TED, the nonprofit behind the high-profile conferences about ideas in technology, entertainment and design (as well as NPR’s new weekend series), and WNET will co-produce TED’s first original television show this spring.
TED Talks Education will tape before a live audience Thursday at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
The New York City station is partnering with PBS and CPB for the hourlong program of short talks by education advocates on the theme of teaching and learning.
TED Talks Education will air nationally May 7 on PBS as part of CPB’s American Graduate high-school dropout initiative. Musician John Legend will host. Speakers include Microsoft founder and education advocate Bill Gates; Sir Ken Robinson, social activist and the most-watched TED Talk speaker on TED.com; and anti-poverty activist Rita Pierson.
Three short films profiling resilient high school students will air on the show, produced by Emmy winner Tony Gerber and Lynn Nottage, Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and MacArthur “genius award” recipient.