Film producer Jeff Skoll (An Inconvenient Truth) talks about his film company, Participant Productions, and the people who've inspired him to do good.

* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences.

This talk begins with a personal story of sexual violence that may be difficult to listen to. But that's the...

Our culture is obsessed with happiness, but what if there's a more fulfilling path? Happiness comes and goes, says writer Emily Esfahani Smith, but having meaning in life -- serving something beyond yourself and developing the best...

every artist has a name, and every artist has a story. Laolu Senbanjo's story started in Nigeria, where he was surrounded by the culture and mythology of the Yoruba, and brought him to law school, to New York and eventually to work on...

India is fast becoming a superpower, says Shashi Tharoor -- not just through trade and politics, but through "soft" power, its ability to share its culture with the world through food, music, technology, Bollywood. He argues that in the...

How do we tell stories of humanity and nature at a time when our planet is burning? Novelist Elif Shafak invites us to listen to the trees, whose experience of time, stillness and impermanence is utterly different from our own. "Hidden...

* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. Ryan Lobo has traveled the world, taking photographs that tell stories of unusual human lives. In this haunting...

Days before this talk, journalist Naomi Klein was on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, looking at the catastrophic results of BP's risky pursuit of oil. Our societies have become addicted to extreme risk in finding new energy, new financial...

Even though there are no volcanoes on the Olympic Peninsula, you can find lots of volcanic rocks on the beaches. This bizarre circumstance might have to do with how the ancient island transformed Washington state.

There's something amazing growing in the city of Detroit: healthy, accessible, delicious, fresh food. In a spirited talk, fearless farmer Devita Davison explains how features of Detroit's decay actually make it an ideal spot for urban...

Chris Milk uses cutting edge technology to produce astonishing films that delight and enchant. But for Milk, the human story is the driving force behind everything he does. In this short, charming talk, he shows some of his...

Over a hundred years after his creator was laid to rest, Dracula lives on as the most famous vampire in history. But this Transylvanian noble _ neither the first fictional vampire, nor the most popular of his time _ may have remained...

Arcane books of forbidden lore, disturbing secrets in the family bloodline, and terrors so unspeakable the very thought of them might drive you mad. These have become standard elements in modern horror stories. But they were largely...

Stories are necessary, but they're not as magical as they seem, says writer Sisonke Msimang. In this funny and thoughtful talk, Msimang questions our emphasis on storytelling and spotlights the decline of facts. During a critical time...

For a crime he committed in his early twenties, the courts sentenced Marlon Peterson to 10 years in prison -- and, as he says, a lifetime of irrelevance. While behind bars, Peterson found redemption through a penpal mentorship program...

In which Mike Rugnetta quests for knowledge of the Holy Grail of Mythology. Which is the actual, literal Holy Grail! The cup of Christ! Legends about the Holy Grail are often connected to the British legends of King Arthur, and this...

An art school professor once told Deborah Willis that she, as a woman, was taking a place from a good man -- but the storied photographer says she instead made a space for a good man, her son Hank Willis Thomas. In this moving talk, the...

Zombies have a distinct lineage— one that traces back to Equatorial and Central Africa. For three centuries, African people were enslaved and brought to the Caribbean Islands. There, a religion known as vodou developed, along with the...

When presented with the problem of hoards of illiterate commoners, English clergymen in the 11th century created plays to spread word about the Bible. Eventually, the plays moved out of the church and into the streets. Mindy Ploeckelmann...

About 2500 years ago, the writing of history as we understand it didn't really exist. Then, a man called Herodotus witnessed the Persian invasions of Greece and decided to find out why they happened. Mark Robinson investigates how the...

Ancient monuments give us clues to astonishing past civilizations -- but they're under threat from pollution, war, neglect. Ben Kacyra, who invented a groundbreaking 3D scanning system, is using his invention to scan and preserve the...

For many centuries (and for many reasons) critically acclaimed creative genius has generally come from a male perspective. As theater director Jude Kelly points out in this passionately reasoned talk, that skew affects how we interpret...

The only thing as powerful as our grief is the love we have for those we've lost, says photographer Caroline Catlin. In this meditation on the intersection of life and death, Catlin shares how her personal journey with loss drove her to...

"Where does it hurt?" It's a question that activist and educator Ruby Sales has traveled the US asking, looking deeply at the country's legacy of racism and searching for sources of healing. In this moving talk, she shares what she's...