TED Talks Daily
Episodes
Is your country at risk of becoming a dictatorship? Here's how to know | Farida Nabourema
28 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Farida Nabourema has dedicated her life to fighting the military regime in Togo, Africa's oldest autocracy. She's learned two truths along the way: no...
The self-assembling computer chips of the future | Karl Skjonnemand
27 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The transistors that power the phone in your pocket are unimaginably small: you can fit more than 3,000 of them across the width of a human hair. But ...
A juror's reflections on the death penalty | Lindy Lou Isonhood
26 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Lindy Lou Isonhood grew up in a town where the death penalty was a fact of life, part of the unspoken culture. But after she served as a juror in a ca...
An architect's subversive reimagining of the US-Mexico border wall | Ronald Rael
25 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What is a border? It's a line on a map, a place where cultures mix and merge in beautiful, sometimes violent and occasionally ridiculous ways. And a b...
How education helped me rewrite my life | Ashweetha Shetty
21 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There's no greater freedom than finding your purpose, says education advocate Ashweetha Shetty. Born to a poor family in rural India, Shetty didn't le...
How to teach kids to talk about taboo topics | Liz Kleinrock
20 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When one of Liz Kleinrock's fourth-grade students said the unthinkable at the start of a class on race, she knew it was far too important a teachable ...
What if all US health care costs were transparent? | Jeanne Pinder
20 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In the US, the very same blood test can cost $19 at one clinic and $522 at another clinic just blocks away -- and nobody knows the difference until th...
What is the meaning of work? | Roy Bahat and Bryn Freedman
19 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Roy Bahat was worried. His company invests in new technology like AI to make businesses more efficient -- but, he wondered, what was AI doing to the p...
Lessons from past presidents | Doris Kearns Goodwin
18 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin talks about what we can learn from American presidents, including Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson. Then she shares a...
The age of genetic wonder | Juan Enriquez
15 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Gene-editing tools like CRISPR enable us to program life at its most fundamental level. But this raises some pressing questions: If we can generate ne...
3 ways to practice civility | Steven Petrow
13 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What does it mean to be civil? JournalistStevenPetrow looks for answers in the original meaning of the word, showing why civility shouldn't be dismiss...
How doctors can help low-income patients (and still make a profit) | P.J. Parmar
12 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Modern American health care is defined by its high costs, high overhead and inaccessibility -- especially for low-income patients. What if we could re...
Why noise is bad for your health -- and what you can do about it | Mathias Basner
12 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Silence is a rare commodity these days. There's traffic, construction, air-conditioning, your neighbor's lawnmower ... and all this unwanted sound can...
How women in Pakistan are creating political change | Shad Begum
11 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Activist Shad Begum has spent her life empowering women to live up to their full potential. In a personal talk, she shares her determined struggle to ...
America's forgotten working class | J.D. Vance
08 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
J.D. Vance grew up in a small, poor city in the Rust Belt of southern Ohio, where he had a front-row seat to many of the social ills plaguing America:...
What your breath could reveal about your health | Julian Burschka
07 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There's no better way to stop a disease than to catch and treat it early, before symptoms occur. That's the whole point of medical screening technique...
How we can help the "forgotten middle" reach their full potential | Danielle R. Moss
06 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
You know the "forgotten middle": they're the students, coworkers and regular people who are often overlooked because they're seen as neither exception...
The uncomplicated truth about women's sexuality | Sarah Barmak
05 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Is women's sexuality actually more complicated than men's? The answer is no, says author Sarah Barmak. In an eye-opening talk, she shows how a flawed ...
How do we learn to work with intelligent machines? | Matt Beane
04 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The path to skill around the globe has been the same for thousands of years: train under an expert and take on small, easy tasks before progressing to...
How we can start to heal the pain of racial division | Ruby Sales
01 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
"Where does it hurt?" It's a question that activist and educator Ruby Sales has traveled the US asking, looking deeply at the country's legacy of raci...
