard in the process. Chris’s talk questions contemporary tourist travel and, by some miracle, makes surfing in freezing icy water sound appealing. Here’s our favourite lines from his talk…
“Amidst the harsh conditions (in Iceland) I felt like I stumbled onto one of the last quiet places, somewhere that I found a clarity and a connection to the world I knew I would never find on a crowded beach… In life there are no shortcuts to joy.”
For the would-be explorers: Nathan Wolfe, ‘What’s left to explore‘
Humans are natural-born explorers, but following the many, many great expeditions through the 15th century to now, is there anywhere left to still discover here on earth? The answer, according to Nathan Wolfe, is yes. He spoke about recent biological findings in his TED talk, ‘What’s left to explore’. Here’s our favourite lines from his speech…
“It’s true, we may have chartered all the continents on the planet and we may have discovered all the mammals that are out there, but that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing left to explore on earth. Beijerinck and his kind provide an important lesson for the next generation of explorers… don’t assume that what we currently think is out there is the full story. Go after the dark matter in whatever field you choose to explore. There are unknowns all around us and they’re just waiting to be discovered.”
For the unmotivated: Ben Saunders, ‘Why bother leaving the house‘
If you’ve survived a UK winter, there’s a good chance that this question has crossed your mind once or twice: why bother leaving the house? We suggest you go and listen to polar explorer Ben Saunders’ TED talk – where he covers just that. Here’s some of the best things we took away from his speech.
“That is the finest argument for leaving the house. I can try to tell you what it [the experience] was like, but you’ll never know… and the more I try to explain that I felt lonely (I was the only human being in 5.4 million square miles), it was cold (nearly minus 75 degrees with wind chill on a bad day) the more words fall short, and I’m unable to do it justice. It seems to me therefore, that the doing: to try, to experience, to engage, to endeavour, rather than to watch and to wonder, that’s where the real meat of life is to be found.”
For the curious: Rich Benjamin, ‘My road trip through the whitest towns in America‘
As we’ve read above, travel serves many purposes, and it isn’t always fun. No one knows this quite like Rich Benjamin. Across two years, Rich travelled 27 000 miles to experience the three fastest growing and whitest counties in America. Experiencing ‘whitopia’ as a young black man had its challenges and its highlights (a love affair with golfing was born). In his TED talk, ‘My road trip through the whitest towns in America’ he advocates for exploring the places and meeting the people that, on first glance, aren’t your cup of tea. According to Rich, it’s the only way to challenge the status quo. Here are our favourite quotes from Rich’s talk…
“The more segregation we have, the less we can look at and confront conscious and unconscious bias. I ventured on my 2-year, 27 000 mile journey to learn why and how white people are fleeing. But I didn’t expect to have so much fun on my journey, I didn’t expect to learn so much about myself. I don’t expect I’ll be living in a whitopia or a blacktopia for that matter. I do expect I’ll be golfing every chance I get.”
Which TED Talks are your favourites? Share your thoughts with us below!
