The TEDxMidwest speakers (and audience) are very accomplished and typically include bestselling authors, TED prize winners, renowned scientists, designers, architects, behavioral economists, Nobel, Pulitzer, Polk and MacArthur prize winners – among others. Many of the 25 speakers have presented at TED previously. The following speakers are confirmed and more will be announced before the event.
Kevin Bacon
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Actor – Speaking on The Six Degrees of Kevin BaconKevin Bacon has starred in some of the most influential films in cinema history. Ingrained into our popular culture forever, Bacon’s films span every genre of the human condition. In true Bacon style, he embraced the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” trivia phenomenon and founded SixDegrees.org, a charitable initiative that links people to charities and each other for the purpose of making a difference. |
Wes Craven
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Director of Scream and Nightmare on Elm Street Speaking on The Nature of FearWes Craven has kept audiences on the edge of their seats as a filmmaker with heart, guts, humor and a visionary imagination. Craven directed the phenomenal hit trilogy, Scream, Scream 2, and Scream 3, reaching a new level of success. Craven also formed Midnight Entertainment, a company creating horror films with budgets of $15 million and under, to be directed by new, young talent. |
Nancy Etcoff
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Harvard Expert on Beauty and HappinessNancy Etcoff is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Harvard Medical School, and an Associate Researcher at the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry where she directs the Program in Aesthetics and Well Being. Her book, Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty has been published in over a dozen languages. |
Deb Fallows |
Linguist and AuthorLinguist and author Deborah Fallows recently lived in China for three years. She has a PhD in linguistics; has worked for the Pew Internet Project, Oxygen Media, and Georgetown University; and has written for many national publications. Her new book is Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love, and Language. |
Helen Fisher
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Prolific Relationships Researcher Speaking on Why We LoveHelen Fisher, PhD, biological Anthropologist, Rutgers U., studies the biology of romantic love, marriage, adultery, divorce, gender differences, mate choice, and business personality styles. She has written five internationally best selling books, and lectures worldwide, including speeches at World Economic Forum/Davos, TED, United Nations, Smithsonian, Aspen Institute, Salk Institute and Harvard Medical School. |
Daniel Hernandez |
One of the Heroes Who Helped Save Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ LifeDaniel Hernandez had only been Representative Gabrielle Giffords’ intern for five days, when, Giffords was shot at a Saturday meet and greet in Arizona, and he is credited with saving her life. Hernandez is twenty years old and is dedicating his life to public service. He Has been honored as an American hero by President and Mrs. Obama. |
John Hodgman
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Daily Show Comedian, AuthorJohn Hodgman is a writer, performer, and purveyor of fascinating fake facts. Accordingly, he is the “Resident Expert” on the Daily Show and has written two bestsellers of fictive non-fiction: The Areas Of My Expertise, and More Information Than You Require. The final book in the trilogy, That Is All, covers wine and sports and the end of the world. |
Pablos Holman
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Futurist, IT Security Expert, Provocateur and One of the World’s Top HackersPablos Holman has tinkered around on space ship design with Jeff Bezos, and is a hacker-turned-IT security guru, He excels in making and then breaking the technological rules of the 21st century. An inventor at Intellectual Ventures and Hacker at Komposite Inc., Holman brings practical use to what are at first thought of as crazy and impossible ideas. |
The Interrupters |
A Team of ex-Chicago Gang Members that Intercede in Violence About to HappenThe Interrupters shares the remarkable stories of three Violence Interrupters, who work to protect their Chicago communities from violence. This film is based on the work of the innovative organization, CeaseFire, which bases it’s work on the principle that violence spreads the way infectious diseases spread, so the treatment should be similar – go after the infection and treat it at the source. |
Dean Kamen
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Maybe the Top Inventor in the WorldDean Kamen is an innovator, but not just of things. He hopes to revolutionize attitudes, quality of life, and awareness. In addition to DEKA, one of Dean’s proudest accomplishments is founding FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an organization dedicated to motivating the next generation to understand, use and enjoy science and technology. Kamen was awarded the National Medal of Technology in 2000 and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in May 2005. |
Alison Levine
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Climbed Mount Everest and the Seven SummitsAlison Levine is a history-making explorer and mountaineer who served as the team captain of the first American Women’s Everest Expedition. In May 2010 she completed the Adventure Grand Slam – climbing the 7 Summits (highest peak on each continent) and skiing to both Poles, an accomplishment fewer than 30 people in the world can claim. |
Amory Lovins |
Advisor to Governments and Industry on Advanced Energy EfficiencyRecovering physicist Amory Lovins, Hon. AIA, FRSA, is cofounder, Chairman, and Chief Scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute (www.rmi.org); advisor to major firms and governments worldwide on advanced energy efficiency; author of 31 books and over 450 papers; and recipient of dozens of major awards. In 2009, Time named him one of the world’s 100 most influential people, and Foreign Policy, one of the 100 top global thinkers. His latest books are Small Is Profitable (2009), Winning the Oil Endgame (2004,). The Essential Amory Lovins (Earthscan, London, Sept. 2011), and Reinventing Fire (Chelsea Green, Oct. 2011). |
Erin McKean
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TEDxMidwest Host and Former Editor of the Oxford American DictionaryYou can ask Erin McKean what word to make with the dreaded Q in Scrabble, but don’t ask her for help placing it on the board. The founder and CEO, of online Dictionary, Wordnik, has confessed to being bad at the game. This recovering lexicographer is the author of Weird and Wonderful Words; More Weird and Wonderful Words; Totally Weird and Wonderful Words; and That’s Amore. McKean also sits on the advisory board of the Wikimedia Foundation. If words aren’t your thing, then talk to McKean about her first novel The Secret Lives of Dresses and check out her blog A Dress a Day.. |
Jerry Mitchell |
MacArthur Prize Winning Journalist Who Got Klan Convictions 20 Years Later
Since 1989, the stories of Jerry Mitchell, investigative reporter for The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Miss.) have helped put four Klansmen behind bars for unpunished killings from the civil rights era. He has won more than 30 national awards, including being honored at the Kennedy Center. In 2006, the Pulitzer Board made him a Pulitzer Prize finalist, praising him “for his relentless and masterly stories on the successful prosecution of a man accused of orchestrating the killing of three civil rights workers in 1964.” In 2009, he received a MacArthur “genius” grant. He is currently writing a book on his experiences titled Race Against Time.
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Paul Nicklen
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Award Winning National Geographic Polar Photographer
Whether ice diving among leopard seals in Antarctica, covering hundreds of miles of terrain in -40F temperatures, or mastering aerial shots from his plane, National Geographic photojournalistPaul Nicklen has specialized in photographing polar regions since 1995. His images reflect a reverence for these isolatedand endangered environments, and he hopes to generate global awareness about wildlife issues through his work.
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Alexis Ohanian
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Reddit Co-founder Speaking on How to Make the World Suck LessAlexis Ohanian is the co-founder of Reddit, one of the web’s most striking examples of democracy in action. Reddit is a platform for “social news,” where the readers themselves control the front page by voting on stories. Ohanian is the founder of Breadpig, a hub for geeky books and merchandise where all the profits are donated to charity. In early 2010, he spent three months in Armenia as a Kiva Fellow. |
John Ondrasik
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Grammy-Nominated Singer from Five for Fighting Speaking on Creating Great MusicJohn Ondrasik (aka Five For Fighting), the multi-platinum, Grammy nominated singer/songwriter, has released five studio albums in a career spanning over ten years. Perhaps most well known for chart-topping hits such as “Superman (It’s Not Easy),” and “100 Years,” John is also passionate about causes benefiting our US Armed Forces, and annually creates free-to-soldiers albums titled CD For The Troops. |
Tony Schwartz
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Human Performance ExpertTony Schwartz is the founder and CEO of The Energy Project and bestselling author of The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working, published in 2010. A frequent keynote speaker, Tony has also trained and coached CEOs and senior leaders at organizations including Apple, Google, Sony, the LAPD, and the Cleveland Clinic. |
Bill Strickland
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MacArthur Award Winner, Founded the
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Rob Warden
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Runs Center on Wrongful Convictions Which Freed 7 Innocent People with Death SentencesRob Warden is the Executive Director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions, Bluhm Legal Clinic, Northwestern University Law School. Warden is a co-author, with David Protess, of A Promise of Justice, and Gone in the Night, and an award winning legal affairs journalist. Warden founded the monthly journal, Chicago Lawyer, in 1978, and served as an editor and publisher until 1989. He was inducted into the Chicago Journalism Hall of Fame in 2004. |
Edie Weiner |
FuturistEdie is President of the futures research firm Weiner, Edrich, Brown, Inc., which she co-founded in 1977. For over 40 years she has been widely recognized as one of the world’s leading practitioners of social, economic, political, technological and environmental intelligence gathering. She has keynoted over 300 conferences, co-authored 4 books, and written dozens of articles, which have appeared in publications such as Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal. |
Phil Zimbardo
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Renowned Psychologist Speaking on
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