Crash Course
Why are People Moving to Cities? Crash Course Geography
According to the UN, people living in urban places now outnumber those in rural areas — which is a pretty new phenomenon for many parts of the world. So today, we’re going to discuss factors that have led to this shift in populations...
TED Talks
Arthur Potts Dawson: A vision for sustainable restaurants
If you've been in a restaurant kitchen, you've seen how much food, water and energy can be wasted there. Chef Arthur Potts-Dawson shares his very personal vision for drastically reducing restaurant, and supermarket, waste -- creating...
TED Talks
Renzo Vitale: What should electric cars sound like?
Electric cars are extremely quiet, offering some welcome silence in our cities. But they also bring new dangers, since they can easily sneak up on unsuspecting pedestrians. What kind of sounds should they make to keep people safe? Get a...
TED Talks
Ben Katchor: Comics of bygone New York
In this captivating talk from the TED archive, cartoonist Ben Katchor reads from his comic strips. These perceptive, surreal stories find the profound hopes and foibles of history (and modern New York) preserved in objects like light...
TED Talks
Paul Romer: Why the world needs charter cities
How can a struggling country break out of poverty if it's trapped in a system of bad rules? Economist Paul Romer unveils a bold idea: "charter cities," city-scale administrative zones governed by a coalition of nations. (Could Guantánamo...
TED Talks
Lalitesh Katragadda: Making maps to fight disaster, build economies
As of 2005, only 15 percent of the world was mapped. This slows the delivery of aid after a disaster -- and hides the economic potential of unused lands and unknown roads. In this short talk, Google's Lalitesh Katragadda demos Map Maker,...
TED Talks
TED: A smog vacuum cleaner and other magical city designs | Daan Roosegaarde
Daan Roosegaarde uses technology and creative thinking to produce imaginative, earth-friendly designs. He presents his latest projects -- from a bike path in eindhoven, where he reinterpreted "The Starry Night" to get people thinking...
TED Talks
TED: A future with fewer cars | Freeman H. Shen
What if your car could drop you off and then find parking by itself? According to electric vehicle entrepreneur Freeman H. Shen, this technology already exists. He shares his vision for a future where AI-powered electric vehicles will...
TED Talks
Rob Hopkins: Transition to a world without oil
Rob Hopkins reminds us that the oil our world depends on is steadily running out. He proposes a unique solution to this problem -- the Transition response, where we prepare ourselves for life without oil and sacrifice our luxuries to...
TED Talks
Roman Mars: Why city flags may be the worst-designed thing you've never noticed
Roman Mars is obsessed with flags -- and after you watch this talk, you might be, too. These ubiquitous symbols of civic pride are often designed, well, pretty terribly. But they don't have to be. In this surprising and hilarious talk...
TED Talks
TED: How dirt bikes and STEM ignite ingenuity in Baltimore | Brittany Young
Dirt biking is more than just a pastime -- it's an opportunity to disrupt the cycle of poverty and provide enriching STEM education, says TED Fellow Brittany Young. In this perspective-shifting talk, she shares how her team is working...
TED Talks
TED: How autonomous flying taxis could change the way you travel | Rodin Lyasoff
Flight is about to get a lot more personal, says aviation entrepreneur Rodin Lyasoff. In this visionary talk, he imagines a new golden age of air travel in which small, autonomous air taxis allow us to bypass traffic jams and...
TED Talks
Liz Diller: The Blur Building and other tech-empowered architecture
In this engrossing EG talk, architect Liz Diller shares her firm DS+R's more unusual work, including the Blur Building, whose walls are made of fog, and the revamped Alice Tully Hall, which is wrapped in glowing wooden skin.
TED Talks
Miru Kim: My underground art explorations
At the 2008 EG Conference, artist Miru Kim talks about her work. Kim explores industrial ruins underneath New York and then photographs herself in them, nude -- to bring these massive, dangerous, hidden spaces into sharp focus.
TED Talks
Kent Larson: Brilliant designs to fit more people in every city
How can we fit more people into cities without overcrowding? Kent Larson shows off folding cars, quick-change apartments and other innovations that could make the city of the future work a lot like a small village of the past.
TED Talks
TED: Why the "wrong side of the tracks" is usually the east side of cities | Stephen DeBerry
What do communities on the social, economic and environmental margins have in common? For one thing, they tend to be on the east sides of cities. In this short talk about a surprising insight, anthropologist and venture capitalist...
TED Talks
TED: Could a DAO build the next great city? | Scott Fitsimones
Could DAOs, or "decentralized autonomous organizations," be the key to building the next great city? Experimental urbanist Scott Fitsimones shares how these mission-driven, blockchain-governed, collectively owned organizations could...
TED Talks
Thom Mayne: How architecture can connect us
Architect Thom Mayne has never been one to take the easy option, and this whistle-stop tour of the buildings he's created makes you glad for it. These are big ideas cast in material form.
TED Talks
Jeff Speck: The walkable city
How do we solve the problem of the suburbs? Urbanist Jeff Speck shows how we can free ourselves from dependence on the car -- which he calls "a gas-belching, time-wasting, life-threatening prosthetic device" -- by making our cities more...
TED Talks
Janette Sadik-Khan: New York's streets? Not so mean any more
In this funny and thought-provoking talk, Janette Sadik-Khan, transportation commissioner of New York City, shares projects that have reshaped street life in the 5 boroughs, including pedestrian zones in Times Square, high-performance...
TED Talks
Alastair Parvin: Architecture for the people by the people
Designer Alastair Parvin presents a simple but provocative idea: what if, instead of architects creating buildings for those who can afford to commission them, regular citizens could design and build their own houses? The concept is at...
TED Talks
TED: How an old loop of railroads is changing the face of a city | Ryan Gravel
urban planner Ryan Gravel shares the story of how his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, rallied to build a massive urban park that will transform an abandoned railroad track into 22 miles of public green space called the Atlanta BeltLine....
TED Talks
Alejandro Aravena: My architectural philosophy? Bring the community into the process
When asked to build housing for 100 families in Chile ten years ago, Alejandro Aravena looked to an unusual inspiration: the wisdom of favelas and slums. Rather than building a large building with small units, he built flexible...
TED Talks
TED: Why glass towers are bad for city life -- and what we need instead | Justin Davidson
There's a creepy transformation taking over our cities, says architecture critic Justin Davidson. From Houston, Texas to Guangzhou, China, shiny towers of concrete and steel covered with glass are cropping up like an invasive species....