Onstage in Oxford

TEDGlobal’s hosts Bruno Giussani (left), European director, TED, and Chris Anderson, TED curator, at the opening session in Oxford.

Photograph by James Duncan Davidson / Courtesy of TED

“Foreign policy … has to be run by listening to the public opinions of people who are blogging and communicating with each other around the world.”

Gordon Brown,
UK Prime Minister, in his TEDGlobal talk.

Photograph by James Duncan Davidson / Courtesy of TED

“When we reject the single story, we create a new paradise.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,
Nigerian novelist, on the dangers of stereotyping Africa and the power of multiple stories, in her TEDGlobal talk.

Photograph by Jacob Zukerman

“Acts of genocide are destroying lives and communities every day — and the world is ignoring them.”

Naomi Natale,
TEDGlobal Fellow and founder of One Million Bones, a proposed art installation to increase global awareness of the victims of genocide, in her TEDGlobal Fellow talk.

Photograph by Jacob Zukerman

TEDGlobal speaker Lewis Pugh begins his swim across the sub-freezing waters of the north pole (water temperature: 29˚F or -1.7˚C) in 2007.

Lewis Pugh is an environmentalist, explorer, and swimmer. His next expedition will be a kayak trip from an island in northern Europe across the Arctic Ocean into the Arctic ice pack. He was a TEDGlobal speaker.

Courtesy of Lewis Pugh

“TED is more.”

Bjarke Ingels,
architect, about what should go in the blank bubble on his T-shirt, in his TEDGlobal talk.

Photograph by James Duncan Davidson / Courtesy of TED

“It’s perhaps easier now than ever before to make a good living. It’s perhaps harder than ever before to stay calm and be free of career anxiety.”

Alain de Botton,
author and philosopher, in his TEDGlobal talk.

Photograph by James Duncan Davidson / Courtesy of TED

“People say, ‘I like the aquatic theory.’ Everybody likes the aquatic theory. Of course, they don’t believe it. But they like it. And I ask them, ‘Why do you think it’s rubbish?’ And they say, ‘Well, everybody I talk to says it’s rubbish, and they can’t all be wrong, can they?’ The answer to that, loud and clear, is yes. They can all be wrong. History is strewn with occasions when they’ve all got it wrong.”

Elaine Morgan,
octogenarian scientist and proponent of the aquatic ape hypothesis, which suggests that humans evolved from primate ancestors that dwelled in watery habitats, in her TEDGlobal talk.

Photograph by James Duncan Davidson / Courtesy of TED

“What energized me and kept me going was the music. The music has been my therapy, where I actually see heaven, where I can be happy and be a child again.”

Emmanuel Jal,
former child soldier from Sudan turned hip-hop artist and advocate for kids in war zones, in his performance and talk at TEDGlobal.

Photograph by Jacob Zukerman