A recent Gallup poll listed the most- and least-trusted professions in America. At the bottom of the list: car salesmen and members of Congress. It’s not hard to understand why our politicians rate so poorly — scandals, myopia, obstinance, party loyalty over common good, fiscal cliffs. All have left voters exasperated and confused. But while con...

The day after the Brexit referendum, British journalist (and recently announced Pulitzer Prize finalist) Carole Cadwalladr went to her home region of South Wales to investigate why so many voters had elected to leave the European Union. She asked residents of the traditionally left-wing town of Ebbw Vale, a place newly rejuvenated by EU i...

María Teresa Kumar is the President and CEO of Voto Latino, a nonprofit organization committed to shaking up the American political process.

César Hidalgo nos propone una idea radical para arreglar el sistema político roto: ¡automatízalo! En una charla que te hace reflexionar, explica la idea de cómo llegar a reemplazar a los políticos para empoderar a los ciudadanos con agentes virtuales personalizados que voten directamente en los proyectos de ley. Explora una nueva manera de tomar...

Does it seem like Washington has no new ideas? Instead of looking to build the future, it sometimes feels like the US political establishment happily retreats into fear and willful ignorance. Journalist David Rothkopf lays out a few of the major issues that US leadership is failing to address -- from cybercrime to world-shaking new tech to the r...

Ilona Szabó de Carvalho designs solutions for some of the world's biggest challenges -- from reducing violence and reforming drug laws to renewing democracy and fighting polarization.

The more we read and watch online, the harder it becomes to tell the difference between what's real and what's fake. It's as if we know more but understand less, says philosopher Michael Patrick Lynch. In this talk, he dares us to take active steps to burst our filter bubbles and participate in the common reality that actually underpins everything.

About this event: After a 9-year hiatus, election season is finally here! Lebanon heads to the ballot box on May 6th, and new faces have emerged in our political arena. That's why ‘The X on Your Ballot’ is the theme of our next Salon! Join us for a cozy Sunday evening with TED talks, musical performances, and riveting conversations about the state of our democracy.

Deepa Narayan is an international advisor on poverty, gender and development with more than 25 years of experience working at the World Bank, the UN and NGOs.

Robb Willer studies the forces that unite and divide us. As a social psychologist, he researches how moral values -- typically a source of division -- can also be used to bring people together. Willer shares compelling insights on how we might bridge the ideological divide and offers some intuitive advice on ways to be more persuasive when talki...

Rebecca MacKinnon looks at issues of free expression, governance and democracy (or lack of) in the digital networks, platforms and services on which we are all more and more dependent.

“Lobbying” doesn’t have to be a dirty word; instead, it means using your talents and abilities to improve the world, says civic advocate Alberto Alemanno. Every weekday for the month of January, TED Ideas is publishing a new post in a series called “How to Be a Better Human,” containing a helpful piece of advice from a speaker in the TED commun...

About this event: The critically important role of public policy in maintaining a functioning, working Democracy, needs participation by citizens to be effective. As the current political landscape seems impossibly polarized, Hannah-Beth will make the case to exercise our citizenship by involvement at all levels of politics. We’ll also talk about the role of Publ...

In Elizabeth Pisani's latest book, she explores the "improbable nation" of Indonesia.

Economic growth is the defining challenge of our time; without it, political and social instability rises, human progress stagnates and societies grow dimmer. But, says economist Dambisa Moyo, dogmatic capitalism isn't creating the growth we need. As she shows, in both state-sponsored and market-driven models, capitalism is failing to solve soci...

About this event: TEDx Splaiul Independentei will be an opportunity of getting together the undiscovered and not yet public values of Romania, creating a network of change agents from all areas of expertise that can put together a coherent and innovative plan of growing Romanian democracy and giving the main directions of change in our society and offer the poss...

Noah Feldman studies the intersection of religion, politics and law.

Jonathan Haidt studies how -- and why -- we evolved to be moral and political creatures.

TED Fellow Jess Kutch is the cofounder of Coworker.org, a nonprofit that helps people join together to improve their jobs and workplaces.

About this event: TEDxYouth@BFS brings together speakers, performers, and video presentations from many disciplines, in the spirit of TED, to demonstrate how freedom in education and the practice of democracy has the ability to empower students and ultimately change the world. Please join us for an incredible day of talks and performances that will continue t...

When facts are false, decisions are wrong, says editor and TED Fellow Olga Yurkova. To stop the spread of fake news, she and a group of journalists launched StopFake.org, which exposes biased or inaccurate reporting in order to rebuild the trust we've lost in our journalists, leaders and institutions. Learn more about the fight against misinform...

About this event: The world is evolving rapidly and we, citizens of our global village, are part to this continuous evolution. Is this a world of abundance or scarcity? How we understand technological changes? How we interact with our urban space. How we deal with our privacy in the cyber era? Where Greece is standing amidst those changes? How can we as a society...

Wish you could vote in another country's election? Simon Anholt unveils the Global Vote, an online platform that lets anybody, anywhere in the world, "vote" in the election of any country on earth (with surprising results).

Yasheng Huang asks us to rethink our ideas about China and other large emerging economies. Lately he’s been asking, Does democracy hinder or promote economic growth?

Srdja Popovic was a founder and leader of the student movement that brought down the Milosovic regime. Now, he helps other nonviolent movements learn and grow.

Jarrell Daniels brings policy makers together with community members to improve social challenges, particularly among youth.

Dr. Leana Wen is Baltimore City's Health Commissioner.

Which TED Talks were watched most in 2019? These talks reflect a year defined by fighting for what's right, believing in the good despite all the bad, supporting others and yourself -- and hoping for the best in the decade to come.

Wael Ghonim helped touch off the Arab Spring in his home of Egypt ... by setting up a simple Facebook page. As he reveals, once the revolution spilled onto the streets, it turned from hopeful to messy, then ugly and heartbreaking. And social media followed suit. What was once a place for crowdsourcing, engaging and sharing became a polarized bat...

We're building an artificial intelligence-powered dystopia, one click at a time, says techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufekci. In an eye-opening talk, she details how the same algorithms companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon use to get you to click on ads are also used to organize your access to political and social information. And the machines ...