My New TED Talk
How to Give a Talk about Difficult Times in the Middle of a Difficult Time
Thanks for reading The Nonlinear Life, a newsletter about navigating life's ups and downs. We're all going through transitions, let's master them together. Every Monday and Thursday we explore family, health, work, and meaning, with the occasional dad joke and dose of inspiration. If you're new around here, read my introductory post, learn about me, or check out our archives.
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The first email came on March 17. It was from an organizer of a TEDx event in Madrid.
Dear Bruce,
Our theme this year is ‘Starting from Scratch.’ When I first heard the topic, I thought about your book LIFE IS IN THE TRANSITIONS. Would you be interested in being one of our speakers?
For any writer, an email like this is a dream come true.
But this time, it was also a bit of a logistical nightmare.
TED was created in 1984 by one of the more singular forces of nature I’ve ever met, Richard Saul Wurman – architect, graphic designer, community builder, and visionary who wrote and designed more than 90 books. Along with a co-founder, Richard saw the alignment of technology, entertainment, and design, the first letters of which created one of the more famous acronyms in contemporary life, TED.
The first event included an early demo of the compact disc, the e-book, and 3D graphics. It also lost money and would not be repeated for another six years. Once TED resumed in 1990, the annual event enjoyed a successful, decade-long run before Richard sold the rights to the media entrepreneur Chris Anderson, who grew it and eventually took it online.
As it happens, this summer marks the fifteenth anniversary of the first six TED Talks being posted online. That first batch included Al Gore, Sir Ken Robinson, and MacArthur award-winner Majora Carter.
The first group of TED speakers.
From the start, this new invitation to appear in Madrid was both thrilling – and challenging.
The thrilling news was that their theme – how to bounce back from difficult times – dovetailed closely with the work I’ve been doing the last five years. After going through brutal years of personal hardship myself, and talking with hundreds of others who endured the same, I felt that I had clear guidance I could offer others on how to navigate emerging from the pandemic.
The challenging news was that pulling off this topic while the pandemic was still raging seemed almost undoable. I had just been vaccinated at the time, but Spain was doing poorly. I hadn’t been on an airplane in more than a year. And Zoom, as effective as it has been, did not seem like a great alternative.
The Madrid-based TEDx event.
A friend who has produced many live events gave me a critical piece: Get a crowd. You’ll be more relaxed, and it will give you someone to play off of. Made sense, but how to make that happen?
In the end, after weeks of scrambling, this speech was taped in Brooklyn in front of a live, vaccinated audience. One thing about the crazy circumstances surrounding the talk, they made the theme of the event feel even more urgent.
Delivering my TED Talk to a vaccinated, Brooklyn audience in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The talk opens with one of the most challenging phone calls I ever received. And, for the first time that I’ve shared publicly, the talk ends with the emotional way that story turned out.
I hope you enjoy it.
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Thanks for reading The Nonlinear Life. Please help us grow the community by subscribing, sharing, and commenting below. Also, you can learn more about me, read my introductory post, or scroll through my other posts.
“Burnout:” The Good News About the Most Overused Word of the Year
Or these books: Life Is in the Transitions, The Secrets of Happy Families, Council of Dads.
Or, you can also contact me directly.
