True nature of reality beckons. Just beyond those talks those ideas captive for radio. From n.p.r. . I'm Guy rise coming up as an artist you hope that you can stimulate conversation and dialogue I want to make paintings that are honest people come out with a different perspective some time or just a piece of art can sing them or in the form body I mean I'm not saying it would change the world but it means it shows some to this episode how art changes us 1st this news from n.p.r. News in Washington I'm Shay's Stevens a shooting rampage in Northern California has left 5 people dead and at least 10 others injured at the ready say the gunman killed a neighbor he was accused of attacking earlier this year then fired shots inside an elementary school when he couldn't get inside the building injuring at least one student there police say the shooter then crashed a stolen vehicle into another vehicle and shot the people inside to him a County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston says the gunman was killed the suspect in the church to mourners. Very turn fire the suspect was killed or to see. The shootings took place in rancho of the Hayman reserve of around 130 miles north of Sacramento congressional Republicans are stepping up the pressure for Roy Moore to drop his bid for u.s. Senate seat over sexual misconduct allegations both the Republican National Committee and the party Senate campaign panel are no longer supporting the former Alabama chief justice but N.P.R.'s Jessica Taylor reports that Moore is pushing back even harder House speaker Paul Ryan joined Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in calling for more to step aside saying that the accusations against Moore are credible 5 women have now come forward but Moore has denied the allegations McConnell added that Moore was quote not fit to be in the United States Senate and the Republicans were looking at options to prevent that from happening that could include backing a write in candidate or trying to expel more if he does when more fired back on Twitter McConnell using the hash tag ditch Mitch and said that quote The good people of Alabama not the Washington elite who wallow in the swamp will decide this election McConnell backed Morris primary opponent appoint a center Luther Strange in the September primary runoff just to tailor n.p.r. News Washington tensions are high in Zimbabwe troops are patrolling the capital Harare and soldiers have taken control of State Owned Broadcasters explosions were heard in the city early Wednesday as N.P.R.'s Ofeibea started reports the turmoil comes amid a dispute between the ruling party and the head of the military President Robert Mugabe's governing Zanu p.f. Party issued a stiff warning to the army commander General Constantino Chiwenga saying Zimbabwe would not succumb to military pressure she went and made an unprecedented announcement Monday that the army was prepared to intervene to halt party infighting and the poaching of military veterans who fought Zimbabwe's independence will this was a week after Mugabe Fayyad vice president and war that I'm missing no doubt were accusing him of disloyalty that move was widely perceived as a prelude to move. Gabby being poised to promote politically ambitious fast made the growth Mugabe to a vice presidential paced the u.s. Embassy and had already has instructed stuff to remain at home off a vehicle stopped an n.p.r. News deck on Wall Street stocks closed lower weight down by a drop in energy shares this is n.p.r. News the u.s. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was back on Capitol Hill today answering questions about alleged campaign dealings with Russians during the 2016 election Sessions told the House Judiciary Committee that he now recalls being at a March 2016 gathering that's under scrutiny by a special counsel he told a Senate hearing last month and during his confirmation he didn't know anything about communications between the campaign and Russian officials Sessions' denies lying to Congress saying he can't be expected to remember details of conversations that happened over a year ago a new study suggests that heading a salt soccer ball is more dangerous for women than for men and players John Hamilton has more on today's discussion at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington repeated impacts to the head can damage the fibers that carry information around the brain so a team of researchers used a special type of m.r.i. To study the brains of nearly $100.00 amateur soccer players the group included men and women who had headed the ball about the same number of times in the past year and both sexes had some damage to their brain fibers but the women had 5 times as much damage as the men they also had damage in many more areas of the brain the findings supports earlier research suggesting that women athletes are more likely than men to suffer a concussion and that their symptoms last longer Jon Hamilton n.p.r. News Washington u.c.l.a. Officials are weighing disciplinary action against 3 basketball players accused of shoplifting in China the freshman athletes were detained in Shanghai where they were taking part in a Pac 12 game there back in the United States I'm Steve Inskeep n.p.r. News in Washington. Support for n.p.r. Comes from n.p.r. Stations other contributors include the William and Flora foundation committed to supporting ideas and institutions to advance education for all preserve the environment and promote vibrant performing arts more information is available at Hewitt dot org Support for Casey who comes from Monterey County home charter school offering students individualized home based education from transitional kindergarten through high school m c h t s an accredited public school operated by the Monterey County Office of Education learn more at m c h e s dot org And from Carmel Public Library Foundation presenting bodie good times and bad ghost town chronicles with photographer will Firman 7 pm Nov 15th at sunset Center details at Carmel Public Library Foundation dot