An astronaut's story of curiosity, perspective and change | Leland Melvin
31 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What job is best for a young man who's been a tennis ace, a cross-country traveler, a chemistry nerd and an NFL draftee? How about ... astronaut? Lela...
The way we think about biological sex is wrong | Emily Quinn
31 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Did you know that almost 150 million people worldwide are born intersex -- with biology that doesn't fit the standard definition of male or female? (T...
The disarming case to act right now on climate change | Greta Thunberg
30 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In this passionate call to action, 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg explains why, in August 2018, she walked out of school and organized a ...
Reflections from a lifetime fighting to end child poverty | Marian Wright Edelman.
30 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What does it take to build a national movement? In a captivating conversation with TEDWomen curator Pat Mitchell, Marian Wright Edelman reflects on he...
Can we solve global warming? Lessons from how we protected the ozone layer | Sean Davis
29 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Montreal Protocol proved that the world could come together and take action on climate change. Thirty years after the world's most successful envi...
The power of women's anger | Soraya Chemaly
28 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Anger is a powerful emotion -- it warns us of threat, insult, indignity and harm. But across the world, girls and women are taught that their anger is...
Ray Kurzweil on what the future holds next
24 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Join head of TED Chris Anderson for a very special conversation with legendary inventor and computer scientist Ray Kurzweil, recorded live onstage at ...
What's needed to bring the US voting system into the 21st century | Tiana Epps-Johnson
23 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The American election system is complicated, to say the least -- but voting is one of the most tangible ways that each of us can shape our communities...
How to transform sinking cities into landscapes that fight floods | Kotchakorn Voraakhom
22 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
From London to Tokyo, climate change is causing cities to sink -- and our modern concrete infrastructure is making us even more vulnerable to severe f...
How to resolve racially stressful situations | Howard C. Stevenson
21 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
If we hope to heal the racial tensions that threaten to tear the fabric of society apart, we're going to need the skills to openly express ourselves i...
The political progress women have made -- and what's next | Cecile Richards
18 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Women have made enormous progress over the last century -- challenging the status quo, busting old taboos and changing business from the inside out. B...
A life-saving device that detects silent heart attacks | Akash Manoj
17 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
You probably know the common symptoms of a heart attack: chest and arm pain, shortness of breath and fatigue. But there's another kind that's just as ...
Embrace the strange magic of your true self | Casey Gerald
17 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The way we're taught to live has got to change, says author Casey Gerald. Too often, we hide parts of ourselves in order to fit in, win praise, be acc...
How empowering women and girls can help stop global warming | Katharine Wilkinson
16 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
If we really want to address climate change, we need to make gender equity a reality, says writer and environmentalist Katharine Wilkinson. As part of...
Why black girls are targeted for punishment at school -- and how to change that | Monique W. Morris
15 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Around the world, black girls are being pushed out of schools because of policies that target them for punishment, says author and social justice scho...
3 ways to build a happy marriage and avoid divorce | George Blair-West
14 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Choosing to marry and share your life with someone is one of the most important decisions you can make in life. But with divorce rates approaching fif...
Quantum computing explained in 10 minutes | Shohini Ghose
11 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A quantum computer isn't just a more powerful version of the computers we use today; it's something else entirely, based on emerging scientific unders...
The biology of gender, from DNA to the brain | Karissa Sanbonmatsu
10 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How exactly does gender work? It's not just about our chromosomes, says biologist Karissa Sanbonmatsu. In a visionary talk, she shares new discoveries...
What should electric cars sound like? | Renzo Vitale
09 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Electric cars are extremely quiet, offering some welcome silence in our cities. But they also bring new dangers, since they can easily sneak up on uns...
How India's smartphone revolution is creating a new generation of readers and writers | Chiki Sarkar
08 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
India has the second largest population of any country in the world -- yet it has only 50 decent bookshops, says publisher Chiki Sarkar. So she asked ...
