It’s difficult to resist making a pun around the name Larry Brilliant. Board-certified in preventive medicine and public health, Larry lived in India for 10 years — first at a Himalayan monastery, and later as a diplomat working for the UN. He helped lead the successful WHO smallpox-eradication program and later founded the Seva Foundation, […]
Jehane Noujaim is the gutsy filmmaker behind Control Room, the controversial documentary following events at Al Jazeera — the largest Arab news network — from the onset of the Iraq war. Jehane left for Qatar two weeks before the US invasion and gained access to both Al Jazeera and the US Military’s Central Command. She […]
Bowing to extraordinary public pressure, we are pleased to unveil the new TEDBLOG … a little taste of ongoing TEDness for those who feel that once a year just isn’t enough. The plan is to add a few items every week… to titillate, intrigue and delight. Matters scientific, techie, creative, entertaining and… well, anything that […]
Apparently Katrina was God’s punishment on a sinful New Orleans. I guess that would explain all those tsunami deaths among those sinful people in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India too…
TEDsters: Prepare to be transported. Burt Rutan, the legendary aircraft designer, will thrill us this February in Monterey, with his plans to make space travel a reality. Rutan, who won the $10M X-Prize for SpaceShipOne — the first private craft to reach space — has now partnered with Virgin Galactic (an offshoot of Virgin Atlantic) […]
Steven Johnson (TED2003) has wowed us at TED in the past, and his books never fail to intrigue and delight. His latest, Everything Bad is Good for You offers a provocative new lens through which to ponder the impact of modern culture. General assumptions among the cognoscenti: (1) Mass culture is dumbing us down (2) […]
The New York Times may be cranky about the new trend in web comics. (They question the distinction between web comics and animation, and bemoan the “added headaches.”) But those of us who recognize that emerging media are, by definition, works in progress, find the new form fascinating. Our favorite: The Right Number by Scott […]
Malala Yousafzai has spent her life advocating for girls’ education — surviving an assassination attempt at 15, meeting with world leaders and then watching hard-won progress collapse when Afghanistan fell to the Taliban in 2021. That moment of despair forced her to completely rethink what it means to create change, and what she discovered replaced […]
At TED, we say that ideas change everything. And it’s the people behind these ideas who make TED the powerful community it is. Each talk sparks something: a new question, a shift in perspective, a feeling that lingers longer than expected. Those who hear the talk then forward along that nugget of insight, in a […]
Dear Democracy, How are you holding up? You’ve had some tough days lately, it seems. The last few years haven’t been very kind to you. Despite democracy being at a modern-day high at the end of 2017 (Drew Desilver, Pew Research), a 2025 report from the University of Gothenburg found that autocratic countries now outnumber […]
The Audacious Project, the collaborative funding platform within TED, is thrilled to announce its newest cohort of grantee innovators. This new cohort extends the vital on-the-ground work of Audacious grantees on key global issues, including reducing the flow of plastics to rivers and oceans, improving reproductive care, preventing homelessness and investing in low-income and first-generation […]
By Brigid Jacoby, with Amanda Lynch November is National Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, a time to pause, reflect and continue the conversation on a disease that touches millions of lives around the world. Alzheimer’s isn’t just a medical challenge — it’s an emotional one that reshapes families, identities and the way we connect with one another. […]
The Audacious Project supports big ideas to foster change around the world’s most urgent challenges. Today, this innovative funding initiative, housed at TED, is announcing its new cohort of projects for 2024, which are as bold as ever — from an idea to repurpose generic drugs en masse to reach the 300 million people globally […]
How can you best communicate your work experience, succeed at your current job and secure the future of your career? The Way We Work, a TED original video series, helps business leaders and innovative thinkers answer those questions and more. Whether you’re starting a new job, freelancing or want to future-proof your career, season six […]
It is with immense sadness that we commemorate the legacy of Dr. Karen Bakker, who died on August 14. Karen’s talk at TED2023, Could an orca give a TED Talk?, demonstrated the beautiful promise afforded by technologies such as AI to help us understand the natural world more deeply. A Guggenheim Fellow and professor at […]
Work is a big part of our lives, so how can we bring our best selves to it, and how can we create workplaces that help employees thrive? The Way We Work is a TED original video series where leaders and thinkers offer practical wisdom and insight into how we can adapt and thrive amid […]