TEDxTufts hosted its 2025 conference, titled “Catalyst: The Power of a Single Spark,” on Saturday in Cohen Auditorium. The event featured eight talks given by current Tufts students, professors and alumni that explored a diverse range of topics.
“Our idea at TEDxTufts is to catalyze conversation, really start people talking about different subjects, whether [it’s] Italian food or fentanyl,” senior Sam Goldstone, the executive organizer of the event, said.
The first talk of the day, titled “The Advantage of Being an Underdog,” was given by Gautam Kapur (LA’16), founder and CEO of Brown Ballers, a nonprofit dedicated to uplifting South Asian athletes.
Kapur challenged the traditional underdog narrative, highlighting the “invisible athlete” — those who are not just underestimated but entirely overlooked.
As an Indian American who grew up in the United States and overseas, Kapur wrestled with the lack of South Asian representation in the sports world.
“I’m South Asian. We make up 25% of the world’s population,” Kapur said. “But when it comes to the world’s biggest stages in sports, we’re practically invisible.”
He argued that this is not due to biology but instead due to systemic barriers, including lack of infrastructure, investment and role models.
“We’re supposed to be doctors, engineers, accountants — literally anything but athletes. The scariest part is we’ve started to kind of believe that ourselves,” he said. “But when you look at the data, the real reason we’re behind isn’t DNA. The truth is, champions aren’t born, they’re built over time.”
Kapur’s team of South Asian players defied expectations in ESPN’s $1 million basketball tournament, pulling off what he claimed as the “biggest upset” in the event’s history.
A similar cycle of self-doubt plays out in healthcare, where stigmas and systemic barriers prevent people from accessing lifesaving treatment.
Maggie Beiser (LA’03), a nurse practitioner at the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, has spent her career battling a frustrating reality: Hepatitis C is curable, yet millions remain untreated.
Hepatitis C, the most common bloodborne infection in the United States, disproportionately affects marginalized communities. Although medical treatments have advanced, systemic barriers — including medical provider biases — prevent people from getting the care they need.
“Some medical providers create additional roadblocks by refusing to treat people who use drugs, even though drug and alcohol use have absolutely no bearing on the effectiveness of treatment,” Beiser said.
To combat this, Beiser helped launch a Hepatitis C program at the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program that is designed to respect and accommodate patients’ priorities. In the past decade, they have treated over 1,600 people and saved an estimated $12 billion in Medicaid costs.
After Beiser’s talk, Christoph Börgers, a professor in the Department of Mathematics who is retiring this year, took to the stage. Börgers reflected on his decades-long journey in teaching and what he has learned.
Alejandro Álvarez Acuña, a first-year student on the TEDxTufts production team, commented on the significance of Börgers’ talk in light of his retirement.
“I feel like he has a lot of journey to talk about, and you could tell that it was a full circle moment of his,” Acuña said.
Mathematics underpins much of modern life, from GPS to artificial intelligence, and Börgers claims that society is interested in fostering creative mathematical thinking in STEM fields. Yet, he argues that the way math is often taught — through coercion and rigid requirements — works against that goal.
“Mathematics has become society’s universal gatekeeper and intelligence tester,” Börgers said. “Deep and rich and broad thinking about mathematics cannot easily be coerced.”
Börgers believes that math should no longer be used as a “gatekeeping tool,” as this harms both the discipline and its teaching. Required math courses tend to create anxiety rather than understanding. He believes that reducing unnecessary barriers could improve math education while alleviating unnecessary stress.
“[We should] reduce math requirements to an absolute minimum, only require what’s really compelling and necessary, and replace coercion and requirements [with] persuasion and enticement,” Börgers said.
In his final semester at Tufts, he teaches a non-prerequisite class titled “Useful and Beautiful Topics in Math” in a discussion-based format where he exerts “a minimum of coercion.”
“The level of engagement in this class is greater than in any other class I’ve ever taught,” he said.
Sophomore Rekha Mahadevan, who attended the event and took a class with Börgers last semester, reflected on his talk.
“I think it’s clear how much he cares about math, and I think that comes across in his teaching and in his speech today,” Mahadevan said.
Sarah Lotsoff, a senior at Tufts and a member of Tufts Harm Reduction Education for Alcohol and Drugs, aims to teach students how to engage with substances more safely. Her passion for advocacy stems from a personal loss — her older brother, Ben, who died from fentanyl-laced cocaine during her sophomore year at Tufts.
"While my loss is unique because Ben was unique, the fact of the matter is that this type of loss from accidental fentanyl poisoning is disturbingly common," Lotsoff said.
Despite Ben’s efforts to turn his life around, he unknowingly consumed fentanyl, a powerful opioid often mixed into drugs without the user's knowledge. Misinformation only perpetuates the stigma associated with drug use, Lotsoff said. She urged the audience to educate themselves about fentanyl, carry Narcan and take steps to prevent further loss.
“I can’t bring him back. I can’t repair our family. But I can tell you about him, and I hope you realize how this could happen to your sibling, this could happen to your best friends, to your roommate, your neighbor, your kid, you, at least if we don’t keep taking action,” Lotsoff said.
The second half of the conference featured talks from senior Bryan Berkowitz, professor Srivalleesha Mallidi, senior Jane Schmelkin and Kentel Weaver, an alumnus of the Tufts University Prison Initiative currently majoring in civic studies.
Goldstone shared what he hoped audiences would take away from the event.
“As long as you come into the conference with an open idea and open mind, you’re gonna learn something new, you’re gonna make a new friend, you’re gonna start a cool conversation. And that’s what I love so much about TED,” Goldstone said.
