If you’re lucky enough to live without want, it’s a natural impulse to want to try and help others. But what’s the most effective way to give? This was the question philosopher Peter Singer asked in his 2013 TED Talk, given in Long Beach, California, and he shared some surprising thought experiments to help balance emotion […]Read more
“We think we have to be successful, then we’ll be happier. But the real problem is our brains work in the opposite order,” said Shawn Achor in his charming, immensely popular TED Talk from TEDxBloomington, “The happy secret to better work.” Achor is the CEO of consulting firm Good Think, which conducts research on positive psychology […]
From the earliest days of human exploration we’ve made progressively more accurate and sophisticated maps. Maps help us find our way around the world we live in. Maps help us get to our destination. Maps keep us from becoming lost. But what if you have no destination? What if becoming lost is the point? Well, […]
Apple’s iOS7 launched this morning, and on it, our new TED app. Below, we asked our in-house product development lead Thaniya Keereepart about the mobile update, asking her to share the team’s vision for taking an experience people loved and making it even more fluid. What makes this iOS7 version of the TED app different? […]
Over the past week, we’ve noticed a lot of fascinating TED-related news items. Here, some highlights: The TV show Jeopardy turns 30 this week. And we think that’s all the excuse you need to watch Ken Jenning’s amazing TED Talk, “Watson, Jeopardy and the obsolete know-it-all.” Thandie Newton (watch her TED Talk) has launched a […]
What is the city of the future? What will it look like? How will it come to be? This weekend, from Taipei to Melbourne to Mexico City, over 100 local organizers will offer their answers at TEDx events in honor of TEDCity2.0, a day-long TED event celebrating urban innovation. TED challenged organizers to remix the official TEDCity2.0 posters, […]
In 1945, there were 4.5 million hives of bees in the United States. Today, there are just about 2 million. It’s been a subtle decline over time, but one that has dramatically accelerated over the past seven years. And this should be extremely alarming, given that bees pollinate one-third of the world’s crops. In today’s […]
What is the effect of violence on a life’s narrative? TED Fellow and photojournalist Jon Lowenstein has lived in the South Side of Chicago for about a decade — first working as a teacher, photographer and community liaison at an elementary school and subsequently engaging with his African American neighbors to document life in this […]
In today’s talk, Lyne talks cybercrime, revealing some of the new methods that hackers and malicious code writers are using to grab our data. And he shows how we accidentally share that data — without even realizing it. For example, did you know that most smartphones embed GPS data in the photos we take? He […]
From Bob Woodward and Charles Bernstein to Upton Sinclair and Nellie Bly, investigative journalists have shaped the course of history by uncovering troubling truths of their times. These watchdogs work to keep governments and companies honest, sometimes putting their own safety at risk. At a time where newspapers face a rocky future, it’s good to […]
Intriguing reads from around the Internets this week: Two journalists on why the red line on chemical warfare is necessary. [Foreign Affairs] The story of Sara Josephine Baker, a doctor who saved 90,000 inner-city children by the time she died in 1945. [NYRB] “You can’t defend the humanities by declaring it off limits to amateurs.” […]
Snakes slither along the ground, right? Well, not always. In this talk from TEDxVirginiaTech, snake expert Jake Socha introduces us to five species of snakes with the ability to fly — no plane or Samuel L. Jackson needed. It’s a fascinating look at how these creatures create lift, even though they are essentially cylinders, and […]
Negin Farsad’s new documentary, The Muslims Are Coming!, churns hilarity out of a not-so-funny subject: Islamophobia. The film follows Farsad, a TED Fellow, and a group fellow Muslim-American comedians (Dean Obeidallah, Aron Kader, Preacher Moss, Kareem Omary, Maysoon Zayid and Omar Elba) as they tour the United States and hold comedic interventions to show conservatives, […]