org. It's the Ted Radio Hour from n.p.r. I'm Guy Raz and July ago painter and sculptor Titus Kfar was visiting the Natural History Museum in New York with his kids 2 kids 2 boys and held today save in is 10 and and is 8 so Titus as boys were watching up to the museum right at the entrance there's this famous sculpture of Teddy Roosevelt. It's this power and larger than life bronze sculpture that's it's a. 6 foot tall pedestal. And Teddy Roosevelt sits on the horse boldly controlling the animal with one arm he's proud and sitting straight up and. Charging forward it seems. And then on either side of him are. An African-American and a Native American. Walked past sets kosher have been in the museums more times I can count. But. More walking. Scenes that's called Sure of Teddy Roosevelt and without skipping a beat my son says. How come he gets to ride while they have to walk. And stop me in my child it was so much history that we would have to go through to try to explain that Titus Kfar picks up the story from the Ted stage it's a question that I probably would never really asked a fundamentally what he was sang was that doesn't look fair and why is this thing that's so not fair sitting outside of such an amazing institution. And his question got me wondering is there a way for us to amend our public school it's. Not a racism but is there a way to mend. And the reason Titus uses the word amend is because he doesn't want us to forget our past but to confront it he wants us to take a hard look at all of the paintings and sculptures and monuments that glorify a difficult and complicated history it's a very painful history. And we have to find ways to address it we can't pretend like not talking about it is going to work we tried that. We have to create a space for conversation something has to be done. So today on the show. The power to. Shift consciousness difficult conversation even influence a debate about past present future. Questions for years ever since he was an art student back in the late 1990 s. . One of the last our history classes I will not forget was one of those surveyed our history. Try to teach you the entire history of our I'm talking about cave paintings. But just crunched together all in the it doesn't really work but they try anyway well at the beginning of the semester I looked at the book and in this 400 page book was about a 14 page that was on black people in painting Now this was a crammed in section that had representations of black people and painting and black people who painted it it was poorly curated. But. Nonetheless I was really excited about it because in all the other classes I had we didn't even have that conversation so imagine my surprise on the day that we're supposed to go over that particular chapter my professor announces. We're going to skip this chapter today because we do not have time to go through it oh I'm sorry Professor Professor I'm sorry this is a really important chapter to me are we going to go over at any point we don't have time for this I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry please I really need to understand it clearly the author thinks that this is significant why are we skipping over this I do not have time for this I went to her office hours I ended up getting kicked out of office I went to the dean the Dean finally told me I can't force you to teach anything and I knew in that moment if I wanted to understand this history if I wanted to understand the roles of those folks who had to walk I wouldn't have to figure that out myself. So at this point what did you notice a about this history but how Africans and African-Americans were being portrayed in art by and large the representation of black people in the history of Western painting is in slave in servitude or impoverished they are often pushed to the corners of the compositions they're hidden they are in the shadows and so what we have are these representations of black people that don't reflect their humanity. And you're thinking we're not talking about this this is not this is not something we're even acknowledging. I mean absolutely I mean by that time I had already fallen in love with the making of paintings and so my particular interest was trying to teach myself how to represent black skin and when I see those paintings these are the characters that I feel 1st. I know where they're hidden I know how they're hidden and so in your art the work you do you sort of bring these characters out of hiding right exactly sometimes there's an image that I find in a history book and I will remake that painting and once I've represented re presented the original painting then I attempt to insert a narrative that pulls a hidden figure more to the foreground more to the surface above you right here on a slide is a painting. This is one of the kinds of images that was in that chapter I taught myself how to paint by going to museums and looking at images like this. Can you tell us can you describe the. Painting what it looks like. It's it's a very prototypical European portrait of an aristocratic very wealthy family you have this expanse of landscape in the background you have a little dog off to the side and we see that the father figure in the painting is at the highest point in the composition and then in the background. There is this little black child. I want to show you something. I made this you'll see there are some slight differences in the painting and I should mention here Titus what you're doing at this point in your talk is your unveiling on the stage your own recreate of that same painting. There's more written about dogs in our history than there are about this other character RINGBACK RINGBACK I can find out more about the late that the woman is wearing in this painting than I can about this character here about his dreams about his hopes about what he wanted out of life. All this our history and help me to realize that painting is. A visual language where everything in the painting is meaningful is important it's coded. But sometimes because of a compositional