Eric Cunningham

Educator/Teacher, Idea generator, Writer/Editor

Eric Cunningham is an Emmy-nominated comedy writer of Mexican descent, most recently having written on the upcoming “Reading Rainbow” reboot. His prior credits include "The Drew Barrymore Show" (CBS), "The Kids Tonight Show" (Peacock), “The Kids Choice Awards" (Nickelodeon), "Holidays with the Houghs" (NBC), and Senior Writer at Broadway Video's Más Mejor. Eric also created "Hit Job," an Audible horror-comedy starring Keke Palmer & Pete Davidson (nominated by The Podcast Academy for Best Scriptwriting, Fiction), and "Night Late," UCB's long-running celebrity-hosted late night talk show.

I love Big Ideas. Big, life changing ideas that may or may not work. I love hearing about Manhattan Project-level ideas, how the Panama Canal was built, how the Spin Launch rocket assist program works, how scientists are trying to use satellites to reach the nearest star in just a few short decades. Even if they don’t actually end up happening, they excite me and I think open the door to great ideas that will.

Earth Smiles: Greening the Desert In Saharan Africa there is a non-profit group called “Just Dig It” who dig what they call “Earth Smiles” into the ground along the border of the desert. These semi-circular bunds are simple to create and catch the infrequent rainwater in their basins. Over time, plants find the bunds and begin taking root, which leads to more plants, oases of life and the gradual regreening of the area. This same concept has been exported to various arid areas, many similar to the Coachella Valley.

Comedy, Live entertainment, Writing

Inspired by iconic TED talks, I created a live show in NYC called "What's the Big Idea?" where we'd quiz people on the big ideas that might change the world (fighting climate change, A.I., space exploration, and more). Now I want to help the people working on big ideas bring them to the public directly. I want TEDxRanchoMirage to showcase the home-grown talent and thinkers that are here and ready to take ideas to fruition and maybe, just maybe, change the world.

Disaster preparedness. This big goofy optimist also prepares for the worst.