Sheikha Al Mayassa, a patron of artists, storytellers and filmmakers in Qatar, talks about how art and culture create a country's identity -- and allow every country to share its unique identity with the wider world. As she says: "We don't want to be all the same, but we do want to understand each other."

The future of green is local. Majora Carter tells three inspiring stories of people who are saving their own communities while saving the planet.

Investor and prankster Yossi Vardi delivers a ballsy lecture on the dangers of blogging. Specifically, for men.

When someone asks you where you're from … do you sometimes not know how to answer? Writer Taiye Selasi speaks on behalf of "multi-local" people, who feel at home in the town where they grew up, the city they live now and maybe another place or two. "How can I come from a country?" she asks. "How can a human being come from a concept?"

About this talk: Imagine a world where everyone has access to clean and affordable power, heating, refrigeration, drinkable water, and even fuel. Sometimes the solutions to our biggest challenges don't have to be gigantic investments. Gianluca Ambrosetti describes a solar generator made of mostly everyday materials like mirrors, concrete, and al...

TEDx events unleash fresh ideas from local communities. Close to 50,000 talks have been given at 10,000 events since the program launched in 2009. Below, the 10 most-watched TEDx talks posted to our homepage.

Severine Autesserre studies the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is in the middle of the deadliest conflict since World War II; it's been called "the largest ongoing humanitarian crisis in the world.” The conflict seems hopelessly, unsolvably large. But her insight from decades of listening and engaging: The conflicts are often locally based....

About this talk: When Ma Shwe Sin Win (Cynthia) received a LinkedIn request from her father, she ignored it – because she didn’t realize it was from him. Forced into the Western first and last name format, her father’s Burmese name transformed into something she didn't even recognize. In this playful talk, Ma Shwe Sin Win reflects on naming prac...

What defines “home?” Is it people, a specific place or the memories made during a certain period of time? These talks offer a thoughtful look at what it means to belong.

Anna Heringer’s sustainable designs lend breathtaking forms to easily-available local materials while developing the skills and consciousness of their builders.

TED Fellow Rola Hallam helps local humanitarians provide aid to their own war-devastated communities.

Jennifer Pahlka is the founder of Code for America, which matches software geniuses with US cities to reboot local services.

The author of "Investing in Kids," Timothy Bartik studies state and local economies -- and analyzes the benefits of preschool as an economic development program.

Cross-posted from the TEDx blog: On Monday, September 20, TED and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation co-host TEDxChange, a TEDx event that focuses on the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations 10 years ago. TEDxChange will look at how we've done in the past decade to meet the goals, and what needs to be done to ensure the ...

Severine Autesserre traces civil war and endemic violence to its roots, and its resolution, in local and interpersonal conflicts.

Dave Meslin is a "professional rabble-rouser." Based in Toronto, he works to make local issues engaging and even fun to get involved in.

At FoodLab Detroit, Devita Davison supports local entrepreneurs and imagines a new future for food justice.

Majora Carter redefined the field of environmental equality, starting in the South Bronx at the turn of the century. Now she is leading the local economic development movement across the USA.

We invited Instagrammers to share photos of natural beauty in the world around -- and boy, did they deliver. Check out these gorgeous images of everyday natural wonders photographed all over the world, each one tagged #localnaturalwonders. Whether shot in remote regions or on the street outside, they all act as a great reminder that we should ke...

Get to know our continuously interconnected world with talks that transcend our traditional understanding of boundaries and their limitations.

You can use your smartphone to find a local ATM, but what if you need a defibrillator? Lucien Engelen shows us online innovations that are changing the way we save lives, including a crowdsourced map of local AEDs.

Miranda Wang and Jeanny Yao were the winners in British Columbia of the 2012 Sanofi BioGENEius Challenge Canada. After a visit to a Vancouver waste station, Wang and Yao were blown away by the enormous amount of waste in plastic. Plastic is very hard to sort for recycling -- all types have a similar density. Says Wang, "Plastics are useful, ...

Eli Beer, the founder and president of United Hatzalah, has re-imagined first response by training EMT volunteers to respond to local calls and keep people alive until official help arrives.

Whether speaking to barbers about early literacy, entertaining strangers at comedy clubs, or reading to kindergarteners at a local school, TED Resident Alvin Irby endeavors to make learning relevant and engaging.

Tech geek and entrepreneur Faisal Chohan builds online solutions and services with social value -- including Pakreport, which crowdsourced disaster-mapping in response to Pakistan's 2010 floods. His latest project, Saaf Pindi, won a $10,000 grant from TED's City 2.0 initiative to map poor sewerage infrastructure in urban Pakistan, seeking solu...

Fields Wicker-Miurin wants to improve the quality and impact of leadership worldwide by discovering leaders in unique, local settings and connecting them with one another.

Lee Mokobe is a 20-year-old South African slam poet and co-founder of Vocal Revolutionaries.

Elif Shafak explicitly defies definition -- her writing blends East and West, feminism and tradition, the local and the global, Sufism and rationalism, creating one of today's most unique voices in literature.

Principal of the New York media design firm, Local Projects, Jake Barton creates interactive and digital exhibits for the likes of the 9/11 Memorial Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art and Storycorps.

Two-thirds of the world may not have access to the latest smartphone, but local electronic shops are adept at fixing older tech using low-cost parts. Vinay Venkatraman explains his work in "technology crafts," through which a mobile phone, a lunchbox and a flashlight can become a digital projector for a village school, or an alarm clock and a m...