It’s not surprising that literary powerbroker agent Jennifer Rudolph Walsh and I started our first lunch talking about our shared passion for bringing people — in particular other women — together for the purpose of sharing stories and feeling the power of community. For Jennifer, this passion led her to create the Together Tour and for me, it’s been TEDWomen, now in its 7th year.

I had the pleasure of speaking with reporter Cheryl Harbour recently for a cover story in this month's GRAND Magazine. We talked about advice I received from my own grandmother growing up in Georgia and what I've learned from being a grandmother myself.

From inspiring sunrise sessions at Maroon Bells to enlightening sundown conversations at the Belly Up Bar, the Aspen Institute's Spotlight Health Forum covered a lot of ground in search of common ground on the need for more accessible health care, challenges to reproductive justice and rights, and increased support for caregivers.

Last month, the Black Lives Matter movement was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize, a global prize that honors those who pursue “peace with justice.”

TEDWomen is on the move. 2017 marks the seventh year of this annual conference focusing on the global narratives, innovations and ideas of women. This year we go to New Orleans!

Earlier this year I spoke with writer Emily Brooks from Luxure Magazine. We talked about the state of women and girls in the world today and what I hope to achieve in the work that I do, advocating for women and girls. 

At the age of 64, Diana Nyad became the first person to make the 110-mile swim from Havana to Key West without a shark cage. Now, Diana is working on a new goal. Along with her Cuba swim expedition leader, Bonnie Stoll, Diana has founded EverWalk NATION, a bold movement to get people to pledge to walk three times a week.

Many people ask, “How do you select the speakers for TEDWomen?” The answer is not a simple one. As curator, I read everything I can find that has to do with women, our work, books, research, stories ... and I hear recommendations from fellow TEDsters and friends around the world. 

Women's Equality Day was established in 1971 to recall the passage of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote. In commemoration of that milestone, and the miles we still have to go, here are five TEDTalks from past TEDWomen conferences about the state of women and equality in the United States today.