The powerful stories that shaped Africa
Gus Casely-Hayford / Cultural historian
The world's unexpected genetic heroes

TED Talk: Hear about the massive effort to collect genetic materials that may help decode inherited disorders

The secret life of plants

Playlist: Plants learn, flowers build elaborate traps ... Skeptical? These talks may just grow on you

Newest Talks

  1. The powerful stories that shaped Africa
  2. A human-robot dance duet
  3. A precise, three-word address for every place on earth
  4. Portraits that transform people into whatever they want to be
  5. The new age of corporate monopolies
  6. We can hack our immune cells to fight cancer

Trending

  1. How I built a toaster -- from scratch
  2. Play this word game to come up with original ideas
  3. Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong
  4. Are you a giver or a taker?
  5. The anthropology of mobile phones
  6. The mysterious lives of giant trees

Recommended today

  1. Don't feel sorry for refugees -- believe in them
  2. My immigration story
  3. A boat carrying 500 refugees sunk at sea. The story of two survivors
  4. My desperate journey with a human smuggler
  5. The refugee crisis is a test of our character
  6. What we're missing in the debate about immigration

Explore playlists

Heard on TED Radio Hour

  1. How a handful of tech companies control billions of minds every day
  2. A mouse. A laser beam. A manipulated memory.
  3. How reliable is your memory?
  4. What ants teach us about the brain, cancer and the Internet
  5. How to step up in the face of disaster
  6. Online social change: easy to organize, hard to win

What is behavioral economics?

  1. Saving for tomorrow, tomorrow
  2. The battle between your present and future self
  3. The optimism bias
  4. Does money make you mean?
  5. Could your language affect your ability to save money?
  6. The riddle of experience vs. memory

Getting things done

  1. Inside the mind of a master procrastinator
  2. Why work doesn't happen at work
  3. Try something new for 30 days
  4. How to get better at the things you care about
  5. Why you should define your fears instead of your goals
  6. The puzzle of motivation

How to talk with people you don't agree with

  1. How our friendship survives our opposing politics
  2. A conservative's plea: Let's work together
  3. Why aren't we more compassionate?
  4. We're all hiding something. Let's find the courage to open up
  5. Take "the Other" to lunch
  6. How to have better political conversations

The right to protest

  1. The shocking move to criminalize nonviolent protest
  2. A thousand times no
  3. How to topple a dictator
  4. We can fight terror without sacrificing our rights
  5. The secret to effective nonviolent resistance
  6. The attitudes that sparked Arab Spring

The panama papers

  1. How the Panama Papers journalists broke the biggest leak in history
  2. The Panama Papers exposed a huge global problem. What's next?
  3. Meet global corruption's hidden players
  4. How to expose the corrupt
  5. How I named, shamed and jailed
  6. Why journalists have an obligation to challenge power

learn from women leaders

  1. So we leaned in ... now what?
  2. What it takes to be a great leader
  3. Inspiring a life of immersion
  4. The career advice you probably didn’t get
  5. Forget the pecking order at work
  6. Learning from leadership's missing manual

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.