Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
Watch Live

International

What Does Identity Mean For An Immigrant?

Part 1 of the TED Radio Hour episode Identities.

About Tan Le's TEDTalk

Entrepreneur Tan Le recounts her family's harrowing journey from Vietnam to Australia. She talks about how her upbringing as a Vietnamese refugee living in Australia has defined her identity.

Advertisement

About Tan Le

Once we lose our own sense of identity, we lose our own authentic self – our own sense of integrity, and who we are.

Tan Le was only four years old when she and her family took on a dangerous journey to emigrate from Vietnam to Australia. At age 16, she entered college. Soon after, she was named "Young Australian of the Year." Since then, she has become a leader in entrepreneurship and innovation in Australia.

Le is the founder and president of the bioinformatics company, Emotiv Lifescience. She is also the co-founder of Emotiv, a company that work on bypassing the mechanical (mouse, keyboard, clicker) to have our digital devices respond directly to what we think.

Emotiv's EPOC headset uses 16 sensors to listen to brain activity. The software "learns" what each user's brain activity looks like when one, for instance, imagines a left turn or a jump.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Advertisement