In February 2006, author and educator Sir Ken Robinson stepped on to the TED stage and posed a provocative question: "Do schools kill creativity?” What followed was a masterclass in public speaking -- 19 minutes that sparkled with wit, deep thinking and a fearless confidence in human potential. Since then, Sir Ken's talk has taken on a life ...

Watch as four student reporters hand Sir Ken Robinson a "blank check" and say: Design a learning place of your dreams. It's a three-part video series -- and definitely do watch through to Part 3, where things get a little bit silly.

Sir Ken Robinson is not just an amazing orator -- he is the most-viewed speaker on TED.com. His three talks have been viewed an astounding 21.5 million times, making him the sneezing baby panda of the TED ecosystem. Naturally, this made us curious: what talks does Robinson absolutely love? In this new playlist, Robinson selects 10 talks about...

At TED2010, we sent a video crew to follow two speakers as they prepared to give the talk of their lives. One, the artist Raghava KK, had never spoken at TED before. The other, Sir Ken Robinson, in 2006 gave one of the most watched TED Talks of all time. Follow both speakers on their journey to the TED stage in this charming 8-minute film: ...

Yesterday, Twitter user @ademoor wrote: Thinking of organizing a #TEDtalk video night w/ some friends. What's your absolute favorite must-see talk? Great question! We RT'ed on @TEDNews. And the replies are worth sharing: @WackyFiasco: I really appreciated Dan Gilbert's talk on happiness ... @ozteethtweet: hans rosling, can't get ...

With just over a month to go before the 2012 presidential election in the US, eyes around the world are on the contest between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. The election may well come down to a few key issues. So what matters most to Americans? The TED Blog read this Gallup poll from late July on issues that citizens want the next president ...

The wild ride continues on March 20, 2014: Day 4 at TED2014. Here are some highlights from this Thursday: NSA deputy director Richard Ledgett responds to Edward Snowden The day after Edward Snowden made a surprise visit to the TED stage via telepresence robot, the morning opened on a buzzing but tense note with Richard Ledgett joining ...

Over the weekend, we asked the TED community on Facebook this question: "If you wanted to show a TEDTalk to open the school year, which one would you choose?" It's inspired by a question tweeted from the #jed21 conference. On Facebook, almost 1,000 responses flowed in. The job of tallying the results -- given in freeform comments -- fell to our...

As the daughter and granddaughter of educators, teaching is in Rita Pierson’s blood. In this talk -- a teaser of next Tuesday’s TED Talks Education on PBS -- Pierson is going to make you wish you had been lucky enough to be her student. Pierson believes deeply in forming strong bonds with her students: through simple things like apologizing, ...

This short post collects messages and reflections on Rita Pierson, who passed away Friday in Texas. If Dr. Pierson's talk or work touched your life, please share in the comments below. So very sorry to have this terrible news. I only met Dr. Pearson on the day of the recording and was deeply impressed as we all were by her passion, vivac...

It was one of the original six talks posted on TED.com and it has, over the years, become our most-watched video with 13.5 million views. Sir Ken Robinson’s talk from TED2006, “Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity,” is truly a juggernaut. But the real genius is Matt. He has so much creative intelligence, that we're going to do some s...

In this reel, TED recaps an amazing year of talks from three conferences, a bunch of smaller TED events -- and a powerful year of TEDx. Dive in, and then follow up with talks that intrigue you ... You'll see, in order of appearance: The LXD, Chris Anderson and Julian Assange, Bill Gates, Chip Conley, Naomi Klein, John Underkoffler...

On Tuesday night, PBS and TED joined forces to air TED Talks Education, a one-hour televised special, featuring passionate teachers, students and researchers from the field who shared their ideas about transforming the US education system. We were so inspired by these spirited speakers that we asked them to curate playlists of their favorite...

In this session, TED is hosting a dinner party on stage, with various TED attendees and some speakers sitting on stage throughout. Seth Godin, Stewart Brand and Sir Ken Robinson are all primed and ready to jump in with discussion of those we are about to hear. Namely: Rebecca Newberger Goldstein writes novels that explore questions of phi...

Dance -- and physical activity -- should have the same status in schools as math, science and language. Psst: it may even help raise test scores, says Sir Ken Robinson. For several years, I’ve been a patron of the London School of Contemporary Dance. In 2016, I was invited to give the annual lecture in honor of founding principal Robert Cohan, ...

