Get Your Weekly Digest

Receive the best podcast summaries and insights delivered to your inbox every week.

We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe anytime.

TED Talks Daily

This TED Talk is full of bad ideas | Gabe Whaley

with Gabe Whaley

Published September 30, 2025
View Show Notes

About This Episode

Host Elise Hume introduces a TED Talk by artist and mischief maker Gabe Whaley, founder of the New York art collective Mischief, about the surprising power of pursuing ideas that initially seem bad or impractical. Whaley walks through several of Mischief's projects, including a microscopic handbag, a robot dog with a paintball gun, the viral Big Red Boots, an ATM that publicly ranks users by bank balance, novelty objects, and a car shared via 5,000 keys, to show how the real artwork often becomes the interactions and communities that form around these experiments. He closes by encouraging people to give themselves permission to explore ideas that make them uncomfortable because they can evolve into something unexpected and meaningful.

Topics Covered

Art and creativity Creativity Content creation Community building Social media and online platforms Entrepreneurship Perspective shift Storytelling Personal Development

Disclaimer: We provide independent summaries of podcasts and are not affiliated with or endorsed in any way by any podcast or creator. All podcast names and content are the property of their respective owners. The views and opinions expressed within the podcasts belong solely to the original hosts and guests and do not reflect the views or positions of Summapod.

Quick Takeaways

  • Gabe Whaley founded the Mischief art collective to pursue unconventional, often initially dismissed ideas that blur the line between art, product, and social experiment.
  • Mischief created a microscopic handbag that sold for $63,000 and a Boston Dynamics-style robot dog outfitted with a paintball gun remotely controlled over the internet.
  • The Big Red Boot project, which the team feared no one would buy, went viral after a strategic image leak and was worn by celebrities, athletes, and wrestlers.
  • An ATM with a live leaderboard of users' bank balances unexpectedly produced a communal, celebratory atmosphere for people with very low balances, and later sold as a sculpture.
  • Whaley highlights that the true artwork in projects like the ATM and the 5,000-keys car is the human interaction and relationships that form around them, not just the physical objects.
  • Novel creations like a giant single Froot Loop, a device that jams Alexa microphones, and a sculpture that counts touches extend Mischief's exploration of playful, provocative ideas.
  • A shared car project, where 5,000 working keys were distributed, evolved into a traveling community artifact and then a gallery piece covered in messages from strangers.
  • Whaley concludes that while bad ideas are not automatically good, exploring uncomfortable ideas can lead to outcomes and communities no one could have predicted.

Podcast Notes

Host introduction and framing of the episode

Identification of the show and host

Host states the name of the podcast and her role[2:02]
• The host says listeners are tuned in to TED Talks Daily and that the show brings new ideas to spark curiosity every day.
• She introduces herself as the host, Elise Hume.

Framing the theme of the talk about bad ideas

Questioning whether bad ideas can sometimes be good[2:03]
• The host poses the question, "What if sometimes the bad ideas are good?" as a way to introduce the talk's central theme.
Introduction of guest and his work[1:16]
• She describes Gabe Whaley as a mischief maker and artist.
• She explains that he built a collective of artists whose seemingly bad or odd ideas for art and products often go viral and sell for thousands of dollars.
Host frames key insight about the art not being the main point[2:02]
• The host says Gabe explores why the things that make these projects so exciting and popular are never the art itself.
• She concludes that the most exciting part of exploring any idea is giving ourselves the chance to try.

Transition into the TED Talk and teaser about Gabe's story

Host briefly tees up Gabe's talk

Comment on Gabe's story and preview[2:55]
• A voice notes that Gabe's story is a little more interesting than the rest of the video and mentions giving a preview of what is going on.

Gabe introduces himself and Mischief

Self-introduction and organization description

Gabe states his name and role[3:25]
• He says, "My name is Gabe, and I'm actually the founder of an art collective based in New York City called Mischief."
Difficulty of defining Mischief[3:33]
• Gabe calls Mischief a difficult beast to explain and says he is not going to even try to describe it in abstract terms.
• Instead, he proposes to give a couple of examples either to paint the picture or confuse the audience further.

Early Mischief projects: microscopic handbag and robot dog with paintball gun

World's smallest handbag project

Observation about handbags and pricing[3:42]
• Gabe notes that handbags are really expensive and that, incredibly, the smaller they get, the more expensive they become.
Creating a microscopic handbag[3:54]
• He explains that a few summers ago, Mischief endeavored to make the world's smallest handbag.
• He describes the smallest handbag as microscopic.
Unexpected auction outcome for the handbag[3:54]
• Gabe recounts that the microscopic handbag ended up selling at auction for $63,000.
• He notes that this sale incidentally made it the world's most expensive handbag per volume.

