In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

Macky Auditorium
285 UCB University Avenue
Boulder, Colorado, 80302
United States

Bombargo .

Band

Bombargo drops a vibrant splash of soul on their funky indie vibes with layers of rock and R&B infused throughout. The band brings unrivaled energy to the stage with sing-along anthems, magical harmonies, and a powerful message that combined; make for one of the most passionate live shows ever! Even billionaire and Virgin Records founder Sir Richard Branson was impressed, quoting: “I haven’t seen this type of energy since The Rolling Stones!”. Taylor Swift also has a soft spot for Bombargo, adding their single ‘Mr. No Good’ to her 2018 Spotify playlist ‘Songs Taylor Loves’ alongside Ed Sheeran, Camilla Cabello, and Kendrick Lamar. Being part of this star-studded playlist saw Bombargo featured on CBC’s the Q, NME, Exclaim, Fashion, Noisey, People, Billboard and more – leading to their follow up single ‘All the Same’ which reached #1 on Spotify’s Indie All-Star playlist.

Caroline McCarthy

Digital Media Executive and Writer

Caroline McCarthy is a digital media executive, writer, and advocate for an ethical approach to digital communications and content. She was part of TED’s Residency cohort for the spring of 2018, creating the talk “How advertising is dividing us.” Caroline is currently a vice president at true[X] (acquired by 21st Century Fox in 2015 and The Walt Disney Company in 2019). She is also the media and technology columnist for The Spectator's US edition. Prior to true[X], Caroline worked as a product marketer at Google and a print and on-camera journalist for CNET, where she was one of the first reporters to have a full-time focus on then-emerging social media companies like Facebook and Twitter.

Claire Chase, Ph.D.

Founder of Resilience By Design Consulting

Dr. Claire Chase is a resilience thinking evangelist and researcher of human interaction. A strategist since birth, Claire is drawn to puzzles and patterns in the world around her. In her day job, Claire is the Founder of Resilience By Design Consulting, where she helps groups to embrace all of their data (even the not-so-good or fake news) in order to turn insights into effective strategies. After starting her career in brand strategy and market research, Claire bridged her experiences working with companies across healthcare, financial services and consumer goods, to enhance stakeholder engagement and community outreach programs in higher education. Her years of helping clients and conducting research led Claire to develop the resilience thinking approach for groups, a way of learning from information that reveals opportunities for innovation.

Danny Mazur

Storyteller, Facilitator, Mental Health Professional and Founder of Soul Stories

Danny is a storyteller, facilitator, mental health professional and founder of Soul Stories, an organization dedicated to creating connection through dialogue. Danny has found a passion for difficult conversations. During the daytime, he works in mental health specializing in crisis intervention, de-escalation, and restorative practices with youth who have experienced trauma. In his free time, he leads Soul Stories which uses storytelling, dialogue, and creative expression to tackle difficult subjects. Over the last 5 years, Soul Stories has hosted over 100 events that have impacted 2,500+ participants in the metro Denver area. Him and his teams have co-created initiatives like "A Seat at the Table" which addresses gentrification and "Un/pact: a creative dialogue on consent" which, in partnership with the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault, aims to catalyze nuanced conversation on sexual consent.

David Grinspoon

Astrobiologist & Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute

David H. Grinspoon is an American astrobiologist. He is Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute and was the former inaugural Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology for 2012-2013. His research focuses on comparative planetology, with a focus on climate evolution on Earth-like planets and implications for habitability. He has also studied, written and lectured on the human influence on Earth, as seen in cosmic perspective. He has published four books, Venus Revealed, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times book prize, Lonely Planets: The Natural Philosophy of Alien Life, which won the 2004 PEN literary award for nonfiction, Earth in Human Hands, which was named one of NPR's Science Friday "Best Science Books of 2016" and Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto, co-authored with Alan Stern. He is adjunct professor of Astrophysical and Planetary Science at the University of Colorado.

Dr. Emily Anhalt

Psychologist, Emotional Fitness Consultant, and the CoFounder and Chief Clinical Officer of Beam

Dr. Emily Anhalt is a psychologist, emotional fitness consultant, and the CoFounder and Chief Clinical Officer of Beam, a gym for the mind that is destigmatizing and demystifying quality emotional and mental fitness. She studied psychology at the University of Michigan and attained Masters and Doctorate degrees in Clinical Psychology in Berkeley, California. For the past ten years, Dr. Anhalt has been working clinically with executives, founders, and over-achievers, and has conducted hundreds of interviews with prominent psychologists and entrepreneurs about how leaders can improve their emotional fitness. Dr. Anhalt has spoken around the world about the importance of empathy and self-awareness, and she has collaborated with some of the fastest-growing technology companies and VC firms in the world including Google, Asana, TEDx, Github, NASDAQ, Unilever, Bloomberg, and True Ventures.

EC Synkowski

Runs OptimizeMe Nutrition

EC Synkowski runs OptimizeMe Nutrition, a company offering B2B/B2C educational products, mobile-app based challenges, and corporate wellness programs. The mission of OptimizeMe Nutrition is to provide solutions for anyone to improve their weight, health, and overall wellbeing through sustainable diet methods. Thousands have used her #800gChallenge(R), a diet free of restrictive rules, to lose weight, reduce blood pressure, and improve performance and recovery.

