If you’ve ever wondered how you can give a TED Talk, you’re not alone. TED believes that ideas change everything — and that they can come from unexpected places. So, we issued an open call to anyone in the UK in search of the biggest,...

How do we protect ourselves from being misled online? Counter-terrorism expert Vidhya Ramalingam reveals how disinformation is being weaponized to justify violence — increasingly against climate scientists — and introduces a powerful...

As a neurodivergent child going to school far from home, Misan Harriman found solace in the internet -- "an endless library of the extraordinary," as he calls it. In this powerful talk, he shares his journey as a self-taught photographer...

Nearly twenty years after the dot-com bubble burst, the internet is an essential piece of the modern world, with the public side mostly commanded by a few powerful companies.

Video games naturally tap into the way we learn: they focus our attention and track our progress as we head toward a clear goal. Kris Alexander, a professor of video game design and passionate gamer himself, thinks the same elements...

The Library of Congress has a new chief: Carla Hayden. Most of her predecessors in the role have come from scholarly institutions, but Hayden is a librarian through and through. She is also the first woman and the first African American...

From filing taxes to accessing medical records to voting, 99 percent of all government services in Estonia are available online. Accessed at the state portal using an ID card and a pin code, the former Soviet nation is the first in the...

Two years ago, President Barack Obama restored diplomatic relations with Cuba. Since then, Cold War-era travel restrictions that prohibited most Americans from visiting were lifted, leading to a surge of U.S. tourists and a scramble to...

Media and advertising companies still use the same old demographics to understand audiences, but they're becoming increasingly harder to track online, says media researcher Johanna Blakley. As social media outgrows traditional media, and...

Negative campaigns—or campaigns that work by painting opposing candidates in a negative light—have been used for decades. But today, thanks to information that can be gained from social media, these campaigns may be even more effective...

* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. How do you pick up a malicious online virus, the kind of malware that snoops on your data and taps your bank...

You might be familiar with the concept of self-harm, but it isn’t just physical. As it turns out, people can harm themselves through the anonymity of the internet.

People everywhere are using Zoom to work, take classes, do yoga -- and even get married. The company's CEO and founder Eric Yuan reflects on how they developed the world's most popular video chat software and envisions a digital future...

What if you never had to fill out paperwork again? In Estonia, this is a reality: citizens conduct nearly all public services online, from starting a business to voting from their laptops, thanks to the nation's ambitious post-Soviet...

The line between public and private has blurred in the past decade, both online and in real life, and Alessandro Acquisti is here to explain what this means and why it matters. In this thought-provoking, slightly chilling talk, he shares...

* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. "Public shaming as a blood sport has to stop," says Monica Lewinsky. In 1998, she says, “I was Patient Zero of...

Have you found yourself staying up late, joylessly bingeing TV shows and doomscrolling through the news, or simply navigating your day uninspired and aimless? Chances are you're languishing, says organizational psychologist Adam Grant --...

It's time to give paper passports a digital upgrade, says entrepreneur Karoli Hindriks. Looking to Estonia's technology-driven government for inspiration, she envisions a world where immigration is no longer hindered by bureaucracy and...

Games like World of Warcraft give players the means to save worlds, and incentive to learn the habits of heroes. What if we could harness this gamer power to solve real-world problems? Jane McGonigal says we can, and explains how.

I was the first woman president of an African nation, and I do believe more countries ought to try that, says H.E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Nobel laureate and former president of Liberia. Telling the story of how Liberian women helped...

In this poignant, funny follow-up to his fabled 2006 talk, Sir Ken Robinson makes the case for a radical shift from standardized schools to personalized learning -- creating conditions where kids' natural talents can flourish.

Ever wondered why poop floats? Turns out it’s not because of fat, like you may have heard.

As you surf the Web, information is being collected about you. Web tracking is not 100% evil -- personal data can make your browsing more efficient; cookies can help your favorite websites stay in business. But, says Gary Kovacs, it's...

Videos on the web should work like the web itself: dynamic, full of links, maps and information that can be edited and updated live, says Ryan Merkley. On the TED stage he demos Mozilla's Popcorn Maker, a web-based tool for easy video...