Ideas Change Everything — and What’s Next for TED | Chris Anderson and Monique Ruff-Bell | TED

Monique Ruff-Bell: Chris, we are celebrating 40 years at TED.

Is that not crazy?

So wonderful.

Chris Anderson: So crazy.

Forty years.

It's funny, TED started the year where I thought

the world was going to end, 1984.

MRB: Why did you think the world was going to end in 1984?

CA: Because I read George Orwell, “1984.”

It seemed, like, as a teenager I read that bookm

and I thought, wow, yeah, the world can't possibly go past that.

This dystopian future coming.

And it's so funny that now that seems so long ago.

And actually, that was a year when Richard Wurman and his cofounders

thought, wow, technology, so much possibility,

especially if you combine it with entertainment and design,

all these things could happen.

It was the year of the Apple Mac and compact discs,

and they suddenly seemed like

this incredible technological possibilities

that could really change things

and be a broader part of the world.

And they were right.

And it turned out that way.

And it just built through the '90s, early '90s,

so much optimism around what technology could be.

But it was a long time ago.

MRB: Well, I guess the future seems so bright after kind of 1984.

Instead of you thinking it was kind of the end of the world,

it was like, oh, what is the world evolving into?

This is amazing.

CA: Yeah. I mean, certainly in the West, there was a lot of optimism,

you know, the fall of communism, rise of technology,

people spoke of the end of history.

You know, Western ideas were going to win and spread out across the world.

And yet the internet.

I remember Wired Magazine in the late '90s,

publishing these articles that were basically implying

that the rules of economics had changed forever

and that we were in for this long boom, you know,

that might last our lifetimes

driven by the power of spreading knowledge.

MRB: Right. Well, you just did a talk, a conversation with Richard Wurman,

who is the founder of TED.

And we have that on TED.com.

That was a great conversation to kind of look at the history of TED.

But now I want this conversation to kind of look at the future of TED.

So one of the things that we're kind of evolving

is our tagline and our mission statement.

From "ideas worth spreading" to "ideas change everything."

That's a very, very powerful statement.

Why are we leaning into that now?

CA: For several reasons.

I have loved "ideas worth spreading."

That happened when we started sharing talks online,

and we were trying to figure out, why are we doing this,

why are we giving away our best content?

And the idea that seemed to land with everyone was

well, because we should.

Because these are ideas that are worth putting out there.

And so it was intended partly as a little nudge to people.

You watch this talk, you better share it as well.

And I think that helped create TED's virality.

It also, although we didn't really talk about this,

it puts a little obligation on anyone watching a talk.

Ideas worth sharing.

Do I want to do something with that?

Today, we're deluged with content.

There is so much,

I mean, there are literally millions of talking heads online.

TikTok, Instagram,

YouTube have allowed thousands and thousands

and thousands of experiments to be made

in how talk can be compelling.

And what's happened is that people have discovered

that there are lots of ways to build an audience

that are very different from just watching a speaker on a stage,

giving a talk in the traditional way to an audience.

And so we've had to figure out what to do about that.

There's more than one response,

but the biggest single response that I think we should do

and are doing is to double down on the importance of what our content is.

So collectively,

all these other voices have created this irresistible world of doomscrolling

where people, if you've got an hour free, you know,

you could watch a couple of TED Talks,

or you could have instant dialed-up gratification through, you know,

little glimpses of hundreds and hundreds of people.

That's hard to resist in the war of attention.

What we want to say to the world is, yes, doomscrolling is great,

but ideas change everything.

At some point,

it's worth spending time investing in that.

In the power of learning.

It can make all the difference to your own future --

and actually to the future of the planet as well.

MRB: Leaning into kind of our evolution

and how we're even thinking about our formats on the stage

and how we're kind of leaning into a little bit more of a debate style

on some of our talks,

one of my favorite quotes is by James Baldwin.

It’s: “Not everything that is faced can be changed,

but nothing can be changed unless it's faced."

And so, thinking about that debate format

as kind of facing some really hard conversations,

how are you feeling about that?

How are we going to present that on the stage?

CA: Right. So this is really a bit of a new development for TED,

to lean more deliberately into ideas being debated,

not just announced.

I think it's always been true that ideas are ...

they don’t land in the world in perfect form.

They find their best form by being articulated, shared, debated,

tweaked, people listening to other people.

It often takes many human minds to help something find its best form.

Now, the world, in some ways is getting more divided,

and there's just more fundamental disagreement

on certain types of ideas than there's ever been.

And if we want to explore ideas in those spaces,

really the only way to do it is to open up to more than one voice on it

and to ...

explore those disagreements.

And to see if we can do so in a way

that's different than what is largely happening out there,

because what's largely happening out there is not a discussion.

It's a mud fight.

People are yelling at each other, flinging insults,

trying to undercut each other

and not really taking seriously,

not listening with respect,

and not responding with insight in a way that could actually change minds.

I hope, I truly hope, to the core of myself,

that humanity is capable still of doing this thing,

of making progress towards a deeper,

shared understanding,

listening, persuasion.

