10 TED Talks take stage in Ypsilanti

What defines a person's worth? What does it take to be successful and happy despite hardship? How can people make the most out of community, and what does it mean to be human at all?

Roughly two-dozen people filtered into Pease Auditorium on June 26, 2026 to hear a variety of takes on these questions, and more. Ypsilanti's second annual TED event, titled "A Talk For Everyone: Perspectives That Shape Tomorrow" featured 10 speakers from different walks of life. In addition to their talks, The Eastern Echo asked each speaker to give some advice to Eastern Michigan University students.

'The power of persistence and how it changed my life'

Allen Simmons II, a senior administrator at the American University of Antigua, began his talk bluntly.

"I used to weigh 279 pounds, and it devastated me," Simmons said after planting himself on the circular red rug at center-stage.

Simmons recounted the distress he felt when his doctor told him he was obese. He said that he tried cutting out fast food and getting better sleep, but ultimately attributed a key factor to his eventual weight loss.

"I decided to just take a walk and get my mind off of things," Simmons said. "And I walked so until, unwittingly, I had walked a four-mile route around my neighborhood."

Simmons began to make a habit out of neighborhood walks, and was elated to see the number on the scale drop week by week, eventually totaling a loss of 60 pounds.

"Persistence is the principal thing in achieving the results of your life," he said.

In his own journey, Simmons said that he developed the persistence he needed by recognizing that he did not want to be both present and helpless, that discipline made him capable and that he was able to readjust from setbacks.

"If you embrace your purpose, maintain that discipline and continue to be resilient,
 you will overcome every barrier and every obstacle in your life, and you will be successful," Simmons concluded.

'What Jamaica knows that healthcare forgot'

Stephanie Lurch's talk also began with an anecdote about weight insecurity, but quickly took a different thematic path.

Lurch is an assistant clinical professor at McMaster University. She is also a pediatric physical therapist, and said that when she was a child herself, she was put on a diet due to her weight. At six years old, when one of her classes was taking weight measurements, she said that her teacher recognized her terror of having her weight exposed.

"Mrs. Todd looks directly at me and gives me a nod that says, 'I got you. I care for you. We are one,'" Lurch said.

Lurch, whose mother is Jamaican, also explained the Rastafarian concept of I and I, which emphasizes unity and divine presence in all people, and suggested an alternative definition of medicine as something that prevents, diagnoses and treats unwellness in general.

"Research shows that social connection is one of the strongest predictors of health," Lurch said. "Separation is the disease. Oneness is the cure, and that is what healthcare forgot."

'Social adaptation in the age of AI'

Morgan Milner, the director of EMU's human resources and organizational development masters program, used his talk to consider the societal implications of artificial intelligence and the value of trust in an organization.

"As change accelerates, and as public trust erodes, we are going to have to work harder at being human," Milner said.

Human collaboration and trust, Milner explained, have always been at the core of technological innovation.

"Without trust we raise our defenses, we increase the friction of collaboration, and, in the most extreme sense, trust devolves, collaboration dissipates and eventually, working together comes to a stop," Milner said.

In order to increase the amount of trust that one receives from others, Milner suggested knowing one's personal values, building a system that allows for promises to be kept and pursing and amplifying goodwill.

"I encourage you to pursue these ideas that focus on building trust," Milner said. "In doing so, you will reduce friction, you will increase the quality of your interdependencies and relationships, and you will experience, increasingly, the benefit of being a human in this amazing age that we are in."

'The surprising power of worst-case thinking'

Nardia Haigh is an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts with expertise in scenario-planning. In her talk, she explained how the worst-case scenarios that people fear can be used as a tool to combat unproductive rumination.

Haigh repeatedly suggested that mapping out the logistics of these worst-case scenarios can make them seem less abstract, and easier to actually prepare for. To that point, she presented a method that involved identifying and predicting how the underlying forces in a stressful situation might intersect. Once the possible details of the situation become tangible, a strategy for navigating its opportunities and challenges can be made, she explained.

"When you give your brain a puzzle, it can keep thinking about it and keep working on it while you're doing other things," Haigh said.

Haigh said that she has led groups through this exercise before, and has found success in the method herself.

"Your worst case scenario is not the one you imagine," Haigh said. "It is the one you don't imagine until it's too late."

'Happiness tripwires'

On Jan. 9, 2023, Joelle Kaufman became the 12th person in her extended family to be diagnosed with cancer. It was the day before she was set to undergo a surgery to prevent it from happening.

"When terrible things happen, we choose, usually, one of two reactions: we fight or we endure," Kaufman said. "I wanted a third option, and I asked a different question: How can I make cancer suck less?"

Cancer is unfair and brutal, Kaufman said, but then asked, "So how then, was that year one of the happiest years of my life?"

When strategizing on how to make the most out of her situation, Kaufman took inspiration from her sister, who found regular joy in card games during her own chemotherapy treatment.

Those card games, Kaufman said, acted as happiness tripwires — inevitable, intentionally placed triggers of joy during difficult situations. When setting happiness tripwires for herself, Kaufman asked her son to write her letters that she could open during her treatments. She also gave her chemo port a name, Voldeport, that consistently brought a moment of levity during conversations about her treatment.

"Curveballs are constant," Kaufman said.
"You don't get to pick the pitch, but you always get to control your swing."