higher. It's hard to see other things. It's a limit let me just break in because at this point in your talk the brush strokes which is which is what we're hearing in the background you're actually painting over the images of the other family members the White family members and what you know what looks like white paint and so the only figure that's left on the canvas is that little black child that France hauls hadn't meant to fade into the background that's right that's I mean that's that's absolutely right and the original painting this black figure is. So under focused that it is difficult to see him as individual to see him as a person so in many cases in the paintings that I make like this. Take brush to Kim and try to bring a lot of what I see and try to illuminate what I think the original painter didn't say. And so I am connected to this this black figure who was in the shadows and I had the exciting opportunity improve to sort of pull him out. But at the same time and this is important to point out because I was a I was lucky enough to be there and see this you're not just white washing these other figures you're not actually a racing man Right exactly and so the paint that I'm applying this white paint with extra amounts of linseed oil and it extra amount of tomorrow and it. Will in fact become more translucent over time and so those figures will always be set back a little bit but they will not disappear they've not been erased RINGBACK. I don't want you to think that this is about eradication it's not we can't erase his history it's real we have to know. What I'm trying to do. Trying to show you. How to shift your game Lightning just momentarily I'm trying to answer that question that my son had. Some after what is the impact of these kinds of sculptures at museums of these kinds of paintings. Are most vulnerable in society saying these kind of depictions and. I want to make paintings sculptures that are I left. That wrestle with the struggles of our past but speak to the diversity and the advances of our present. And we can't do that by taking in a race or and getting rid of stuff that's just not going to work I think that we should do it in the same way the American Constitution works when we have a situation where we want to change a law in the American Constitution we don't have race the other one alongside that is an amendment something that says this is where we work but this is where we are right now I figure if we can do that then that will help us understand a little bit about where we're going. In a moment to far on how we can amend our public sculptures and national monuments I'm Guy Ross near listening to the Ted Radio Hour from n.p.r. Suborder k.z. You come from Gateway school of Santa Cruz an academically challenging progressive school rooted in play creativity critical thinking and compassion the middle school information night on December 7th registration at Gateway s.c. Dot org And from the battery in Santa Cruz offering ready made Thanksgiving dinners for 8 including roasted turkey mashed potatoes and green beans all mundane accepting preorders for November 20th details that buttery bakery dot com support for the Ted Radio Hour comes from Eli Lilly and company striving to unite caring with discovery to make life better stories on what inspires Lilly scientists in their pursuit of life changing medicines are available at Lilly for better dot com . And from the Herbert Simon family foundation supporting n.p.r. And member station w f y i n Indianapolis working together to cover stories and issues that Inform listeners in Indiana and beyond by providing critical information about the factors influencing education it's that Ted Radio Hour from n.p.r. I'm Guy Raz And on the show today how can change. And for artist Titus Kfar art has the power to help us reconcile where we've been then where we want to go. So. You know you point out that our can shape perceptions and reinforce even the most insidious and destructive views. And of course right now there's a lot of debate heated debate happening about public monuments in the u.s. And some people you know want to keep them and others think they're inappropriate and racist and want to tear them down and I'm just curious like what do you think about this if the question is Byron Mary keep it or tear it down. But the question doesn't have to be partnering I think if we engage a new generation of contemporary artists to make new monuments that stand next to these old monuments and force those old monuments into a dialogue I think we have an opportunity to create a new civic space around these monuments that can actually help us move towards the resolution of these years generations of racism that. Those old sculptures represent because I mean you all in your artwork you deliberately are trying to erase history and that is the core of what you do you know you change the name of the street and it goes from whatever clans member's name it was and then you put Martin Luther King Drive on there I don't ever want it to be forgotten that someone got away with that with using that name this symbol of racism placard on our streets placard on our squares artwork sculptures monuments I don't want us to forget that we have to ask ourselves how did that happen how was it that someone said I want to make a monument to this Confederate soldier in this area which is surrounded by people that this man fought to suppress my concern is that it can be an easy cop out yeah we can just change the name of pretend like that decision was never made and no one actually has to take responsibility but if the thing stands there and the contemporary artist comes in and makes another piece that is just unbelievably poignant and it sits boldly next to this older sculpture then all of a sudden that oppressive visual voice that that object has on the people who walk by gets silenced and it gets silence without having to tear it down I mean do you really think that art has the power to move the dial like like move the needle in a in a really significant