Atlanta has always been a city of reinvention.
It’s a place shaped by resilience and the belief that what exists today does not have to define what comes next. Across business, culture, technology, civic life, education and the arts, Atlanta continues to show what is possible when people are willing to challenge convention and build something stronger.
That spirit is at the heart of TEDxAtlanta 2026.
This year’s theme, Bold. Brave. Unbreakable, celebrates the ideas and people helping us imagine stronger futures in a rapidly changing world.
To be bold is to see possibility before everyone else does. To be brave is to keep moving when the path is uncertain. To be unbreakable is not to be untouched by challenge–it’s to keep building anyway.
Bold speaks to the power of imagination.
Bold ideas challenge what people assume is fixed. They question old systems and invite us to see a different future before it fully exists. In a city known for reinvention, boldness is part of Atlanta’s DNA. It shows up in entrepreneurs building new models, artists reshaping culture, scientists asking better questions, organizers strengthening communities and leaders willing to do things differently.
Brave speaks to the courage required to act.
It’s one thing to imagine a stronger future. It’s another to move toward it. Brave ideas often ask us to confront complexity, uncertainty or disagreement. They ask us to speak more honestly and take responsibility for what comes next. Bravery is not the absence of fear. It is the decision to keep showing up with purpose, even when the work is difficult.
Unbreakable speaks to the strength that comes from adaptation.
To be unbreakable is not to be untouched by change, pressure or loss. It is to keep learning and building anyway. It is the resilience of people who turn experience into wisdom. It’s the strength of communities that become stronger through connection. It’s the power of ideas that continue to evolve because they are rooted in something real.
Together, these words point to the kind of future TEDxAtlanta exists to explore—one shaped by courage, creativity and connection.
TEDxAtlanta is designed to be more than a conference. It is a chance to pause.
In the middle of full calendars, constant headlines and the pressure to keep up, TEDxAtlanta offers something different: a place to take a beat, find inspiration, make connections and learn something new.
Our annual conference features the famous TEDx Talk format, complemented by Explore Sessions that invite curiosity and spark discussion. Together, these experiences create the conditions for deeper connection and meaningful action.
It’s part respite and part invitation to rediscover what is possible.
The world is changing quickly. Technology is reshaping how we work and live. Communities are asking harder questions about equity, opportunity and belonging. Climate, health, education, creativity and civic life all demand new thinking.
In moments like this, it can be tempting to move faster without pausing to think more deeply. TEDxAtlanta creates space for the opposite.
It’s a place to step away from the noise. To listen to people outside your industry, your discipline or your usual circle. To find inspiration in unexpected places. To make connections that sharpen your thinking and deepen your sense of what is possible.
That is why this year’s theme matters. Bold. Brave. Unbreakable. is not only about individual grit. It’s about the ideas, relationships, and communities that help us meet complexity with imagination rather than resignation.
This year also marks an exciting expansion: the addition of TEDxAtlanta Youth.
Immediately following the mainstage conference, TEDxAtlanta Youth will feature changemakers ages 16 to 23 whose ideas, questions and lived experiences deserve the stage.
Their presence matters. Young people are inheriting a world with much to build on and much to repair. They are coming of age in a time of possibility, uncertainty and pressure. Their ideas are not simply “next-generation” ideas. They are ideas for right now, shaped by urgency and a willingness to imagine futures that work better.
By bringing TEDxAtlanta Youth into this year’s conference experience, TEDxAtlanta is making room for bold questions and brave voices across generations.
TEDxAtlanta 2026 is an invitation to pause and consider what this moment asks of us.
What does it mean to be bold when the future feels uncertain? What does bravery look like when change is no longer abstract? And what makes people, communities and ideas unbreakable when the world keeps shifting?
There is no single answer. That’s the point.
Across the conference, we’ll hear from people whose ideas challenge assumptions and open new ways of seeing what is possible. We will make room for curiosity, conversation and connection. We will gather not to escape the complexity of the world, but to meet it with more imagination.
So come ready to take a beat.
Come ready to learn something new.
Come ready to leave with a question worth holding onto:
What makes you unbreakable?
Be the first to know when registration opens for TEDxAtlanta 2026. Sign up for updates at TEDxAtlanta.com and have them delivered directly to your inbox.
Mothers Day arrives every year wrapped in the same familiar packaging of bouquets, cards, and maybe a brunch or spa day. There’s nothing wrong with that, but motherhood itself is so much bigger than one Sunday in May. We often see the highlight reel of joyful times, but what about the moments in between–the identity shifts and invisible labor; feelings of pride and feelings of isolation; and sometimes, dealing with loss and grief?
To shine a light on those moments, this Mother’s Day, we want to support and honor moms by understanding what motherhood really is through these Talks that give us the full, unfiltered reality of being a mom.
The Mental Load and Myth of the Perfect Mother
The standard of motherhood evolves generation by generation, and it can put a lot of pressure on moms. In her Talk The Perfect Mother Needs To Go, Andrea Jansen makes the case that the bar we’ve set for “good motherhood” isn’t just high, it’s downright unattainable, and the longer we pretend otherwise, the more damage we do to real mothers living real lives.
