Rory Stewart opens this talk from TEDxHousesofParliament with a joke: “Little Billy goes to school and his teacher asks, ‘What does your father do?’ Billy replies, ‘My father plays piano in an opium den.’” But when the teacher confronts the father about his occupation, she gets a different answer. As Stewart finishes the joke, “The fathe...

Session 3 of TEDGlobal 2014 took a look at things thatmove across borders, from identity to violence, from money to music. Below, a recap of these moving talks. Filmmaker José Padilha, director of Elite Squad and the remake of RoboCop, talks about a new project about Friendship Bridge, which connects Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. A hots...

Two African cooks walk into a bar; 30 seconds later they are arguing over whose country’s jollof rice is better. Or so the corny joke would go. The truth is, I really had no idea what would happen if we got Senegal-born chef Pierre Thiam (TED Talk: A Forgotten Ancient Grain That Could Help Africa Prosper) and Nigerian jollof promoter Ozoz So...

The TED community is brimming with new projects and updates. Below, a few highlights. Malaria vaccine begins wide-scale testing in Malawi. RTS,S -- the only malaria vaccine to successfully pass clinical trials -- will be made available to 360,000 children in Kenya, Malawi and Ghana in the first round of implementation testing. Immunologis...

Nigerian astronomer Johnson Urama wants to promote the future of astronomy in Africa by looking deep into history. With his African Cultural Astronomy Project, he is gathering the lost ancient astronomical traditions and stories of indigenous Africa, hoping to show modern Africans that the science of the skies is relevant to their past, presen...

The TED community has been moving-and-shaking as usual. Below, some newsy highlights. What you don’t know about ‘no.’ If your friend is getting ready for a job interview and asks, “Do I look good in this?,” and you answer, “No, totally!,” should they change or stride confidently out the door? This week, Kathryn Schulz writes in The New Yorker a...

[embed]http://www.ted.com/talks/paula_hammond_a_new_superweapon_in_the_fight_against_cancer[/embed] As usual, the TED community is hard at work -- here are some highlights: A new drug-delivering nanoparticle. Paula Hammond, the head of the Department of Chemical Engineering at MIT, is part of a research team that has developed a new nanopartic...

TED Fellows are scientists, artists and activists and musicians. But they are also biodiversity mathematicians, culinary historians and any other combination of disciplines you can imagine. Below, read short recaps of the talks in the second session of TED Fellows talks at TED2016, each a big idea that will make you think again. Honor ...

Epidemiologist Chikwe Ihekweazu was in the inaugural TED Fellows class of TEDGlobal 2007 in Tanzania. Living in the UK at the time, writing articles on public health issues in his native Nigeria, Chikwe was profoundly affected by his TED experience. Now running an influential Nigerian public health blog, an alumni program for his alma mater,...

Please enjoy your weekly roundup of TED-related news: Good luck and farewell to the Cassini spacecraft. Launched 20 years ago, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will begin its final mission on April 26.  The spacecraft will embark on a series of 22 dives through the space between Saturn and its rings, transmitting data that may help us understand...

Some people think outside the box. TED Fellows think outside the lines and corners, but also outside the medical establishment and media landscape — even outside the solar system. Below, read short recaps of the talks in the first session of TED Fellows talks at TED2016, from a group of trailblazers just getting lift-off ... Beautiful ...

When an earthquake shook Costa Rica in September of 2012, it took 60 seconds for the tremors to travel 250 kilometers north to Managua, Nicaragua. And yet just 30 seconds later, the first message about the earthquake appeared on Twitter. In today’s talk, filmed at TEDSalon London 2012, Markham Nolan of Storyful.com shares why this represe...

"It all depends on what we do in the next few weeks," said infectious disease expert and TED Fellow Chikwe Ihekweazu, speaking about Ebola at TEDGlobal on Friday. What happens next: will the number of new Ebola cases grow or plateau? And how can the world know the right thing to do? Reliable news about the outbreak has been hard to find, espe...

Behold, your recap of TED-related news: Habitat turns 50! First conceptualized in 1961 as part of architect Moshe Safdie’s thesis at McGill University, Habitat 67 has gone on to inspire several generations of architects. Combining high-rise living with community connection, Habitat’s concrete cluster of homes challenged the contemporary n...

This compilation of reading assigned to students everywhere will expand your horizons -- and your bookshelves. In the US, most students are required to read To Kill a Mockingbird during their school years. This classic novel combines a moving coming-of-age story with big issues like racism and criminal injustice. Reading Mockingbird is such an ...