way. I do I do I mean I have this dream of this new w.p.a. Where we begin to put in squares again and mirrors on walls and buildings and things and in that it would create a space for conversation it's not going to solve the problem but it does say in a very strong in a very bold way that we are moving towards acknowledging this as a nation and saying look this does not reflect our national values this does not reflect our cost to Sion and we are trying to acknowledge that we are trying to repair that and we're trying to move forward. That's artist Titus Kfar you can see his toc and the final version of the painting Titus started on the Ted stage by going to Ted at npr dot org. So can you tell me about the how the favela pain project started like did you guys just go to Rio and you know to sort of check them out no it was actually different you had won a competition to make a documentary for m.t.v. . Or on along with his friend then fellow artist in room cool us just mentioned made that documentary it was about Brazilian hip hop music in the fellows of Rio but their time in Brazil led to another project something completely different we when we were making the documentary and we were just spending a lot of time with the people there was this constant return of this word image that people in society around to slums they had to certain image of what the favelas was like and what the people from the favelas were like and we were also thinking that could we also make some sort of statements and the visual statement was the thing that came to mind immediately like could we just make something that looks nice so that if people look at the place and then already know that they're going to dislike it all of a sudden they're confronted with something beautiful and that would kind of change their minds and so the idea they came up with was to create. Bread across many many buildings so that you would have to look at it from a distance to see the entire thing and they decided to stay in Brazil and give it a shot I think. When we travel like we lose we arrive somewhere this documentary maker and we leave socially responsible. Here's Dre and Haroon on the stage we pick 3 houses in the center of the community and we start here we made a few designs. And everybody like this is a sign of a boy flying a kite the best we started painting in the 1st thing we did was to paint everything blue and we thought that looked already pretty good but they hated it the people who live there really hated it they said what did you do you painted our house in exactly the same color as the police station. In a facility that is not a good thing also the same color as the prison cell. So we quickly went ahead and we painted the boy but still it wasn't good because the little kids started coming up to us and they said you know it's a boy find it kind of but where is this kite we said it's art you know you have to imagine the kite I. Said no no no we want to see the kite so we quickly install the kite way up high on the Hill so that you could see the boy flying a kite and you could actually see a kite. So the local news started writing about it which was great and then even Gordon wrote about it. Notoriously becomes open there. I mean the perception of favelas is that these are unwelcoming dangerous ugly places and part of what you were trying to do was to to change that perception by actually sort of overlap between a full piece of artwork over the favela it was almost forcing people to think about it in a different way totally It's totally an invitation to just think about the people that live there in a different way and I remember very well that the participants in our projects I mean we work with like big groups of people that are from the neighborhood so it's not just us but there was a piece written in the newspaper and they talked about the inhabitants as artists and there's criminals and there was like a game changer for them and they said look the writing about us as people the things that really got to us and again this wasn't really like a super pre-determined plan this is something that we stumbled upon like this happened and then we thought oh my God if this happened in under small scale let's build it out let's make it 10 times bigger and see if it happens again. So that's what Trey and the room did they went to another. And started on another large scale art project the 2nd painting we made was actually not on a wall but it was on a complete street and we painted this giant river of flick Japanese car it was quite insane it's like the most unexpected thing and then they moved on to another neighborhood the sense of mark the project was quite simply the dnd it just looks like a very simple happy explosion of colors that so I can describe it it goes over like $27.00 different houses and as our projects attracted more attention they started to get requests from all over the world yeah it's for the less. 10 years with just running around. So then we received the unexpected phone call from the Philadelphia mural arts program and they had this question if this would actually work in North Philly which is one of the poorest neighborhoods in the United States so we immediately said yes the project took almost 2 years to complete and we made individual designs for every single house on the avenue that we painted and we made these designs together with the local store owners the building owners and a team of about a dozen young men and women they were hired and then they were trained as painters and together they transformed their own neighborhood the whole street into a giant patchwork of color. It's amazing when you see images of it from above like a drone image or from far away I mean I don't know what it looked like before but you can imagine that it did have a pretty big impact on that neighborhood on that community yeah totally and I love to follow. My Instagram is mostly people from from the different projects where we worked and lived and I'm following a lot of the people that live in Philadelphia and it's great to