Live from TED2025 Babies, brains and breakthroughs: Day 4 of TED2025 Posted by: Brian Greene, Maria Ladias and Oliver Friedman April 10, 2025 at 8:30 pm EDT Frédette Lampre speaks at TED2025: Humanity Reimagined on April 10, 2025, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED) Day 4 of TED2025 was a jaw-dropping tour of everything from the “girl internet” to what homes could look like in outer space. Learn more about how babies’ minds work, why voting by phone might be the reboot democracy needs and a future where roads can mend their own cracks. Here are some things you won’t want to miss from day 4: Deja Foxx speaks at TED2025: Humanity Reimagined on April 10, 2025, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED) Internet, politics and power. Digital strategist and activist Deja Foxx welcomes us to the “girl internet” — the new ecosystem of platforms, built by and for women, that prioritize safety, ownership and respect. These platforms, including Lore, Sunroom and Diem, offer a powerful alternative to traditional tech spaces and point towards an internet grounded in equity and empowerment. Also working in the realm of digital strategy, Bradley Tusk introduces Mobile Voting, a nonprofit, nonpartisan initiative working to make voting easier — by letting you vote on your phone. He makes the case that secure, accessible phone voting could dramatically increase turnout and restore function, representation and trust in democracy. Dean Ornish speaks at TED2025: Humanity Reimagined on April 10, 2025, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED) Tapping into the brain and body’s natural ability to heal. Dean Ornish is a pioneer of lifestyle medicine, which shows that a healthy lifestyle — eating well, moving more, stressing less, loving more — can often begin to reverse many common chronic diseases. He describes his latest groundbreaking clinical trials, indicating that patients with early Alzheimer’s who adopted lifestyle changes showed significant improvement or stabilization of the disease — something no drug has achieved. In a related vein, interventional neuropsychiatrist Nolan Williams shares his research into the medical potential of plant-derived psychedelics. The research is in very early days, but the compound he works on shows promise to treat addiction, PTSD and depression. The message? Healing is possible when we treat the whole person, not just the symptoms. Jenny Du speaks at TED2025: Humanity Reimagined on April 10, 2025, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED) Ideas from nature to address big challenges. Materials scientist Mark Miodownik envisions a future of “animate materials” that can self-repair, self-recycle and even self-grow, potentially revolutionizing our infrastructure and reducing waste. Taking inspiration from nature’s ability to heal and adapt, he showcases innovations like self-healing concrete and roads that can mend their own cracks. Taking natural cues in a different direction, produce protector Jenny Du tackles food waste by mimicking nature’s own preservation methods. Her company, Apeel Sciences, has developed a plant-based coating that extends the shelf life of produce without refrigeration or plastic packaging, reducing food waste and opening up possibilities for a more diverse and accessible global food supply. Claudia Passos Ferreira speaks at TED2025: Humanity Reimagined on April 10, 2025, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED) Groundbreaking insights into consciousness and medical innovation. Philosopher, bioethicist and clinical psychologist Claudia Passos Ferreira challenges traditional views on infant consciousness, presenting compelling neuroscientific evidence that newborns and even late-term fetuses may have more complex awareness than previously thought. Her research could reshape our understanding of early human development, raising important ethical considerations around personhood. Physician-scientist David Fajgenbaum also highlights the power of scientific inquiry, sharing his personal journey battling a rare disease  — which ultimately led him to a pioneering approach for repurposing existing drugs. With support from The Audacious Project, TED’s innovative funding initiative, Fajgenbaum’s nonprofit, Every Cure, aims to find treatments for thousands of diseases currently lacking approved therapies — offering hope for healing on an unprecedented scale. Ariel Ekblaw speaks at TED2025: Humanity Reimagined on April 10, 2025, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED) Rewriting the rules — on Earth and beyond. With four decades in the film industry, director, producer and author Barry Sonnenfeld shares 10 unexpected rules for survival, success and making people laugh — without letting them know you’re trying. Filmmaker Gary Hustwit challenges the idea that a movie must tell one fixed story, introducing Eno, the world’s first generative feature film, meaning it never ends the same way twice. Rewriting another big rule, space architect Ariel Ekblaw is rethinking how we live on Earth and across the universe — reconsidering our approach to architecture, community and survival. As founder of the Space Exploration Initiative at MIT, she sees space not just as a frontier for exploration but also as a platform for solving humanity’s biggest challenges. Aqeela Sherrills speaks at TED2025: Humanity Reimagined on April 10, 2025, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED) Bold visions of public safety and larger-than-life art. Activist Aqeela Sherrills shares how his experience brokering a historic gang peace treaty in Los Angeles led to a bold, community-led approach to keeping the peace. He’s launching a resident-powered violence intervention program backed by The Audacious Project, TED’s funding initiative. It’s called Scaling Safety, and it empowers trusted local leaders to redefine public safety and create lasting change. Meanwhile, artist and designer Frédette Lampre is part of the collective La Machine, which brings together creatives to build giant, moving machines. From a fire-breathing sea dragon to a slumbering minotaur, their monumental creatures unite communities — transforming public space into shared theater with artworks that don’t just entertain but reshape how people see their cities and one another. Hosts Chris Anderson and Helen Walters speak at TED2025: Humanity Reimagined on April 10, 2025, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Gilberto Tadday / TED) The audience at Session 10 of TED2025: Humanity Reimagined on April 10, 2025, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Photo: Jasmina Tomic / TED)