Psychologist Jonathan Haidt studies the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we’re left, right or center. In this eye-opening talk, he pinpoints the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend to honor most. And he challenges all of us to step outside of our moral Matrix and pledge to […]
Michael Lee at the blog Addison Road is trying a new teaching style this semester — and a key part of it is adopting the TED time limit: I’ve made it a goal to never “lecture” for more than 20 minutes at a time. At the 20-minute mark, I stop, and we do something else. […]
Speaking at the 2007 EG conference, “renegade lunch lady” Ann Cooper shares her passionate belief in remaking the school lunch. She uses scathing language to describe how most American kids are fed at the noon bell, out of cans, boxes and plastic bags — sowing the seeds of the obesity epidemic that is spreading from […]
Keith Bellows gleefully (and profanely) outlines the engineering marvels of the camel, a vital creature he calls “the SUV of the desert.” Though he couldn’t bring a live camel to TED, he gets his National Geographic camera crew as close as humanly possible to a one-ton beast in full rut. (Recorded February 2002 in Monterey, […]
The Rock the Vote bus kicks off Road Trip ’08 today in Nashville, Tennessee — launching a month-long, nonpartisan road trip to register voters and get out the vote before the U.S. presidential elections in November. If the Rock the Vote bus stops in your town, come by and check out the playlist of TEDTalks […]
Storyteller Carmen Agra Deedy spins a funny, wise and loving tale of parents and kids, starring her Cuban mother. Settle in and enjoy the ride — Mama’s driving! (Recorded February 2005 in Monterey, California. Duration: 17:57.) Watch Carmen Agra Deedy’s 2005 talk on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on […]
With vibrant video clips captured by submarines, David Gallo takes us to some of Earth’s darkest, most violent, toxic and beautiful habitats, the valleys and volcanic ridges of the oceans’ depths, where life is bizarre, resilient and shockingly abundant. (Recorded February 1998 in Monterey, California. Duration: 13:20.) Watch David Gallo’s 1998 talk on TED.com, […]
Brewster Kahle is building a truly huge digital library — every book ever published, every movie ever released, all the strata of web history … It’s all free to the public — unless someone else gets to it first. At the 2007 EG conference, he talks through the challenges, especially, of converting printed books to […]
The face of nuclear terror has changed since the Cold War, but disaster-medicine expert Dr. Irwin Redlener reminds us that the threat of nuclear attack is still real. He’s passionately committed to making sure that — if the worst happens — we’ll have the tools and knowledge we need to recover. In this talk, he […]
The legendary chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall talks about her community projects for humans (such as TACARE), which help the struggling people in African boomtowns live peacefully among threatened animals. (Recorded June 2007 in Arusha, Tanzania. Duration: 23:46.) Watch Jane Goodall’s 2007 talk on TED.com, where you can download this TEDTalk, rate it, comment on […]
Starting with four basic questions (that you may be surprised to find you can’t answer), Jonathan Drori looks at the gaps in our knowledge — and specifically, what we don’t about science that we might think we do. (Recorded at TEDU, February 2007 in Monterey, California. Duration: 12:34.) Watch Jonathan Drori’s 2007 talk on TED.com, […]
Speaking at the 2007 EG conference, Peter Hirshberg offers an absorbing look at emerging media and tech history. He shares some crucial lessons from Silicon Valley and explains why the web is so much more than “better TV.” (Recorded December 2007 in Los Angeles, California. Duration: 31:39.) Watch Peter Hirshberg’s 2007 talk on TED.com, […]
X Prize founder Peter Diamandis lays out several very good reasons to keep exploring space — and he talks about how, with the help of the X Prize and other incentives, we’re going to do just that. He also talks about the next phase of the X Prize, driving radical breakthroughs in many technologies that […]
At TED2007, Paul Rothemund gave TED a short summary of DNA folding (calling it a process akin to magic). Now, he lays out in clear, adundant detail the immense promise of this field — to create tiny machines that assemble themselves from a set of instructions. (Recorded February 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 16:24.) […]
This whimsical wrap-up of TED2006 — presented by Einstein, the African grey parrot, and her trainer, Stephanie White — simply tickles. Watch for the moment when Einstein, like many other distinguished TED speakers, has a moment with Al Gore. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, California. Duration: 05:48.) Watch Einstein the parrot’s talk on TED.com, […]
In a moving, personal talk, blogger and activist Ory Okolloh tells the story of her life and her family — and how she came to do her heroic work reporting on the doings of Kenya’s parliament. (Recorded June 2007 in Arucha, Tanzania. Duration: 16:37.) Watch Ory Okolloh’s talk on TED.com, where you can download […]