What are you willing to give up to change the way we work? | Martin Danoesastro
08 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What does it take to build the fast, flexible, creative teams needed to challenge entrenched work culture? For transformation expert Martin Danoesastr...
The story of a parent's transition and a son's redemption | Paula Stone Williams and Jonathan Williams
07 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Paula Stone Williams knew from a young age that she was transgender. But as she became a parent and prominent evangelical pastor, she feared that comi...
How to break bad management habits before they reach the next generation of leaders | Elizabeth Lyle
03 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Companies are counting on their future leaders to manage with more speed, flexibility and trust than ever before. But how can middle managers climb th...
In the opioid crisis, here's what it takes to save a life | Jan Rader
02 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As a fire chief and first responder, Jan Rader has spent her career saving lives. But when the opioid epidemic hit her town, she realized they needed ...
Why the secret to success is setting the right goals | John Doerr
01 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Our leaders and institutions are failing us, but it's not always because they're bad or unethical, says venture capitalist John Doerr -- often, it's s...
How language shapes the way we think | Lera Boroditsky
31 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There are about 7,000 languages spoken around the world -- and they all have different sounds, vocabularies and structures. But do they shape the way ...
You aren't at the mercy of your emotions -- your brain creates them | Lisa Feldman Barrett
28 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Can you look at someone's face and know what they're feeling? Does everyone experience happiness, sadness and anxiety the same way? What are emotions ...
You aren't at the mercy of your emotions -- your brain creates them | Lisa Feldman Barrett
28 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Can you look at someone's face and know what they're feeling? Does everyone experience happiness, sadness and anxiety the same way? What are emotions ...
How we need to remake the internet | Jaron Lanier
27 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In the early days of digital culture, Jaron Lanier helped craft a vision for the internet as public commons where humanity could share its knowledge -...
The story of 'Oumuamua, the first visitor from another star system | Karen J. Meech
26 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In October 2017, astrobiologist Karen J. Meech got the call every astronomer waits for: NASA had spotted the very first visitor from another star syst...
How to fix a broken heart | Guy Winch
25 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
At some point in our lives, almost every one of us will have our heart broken. Imagine how different things would be if we paid more attention to this...
How to build (and rebuild) trust | Frances Frei
24 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Trust is the foundation for everything we do. But what do we do when it's broken? In an eye-opening talk, Harvard Business School professor Frances Fr...
The real reason female entrepreneurs get less funding | Dana Kanze
20 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Women own 39 percent of all businesses in the US, but female startup founders get only two percent of venture funding. What's causing this gap? Dana K...
How "baby bonds" could help close the wealth gap | Darrick Hamilton
18 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Hard work, resilience and grit lead to success, right? This narrative pervades the way we think, says economist Darrick Hamilton, but the truth is tha...
How to break the cycle of toxic masculinity | Eldra Jackson
18 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In a powerful talk, educator Eldra Jackson III shares how he unlearned dangerous lessons about masculinity through Inside Circle, an organization that...
The riddle of experience vs. memory | Daniel Kahneman
17 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Using examples from vacations to colonoscopies, Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman reveals how our "experiencing selve...
How to be "Team Human" in the digital future | Douglas Rushkoff
13 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Humans are no longer valued for our creativity, says media theorist Douglas Rushkoff -- in a world dominated by digital technology, we're now just val...
Why you should treat the tech you use at work like a colleague | Nadjia Yousif
12 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine your company hires a new employee and then everyone just ignores them, day in and day out, while they sit alone at their desk getting paid to ...
3 kinds bias that shape your worldview | J. Marshall Shepherd
11 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What shapes our perceptions (and misperceptions) about science? In an eye-opening talk, meteorologist J. Marshall Shepherd explains how confirmation b...
How storytelling helps parents in prison stay connected to their kids | Alan Crickmore
10 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When a parent is sent to prison, the unintended victims of their crimes are their own children -- without stability and support, kids are at higher ri...
