Earlier this month, Merriam-Webster announced that 2017's word of the year is feminism. Searches for the word on the dictionary website spiked throughout the year, beginning in January around the Women's March, again after Kellyanne Conway said in an interview that she didn't consider herself a feminist, and during some of feminism's many po...

This 4-question quiz can help you identify the specific things that could make you happier right now, says writer Sam Horn. Just pick up a pen and paper. I had just wrapped up an intense two-day consulting job in Southern California. I was sitting in my rental car, trying to drum up the energy to drive to the airport and fly back to Washington,...

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. ...

For a broader take, consider looking at its Wikipedia entry in another language -- particularly in a language culturally closer to the subject. You'll open yourself up to a world of perspectives, says Daniel M. Russell, online search expert and Google research scientist. This post is part of TED’s “How to Be a Better Human” series, each of whic...

The last time you got peeved, ticked or just plain enraged, did you stop and listen to what your mind was telling you? Ryan Martin, psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay, has spent his career doing just that. Turns out, the thoughts that we have in response to the first flare of anger are what can send us over the ed...

Glaciologist Michele Koppes travels to some of the coldest, iciest places on Earth for work. Her one-of-a-kind research in the Himalayas fills in gaps of unrecorded glacial change, and may help vulnerable populations adapt to shifting weather patterns. Despite the severe consequences of climate change, Michele finds hope in the optimism of t...

Jack Andraka is not your typical teenager. The high schooler spends his free time in the science lab concocting better, cheaper ways to spot disease. One such project -- a test for the early detection of pancreatic cancer -- won Andraka first place in the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. As Andraka explains in his ta...

For years, orthodontist Awab Alvi has been an outspoken political activist via his blog, Teeth Maestro. With the onset of disastrous flooding in his native Pakistan this July, Awab traveled to the front lines, delivering food and supplies to flood victims. Though the after effects of the floods have caused personal family tragedy, Awab's fie...

Anyone in the room here today, at the glossy Times Center in Times Square, has been affected by the imagination and tenacity of Janette Sadik-Khan. It was her vision that created the much-loved pedestrian zones on Broadway and the cool new CitiBikes. In 2008, when Sadik-Khan took the job as New York's traffic commissioner, she saw how hard i...

Meklit Hadero’s soulful songs have launched her explosive rise in the music world. Her sound draws from jazz, West Coast folk, and her Ethiopian roots. Meklit’s performances and community outreach projects -- in North America, Africa, or where the winds take her -- continue to enrich her music and be an integral part of its evolution. Are you a...

Need a dose of literary oomph and inspiration? Here's a selection of uplifting reads -- all suggested by TED speakers -- for your enjoyment. When you crave entertainment but don't want to dumb down A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman This touching novel reminds us that everyone has a story; that we should aim to understand, not to judge; and ...

In 1972, Matthieu Ricard had a promising career in biochemistry, trying to figure out the secrets of E. coli bacteria. A chance encounter with Buddhism led to an about turn, and Ricard has spent the past 40+ years living in the Himalayas, studying mindfulness and happiness. In this free-wheeling discussion at TED Global in October 2014, Ricard t...

Native American photographer Camille Seaman devotes years to her subjects, revealing the unfolding of reality over time. For the last decade, she has traveled repeatedly to the Arctic and Antarctic to take portraits of polar ice, witnessing the beauty and loss of a part of Earth most of us will never see. How do your projects evolve? Do you g...

In her TEDWomen talk, Deborah Rhodes, a physician and researcher at the Mayo Clinic, describes a new technique for screening women for breast tumors, and how innovation can proceed by tailoring the test to individual characteristics — in the case of Rhodes’ MBI, based on the tissue density — and also about the politics that gets in the way o...

Here's a huge list of TED speaker-recommended books, with all the diversity of titles and topics you might expect. No matter your mood, preference or occasion, we’ve got you covered. When you’re lying in the sun Any book by Isaac Asimov I have stacks of collections of science-fiction short stories. I grab these before getting on a long f...

Enthusiastic recommendations for uplifting reads, as suggested by TED speakers and TED-Ed educators. If you’re searching for some calm The Peace of Wild Things: And Other Poems by Wendell Berry This little book of poetry is my current morning dose of calm, and I use it like a meditation if I’m feeling stressed about the day ahead. The most f...

A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise: A True Story About Schizophrenia by Sandra Allen In college, Allen’s uncle sent her his autobiography in the mail -- the story of a man suffering from schizophrenia. The autobiography was written in all capital letters on a typewriter, and Allen’s vicarious memoir, which places her uncle’s story in context, is wri...

The current coronavirus pandemic is a truly global one; in fact, Antarctica is the only continent with no cases (although that could change). Most nations have responded with similar measures -- stay-at-home advisories, shutdown of non-essential businesses, social distancing -- but the scope of these changes has varied and so has the human impac...