Corruption is a constant threat in Kenya, says social entrepreneur Wanjira Mathai -- and to stop it there (or anywhere else), we need to intervene early. Following the legacy of her mother, political activist and Nobel Prize recipient Wangari Maathai, Mathai shares three strategies to uproot a culture of corruption by teaching children and young...

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...

In this deeply moving talk, Lucy Kalanithi reflects on life and purpose, sharing the story of her late husband, Paul, a young neurosurgeon who turned to writing after his terminal cancer diagnosis. "Engaging in the full range of experience -- living and dying, love and loss -- is what we get to do," Kalanithi says. "Being human doesn't happen de...

For most of history, scientists weren't quite sure why our hearts were beating or even what purpose they served. Eventually, we realized that these thumping organs serve the vital task of pumping clean blood throughout the body. But how? Edmond Hui investigates how it all works by taking a closer look at the heart's highly efficient ventricle sy...

You might not expect the chief operating officer of a major global corporation to look too far beyond either the balance sheet or the bottom line. But Harish Manwani, COO of Unilever, makes a passionate argument that doing so to include value, purpose and sustainability in top-level decision-making is not just savvy, it's the only way to run a 2...

Nearly 28,000 species of orchid grow all around the world, bearing every imaginable color, shape and pattern. There's a cunning purpose behind these elaborate displays: many orchids trick insects into pollinating, sometimes even into having sex with them. How do they deploy these deceptive tactics? Anne Gaskett dives into the surprisingly comple...

How do you navigate life's growing number of transitions with meaning, purpose and skill? Writer Bruce Feiler offers a powerful way to handle uncertain, painful and confusing times -- or "lifequakes", as he calls them. Learn how to equip yourself with the essential tools and mindset to ride out (and rewrite) the toughest chapters of your life st...

How do spaces shape the human experience? In what ways do our rooms, homes and buildings give us meaning and purpose? In this segment, architect Michael Murphy joins host Manoush Zomorodi to explore the power of the spaces we make and inhabit. To listen to the whole episode, find TED Radio Hour wherever you're listening to this. And explore the ...

Women's equality won't just happen -- not unless more women are put in positions of power, says Sandi Toksvig. In a disarmingly hilarious talk, Toksvig tells the story of how she helped start a new political party in Britain, the Women's Equality Party, with the express purpose of putting equality on the ballot. Now she hopes people around the w...

As automation eliminates structured jobs and careers, schools should focus on training students to be bold, creative and entrepreneurial. Instead, argues education advocate Ted Dintersmith, the core purpose of education has been lost in a wave of testing, data and increasingly irrelevant metrics. In this talk, he underscores the need to educate...

Even with public trust at an all-time low, Wikipedia continues to maintain people's confidence. How do they do it? Former CEO of Wikimedia Foundation Katherine Maher delves into the transparent, adaptable and community-building ways the online encyclopedia brings free and reliable information to the public -- while also accounting for bias and d...

A handful of species on Earth share a seemingly mysterious trait: a menstrual cycle. We're one of the select few mammals on Earth that menstruate, and we also do it more than any other animal, even though it's a waste of nutrients, and can be a physical inconvenience. So where's the sense in this uncommon biological process? TED-Ed describes the...

You know that little pink thing nestled in the corner of your eye? It's actually the remnant of a third eyelid. In humans, it's vestigial, meaning it no longer serves its original purpose. There are several other vestigial structures in the human body, quietly riding along from one of our ancestor species to the next. But why have they stuck aro...

Given the choice between a job candidate with a perfect resume and one who has fought through difficulty, human resources executive Regina Hartley always gives the "Scrapper" a chance. As someone who grew up with adversity, Hartley knows that those who flourish in the darkest of spaces are empowered with the grit to persist in an ever-changing w...

Ah, romantic love; beautiful and intoxicating, heart-breaking and soul-crushing... often all at the same time! If romantic love has a purpose, neither science nor psychology has discovered it yet – but over the course of history, some of our most respected philosophers have put forward some intriguing theories. Skye C. Cleary outlines five of th...

When it comes to big life problems, we often stand at a crossroads: either believe we're powerless against great change, or we rise to meet the challenge. In an urgent call to action, political strategist Tom Rivett-Carnac makes the case for adopting a mindset of "stubborn optimism" to confront climate change -- or whatever crisis may come our w...

Our society is in the midst of a social crisis, says op-ed columnist and author David Brooks: we're trapped in a valley of isolation and fragmentation. How do we find our way out? Based on his travels across the United States -- and his meetings with a range of exceptional people known as "weavers" -- Brooks lays out his vision for a cultural re...

Inside our cells, each of us has a second set of genes completely separate from our 23 pairs of chromosomes. And this isn't just true for humans— it's true of every animal, plant, and fungus on Earth. This second genome belongs to our mitochondria, an organelle inside our cells. So why are they so different from anything else in our bodies? Devi...

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has created previously unthinkable changes in geopolitics, seemingly overnight. In this vital conversation, political analyst Ian Bremmer takes a closer look at the global implications of the war, including NATO and the EU's renewed sense of purpose, the spiral of escalation, energy politics and the significant, pote...

There's no greater freedom than finding your purpose, says education advocate Ashweetha Shetty. Born to a poor family in rural India, Shetty didn't let the social norms of her community stifle her dreams and silence her voice. In this personal talk, she shares how she found self-worth through education -- and how she's working to empower other r...

In 2018, to mark the 400th anniversary of the first recorded arrival of enslaved Africans to American shores, Mindy Fullilove worked with her class at the New School to create a timeline of inequality in the United States, incorporating the narratives of a range of marginalized groups. Their purpose was to visualize the ecology of inequality, si...

Regina Hartley thinks that those who don't always look good on paper may be just the person you need to hire.

In her book "Citizen Scientist," Mary Ellen Hannibal traces the origins of today’s tech-savvy citizen science movement back through centuries of amateur observations by writers and naturalists.

Wanjira Mathai has more than 20 years of experience advocating for social and environmental change on both local and international platforms.

Lorna Davis inspires, coaches and provokes leaders to use business as a force for good.

Bruce Feiler is a leading voice on family, work, transitions and meaning.

At Purpose, Jeremy Heimans strategizes how to harness new social, economic and technological models to build movements with impact.

BCG’s Martin Danoesastro supports organizations to change their ways of working at scale, enabling them to succeed in an increasingly digital world.

Tilak Mandadi and his global team at Disney are integral to converging the physical and digital worlds to create magical memories for more than 150 million annual guests at Disney’s theme parks, hotels, cruise ships, retail stores and restaurants -- and bringing that magic home to millions more with games, books and digital experiences.

The tiny atoms that make up our world are made up of even tinier protons, neutrons and electrons. Though the number of protons determines an atom's identity, it's the electrons -- specifically, their exact location outside the nucleus -- that particularly perplex scientists. George Zaidan and Charles Morton show how to make an educated guess of ...