TED and Clubhouse will Collaborate to Deliver Audio-only TED Talks

The Clubhouse is teaming up with TED to bring exclusive TED talks to your phone.
The news was announced Sunday, and the first talks will launch Monday in the official TED Clubhouse room. These talks will only be available to Clubhouse users.

“For nearly 40 years TED has brought the world’s preeminent ideas, imaginations and voices to audiences,” Clubhouse programming’s Kelly Stoetzel, a former TED head of conferences, said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “This partnership will bring those minds into a dialogue with the millions of creators who make up the Clubhouse community.”

Author A.J. Jacobs will host the first talk, along with Clubhouse creator Mir Harris. The announcement notes that the conversation is just a starting point, with more rooms and special events to be announced: “in the weeks ahead.”

“TED’s mission has always been to share ideas and foster discussion around them,” Carla Zanoni, TED’s director of audience development, added in the statement. “When ideas and people come together to engage and debate, that’s when the real impact happens.”

The news comes after an apparent setback for Clubhouse partnerships earlier in the week. Although the NFL teamed up with Clubhouse for the 2021 draft, the league announced on Wednesday that its deal with Twitter will be extended to include Twitter Spaces, the social media platform’s audio-only Clubhouse competitor.

The Clubhouse app is now available on all smartphones.