Random Talks

An “explorer of all things Japan, from high finance to low-level politics”, Jesper Koll has over two decades of experience at major financ

Could you live in a world without music? Former DJ and record label owner Jakob Lusensky is dedicated to probing our thoughts on that bleak scenario.

Inspired by the world renowned annual arts event in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, Burning Man has become a global cultural movement with more than

Corporations and governments regularly ask Chandran Nair how to do business the right way in Asia. Chandran—who built Asia’s top environmental consult

The man responsible for developing Bandai Co., Ltd.’s wildly popular capsule toys, Shimpei Takahashi, is in love with the idea of ideas. His most nota

Reba Elliott is the founder of Lifting Voices and this is her talk from TEDxYSE:Unleashing Young Social Entrepreneurs hosted by Ashoka’s Youth V

Hans Reitz shares a vision with 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus: a planet utterly without poverty. In 2008, the two established t

Brainstorms are Tom Kelley’s stock-in-trade, and when he says creativity is the secret to economic growth, people listen. After all, Tom helped take g

Life is serious enough, so James Curleigh wants us to go outside and play. In fact, he and his Oregon-based company KEEN Footwear encourage everybody

Street culture is about to take possession of a new vehicle for sonic expression. Spinning your wheels on Turntable Rider̶a custom-hacked BMX bike tur

People love working for Ricco DeBlank. Two years after he took over the Ritz-Carlton Osaka in 2003, for example, an industry survey ranked it as Japan

A mysterious person who caused a sensation on Twitter with a parody bot account of the nationally recognized character. With philosophical remarks and

Some geniuses really know how to have fun. Take Tetsuya Mizuguchi. Revered for conjuring up gaming masterpieces like Sega Rally Championship, Space Ch

Beth Carroll, an Instructor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Purdue University, highlights the importance of shopping from small local business o

Art Director and Designer Cook, preserve, store, serve—the core sequence of events in any kitchen—is simpler now thanks to the OSORO smart tableware s

Jesper Koll calls himself a professional Japan optimist, but that doesn’t prevent him from speaking constructive truths to power. An advisor to a broa