Elizabeth Hartman

Manager for the Office of the CEO at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)

Beth Hartman has spent the last decade working to support innovation in the energy industry, and looks forward to inspiring other people to help accelerate the transition to a more sustainable global economy in the coming decade. She is currently Manager for the Office of the CEO at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) supporting a variety of initiatives and events including Climate Week in New York City. Prior to joining RMI Beth was at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) for four years leading the Incubatenergy Network (www.incubatenergy.org), a community of over 20 clean energy incubators and accelerators that have collectively supported more than 500 startup companies focused on solutions for transitioning to a more sustainable economy.

Katrina Gulliver

History Teacher at Bristol University

Katrina Gulliver teaches history at Bristol University. She holds a PhD from Cambridge and has worked at universities and museums in the US, UK, Germany, Singapore and Australia. Her first book, Modern Women in China and Japan, discussed the development of feminism and modernity in the 1920s and 30s. Her research interests include Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and the development of port cities. She has taught courses on the histories of Asia since the spice race, urban history, and the development of policing and forensics. She is also the co-editor of the ‘Pacific Worlds’ series from the University of Nebraska Press, covering the histories and cultures of the Pacific. She is the creator of the podcast Cities in History, which is used in college classrooms around the world. Katrina’s articles and reviews appear regularly in The Spectator and Slate, and she has written for TIME, The Atlantic, The American Conservative, Reason, and The Weekly Standard.

Peter McEwen

Founder of The Field

Peter McEwen wants you to be less busy. He is often uncomfortable, and that’s perfect. In a society that prioritizes output, meditation and mindfulness practices are often conflated with self-optimization. Instead, we can view meditation as a tool that reveals our immediate experience - discomfort and all - as a reliable source of well-being and problem-solving. Peter is the founder of The Field, which offers training, community and the demystification of basic contemplative practices. Peter is also a designer and editorial photographer who specializes in interactive, product and brand design, and teaches at the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder. Despite all this, Peter still finds time for the very important practice of doing nothing. His goal is to use up this precious life with creativity and dignity.

Roselinde Kaiser, Ph.D.

Clinical Psychologist and Neuroscientist

Dr. Rosi Kaiser is a clinical psychologist and neuroscientist who uses integrated behavioral, developmental, and neuroscientific methods to understand Major Depression and related affective disorders. Dr. Kaiser explores these topics from a developmental perspective, with special interest in using neurocognitive risk markers to predict the onset and course of mood disorders in teens or young adults. Clinically, Dr. Kaiser is testing how neurocognitive functioning may be enhanced to foster affective health, with the goal of translating basic science into improved treatment and emotional wellness. Dr. Kaiser received a dual-Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and Neuroscience in 2013 from the University of Colorado Boulder, completing her predoctoral Clinical Internship at Yale University School of Medicine. After receiving her doctoral degree, Dr. Kaiser trained as a postdoctoral Fellow in affective and translational neuroscience at Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital.

Samira Rajabi

Teacher, Scholar, and Writer

Samira Rajabi is a teacher, scholar, and writer, fascinated by health communication, global identity making, and our ever expanding digitally mediated world. Samira is a passionate educator and is currently an Instructor and Director of Technology Influenced Pedagogy at the University of Colorado’s College of Media, Communication, and Information. Before that she was a post-doctoral fellow at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania where she taught classes about memes and meaning (and was the highest rated instructor during the terms taught!) and worked on her book-in-progress, All My friends Live in my Computer: Tactical Media, Trauma, and Meaning Making. The proud daughter of immigrants from Iran, Samira explores ideas of suffering and belonging in immigrant communities as well as suffering and belonging in communities facing trauma. Samira has a doctoral degree in Media Studies.

Suzi Smith

Artist, Activist, and Educator

Suzi Q. Smith is an award-winning artist, activist, and educator who lives in Denver, Colorado. Performing across the U.S. for over a decade, she has shared stages with Nikki Giovanni, the late Gil Scott Heron, and many more. Her poems have appeared in Union Station Magazine, Suspect Press, La Palabra, Muzzle Magazine, Malpais Review, The Pedestal, The Los Angeles Journal, Denver Syntax, Word is Bond, The Peralta Press, Yellow Chair Review, and in the anthologies The Mutiny Info Reader, Diverse-City, His Rib: Anthology of Women, and In Our Own Words. Her chapbook collection of poems, Thirteen Descansos, was published by Penmanship Books, and her forthcoming collection, A Gospel of Bones, will be available from Alternating Current Press in Spring 2020.

Wisdom Amouzou

Artist & Executive Director of Empower Community High School

Wisdom Amouzou is an artist and a lover. His life goal is infusing an African spirit and love ethic in all he does--whether it's singing in harmony with The Storytellers, writing tall tales or co-creating a community high school in Aurora. Wisdom was a 2017 Camelback Ventures Fellow and winner of the 2017 TFA Social Innovation Award. He currently serves as Executive Director of Empower Community High School, an innovative high school in Aurora, CO that is led by students, guided by educators and co-created with community.