This week's TED Radio Hour tries to pinpoint what exactly makes a millennial a millennial. Growing up in a world marked by a new set of challenges and opportunities — the Internet, longer lifespans, an economic crisis — today's twentysomethings have a vastly different perspective on and approach to life from previous generations. What makes th...

“Economic development is of the people, by the people and for the people,” declared entrepreneur and economist Iqbal Quadir on the TED stage back in 2005. In his talk, he offered a bold vision for bottom-up development and shared a searing critique of foreign aid -- that it actually does more harm than good. His own story of innovation in his na...

. LittleBits are Tinkertoys, gone electronic.  Some circuits, some lights, some buzzers and some buttons, these brightly colored pieces snap together with magnets, allowing for creation of projects that do things, rather than just sit there. The brainchild of TED Fellow Ayah Bdeir -- who explained the littleBits in a talk at TED2012 -- this...

Walt Cochran, a teacher in Kansas City, shared this touching video with us for Education Week about his children -- one disabled, one not -- who make you think about the depth of the sibling relationship. Lindsay, 10, suffers from a form of Muscular Dystrophy called Spinal Muscular Atrophy and has been in a wheelchair since she was 2 years ol...

A year ago, political scientist Tarig Hilal captivated the audience at TEDxKhartoum with the story of the Sudan he saw -- not a place of violent strife, political unrest or pervasive poverty, but a country of beautiful natural landscapes, a rich history and a hopeful generation of changemakers ready to turn a new chapter in their country’s histo...

Texting is not a blight on the English language, says linguist John McWhorter in today’s talk, given at TED2013. Rather, texting is a “miraculous thing”: a novel linguistic mode that’s redefining the way we communicate with each other -- for the better. McWhorter points out that texting shouldn’t be categorized as written language --but a...

Forty-three years ago this week, the number one tennis star in the world, 29-year-old Billie Jean King, agreed to take on 55-year-old Bobby Riggs, in a match dubbed the “Battle of the Sexes.” The prize was $100,000 -- which compared with today’s million-dollar-winning pots wasn’t much -- but it was the first time that women and men were offe...

Hugh Herr, director of the Biomechatronics Group at The MIT Media Lab, strolls onto the TED2014 stage in a pair of long, black shorts. Normally, what he's wearing wouldn't be of note—except that he's chosen his ensemble today to show us something. Below the hem of his shorts, we see that he has two prosthetic legs. His lab not only creates b...

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. For the first time in modern history, we have five generations interacting at work. The veterans, born between 1922 and 1943, are known as the Greatest Gene...

"Bobby Riggs was one of my heroes. I admired him," says Billie Jean King. "That’s one of the reasons I beat him — because I respected him." King's Q&A on the TEDWomen stage begins with a discussion of one of the greatest sports moments of all time: the Battle of the Sexes, a tennis match between King and Riggs, which she won on Sept. ...

Have boys bottomed out? A new TED Book says yes. The culprit: the rampant overuse of video games and online porn. In their provocative ebook The Demise of Guys: Why Boys Are Struggling and What We Can Do About It, celebrated psychologist Philip G. Zimbardo and Nikita Duncan say that an addiction to video games and online porn have created...

From a speaker helping to contain the ebola outbreak to an America lawyer standing up for rights in Afghanistan to a journalist cracking open the Nigerian media, Session 11: Fighters was filled with crackling talks. A recap: Fred Swaniker kicks off the day with a bold vision for Africa’s future, which, he argues, rests squarely in the han...

In George Ayittey's classic TED Talk from 2007, he describes two factions in Africa toggling for control -- the "hippo generation," the ruling elites riddled with corruption and inaction, and the "cheetah generation," the fast-moving entrepreneurial leaders with the ability to create change. This session -- guest hosted by TED Fellows Adrian Hon...

A good story can make a campfire that much eerier. A good story can flip a conversation at a party from completely awkward to wonderful. A good story can glue your nose to a book. And, on screen, a good story can rivet generation after generation. So, uh, how do you tell one? Andrew Stanton, the Pixar writer and director behind both Toy St...

Something huge is coming, and it sounds like an ad for a bag of potato chips. CRISPR, which makes gene editing so cheap and easy a talented high schooler could do it, is the latest technology that promises to radically change the world. But what exactly can it do, and what are the potential dangers? Journalist Jennifer Kahn is here to exp...

