What a week. We've heard so much, from dystopian warnings to bold visions for change. Our brains are full. Almost. In this session we pull back to the human stories that underpin everything we are, everything we want. From new ways to set goals and move business forward, to unabashed visions for joy and community, it's time to explore what m...

Hans Rosling has given nine TED Talks, each sharing a carefully measured dataset to change misconceptions about global issues. Now, the Gates Foundation shares a new demonstration from Rosling. Here, using powerful moving charts, Rosling shatters the fallacy of the “developed” world versus the “developing” world. By looking at the facts, we a...

Every year, as registration for the TED conference begins, a myth floats in the ether: many people think that you have to be invited to attend. Not true! To show your interest in attending TED, all you have to do is apply. It’s open to anyone -- from inventors to directors, philanthropists to painters, chemists to computer scientists, the long-e...

The TED iPad project was inspired by a number of requests coming in from TED fans wishing to see TEDTalks on mobile devices. In the past, the development community has graciously volunteered building various applications on both iPhone and Android platforms. When the iPad came out, we saw an opportunity to try our hand with our first foray i...

After hearing an idea that struck them at their core, these people were no longer satisfied to sit on the sidelines -- so they jumped in. Hearing an inspiring idea is like experiencing a great book or movie; it stays with you. For most people who watch a TED Talk, this occurs subtly, with the concept going into our minds where it serves as a ki...

These are the moments when a new passion is silently conceived and we are forever after entranced, says columnist David Brooks. And they can happen at any time. When E. O. Wilson was seven, his parents announced they were getting a divorce. They sent him away over the summer to stay with a family he didn’t know in Paradise Beach, Florida. Every...

Here are the must-dos that you need to check off your list before you get your diploma, from entrepreneur Liz Wessel. This post is part of TED’s “How to Be a Better Human” series, each of which contains a piece of helpful advice from someone in the TED community; browse through all the posts here. For those fortunate enough to be able to go,...

We asked three TED Fellows who work in the briny depths -- whale researcher Asha de Vos, coral reef biologist Kristen Marhaver and artist Colleen Flanigan -- to discuss how science and art are working in tandem to help the world fully appreciate our vanishing marine life. Describe what you do and what you’re working on. And where are you on...

We're welcoming two guest hosts to TEDGlobal 2011 -- Pat Mitchell, from the Paley Center for Media, who hosts Session 8, and Matt Ridley, whose 2010 TEDTalk was memorably titled "When Ideas Have Sex," and who'll be hosting Session 5. We asked both hosts a few questions about their plans for their session of TED. Here's what TED's Jenny Zu...

Artist R. Luke DuBois explains the vision behind his presidential project -- and then lets you test your Oval Office know-how. Although he only delivered three of them, President John F. Kennedy’s annual State of the Union addresses contained more than their share of stirring lines, like: “We shall be judged more by what we do at home than by w...

Millions of people, many of them children, suffer from "orphan" diseases -- illnesses so rare that no infrastructure exists to investigate or treat them. Now C Jimmy Lin's Rare Genomics Institute puts hope and empowerment back in patients' hands by connecting them with researchers, doctors and community support, and a crowdsourced funding pl...

Suffering is not beautiful, nor is it a state of grace. But you can swim to the wreckage at the bottom and bring something back to the surface that can help others, says writer Lidia Yuknavitch. The truth is, suffering sucks and it can take you to a place of wanting to kill yourself, and there’s nothing beautiful about that. Suffering is not a ...

At our small, fast-moving nonprofit company, everyone does a couple of jobs -- and productivity apps help us manage roles that shift between coding, writing/designing and running a full-scale conference twice a year. We asked the TED staff what apps they can’t live without. And beyond the classics—Instagram, Google Maps, Spotify, Uber, Seamless—...

By using the first day as a time for people to tap into their best selves -- and not just fill out paperwork -- companies could ease their stress and bring out their full potential, says business school professor Daniel Cable. “There is a new war for talent happening in the workplace today,” says London Business School professor Daniel Cable. “...

