Ted Audio Collective

My father is definitely a tinkerer.

He can't stop himself from finding something cool and Jerry rigging it.

If you walk around my parent's house, you'll see like 10 o'clock's minimum.

Half of them are digital, half analog.

I bet you somewhere there's one with a cuckoo coming out.

And it isn't just electronics.

You could have a hole in your skirt and he'd be like, no, no, no, you don't have to give it away, I'll fix it for you.

I have to say I really admire the way he simply doesn't give up on anything.

It's such a gift to have the kind of mind that can see a beautiful end product

even if its current state isn't so impressive.

And repairing stuff isn't just a fun hobby.

It also massively helps reduce waste.

With my dad around, skirts and clocks don't end up in the trash.

So how can more of us develop that kind of eye toward fixing and repairing things

instead of throwing them away?

And what can product manufacturers and legislators do to protect a right to repair?

I'm Madu Backanola.

This is Ted Business.

Our speaker today is Gay Gordon Bird.

She's a self-declared repair geek and the executive director of the digital right to repair coalition.

She's passionate about empowering people to fix their stuff.

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