What I learned from 100 days of rejection

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This week on TED.com December 10, 2016

Talk of the week Jia Jiang: What I learned from 100 days of rejection 15:31 minutes · Filmed May 2015 · Posted Dec 2016 · TEDxMtHood Jia Jiang goes boldly toward something many of us fear: rejection. By seeking out rejection for 100 days -- from asking a stranger for a $100 loan, to requesting a "burger refill" at a fast food place -- Jiang desensitized himself to the pain and shame that rejection can bring and, in the process, discovered something powerful: Simply asking for what you want can open up new possibilities. Watch now »

Playlist of the week What 2016 taught us about ourselves A year in reflection: What we learned about our personalities, health, hopes and world as we know it. Watch » 13 TED Talks • Total run time 2:54:56

This week's new TED Talks Our lives depend on a world we can't see: the satellites we use every day for communication, entertainment, navigation and so much more. But when satellites get old, break down, or run out of fuel, they turn into "space junk," drifting listlessly around the planet, endangering other spacecraft. Natalie Panek explains how our satellite ecosystem works -- and offers an idea of what we should do with our space junk. Watch » Love is a tool for revolutionary change for married activists Tiq and Kim Katrin Milan. They've imagined their marriage -- as a transgender man and cis woman -- a model of possibility and inclusivity for people of every kind. With infectious joy, Tiq and Kim question our assumptions about who they might be and offer a vision of an inclusive, challenging love that grows day by day. Watch » In a lyrical, unexpectedly funny talk, Elizabeth Lesser shares how she learned to put aside her pride and defensiveness to rebuild her relationship with her sister. "You don't have to wait for a life-or-death situation to clean up the relationships that matter to you," she says. "Be like a new kind of first responder ... the one to take the first courageous step toward the other." Watch » How do we define a parent -- or a family? Bioethicist Veerle Provoost explores these questions in the context of non-traditional families, specifically those brought together by sperm donations. Using stories from her research, she shows how parents and children create their own narratives and traditions, where everyone has a spot on the family tree. Watch »

Read more on ideas.ted.com Science: Deep in an ancient cave, an unexpected form of life Cave explorer Francisco Sauro shares an expedition into the unknown Health: What can we learn from Ebola about handling the next outbreak? 2017 TED Prize winner Raj Panjabi shares four things he learned Learning: What's required reading around the world? Teachers share the books that students are reading in their classrooms

Quote of the Week “ To me, education is what people do to you, and learning is what you do to yourself. [School] feels like they're trying to make you memorize the whole encyclopedia before they let you go out and play ... like they assume you're going to be on top of some mountain all by yourself with a number 2 pencil trying to figure out what to do, when in fact you're always going to be connected, you're always going to have friends, and you can pull Wikipedia up whenever you need it, and what you need to learn is how to learn." Joi Ito Want to innovate? Become a "now-ist"

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