Late last year I was asked to travel to Phoenix to speak at the TEDxPhoenix conference at the Mesa Arts Center, the site of the next debate between the GOP presidential candidates.

The topic of the day’s speeches was “Ask _____ For A Change,” and of couse I filled in the blank with the word “Why” as a starting point to discuss the work we have done here since 2005 to increase America’s terrible voter participation. Here’s how the organizers described it:

In his TEDxPhoenix 11.11.11 TEDxTalk, Jacob takes us through his extraordinary journey with the question “Why?”, and more specifically, the question “Why do we vote on Tuesday?”

The video of my talk was just posted, and in it I detail the six year history of our organization — and how powerful our simple question truly is — in nine minutes with video, slides, and some laughs. (more…)

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I just got back from TEDxPHX where I spoke to a packed house at the Mesa Arts Center about Why Tuesday? and our efforts. My talk was called “Ask Why? For A Change.”

The conference was full of great ideas and really inspiring. Hope to have the video soon. More photos on my Tumblr.

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I gave a talk this week at TEDActive in Palm Springs about “THE POWER OF WHY?” and how we and the folks at Why Tuesday? San Francisco use the simple question as we push to affect change in our voting system. That’s a picture of my talk above.

If you were at TEDActive and are interested in seeing more of the video I previewed during my talk, you can find it here. For more about Why Tuesday? click here. And stay tuned, I hope I’ll have my entire talk to post here soon.

Photo of my TEDYou talk via Christian Long.

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