Fast food was invented to help us keep up with our fast-paced world. But it’s also had some unintended psychological consequences and can influence our choices in situations that don’t have anything to do with food.

What if smallholder farmers could use their produce and livestock to pay for goods and services? TED Fellow and alternative currency enthusiast Fariel Salahuddin is working to make this a reality in places including rural Pakistan, where...

Difficult emotions can get under your skin if you're not careful. Sport and performance consultant Jessica Woods calls this the "jumping cholla effect," inspired by a sneaky kind of cactus that detaches and burrows its spines into...

Imagine a police lineup where ten witnesses are asked to identify a bank robber they glimpsed fleeing the scene. If six of them pick the same person, there's a good chance that's the culprit. And if all ten do, you might think the case...

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...

Some people (maybe you!) can't eat certain foods because they're allergic to them. People can have an allergic reaction to almost any kind of food, or even other things, like bee stings! But all allergies have something in common: our...

Educator and entrepreneur Sebastian Thrun wants us to use AI to free humanity of repetitive work and unleash our creativity. In an inspiring, informative conversation with TED Curator Chris Anderson, Thrun discusses the progress of deep...

The promise of the metaverse extends far beyond digital spaces -- it can transform and enrich how we experience the material world, too. From video games that bring communities together to digital art that collides with physical spaces,...

This is episode 2 of our animated series "Think Like A Coder." This 10-episode narrative follows a girl, Ethic, and her robot companion, Hedge, as they attempt to save the world. The two embark on a quest to collect three artifacts and...

Where science fiction becomes science fact - that is the place Hank is exploring in today's episode of SciShow. Many inventions we use today were first imagined in stories that described fantastical futures. Hank talks...

When a very young child looks at a picture, she can identify simple elements: "cat," "book," "chair." Now, computers are getting smart enough to do that too. What's next? In a thrilling talk, computer vision expert Fei-Fei Li describes...

When we experience loss, grief travels with us everywhere -- even work. What can companies do to support grieving employees? Sharing his own story of unimaginable heartbreak, Tilak Mandadi offers three ways organizations can cultivate a...

Lots of kids are afraid of the dark, and some adults still can't stand sleeping in the complete darkness. But why are we afraid of it?

What would Immanuel Kant say about a fender bender? In a surprisingly funny trip through the teachings of some of history's great philosophers, TV writer and producer Michael Schur (from hit shows like "The Office" and "The Good Place")...

Scientists today think reason and emotion aren’t at odds like they’ve traditionally been presented, and even rely on each other to help us get through this thing called life.

The animated GIF has had a long and fascinating history, but the GIF took a giant leap forward this year when it became part of the 2012 Presidential Election!!! This election season, GIFs of Obama, Romney, Biden and Ryan, populated not...

Natasha Tsakos presents part of her one-woman, multimedia show, "Upwake." As the character Zero, she blends dream and reality with an inventive virtual world projected around her in 3D animation and electric sound.

Neuroscientist Vilayanur Ramachandran outlines the fascinating functions of mirror neurons. Only recently discovered, these neurons allow us to learn complex social behaviors, some of which formed the foundations of human civilization as...

Tony Wyss-Coray studies the impact of aging on the human body and brain. In this eye-opening talk, he shares new research from his Stanford lab and other teams which shows that a solution for some of the less great aspects of old age...

For many years Sergeant Kevin Briggs had a dark, unusual, at times strangely rewarding job: He patrolled the southern end of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, a popular site for suicide attempts. In a sobering, deeply personal talk...

AI algorithms make important decisions about you all the time -- like how much you should pay for car insurance or whether or not you get that job interview. But what happens when these machines are built with human bias coded into their...

Pitching your movie to people can be hard. A studio, a friend, your mom... each of these entities will have different stressed and give you different results. But, what's important in a pitch? And what happens after the pitch? How do you...

Farmers stand at the center of the world, says Andrew Youn, cofounder of One Acre Fund, an agricultural organization that's empowering sub-Saharan farm families with the loans, seeds, fertilizer and training needed to increase crop...

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