Following a rousing introduction from Sir Ken Robinson, education innovator Sugata Mitra accepted the first-ever $1 million TED Prize at TED2013. As soon as the TED Prize winner’s identity was revealed, the Twittersphere buzzed about Sugata’s vision for the future of learning. People around the world answered Sugata’s invitation to help reinv...

TED is coming to a TV screen near you. On Tuesday, May 7, our first-ever television special will air on PBS at 10pm. Called TED Talks Education, the special is a deep dive on ideas to make our education system stronger – with talks from teachers, learning experts, education researchers and more. The speaker roster includes: host John Legend,...

With fresh thinking and bold ideas, TED and PBS are hosting a one-hour special with talks about the US high school dropout crisis. On May 7 at 10pm, PBS will air the very first televised TED event, TED Talks Education. The event, filmed in New York on April 4, brings together an hour of speakers and performers with a deep-rooted passion for e...

Twitter was ablaze yesterday with some interesting news: Kermit the Frog had just become the first frog (albeit puppet) to give a TEDx Talk. On Thursday afternoon, the green superstar hopped on over to Jackson, Mississippi, to give a standing-ovation-grabbing talk at TEDxJackson. Kermit was a natural fit for the event, as The Muppets creator...

UPDATED: To see all these talks at one click, check out our updated Playlist: The 20 Most Popular Talks of All Time. As 2013 draws to a close, TED is deeply humbled to have posted 1600+ talks, each representing an idea worth spreading. So which ideas have had the most widespread impact? Below, a look at the 20 most-watched talks as of Dec...

From the earliest days of human exploration we've made progressively more accurate and sophisticated maps. Maps help us find our way around the world we live in. Maps help us get to our destination. Maps keep us from becoming lost. But what if you have no destination? What if becoming lost is the point? Well, there's a map for that. Lots ...

Our minds and bodies constantly master lessons from our surroundings. In other words, we seem to have a natural inclination to learn. That is the idea behind this week’s TED Radio Hour: “Unstoppable Learning,” brought to you by NPR. This episode explores that dynamic experience of learning that begins in the womb and how recognizing this essenti...

TED is dedicated to ideas worth spreading. And that leaves many wondering exactly which ideas have been spread the most widely in the six years that TEDTalks videos have been available online. Here, a list of the 20 most-watched talks on all the platforms we track: TED.com, YouTube, iTunes, embed and download, Hulu and more, as of November 2...

TED is launching a new way for curious audiences to immerse themselves more deeply in some of the most compelling ideas on our platform: The TED Interview, a long-form TED original podcast series. Beginning October 16, weekly episodes of The TED Interview will feature head of TED Chris Anderson deep in conversation with TED speakers about th...

By Kate Torgovnick, Morton Bast, Thu-Huong Ha The future. When it comes down to it, it's not about flying cars, flashy robots, jetpacks, or awesome sunglasses. It's about the little things we can do to advance healthcare, better education, create opportunities, improve connections between each other, and make lives just a little bit easie...

Today, on the fifth birthday of TEDTalks video, we're releasing a new list of the 20 most-watched TEDTalks over the past five years -- as watched on all the platforms we track: TED.com, YouTube, iTunes, embed and download, Hulu and more ... What a great, mixed-up group this is! Talks about education and creativity, sex and fish, whizzy tech d...

TEDSketchNotes.Tumblr.com gives you Cliffs Notes to talks from speakers like Del Harvey, Ken Robinson, Andras Forgacs and Ed Yong, in sketchbook form. The passion project of Chicago-area designer Stefani Bachetti, what sets this Tumblr apart from other sketchnote spins on talks (see them from TEDGlobal 2011, TED2012, TED2013 and TED2014) is ...

A collaboration between TED and Japanese public broadcaster NHK is bringing TEDTalks to TV for the first time in Japan -- for Super Presentation! It's a series that harnesses TED speakers' persuasive ideas to teach English, empower a new generation of independent thinkers, and build hope one year after the Japanese tsunami. Friday night a...

The TED community has been busy as usual this week. Below, some newsy highlights. On the ground in Baltimore. Last Monday night, Paul Lewis used Twitter’s live video app, Periscope, to document the demonstrations and riots that erupted after Freddie Gray’s funeral in Baltimore. In a series of videos, he interviewed residents of the city, in...

The past few weeks have seen some extraordinary TED-relevant news items, both happy and sad. Below are some highlights. This year’s TEDGlobal included a new simulcast event, TEDxVilniusLive, which featured a livestream of the conference, a TEDxYouShare audience session, and a Maker Fair that showed off plenty of innovative local work. Lith...