As fast as the rainforest is disappearing -- the people of the rainforest are disappearing even faster. Mark Plotkin works to preserve generations of knowledge.

Kelli Swazey examines how religious and spiritual practices form group identity, and play a vital role in structuring the interactions of individuals within a culture.

Isabel Allende writes stories of passion. Her novels and memoirs, including The House of the Spirits and Eva Luna, tell the stories of women and men who live with passionate commitment -- to love, to their world, to an ideal.

In her writings, Taiye Selasi explores our relationship to our multiple identities.

Dentist-turned-photographer Phil Borges documents the world's disappearing cultures, capturing portraits of exiled Tibetan monks and many of the world’s embattled tribal and indigenous cultures.

Lisa Kristine uses photography to expose deeply human stories.

Elizabeth Lindsey is a fellow of the National Geographic Society. Her mission: to keep ancestral voices alive by recording indigenous wisdom and traditions.

Ethan Zuckerman studies how the world -- the whole world -- uses new media to share information and moods across cultures, languages and platforms.

Shereen El Feki shows how some Arab cultures are borrowing trademarks of Western pop culture -- music videos, comics, even Barbie -- and adding a culturally appropriate twist. The hybridized media shows how two civilizations, rather than dividing, can dovetail.

How many stars can you see at night? If you’re part of the 80% of the global population that experiences light pollution, probably not many–but it hasn’t always been this way. Indigenous cultures around the world have studied the stars since long before the industrial era. Indigenous Australian astrophysicist Kirsten Banks tells us about how Abo...

Around the world, Indigenous food cultures vanish because of industrialized agriculture and a shifting, Western-influenced concept of the ideal diet. Food researcher Aparna Pallavi explores why once-essential culinary traditions disappear from people's lives and memories almost without notice -- and serves up a subtle solution to revitalize our ...

For a long time, the conveyor belt of ideas moved from the West to the East, says business strategy expert Neeraj Aggarwal. But now, Asia’s rising cultural and intellectual influence is redefining this established order. He explores how Asia’s booming culture and economy — from K-pop to cutting-edge tech — is sparking creative solutions to globa...

Around the world, indigenous food cultures disappear because of industrialized agriculture and a shifting, often Western-influenced concept of the ideal diet. Journalist and food researcher Aparna Pallavi makes an urgent case for preserving these cultures and shedding the stigma-laden attitudes that are driving them into extinction.

We don't just need better laws -- we need better culture. Nate Garvis asks: What can we do to create an environment in which powerful institutions are used for the common good?

15th century Europeans believed they had hit upon a miracle cure: a remedy for epilepsy, hemorrhage, bruising, nausea and virtually any other medical ailment. It was a brown powder known as "mumia," and was made by grinding up mummified human flesh. But just how common is human cannibalism, and how do cultures partake in it? Bill Schutt explores...

As 12 musicians from disparate cultures harmonize their eastern and western scales, they show the long bridges that music can build.

Jimmy Nelson’s photographs of vanishing tribes illuminate the indigenous cultures of our shared world.

Heading up HR at Netflix, Patty McCord experienced the unconventional start-up cultures of Silicon Valley up close. She explains what makes these new cultures work and offers some surprising insights into how deceptively traditional some of these eccentric new offices still are. McCord also introduces some challenging new ideas on how to motivat...

Through exploratory and human-centered research, Niti Bhan discovers and makes tangible pragmatic opportunities for sustainable and inclusive value creation.

Vincent Moon travels the world with a backpack and a camera, filming astonishing music and ritual the world rarely sees -- from a powerful Sufi ritual in Chechnya to an ayahuasca journey in Peru. He hopes his films can help people see their own cultures in a new way, to make young people say: "Whoa, my grandfather is as cool as Beyoncé." Followe...

Hollywood needs to stop resisting what the world actually looks like, says actor, director and activist America Ferrera. Tracing the contours of her career, she calls for more authentic representation of different cultures in media -- and a shift in how we tell our stories. "Presence creates possibility," she says. "Who we see thriving in the wo...

As many as 3,000 languages could disappear within the next 80 years, all but silencing entire cultures. In this quick talk, language activist Daniel Bögre Udell shows how people around the world are finding new ways to revive ancestral languages and rebuild their traditions -- and encourages us all to investigate the tongues of our ancestors. "R...

Jean-Baptiste Michel looks at how we can use large volumes of data to better understand our world.

Is the American obsession with individual freedom really such a great idea? What other cultures know about how to make good choices. Sit down at a restaurant in France, and there's a menu. Salmon with rice. French beans. Wine. If you ask for potatoes instead of rice, the restaurant will say no. Because it is their menu. Not yours. To an America...

Tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world after water –– and from sugary Turkish Rize tea to salty Tibetan butter tea, there are almost as many ways of preparing the beverage as there are cultures on the globe. Where did this beverage originate, and how did it become so popular? Shunan Teng details tea's long history. [Directed by St...

Caroline Phillips' rich, soprano voice conjures up the far-and-wide cultures of the world, especially the sound and language of the Basque Country.

When Jimmy Nelson traveled to Siberia to photograph the Chukchi people, elders told him: "You cannot photograph us. You have to wait, you have to wait until you get to know us, you have to wait until you understand us." In this gorgeously photo-filled talk, join Nelson's quest to understand -- the world, other people, himself -- by making astoni...

Global consumer strategist Aparna Bharadwaj shares a fascinating glimpse at under-the-radar affinities that transcend cultures and borders -- from the way people snack in China and Saudi Arabia to how people shop for clothes in the US and Russia. "There are patterns where you least expect them," she says -- and paying attention to them just migh...

Despite being ranked fifth of all countries in the world for language diversity, the United States tends to focus heavily on English in schools, with the native languages of students often going unrecognized. Educator Megan Alubicki Flick advocates for dual language programs— which focus on developing and sustaining two languages— and explains h...

What can American parents learn from how other cultures look at parenting? A look at child-rearing ideas in Japan, Norway, Spain -- and beyond. The crisis of American parenting, as anyone who has looked at the parenting section of a bookstore can attest, is that nobody knows what the hell they're doing. Yet despite this lack of confidence and a...