Robot dog with paintball gun project

Reference to Boston Dynamics-style robots[4:05]
• Gabe mentions the Boston Dynamics Spot dog robots that do TikTok dances with K-pop stars on YouTube.
Acquiring and modifying a robot dog[4:05]
• He says Mischief managed to get one of these robots.
• Instead of making it dance, they strapped a paintball gun to it.
• They connected the robot remotely to a website where people could take turns driving it and firing it in an art gallery that they constructed.
Reaction of Boston Dynamics[4:23]
• Gabe states that Boston Dynamics did not like that project very much.

Gabe introduces theme of bad ideas and Big Red Boot story

Stating the focus on bad ideas

Clarifying he is not pitching a product[4:29]
• Gabe jokes that he is not actually there to sell keys to a car.
Defining the kind of bad ideas he cares about[4:34]
• He says he is there to talk about bad ideas, the kind of ideas that typically die on the vine because reason or work colleagues get in the way.
• He calls these the most exciting ideas because you never know what might happen.

Introduction of the Big Red Boot

Initial prototyping phase[4:58]
• Gabe shows or references the crazy-looking shoes known as the Big Red Boot.
• He recalls that in the spring of 2023, he and his colleagues were sketching out the initial prototypes.
Mixed feelings about the design[5:03]
• He remembers them being equal parts terrified, wondering who would wear the boots or spend money on them.
• At the same time, after putting on the initial prototypes, they felt a chaotic sense of glee.
• That feeling led them to decide they just had to proceed with the project.
Production and pricing decisions[5:21]
• They committed to making a couple hundred pairs of Big Red Boots.
• They priced the boots at $350.
• They hoped there would be a few hundred people in the world willing to spend money on such unusual footwear.
Marketing strategy and initial leak[5:27]
• A week before the drop, they leaked an image of the boots through a friend's Instagram account.
• Their hope was simply that people would not hate the boots or, worse, ignore them.
Algorithm-driven virality of the Big Red Boot[5:43]
• Gabe says, in hindsight, they need not have worried about the reaction.
• He states that the algorithm smiled fondly upon the Big Red Boot.
• The boots suddenly appeared everywhere online, and the experience felt like a blur to him.
Examples of cultural impact and celebrity adoption[5:54]
• People were wearing the boots courtside at NBA games.
• Gabe saw Lil Wayne wearing the boots in a music video.
• He recalls his dad calling to say that a professional WWE wrestler was wearing the boots on live pay-per-view TV and had just curb-stomped another person while wearing them.
Acknowledging skepticism and the narrow escape from not doing it[6:51]
• Gabe reflects that they almost did not proceed with the Big Red Boot project.
• He notes that people told them it was not a great business decision, and he says he understands that perspective.
• He concludes that what began as a bad idea ended up becoming a very interesting idea.

ATM leaderboard artwork and unexpected crowd dynamics

Concept of the ATM with a leaderboard

Design and twist on a normal ATM[6:22]
• Gabe describes another idea: a totally normal, functional, operational, and, as he puts it, extremely legal ATM machine.
• The twist is a digital leaderboard attached to the ATM that ranks people based on the amount of money in their remaining account balances.
Gabe's personal reaction to the idea[6:22]
• He notes that the audience finds the concept funny but says he personally thought it was horrifying.

Choosing the right location for the ATM artwork

Considering various placement options[6:57]
• Gabe explains that it was not enough to simply make the ATM; they had to place it in the right location.
• They considered putting it outside their studio in Brooklyn or in Times Square.
Decision to debut at Art Basel Miami[7:01]
• After conferring, Gabe and his colleagues concluded that there was only one place this ATM could go: Art Basel Miami.

Unfolding of the ATM experiment at Art Basel

Initial hesitation and participation[7:22]
• They brought the ATM to Miami, secured a place in a gallery and got a booth.
• On day one, people were hesitant to engage with the machine, which Gabe says he understands because it seemed a bit shady and was a participatory story.
• Eventually, people began swiping their cards, registering balances around $100 or $1,200.
Escalation with larger balances and celebrity involvement[7:36]
• By the end of the first day, someone swiped and registered a $12,000 bank account balance.
• The next day, celebrity DJ Diplo arrived with his entourage, swiped his debit card, and clocked in at $3 million, taking the top spot on the leaderboard.
• Gabe says the rest is hazy because a huge crowd formed around the ATM for the next three days.
• The art fair assigned five extra security guards, not to protect the ATM but to keep the crowd from bumping into neighboring galleries' artworks.

