The Business 9 Women Kept Secret For 30 Years
"Somewhere in West Tennessee, not far from Graceland, nine women -- or "The 9 Nanas," as they prefer to be called -- gather in the darkness of night. At 4am they begin their daily routine -- a ritual that no one, not even their husbands, knew about for 30 years. Over the next three hours, The 9 Nanas (who all consider themselves sisters, despite what some of their birth certificates say) will whip... posted on Jun 29 2012, 1,779,629 reads

Food. People. Power.
For many years, people living in West Oakland had accepted eating unhealthy food as a way of life. That is, until a small group of people decided to change their community through Mandela MarketPlace, a non-profit that partners with local residents and rural, minority farmers to bring fresh agricultural produce to their local corner stores. Mandela MarketPlace now represents the difference that yo... posted on Jun 28 2012, 2,410 reads

Worth Our Weight: The Taste of Compassion
"I glance down at my GPS to make sure this is where we want to be and in doing so I almost pass my destination. There it is tucked away to the left, sandwiched between two homes: Worth our Weight (W.O.W). The whimsical name brings to mind a weight-loss program or some sort of preemptive apologetic reassurance for long lines. This restaurant has neither. The front is clean, simple and inviting, wit... posted on Jun 27 2012, 11,969 reads

Stranger Dinners
A few years ago, Ari Davalos started an art project called Stranger Dinner -- invite six strangers to dinner at her house. In a world separated by Internet connections, she aimed to reclaim the serendipity in her life. "Instead of going to the library and researching on the internet, I want to stroll through the stacks, smell the pages of old books, pick a random book off the shelf, and let some ... posted on Jun 22 2012, 13,289 reads

10 Ways to Love Where You Live
Community is not just for extroverts. For thousands of years, our ancestors lived in barrios, hamlets, neighborhoods, and villages. Yet in the time since our parents and grandparents were young, privacy has become so valued that many neighborhoods are not much more than houses in proximity...And when the links among neighbors are weak, security relies on locks, gates, and guns, rather than a close... posted on Jun 21 2012, 35,113 reads

The Opposite of Poverty is Justice
Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer who spends most of his time in jails, prisons, on death row and in low-income communities, shares some hard truths about America's criminal justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of young black men between the ages of 18 and 30 has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. In this video Bryan urges the TED audience to think abo... posted on Jun 20 2012, 3,321 reads

On Seeking Stillness in Business
Pico Iyer -- essayist, author, travel writer and thinker -- has a unique perspective on many things. His physical domain ranges from California (where he lived as a child) and England (where he studied) to Cuba, North Korea and Ethiopia (which he visited) and Japan (where he resides). His mental domain knows no limiting boundaries. In this interview with Knowledge@Wharton, Iyer spoke on an unusual... posted on Jun 19 2012, 20,334 reads

The Threshold Choir: Songs Bridging Life & Death
"In November of 1990 I was invited to spend a day with a friend of mine who was dying of HIV Aids. He was comatose, but very agitated...I sat down by his bedside and didn't know what to do. I waited and waited. All I knew to do, to calm myself, was to sing. So I sang one song and I sang it for two hours. I sang it over and over again. I watched his breathing slow, and he got much calmer. And I got... posted on Jun 18 2012, 4,793 reads

Infinite Family
Amy Stokes uses the internet to connect South African teens affected by HIV/AIDS and poverty with volunteer mentors from around the world. She is the founder of Infinite Family an effort in South Africa -- where nearly two million children have been orphaned by AIDS. A diverse and growing team of Infinite Family's mentors have stepped forward "to fill the void of adults -- to teach, discuss, encou... posted on Jun 15 2012, 2,579 reads

Rickshaw Puller Starts Clinic for the Poor
Joynal Abedin still remembers the rainy and windy night when he saw his father die because there was no medical treatment. His village in a northern district of Bangladesh did not have any medical facility at the time, and the nearest hospital was about 12 miles away. The death of his father, about 30 years ago, changed the life of Abedin, a rickshaw puller. He vowed to establish a basic medical c... posted on Jun 14 2012, 5,742 reads