The work that makes all other work possible | Ai-jen Poo
07 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Domestic workers are entrusted with the most precious aspects of people's lives -- they're the nannies, the elder-care workers and the house cleaners ...
Get ready for hybrid thinking | Ray Kurzweil
06 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Two hundred million years ago, our mammal ancestors developed a new brain feature: the neocortex. This stamp-sized piece of tissue (wrapped around a b...
How to motivate people to do good for others | Erez Yoeli
05 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How can we get people to do more good: to go to the polls, give to charity, conserve resources or just generally act better towards others? MIT resear...
Confessions of a recovering micromanager | Chieh Huang
03 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Think about the most tired you've ever been at work. It probably wasn't when you stayed late or came home from a road trip -- chances are it was when ...
Color blind or color brave? | Mellody Hobson
01 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The subject of race can be very touchy. As finance executive Mellody Hobson says, it's a "conversational third rail." But, she says, that's exactly wh...
Me Too is a movement, not a moment | Tarana Burke
30 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In 2006, Tarana Burke was consumed by a desire to do something about the rampant sexual violence she saw in her community. She took out a piece of pap...
The story of Marvel's first queer Latina superhero | Gabby Rivera
29 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
With Marvel's "America Chavez," Gabby Rivera wrote a new kind of superhero -- one who can punch portals into other dimensions while also embracing her...
100 solutions to climate change | Chad Frischmann
28 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What if we took out more greenhouse gases than we put into the atmosphere? This hypothetical scenario, known as "drawdown," is our only hope of averti...
When technology can read minds, how will we protect our privacy? | Nita Farahany
27 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Tech that can decode your brain activity and reveal what you're thinking and feeling is on the horizon, says legal scholar and ethicist Nita Farahany....
The radical possibilities of man-made DNA | Floyd E. Romesberg
26 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Every cell that's ever lived has been the result of the four-letter genetic alphabet: A, T, C and G -- the basic units of DNA. But now that's changed....
What if we ended the injustice of bail? | Robin Steinberg
23 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On any given night, more than 450,000 people in the United States are locked up in jail simply because they don't have enough money to pay bail. The s...
Elizabeth Gilbert shows up for ... everything
22 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Introducing The TED Interview, a new podcast hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson. As a writer, Elizabeth Gilbert is notorious for placing her heart s...
Where do your online returns go? | Aparna Mehta
21 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Do you ever order clothes online in different sizes and colors, just to try them on and then send back what doesn't work? Aparna Mehta used to do this...
How a fleet of wind-powered drones is changing our understanding of the ocean | Sebastien de Halleux
20 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Our oceans are unexplored and undersampled -- today, we still know more about other planets than our own. How can we get to a better understanding of ...
Is the world getting better or worse? A look at the numbers | Steven Pinker
17 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Was 2017 really the "worst year ever," as some would have us believe? In his analysis of recent data on homicide, war, poverty, pollution and more, ps...
How a long-forgotten virus could help us solve the antibiotics crisis | Alexander Belcredi
16 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Viruses have a bad reputation -- but some of them could one day save your life, says biotech entrepreneur Alexander Belcredi. In this fascinating talk...
A librarian's case against overdue book fines | Dawn Wacek
15 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Libraries have the power to create a better world; they connect communities, promote literacy and spark lifelong learners. But there's one thing that ...
Is civility a sham? | Teresa Bejan
14 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What exactly is civility, and what does it require? In a talk packed with historical insights, political theorist Teresa Bejan explains how civility h...
What to trust in a "post-truth" world | Alex Edmans
12 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Only if you are truly open to the possibility of being wrong can you ever learn, says researcher Alex Edmans. In an insightful talk, he explores how c...
What it's like to be Muslim in America | Dalia Mogahed
10 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When you look at Muslim scholar Dalia Mogahed, what do you see: A woman of faith? A scholar, a mom, a sister? Or an oppressed, brainwashed, potential ...
