Megan Phelps-Roper grew up in the Westboro Baptist Church and was picketing with signs like “gays are worthy of death” at the age of five. She left 20 years later because strangers on Twitter changed her mind. “Initially, the people I encountered on the platform were just as hostile as I expected,” she says. But slowly that changed. They sta...

Being lucky in love isn't like being struck by lightning -- it’s a lot less random (and painful). Psychologist Barry Schwartz and biological anthropologist Helen Fisher share their opinions on the subject. “A lucky relationship is created, not discovered,” Barry Schwartz said when Barnaby and I called him one morning. A longtime professor at...

Writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie calls out Feminism Lite -- "a hollow, appeasing and bankrupt idea." A few years ago, Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received a letter from a childhood friend and new mother, asking her how she could raise her baby girl to be a feminist. Adichie’s new book, Dear Iljeawele, is her response, and it contain...

Behold, your recap of TED-related news: Print your own pharmaceutical factory. As part of an ongoing quest to make pharmaceuticals easier to manufacture, chemist Lee Cronin and his team at the University of Glasgow have designed a way to 3D-print a portable “factory” for the complicated and multi-step chemical reactions needed to create u...

Nick Hanauer lays out the epic failure of the Republican party to serve its voters, prompting the popular surge in support for Donald Trump. The Republican Party is coming apart, and Donald Trump is leading the charge. The GOP establishment, now aware of the existential crisis they face, is in full panic mode. Media elites and most of the pundi...

With TED2015 wrapped, attendees, speakers and journalists alike are sharing their reflections on the experience. Below, some highlights: David Rothkopf was an open critic of TED, calling our talks “chicken nuggets for the brain.” But the experience of attending TED2015 and speaking during Session 1 changed his mind. The Washington icon now ...

Leslie Morgan Steiner thought that she’d found true love in her early 20s. Instead, she found herself married to a man who repeatedly pointed a gun at her head and threatened to kill her. In today’s brave talk, given at TEDxRainier, Steiner tells the story of how she -- a Harvard-educated magazine editor turned businesswoman -- fell into ...

This week’s TED Radio Hour examines the hacker, a term often associated with computer crime. But, as host Guy Raz tells us, “All of our TED speakers today are hacking for good -- hacking into our brains, into the environment, even into the DNA of extinct animals -- hackers trying to save the world.” First up, Mikko Hypponen, the programmer wh...

The term “fiscal cliff” has gained traction in the U.S. news in the past few months, at least in part because it paints a vivid metaphorical picture. Popularized by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, the term refers to the ill economic consequences that could occur if Congress does not change its course on several policies by January 1, ...

A new word for a new profession Laura Snyder begins with a scene from June 24, 1833. It's a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and an elderly man stands up to make a comment. It's Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He stands up and demands, "You must stop calling yourselves Natural Philosophers." He believed that tru...

Jack Dorsey is a bit of an enigma. The CEO of Twitter and Square, Dorsey is known for his amazing sense of calm in turbulent times -- while his network takes a serious chunk of the blame for the divisiveness seen around the world, both online and off. At TED2019, head of TED Chris Anderson and TED current affairs curator Whitney Penningto...

As a radio host, Celeste Headlee has engaged in her fair share of discussions, and she's thought a lot about how to bring out the best in a conversational counterpart. One thing she likes to say: A good conversation is like a game of catch. Huh? She explains. When you play catch, you have to do an equal number of catches and throws, right? It's...

For many of us, working from home during COVID-19 has meant we are spending a lot of time on video meeting applications like Zoom. The effects of this have taken us by surprise. Having giant heads staring at us up close for long periods can be off-putting for a lot of us. Never mind that we feel we should fix our hair (COVID mullet anyone?), ...

Most people go into top positions with good intentions, but those often crumble due to the demands -- and perks -- of the job. If you want to succeed, devote some time and energy to self-leadership, says consultant Lars Sudmann. This post is part of TED’s “How to Be a Better Human” series, each of which contains a piece of helpful advice from s...