Jane Chen knew that, for her low-cost baby incubator to save lives, moms would need to love it. But she had no idea that one of the world’s most famous moms—Beyoncé—would become one of her biggest supporters. Last week, Beyoncé announced a $125,000 donation to Embrace Innovations, Chen’s organization that makes the low-cost infant warmer,...

Dance -- and physical activity -- should have the same status in schools as math, science and language. Psst: it may even help raise test scores, says Sir Ken Robinson. For several years, I’ve been a patron of the London School of Contemporary Dance. In 2016, I was invited to give the annual lecture in honor of founding principal Robert Cohan, ...

Cities are a constellation of dreams -- dreams that are constantly dying and being born. Cities are living things, with character and distinct personalities. Africa’s cities teem with these dreams. Who gets to decide which ones live, and which ones die? To become an architect, Christian Benimana had to go far away from home. There were no...

We wouldn’t have chocolate without flies, and seven other reasons to respect and protect these bugs that bug us, from entomologist Bryan Lessard. When most people think of flies, they think of buzzing, irritation, pests, annoyance. But when I think about flies -- and I do constantly, as a researcher who studies them -- these are some of the thi...

In January of 2013, TED Fellow Cesar Harada, inventor of an open-source sailing robot, set sail on a four-month, 14-country round-the-world journey with Unreasonable at Sea, a global innovation accelerator on board a boat. Here, he tells us about how this extraordinary voyage helped crystallize his vision for how his open source sailing robo...

Session 3 of TED2016 examines the ‘i’ words: Imagination. Invention. Ingenuity. Hosted by TED Fellows Jedidah Isler and José Gómez-Márquez, this session is all about speakers who’ve taken the spark of inspiration and put it into action. Recaps of the talks in Session 3, in chronological order. A new way of “seeing.” Early in her career...

By Liz Jacobs and Helen Walters It’s often said that good design is invisible design — it makes things easy and delightful without us realizing it. But as host Chee Pearlman reminds us at the top of the session, we're here to honor the "D" in "TED." From the artistic to the architectural to the auditory, the eight speakers in this All-Sta...

The TED Fellows program turns 10 in 2019 -- and to mark this important milestone, we're excited to kick off the year of celebration by announcing the impressive new group of TED2019 Fellows and Senior Fellows! This year's TED Fellows class represents 12 countries across four continents; they're leaders in their fields -- ranging from astrody...

An independent press is one of the essential pillars of a democracy, and we need to support journalists and whistleblowers alike to protect it, says lawyer and free press advocate Trevor Timm. The First Amendment of the US Constitution is only 45 words, but it packs a punch. It protects free speech and a free press in America (in addition to re...

When people with developmental disabilities have the support they need to thrive, everyone benefits. In a speech at the United Nations on April 1, Steve Silberman made the case that it's past time we all learned to honor neurodiversity. An edited version of his text follows. We are living at a very exciting time -- a time of great hope for auti...

TEDGlobal 2014 is themed “South!,” and it will be the first official TED conference held in South America. Focusing on themes emerging around the world, this conference will take a bold look at the ideas flowing from the Global South, discussing innovation as well as social and political issues, art as well as education, resources as well as tec...

At TED2014, we asked speakers and attendees to riff off the conference's theme ("The Next Chapter") and tell us what might radically change society, life, technology and so on in the next 30 years. From funny and wry to deeply insightful, the answers will surprise you. "One of the things about learning how to read -- we have been doing a lot ...

Rita Pierson is the kind of teacher you wish you had. An educator for 40 years, she is funny, sharp and simply has a way with words -- so much so that today’s talk feels a bit like a sermon. In this talk, Pierson shares the secret to teaching students, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds -- make personal connections with them. ...

Our office might be closed for summer vacation, but the TED Fellows are hard at work at the very first TED Fellows Retreat, happening now  in Whistler, British Columbia. Because the Fellows have proliferated since the program officially launched in 2009, many of these extraordinary thinkers have never had a chance to meet and conspire. And t...

Compiled from past TED book lists, here's a curated selection of fiction and non-fiction titles to check out now. Minority Leader: How to Lead from the Outside and Make Change by Stacey Abrams (TED talk: 3 questions to ask yourself about everything you do) I work in government affairs, and the last thing I enjoy reading for pleasure are books ...