A Note of Gratitude
I’ve been invited to speak at TEDx Princeton. Let me say that again—because I'm still letting it land. Over 500 ideas were submitted this year. Five hundred people believed they had something worth spreading. Five hundred minds, burning with conviction, offered their best thinking to a panel of strangers. Mine was among those selected. This post isn't about my talk. Not yet. When it goes live on YouTube, I'll unpack every word. Today is about something else: the event itself, the people behind it, and what it taught me before I even stepped on stage.
What 500 Submissions Taught Me
Here’s what I keep thinking about: five hundred submissions isn't a competition. It's a communion. A gathering of restless souls who looked at the world and said, I see something others might be missing. Teachers. Founders. Physicians. Artists. People who spend their lives noticing what the rest of us overlook.
I don't know the 490+ ideas that weren't selected. But I know this: the distance between "chosen" and "not chosen" is often a hair's width. Timing. Fit. The inexplicable alchemy of a committee's intuition. Being selected doesn't mean my idea is better. It means it landed—this year, with this theme, for this audience.
The Hospitality of TEDx Princeton
There's a phrase in leadership circles: hospitality leadership. It means leading by creating an environment where others feel seen, valued, and cared for. It's the philosophy behind Ritz-Carlton's legendary service, Disney's obsessive attention to the guest experience, and every great host who treats their table as sacred ground.
TEDx Princeton embodies this. From the first email to the final rehearsal, the organizers treated speakers not as performers to be managed, but as guests to be honored. Every detail attended to. Every question answered with patience. Every anxious moment met with encouragement. This is rare. And it's worth naming. To the volunteers, the production team, the curators who sifted through 500 submissions with care—thank you. You've built something that makes people want to bring their best.
The 2026 Speakers
I'm humbled to share the stage with an extraordinary group. Entrepreneurs, clinicians, artists, strategists—each carrying an idea they believe the world needs to hear. Here are my fellow speakers:
- Ana M. Naranjo — Creative Entrepreneur, The Creative Ana
- Anna Kim — Fundraising Strategist, Educator, and Creator
- Carol Rickard — Clinician, Penn Medicine Employee Assistance Program
- Conor Hogan — Commercial GTM Director
- Dr. Mikhail Kogan — Chief Medical Officer, GW Center for Integrative Medicine
- Emerald De Leeuw — Founder, Elevare.Style & Co-founder, Women in AI Governance
- Heidi Saas — Data Privacy and Technology Attorney
- Jo Madnani — Branding Advisor & Author
- Joanna de Pena — Founder & CEO, Top Notch Scholars
- Lindsey Lerner — Artist and Documentarian
- Mia Baker — Senior Manager, Media
- Michael Morand — Director, Global Commercial Strategy at Johnson & Johnson
- Montrece Ransom — Executive Leadership Coach and Belonging Strategist
- Nicolas Michael Darland — Entrepreneur
- Paul Zeitz — Founder & Author, #unifyUSA
- Saahil Mehta — Serial Entrepreneur, Author, Keynote Speaker
- Tea Mustac — AI Governance and Privacy Specialist
Each of them carries a story I want to hear. That's the gift of an event like this—you arrive to give a talk and leave with a dozen ideas you didn't know you needed.
My Talk: The Human Economy in the Age of AI
For 250 years, we've been playing the wrong game. We built systems that told us to think like machines, work like machines, be machines—measured, monitored, managed until everything human was engineered out. And then the real machines arrived. Faster than thought. Cheaper than breath. Better than we could ever be at the mechanical game we spent two centuries playing.
So now what? I don't believe we’re witnessing the end of human relevance. I believe we're witnessing the beginning of a human renaissance. That's the argument. When the video is live, I'll share it here—and we'll walk through it together.
What TEDx Means to Me
TEDx Princeton is a responsibility. The stage is a contract. You stand in that circle of red, and you make a promise: I will not waste your time. I will tell you something true. I will leave you different from how I found you.
For 15 minutes, I get to hold a microphone and say what I've spent a lifetime learning. Not the facts, though there will be facts. Not the frameworks, though frameworks help. But the shape of an idea. The architecture of a question we're all asking but can't quite phrase. I don't believe we're witnessing the end of human relevance. I believe we’re witnessing the beginning of a human renaissance.
Until Then
I'll say only this: The future belongs to the humans who stay human. And I’m grateful to TEDx Princeton for giving me eighteen minutes to remind us what that means.
Learn more at tedxprinceton.com/2026