TEDxStanford

(May 19, 2012) Dr. Sanjiv "Sam" Gambhir talks about different molecular spies for early disease diagnosis and intervention, particularly cancer, where survival rates are exponentially higher when the cancer is caught very early.

(May 19, 2012) Ken Taylor talks about the benefits of philosophy and reason. He argues that the phenomenon of confirmation bias is our biggest cognitive failure and that we can not improve our democracy while it exists.

(May 19, 2012) Aleta Hayes shares her experiences as an actor, a dancer, a choreographer, and an artist. She Introduces a student group known as The Chocolate Heads Movement Band that performs a visually stunning dance piece entitled Red Shift.

(May 19, 2012) Tina Seelig explains how we look at creativity in a narrow way and how we need to look at imagination in a different light. She then presents her "Innovation Engine Model" to exemplify how creativity works.

(May 19, 2012) Rayden Llano gives a talk on the atrocities of American Healthcare. He shares personal anecdotes about how America's healthcare system has negatively impacted him and explains how he has approached our country's insurance problem as an adult.

(May 19, 2012) Christian Gerdes gives a talk on humans and our interactions with technology in relation to automotive vehicles. He discusses his work with cars and talks about how plausible autonomous vehicles actually are.

(May 19, 2012) Vienna Teng performs using innovative and improvisational techniques. She engages the crowd and incorporates them into her music making process.

(May 19, 2012) Mark Applebaum gives a talk on how boredom can spark creativity, invention, and innovation. He urges the audience to pursue what interests them and to disregard the rigid definitions society places on art.

(May 19, 2012) Ana Rowena McCullough tells students' stories as she outlines a new way to go through high school and the college admissions process by remaining your authentic self and doing what you love.

(May 19, 2012) Tom Brokaw and his daughter, Jennifer Brokaw, examine living wills and advanced directives as they discuss how unequipped many of us leave our loved ones to make decisions for us in the case that we become incapable of making these choices ourselves.

(May 19, 2012) Baba Shiv explains a study he conducted about decision making and how being or not being in control affects performance, and then discusses how these results apply to patients making choices during medical treatment.

(May 19, 2012) Jason Mayden explains why we shouldn't suppress our dreams and ambitions. He argues that we should dream out loud.

(May 19, 2012) Sherry Wren explains the importance of surgery in global health care, arguing that we need to reject the current dogma that surgery is not cost effect or part of basic health.

(May 19, 2012) Esther Gokale explains and teaches the audience how to get back to primal posture and the natural ways of bending, sitting, and walking to relieve back and neck pain.

(May 19, 2012) Justin Torres describes a trip to the psychiatric ward in his youth and the healing power of story-telling.

(May 19, 2012) Jay Kuo accompanies two performers on piano as they sing a song he composed for "Allegiance," a musical set in the internment camps of World War II.

(May 19, 2012) Pamela Z uses pioneering live digital looping to combine experimental vocal techniques, operatic bel canto, found objects, text, and sampled sounds.

(May 19, 2012) Martha Muña describes her experiences working in orphanages across Ghana, outlining the downfalls of overseas charities and non-profits. She shares her efforts to find permanent families for children in orphanages, turning the facilities into schools and community centers through the Care Initiative and KaeMe.

(May 19, 2012) Dan Klein encourages audiences to live in the improvisational mindset, creative, exposed, open and in the moment, by walking them through a series of exercises to teach them to accept offers and say "yes."

(May 19, 2012) Louis Jackson walks the audience through a series of breathing exercises to demonstrate insufficient and proper breathing and the benefits of yoga.

(May 19, 2012) Joel Stein describes a series of "man-ventures," he embarked on in search of masculinity when he found out his wife was going to have a son.

(May 19, 2012) Banny Banerjee, director of the Stanford Design Program, talks about fish hook questions -- those that get lodged in your mind.

(May 19, 2012) Krista Donaldson describes how she works to put innovation in context and get products out of the lab and into the real world to improve health care and living conditions in the developing world.

(May 19, 2012) Fourteen year old cellist Ila Shon performs.

(May 19, 2012) Jeremy Bailenson discusses the history of virtual reality, his work at Stanford's Virtual Human Interaction Lab, and how advances in this exciting field can be used to improve human behavior.

(May 19, 2012) Stanford Taiko performs the art of Japanese drumming. Members of Stanford Taiko have been making their own drums and sewing their performance costumes since the group started in 1992. With an original, student-composed repertoire, the group supports the campus arts community with performances at major university events.

(May 19, 2012) Julie Lythcott-Haims draws from fourteen years as a university administrator and her own experience as a parent as she argues that children and young adults need to be less sheltered in order to find their own voice and develop independence.