see the the painting still has like a big impact on their image just like the pictures that they take or music videos that they make there's people that do dance shows in front of or clothing designers come out and do their fashion shows there and it just becomes like a thing that their neighborhood is the colorful neighborhood do you think that we sometimes when we we think about transforming neighborhoods or communities or doing big public projects we don't just consider something as simple as beauty right like beauty can really transform psychologically transform how people think about their own spaces and places I think that there's 2 qualities its beauty and its attention if you do it. To your projects you show 2 years worth of full time love and dedication to a neighborhood and its people and it's something that people take very very serious . A good example was when we arrived we put posters everywhere we flayer did we had people going door to door asking the merchants to come together for a meeting and it was only 3 people that came out like there's always these 3 people and we did the same thing after the project was done and we needed to change look at the venue because it couldn't hold all the people and everybody came together and I mean I'm not saying it that changed the world but I mean that shows something . You can find out more about Trey and your runes projects at their website for painting dot com and you can watch their talk at ted dot com. What are you doing in New York I actually came to meet some people for a future project that's going to happen to the need to and that's to secure the current took about it Coney come armed to the time let make it happen or go at it. This is l.c.d. He's a French born artist whose parents immigrated from Tunisia and his work is actually a little like drawer on l.c.d. Paints these larger than life near olds and poor neighborhoods all around the world but there's an important difference I use a big calligraphy has made me medium Arabic calligraphy it's an art form that goes back centuries and it basically transforms letters from the Arabic alphabet into all kinds of designs and l.c.d. Sees his work as a way to change how people relate to the Arabic language and culture I'm trying you know with my work to be an investor there of of make it through trying to show the beauty of it trying to show how open minded we are so Art can be used as a way to bring light into community into an idea into like a subject that sometimes people are like scared I don't know what I just don't give in Britain's they think it's not important to talk about and l.c.d. Chooses specific quotes that reflect the places he's painting I try with my work with the messages that I write to to create the connection you know so for example in Egypt there was a quote from a bishop from the 1st century originally from the Nixon that he an Egyptian and the quote for example was saying you know anyone wants to see the sunlight clearly we need to appease ice 1st in London he used a quote from John Locke in Brazil a quote from a Brazilian poet and in his parents' hometown in Tunisia he painted this side of a minaret with a verse from the Koran Elsie told that story on the Ted stage. 2012 when I painted them in there at John was in my hometown of Gabbers in south of Tunisia I never thought that graffiti would bring so much attention to a city at the beginning I was just looking for a war in my home town and it happened that the minaret was built in 94 and for 18 years those 57 matter of concrete stayed Grae when I met the man for the 1st time and I told him what I wanted to do it was actually got he finally came and he told me that for years he was waiting for somebody to do something and it's in every word I create I write messages with my style of calligraphy a mix of calligraphy and graffiti I use chords or poetry for the minaret I thought that the most relevant message to be put on the most should come from. So I pick this verse or human kind we have created you from the matter of the female and made you people and tribe so you may know each other he was a universal call for peace tolerance and acceptance coming from the side that we don't usually portray the good in the media I was amazed to see how the local community reacted to the painting and how he made them proud to see the meaner and getting so much attention from international press all around the world for the money it was not just the painting it was really deeper than that he hoped that this minaret would become a monument for the city and the truck people to this forgotten place of Tunisia the University of the message the political context of Tunisia at this time and the fact that I was writing in a graph here we were not in significant it reunited the communities bringing people to church or generation together through Arabic calligraphy is what I do writing messages is this sense of my artwork you don't need to know the meaning to feel the peace I think that Arabic script to choose your soul before it reaches your eyes there is a beauty in it that you don't need to translate. Are big scripts big when you want to believe do you do you do you to anybody and then when you get the meaning. You feel connected to it I always make sure to write messages that are relevant to the place where I'm printing but messages that have a universal dimension so anybody around the world can connect to it. I imagine that when people see one of your Merrill's like this this amazing Arabic legacy and huge minaret I mean I'm sure people are our 1st struck by the size and the beauty of it but but then they probably walk away you know thinking about the Arabic language differently thinking about it as Art Yeah yeah definitely I hope you will do this if you can do more it's even better you know me I remember there was a we did a project in 2013 that was called last tours which was. Like a road trip all around Tunisia and and going into places that has a history but people forgot about it so I was like let me go and dig into this history