[ted id=1617 width=560 height=315] Ernesto Sirolli learned a big lesson, thanks to a group of hippos. In this hilarious talk from TEDxEQChCh, economic development expert Ernesto Sirolli recalls spending 1971 to 1977 in Africa working for an Italian NGO. The experience was a comedy of errors. “Every single project we set up in Africa failed,” […]
Can we draw instructive parallels between the development of the human brain and the emergence of the electronic global ‘brain’ of the Internet? New research in neuroscience suggests that, yes, we can. In the new TED ebook, Brain Power: From Neurons to Networks, filmmaker Tiffany Shlain explores the links between the two. The book also arrives concurrently […]
According to our best estimates, TED has surpassed a billion video views! Our most recent metrics show that TED Talks are being viewed at a rate of 1.5 million times a day — which means that a new viewing commences 17 times a second. We in the TED office cannot thank you enough for helping us […]
Polar explorer Ben Saunders took the stage at the TEDSalon in London on November 7 to ask the question: “If everything is being done somewhere by someone and we can participate virtually, then why bother leaving the house?” A journalist had posed this question to him weeks earlier. He addressed it onstage through both his […]
Last night at the TED offices, we held a special event: a miniature TED all about voting. Three amazing speakers took the stage to present ideas and stories related to our electoral process. First up, was TED’s own Lisa Bu, our Content Distribution Manager, who spoke about her experience traveling from China in 1995 to […]
[ted id=1608 width=560 height=315] Team Rubicon’s latest mission is called Operation: Greased Lightning. What does that mean, you ask? In this powerful talk, given at TEDxSanDiego in 2011, Jake Wood shares his experience co-founding Team Rubicon, a disaster relief organization that uses veterans to do the difficult work of search and rescue, supply disbursement and […]
Hurricane Sandy is currently hovering over the Atlantic Ocean, threatening a large swath of the United States’ East Coast, from North Carolina to Maine. With coastal areas evacuated, wind and rainfall picking up quickly and many transportation systems shut down in anticipation of flooding, millions of people are currently at home, just waiting for roughest […]
We’re not sure anyone could be more excited than us for the launch of Onion Talks, the new weekly video series from The Onion. Forget imitation — parody is the highest form of flattery. We feel honored to be worthy of satire from the masters of the craft. And we’re just hoping that Area Man is […]
Good design isn’t just about making a great-looking colander. Good design can actually improve our lives, both individually and collectively. In the new Autodesk Gallery exhibit “Public Interest Design: Products, Places & Processes,” curators Courtney E. Martin and John Cary showcase 12 projects that were designed with the common good in mind. Of the four […]
At TEDGlobal, educator Eddie Obeng highlighted a disconcerting thought — that the answers we learned in school aren’t necessarily true anymore. “This is what happened to us in the 21st century — someone changed the rules about how our world works,” says Obeng in this energetic talk. “The way to successfully run a business, an […]
One in four people have some form of mental illness, and Ruby Wax wants to talk about it. Watch her TEDTalk, posted today and inspired by her show Losing It, to start the conversation. One project she didn’t get to mention onstage at TEDGlobal: This winter, Wax started up the Black Dog Tribe, an online […]
[ted id=1583 width=560 height=315] On Friday, Oct. 5, the TED Conversations community hosted Vicki Arroyo for a one-hour live chat to talk about adapting to climate change — and to share more data behind the story. Read the whole chat — and see some highlights below: Feyisayo Anjorin asked: Recently Nigeria’s coastal states has been […]
Can music be a medical instrument? In a moving talk from TEDMed, Robert Gupta reveals that it certainly can be. He gives as an example the work of neuroscientist Gottfried Schlaug, one of the pioneers of melodic intonation therapy. Schlaug noticed that, while stroke victims with aphasia could not utter a sentence, they could still […]
UPDATE OCTOBER 2017: The science of power poses is one of ongoing study. Please check our update on Amy Cuddy’s talk for the latest research in this area of science. There’s one very important thing that everyone should do before heading into a job interview, giving a big speech or attempting an athletic feat. According […]
Many people simply listen to music. Not David Byrne, the solo artist and former frontman of the Talking Heads. Even beyond making music, Byrne thinks deeply about how music functions on a perceptual level. At TED2010, Byrne spoke about how the nature of a space effects what kind of music is played there, from a […]
Martha Payne may only be 9-years-old, but she is already a world-renowned food blogger. In a preamble to his fascinating TEDTalk about what governments can learn from open-source programming, Clay Shirky told Payne’s inspirational story. In April of 2012, Scottish schoolgirl Payne started the blog NeverSeconds.blogspot.co.uk, which documents her school dinners (otherwise known as school […]