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Elizabeth Gilbert faced down a premidlife crisis by doing what we all secretly dream of – running off for a year. Her travels through Italy, India and Indonesia resulted in the megabestselling and deeply beloved memoir  Eat, Pray, Love , about her process of finding herself by leaving home.  She's a longtime magazine writer – covering music and politics for  Spin  and  GQ  – as well as a novelist and short-story writer. Her books include the story collection  Pilgrims , the novel  Stern Men  (about lobster fishermen in Maine) and a biography of the woodsman Eustace Conway, called  The Last American Man . Her work has been the basis for one movie so far ( Coyote Ugly , based on her own memoir, in this  magazine article , of working at the famously raunchy bar), and now it looks as if  Eat, Pray, Love  is on the same track, with the part of Gilbert reportedly to be played by Julia Roberts. Not bad for a year off. Gilbert ...

Alexis Ohanian co-founded Reddit, a social-voting news website with geek allegiances, a small-town feel and a penchant for lighting up the memes your friends IM you about next week. http://www.reddit.com/ f rom TED Ideas Worth Spreading

Renowned for album covers, posters and his recent book of life lessons, designer Stefan Sagmeister invariably has a slightly different way of looking at things. http://www.sagmeister.com/sagmeister.html http://www.deitch.com/projects/project_images.php?slideShowId=354&projId=230 from TED Ideas Worth Spreading

Philippe Starck designs deluxe objects and posh condos and hotels around the world. Always witty and engaged, he takes special delight in rethinking everyday objects. http://www.starck.com/ from TED Ideas Worth Spreading

As the Emmy-winning creator of the smart, addictive TV dramas  Lost, Alias  and  Felicity , J.J. Abrams' name looms large on the small screen. As the writer/director behind the blockbuster explode-a-thon  Mission: Impossible III ,  Cloverfield  and the new  Star Trek  movie, these days Abrams also rules the big screen -- bringing his eye for telling detail and emotional connection to larger-than-life stories. http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/j_j_abrams_mystery_box.html from TED Ideas Worth Spreading

Joshua Prince-Ramus is best known as architect of the Seattle Central Library, already being hailed as a masterpiece of contemporary culture. Prince-Ramus was US Partner of Rem Koolhaas’ Office of Metropolitan Architecture before founding his own firm, REX, in 2006. www.rex-ny.com from TED Ideas Wroth Spreading

Detective of fads and emerging subcultures, chronicler of jobs-you-never-knew-existed, Malcolm Gladwell's work is toppling the popular understanding of bias, crime, food, marketing, race, consumers and intelligence. http://www.gladwell.com/ http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/2006/10/09/predictable http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/conference/2007/gladwell http://video.pbs.org/video/1309657377/ from TED Idea Worth Spreading