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TEDxBend

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TEDxBend is a community relationship with a goal to strengthen our bonds with Central Oregon. With each idea that fuels our dreams and energizes us to take action, comes amazing opportunity for Central Oregon. This relationship speaks of being part of something meaningful, something authentic, something that has tangible value. The power of stories told transcends a single day—and creates energy to be inspired by and to act upon. That energy is TEDxBend.

Step into the conversation. Join us on the TEDxBend Podcast and participate in community conversations focused around the theme of the 2026 TEDxBend event, Rebirth—a shared invitation to shed what no longer serves us and step into what’s possible next. Before you hit play, take a look at your own horizon: If you could intentionally begin again or hit 'refresh' on one area of your life, career, or perspective today, what would it look like, and why?

Hear from event organizers, speakers and community members as they engage in purpose driven conversation brought to you by The StoryBooth Experience.

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  • 6 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 22 min
  • English

Episodes 6

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  • S1 · E6
    August 11 · 37 min

    Episode Six: A Single Breath Can Change Everything

    A single moment can split your life into before and after and it rarely looks dramatic from the outside. Sitting with the TEDx Bend community, we hear the kind of turning points that don’t fit on a business card: a quiet inner voice that says let go, a career that suddenly feels too small, a creative spark that refuses to stay a hobby, and the realization that “looking successful” can be its own trap. We talk with artists and physical therapists about what real change costs and what it gives back. Mark shares how van life stripped away his old identity and pushed him toward creativity and honest connection. Andy walks us through the day breathing mechanics clicked so hard he couldn’t see bodies, movement, or physical therapy the same way again, including why the diaphragm matters for function, posture, recovery, and the stories we tell ourselves about expertise. Emily opens up about leaving corporate structure for freelancing, learning confidence after the leap, and finding validation in a local community that actually wants what she has to offer. The conversation also zooms out to Bend, Oregon itself: a growing town with a simple challenge, don’t just take from a place, contribute to it. If you’re wrestling with a career change, craving deeper community, or trying to trust your next step, you’ll leave with language for that inner nudge and a few ways to act on it. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s on the edge of a change, and leave a review with the moment you knew you couldn’t go back.

  • S1 · E5
    August 4 · 13 min

    Episode Five: What If The Hardest Choice Is The Most Honest One.

    A single question can crack your life open: when did you realize you had to make a change? From the Storybooth Experience at TEDx Bend, we share a run of honest, vivid turning points that cut past the usual self-help talk and get into the real texture of transformation. You’ll hear what it feels like to quit a job, leave an apartment, take a sabbatical, move towns with more faith than money, and choose a new path even when it costs you comfort. We start with sobriety and the moment someone admits drinking has stopped being “just social.” Through coaching, he sees alcohol is not serving him and not the example he wants to set for his kids. We talk about the hidden losses that come with quitting drinking: the relaxation ritual, the social crutch, and even friendships that fade when the habit goes away. The bigger win is presence, learning to recognize scary feelings as temporary discomfort instead of something to escape. Then we shift to bold relocation stories and the practical courage behind them. A move to Bend, Oregon begins as a road trip spark and turns into an all-in commitment complete with escrow confusion, family loans, job pressure from the bank, and the surreal first night in a new home. We also explore burnout recovery and the clarity that comes when you look a year ahead and see the same life repeating, plus the surprising insight that a move to Seattle can make someone a better dad because he is finally fully present. If you’re wrestling with a life change, career burnout, sobriety, parenting presence, or a relocation decision, listen through and take notes on the values underneath each choice. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a nudge, and leave a review with the change you’re considering right now.

  • S1 · E4
    July 27 · 22 min

    Episode Four: Breaking Up With The Machine

    A cigarette in Madrid can feel like romance until you’re back home staring down addiction, medicine, and the quiet question of who’s really in control. We’re sharing raw, human change stories recorded at TEDx Bend through Storybooth, where one prompt unlocks everything: the moment you knew you had to shift your life. We talk about smoking cessation as more than “just quit,” including how marketing and culture shape tobacco addiction, and why anger at the machine can become a surprisingly clean fuel for change. Then we widen the lens into integrative health and plant medicine, asking uncomfortable, harm-reduction style questions. From there, the conversation gets intimate and grounded. We explore the idea that plants have personalities through aloe as a lifelong healer and fungi as nature’s quiet network of intelligence. We end with big life transitions: grief after losing a spouse, the courage to put yourself first even when friends judge, and the decision to prioritize health through aging, anger release, and even stopping drinking. If you’re craving a reset that feels honest, not performative, press play, subscribe, and share this with someone standing on the edge of a change.