A persistent sight in David Sengeh's childhood, growing up in Sierra Leone: amputees. Losing a limb was an all-too-common fact in the civil-war-torn region. But the aftermath was almost worse, Sengeh saw, as he watched family members and friends struggle with ill-fitting, uncomfortable prosthetics that hurt too much to wear. Here, the 201...

Just a Band was formed by Sellanga, Daniel Muli and Jim Chuchu while they were students at Kenyatta University. The group blew up following the release of "Ha-He," thanks to their unique blend of funk, electronic and DIY charm. Now with three studio albums under their belt, the band has added members Mbithi Masya, James Ireri, Joe Were and Richa...

Science funding is broken. To fix it, we need to empower a new class of makers, citizen scientists and explorers The troubling state of science funding in America goes by many names: sequestration, the profzi scheme, the postdocalypse. Because it can take extensive planning over years in academia to gain research funds from the National Science...

“We are the first generation to feel the impact of climate change, and the last generation that can do something about it.” What does global weirding mean for the global South? 3 ideas behind the news. Source: “The state of the climate — and what we might do about it,” TED Talks, 2014. Why you should watch this talk: The problem of climate cha...

“Your lifestyle is the future of marketing,” Bob Lord told a group of young New Yorkers at the TED Annex (our new spillover office) on Tuesday night. About 80 interns and young professionals from local marketing firms came together to eat pizza and hear Lord's advice on merging creativity and digital know-how, during a conversation with TED’s ...

By the organizers of TEDxBeirut Archaeologists believe that Phoenician traders, who set out from the shores of Lebanon, spread their alphabet across the ancient Mediterranean world, unleashing a chain reaction that they couldn't have conceived of even in their wildest dreams. Today, we are honored to spread that word again as Suzanne Talh...

The amazing Cindy Gallop -- whose 2009 TEDTalk was a powerful look at the effects of online porn on a generation of young people -- has expanded the short talk into a thoughtful TED Book. In Make Love Not Porn: Technology's Hardcore Impact on Human Behavior, Gallop talks about the personal experiences and research that inspired her to give the t...

.TED Fellows are an extraordinary group of innovators and iconoclasts. Today's Fellows in the Field features Ayah Bdeir, founder of hardware startup littleBits. Hailed as LEGO for the iPad generation, littleBits are a set of open source, preassembed electronic modules that snap together with magnets to make larger, more complex circuits, all...

With less than a week until America casts ballots in what has become one of the most controversial US presidential elections in history, TED invited the social psychologist and expert on the psychology of morality Jonathan Haidt to talk about our divisions -- and how we might heal. In conversation with TED curator Chris Anderson at TED HQ...

Courtney Martin: "Our generation is painted as apathetic. I'd say we're overwhelmed." Sheryl Sandberg: No one gets to the corner office by sitting on the side (instead of at the table). Columnist Mona Eltahawy says the conversation on Muslim women is usually this: "headscarves and hymens." ...

Is a private Facebook group the 2017 version of the all-men’s golf getaway? What’s the difference between being “a good man” and “a real man”? In an honest and eye-opening conversation, Baby Boomer Michael Kimmel and his Generation Z son, Zachary, share their experiences of masculinity. Michael Kimmel (TED Talk: Why gender equality is good for ...

Chances are, what you're doing at this very minute is killing you. That's right, sitting down is killing you. As Nilofer Merchant tells us today at TED, people sit 9.3 hours a day, more than they even sleep. As you sit, you don't burn fat, and inactivity causes 10 percent of colon and breast cancer. You could say that sitting has become the ...

Last year at TED, Steve Rosenbaum shared this look inside the yet-to-open 9/11 Museum, filled with artifacts and stories from the people in the Twin Towers -- the tower workers, the rescue teams, steelworkers, first responders, clean-up crews. The museum will be a powerful way to tell the stories from the attacks, and answer questions for a g...

The deadline to apply to become a 2011 TED Fellow is August 20, 2010. The TED Fellows program is looking for the next generation of innovators who've demonstrated remarkable accomplishment and the potential to positively affect the world. If this sounds like you, first read the tips for applying -- and then apply. Learn more about the TED Fel...

When Hillary Clinton became the first female nominee of a major political party in the United States this summer, she reflected that this achievement "belongs to generations of women and men who struggled, sacrificed and made this moment possible." Women have been leaders throughout history, making positive changes in their communities. But in s...