Top 5 TED Talks – June 2020

Here are the top 5 for the month:

1. What you need to know about face surveillance | Kade Crockford: Privacy is not dead and giving up privacy has never lead to safety. Technologies that push for privacy also protect our safety. This talk is a spine chilling introduction to reality and the fact that giving up our privacy is not good for us (we already knew!). Surveillance is essentially us living in a world prison and at this point, I am not ready to go to prison.  
2. The US is addicted to incarceration. Here’s how to break the cycle | Robin Steinberg: I have visited a few now non-functional prisons over the years and every time I do, I find more stories of inhuman behavior than the stories of how the world was a better place once these people were behind bars. What is worse is people who are unable to pay bail end up in prison before being convicted. These are often people of colour, low income groups and women. Sometimes, the solution is simple. Sometimes it isn’t. I have seen a fair few TED talks on prison systems and this is yet another fantastic one worth watching.
3. Restoring human dignity at the US southern border | Norma Pimentel: If you ever find yourself momentarily lacking in compassion, take 12 minutes to watch this. If you give it the attention it deserves and it does not make you want to run out to help someone immediately, come back and tell me about it. The narratives around the world today makes it easier to see human beings as words and objects. If we cannot be kind to our own kind, how can we be to animals and the environment?    
4. How one tweet can ruin your life | Jon Ronson: Next time you tweet, think for a moment – are you giving people a chance to destroy you or are you playing a part in destroying someone else. If the answer is yes for either, maybe don’t tweet it. If it is yes for the first, I cannot stop you from taking a chance. What I can promise you is that I will not be one of the people tweeting about it and spreading hate. If I have in the past, I apologize. Social media allows us to hide behind the comfort of our screens and do on to others things we would never say to them at their face. What have we become?  
5. Let’s make the world wild again | Kristine Tompkins: I hope that someday I can begin to repay the debt I owe to nature. I am well aware that it will take forever even if I were to begin today. This talk is a nudge in the right direction by tugging at the heart strings. I hope that it will encourage you to think and maybe just change your lifestyle a little bit. Be a little kinder.