Ideas worth spreading

Disease

A collection of TED Talks (and more) on the topic of Disease.

Video playlists about Disease

The fabulous life of germs

Germs -- they get around. Learn what their travels and overall existence can teach us about not just ourselves, but the past, present and future of humanity.

Survivor’s wisdom

Powerful, perspective-shifting talks on what it means to live courageously.

11 ideas for ending HIV/AIDS

These powerful talks offer ideas for rethinking—and hopefully stopping—the spread of HIV and AIDS.

The link between health and racism

Learn about the detrimental (and even deadly) impact racism has on our minds and bodies — and what society can do to heal and support the wellbeing of all.

Talks about Disease

The science of preserving sight

Mads Tang-Christensen

The brain science of obesity

Kaitlyn Sadtler and Elizabeth Wayne

How the COVID-19 vaccines were created so quickly

Francis de los Reyes

A brief history of toilets

Susan M. Reverby

Ugly History: The US syphilis experiment

How your body could become its own diagnostic lab

Arinjay Banerjee

Why bats don't get sick

Eve Gaus and Vanessa Ruiz

Why is pneumonia so dangerous?

How COVID-19 human challenge trials work -- and why I volunteered

Johanna Benesty

What it takes to crush a pandemic

Why do you get a fever when you're sick?

Leor Weinberger

Can we create vaccines that mutate and spread?

How the pandemic will shape the near future

The trials, tribulations and timeline of a COVID-19 vaccine

The new science of personalized vaccines

Can steroids save your life?

See all talks on Disease

Exclusive articles about Disease

The most critical factor in medicine? Human bias

Oncologist and Pulitzer Prize-winner Siddhartha Mukherjee explains why doctors aren't so much looking for disease as bias in their work.

Posted Oct 2015

3 articles on the danger of Ebola paranoia

It’s Halloween — and the only thing scarier than Ebola this week is Ebola paranoia. Should you panic in bowling alleys? How justified is your fear of hospitals? Are mandatory quarantines even legal in the U.S., anyway? 3 ideas behind the news.

Posted Oct 2014

What can we learn from how animals cope?

Author of the book Animal Madness, TED Fellow Laurel Braitman shares 5 ways in which animals and humans suffer from similar mental illnesses. Anthropomorphism run amok? You decide.

Posted Jun 2014

See all articles on Disease