Potrait of a TEDx’er: Austin Kleon
Austin Kleon. Artist; writer; TEDx’er.
“I don’t have many words, but right there in front of me are millions of them—and they’re ripe for the taking,” said poet Austin Kleon during his talk, “Reimagining Poetry” at TEDxPennQuarter, describing the stack of newspapers piled by his desk that willed him out of writers’ block.
The Ohio native and current Texan was suffering an extreme case of the block when, unsure of where to look for inspiration, his recycling bin caught his eye, and he realized that he didn’t have to worry about finding words—the words had found him.
Bryant Austin is a photographer who snaps images of giant whales from hardly 10 feet away. In a quest to prevent the extinction of these gentle giants, he puts together life-sized portraits of these creatures — one which took over 200 hours to make and weighed a whopping 1,200 pounds — to help the public realize just what a whale really looks like.
At the top, a selection of his photographs — and above — his talk from TEDxSanJoseCA, during which he speaks on his process and the wonder of seeing a living, breathing whale up-close.
(Photos: Top, AP/Koji Sasahara. All others, Bryant Austin)
7 TEDx Talks by guys with excellent beards
“Strider” at TEDxDarwin
Beards have a patchy history. King Henry VIII started taxing beards in 1535. Peter the Great of Russia declared his own war on fuzz 200 years later. Massachusetts law once required men to pay for a license just to rock a goatee and, on the other side of the razor, it was once illegal not to grow a beard in Brainerd, Minnesota.
Thankfully, the war on fuzzy faces might just have finally stalled. Help us celebrate great whiskers by watching these 7 talks from speakers with facial hair so impressive you might just want to grow your own (imaginary or not).
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Reduced Misery: Paul Krugman at TEDxColumbiaSIPA
At TEDxColumbiaSIPA, Paul Krugman expands on happiness economics and what economics can do to make you less miserable, citing work from Sigmund Freud and Ben Bernake, two fellow beard-wearers.
