In this hilariously lively performance, actress Sarah Jones channels an opinionated elderly Jewish woman, a fast-talking Dominican college student and more, giving TED2009 just a sample of her spectacular character range.

Sarah Jones changes personas with the simplest of wardrobe swaps. In a laugh-out-loud improvisation, she invites 11 "friends" from the future on stage—from a fast-talking Latina to an outspoken police officer—to ask them questions supplied by the TED2014 audience.

In this performance, Sarah Jones brings you to the front row of a classroom in the future, as a teacher plugs in different personas from the year 2016 to show their varied perspectives on sex work. As she changes props, Jones embodies an elderly homemaker, a “sex work studies” major, an escort, a nun-turned-prostitute and a guy at a strip club f...

A mysterious tattoo on her forearm was all that linked Sara Jones, adopted as a child by white parents, to her South Korean origins. Searching for her birth family taught her that transracial adoption stories often frame new lives abroad as strokes of luck that call for endless gratitude, obscuring a far more complex reality. Through her experie...

Tony Award-winning monologist, UNICEF ambassador, firebrand and FCC-fighting poet -- Sarah Jones assumes as many roles offstage as on.

During the span of a single life, how do you reinvent yourself? Take a page out of the book of these speakers who have found creative ways to fit many lives into one.

From beat-boxing battles to a digital choir of 2000 people, these talks celebrate the beauty and versatility of the human voice.

Brave and beautiful expressions from some of the world's most talented spoken-word performers, who weave stories in words and gestures.

These quirky talks remind us that life is funny, weird, sweet, absurd.

Sara Jones creates global diversity and inclusion strategies to elevate inclusive work cultures.

Musician Ryuichi Sakamoto picks his favorite talks on ideas -- both musical and beyond. "Each talk expresses a vision no one else can have," he says. "They're a triumph of uniqueness and originality."

Seriously, let's talk about sex: 8 insightful talks to spark the conversations we need to have in (and out of) the bedroom.

These hilarious talks won’t just make you laugh out loud -- they’ll make you think twice.

No matter the generation, these talks are perfect for bringing everyone together to learn, wonder and laugh.

What do you want to be when you grow up? These speakers have staked out the coolest careers — some you probably never knew existed.

Visions of the future of everything from cars to the Internet to the human species.

Great TED Talks illuminate an idea. Sometimes, they do it while making you laugh. These talks will bring a smile to your face. Please note: Vigorous debate ensued among our staff about which talks to include. So we hope you'll find something for every sense of humor.

A collection of our most inspired talks and performances highlighting the passion, importance and brilliance of theater.

Everyone makes snap judgments. These talks challenge the hidden biases we all hold -- around looks, race, class, gender, language.

Need an introduction to TED? Enjoy a mixture of some of our most well-known, hard-hitting and and perspective-shifting talks.

Sarah Parcak hoped the power of the crowd could help accelerate archaeological discovery. See how 90-year-old Doris Mae Jones heard her call -- and jumped in to search more than 50,000 tiles in Expedition Peru. With cat assistants.

Sarah Jones is an actor and monologuist who comes on stage to explain her own diverse background. "I grew up in a family that was multi-everything, black and white, Caribbean, Irish American, German American, there was Dominican music playing from the stereo, Christians and Jews (that's a long story)." But then, before we quite know what's hap...

Welcome to "Shape Your Future," a groundbreaking selection of new talks from the TED Fellows. These talks are snapshots of influential, new ideas from leading voices in medicine, human rights, conservation, astrophysics, education and beyond. Dive in to discover what (and who) is shaping your future -- and apply to become a TED Fellow at go.ted....

How exactly does the brain -- a 3-pound snarl of nervous tissue -- create inspired inventions, the feeling of hunger, the experience of beauty, the sense of self? Researchers at the edge of science explain ...

I wish for us to discover the millions of unknown archaeological sites across the globe. By building an online citizen science platform and training a 21st century army of global explorers, we'll find and protect the world's hidden heritage, which contains clues to humankind's collective resilience and creativity. The plan What would happen if I...

A surprise superquick talk from wordnik Erin McKean, who reads from her magic notebook the top 10 words of this TED. The full list follows; here are four highlights: tokamak, a doughnut-shaped fusion reactor whose name comes from a transliteration of the Russian токамак. rockism, which Mark Ronson describes as "like racism, but for roc...

Like a modern-day Indiana Jones, Sarah Parcak uses satellite images to locate lost ancient sites. The winner of the 2016 TED Prize, her wish is to protect the world’s shared cultural heritage.

Alexis Jones is throwing in the towel on "locker room talk" -- literally. In this vibrant, funny talk, the advocacy superhero shares stories from her travels speaking to athletes inside locker rooms about sexual harassment and how to better protect and respect the women in their lives from abuse.

Last year the awe-mazing writer Benjamin Rosenbaum said something great about first-world problems, and specifically the #firstworldproblems tag, used on Twitter attached to complaints about dumb little things that bug us: This whole #firstworldproblems meme, you know that one? It’s supposedly an exercise in humility and perspective, but in f...

Surely not the only science career based on a museum tour epiphany, Paul Sereno's is almost certainly the most triumphant. He's dug up dinosaurs on five continents -- and discovered the world's largest crocodile, the (extinct) 40-foot Sarchosuchus.