ModernBrain’s TEDx Talks (Updated 8/14/25)
One of the first things we teach our students is that every great speech — whether it’s on a tournament stage, a classroom floor, or a red TEDx carpet — should answer three questions:
Why you? Why should this audience care?
Why me? Why am I the person to give this talk?
Why now? Why does this message matter today, not ten years from now?
When a speaker nails all three, they connect. They move people. They stick in your head for days afterward.
Six members of our ModernBrain family — four students and two coaches — have stepped onto TEDx stages to tell their stories. They answered those three questions with clarity and heart.
The Arts as a Lifeline – Saura Charlu
Saura walked us into the rehearsal rooms, the late nights, the sore muscles, the competitions where she walked away with top jazz scholarships — and showed how those moments taught her resilience, self-expression, and identity.
The story was about finding your voice when the world hands you sheet music and expects you to follow the notes exactly. Eight years on the competitive dance floor. National-level speech and debate experience. And a simple but powerful belief: youth voices matter, and the arts give them the strength to use those voices.
Learning Without a Stopwatch – Christiana Garcia
Some students race ahead in school; others need to take their time. Christiana made the case for an education system that doesn’t treat one pace as “normal” and every other pace as “behind.”
Diagnosed with learning differences at age three, she’s been homeschooled since kindergarten. Instead of lowering her expectations, she raised them — speaking at teacher conferences, mastering karate to the point of teaching it to others, thriving in mock trial.
Her talk was lived proof that when schools adapt to students instead of the other way around, kids discover their capabilities — and their confidence.
Why Speaking Isn’t Optional – Betty Chen
Betty could have just rattled off the benefits of competitive speaking. Instead, she told the story of the middle schooler who walked into a speech round terrified — and walked out with a new sense of identity. (Spoiler: that middle schooler was her.)
She made the case that communication is a gateway skill. It sharpens critical thinking. It trains you to lead. It forces you to confront fear instead of work around it. Years in speech and debate have convinced her that investing in this skill is about building a life where you can step into any room and make yourself heard.
Lies That Feel True – Krishnni Khanna
Krishnni started her talk with a disarming truth: “If you hear something often enough, you’ll probably believe it — even if it’s wrong.” From there, she unpacked the “illusory truth effect” using research, history, literature, and her own life as an Indian immigrant who faced peer shaming.
She gave a roadmap for resisting the problem— the same principles that drove her to found Detoximind, a mental health initiative now operating in four countries. This was a call to guard our minds before misinformation rewires them.
How Not to Be Persuasive – Dr. Iain Lampert
Iain’s talk was a confession: he spent years trying to “sound smart” before realizing it wasn’t the same as being persuasive. He told stories from debate rounds in communities skeptical of climate science, from classrooms where students tuned out, from conversations that went nowhere — until he shifted from winning arguments to building understanding.
His framework for persuasion is simple enough to remember, but hard enough to master that it can change careers, classrooms, and conversations.
Getting Suspended for Speaking Out – Noah Christiansen
Noah’s story starts with a school suspension and ends with the ACLU naming him their “Voice of Tomorrow.” In between? A national conversation on gun violence, a crash course in public advocacy, and the discovery that students have always had a hand in shaping history — if they’re willing to speak up.
Now a university graduate, coach, and competitor, Noah made his TEDx audience wrestle with the question: What’s worth getting in trouble for?
These talks were different in style and subject, but all had one thing in common: they were rooted in the speaker’s own life. They answered Why you? Why me? Why now? with substance and sincerity.
At ModernBrain, that’s what we teach — whether you’re giving a ten-minute tournament speech or a ten-second classroom comment. Your story, your expertise, and your timing matter. And when you can bring all three together, people listen.
