TED Talks
Kotchakorn Voraakhom: How to transform sinking cities into landscapes that fight floods
From London to Tokyo, climate change is causing cities to sink -- and our modern concrete infrastructure is making us even more vulnerable to severe flooding, says landscape architect and TED Fellow Kotchakorn Voraakhom. But what if we...
TED Talks
Charles Moore: Seas of plastic
Capt. Charles Moore of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation first discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch -- an endless floating waste of plastic trash. Now he's drawing attention to the growing, choking problem of plastic debris...
TED Talks
Margaret Wertheim: The beautiful math of coral
Margaret Wertheim leads a project to re-create the creatures of the coral reefs using a crochet technique invented by a mathematician -- celebrating the amazements of the reef, and deep-diving into the hyperbolic geometry underlying...
TED Talks
Meditations on the intersection of humanity and technology | Olivia Arthur
Documentary photographer Olivia Arthur has been exploring a new frontier: the evolution of the blurring line between humanity and technology. In this meditative talk, she shows her work documenting the remarkable ways humans have merged...
TED Talks
Harvey Fineberg: Are we ready for neo-evolution?
Medical ethicist Harvey Fineberg shows us three paths forward for the ever-evolving human species: to stop evolving completely, to evolve naturally -- or to control the next steps of human evolution, using genetic modification, to make...
TED Talks
TED: Intelligent floating machines inspired by nature | Anicka Yi
Taking cues from soft robotics and the natural world, conceptual artist Anicka Yi builds lighter-than-air machines that roam and react like autonomous life forms. Her floating "aerobes" inspire us to think about new ways of living with...
TED Talks
TED: A new economic model for protecting tropical forests | Nat Keohane
To solve the climate crisis, we need to make tropical forests worth more alive than dead, says environmental economist Nat Keohane. Highlighting the urgent need to stop deforestation and the carbon pollution it brings, he details the...
TED Talks
TED: Life-altering questions about the end of the universe | Katie Mack
In this fascinating conversation, cosmologist and TED Fellow Katie Mack delves into everything from the Big Bang theory to what we see at the edge of the observable universe to a few ways the cosmos might end. Stay tuned to hear Mack...
TED Talks
TED: The radical potential of self-evolving robots | Emma Hart
What if robots could build and optimize themselves -- with little to no help from humans? Computer scientist Emma Hart is working on a new technology that could make "artificial evolution" possible. She explains how the three ingredients...
TED Talks
Colette Pichon Battle: Climate change will displace millions. Here's how we prepare
Scientists predict climate change will displace more than 180 million people by 2100 -- a crisis of "climate migration" the world isn't ready for, says disaster recovery lawyer and Louisiana native Colette Pichon Battle. In this...
TED Talks
Chris McKnett: The investment logic for sustainability
Sustainability is pretty clearly one of the world's most important goals; but what groups can really make environmental progress in leaps and bounds? Chris McKnett makes the case that it's large institutional investors. He shows how...
TED Talks
TED: How to make radical climate action the new normal | Al Gore
A net-zero future is possible, but first we need to flip a mental switch to truly understand that we can stop the climate crisis if we try, says Nobel laureate Al Gore. In this inspiring and essential talk, Gore shares examples of...
TED Talks
TED: The line between life and not-life | Martin Hanczyc
In his lab, Martin Hanczyc makes "protocells," experimental blobs of chemicals that behave like living cells. His work demonstrates how life might have first occurred on Earth ... and perhaps elsewhere too.
TED Talks
TED: A teen just trying to figure it out | Tavi Gevinson
Fifteen-year-old Tavi Gevinson had a hard time finding strong female, teenage role models -- so she built a space where they could find each other. At TEDxTeen, she illustrates how the conversations on sites like Rookie, her wildly...
TED Talks
TED: The 4 commandments of cities | Eduardo Paes
Eduardo Paes is the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, a sprawling, complicated, beautiful city of 6.5 million. He shares four big ideas about leading Rio -- and all cities -- into the future, including bold (and do-able) infrastructure upgrades...
TED Talks
TED: Cute, sexy, sweet, funny | Dan Dennett
Why are babies cute? Why is cake sweet? Philosopher Dan Dennett has answers you wouldn't expect, as he shares evolution's counterintuitive reasoning on cute, sweet and sexy things (plus a new theory from Matthew Hurley on why jokes are...
TED Talks
The value of your humanity in an automated future | Kevin Roose
To futureproof your job against robots and AI, you should learn how to code, brush up on your math skills and crack open an engineering textbook, right? Wrong. In this surprisingly comforting talk, tech journalist Kevin Roose makes the...
TED Talks
Amanda Williams: Why I turned Chicago's abandoned homes into art
Amanda Williams shares her lifelong fascination with the complexity of color: from her experiences with race and redlining to her discovery of color theory to her work as a visual artist. Journey with Williams to Chicago's South Side and...
TED Talks
TED: The key to a better malaria vaccine | Faith Osier
The malaria vaccine was invented more than a century ago -- yet each year, hundreds of thousands of people still die from the disease. How can we improve this vital vaccine? In this informative talk, immunologist and TED Fellow Faith...
TED Talks
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala: Want to help Africa? Do business here
We know the negative images of Africa -- famine and disease, conflict and corruption. But, says Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, there's another, less-told story happening in many African nations: one of reform, economic growth and business...
TED Talks
TED: How to revive a neighborhood: with imagination, beauty and art - Theaster Gates
* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. Theaster Gates, a potter by training and a social activist by calling, wanted to do something about the sorry state...
TED Talks
TED: The mind behind Linux | Linus Torvalds
Linus Torvalds transformed technology twice -- first with the Linux kernel, which helps power the Internet, and again with Git, the source code management system used by developers worldwide. In a rare interview with TED Curator Chris...
TED Talks
TED: Why curiosity is the key to science and medicine | Kevin B. Jones
Science is a learning process that involves experimentation, failure and revision -- and the science of medicine is no exception. Cancer researcher Kevin B. Jones faces the deep unknowns about surgery and medical care with a simple...
TED Talks
TED: Why we need to end the era of orphanages | Tara Winkler
Could it be wrong to help children in need by starting an orphanage? In this eye-opening talk about the bad consequences of good intentions, Tara Winkler speaks out against the spread of orphanages in developing countries, caused in part...