And then once you've found some common ground to dream together

about other possibilities that may reframe the situation altogether.

Ideas allow us to reshape the space of the adjacent possible.

And so if you can do that,

you can switch a zero-sum mud fight

into a positive-sum exploration of possibility.

So anyway, we're going to try and do that with some issues

in this upcoming TED.

And it's not going to be a traditional debate.

So one of the things that we're going to be doing

is literally just placing two people opposite each other,

looking at each other,

having a conversation with each other, kind of like you and I are now.

But if you imagine that we disagreed on everything,

but we're trying to find common ground, how do you do that?

Can you find people who are willing to be curious about the other person,

and to learn about them,

and to empathize with some of what they are feeling?

And if you could do that,

what would that change?

We are going to find out.

MRB: We are going to find out,

because I don't think there's any other platform

that's really doing this.

So why do you think TED is a strong platform

to kind of try this very unique experiment?

CA: Well, we are a nonprofit.

We are nonpartisan.

I kind of feel like we have a duty to do it.

We believe, I think more passionately than anyone else,

that ideas of the currency that matters.

Ideas can be in two minds at once.

And ideas are things that you can adopt in part.

You don't have to adopt them wholly.

So it's possible, for example,

to disagree with someone profoundly on a lot of things,

but still find something that you could learn from them.

And just that one thing may change the dynamic.

MRB: Also thinking about, you know, us trying different things,

and us connecting with our audiences different,

us connecting with the next generation of our community,

what does that look like for TED?

How are we kind of becoming this stickiness with, you know,

younger people

and making sure that they kind of participate

on this journey of dreaming bigger, humanity,

ideas worth spreading and changing and all of that good stuff?

CA: I mean, one great thing to note

is that many people in the generation coming through

are deeply idealistic I would say.

Like, they are not content with the mean world

that we're in danger of passing on to them.

They don't want a life to be just about materialism.

And, you know, they see so many flaws in the current systems

that they want to do something about,

and they're not prepared to settle just for an ordinary life.

Many of them are very fearful about the future

and perhaps for good reason.

And so just from that point of view,

there could not be more fertile territory for ideas

and for the right ideas

and for ideas, it's going to have to be, in many cases,

fresh ideas for the moment.

One other thing that's remarkable about the generation coming through is,

you know, how much they have innovated on how ideas can be shared.

And here we have a lot to learn from them.

I mean, I look at the way in which ideas are communicated online right now

on social media, for example.

And I'm kind of in awe,

like, the amount of information

you can cram into a well-edited 60-second video,

it's astonishing.

It's really, really amazing.

And so one of the things we have to do is just to learn from that

and to take our content and put it through that format.

So we have things like the TEDToks channel on TikTok,

which is starting to do some things very well, I think.

And it’s building an audience there, and that’s lovely to see.

And I think there should be more of that.

And when people want to invest in this magical thing of lifelong learning,

we'll be there.

MRB: Well, you know, I have a 20-year-old

and so of course, he grew up with TED.

He still watches TED Talks.

So there is something there that is still connecting with this younger generation.

They are really kind of learning and being motivated and inspired.

But there's also an evolution of storytelling

that we have to lean more into.

What does that look like for you?

CA: Well,

it definitely looks like trying to do more in a shorter time span.

I mean, everyone's time is limited.

I think ideas can be explored and revealed at different levels of depth.

You know, there is the sneak peek at something

that can be enough to spark curiosity

and pull someone in deeper who wants to dig deeper.

Or there is the fuller explanation,

and I think we have to be ready to embrace both of those.

I think we need to be ready to innovate and to invite some of the people

who have learned these incredible skills from TikTok

and YouTube and elsewhere,

to be our next generation of speakers

and to show how to use those skills on the TED stage.

Which is why I’m so excited about a project you, Monique,

have been pushing, which could be incredible,

called TEDNext.

MRB: That's right.

This is a great segue into that with this conversation.

With TEDNext, you know, when you think about TED,

the in-person experience of TED,

it was always about the future of: design, technology, entertainment.

And, you know, with the next generation,

they're really trying to find out

how do I want to contribute to this society?

How do I want to contribute to humanity?

How do I want to grow just for myself,

personal development.

What do I want to do as a leader?

How can I make change?

And so we were thinking about kind of what type of program we can put together

that kind of helps spark that dreaming bigger,

that imagination, that innovation,

showcasing younger people kind of doing that stuff themselves.

And so having TEDNext

and launching that in October in Atlanta,

October 22 through 24,

it's just going to be a phenomenal experience

to bring people who have such a love for TED

and who have been a part of our community for a long time,

meet that next generation halfway

and share information of how you can kind of, move through this life

in a very different way than they've had before.

CA: So that word, next, stands for many things.

To some extent it's next generation,

to some extent it's the next chapter in your life.

What are the ideas that can help shape that?

And to some extent it’s, what are the next formats of TED Talks

that will grip the audience there

and the world?

I mean, I love it.

TED has always been about innovation and dreaming,

and this is going to be a paint box where people can paint their dreams

like never before.

