TED TALKS: WAR & PEACE premieres on Memorial Day, May 30th at 9PM

SAN FRANCISCO – Filmed at New York’s The Town Hall theater and hosted by best-selling author and comedian Baratunde Thurston, TED Talks: War & Peace  explores the impact of war through the eyes of those who have experienced its every aspect: soldiers, journalists, doctors, mothers and more. Featuring thought-provoking ideas, short films and a special musical performance by Rufus Wainwright,

TED Talks: War & Peace explores the complex issues surrounding conflict and how we can build a better future without it. The second in a series of three TED Talks television specials slated for 2016, TED Talks: War & Peace premieres Monday, May 30, 2016, 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS.

Featured speakers and performers include:

• Former Marine-turned-actor Adam Driver shares how the world of theater recreated the camaraderie he missed after the military, and how drama can be used to help returning veterans transition to civilian life;
• Journalist Sebastian Junger believes that the prevalence of PTSD may have more to do with the angry and fractured America that vets come home to than their actual combat experiences;
• Jamila Raqib promotes effective strategies of non-violent protest to people living under tyranny and shares encouraging examples of successful change around the world;
• Humanitarian Samantha Nutt has been to some of the most war-torn places on earth and draws parallels between conflict zones in the world’s poorest nations and the proliferation of cheap automatic weapons and small arms; and
• Christianne Boudreau conveys the emotional story of her son’s conversion to radical Islam and subsequent death while fighting for ISIS in Syria.

TED Talks: War & Peace also includes three original short films produced by ITVS: Talk of War, by Geeta Gandbhir and Perri Peltz, featuring parents and their children talking about the strain that deployment takes on military families; All Roads Point Home, by Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster, about Major General Linda Singh, Maryland’s highest-ranking soldier, who served in Afghanistan and Kosovo and was called upon to use her skills in the Baltimore riots of 2015; and Bionic Soldier, by Anna Bowers, Mark Mannucci and Jonathan Halperin, about new advances in biotechnology that allow severely wounded vets to once again lead active lives. Also featured is a musical performance by singer/songwriter Rufus Wainwright.

TED Talks: War & Peace is the second in a series of three TED Talks PBS specials scheduled for 2016: Science and Wonder premiered March 30 and Education Revolution will premiere later this year on PBS.

TED Talks: War & Peace is a co-production of TED and the Independent Television Service (ITVS) and is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

TED Talks: War & Peace is curated by Chris Anderson and Juliet Blake. The executive producer
is Juliet Blake and Allen Kelman is the producer. TED content director is Kelly Stoetzel. Executive producers for ITVS are Tamara Gould and Sally Jo Fifer. TED Talks: Science and Wonder is directed by Linda Mendoza.

ABOUT TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or fewer) delivered by today’s leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED’s annual conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, and made available, free, on TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Sal Khan and Daniel Kahneman.

TED’s open and free initiatives for spreading ideas include TED.com, where new TED Talk videos are posted daily; the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from thousands of volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed; the annual million-dollar TED Prize, which funds exceptional individuals with a “wish,” or idea, to create change in the world; TEDx, which provides licenses to thousands of individuals and groups who host local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; and the TED Fellows program, which selects innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

The spirit of openness is foundational to TED’s mission of spreading ideas. What was once simply a closed-door conference devoted to Technology, Entertainment and Design has become a global platform for spreading ideas across a wide variety of disciplines. Founded in 1984, the first TED conferences were held in Monterey, California. In 2006, TED experimented with putting TED Talk videos online for free – a decision that opened the doors to a radically new model for sharing ideas: today there are nearly 2,000 TED Talks available for free on TED.com, which are viewed close to a million times a day, with more than two and a half billion views total. Thanks to the support of thousands of volunteer translators, there are nearly 70,000 published translations of TED Talks in 107 languages. TEDx, the licensing program that allows communities to produce independently organized TED events, has already seen nearly 12,000 such events held in 166 countries. For more information about TED Talks Live, visit go.ted.com/tedtalksliv .

Follow TED on Twitter at twitter.com/TEDTalks, on Facebook at facebook.com/TED or Instagram at instagram.com/ted.

ABOUT CPB
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government’s investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,400 locally owned and operated public television and radio stations nationwide. CPB is also the largest single source of funding for research, technology, and program development for public radio, television and related online services. For more information, visit cpb.org.

ABOUT PBS
PBS, with 350 member stations, offers all Americans the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and online content. Each month, PBS reaches more than 103 million people through television and over 33 million people online, inviting them to experience the worlds of science, history, nature and public affairs; to hear diverse viewpoints; and to take front row seats to world-class drama and performances. PBS’ broad array of programs has been consistently honored by the industry’s most coveted award competitions. Teachers of children from pre-K through 12th grade turn to PBS for digital content and services that help bring classroom lessons to life.

PBS’ premier children’s TV programming and its website, pbskids.org, are parents’ and teachers’ most trusted partners in inspiring and nurturing curiosity and love of learning in children. More information about PBS is available at PBS, one of the leading dot-org websites on the Internet, or by following PBS on Twitter, Facebook or through our apps for mobile devices.

Specific program information and updates for press are available at PBS Pressroom or by following PBS Pressroom on Twitter).

ABOUT ITVS
Independent Television Service (ITVS) funds, presents, and promotes award-winning documentaries on public television, innovative new media projects on the Web, and the Emmy Award-winning weekly series “Independent Lens” on Monday nights at 10:00 p.m. on PBS. Mandated by Congress in 1988 and funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, ITVS has brought thousands of independently produced programs to American audiences.

For more information, visit itvs.org .