McKenna Pope's younger brother loved to cook, but he worried about using an Easy-Bake Oven -- because it was a toy for girls. So at age 13, Pope started an online petition for the American toy company Hasbro to change the pink-and-purple color scheme on the classic toy and incorporate boys into its TV marketing. In a heartening talk, Pope makes ...

What was your favorite toy when you were a kid? Your answer might reveal more about you than you expect, says toy historian Chris Byrne. From Matchbox cars and Barbie to Rubik's Cube and Squishmallows, he explores how playthings reflect cultural values and influence who you become as an adult.

In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt legendarily spared the life of a black bear -- and prompted a plush toy craze for so-called "teddy bears." Writer Jon Mooallem digs into this toy story and asks us to consider how the tales we tell about wild animals have real consequences for a species' chance of survival -- and the natural world at large.

Filmmaker Andrew Stanton ("Toy Story," "WALL-E") shares what he knows about storytelling -- starting at the end and working back to the beginning. Contains graphic language ... (Note: this talk is not available for download.)

Shimpei Takahashi always dreamed of designing toys. But when he started work as a toy developer, he found that the pressure to produce squashed his creativity. In this short, funny talk, Takahashi describes how he got his ideas flowing again, and shares a simple word game anyone can play to generate new ideas. (In Japanese with English subtitles.)

MIT grad student David Merrill demos Siftables -- cookie-sized, computerized tiles you can stack and shuffle in your hands. These future-toys can do math, play music, and talk to their friends, too. Is this the next thing in hands-on learning?

When McKenna Pope was 13 she petitioned Hasbro to market its Easy-Bake Oven to boys as well as girls, and to make it available in gender-neutral colors. It worked.

Pleo the robot dinosaur acts like a living pet -- exploring, cuddling, playing, reacting and learning. Inventor Caleb Chung talks about Pleo and his wild toy career at EG07, on the week that Pleo shipped to stores for the first time.

Shimpei Takahashi thinks we should forget about analyzing data or sales figures and just come up with ideas -- lots and lots of ideas.

Danielle Feinberg, Pixar's director of photography, creates stories with soul and wonder using math, science and code. Go behind the scenes of Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Brave, WALL-E and more, and discover how Pixar interweaves art and science to create fantastic worlds where the things you imagine can become real. This talk comes from the PBS sp...

What's more fun than a barrel of monkeys? These talks, which offer unique insights on the things we play with—from teddy bears to Legos to yo-yos.

Zach Kaplan is the CEO of Inventables, a company that collects and shows off new materials and new ideas (you can see their latest collection on Discovery Channel's new show, "Prototype This!").

There's no such thing as throwing something away, says Andrew Dent -- when you toss a used food container, broken toy or old pair of socks into the trash, those things inevitably end up in ever-growing landfills. But we can get smarter about the way we make, and remake, our products. Dent shares exciting examples of thrift -- the idea of using a...

Inventor Manu Prakash turns everyday materials into powerful scientific devices, from paper microscopes to a clever new mosquito tracker. From the TED Fellows stage, he demos Paperfuge, a hand-powered centrifuge inspired by a spinning toy that costs 20 cents to make and can do the work of a $1,000 machine, no electricity required.

A serial entrepreneur and investor, Keith Schacht co-founded Inventables, a hothouse for innovation, and Mystery Science, the most widely used science curriculum in America.

In 1960, composer John Cage went on television to share his latest work. But rather than using traditional instruments, Cage appeared surrounded by household clutter, including a bathtub, ice cubes, a toy fish, a rubber duck, several radios, and performed "Water Walk." Most people watching had the same question: is this even music? Hanako Sawada...

Your antivirus squad is up against a code that's hijacked your mainframe. What you've learned from other infected systems, right before they went dark, is that it likes to toy with antivirus agents in a very peculiar way— and you're the agent that's been selected to go up against the malware. Can you figure out which disk that runs your mainfram...

Managing your money can feel scary and complicated -- but it doesn't have to be. In this new TED series, behavioral scientist Wendy De La Rosa explains why we spend too much and save too little and shares easy steps to help us achieve a more secure financial future.

Think of penguins as ocean sentinels, says Dee Boersma -- they're on the frontlines of sea change. Sharing stories of penguin life and culture, she suggests that we start listening to what penguins are telling us.

Tea Uglow leads part of Google's Creative Lab specializing in work with cultural organizations, artists, writers and producers on experiments using digital technology at the boundaries of traditional cultural practice.

Based in Montreal, the Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group is a world leader in live entertainment.

Short videos -- 60 seconds or less, made and shared on apps like TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram -- are more than just a fun way to pass the time; they've transformed how we work, communicate and learn. Digital strategist Qiuqing Tai explores the explosive rise of bite-sized content and forecasts its promise as an economic and social force.

The way we behave politically, socially, economically and ecologically isn't working, says community organizer and activist Tai Simpson. Sharing the creation myth of her Nez Perce tribe, she advocates for a return to the "old ways" guided by Indigenous wisdom that emphasize balance, community and the importance of intergenerational storytelling ...

A Chinese saying goes, "There's no pleasure in eating without meat." And the data backs that up: every year, China consumes 26 percent of the world's meat and 45 percent of its seafood — numbers that could grow alongside rising incomes. Impact investor Tao Zhang shows why getting Chinese consumers to switch to plant-based alternatives is vital t...

Caleb Chung dreams up toys that interact with children. He's the inventor of Furby, a talking (and listening) robotic furball that sold some 50 million units in the late '90s. His newest plaything: Pleo the adorable robot dinosaur.

Designer Tea Uglow is creating a future in which humanity's love for natural solutions and simple tools can coexist with our need for information and the devices that provide us with it. "Reality is richer than screens," she says. "We can have a happy place filled with the information we love that feels as natural as switching on lightbulb."

What's the secret to making content people love? Join BuzzFeed's Publisher Dao Nguyen for a glimpse at how her team creates their tempting quizzes, lists and videos -- and learn more about how they've developed a system to understand how people use content to connect and create culture.

No one thinks twice about a woman wearing blue jeans in New York City -- but when Nobel laureate Malala wears them, it's a political act. Around the globe, individuality can be a crime, and clothing can be a form of protest. In a talk about the power of what we wear, Kaustav Dey examines how fashion gives us a nonverbal language of dissent and e...

With his signature charm and searching insight, David Whyte meditates on the frontiers of the past, present and future, sharing two poems inspired by his niece's hike along El Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain.