Every artist has a name, and every artist has a story. Laolu Senbanjo's story started in Nigeria, where he was surrounded by the culture and mythology of the Yoruba, and brought him to law school, to New York and eventually to work on Beyoncé's "Lemonade." He shares what he calls "The Sacred Art of the Ori," art that uses skin as canvas and conn...

Design gives form to the future, says architect Bjarke Ingels. In this worldwide tour of his team's projects, journey to a waste-to-energy power plant (that doubles as an alpine ski slope) and the LEGO Home of the Brick in Denmark -- and catch a glimpse of cutting-edge flood resilience infrastructure in New York City as well as an ambitious plan...

Growing up as a comic book fan, artist Shawn Martinbrough rarely saw people of color depicted positively (or at all) in the stories he loved. So he headed over to New York Comic Con to wrangle himself his first assignment for Marvel Comics. Now, as a successful artist who has worked on "Black Panther" and "Hellboy," he shares the importance of d...

Isabella Baumfree was born into slavery in late 18th century New York. Fleeing bondage with her youngest daughter, she renamed herself Sojourner Truth and embarked on a legendary speaking tour. She became known as an electrifying orator and her speeches impacted thousands of people in communities across the United States. Daina Ramey Berry detai...

Cities are becoming increasingly privatized: commercial real estate dominates the streets, carving up open space that once belonged to the public and selling it as a commodity to the highest bidder. Architect Elizabeth Diller explores the causes and effects of this growing threat -- and takes us on tour of her groundbreaking projects aimed at cr...

Brothers Jonny, Robbie and Tommy Mizzone are The Sleepy Man Banjo Boys, a trio of virtuoso bluegrass musicians who play with dazzling vivacity. Did we mention they're all under 16?

Hannah Brencher's mother always wrote her letters. So when she felt herself bottom into depression after college, she did what felt natural -- she wrote love letters and left them for strangers to find. The act has become a global initiative, The World Needs More Love Letters, which rushes handwritten letters to those in need of a boost.

In this lively talk and performance, artist and TED Fellow Amma Y. Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin offers a sneak peek of her forthcoming musical "At Buffalo." Drawing on archival material from the 1901 Pan-American Exhibition, a world's fair held in Buffalo, New York, the show examines conflicting representations of black identity exhibited at the fair --...

TED-Ed Weekend is a youth conference that brings together student leaders from around the world for a chance to take over TED Headquarters in New York City. TED-Ed Weekend 2020 February 8-9, 2020 New York, NY TED-Ed Weekend showcases and amplifies the voices of the next generation of TED. It’s an opportunity for youth leaders around the world ...

Legendary architect Renzo Piano -- the mind behind such indelible buildings as The Shard in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the new Whitney Museum of Art in New York City -- takes us on a stunning tour through his life's work. With the aid of gorgeous imagery, Piano makes an eloquent case for architecture as the answer to our dreams, as...

"Building a 30-foot-high concrete structure from sea to shining sea is the most expensive and least effective way to do border security," says Congressman Will Hurd, a Republican from Texas whose district encompasses two times zones and shares an 820-mile border with Mexico. Speaking from Washington, DC in a video interview with former state att...

TED Fellow Negin Farsad weaves comedy and social commentary to cleverly undercut stereotypes of her culture. In this uproarious talk/stand-up hybrid, Farsad speaks on her documentary, The Muslims Are Coming!, narrates her fight with the MTA in New York and offers a detailed breakdown of the different types of haters she's encountered in her work...

With the Climate Reality Project, Al Gore is helping mold future leaders to build the movement for climate survival and social justice from the ground up. He introduces us to four of the Project's graduates, each of whom confronts climate change on their own terms: Ximena Loría, founder of Misión 2 Grados, an NGO influencing public policy in Cen...

The concepts of work and power help us unlock and understand many of the physical laws that govern our universe. In this Lesson, Peter Bohacek explores the interplay of each concept when applied to two common objects---a lightbulb and a grandfather clock. [Directed by Luke Cahill, narrated by Peter Bohacek].

How to be happier at work? Start by focusing on happiness -- not, surprisingly, on work. We learned this fun fact from Shawn Achor's TED Talk. So we asked Achor to choose some more talks he loves, about making work and life a happier place.

Author A.J. Jacobs embarked on a quest with a deceptively simple idea at its heart: to personally thank every person who helped make his morning cup of coffee. More than one thousand "thank yous" later, Jacobs reflects on the globe-trotting journey that ensued -- and shares the life-altering wisdom he picked up along the way. "I discovered that ...

Jason Fried has a radical theory of working: that the office isn't a good place to do it. He calls out the two main offenders (call them the M&Ms) and offers three suggestions to make the workplace actually work.

Robin Nagle is anthropologist-in-residence at the Department of Sanitation and longtime resident of New York City. In this interview with Alison Prato, she describes a life dedicated to, well, trash. In 1982, Robin Nagle moved to New York City from Saranac Lake, in upstate New York, to become an actor. Today, she is the anthropologist-in-resi...

The Way We Work is an original video series where leaders and thinkers offer practical wisdom and insight into how we can adapt and thrive amid changing workplace conventions. (Made possible with the support of Dropbox)

Mark Bezos works at Robin Hood, a poverty-fighting charity in New York City, and the assistant captain of a volunteer fire company in suburban New York.

About this event: "New York, New York" is the theme that many time TED speaker, Rives, has selected for his TEDxEast Salon. Friday, November 18, from 6- 9 pm. Ticket price includes admission and light snacks, cash bar. Tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable.

About this event: Science Technology Engineering Arts Maths - STEAM A new STEAM age Arts / Learning / Technology We will be looking at how the Arts can make a creative impact within the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subject areas to deliver a new STEAM Age of innovation and creativity This event has been supported by Pilot Theatre,...

Work-life balance, says Nigel Marsh, is too important to be left in the hands of your employer. Marsh lays out an ideal day balanced between family time, personal time and productivity -- and offers some stirring encouragement to make it happen.

Whatever your business conundrum, there’s a TED Talk for that — whether you want to learn how to land that promotion, set smart goals, undo injustice at work, or unlock the next big innovation. Every Monday, host Modupe Akinola of Columbia Business School presents the most powerful and surprising ideas that illuminate the business world. After t...

In honor of Universal Children's Day, we are excited to announce TEDYouth -- November 19, 2011, at the Times Center in New York City. TEDYouth will coincide with more than 85 self-organized TEDxYouthDay events happening worldwide on November 19-21, 2011. The theme for our TEDYouth program is "Play, Learn, Build and Share." Be inspired a...

Your DNA makes you, you -- but how does it work? These talks explore what we know about the genome, the unique genetic sequence that makes up life as we know it.

About this event: There are three main sessions in our TEDxYork event: Constructed Realities, Enhanced Realities and Blurred Realities. Firstly we will explore how memories are anchored, how we both engage with and protect ourselves from the world around us, and how technology can affect and reflect different kinds of truth. We will explore the realities from th...

Domestic workers are entrusted with the most precious aspects of people's lives -- they're the nannies, the elder-care workers and the house cleaners who do the work that makes all other work possible. Too often, they're invisible, taken for granted or dismissed as "help," yet they continue to do their wholehearted best for the families and home...

Michael Pemberton is a New York-based actor and singer/songwriter.

The immense swell of a tsunami can grow up to 100 feet, hitting speeds over 500 mph -- a treacherous combination for anyone or anything in its path. Alex Gendler details the causes of these towering terrors and explains how scientists are seeking to reduce their destruction in the future. [Directed by Augenblick Studios, narrated by Michelle Sno...