Uncovering your micro-motives -- that collection of super-specialized things that make your particular heart sing -- are key to finding fulfillment and success at work, say social scientists Todd Rose and Ogi Ogas. And there's a fun way to identify them: observing how you judge others. Social scientists Todd Rose and Ogi Ogas (of the Harvard Gr...

Nigerian-American Nnedi Okorafor writes the kind of drop-everything, Africa-based fantasy and sci-fi that she never saw on bookshelves growing up. Here, she talks about the authors that shaped her, her inspirations (traffic! jellyfish!) and her collaboration with Marvel. Nnedi Okorafor is obsessed with bugs. More specifically grasshoppers, but ...

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...

Photo: James Duncan Davidson "Wouldn't it be amazing if our phones could see the world the way we do?" That's the basic question that Matt Mills asks to introduce a demo of extraordinary technology from the new company Aurasma. He holds up a painting of Robert Burns, and his colleague Tamara Roukaerts points a phone at it. On the phone...

In the opening of Miwa Matreyek’s TED performance, a pair of shadowy hands wave over a plate, and an apple halves itself. From there, goldfish swirl around the plate, before morphing into birds and flying away. For the first minute, you think you are watching video -- an intricate blend of real-life footage and animation. But soon you realize th...

Micro-mechanician Bill Robertson builds sophisticated, fully working replicas of rare tools, gadgets and houses from the 17th and 18th centuries. His exquisite creations put history’s hidden details in the palms of our hands. Many of us have fond memories of playing with dollhouses, most of which were machine-made of plastic. But the first doll...

Since we know TED speakers love to read, we asked them: What book could you not stop reading? Here are their eclectic picks, ready for sticking in your carry-on or for gifting. If you want to be transported to another place and time The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood This novel is set in the near future and tells a horrifying story of a...

Abandoned school turned maker space. Theaster Gates turns Chicago’s abandoned buildings into thriving hubs for art and education. His next project? Turning an old elementary school into a maker space. Gates heads Place Lab, a think tank that fuses the brainpower of urban planners, architects, artists and other diverse professionals to create...

Clearer, Closer, Better: How Successful People See the World by Emily Balcetis (TED Talk: Why some people find exercise harder than others) Many of us look at high achievers and envy how they seem to navigate their lives with ease. In Clearer, Closer, Better, social psychologist Emily Balcetis tells readers that success might be a matter of ...

After studying architecture in Minnesota, Joshua Wanyama established his own Kenya-based digital marketing agency, Pamoja Media. Happily back home in Nairobi, Joshua uses his company to tackle some of Africa’s most daunting social challenges -- including climate change, hunger, and AIDS -- while also maintaining a photography website dedica...

At the annual TED conference, the audience is as packed with big ideas as our speaker program. TED University is a chance for audience members to give short talks about both big ideas and personal experiences. Recaps of the talks at TED University, in chronological order. Travel points are currency. Brian Kelly is known for his site Th...

What should we do with the quiet kids? A conversation with Susan Cain on the future of classroom education. Susan Cain sticks up for the introverts of the world. In the U.S., where one third to one half the population identifies as introverts, that means sticking up for a lot of people. Some of them might be data engineers overwhelmed by the ...

Whether your weeks ahead contain travel, vacations or just longer and lazier days than usual, our list of recommendations from TED speakers has books for all moods, activities and tastes. When you want to understand why we humans do what we do Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely (TED Talk: Our buggy...

In today's TEDTalk, director Kirby Ferguson outlines a bold vision of creativity -- that it's not about dreaming up a new song, a new piece of art or a new form of technology in a vacuum, but instead about remixing what has come before. In his fast-paced talk, Kirby reveals that many of our most iconic thinkers -- from Henry Ford to Bob Dyla...

From artists to scientists, mothers, mathematicians and business visionaries, people in every corner of the world are dreaming up solutions to our most pressing problems. Whether tackling war and peace or the principles of machine learning, ingenuity starts with one thing: a spark. And regardless of where the spark takes hold, inspiration...

Corruption doesn't result from a lack of ethics or knowledge; it’s a workaround chosen by people when they have few better options. So what can decrease its lure? New ways to make progress and make money. Ask citizens why their countries aren’t developing, ask investors why they choose not to invest in some regions, and corruption is almost alw...