Juan Enriquez: The Stars & Stripes Forever?
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The stars and stripes forever? Futurist and author Juan Enriquez isn’t sure of that. He cites a long history of borders, countries and flags that have changed, and warns the United States isn’t immune.
Kelly Dobson: Machine Therapy
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An eminent roboticist and Ph.D. at MIT's Media Lab, Kelly Dobson is exploring "machine therapy" - a personal, societal and psychoanalytical study of machine design and its effects on peoples' everyday lives. Watch as she exhibits Screambody, Blendie and Omo, three fascinating robots that respond to - and influence - their users in provocative ways. See Pop!Cast videoBenjamin Zander: How fascinating!
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The only conductor to ever lead the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Zander is a prophet of human potential and an unrivaled champion of joie de vivre. Watch as he helps unlock the boundless potential of a 15 year old cellist and teaches the entire Pop!Tech audience what it means to live in a world of possibility.
Project Masiluleke
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A signature program of the Pop!Tech Accelerator, Project Masiluleke, harnesses the power of mobile devices to help reverse South Africa’s crippling HIV/AIDS and TB crises. Partners from frog design, iTeach and the Praekelt Foundation discuss the program’s breakthrough approach, which endeavors to connect millions to testing and care.
Erin McKean on Wordnik
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Self-proclaimed word geek Erin McKean, editor-in-chief of U.S. Dictionaries for Oxford University Press, is on a mission to debunk common misconceptions and elevate the use—and cool factor—of dictionaries. And what’s this about dictionaries being “the vodka of literature”?Doug Rushkoff on Renaissance Prospects
/Douglas Rushkoff analyzes, writes and speaks about the way people, cultures, and institutions create, share, and influence each other's values. He sees "media" as the landscape where this interaction takes place, and "literacy" as the ability to participate consciously in it.
Read MoreRobert Neuwirth: Squatter Cities
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Having spent two years living in squatter communities across four continents, urban ethnographer Robert Neuwirth finds people living lives of complexity, challenge, and surprising resiliency.
Suketu Mehta: Mumbai
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Writer Suketu Mehta glimpses our possible urban future through the lens of the vastly contrasting lifestyles in Mumbai, the biggest, fastest, richest city in India, and with a population of 21 million, larger and more crowded than many nation states.
Laurie Garrett: Examining China's response to SARS
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Renowned global health expert Laurie Garrett gave a powerful and frightening talk at PopTech 2008 on how countries deal - both effectively and ineffectively - with pandemics. Examining China's response to SARS, she asked: what if this happened here?
Laura Waters: Rwanda, genocide and forgiveness
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Filmmaker Laura Waters Hinson went to Rwanda with a chilling question: is it possible to forgive the person who killed your family? Hear the stories of reconciliation she found while making “As We Forgive,” which documents how confessed murderers and genocide survivors are partnering to rebuild Rwanda.Gary Slutkin: Is it possible to end violence?
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After spending years in Africa fighting AIDS, TB and cholera with the W.H.O., Gary Slutkin returned to Chicago and had an epiphany: the violence plaguing his hometown exhibited all the signs of an infectious disease. Learn how he’s applied epidemiological principles to reduce shootings and violent crime in inner-city Chicago neighborhoods by as much as 75%.Jay Parkinson: Healthcare 2.0
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Dr. Parkinson is re-imagining the doctor/patient relationship, marrying a 21st century toolkit - think social networking, IM, video chat, SMS and PayPal - with old-fashioned, doctor-in-your-neighborhood, quality care. Pay a virtual visit to his Web 2.0 primary care practice, Hello Health, which offers a new way of keeping people well.Richard Alley: Global Warming Optimism
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Get inspired by Richard Alley’s optimistic view on global warming.This world-renowned paleoclimatologist does have some bad news about climate change, although he’ll convince you that we not only have the tools to solve the problem, but we can make money doing it too.
John Priscu: Life below the ice of Antarctic
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Join polar scientist John Priscu – and his autonomous robots - as he takes us miles below the Antarctic ice to search for living organisms that may have been cut off from the rest of the planet’s ecosystem for millions of years.
Cary Fowler: A global backup of the world’s agricultural biodiversity
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Agricultural impresario Cary Fowler is kind of a latter-day Superman: his mission is to protect life on Earth, and he even operates out of an arctic fortress. While Dr. Fowler can’t fly or leap tall buildings, his work has captured the world’s imagination, and he’s safeguarding mankind’s future with a practical solution: seeds.
K. David Harrison: The rapid erosion of languages
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There are 7,000 languages spoken in the world. This, argues linguist K. David Harrison, represents the greatest repository of human knowledge ever assembled - but it’s rapidly eroding, and this will be terrible. We’re not only losing information, but we’re losing ways of understanding the world.
Frank Warren: PostSecret
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Four years ago, Frank Warren walked the streets of DC at night, handing out self-addressed postcards to strangers, soliciting their secrets. Watch as the creator of the wildly popular blog PostSecret reveals some of the hundreds of thousands of secrets shared by people from around the world in those four years…including a few of his own.