so we went and I remember there was more war in the city could have had and I ask people are sitting in a cafe with this what belongs to and I guess it's mine you can paint. And so it's been thing all I was out of then I would say and. A young man like an older man would seem like screaming at me than you what are you doing. To bring down this world you think I'm dead through to print the my water and I'm like yeah like I couldn't care sorry I mean I didn't know that was your wallet somebody from the government only been nice to him seen on this is my world and you cannot do this you need to raise that so I was like Ok I would do it but please can you just let me finish and I would just paint over it is like Ok it's Ok and 2 hours after I was almost done and he sent his nephew back in there she was like actually American like the piece you know ask you to keep it so. I don't sometime I just a piece of art can just changed. I think that's the purpose of. You bring people that come from different parts of the war different different religious beliefs and you put them in the same place and you know you just blur. Differences and what comes out is humanity. Artist El seed you can hear his talk and see some of his amazing images at Ted at npr dot org and ideas about how art changes. Your listening to the Ted Radio Hour from n.p.r. Support for case comes from Monterey College of Law offering enroll meant in Masters of legal studies and doctor of jurisprudence degree programs information on spring start classes available online at Monterey log dot edu and from simu in contemporary American Ballet launching the holidays with the Christmas ballet featuring ballet tap swing and more coming to Carmel for 2 shows Friday and Saturday December 1st and 2nd tickets at sunset centered. Hogwash bologna Bowl it's all. Poet Kevin Young has spent the past 6 years working on his new book. That history and some of those stories next. 3. Support for the Ted Radio Hour comes from constant contact with tools including an editor and drag and drop action blocks for helping small businesses communicate with their customers through e-mail marketing learn more at constant contact dot com from Novo Nordisk working to defeat diabetes for more than 90 years through prevention diagnosis and treatment more at Novo Nordisk dot us and from the John s. And James l. Knight Foundation helping n.p.r. Advance journalistic excellence in the digital age. It's the Ted Radio Hour from n.p.r. . And on the show today ideas about the saddle power of art transform the way each of us sees the world. I say something similar to that I always say like our won't solve world hunger or war but it can provoke people to critically think hopefully this is Magnus she's a textile artist and she basically invented yarn bombing it's like any street art but it said of a spray can I picked up. To essentially covers random objects on the street in yarn it's kind of like needing a sweater for a stop sign or a street pole or fire hydrants I've done 30 foot statues I've done. And columns that span 7 stories that are 100 inches in circumference. 100 trees in front of the Capitol some of my biggest projects are definitely the bus in Mexico City that happen in 2007 the whole bus and entire bus Yeah and what was interesting about that is that at the time it was considered the largest object to be covered in knitting and then from that point on I just wanted to go bigger or weirder or do hundreds of small things so you know I couldn't stop after that if you like in the middle the night like Magical Elves came in and just did all this cool stuff everywhere seen it and I think these elves came in the middle the night and made this happen well I mean how do you do it incognito you know when gave you permission to do this. To do it without getting caught Now granted people with knitting. I don't usually look life threatening in any way and it's not really caustic or people don't really consider it vandalism but it's you know it's going on other people's property or city property and putting your knitting on it so how . Did you start doing this like how to start I was barely 30 and I was sitting in my shop I had a clothing shop back then and I it was a cold winter day and it was very gray and I personally wanted to see something handmade and colorful and something that put a smile on my face and made me happy and so I had knitted the door handle and it was a very selfish pursuit I didn't care what other people thought I wanted but little did I know the people that would pass by my shop were also sort of intrigued and affected by it and they would walk in and ask me about it and I really did not realize that it would have this kind of effect on other people here's a bag this. Strange. So clearly the reaction was interesting it intrigues me and I thought what else could I do could I do something in the public domain that would get the same reaction so I wrapped the stop sign pole near my house the reaction was wild it was like people would park their cars and get out of their cars and stare at it and take pictures of it and take pictures next to it and all of that was really exciting to me and I wanted to do every stop sign pole in the neighborhood and the more that I did the stronger the reaction. So this point I'm smitten I'm her but this was also a doctor I found my new passion and the urban environment was my playground and I realized something we all live in this fast paced digital world but we still crave and desire something that's relatable I mean we've all become desensitized by our overdeveloped cities that we live in and billboards and advertisements and giant parking lots and we don't even complain about that stuff anymore so when you stumble upon a stop sign pole that's wrapped in knitting and it seems so out of place and then it gradually weirdly you find a connection to it that is the moment that is a moment I love and that is a moment I love to share with others. All right so eventually you started to do bigger projects all over the world and one of them is