The fashion industry has a big carbon footprint. How can we find a sustainable solution that fits?

A century ago, the starry night sky was clearly visible -- now, songbirds mistake city skylines for the rising sun. Why is the such big problem? Former park ranger Diane Knutson explains the resounding impact light pollution has on our safety, health and environment.

In 1969, Buzz Aldrin’s historical step onto the moon leapt mankind into an era of technological possibility. The awesome power of technology was to be used to solve all of our big problems. Fast forward to present day, and what's happened? Are mobile apps all we have to show for ourselves? Journalist Jason Pontin looks closely at the challenges ...

When technologist Luis von Ahn was building the popular language-learning platform Duolingo, he faced a big problem: Could an app designed to teach you something ever compete with addictive platforms like Instagram and TikTok? He explains how Duolingo harnesses the psychological techniques of social media and mobile games to get you excited to l...

Oklahoma City is a midsized town that had a big problem: It was among the most obese towns in America. Mayor Mick Cornett realized that, to make his city a great place to work and live, it had to become healthier too. In this charming talk, he walks us through the interlocking changes that helped OKC drop a collective million pounds (450,000 kil...

In the 1800s, minister Sylvester Graham believed Americans had a big problem— not just with their bodies, but their souls. He argued that overindulgence was fueling their baser desires, making them immoral and oversexed. To curb this corruption, puritanical reformers advocated for foods they thought curbed a variety of appetites. Stephanie Honch...

It's your first day as Center Realm's official cartographer, and you've already got a big problem. Center Realm is home to three elder dragons: two ice, one fire, and they've lived in harmony for centuries. But scouts have sighted three fire dragons and five ice dragons flying towards the region. Can you figure out where to place the new dragons...

Most scientific literature is written only in English, creating an alarming knowledge gap for the 75 percent of the world who don't speak it. That's a big problem for climate change -- because it's hard to take action on something you don't understand. With Climate Cardinals, an international youth-led nonprofit that's working to make the climat...

Driving in Johannesburg one day, Tapiwa Chiwewe noticed an enormous cloud of air pollution hanging over the city. He was curious and concerned but not an environmental expert -- so he did some research and discovered that nearly 14 percent of all deaths worldwide in 2012 were caused by household and ambient air pollution. With this knowledge and...

Meet the tardigrade: a 1-millimeter animal capable of surviving environmental extremes of heat, cold and high radiation. Science educator Thomas Boothby examines the chemical processes that preserve tardigrade physiology under duress and explains how they can inspire solutions to some of humanity’s own weather-related problems.

Rose George looks deeply into topics that are unseen but fundamental, whether that's sewers or latrines or massive container ships or pirate hostages or menstrual hygiene.

We all know about the climate crisis. We all want to stay informed — but the information can be overwhelming. Watch these talks to hear what’s at stake and find out what's being done.

A breadth of talks that explore and highlight the future of emerging markets across the globe.

How can we begin to address the global, insidious problem of climate change — a problem that's too big for any one country to solve? Economist Nicholas Stern lays out a plan, presented to the UN's Climate Summit in 2014, showing how the world's countries can work together on climate. It's a big vision for cooperation, with a payoff that goes far...

There is a mind-boggling amount of data floating around our society. Physicists at CERN have been pondering how to store and share their ever more massive data for decades- stimulating globalization of the internet along the way, whilst 'solving' their big data problem. Tim Smith plots CERN's involvement with big data from fifty years ago to tod...

Amy Lockwood is the deputy director of Stanford's Center for Innovation in Global Health, where she looks at new solutions to big problems.

Hilary Cottam wants to redesign the welfare state using the power of relationships.

The headlines on the front page always change. But these talks — on the seismic phenomenon underlying them — will give you fresh insight.

Paul Romer's research on catch-up growth in low- and middle-income countries has emphasized the importance of government policies that encourage orderly urban expansion.

Noise pollution is normally seen as a problem for big cities. In this talk, marine biologist Steve Simpson sets the story straight, describing how human-made sounds are the culprits behind catastrophic marine disruptions. Simpson lays out several concrete methods for a relatively quick and easy fix to decrease our noise levels.

Nancy Lublin, cofounder and former CEO of Crisis Text Line, uses technology and data to save lives.

Eric Dishman does health care research for Intel -- studying how new technology can solve big problems in the system for the sick, the aging and, well, all of us.

We’ve known how to cure malaria since the 1600s, so why does the disease still kill hundreds of thousands every year? It’s more than just a problem of medicine, says journalist Sonia Shah. A look into the history of malaria reveals three big-picture challenges to its eradication. Photos: Adam Nadel.

Alex Steffen explores our planet's future, telling powerful, inspiring stories about the hard choices facing humanity ... and our opportunity to create a much better tomorrow.

Michael Green is part of the team that has created the Social Progress Index, a standard to rank societies based on how they meet the needs of citizens.

Sisters Melati and Isabel Wijsen are on a mission to ban plastic bags in Bali.

Jonathan Tepperman writes on the world's most pervasive and seemingly intractable challenges.

Rachel Kleinfeld advises governments, philanthropists and activists on how democracies can make major social change -- even in distressed circumstances.

Dianna Cohen co-founded the Plastic Pollution Coalition, which is working to help end our cycle of plastics use.