Unexpected crowd dynamics and emotional response

Reactions to very low account balances[8:13]
• Gabe describes his most interesting observation: when people with astonishingly low bank account balances swiped, the audience reacted strongly.
• He clarifies that some balances were really low, like $2, which he calls concerningly low.
• Those people would rank at the bottom of the leaderboard, then turn around to face the audience.
• The audience would cheer, scream, celebrate, clap, and take pictures in a sincere, wholesome, one-of-us style celebration.

Sale of the ATM and Gabe's view of where the real artwork resides

Monetary value as a sculpture[8:52]
• By the end of the week, a buyer acquired the ATM machine as a sculpture for $75,000.
Distinction between the object and the actual artwork[9:08]
• Gabe remarks that he does not think the buyer realized that the artwork was not the ATM itself.
• He explains that the actual artwork was the act of people engaging with the ATM machine.
• He adds that the true artwork was the relationships people developed with one another via the ATM.
• He notes that they originally thought the ATM piece would simply be about income inequality or financial disparity, but they were wrong.
• Instead, it became a random crowd of total strangers having a great time together in a shared moment of financial transparency.

Further Mischief experiments: Big Froot Loop, Alexa gate, and touch-counting sculpture

Continuing to push the envelope of bad ideas

Reference to Pandora's box of bad ideas[9:32]
• Gabe says that when you open Pandora's box of bad ideas, the sky is the limit.
• He notes he has three minutes left and decides to keep pushing with more examples.

Big Froot Loop project

Description of the oversized cereal piece[9:52]
• Gabe shows or references a big Froot Loop, saying there is not much else to say.
• He states it is real, about the size of a dinner plate, and takes a lot of milk to consume.
• He assures the audience it is just as good as the original.

Alexa gate project

Technical description and purpose[10:07]
• He introduces what they call an Alexa gate, an electronics device armed with seven ultrasonic speakers at its base.
• The device blasts white noise into the microphone of any Alexa device to keep it from eavesdropping when not in use.

Touch-counting sculpture project

Artwork that tracks physical interaction[10:13]
• Gabe describes a life-size sculpture that keeps track of and counts the number of times anyone has touched it.
• He notes that in galleries and museums, people are usually not supposed to touch the art.
• The sculpture is meant to discourage people from touching the art, presumably through the visible tally of touches.

The 5,000 keys car project and its evolving community

Revisiting and wrapping up the car story

Confirmation that the car and keys project was real[10:28]
• Gabe says he wants to wrap up the story about the car and confirms that the car was real.
• He also confirms that the 5,000 keys were real.
Timeline and spread of the car project[11:04]
• They released the project to the world in the fall of 2022.
• For the following nine months, they watched the car change hands hundreds, if not thousands, of times.
• Most exchanges happened via peaceful communal meetups, with occasional Grand Theft Auto incidents that Gabe jokes he cannot discuss in detail.
• The car started in New York, went to Philadelphia, stayed there a few days, then moved across the Midwest to the West Coast.
• After nine months, the GPS signal stopped, and they assumed the project was over.

Retrieval of the car and its afterlife in a gallery

Tow pound discovers the unusual nature of the car[11:10]
• One day, Gabe received a call from a tow pound that believed they had his car because it was registered in his name.
• The tow pound staff found it strange that many people kept showing up claiming the car, all with keys that worked.
Decision to exhibit the car as art[11:22]
• Gabe and his team took the car back, noting it was no longer functional.
• They decided to place the car in an art gallery in Los Angeles.
Community of key purchasers meeting in person[11:43]
• Gabe attended the gallery opening.
• He observed that purchasers of the keys had flown in from all over the country.
• They came not only to see the physical object they had interacted with now in a gallery, but also to meet one another for the first time.
• He watched them taking photos and sharing stories of their individual escapades with the car.

Realization that the project was about people and community

Shift in understanding of the project's core[12:02]
• Gabe stepped back and realized the project was never about the car.
• He says it was never about the keys either; it was about the people.
• He summarizes that it really was about the friends you make along the way.
Transformation of the car's appearance and role[12:22]
• Gabe notes that the car now looks nothing like it did at the start.
• The faux wood paneling is gone.
• The car is now covered in paint, drawings, and scribbled messages from complete strangers to other total strangers.
• He says it is no longer a car but a rallying point for a random community that emerged and gave it a life of its own.