Kendra Estle goes even further in The BS of Motherhood, arguing that motherhood can be an isolating and exhausting experience, and that we need more physical and virtual spaces where mothers can say that out loud without shame.
Lastly, Diana Spalding shares the devastating consequences that happen when a society does not take care of mothers in her Talk, What if We Nurtured Moms? The good news is, she also has a very simple way of how we can start fixing the problem.
The Health Crisis We Don’t Talk About Enough
Here in Georgia, we have one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country, and Black women bear a disproportionate share of that burden.
Shawnee Benton Gibson speaks to this in Words and Wombs Create Worlds: The Black Maternal Health Crisis. After losing her daughter to maternal mortality in 2019, she turned her grief into advocacy.
As a response to the broken maternal health system our country faces, Dr. Nikia Grayson supports midwifery as a solution. Her Talk How Black Midwives Can Help Our Broken Maternal Healthcare System calls for the training and development of midwives, especially Black midwives who have a closer understanding of their patients’ lived experiences.
On the postpartum side, Auburn Harrison’s Talk Why We All Need to Talk About Postpartum Depression brings personal experience to a condition that affects far more mothers than we acknowledge.
The Identity Crisis of Motherhood: You Are Still You
Becoming a mother does not mean disappearing into motherhood. Reproductive psychiatrist Alexandra Sacks explains the concept of matrescence (the psychological and identity shift that comes with becoming a mother) in her widely watched TED talk, A New Way to Think About the Transition to Motherhood.
For mothers navigating their careers, Irene Mora’s For Women in Pursuit of Motherhood and a Career encourages moms to pursue both a family and a career, and how their kids may just thank them for doing so. Meanwhile, Whitnee Hawthorne’s What Corporate America Needs to Know about Working Moms shows the reality of being a working mother today, and how to use parenting skills to become leaders in the workplace.
Motherhood has always been one of the most powerful forces in the world. These Talks are a testament to that, making room for the mothers who are exhausted, the ones who feel unseen, the ones fighting a broken system, and the ones still figuring out who they are on the other side of having a child.
Sometimes, the most meaningful thing you can do for a mom is to just listen to her. This Mother’s Day, we hope these talks are a good starting point.
Sakshi Jain is a social entrepreneur, fundraiser and artist. She is currently focussed on solutions that enable older adults to live with purpose, prosperity, and joy. At TEDx Atlanta, she is a member of the core team, leading events that are relevant and meaningful to the city’s diverse communities. She moved to Atlanta in 2024 and is always up for long walks with iced coffee (shout out to the Beltline!), trying anything creative, and the conversations that happen along the way.
I love that TEDx makes knowledge more accessible and ideas more contextualized for audiences who will find those ideas most relevant to them. When I learned about TEDx Atlanta, I knew that I had to reach out!
Ed Yong’s TED talk Zombie Roaches and Other Parasite Tales has got to be one of the most delightful and pun-tastic Talks on the TED platform. Ed packs a punch with his theme, but he really nails the storytelling and humor so well that I remember parts of his Talk, down to the pauses, years later. His Talk had me adding ‘parasites making crickets jump into swimming pools’ to my search history, and he made me appreciate and rethink nature, even at its wildest.
Fun, thoughtful, curious.
That has to be the 2025 Pollinator Census, where we were terribly rained out. It didn’t stop us from showing up for the folks who joined the count, and it definitely did not stop us from having fun while learning about the amazing work pollinators do to keep our ecosystem running and the gardeners who help them thrive. I also learned that the most appropriate reaction to meeting a bee was not, in fact, to screech, but to simply allow it to fly away and do its thing. Look out for the 2026 Pollinator Census in a few months!
The annual mainstage event is not all we do! Our programming includes multiple curated, smaller-scale events and experiences throughout the year. These are great to meet people in the Atlanta community and see how you can actually contribute your time and skills, before deciding if you want to commit to volunteering for a longer period.
Another way to get involved is by partnering with us to bring a unique experience–or even experiment–to Atlanta. In just the last year, we have hosted an adventure at Chantelle Rytter’s parade studio, a panel on sustainability and innovation in fashion, participated in the Southeast Pollinator Census, and enabled skills-based volunteering with five impactful Atlanta area non-profits.
TEDx has helped me see sides of Atlanta I probably would not have discovered on my own. I’ve got to be in some really cool rooms and meet people who are obsessed with, and excel at, their craft. I love that at every event, I meet people from diverse walks of life–people who have come together for no reason other than their curiosity and intent. I have met people who are attending their first TEDxAtlanta event, and people who are attending their 15th, simply because we make sure that our programming is unique.
For new experiences, to learn about how the world works, and meet fantastic people!
Interested in volunteering with us and getting immersed in all things Atlanta? Complete the form at the bottom of this link: https://www.tedxatlanta.com/volunteer/
