“Movies have proved to be the ultimate medium for magic,” says Don Levy in today’s talk. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and former senior vice president of marketing and communications at Sony Pictures, Levy has always been fascinated by the sleights of hand that filmmakers use to create illusions. And he knows he i...

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 ...

Watch "The power of x" -- the astonishing, shot-in-one-take opening film for TEDxSummit -- and then see how it was made. This film and photographic experiment set out to prove The Power of X by attempting an Ideas Worth Doing for TEDxSUMMIT. The project fused architecture, dance, math and magic into a bespoke18-meter high triangular mir...

What's it like to have a song inside your head, itching to get out? A neuroscientist and a songwriter compare notes from the frontier of music and science. Music is the most complicated sound the brain can process. But why did our brains evolve such advanced tools to create and enjoy it? Neuroscientist and jazz musician Charles Limb (TED Talk: ...

In a park close to Windsor Castle, to the West of London, is an old oak with a large protruding root. It's sitting on that root that Prince William, The Duke of Cambridge, gives his first TED Talk as part of Countdown, TED's climate initiative launched on October 10, 2020.  Prince William's climate engagement is known. Just two days befor...

The founder of the Beirut Marathon, May El-Khalil tells us how personal tragedy led her to create a peaceful haven in her all-too-often war-torn country. When the former long-distance runner was hit by a truck and left unable to perform as she had before her accident, she turned her efforts to organizing races. "I needed something to take me...

Our friends at Found Sound Nation made this great 3-minute video to show us what's going on at TED2017 this week -- a collaborative music-making experience. If you're here, stop by, and if you're watching online ... check back in on Friday to hear what people created together. Credits: Found Sound Nation: Jeremy Thal Christopher M...

“I make paper interactive,” says Kate Stone in today’s talk, given at TED2013. Because this description of her work “really confuses most people,” the best way to understand it is to see it in action. So in this talk, Stone demonstrates some of her very cool creations -- like a poster that can pick the perfect slice of cake for you, a new...

The speaker sits in front of a bookshelf, notes in hand, a deliberate tone to his voice. As we live through a pandemic and see an even bigger socio-environmental crisis quickly approaching, he says, we all face a choice: "The choice between what matters, and what doesn't." That's how His Holiness Pope Francis frames his second TED Talk, w...

The TED2014 theater will be something audacious: a theater designed specifically for talks. TED stages in the past have had thrusts and three-quarter rounds, but have largely been determined by what existed in the venue. For TED2014, however, as we celebrate our 30th anniversary, we are building a temporary, pop-up theater designed just f...

Born in London in 1950, Antony Gormley is one of Britain's most treasured artists. Winner of the Turner Prize, the South Bank Prize, the Bernhard Heiliger Award for Sculpture, he is an OBE, an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, an honorary doctor of the University of Cambridge and fellow of Trinity and Jesus Colleg...

Unmanned aerial vehicles -- that is, drones -- have a lot of people (and entire countries) hot under the collar. Every few days it seems a new report comes out about the death of another group of "faceless" people, whether it's suspected terrorist leaders or civilians. With little transparency from the governments launching drone strikes, th...

On Tuesday night, we published a very special TED Talk, recorded for TED2017 by His Holiness Pope Francis in Vatican City. In it, His Holiness comments on the state of the world as we find it today and shares some ideas on how we can find hope for the future in togetherness. A talk of this significance required careful planning, collabora...

Simon Sinek begins his talk with the story of former U.S. Army Captain William D. Swenson. In 2009, Swenson was on an operation in Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border, when his column was ambushed. It was bad; many were injured. During this ambush, Swenson called for air support and ran through enemy fire to rescue the wounded. The moment ...

The Olympic motto is "Citius, Altius, Fortius," or, in English, "Faster, higher, stronger." And as sports science reporter David Epstein points out from the TED2014 stage, "Athletes have fulfilled that motto — and they’ve done so rapidly." Epstein investigates why it is that, year upon year, runners, swimmers, gymnasts, basketball players...

The Korean education system is famed for its high levels of scholastic achievement, but as 15-year-old Seoul native Dong Woo Jang professes, not everyone responds to this kind of "pressure cooking" in the same way. His response to the high-pressure environment was an unusual one: to make wooden bows. Why? He's not sure. Perhaps all that stre...

