Where are all the aliens?
Stephen Webb / Writer, scientist
The benefits of doodling

TED Talk: The case for unlocking your brain via pad and pen

It's Friday! Treat yourself to a little procrastination

Playlist: 11 great talks to watch when you should probably be doing something else

Newest Talks

  1. Where are all the aliens?
  2. What the Russian Revolution would have looked like on social media
  3. What your smart devices know (and share) about you
  4. The power of diversity within yourself
  5. The mission to create a searchable database of Earth's surface
  6. The genius behind some of the world's most famous buildings

Trending

  1. The enchanting music of sign language
  2. How to defend Earth from asteroids
  3. What a planet needs to sustain life
  4. This is Saturn
  5. How radio telescopes show us unseen galaxies
  6. High-tech art (with a sense of humor)

Recommended today

  1. The power of time off
  2. A summer school kids actually want to attend
  3. Should we create a solar shade to cool the earth?
  4. The new age of corporate monopolies
  5. Behind the lies of Holocaust denial
  6. How Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google manipulate our emotions

Explore playlists

Heard on TED Radio Hour

  1. My descent into America's neo-Nazi movement -- and how I got out
  2. What we can do about the culture of hate
  3. How I turn negative online comments into positive offline conversations
  4. A tale of two Americas. And the mini-mart where they collided
  5. How trees talk to each other
  6. What a driverless world could look like

TED-Ed lessons: feed your curiosity

  1. History vs. Augustus
  2. What is the coldest thing in the world?
  3. How exactly does binary code work?
  4. Why don't poisonous animals poison themselves?
  5. Are there universal expressions of emotion?
  6. Can you solve the Mondrian squares riddle?

Note to self: TEDx talks on self-improvement

  1. A simple trick to improve positive thinking
  2. Increase your self-awareness with one simple fix
  3. Love others to love yourself
  4. The keys to a happier, healthier sex life
  5. How do you define yourself?
  6. What I learned from 100 days of rejection

Explore philosophy

  1. Philosophy in prison
  2. How do you explain consciousness?
  3. How to make hard choices
  4. A kinder, gentler philosophy of success
  5. Why does the universe exist?
  6. For argument's sake

live your best life

  1. 12 truths I learned from life and writing
  2. The life-long learner
  3. Why you should define your fears instead of your goals
  4. Things I've learned in my life so far
  5. The danger of a single story
  6. What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness

Ancient treasures

  1. 2600 years of history in one object
  2. Help discover ancient ruins -- before it's too late
  3. A Rosetta Stone for a lost language
  4. Ingenuity and elegance in ancient African alphabets
  5. The ancient ingenuity of water harvesting
  6. Ancient wonders captured in 3D

Healthier Communities

  1. How an obese town lost a million pounds
  2. How barbershops can keep men healthy
  3. The secret to living longer may be your social life
  4. The trauma of systematic racism is killing Black women. A first step toward change...
  5. The taboo secret to better health
  6. What makes us get sick? Look upstream

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.