MRB: And I know TED is doing a lot with impact

and really thinking about how we kind of make positive momentum for society

as a whole.

Do you want to talk about any of the impact initiatives

that we have here?

CA: I've always believed that ideas are the biggest single driver of impact,

that an idea whose time has come is unstoppable.

But there is a big gap between an idea

and actually building that idea into the future.

And often, to get across that gap

takes, I mean, it takes a group of people coming together.

It may take very significant sums of money and so, yeah,

we've spent more and more time thinking

about is there any role that we could play there.

And probably the thing I'm most excited about in that regard

is this thing called the Audacious Project

that's become a growing part of TED and the TED community.

I mean, it's a project that's incubated here at TED,

but it impacts many people outside,

because what it does is that it allows people's biggest dreams

to be turned into reality.

So in the world right now,

like, I’m obsessed with entrepreneurs of all kinds.

Entrepreneurs, famously,

they dream up these new business ideas,

they get funded by venture capitalists.

They go through an IPO and they build a company

and they don't have to raise funding again.

And for all the flaws in that process, it's kind of amazing that it can happen.

And it gives us all the things, you know,

our smartphones and Uber,

so many of these things that matter to us in our life.

It all came through this process.

There's a whole other category of ideas that tackle system change,

that tackle problems in the world

that can't be solved by making a product

that has a profit margin on it.

And so there's this whole other category of entrepreneurs,

we call them social entrepreneurs,

who have an absolutely horrible time trying to raise money for their dreams.

They don't have an IPO, for example, to achieve it.

They have to raise money one damn meeting after another.

It can take 10 meetings before you get any funding.

It’s then much less than you need, and it comes with strings attached.

And so, so much of the social entrepreneur's experience

is one of being ground down and having to cut back on your dreams.

This is a tragedy.

We should not be sentencing the people who are, frankly, global heroes

to spending half their time trying to raise money and often failing.

So the Audacious Project was an attempt to do something about this,

to say to social entrepreneurs, OK, what actually is your biggest dream?

Assume money is no object.

What actually could you build?

Could you possibly send shivers down my spine with the excitement of this?

And it turns out that they can.

We get in like 1,000 applications a year for this.

Go through a process of trying to find, in the end, 10,

just 10 that are really credible, that have evidence to back them,

are led by someone or a team that we really believe can grow.

Often we're talking about basically,

say, if it's a nonprofit organization,

of quadrupling the size of that organization

in a short period of time so that they can reach these other dreams.

And we work with them to turn these dreams into a credible multi-year plan.

And then we bring together donors.

And in the tech community, happily,

we have had connections with people who've been incredibly successful

and who want to give back.

When you bring a group of them together at one time,

something amazing happens.

They look at these plans, they pick the ones they like,

and with the clock ticking,

they have to decide whether they're going to support them or not.

And time and again, I've seen in the last hour

of these two-and-a-half-day retreats, they will all go in.

It's infectious generosity.

Someone says, "I'm in."

Someone says, "Well, then I'm in."

And literally at the last retreat,

this process raised more than a billion dollars

for 10 different projects that were all funded.

MRB: So they’re not just getting funding for thousands, but millions.

CA: Yeah, typically, these projects then have funding

for the next five years, you know,

say, here's the 50 or 100 million dollars-plus commitment

over those five years

so they can get on and do the work.

So it's a bit like a kind of an IPO moment for a nonprofit.

And Monique, it's been so joyful to see this take off.

You know, in the online world,

everything either reaches critical mass and then lifts

and you get a positive cycle spinning

or it fizzles.

Here, there is a positive cycle spinning,

and I'm really so excited about it and where it could lead.

MRB: It's absolutely amazing that we get to participate in something like that

to change the world, one idea at a time, right?

Final question.

We just celebrated 40 years.

What does the next 40 years of TED look like?

(Laughter)

CA: It’s going to be shaped by ideas,

and many of those ideas won't be mine.

I mean, I'm ...

I think I'm 67 now. I'm 67.

So I'll definitely be in the picture for quite a while yet, dreaming,

doing my bit to dream,

but I'm so aware that TED needs to be made ready

for the next generation.

It needs to be carried forward.

And ultimately,

what we've learned at TED again and again

is that when you let go,

amazing things happen.

TEDx.

I mean, that is an astonishing,

an astonishing, unexpected global phenomenon.

MRB: 3,000 events globally.

CA: Which happened because we let go.

We said, you know, we do have opinions on how you should do a TED event,

but you know what?

We're going to trust you to do them.

Thank you for listening to our advice,

now it's over to you, you do it.

And these 3,000 teams around the world have amazed and delighted us

with what they've given us back.

So there's some kind of version of that in the future of TED,

over the next 40 years

of letting this thing go to an incredible community

and being astounded at the imagination that ...

carries it forward and allows it to continue to shape history

as ideas always have and, I hope, they always will.

MRB: Well, I appreciate you sharing the way you did today,

and I look forward to the next 40 years of TED.

CA: Thank you, Monique, and for all you're doing at TED.

It's really wonderful to have you as part of the team.