'What music teaches us about how to live our lives'

After an intermission, music producer Austin Pereira took the stage. Pereira, perhaps known better by his artist name, Ace on Earth, said that before his success as an musician, his life was in disarray. After being introduced to meditation, he left his corporate job to pursue his passion in music.

Pereira presented an analogy for creating a balanced life by walking the audience through his digital music production process. Each layer of the track he showed on stage represented a different aspect of life that, when mixed properly, would create a life of joy, according to Pereira.

When Pereira had combined all of the elements of the song, he invited the audience to stand and reflect on their own lives as the music boomed through the speakers and off the auditorium walls.

'And then she persisted'

Behavioral psychologist Kenisha Coon-Santiago said that she was never supposed to be on the TED stage.

Having survived the medical challenges of being born prematurely and growing up in an abusive home, Coon said that she learned that surviving meant adapting, being soft and needing less.

These traits, she said, are not uncommon among people marginalized by race, queer identity and disability, and are complicated by a cultural incentive for emotional suppression, independence and highly functioning.

"Eventually (marginalized people) start to become so skilled at this, at surviving publicly, that no one really notices that they are disappearing privately," Coon said.

Coon said that in order to overcome systemic oppression, a culture of belonging should be emphasized over one of survival. She suggested that identifying harmful systems and practicing healthy persistence were key ways to find healing.

"Maybe the real transformation really begins the moment that we stop asking people to become more resilient," Coon said. "Maybe we start asking why so many systems require suffering in the first place."

'Your life sucks because you lack purpose'

"Passion is what rages inside a person. It's the insatiable, sensational and emotionally inundated feeling that moves a person with such a palpable amount of vigor that you would think them possessed," said Taj Lewis.

Lewis, also known by the stage name T Sleeveless, gave that definition of passion during his talk, which at times carried the rhythmic quality of the spoken word performances he has become known for.

Lewis spoke about his own story of passion, camping outside of a Philadelphia poetry event in September 2022 for a chance at sharing his poem, "Teach a Boy to Cry."

Lewis said that pitfalls like workaholism, numbing vices and unhealthy obsessions with romance have the potential to waste passion. He linked unhappiness to a lack of passion and purpose and attributed it as the reason for his own rejection of jobs that lack personal fulfillment.

Lewis said he has struggled with his own pitfalls and vices, and even joined the military at one point out of fear of being aimless. Eventually, he said he found his way to pursuing his passion, even when it isn't logistically easy.

"What is the thing that really inconveniences you, but you can't help but to do?" Lewis asked. "Lean into that. Explore that thing."

'Broken boundaries: how obedience trains us to betray ourselves'

Joni Woods, a life coach who emphasizes human connection, brought five members of the Saline High School drama club on stage to reenact a series of charades during her talk about obedience.

Woods said that as a child, she was taught that obedience kept her safe. In practice, she said that focusing too much on obedience can lead people to having their boundaries violated.

"The problem with obedience is that at work, obedience gets you invited, it gets you promoted, it gets you expected. It keeps the peace until one day, you are exhausted," Woods said. "You are surrounded by people who love the virtue of you that never says no, and you're not entirely sure they know to real you."

Woods said that boundaries are the foundation of connection with others and can coexist with compassion.

"We need to learn that relationships with others should never require us to stop being our most authentic selves," Woods said.

'Are we chasing the wrong currency?'

EMU alum and talent acquisition strategist Kevandre Thompson gave the evening's final speech. By telling the story of his car being stolen and the subsequent community that rallied around him, he contrasted financial net worth against the concept of relational net worth.

Thompson defined relational net worth as the social connections that a person invests in. When explaining how to create it, he emphasized community support, the security of belonging and opportunity through relationships.

"Financial wealth can solve a problem, but relational wealth can help you survive well," he said.

Thompson said that when he lost his car, he discovered something more valuable.

"I spent years investing in people, and when life became uncertain, those relationships became my greatest investment. Because of my community, I was given an opportunity to purchase another vehicle completely paid off," Thompson said, concluding that financial and relational wealth should be fostered alongside one other.

"Financial wealth can change your lifestyle, but relational wealth can change your life," he said.

Attendees connect after speeches

The event concluded with a networking reception in the Pease parking lot. Speakers and attendees chatted over snacks under the shade of a canopy tent. For event organizer Tony Smith, this was the best part of the night.

"I love seeing the connection between these different people that might not be in the same room any other time," he said.

2026 marked the second year for Ypsilanti's TED-licensed event. Smith said that it was the culmination of eight months of fun, yet rigorous preparation.

"My plan is to do this every year," Smith said.

Shane David Snope, a retired teacher from Grand Rapids, came to the event to support Pereira, who coaches at a speaking organization that Snope is a part of.

"I thought it was fabulous," Snope said. "The techniques that (Pereira) is teaching to me in his side gig at Leadr is what I witnessed tonight."

Lorrena Black, a former TEDxDetroit speaker, came from Berkley to support Thompson, who she described as a good friend. Black arrived during the second half of the event, and said that, along with Thompson's speech, she enjoyed Lewis' take on passion and the underlying message about people pleasing she found in Woods' speech.

Black said she would absolutely be interested in attending or participating in another TEDx event, and that she loved attending the one in Ypsilanti.

"The production, the way it was put on, the space that this was held (in), ... everything's all very well done," she said.

More information about TEDxYpsilanti can be found on the program's website.