More charmingly referred to as a garbage fire that just keeps burning, 2017 has been a tough, relentless year of tragedy and strife. As we approach the holiday season, it’s important to connect and reconnect with those you love and want in your life. So, in these last few weeks of the year, here are a few ways to focus on building and honoring t...

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...

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 ...

Julian Treasure watches out for the ears. In the four TED Talks he's given so far, he's offered up "5 ways to listen better" and "Sound health in 8 steps." At TED2013, we asked him: What speakers have given you the best auditory experience so far? It was nice to hear Jinsop Lee today talking about the five senses. It's liberating to start ...

TEDTalks star Neil Pasricha, the author of "The Book of Awesome" and the new "Even More Awesome," came by the TED office on Tuesday to be part of a one-hour live chat with TEDsters. He asked people to chime in on this question: "What do you do to make your life awesome?" Some lovely and surprising answers ... Luis Eduardo Dejo: a letter a...

On July 27, 2006, the first six TED Talks were posted online. Among them was Al Gore’s talk at TED2006, “Averting the climate crisis,” given a few months before the release of his groundbreaking documentary An Inconvenient Truth. With the release of the film, climate change stormed into public awareness. Fast-forward to 2016 and things have ...

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. Meetings can crush your soul. My personal experience -- and the prevailing wisdom of management and psychology research -- is that meetings default to patterns ...

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. I caught up with a friend of mine a while ago. She's smart, she's brilliant, and she's talented. After we did the usual warm-up chitchat, she looked at me and sa...

Collective wisdom might best be found when small groups of people are given a chance to discuss and deliberate, say social scientists Mariano Sigman, Joaquin Navajas, Gerry Garbulsky and Dan Ariely. Could this suggest a better way to vote? For many years, problems with democracy have been pushed under the carpet in the general belief that “demo...

Human potential is a double-edged sword; it can be turned to great good or great evil. This session is about the discovery, liberation and channeling of human potential in ways that make the world around us a better place. But first, Alsarah & the Nubatones introduce us to East African retro-pop. As Alsarah says from stage mid-set: "T...

Having open discussions can empower you, enlighten you, and maybe even help you get back your mojo, according to sex and relationship coach Pamela Joy. 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. In many wa...

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. We don’t know about you, but we’re ready to travel. And that typically means flying. We have been thinking through this issue as mothers and as an infectious dis...

Yesterday, TED posted a jaw-dropping talk from Paul Root Wolpe that rounds up new bio-engineering experiments, most involving animals, that push our current ethical systems to their limits. From bioengineered glow-in-the-dark pets to supersized salmon, from ratbots to the mouse that grows a human ear -- Wolpe asks us to think deeply about wh...

In 2012, IDEO founder and longtime Stanford professor David Kelley took the TED stage in Long Beach and shared a deeply personal story. It was the tale of his own cancer diagnosis, of finding a lump in his neck and being told he had a 40% chance of survival. This was clearly a sobering moment, but he wasn't sharing the story to seek our sympathy...

Most employers are approaching job interviews all wrong, says business consultant Anthony Tjan. To identify the candidates who have substance and not just smarts, here are better questions to ask. While the number of questions that can be asked on a job interview are infinite, almost all of them fall into one of two categories: questions about ...

By Liz Jacobs and Ben Lillie Taking stock of our moment in history helps us better understand ourselves, our societies and the present moment itself  -- which often gets lost in the temptation to look backwards or forwards. And at TED2014: The Next Chapter we're doing plenty of both. But we're also designating this All-Stars session to th...

Members of the TED community saturated the news in the past two weeks. Below, just a few of these headline-makers: Eight years ago, Hans Rosling shared “The best stats you’ve ever seen” at TED2006, flipping our thinking on global health. BigThink.com is marking the anniversary of that talk. Take their very fun quiz that tests your understan...

What do a disease-fighting epidemiologist (retired) and an up-and-coming social psychologist have in common? They're both fascinated by the unseen social problems hidden behind the word "inequality."  Beyond the lack of access to money and power -- what does inequality do to us as human beings? Epidemiologist Richard Wilkinson (TED Talk: ...

Week 5 of TED2020 featured wide-ranging discussions on the quest for a coronavirus vaccine, the future of the art world, what it's like to lead a country during a pandemic and much more. Below, a recap of insights shared. Jerome Kim, Director General of the International Vaccine Institute Big idea: There's a lot of work still to be don...

Can you optimize a company for calm, not chaos? That’s what entrepreneurs Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson decided to do after they founded Basecamp. Here are 4 strategies they use to minimize distraction and maximize quality work time. How often have you heard someone say “It’s crazy at work”? Maybe you’ve said it yourself. But why so ...

This is the final week of nominations for the TED Prize, which means you only have three more days to nominate a person with a wish to inspire the world for the $1 million honor. Have a mentor who has molded your mind? A friend with an inspired idea? A neighbor with big plans? Tell us about them now, using the official nomination form. This ...

Advice from 7 TED speakers on creating better connections. “Why don’t I feel closer to my parent/sibling/friend/co-worker?” It’s a question that many of us have pondered at some point, and it usually comes out of our desire to feel more connected to the real VIPs in our life: that is, the people we care about, the people we share DNA with an...

For most of us, the job of taking care of the planet is very definitely the responsibility of Someone Else. We might have thoughts, we might have standards, we might even have a composting habit, but we more than likely hope and expect that the trained professionals have got this under control. One problem, of course, is that those who are train...

Derek Paravicini is many things: an incredible piano player, a blind man, an excited talker, a musical savant, and a 30-something with severe autism. In today’s TED Talk, we get a fascinating peek into how he understands music. Paravicini -- who was playing major concert halls at the age of 10 -- not only has perfect pitch, that rare ability...

Researchers have identified many things -- like unpredictable laughter, pale skin, unkempt hair -- that people tend to find unsettling in others. But they’ve also realized this: We humans are pretty poor judges of who we should trust, says psychologist Julia Shaw. We sometimes use terms that ascribe negative traits to people we don’t know. Tha...

Twice, Robin Chase has stood on the TED stage and offered powerful visions for a green, and shared, transportation future. At TED2007, the Zipcar founder suggested that car sharing could be the solution to global warming, while also helping drivers without cars. She also posited an even bigger idea: a mesh network of cars that transport cell...

It's tempting to argue about climate change — but this fascinating dialogue suggests that sometimes, the debate is just not worth your time. Climate expert Vicki Arroyo and risk analyst Dan Kahan discuss. Vicki Arroyo: You’ve been working in Florida recently and that makes me wonder: Can you tell me a little bit about what you’ve learned ...

Yamini Aiyar founded the Accountability Initiative to track and inform the public of what really happens to government money in India. The Initiative also researches the effectiveness of accountability efforts in the country. The group’s work has drawn praise from Indian government officials, and even from President Obama. Taking a cue from he...

Musician, ethnomusicologist, author, and social media maven -- Kyra Gaunt (see her TEDxChisinau talk here) won’t limit herself to one way of thinking. Using a variety of media, she works nonstop to help humanity see our own remarkable unity in diversity. Your work encompasses scholarship, musical performance, educational theory, race, gender,...

In 1945, there were 4.5 million hives of bees in the United States. Today, there are just about 2 million. It’s been a subtle decline over time, but one that has dramatically accelerated over the past seven years. And this should be extremely alarming, given that bees pollinate one-third of the world’s crops. In today’s talk, given at TED...