Watch: 2025 TEDxRRU speakers
How can heat be a solution for a warming world? And what does our past mean for our futures – if anything at all? Seven thought-provoking TEDxRRU 2025 speakers share insights on how we can guide ourselves, our communities and our collective futures for generations to come.
Get inspired by watching the talks from 2025 below or find them on our YouTube playlist.
Solara Goldwynn | Why real food matters more than ever
There’s nothing like a home-grown sun-ripened tomato, says Solara Goldwynn.
But how many of us can remember the last time we tried one, fresh from the vine?
“In the span of a few decades, we’ve gone from local food, to global food,” Goldwynn says, a Master of Arts in Environmental Education and Communication alum, food grower, educator, and advocate for resilient local food systems. “From grinding grains and milking cows, to trips to the grocery store.”
That shift comes with benefits, like eating avocados and strawberries year-round, she says. But it also has a cost.
In her TEDxRRU talk, Goldwynn talks about the solutions we can grow in our backyards or balconies and how doing not only helps us produce fresh food, but also resilience and belonging in a globalized world.
Dr. Rebecca Pearce | Geothermal energy: Hope for our energy crisis lies inside the earth
Our reliance on fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – is the largest contributor to global climate change.
“Burning things for energy is creating a crisis,” says Dr. Rebecca Pearce, a post-doctoral research fellow and science lead for the Ultradeep Geothermal program at the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads. “We must urgently reduce emissions to avert climate change, yet our energy demand is rising.”
The answer she says, lies beneath our feet, and it could sustain us for thousands of years.
In her TEDxRRU talk, Dr. Pearce shares her hot take on solving the environmental crisis caused by a warming world, and argues that despite high upfront costs, we shouldn’t give geothermal the cold shoulder.
Beerinder Singh | Make Sure You Pack This When You Move
Two years ago, Beerinder Singh made one of the biggest decisions of his life, leaving his home in India to pursue a Master of Arts in Intercultural and International Communication at Royal Roads.
Upon arriving, his excitement quickly turned into something else.
“I remember I was unpacking my suitcase, feeling completely numb,” he says. “In that moment, I had no one around me. No familiar faces.”
He recalls feeling confused, unable to understand how his excitement so quickly disappeared.
In his TEDxRRU talk, Singh uses humour and vulnerability to reflect on the experience of building a home in a new place, and on what it takes to emotionally prepare for the journey of travel, no matter the turbulence along the way.
April Hicke | Your past isn’t your ceiling
What if someone’s past didn’t define their future?
Too often, we write people off before we give them a chance, says April Hicke, who holds a Graduate Certificate in Corporate Social Innovation.
“But here’s the thing, our differences are not weaknesses, they are fuel.”
Hicke, co-founder of Toast, a membership-based women’s collective supporting women in the technology industry, shares her unconventional journey to success, one she says, statistically, never should have happened.
In her TEDxRRU talk, Hicke invites us to reflect on the labels we’ve been given, how they may have limited us, and how we may have boxed others in.
Alina Pete | Using comics and storytelling to engage memory and bring fun back to learning
“A long time ago, learning was fun,” says Alina Pete, describing that pre-school age when learning is synonymous with play instead of work.
But when textbooks replaced picture books in school, Pete found a hack to stay engaged.
“I used to doodle in the margins of my notebooks just to keep my mind busy during class,” Pete says, an award-winning nehiyaw (Cree) comic artist and author from Little Pine First Nation in Saskatchewan. “I found, if I drew those same drawings during an exam, I would remember what I had been taking notes on.”
In their TEDxRRU talk, Pete shares how stories and images like comics work together to boost memory.
Sandra Walker | Seeing Clearly: The Secret to Impactful Decision Making Seeing Clearly
Sandra Walker remembers seeing clearly for the first time – how a pair of prescription eyeglasses put everything into sharp focus.
“Bam! The world was transformed,” says the Master of Business Administration alum.
Years later, she recalls that same sense of surprise and clarity when she took up her research on decision making, learning that our personality traits have an important impact on decision making. Not only that, different personalities and perspectives are the foundation for decision-making, she says.
In her TEDxRRU talk, she shares why some of the best insights come from those who see the world differently.
David Graham | Why your best ideas don’t happen in the office
If you could reduce your stress, boost your creativity all while restoring your attention, would you?
Accessing this kind of mental clarity is closer that you might think, says David Graham, Royal Roads Master of Arts in Executive & Organizational Coaching alum.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been working away at my computer, stuck on a complex problem and then gone for a walk outside and the solution seems to appear out of nowhere,” he says.
In his TEDxRRU Talk, he asks, “What is it about nature that leads to clarity?”