How did human emotions evolve to help us survive? For the last decade, cultural anthropologist Chelsea Shields Strayer has studied the indigenous healing practices of the Ashante people of Ghana, discovering that emotional pain serves useful purposes -- including the relief of physical pain. In this conversation with the TED Blog, she tells th...

Bioarchaeologist Christine Lee reconstructs lives from ancient human remains, looking for clues as to how they lived, fought and died. In the process, she gains insight about the history of disease, the evolution of culture, the violence of human nature -- and her own identity. What prompted you to become a bioarchaeologist? When I was lit...

In her luminous TEDxRainier talk, Lesley Hazleton, a writer and “accidental theologist,” described herself as “a tourist” in the Koran, and shared her discovery of the musicality, ambiguity, and depth of a text known by name to billions, but read intimately by far fewer. We met Lesley by phone and asked her to share more of her impressions o...

“The White City.” “The City of the Monkey God.” “The Place of Cacao.” Rumors of a majestic city nestled in the remote rainforest of Honduras — referred to by all of these names — have circulated for centuries, wedging their way into Honduran national identity. They seemed to be the stuff of legend. Until a team of explorers emerged from Hond...

After a childhood spent traveling the world with her rabbinical family, photographer Kitra Cahana found she couldn't stop. With her camera as her vehicle, she began work as a documentary photographer, shooting for publications like The New York Times and National Geographic. When Cahana is not on assignment, she comes home to a life on the r...

Food feeds the soul. To the extent that we all eat food, and we all have souls, food is the single great unifier across cultures. But what feeds your soul? For me, a first-generation Korean-American, comfort food is a plate of kimchi, white rice, and fried Spam. Such preferences are personally meaningful -- and also culturally meaningful. Our c...