Ideas worth spreading

Global issues

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

Video playlists about Global issues

How innovation changes the world

The big and small ways invention and transformation can bring about new eras of inspired action, thought and change.

Talks that will make you think twice

Everyday sights and experiences that are not as innocuous and innocent as they may seem.

How data can save lives

An exploration of what we can do to save the world with the massive amounts of data collected every day.

Why climate change is a human rights issue

Learn about the ways climate change is deeply altering how we live, where we live and the foods we eat -- ultimately threatening some of our most basic human rights.

See all playlists on Global issues

Talks about Global issues

Where on Earth will people live in the future?

My 105 days in Taliban prison -- and a call to aid Afghanistan

How data-driven journalism illuminates patterns of injustice

The hidden wonders of soil

Yuval Noah Harari

The actual cost of preventing climate breakdown

A sci-fi story of Earth's renewal

Bernhard Kowatsch

The mindset shift needed to tackle big global challenges

Katherine Maher

What Wikipedia teaches us about balancing truth and beliefs

How is your city tackling the climate crisis?

Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli

The future of the food ecosystem -- and the power of your plate

How one photo captured a humanitarian crisis

How ancient Arctic carbon threatens everyone on the planet

Temie Giwa-Tubosun

The funding gap in start-up investing

We can make COVID-19 the last pandemic

Nuclear threat and the war in Ukraine

Stand with Ukraine in the fight against evil

See all talks on Global issues

Exclusive articles about Global issues

The world’s refugees need all the help they can get. Here are 7 ways that businesses can support them

Want to do something to help the world’s more than 22 million refugees? Any business -- no matter its size -- can give them a boost, says Melissa Fleming, chief spokesperson for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.

Posted Jun 2018

Cultures, nations and religions are not rocks — they’re always changing

“Africa is doomed to be poor” -- that wrongheaded statement is an example of the destiny instinct, the belief that innate characteristics determine the destinies of countries or cultures, says the late global health expert Hans Rosling. Here’s why it happens and how to overcome it.

Posted May 2018

Why ideas matter … now more than ever

It might seem as if our interconnected world is unraveling, if last week's Brexit vote is anything to go by. But it's now, says TED curator Chris Anderson, that great ideas can help knit humanity together.

Posted Jun 2016

See all articles on Global issues