TED Fellows aren’t easy to classify. In the latest class, there’s a bioengineer who programs bacteria to change the color of urine to signal the presence of cancer — and to make bold, brightly colored art. There’s a data scientist who dreamed up a tool to let anyone with a cell phone build a credit […]
TED is coming to Broadway. And curious minds of all kinds are invited. “TED Talks Live” will bring six nights of talks to The Town Hall Theater in New York City’s Theater district this November. The program will focus on three topics: The Education Revolution, War & Peace and Science & Wonder. Each night will […]
TED staffers travel a lot — to TEDx events all over the globe, to TED conferences in Canada, Brazil, the UK …. so we love to trade travel tips for making the most of work and fun trips. Here are 40 of our best — including some oddball but practical ideas for vacation travel (to use up those […]
You have an idea. A good one – one that will make people think. But giving a TED Talk on a stage in front of an audience? Well, that doesn’t quite feel like the right way to express it. If giving a traditional TED Talk isn’t your style, you may be excited to hear about […]
The TED community always has lots of news to share. Below, some highlights from the past two weeks. Lessons for the South — from Germany. “Can the American South, still grappling with the legacy of slavery and segregation, learn something from Germany’s grappling with Nazism?” Anand Giridharadas asked this question of four scholars who study […]
No one really wants to talk about the weather. Inspired by TED Talks, here are some questions to start a better conversation in any situation. “So, what’s your favorite word?” [ted id=161] Who to ask: The chatty person who’s sharing an outlet with you at the coffee shop The basic idea: Dictionaries don’t compile themselves — […]
Aomawa Shields is a woman of “contradictions.” An astronomer and astrobiologist, she searches for exoplanets where life might exist by using computer models to calculate the kind of atmosphere they’d need to support it. And she’s also a classically trained actor, who — through her organization Rising Stargirls — teaches astronomy to middle school girls of color using theater, writing and visual art to […]
“If you’re a teen, you’ve been called apathetic, narcissistic and social-media obsessed,” said Taylor Trudon, the youth editor at Huffington Post. Standing tall in a crisp white blazer, the 25-year-old shared how she went from keeping a high school diary — decorated with stickers and magazine clippings of John Mayer and Uggs — to becoming […]
Growth is usually a good thing. For a person, it means more wisdom; for a business, it means more profit; for a country, it means increased prosperity. But growth has a darker side too: aging, a sense of impersonality, waste and pollution. At TED@BCG — the latest TED Institute event, held on June 30, 2015, […]
A fun way to find a talk that’s just right for you…
Dame Stephanie Shirley had just a few hours to go before giving her talk at TEDWomen 2013. There was just one problem: she could hardly speak. Shirley, a tech entrepreneur who founded a software company in the 1960s, had flown from London to San Francisco to speak at the conference. Her talk told the story […]
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This picture was worth all the words I had — it rendered me speechless. It’s an image of six Black women, smiling and hugging, taken by Ryan Lash at the TED2015 conference. There we were — LaToya, Somi, Aomawa, Camille, Danielle and myself — in all […]
The tables in bookstores can be overwhelming: Every book cover looks appealing, every blurb glows with praise. Sometimes, you just need a recommendation from a human, someone you trust. Below, 10 members of the TED community — with very different points of view — share the books they think you’ll enjoy this summer. Their selections […]
Formula E racing, the darknet, a potential fountain of youth, and beheadings. At TEDGlobal>London — a two-session event curated and hosted by Bruno Giussani on June 16, 2015, at the Royal Institution of Great Britain — the talks ranged from a wildly hopeful future to stern warnings about the present. Enjoy these recaps of the talks in […]
As you read this, imagine balloons and confetti fluttering to the ground around you. Because we just posted the 2,000th TED Talk. On June 16, 2015, Margaret Heffernan’s “Why it’s time to forget the pecking order at work” became the 2,000th TED Talk. It’s a talk we need now: a sharp reflection on our lives […]
Ah, wanderlust. Mild symptoms include obsessive airfare tracking and uncontrollable daydreaming about tropical beaches during conference calls. Severe cases can cause reasonable people to cash out their 401(k) to buy a camper van and hit the open road. These 9 TED Talks are guaranteed to ignite your need for travel. As a precautionary measure, we’ve included […]