From: PopTech on Fri, Jul 08 2011 1:06 AM

Nathan Eagle is harnessing mobile phone data in emerging markets. He’s launched txteagle, a program that enables the under-employed to earn money or phone credits by performing tasks on their cell phones. Through partnerships with over 220 mobile phone operators, txteagle is active in nearly 100...

From: PopTech on Thu, Jun 16 2011 2:16 PM

From composing electronic music to scoring experimental videos to making larger-scale public installations that create immersive soundscapes, sound artist Stephen Vitiello invites his audience to reinterpret sound. He took us on a sonic tour of his work including recordings from a 1999 residency...

From: PopTech on Thu, Jun 09 2011 3:20 AM

Psychology professor Kevin Dunbar studies how scientists approach the unexpected and learn from mistakes. Over the course of a year, Dunbar’s team studied the habits of four molecular biology labs. They found that those labs most successful at turning mistakes into new theories tended to be more...

From: PopTech on Sun, Jun 05 2011 10:57 PM

Reggie Watts is an entertainer who combines stream-of-consciousness improvisational comedy with music to create a wholly original experience. A PopTech veteran, Watts knows this audience well and he handled them like a pro, getting big laughs with a smart blend of sarcasm and self-deprecation du...

From: PopTech on Fri, Jun 03 2011 7:20 PM

Accompanied only by his piano, Grammy award-winning recording artist and philanthropist John Legend performs the soulful “Wake Up” and “Shine” from his album, Wake Up!, including a song that appears on the soundtrack to the documentary Waiting for Superman.

From: PopTech on Thu, Jun 02 2011 5:02 PM

OK Go’s eccentricities and music videos are undeniably captivating. But there’s no denying that they are incredible musicians too. OK Go took to the PopTech stage with acoustic performances of “White Knuckles,” “Return,” (performed with bells) “This Too Shall Pass” and “Here It Goes Again.”

From: PopTech on Sat, May 14 2011 8:02 AM

Eli Pariser explores how ideas move in the networked economy. As the board president of MoveOn.org, he pioneered many practices of online organizing. Now, Pariser is focused on the social and political impact of the personalized web, examining the role that filters – both cognitive and software-...

From: PopTech on Sun, Apr 17 2011 11:12 PM

Tulane ecology professor Michael Blum has been at the front lines of the Gulf coast oil spill response and clean-up efforts. In his PopTech talk, he analyzed the operational, organizational and technological failures that led to the accident as well as the community’s resiliency in its rebuildin...

From: PopTech on Mon, Mar 28 2011 2:42 PM

“Is water still running?” is perhaps the most important question when considering water initiatives worldwide, concludes Water for People CEO Ned Breslin. He’s tired of seeing broken hand pumps and taps litter Africa, Asia, and Latin America. These signs of failed projects underscore the critica...

From: PopTech on Thu, Mar 17 2011 11:16 AM

Daryl Collins asked families in developing countries who live on $2 a day to track their income and expenses in a financial diary. She learned that these families have rich financial lives but are confronted with sporadic cash flow and lack of appropriate financial tools. As a result, this inhib...

From: PopTech on Wed, Mar 16 2011 9:49 AM

When speaking in front of an audience, even if you have something amazing to say, it’s crucial to have a well developed presentation. That’s where Nancy Duarte comes in. Presentation designer, PopTech Faculty Advisory and CEO of Duarte Design, Duarte is a storyteller with an eye for articulating...

From: PopTech on Tue, Mar 15 2011 8:13 AM

Susan Casey wrote her latest book, The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks and Giants of the Ocean, after researching the beautiful, mysterious and terrifying behavior of waves for the past three years. Casey recounted astonishing tales of misfit waves from around the world and what ...

From: PopTech on Thu, Feb 24 2011 10:06 PM

Adaptation is the basic idea that we get used to stuff and interpret signals. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely explores how these types of signals relate to pain and social adaptation. How does our previous exposure to pain alter how we experience it now? How is it that we all appreciate the pinna...

From: PopTech on Wed, Feb 09 2011 1:57 AM

Five educators, demonstrating leadership in technology and education, were awarded Pop!Tech Fellowships presented by Sun Microsystems and Curriki, a new open-source-focused educational foundation. Check out their discussion about the future of technology and education.

From: PopTech on Wed, Jan 26 2011 10:49 AM

Heather Knight knows robots. A PhD student at Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute and co-founder of Syyn Labs, Knight staged a live robot theater performance for the PopTech audience.

From: PopTech on Wed, Jan 26 2011 10:48 AM

An element of chance and an air of tension draw Heather Knight and her colleagues at Syyn Labs to construct Rube Goldberg contraptions. PopTech followed Knight to get her take on the Rube Goldberg that they created to kick off PopTech 2010. And with bated breath, we watched the apparatus come to...

From: PopTech on Thu, Jan 20 2011 4:04 AM

The story of Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton is one of liberation and forgiveness. In 1984, Thompson testified that Cotton raped her, for which he was sentenced to life in prison. Eleven years later, DNA evidence cleared him of the crime. Thompson and Cotton went on to write a memoi...

From: PopTech on Thu, Jan 13 2011 4:02 AM

To commemorate the first anniversary of the Haiti earthquake, today we’re releasing the PopTech 2010 talk from Patrick Meier, director of crisis mapping at Ushahidi, and Josh Nesbit, executive director of Medic Mobile (formerly FrontlineSMS: Medic). They describe their organizations’ collaborati...

From: PopTech on Thu, Jan 06 2011 4:01 AM

Kathryn Schulz is an expert on being wrong. The journalist and author of “Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margins of Error,” says we make mistakes all the time. The trouble is that often times being wrong feels like being right. What’s more, we’re usually wrong about what it even means to make mi...

From: PopTech on Thu, Dec 23 2010 3:59 AM

This video is a compilation of six-word tidbits that Larry Smith collected at the 2010 PopTech conference. Since 2006, Smith has undertaken the Six-Word Memoir Project inviting his Smith Magazine readers to tell their live stories in just six words. His six-word memoir project can now be found i...