TEDxUCSD 2024: Expiration Date

Exploring the fleeting nature of existence, last year's theme 'Expiration Date' reflects on how time shapes progress and decline, urging us to respond to life's impermanence with innovation, balance, and mindful navigation of constant change.

Check out last year's speakers below!

Play: Our Mutant Survival Strategy

Megan Dickerson

Megan Dickerson is a pioneering figure in the area of museums and play. As an experience designer, curator, playworker and play advocate, Megan currently leads exhibitions at Birch Aquarium, part of Scripps Institution of Oceanography. In this and her previous roles as Director of Exhibitions at The New Children's Museum and Senior Manager of Community Partnerships at Boston Children's Museum, Megan brings artists, scientists and the community together to develop emergent experiences that push the boundaries of museum practice. Join Megan in her talk, “Play Our Mutant Survival Strategy”, where she discusses if play might be our most important “mutant strategy?” In this thoughtful, time traveling talk, Megan invites us to rethink long held definitions of play and consider how adults might begin to recognize the rich play cues all around us.

You Can't Plan for the Unexpected: How to Financially Protect Your Lifestyle

Tanya Taylor

With over two decades helping people improve their financial lives, Tanya Taylor is on a mission to stop the cycle of poverty and build generational wealth. She is an award winning author, and the founder and CEO of Grow Your Wealth, a financial education platform which empowers women to overcome financial barriers and build wealth, by meeting them exactly where they are. Tanya infuses her knowledge from learning and teaching about wealth building, wealth with her 24 years on Wall Street in the Banking and Insurance Industry. Drawing from personal experience and her journey from escaping poverty to achieving many of her financial goals, Tanya sheds light on how quickly one can go from feeling like they are on solid financial ground to having the rug pulled from under them due to a sudden disability. Join Tanya in this conversation of learning practical action steps that we can take to protect ourselves and our families, ultimately setting ourselves up to be financially secure.

It’s Never Too Late to Change Your Dog’s Behaviors

Justin Scher

Justin Scher is Certified Dog Behavioral Therapist and Master Dog Trainer for International company, Bark Busters Home Dog Training out of Australia. Dogs are his life passion. He is the reigning 2014 & 2016 International Trainer / Therapist of the Year, as well as the 2010, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020 U.S. Trainer/Therapist of the Year. With over 15 years experience as a dog behavioral therapist and having worked with thousands of dogs, he can essentially help ANY DOG with ANY PROBLEM! In his talk, “It’s Never Too Late to Change Your Dog’s Behaviors”, Justin shares his expertise in the proper tools of communication as well as a deep understanding of a dog’s psychology to dramatically transform dogs to where owners and their dogs can truly enjoy their lives together, in harmony and free of stress. Is the old saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” true? Well, when it pertains to actual dog behaviors, that statement is simply false.

We are the Planet Altering Ape

Pascal Gagneux

Pascal Gagneux is a Professor of Pathology and Anthropology at UC San Diego and serves as CARTA's Executive Co-Director. The Gagneux laboratory studies cell-surface molecules in closely related primates species and how glycan evolution is shaped by constraints from endogenous biochemistry and exogenous, pathogen-mediated natural selection, but can also have consequences for sexual selection. Humans are the “planet-altering ape”. In his talk, “We are the Planet Altering Ape”, Dr. Gagneux encompasses our expansion across the globe, technological prowess, and booming populations that are causing the sixth mass extinction and threaten to hasten our own. We humans have evolved distinct capabilities: we cooperate at massive scales, we communicate with language, we are imaginative, and self-aware. Can we rely on our uniquely evolved features for solving these existential challenges?

Decision Making Like a (Poker) Pro

Maria Ho

Maria Ho is a Hall of Fame professional poker player and award-winning TV broadcaster who has amassed over $7,000,000 in live and online poker tournament earnings. She is one of the world's most recognized and successful players in the game and is currently ranked #3 on the World Series of Poker's All-Time Female Money Earners. Maria was inducted into the Women In Poker Hall of Fame in 2018, the very first year she became eligible and is the youngest ever to be inducted. World-renowned poker professional Maria Ho breaks down the most important factors to consider when time is of the essence and you are working with incomplete information. As our lives are defined by our ability to make decisions, but many of us have not optimized our decision-making process, discover how to make decisions effectively in high-pressure situations, much like a poker player would.