  • S1 · E3
    July 20 · 22 min

    Episode Three: The Moment You Know

    A boss ringtone that still triggers panic years later. A move to Switzerland while six months pregnant with no German and no support network. A teenager who responds to heartbreak by moving into a leaky backyard tent and accidentally discovers wonder. These are not “perfect change” stories. They’re honest ones, recorded with Storybooth Experience during TEDx Bend, where the community answers one simple question: when did you realize you had to make a change? We hear how career burnout can look like success while it quietly drains your health, and why sometimes the bravest move is stepping off the ladder entirely. We talk about relationship decisions that don’t fit a clean narrative, including leaving a marriage that has turned into lonely co-existence, and the uncanny moments that crystalize the truth. We also sit with identity and reinvention: what happens when your job title is your badge, then you have to learn to introduce yourself without it. If you’re wrestling with a career change, divorce, burnout recovery, grief, or that persistent feeling of “this isn’t mine,” these stories offer something practical: language for the moment you know, and permission to create space before life forces it. Subscribe for more, share this with someone standing at a crossroads, and leave a review telling us what change you’re ready to make next.

  • S1 · E2
    July 13 · 17 min

    Episode Two: Real Stories Of Courage From TEDx Bend

    At TEDx Bend, the Storybooth Experience creates an intimate space where strangers tell the truth out loud, and the stories stick because they’re grounded in real consequences, not tidy lessons. You’ll hear the split-second moments of clarity, the quiet build-up, and the sudden shocks that force a new direction. We talk with people who chose a fresh start in Bend, Oregon after years elsewhere, including a single mom moving from South America with two kids and a daughter with a rare syndrome, and a journalist who rejected the cubicle long before remote work was normal. We also dig into the kind of change you don’t get to schedule: depression that ends a flying career, a child’s rare genetic diagnosis, and the way grief can sit in your chest while you still have to make dinner and keep going. Medical turning points run through the conversation, from breast cancer to a life-altering cancer diagnosis described as a “boulder” after the universe’s whispers and pebbles. We explore what it means to question the systems around you, to seek healing in nature and community, and to ask the hard self-audit: is this how I want to live, and whose choices am I living by? If you’ve ever felt stuck between the life you’re “supposed” to have and the life you actually want, these voices offer a grounded kind of hope.

  • S1 · E1
    July 3 · 20 min

    Episode One: From Burnout To Belonging At TEDx Bend

    A single question unlocks everything: when did you realize you had to make a change? From the Storybooth Experience at TEDx Bend, we share a string of candid voices that move from quiet reflection to big, brave decisions, all rooted in the same human need for safety, meaning, and belonging. If you’re navigating a life transition, career shift, or identity reset, these stories give you language for what change actually feels like. We talk about what it means to lead with integrity in the workplace and why “protecting the company” falls apart when employee experience and human dignity get ignored. We also follow a family’s leap from New York to Tucson for a once-in-a-lifetime integrative medicine opportunity, and unpack the real sacrifice beneath any relocation: letting go of a version of life that looked stable from the outside. Along the way, we challenge the pressure to fit in, and ask the question that cuts through all the noise: what do you want? The thread tightens around inner stability and mindfulness, from meditation and time in nature to the discipline of being present under TEDx-level pressure. Then the mic passes to a group of teen musicians who speak plainly about bullying, homeschooling, friendship, and the confidence that grows when you step on stage anyway. You’ll leave with a sharper sense of how to define success for yourself, how to find your people, and how vulnerability can become a form of service. If someone you love is standing at the edge of a hard decision, share this conversation with them. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: what change are you building the courage to make?

Showing 1–6 of 6 episodes