In 1985, architect Paul Pholeros was challenged to "stop people getting sick" in a small indigenous community in south Australia. And it meant thinking way beyond medicine. In this sparky, interactive talk, Pholeros shares his work with Healthabitat, which works to reduce poverty through practical design fixes -- in Australia and beyond.

Hamish Jolly brings his entrepreneurial eye to the rare but viscerally terrifying issue of shark attacks.

The former prime minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd is also a longtime student of China, with a unique vantage point to watch its power rise in the past few decades. He asks whether the growing ambition of China will inevitably lead to conflict with other major powers -- and suggests another narrative.

In 2013, the largest experiment in crowd-sourced investing happened in Australia, as everyday citizens took the reins on investing the country's pension fund. Nathan Ide explores how certain cultural characteristics of Australians have inspired this groundbreaking model for managing pensions.

Gill Hicks has dedicated her life to being an advocate for peace.

A surgical pioneer in Singapore, Susan Lim is a researcher and entrepreneur.

Paul Pholeros was a director of Healthabitat, a longstanding effort to improve the health of indigenous people by improving their living housing.

Yassmin Abdel-Magied wears many hats, including a hijab. She's a mechanical engineer, writer and activist who campaigns for tolerance and diversity.

Hamish Jolly, an ocean swimmer in Australia, wanted a wetsuit that would deter a curious shark from mistaking him for a potential source of nourishment. (Which, statistically, is rare, but certainly a fate worth avoiding.) Working with a team of scientists, he and his friends came up with a fresh approach — not a shark cage, not a suit of chain-...

In 1996, Thordis Elva shared a teenage romance with Tom Stranger, an exchange student from Australia. After a school dance, Tom raped Thordis, after which they parted ways for many years. In this extraordinary talk, Elva and Stranger move through a years-long chronology of shame and silence, and invite us to discuss the omnipresent global issue ...

Mike Cannon-Brookes is an entrepreneur, technology investor and passionate clean energy evangelist.

Paleontologist Michael Archer is working to bring back his favorite extinct animal: the Tasmanian tiger.

Khadija Gbla grew up caught between two definitions of what it means to be an “empowered woman.” While her Sierra Leonean mother thought that circumsizing her — and thus stifling her sexual urges — was the ultimate form of empowerment, her culture as a teenager in Australia told her that she deserved pleasure and that what happened to her was ca...

Through his charity HALT, Jeremy Forbes aims to break through the stigma attached to mental health, raise awareness through education and empower men to open up conversations around mental health and suicide prevention.

Ernesto Sirolli got his start doing aid work in Africa in the 70's -- and quickly realised how ineffective it was.

As part of this TED profile, we asked Jason Sweeney to make audio recordings at his favorite places in his home city of Adelaide, Australia. Here, hear the sounds of the city -- and enjoy the accompanying photographs, shot by Kristin Alford, with commentary by Sweeney. [soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/112426817" params="" w...

Anthony Goldbloom crowdsources solutions to difficult problems using machine learning.

Tara Winkler helps vulnerable children escape poverty and be cared for within their families.

There are about 7,000 languages spoken around the world -- and they all have different sounds, vocabularies and structures. But do they shape the way we think? Cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsky shares examples of language -- from an Aboriginal community in Australia that uses cardinal directions instead of left and right to the multiple words ...

Noelle Martin advocates for a safer and more just online world.

Musician and sound artist Jason Sweeney lives and works in Adelaide; he describes it as "a prototype for what a developed city in the western world could be like." Here, he tells Alison Prato about life in his city. As a teenager, Jason Sweeney was bullied. It was the mid-1980s, and he was one of hundreds of students at the Urrbrae Agricultur...

Too often, the story of asylum is told in the breathless terms of the abstract news story. Another group of immigrants was swept up by the authorities; another boat full of asylum seekers was lost at sea. The statistics are shocking, compelling, but rarely personal. Here, in contrast, is the intimate story of the photographer Barat Ali Batoor (T...

Over the past 35 years Peter Saul has been intimately involved in the dying process for over 4,000 patients. He is passionate about improving the ways we die.

Matthew Broadhurst is an ear, nose and throat surgeon based in Brisbane, Australia.

Roz Savage gave up her life as a management consultant to row across the Atlantic in 2005. Her mission now is to row across the Pacific, from the West Coast to Australia, raising awareness along the way of plastic pollution, climate change and eco-heroism.

Dermatologist Richard Weller wants to know: Why are Scots so sick?

Aspiring Olympic skier Janine Shepherd was nearly killed when she was hit by a truck during a training bike ride. Paralysed and immobile for six months, she was given a grim picture for recovery. But not only did she teach herself to walk again— she learned to fly.

Westpac's Michelle Knox has led large-scale transformation programs in the UK, Ireland and Australia.

David Baron writes about science in books, magazines, newspapers and for public radio. He formerly served as science correspondent for NPR and science editor for PRI’s The World.

Dedicated to increasing awareness about Northern Indian Ocean blue whales, Asha de Vos is also committed to inspiring the next generation of marine biologists.