In conversation with TED curator Chris Anderson at TED HQ in New York on Wednesday, New York Times columnist David Brooks and journalist Gretchen Carlson discussed how and why America has become so polarized -- and where we can find common ground. Set between lively renditions of "America the Beautiful" and "Go Down Moses" performed by th...

If we learned anything at TED2019, it’s that life doesn’t fit into simple narratives, and that there are no simple answers to the big problems we’re facing. But we can use those problems, our discomfort and even our anger to find the energy to make change. Twelve mainstage sessions, two rocking sessions of talks from TED Fellows, a specia...

Just a few of the intriguing headlines involving members of the TED community this week: Around the globe without a drop of fuel. What has the wingspan of a Boeing 747 but weighs only about as much as an SUV? The answer is Bertrand Piccard’s Solar Impulse 2, an airplane fueled entirely by solar energy that landed in California on April 24 aft...

Photo: James Duncan Davidson Paul Gilding starts his TEDTalk with four words that say almost everything: "The Earth is full." It's a terrifying concept. Have we really strained, mined and otherwise depleted the planet's resources to the point where social collapse is inevitable? Gilding believes we have, and he launches into a defense of ...

Photo: James Duncan Davidason Author and UVA psychology professor Jonathan Haidt kicks off his TED2012 talk with a provocative question: "how many of you think of yourselves as religious?" Some people raise their hands, but not so many. Another question: "Do you think of yourselves as spiritual in any shape or form?" The majority of peopl...

Week 7 of TED2020 featured conversations on where the coronavirus pandemic is heading, the case for reparations, how we can better connect with each other and how capitalism must change to build a more equitable society. Below, a recap of insights shared throughout the week. Bill Gates, technologist, philanthropist Big idea: The corona...

Photo: James Duncan Davidson Bryan Stevenson spends most of his time in jails and prisons and on death row. He's a lawyer, and the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative. So he's found it very energizing at TED, and wanted to start by pointing out that there is a distinct identity here. Things said here have a power that maybe they do...

When someone makes a StoryCorps interview, they'll usually talk about the most important people in their lives, remember the best and worst moments they’ve lived through, and pass on wisdom they’ve gleaned over the years. So it comes as no surprise that memories of parents are often the star of the show. Our facilitators tell us that even pe...

We all contain an inner nitpicker, but we shouldn’t let it drag us down and drown out everything else. Psychologist Rick Hanson gives advice on how to put it back in its place. We all have two different voices inside us: one that is nurturing, and one that is critical; one that lifts up, and one that weighs us down. Both of these voices have a ...

This post is part of TED’s “How to Be a Better Human” series, each of which contains a piece of helpful advice from people in the TED community; browse through all the posts here. One evening, I called my sons to come to eat -- and got no response. True confession: In anger, I marched into their room and kicked off the power button on thei...

Psychologist Guy Winch shares some practical tips for soothing the sting of rejection. Rejections are the most common emotional wound we sustain in daily life. Our risk of rejection used to be limited by the size of our immediate social circle or dating pools. Today, thanks to electronic communications, social media platforms and dating apps, e...

Neuroscientist Molly Crockett has a secret to share: if you want to make better decisions, eat a grilled cheese sandwich. In today’s talk, filmed at the TEDSalon in London, Crockett shares how she accidentally had a part in circulating this message. Several years ago, Crockett and her fellow researchers set out to study how serotonin would ...

Thoughts like these are completely normal, but many moms feel ashamed of having them. Here’s how to let go of self-judgment and too-high expectations, from reproductive psychiatrists Alexandra Sacks and Catherine Birndorf. I’ve have been working in women’s mental health for the past decade and my mission has been to educate people about the ide...

In this excerpt from the brand-new podcast The TED Interview, the beloved writer tells us how she is learning to live with loss. Writer Elizabeth Gilbert has reached the heights of fame -- her two TED Talks (2009’s “Your elusive creative genius” and 2014’s “Success, failure and the drive to keep creating”) have together gotten more than 24 mill...

Relationship researcher Eli J. Finkel shares a three-step process to help you identify -- and get -- what you most want out of your marriage. What is marriage for? In modern societies, we can have financial security, cohabitation, sex, love, children and more without being married. This makes the institution less essential -- and much more flex...