 | This week on TED.com April 19, 2014 | |
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Playlist of the week Kids don't come with a manual ... but these talks on the complexities of parenthood offer insight and hard-won advice. Watch » Total run time 2:29:17 | |
More from TED.com  The parenting section of the bookstore is overwhelming—it's "a giant, candy-colored monument to our collective panic," as writer Jennifer Senior puts it. Why is parenthood filled with so much anxiety? Because the goal of modern, middle-class parents—to raise happy children—is so elusive. In this honest talk, she offers some kinder and more achievable aims. Watch »  Puberty is an awkward time for just about everybody, but for transgender teens it can be a nightmare, as they grow overnight into bodies they aren't comfortable with. In a heartfelt talk, endocrinologist Norman Spack tells a personal story of how he became one of the few doctors in the US to treat minors with hormone replacement therapy. By staving off the effects of puberty, Spack gives trans teens the time they need. Watch » |  Pick up a book, magazine or screen, and more than likely you'll come across some typography designed by Matthew Carter. In this charming talk, the man behind typefaces such as Verdana, Georgia and Bell Centennial (designed just for phone books -- remember them?), takes us on a spin through a career focused on the very last pixel of each letter of a font. Watch »  Within each of us are two selves, suggests David Brooks in this meditative short talk: the self who craves success, who builds a résumé, and the self who seeks connection, community, love -- the values that make for a great eulogy. (Joseph Soloveitchik has called these selves "Adam I" and "Adam II.") Brooks asks: Can we balance these two selves? Watch » | | |
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Quote of the Week | " | [We tend to think] if you add Democrats, you add Republicans, you've got the American people. But that is not the case at all. … The largest block, 40 percent, say they're independents." |
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Join the Conversation TED and TED-Ed are up for six Webby Awards this year! We're thrilled to be among hundreds of amazing nominees. You can vote all week » |
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Norman Spack: How I help transgender teens become who they want to be | | | Dealing with your own gender and sexual identity can be hard enough when you're in your teens. But later, seeing your child trying to cope with a different gender or sexual identity of which they are increasingly sure but don't know how to bring out and about can leave you in a powerless pain, like watching someone drown out of your reach.
Dr. Spack goes the whole way, which saves lives, but equally important he creates space for society to understand alternative gender identity. Societal hormone treatment if you like. I love that. Thank you for doing what you do." | | |
believers and doubters Thoughtful perspectives on belief from across the spectrum -- from atheist to devout, from Alain de Botton to Billy Graham ... on the latest TED Radio Hour » | |
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