a statue of a guy holding a gun can you tell me about that one yes it is a statue of a soldier and I went with cases and cases of material because my original intention was to cover the statue but when I got there and I looked at the statue stared it at 1st solid 20 minutes I realized. The significance the meaning that I wanted to achieve would be from the weapons you know the dagger and the gun that he was holding he's like the sort of bronze statue very sort of stern and intimidating imitating and then he says like yarn covered pistol in a yarn covered dagger and like these break the code like yarn the colors Yeah and it really struck a chord with me because there is something really significant in this simple gesture of taking this material that represents nothing but love I mean I can't imagine it representing anything else you know you unit for Love you need it for someone that you care for and to put it on an object that only represents our instinct to kill and hatred and. To me it felt very significant see cover this weapon and symbolically obliterate it and paralyze its function by covering it with love and I mean by me isn't isn't just yours anymore right I mean people all over the world have picked this up you've people of cover tanks in the bull statue on Wall Street and it's kind of like your work on that statue I mean it has a pretty powerful message right because it's it's a lot different than covering a stop sign or a bike rack with the r Yeah absolutely I think that there's different meaning in a lot of the times art is you know a response or has a social agenda to it and it's quite successful we see this craft as something that's functional that's domestic We see it as a woman woman's work and we're taking it out of all of those different boxes and putting it in this other world and reshaping objects with it and find them and enhancing them and even shining a new light on them and I think that. People are intrigued by that and if I can send a good message out then that makes me so happy as an artist you hope that you can stimulate conversation and help community and help connection happen and dialogue with each other and that's what I believe Art can do. That's textile artist Magnus I you can see her full talk and some of her work to come. When they can you remember a time when you played music for somebody and it had a profound change in what was going on around around them it's hard for me to remember a time when I played music when he didn't have that effect on people because that's the given I consider music to be a transformational experience. This is Benjamin Zander I'm the conductor of the Boston film onic and the Boston film on it Youth Orchestra which by the way we're hearing right now with Benjamin conducting So when Benjamin Zander says music is transformational he doesn't necessarily mean it can change the world but that it has the power to change us from within Mendelssohn said that music is a much more precise language than words and when you think how easily we misunderstand words and God knows there's enough evidence of that this time but music speaks directly to the heart and speaks through the molecules and it's resistible Benjamin described the moment when he discovered this power as a conductor from the Ted stage now I had an amazing experience I was 45 years old I've been conducting for 20 years and I'm suddenly had a realisation the conductor of an orchestra doesn't make a sound my picture appears on the front of the cd I put the conductor doesn't make a sound he depends for his power on his ability to make other people powerful it was totally life changing people in my orchestra came up to me and said what happened that's what happened I realized my job was to awaken possibility in other people. And of course I want to know whether I was doing that I knew how you find out you look at their eyes if their eyes are shining you know you're doing it. If the eyes are not shiny you have to ask a question and this is the question Who am I being. That my players eyes are not shining. And you know I have a definition of success for me it's very simple it's not about wealth and fame and power it's about how many shiny eyes I have around me. Walk me through your understanding of the physiological experience of music what is just what happens to us Well it's a fascinating thing it's based in nature now we're talking about tonal music atonal music is another matter says something else but in total music if I go. Everybody feels in that last mode a desire which is in that note to resolve itself to go and if it doesn't there's a frustration there's a sense of expectation not fulfilled and so since everybody feels that the composer can play with the tonal language in such a way that he can set up expectation satisfaction a sense of coming home a sense of being far removed from home and all the emotion that human beings are capable of feeling. Can be represented in music. So music is a mode and. It drives you in and can change the way you experience something it's a so it's like why when you watch a movie it can make you cry right but if you saw that same movie without the music you wouldn't have the same effect and that there's something emotive about music that pulls us in that kind of praise her motions and I don't know why do we do you know why well it just think of it the other way can you imagine a movie without. It's the music that generates the emotions that releases the human experience and it does it of course through the way that music works which is it doesn't go through the brain it goes through the cues. Shifts the molecules it gives you whatever feeling and of course the Greek composers. Of Music know how to do that to turn it on as if they're turning a tap or dials on the tree. There is something about it that changes. Experience of whether it's a movie you're watching or moment you're experiencing it can be can make it so much more profound I mean music it's like it's like putting salt on a tomato it awakens it and it and it it's even better believe that