On the web, a new "Friend" may be just a click away, but true connection is harder to find and express. Ze Frank presents a medley of zany Internet toys that require deep participation -- and reward it with something more nourishing. You're invited, if you promise you'll share. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2011, July 2011 in Oxford, England. Duration:...

By Jenny Groza Habana, Cuba, which was called “the rich man’s playground” before World War II, now evokes an air of mystery—a giant question mark. Are there still midcentury cars roaming the streets? Blighted neighborhoods with broken windows and collapsing roofs? Citizens eking out a living after years of oppression? These, says Andre...

  Virtual reality is an emerging medium for artists and educators. Painting is an ancient art form; some cave paintings were made up to 40,000 years ago. In TED-Ed’s first 360° animated video, you can examine the intersection of these two ideas by exploring an ancient cave and its surroundings as educator Iseult Gillespie shares a brief h...

An overwhelming majority of our experience is guided by forces that are invisible to the naked eye. While we can easily see other people, we cannot see their thoughts, nor their genetic structure. And while we can easily rest our eyes on matter, we cannot see gravity, atoms, energy, gases, electricity, or radio waves. Ditto for time. For t...

“For many people,” says Canadian illustrator and author Jonny Sun, “the internet can feel like a lonely place.” “A big endless, expansive void, where you can constantly call out to it, but no one’s listening. ... But it turns out the void isn’t this endless, lonely expanse at all. Instead it’s full of all sorts of other people. Also stari...

A friend recently told me this story: The first time he took his daughter, age 4, on the New York City subway at 9 o’clock in the morning, she anxiously tugged on his sleeve and motioned for him to bend down. She whispered: “Are these people all mad at each other?” New York strap-hangers know the scene well — a subway car full of peopl...

It’s voting day in the United States. As Americans line up at the polls to vote for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, eyes around the world are fixed on the contest, which predictions say will come down to a few key issues. So what has mattered most to Americans in this election? The TED Blog read this Gallup poll, which reveals the issues citize...

We are excited to introduce you to three new speakers who’ve been added to the program for TEDGlobal 2013, themed “Think Again.” First, jazz-pop singer Jamie Cullum will take the stage to perform during session 10, “Imagined Beauty.” Just last week, Cullum released this nerdily adorable video -- shot in one continuous Steadicam take -- for...

At TED, we’re constantly impressed by the accomplishments of young innovators. With talks like Adora Svitak’s “What adults can learn from kids,” 12-year-old Amy O’Toole assisting Beau Lotto in “Science is for everyone: kids included,” and Thomas Suarez, who was developing apps before he could drive, we can’t help but be hopeful for the futur...

“As you can see, my legs are bionic,” said Hugh Herr on the TED2014 stage. "The artificial part of my body is malleable, able to take on any form, any function, a blank slate through which to create structures that can extend beyond biological capability." Standing tall in a suit hemmed at his knees, Herr spoke eloquently about his work c...

In line with TED's mission of spreading ideas, we strive to make our platforms accessible to all users. Designing for accessibility means ensuring that all users can interact with your product and your content -- including users who have disabilities or difficulties using traditional interactions. This includes users who are blind, visually-...

In his TED Talk, Steven Addis shared a tradition that he and his daughter have kept for 15 years, since she was just 1 year old. On a father-daughter trip to New York City, the pair asks a stranger to snap a photo of them on the exact same street corner. Addis calls these photos his 15 most treasured images. Yesterday, Addis and his daugh...

Janet Echelman is installing her new sculpture as we speak. Not in a gallery or on a pedestal, but instead soaring over the middle of downtown Vancouver. The installation involves cranes, hard hats and anchor points engineered atop two buildings: a 24-story hotel and the Vancouver Convention Centre where TED2014 will be held. “After three...

By Courtney E. Martin and John Cary Editor's note: designer John Cary and journalist Courtney E. Martin are the curatorial brains behind the show, “Public Interest Design: Places, Products, & Processes,” which opened at the Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco last October. The entire exhibit has been reinstalled at TED in Long Beach, an...