TED Talks
2823 articlesWhy I’m building libraries inside prisons | Reginald Dwayne Betts
At age 16, Reginald Dwayne Betts was sentenced to nine years in prison. He turned to books to help hold onto his sanity — and developed a belief that we find what we look for, even…
How to break through fear and become a leader | Valerie Montgomery Rice
Vigilance. Grit. Resilience. Valerie Montgomery Rice, the president and CEO of Morehouse School of Medicine, shares where she learned these key qualities of successful leadership, …
How to escape your obsession with productivity | Rebecca McMackin and Catherine Price
Why are we so obsessed with productivity? Horticulturist Rebecca McMackin (who wants people to let their lawns grow wild) and author Catherine Price (who wrote a book about the pow…
I thought I was lazy. Turns out I had a sleep disorder | Lindsay Scola
For more than two decades, sleep health educator Lindsay Scola attributed her never-ending exhaustion to long hours and demanding jobs. When she was diagnosed with narcolepsy, she …
Inside the "play labs" helping refugee kids heal | Erum Mariam
What does healing look like for a refugee child? That's the question educational leader Erum Mariam asked when her team built the humanitarian "play labs": small, welcoming spaces …
Why we blew up four dams — and saved a river | Amy Bowers Cordalis
For thousands of years, the Klamath River in Northern California was home to one of the continent’s great salmon runs, creating abundance for the native Yurok Tribe … until a serie…
What makes a good game? | Eric Zimmerman
What’s the best way to make a project more playful? Game designer Eric Zimmerman has a counterintuitive suggestion: a few good rules. Drawing on his experience making everything fr…
How to clean up the world's dirtiest industry | Joojin Kim
Climate strategist Joojin Kim spent years convincing banks across South Korea to stop funding coal, and it worked. Now he's aiming that same playbook at a new target: maritime ship…
The secret to mastering life's biggest transitions | Bruce Feiler
How do you navigate life's growing number of transitions with meaning, purpose and skill? Writer Bruce Feiler offers a powerful way to handle uncertain, painful and confusing times…
How tech will (and won't) replace your doctor | Zack Abbott and Dhruv Khullar
There's more health advice available than ever before — and no easy way to tell what’s worth your time. From biotech breakthroughs to smarter cancer screening, physician Dhruv Khul…
How to make AI companies pay your energy bill | Ari Matusiak
Climate expert Ari Matusiak spends his days working to rewire America's energy system, and he has an idea: instead of tech companies building new power plants for their AI data cen…
How to use tech to outsmart dictators | Leopoldo López
In seven years as a political prisoner in Venezuela, activist Leopoldo López kept asking one question: Who holds the keys to freedom? Now the leader of an alliance of dissidents an…
Campaigns spend millions to influence voters. This works better | Katie Paris
Katie Paris quit her career in Washington, DC, to figure out how to make politics feel less like strangers shouting at each other and more like friends looking out for each other. …
The wiggly wonder of music | Jacob Collier
Grammy-winning musician Jacob Collier has a name for the feeling that moves through a great piece of music: the wiggle. Watch him break down the idea into its three parts — melody,…
How AI unleashed (not replaced) my creativity | Kelly A. Boesch
After working for years in film, fashion and graphic design, visual artist Kelly A. Boesch found a new collaborator to work with: AI. She walks through how she uses the technology …
How to turn setbacks into success | Amy Shoenthal
Success rarely happens in a straight line, with setbacks all but guaranteed along the way. What's the best way to recover? Leadership coach Amy Shoenthal lays out the four phases o…
Why is it so hard for men to open up? A journalist and an entrepreneur answer | Joshua Johnson and Blake Mycoskie
Is conversation a lost art, or is it just evolving? Journalist Joshua Johnson and social entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie answer questions on everything from the male loneliness crisis …
The gravity-defying future of manufacturing | Schendy Kernizan
3D printing promised to reinvent how we make things, but it's mostly stuck producing prototypes with a high level of waste. Designer and TED Fellow Schendy Kernizan found a differe…
News tells you what happened. Drawing shows you how it felt | George Butler
What does a war look like when you sit still long enough to draw it? Reportage artist and TED Fellow George Butler sketches the people that the news passes by: a 99-year-old surviv…
How bullying spreads — and how social bravery stops it | Amy Cuddy
How does bullying take root? Social psychologist Amy Cuddy got an inside view of this question after she became the target of a coordinated campaign to discredit her. Drawing on he…