TEDx talks

I am a TEDx fan. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) provides informative and entertaining lectures on various subjects and in more than 100 languages.

Charmian Gooch, Vancouver Convention Center,  Canada. Photo: James Duncan Davidson

Even though I watch many English spoken presentations, I remain (unsurprisingly) partial to French speakers. When you have been weaned of your mother tongue, it is a real treat to listen to accomplished lecturers articulating their ideas in a crisp, precise, literate French. Not the kind of street-French that you might hear around your friends or in movies.

Women particularly excel in these presentations. They are smart, lucid, convincing while expressing sometimes difficult notions to accept. And they are not afraid of calmly using four-letter words to buttress their cases.

I recently watched a few lectures dealing with relationships and marriages, and it was illuminating. Most of the people enter relationships in a secondary state called “love.” During this period, they are not being objective. They want to please and will avoid conflicts, even if something is highly irritating to them.

After a while, the fog of love subsides, and the protagonists are starting to see things more clearly. The object of their affection is not perfect and starts to lose his/her shine. And they don’t know how to cope with it. They don’t know because nobody ever taught them how to deal with these kinds of conflicts.
The first reaction of an offended person is usually to hit back. The other person retaliates and that’s when everything starts to unravel.

Before rushing into any kind of amorous relationship, it would be very beneficial for everybody involved to attend some of these lectures. And the great thing about them is that they are free, and you don’t have to go anywhere to watch them. You can stay home, tune to YouTube, and voila…
I am usually watching programs in French or in English, but TEDx is available in a multitude of languages.

In Ted talks, nothing is taboo. The speakers (usually experts in their respective fields) will tackle any subject with brio. And you have to be a good public speaker to do this. Sex, infidelity, swinging, pornography… The very subjects that nobody dared to talk about publicly in the ’50s… especially in communist fighting America… or in Trumpland.
But those things are real and need to be talked about.

TEDx is not only about sex. It is about matters that everybody ought to be knowledgeable about… and are not. And that they often refuse to explore.

Never mind the TV networks and their dull and insipid offerings; TEDx is there and ready for you.
Go for it, and you will be happy you did it.

Alain