The case for a decentralized internet | Tamas Kocsis
09 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Who controls the internet? Increasingly, the answer is large corporations and governments -- a trend that's threatening digital privacy and access to ...
The global goals we've made progress on -- and the ones we haven't | Michael Green
08 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Are we delivering on the promises of the Sustainable Development Goals, the collection of 17 objectives set by the United Nations in 2015 that aims to...
How kids can help design cities | Mara Mintzer
07 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Adults tend to think of kids as "future citizens" -- their ideas and opinions will matter someday, just not today. But kids make up a quarter of the p...
How I accidentally changed the way movies get made | Franklin Leonard
07 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How does Hollywood choose what stories get told on-screen? Too often, it's groupthink informed by a narrow set of ideas about what sells at the box of...
Why I have coffee with people who send me hate mail | Özlem Cekic
06 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Özlem Cekic's email inbox has been full of hate mail since 2007, when she won a seat in the Danish Parliament -- becoming the first female Muslim to ...
The case for curiosity-driven research | Suzie Sheehy
05 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Seemingly pointless scientific research can lead to extraordinary discoveries, says physicist Suzie Sheehy. In a talk and tech demo, she shows how man...
Science can answer moral questions | Sam Harris
03 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Questions of good and evil, right and wrong are commonly thought unanswerable by science. But Sam Harris argues that science can -- and should -- be a...
A memory scientist's advice on reporting harassment and discrimination | Julia Shaw
02 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How do you turn a memory, especially one of a traumatic event, into hard evidence of a crime? Julia Shaw is working on this challenge, combining tools...
How to let go of being a "good" person -- and become a better person | Dolly Chugh
01 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What if your attachment to being a "good" person is holding you back from actually becoming a better person? In this accessible talk, social psycholog...
How tech companies deceive you into giving up your data and privacy | Finn Myrstad
31 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever actually read the terms and conditions for the apps you use? Finn Myrstad and his team at the Norwegian Consumer Council have, and it to...
Is war between China and the US inevitable? | Graham Allison
30 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Taking lessons from a historical pattern called "Thucydides's Trap," political scientist Graham Allison shows why a rising China and a dominant United...
What everyday citizens can do to claim power on the internet | Fadi Chehadé and Bryn Freedman
30 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Technology architect Fadi Chehadé helped set up the infrastructure that makes the internet work -- essential things like the domain name system and I...
How isolation fuels opioid addiction | Rachel Wurzman
29 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What do Tourette syndrome, heroin addiction and social media obsession all have in common? They converge in an area of the brain called the striatum, ...
Chemical scum that dream of distant quasars | David Deutsch
27 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Legendary scientist David Deutsch puts theoretical physics on the back burner to discuss a more urgent matter: the survival of our species. The first ...
How will we survive when the population hits 10 billion? | Charles C. Mann
26 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
By 2050, an estimated 10 billion people will live on earth. How are we going to provide everybody with basic needs while avoiding the worst impacts of...
My quest to defy gravity and fly | Elizabeth Streb
25 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Over the course of her fearless career, extreme action specialist Elizabeth Streb has pushed the limits of the human body. She's jumped through broken...
Let's call "revenge porn" what it is: digital domestic violence | Darieth Chisolm
24 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What can you do if you're the victim of revenge porn or cyberbullying? Shockingly little, says journalist and activist Darieth Chisolm, who found hers...
How we can help young people build a better future | Henrietta Fore
24 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A massive generation of young people is about to inherit the world, and it's the duty of everyone to give them a fighting chance for their futures, sa...
How nationalism and globalism can coexist | Wanis Kabbaj
23 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Why do we have to choose between nationalism and globalism, between loving our countries and caring for the world? In a talk with lessons for avowed n...
How conscious investors can turn up the heat and make companies change | Vinay Shandal
22 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In a talk that's equal parts funny and urgent, consultant Vinay Shandal shares stories of the world's top activist investors, showing how individuals ...