Rich scientific evidence comes from the history of life on Earth -- we just have to ask the right questions to find it. Whether it's figuring out the cause of the dodo bird's extinction or the bite force of a Tyrannosaurus rex, paleontologist Michael Benton shares some offbeat quandaries from the past, present and future.

The Ho Chi Minh Trail not only connected North and South Vietnam during a brutal war but also aided Vietnamese soldiers. The trail shaved nearly five months of time off of the trip and was used as a secret weapon of sorts. Cameron Paterson describes the history and usage of the infamous trail. [Directed by Maxwell Sørensen, narrated by Cameron P...

Jared Diamond investigates why cultures prosper or decline -- and what we can learn by taking a broad look across many kinds of societies.

Still invisible and often an afterthought, Indigenous peoples are uniting to protect the world's water, lands and history -- while trying to heal from genocide and ongoing inequality. Tribal attorney and Couchiching First Nation citizen Tara Houska chronicles the history of attempts by government and industry to eradicate the legitimacy of Indig...

Twenty years after the death of her father, famed Brazilian architect Roger Zmekhol, filmmaker Denise Zmekhol returned to her home country to learn more about how he brought mid-century modern design to Brazil and to see his celebrated "Pele de Vidro" (Skin of Glass) building. She tells the story of the building's complicated history and its fate.

Surely not the only science career based on a museum tour epiphany, Paul Sereno's is almost certainly the most triumphant. He's dug up dinosaurs on five continents -- and discovered the world's largest crocodile, the (extinct) 40-foot Sarchosuchus.

Doris Kearns Goodwin writes insightful books on the US Presidency (JFK, LBJ, FDR and Lincoln, so far), telling each president's personal story against the backdrop of history.

Marc Pachter has spent his career curating and creating intimate portraits of the lives of others.

The constant thud underneath your feet. The constrained space. The monotony of going nowhere fast. Running on a treadmill can certainly feel like torture, but did you know it was originally used for that very purpose? Conor Heffernan details the dark and twisted history of the treadmill. [Directed by Yukai Du, narrated by Addison Anderson, music...

We've all heard the theories on why the dinosaurs died -- but how did they come to dominate the earth for so long in the first place? (Hint: it has nothing to do with their size, speed, spikes or fantastic feathers.) Travel back in time to 200 million years before their extinction with paleontologist Emma Schachner for a breath of fresh air on d...

Brewster Kahle is building a truly huge digital library -- every book ever published, every movie ever released, all the strata of web history ... It's all free to the public -- unless someone else gets to it first.

Colonialism remains an inescapable blight on the present, lingering in the toxic, internalized mythologies and stereotypes that have outlived the regimes that created them, says historian Farish Ahmad-Noor. Examining why these prejudices and narratives persist (and sometimes thrive), he suggests a multidisciplinary approach to reject cultural ob...

Science historian Sonia Shah explores the surprisingly fascinating story behind an ancient scourge: malaria.

When you think of North American cuisine, do Indigenous foods come to mind? Chef Sean Sherman serves up an essential history lesson that explains the absence of Native American culinary traditions across the continent, highlighting why revitalizing Indigenous education sits at the center of a better diet and healthier relationship with the planet.

History is written by the victors, as the saying goes -- but what would it look like if it was written by everyone? Journalist and TED Fellow Mikhail Zygar is on a mission to show us with Project1917, a "social network for dead people" that posts the real diaries and letters of more than 3,000 people who lived during the Russian Revolution. By s...

In 2018, biomolecular archaeologist Ian Barnes' team at the Natural History Museum in London ascertained that Cheddar Man—the oldest near-complete human skeleton discovered in the British Isles—had dark skin and light eyes. Their findings challenged the views that many groups had long held about Britain's racial heritage. In this talk, Barnes de...

Kary Mullis won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing a way to copy a strand of DNA. (His technique, called PCR, jump-started the 1990s' biorevolution.) He's known for his wide-ranging interests -- and strong opinions.

Why are we so obsessed with World War II? Historian Keith Lowe thinks the answer lies in what we choose to remember and what we choose to forget about history. In his talk, Lowe describes the grey areas of an epochal event often considered in black and white terms, and argues that we need to challenge our assumptions to avoid repeating historica...

Sometimes, a single decision can change the course of history. Join journalist and author Isabel Wilkerson as she tells the story of the Great Migration, the outpouring of six million African Americans from the Jim Crow South to cities in the North and West between World War I and the 1970s. This was the first time in American history that the l...

The Great Wall of China is a 13,000-mile dragon of earth and stone that winds its way through the countryside of China. As it turns out, the wall's history is almost as long and serpentine as its structure. Megan Campisi and Pen-Pen Chen detail the building and subsequent decay of this massive, impressive wall. [Directed by Steff Lee, narrated b...

When humanity first landed on the moon in 1969, the typeface Futura was right there with them. In this fascinating history of typography, designer Douglas Thomas shares Futura's role in launching the Apollo 11 spacecraft -- and how it became one of the most used fonts in the world.

Sean Gourley, trained as a physicist, has turned his scientific mind to analyzing data about a messier topic: modern war and conflict. He is a TED Fellow.

Marc Pachter has conducted live interviews with some of the most intriguing characters in recent American history as part of a remarkable series created for the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. He reveals the secret to a great interview and shares extraordinary stories of talking with Steve Martin, Clare Booth Luce and more.

Conceptual artist and TED Fellow Sanford Biggers uses painting, sculpture, video and performance to spark challenging conversations about the history and trauma of black America. Join him as he details two compelling works and shares the motivation behind his art. "Only through more thoughtful dialogue about history and race can we evolve as ind...

Loki the mischief-maker, writhes in Thor's iron grip. The previous night, he'd snuck up on Thor's wife and shorn off her beautiful hair. To fix what he'd done, Loki rushes to the dwarves and tricks them into making gifts for the gods. Wanting to best their smith rivals, the dwarves make a set of golden treasures, including a hammer called Mjolni...

2,300 years ago, the rulers of Alexandria set out to fulfill an audacious goal: to collect all the knowledge in the world under one roof. In its prime, the Library of Alexandria housed an unprecedented number of scrolls and attracted some of the Greek world's greatest minds. But by the end of the 5th century CE, it had vanished. Elizabeth Cox de...

How does your genetic inheritance, culture and history influence your health? Biological anthropologist Lara Durgavich discusses the field of evolutionary medicine as a gateway to understanding the quirks of human biology -- including why a genetic mutation can sometimes have beneficial effects -- and emphasizes how unraveling your own evolution...

Gregory Heyworth uses spectral imaging technology to uncover lost classics that could rewrite history.

Flags are one of the simplest yet most powerful pieces of design ever conceived. They can make us swell with pride, burn with hatred -- and even inspire people to die or kill in their name, says vexillologist Michael Green. Take a brief walk through history as Green explores the symbolic fervor behind flags that unify and divide, inviting us to ...

Cultural historian Fay Bound Alberti explains why we need to reframe our perspective of loneliness, focusing on how nostalgia and our sensory experiences could help us better understand and heal from isolation.