Closing humor, reflections on bad ideas, and encouragement to explore discomfort

Playful fake giveaway moment

Teasing the audience about keys under seats[12:55]
• Gabe invites everyone to reach under their seats as if he has placed something there.
• He then apologizes, saying they told him not to do that and that he did it anyway.
• He jokingly comments that this is his first and last TED Talk.

Summarizing how projects transformed beyond their initial functions

Examples of objects becoming something more[13:13]
• Gabe notes that keys usually start cars, ATM machines are supposed to dispense cash, and big red boots are supposed to be shoes.
• In the case of these "bad idea" projects, none of them ended up being what they appeared to be on the surface.
• He says they took on lives of their own and became something else entirely, for better or worse.

Clarification of his stance on bad ideas and final encouragement

Not claiming that bad ideas are inherently good[13:22]
• Gabe explicitly says he is not saying that bad ideas are good ideas.
Invitation to explore discomfort and uncertainty[13:24]
• He encourages the audience to give themselves a chance to explore the things that make them uncomfortable.
• His rationale is that you never know what might happen when you do.
• He closes his talk by saying, "All right. Thank you."

Host outro, context about TED, and production credits

Identifying the speaker and event

Host names the speaker and TED conference[13:41]
• The host says, "That was Gabe Whaley at TED 2025."

Information about TED's curation and where to learn more

Reference to curation guidelines[13:44]
• She invites curious listeners to find out more about TED's curation at a specific web address, TED.com slash curation guidelines.

Closing the episode and crediting the team

Stating the end of the episode and TED audio collection[13:49]
• The host says that is it for the day and that TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collection.
Fact-checking and production credits[13:52]
• She notes that the talk was fact-checked by the TED Research Team.
• She lists producers and editors as Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little, and Tansika Sangmarnivong.
• She says the episode was mixed by Christopher Faisy-Bogan.
• She acknowledges additional support from Emma Taubner and Daniela Balarezo.
Host sign-off[14:56]
• The host identifies herself as Elise Hugh and says she will be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for listeners' feeds.
• She thanks listeners for listening before the episode ends.

Lessons Learned

Actionable insights and wisdom you can apply to your business, career, and personal life.

1

Ideas that initially feel like bad or risky concepts can lead to surprising and valuable outcomes if you give them a real chance instead of killing them too early.

Reflection Questions:

  • • What idea have I recently dismissed as too weird, risky, or impractical that might be worth revisiting and testing on a small scale?
  • • How could I create a low-stakes experiment to explore one of my "bad" ideas without overcommitting resources?
  • • This week, what is one uncomfortable or unconventional idea I can move from talk to action in a concrete way?
2

The most powerful creations often are not the objects themselves but the experiences, interactions, and relationships they trigger among people.

Reflection Questions:

  • • When I look at my current projects, where is the real value being created for people: in the thing itself or in how people use it together?
  • • How might I redesign a product, service, or event I work on so that it naturally encourages connection and interaction between participants?
  • • What is one existing asset I have that I could repurpose into more of a shared experience rather than just a standalone object or deliverable?
3

Testing ideas in the real world, even with something as simple as a leaked image or small pilot, can reveal demand and reactions that planning alone could never predict.

Reflection Questions:

  • • Where in my work am I waiting for something to be perfect before I show it to anyone, and how is that delaying valuable feedback?
  • • How could I stage a small, real-world test or preview of a project to gauge genuine interest and response before scaling up?
  • • What is one prototype, draft, or early version I can share with a limited audience in the next two weeks to learn what actually resonates?
4

Projects can evolve far beyond their original purpose, so staying open to what they become in the hands of others allows you to recognize and support their true impact.

Reflection Questions:

  • • Which of my past or current projects have taken on a life of their own in ways I did not fully anticipate?
  • • How might loosening my attachment to my original intent open up new possibilities for how others use or shape what I create?
  • • What is one project where I could more actively observe and learn from how people are really interacting with it, rather than how I imagined they would?
5

Leaning into ideas that make you uncomfortable can be a deliberate way to expand your creative range and discover opportunities you would otherwise never see.

Reflection Questions:

  • • What types of ideas or projects consistently make me uneasy, and what does that reveal about my current comfort zone?
  • • In what area of my life or work would embracing a bit more discomfort likely lead to growth or innovation?
  • • What is one concrete step I can take this month to intentionally do something that stretches my comfort zone in a productive way?

Episode Summary - Notes by Blake

This TED Talk is full of bad ideas | Gabe Whaley
0:00 0:00