even better than terrible analogy much better than that it's but it just awakens things it awakens the experience in a way that can actually lead to a consequential outcome I mean it can make people do things and change things and build things you know no question about it it's the great bring us together music is one thing to hear it in your ear of a learn it's quite another thing to hear it in a concert hall with 2000 other people who are all experiencing it together and whose reaction and spontaneous enthusiasm at the end is part of the experience and on a tour when you grew from one town to another and you play for people you have the sense that people come out of those concerts with a different feeling about life with a different perspective with a different sense of being and that's why we do it and we keep doing it and we keep doing it in. Approach my 80th birthday i'm not have no intention of stopping at any point doing it because it's my life blood that's where I get my choice in my life from it's the sense that people's lives are really transformed. On the Ted says you play this piece by Chopin but 1st you ask every wanted to do something right here. Would you think of somebody who you adore who is no longer there a beloved grandmother a love of somebody in your life who you love with all your heart bring that person into your mind and you'll hear everything that choppa had to say. Why why. That he's special and what is about that he's well thank you for asking it's a very simple idea begins on a note and then it falls over the course of the piece from that note which is the dominant to the toning at beer. And pieces of music that actually have that journey from away to home from the dominant to the tonic and it does it it's really beautiful way and it's emotional mazing place that is why it's a mosque. And so in a very few moments with a short explanation you can actually reach everybody. It's like a story it's like an large table storing exactly the music is a story of someone folding of a story and it opens the emotional pause to all of life's experience and that's the purpose of transformation. Thank you if you want to catch him if you're wondering why I'm crafting Well I did this of a school in Boston but about 77th graders 12 year olds and I did exactly what I did with you and I told them and explain the whole thing and at the end they went crazy clapping they were traffic I was clapping they were tapping finally I said why am I clapping one of the little kids said because we were listening I. Tell you what happened to me I was in Ireland during the Troubles 10 years ago and I was working with some Catholic and Protestant kids. On conflict resolution and I did this with them treat a risky thing to do because they were street kids. And one of them came to be the next morning. And he said you know I've never listened to classical music in my life but when you played that shopping piece I he said My brother was shot last year and I didn't cry for him but last night when you played that piece he was the one I was thinking about and I felt the tears streaming down my face and you know felt really good to cry for my brother so I made up my mind a moment the classical music is for me. If. You can see his entire talk. To. Me. This is not you can be. Listening to the show this week if you want to find out more about who was on it Ted. And to see hundreds more to check out ted dot com. Our production staff at n.p.r. New clues Jeff Rogers. In a western. P.c. Herman Rachel Faulkner and her Louis with help from Daniel to get our intern is Benjamin N.P.R.'s head of programming is. Our partners and our Chris Anderson. And. If you want to know what you think about the show please go to the Apple podcast right. So you can write directly to us that Radio Hour at npr dot org And you can tweet us at Ted Radio Hour I'm Guy Raz And I've been listening to ideas worth spreading right here as Radio Hour from n.p.r. . Support for the Ted Radio Hour comes from $23.00 and Me a personalized genetic service dedicated to helping people learn what their $23.00 pairs of chromosomes say about their health traits and ancestry learn more at 23 and Me dot com from Margo and John Ernst supporting North Country Public Radio in Canton New York and N.P.R.'s environmental coverage which helps to raise awareness on issues surrounding climate change and from the John s. And James l. Knight Foundation helping n.p.r. Advance journalistic excellence in the digital age this week in This American Life things are going well for David had a wife and young daughter an interesting job that took him out of the world one day everything took a sharp unexpected and very unpleasant turn and it did take me a while to realize that it's basically because the monkey pressed the button when the monkey presses the button this week This American Life Wednesday night a done $90.00 k.z. You. K.z. Use mobile app for smartphones is available where most apps are available you can enjoy a full audio in full text of K.'s a use local stories n.p.r. And k.z. Use h.d. To classical station listen to is a you every girl with the k. Is a you mobile app the 5th annual turkey trot takes place Thursday November 23rd from 7 to 11 Thanksgiving morning participants can run or jog at their own pace at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca more information is on a community calendar k.z. You dot org. On Paul finger with this weather update for Wednesday look for a 30 percent chance of rain on Wednesday 100 percent chance by Wednesday night accompanied by gusty winds with temperatures in the mid sixty's on the coast high sixty's in Linde. From California State University Monterey Bay This is listener supported 90.3 k a z u Pacific Grove Monterey Salinas Santa Cruz n.p.r. For the Monterey Bay area it's 9 o'clock. Hoaxes are everywhere these days but history teaches us why they persist and why some people delight in deceiving us from w a n u and n.p.r. In Washington this is one. Day there I'm Joshua Johnson today on one a beating back the only.