Designer Emily Pilloton moved to rural Bertie County, in North Carolina, to engage in a bold experiment of design-led community transformation.

She's teaching a design-build class called Studio H that engages high schoolers' minds and bodies while bringing smart design and new opportunities to the poorest county in the state.

Emily Pilloton wrote Design Revolution, a book about 100-plus objects and systems designed to make people's lives better. In 2010, her design nonprofit began an immersive residency in Bertie County.

As a young designer, Emily Pilloton was frustrated by the design world's scarcity of meaningful work. Even environmentally conscious design was not enough. "At graduate school, people were starting to talk more about sustainability, but I felt it lacked a human factor," she said.

Susan notes: I've copied and pasted this biographical information and talk unabashedly from the TED website.

Susan further notes: I am a pacifist; and I try to be apolitical. But I'm for compassion and care for everyone. I published this TED Talk today, November 11, 2009, three years after it was released, to honour all the soldiers past present and future, of all nationaliities, who put their lives at risk fighting for things they believe in, and trying to protect innocent people from evil and harm.

They horrors they experience are unimaginable to the rest of us, who aren't forced to suffer the physical, psychological and emotional traumas they do. Today is one day to honour soldiers. Thank you to Deborah Scranton for this amazing project and this TED Talk.

Filmmaker Deborah Scranton helps real people tell compelling, honest stories. Her 2006 documentary The War Tapes put cameras in the hands of National Guard troops stationed in Camp Anaconda, in Iraq.

Through their raw footage and diaries, they brought home a truth that we at home would never otherwise know about what one soldier calls "the war for cheese."

Deborah has also created the TV documentary Stories from Silence, Witness to War, which tells the stories of World War II veterans in living New Hampshire.

Artist Dianna Cohen shares some tough truths about plastic pollution in the ocean and in our lives -- and some thoughts on how to free ourselves from the plastic gyre.

Dianna Cohen co-founded the Plastic Pollution Coalition, which is working to help end our cycle of plastics use.

Dianna Cohen is the co-founder of the Plastic Pollution Coalition, a group that addresses the pervasive problem of plastic pollution.

She was inspired to co-found the group by her work as an artist -- because her chosen material is the ubiquitous plastic bag.

Using animation, projections and her own moving shadow, Miwa Matreyek performs a gorgeous, meditative piece about inner and outer discovery. Take a quiet 10 minutes and dive in. With music from Anna Oxygen, Mirah, Caroline Lufkin and Mileece.

Miwa Matreyek creates performances where real shapes and virtual images trade places, amid layers of animation, video and live bodies.

Miwa Matreyek's work blurs the line between real and unreal. In live works that integrate animation, performance, and video installation, she explores how animation changes when it is combined with body and space (and vice versa).

Susan notes: Thanks to TED for making TED Talks downloadable and embeddable, and for providing the biographical information that goes along with them.

At an early age, Zoe Sprankle found herself drawn to writing, theater and singing. These passions have guided her in many ways, and through her written words, roles and powerful voice, Zoe has experienced great joy and richness.

She believes that the arts can have an incredible impact on the world…as they have for her. Zoe has performed at many venues in her community and takes great pride in the work she has done at the Seacoast Repertory Theater in Portsmouth, NH.

She is dedicated to each of these interests, and plans to continue to pursue them all.