How I climbed a 3,000-foot vertical cliff — without ropes
Alex Honnold / Rock climber
The surprising science of alpha males

TED Talk: Explore the privileges and costs of power while drawing surprising parallels between how humans and primates choose their leaders

Read: 9 rules for getting the most out of meetings

Find out how one veteran financier keeps his meetings focused and productive

Newest Talks

  1. How I climbed a 3,000-foot vertical cliff -- without ropes
  2. How whistle-blowers shape history
  3. What baby boomers can learn from millennials at work -- and vice versa
  4. What Americans agree on when it comes to health
  5. 3 ways to create a space that moves you, from a Broadway set designer
  6. How cryptocurrency can help startups get investment capital

Trending

  1. Inside the secret shipping industry
  2. When online shaming goes too far
  3. See invisible motion, hear silent sounds
  4. A new superweapon in the fight against cancer
  5. There's no such thing as not voting
  6. Good news in the fight against pancreatic cancer

Recommended today

  1. What if we replaced politicians with randomly selected people?
  2. There's no such thing as not voting
  3. Photos from a storm chaser
  4. How to step up in the face of disaster
  5. The magic washing machine
  6. How common threats can make common (political) ground

Explore playlists

TED-Ed lessons: feed your curiosity

  1. History through the eyes of a chicken
  2. Can you solve the killer robo-ants riddle?
  3. The fascinating science of phantom limbs
  4. Everything you need to know to read "The Canterbury Tales"
  5. What's a smartphone made of?
  6. The "End of History" Illusion

Heard on TED Radio Hour

  1. Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality
  2. Are you human?
  3. Human nature and the blank slate
  4. What if gentrification was about healing communities instead of displacing them?
  5. Who belongs in a city?
  6. How we can design timeless cities for our collective future

Saving, spending, risking: smart TEDx talks about money

  1. What playing Monopoly with real money taught me about my kids--and humanity
  2. Why I defend women's inheritance rights
  3. We need to help women close the retirement savings gap
  4. Why we take financial risks
  5. A new way to think about inheritance
  6. Let's get honest about our money problems

take a tech break

  1. We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads
  2. A funny look at the unintended consequences of technology
  3. How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day
  4. Your social media "likes" expose more than you think
  5. The era of blind faith in big data must end
  6. What moral decisions should driverless cars make?

future visions

  1. What would happen if we upload our brains to computers?
  2. A sci-fi vision of love from a 318-year-old hologram
  3. What a world without prisons could look like
  4. Can we create new senses for humans?
  5. A glimpse of the future through an augmented reality headset
  6. My daughter, my wife, our robot, and the quest for immortality

Truth-tellers

  1. How to see past your own perspective and find truth
  2. Want to help someone? Shut up and listen!
  3. Say your truths and seek them in others
  4. 12 truths I learned from life and writing
  5. What really motivates people to be honest in business
  6. Can democracy exist without trust?

What should I do with my life?

  1. Why you will fail to have a great career
  2. How great leaders inspire action
  3. Why some of us don't have one true calling
  4. How to find work you love
  5. Before I die I want to ...
  6. Should you live for your résumé ... or your eulogy?

About TED

TED is a nonpartisan nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks. TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 110 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world.