If DNA is just a string of letters, could AI learn to read it … or even write it? Bioengineering researcher Eric Nguyen reveals how AI has upended the rules of biology, potentially creating a future where disease is cured with personalized medicine, ex

Rha Goddess is an entrepreneurial soul coach and author of the new book "Intentional Ambition: Redefining Your Work for Greater Joy, Freedom, and Fulfillment." In this TED Talks Daily Book Club interview with host Elise Hu, Goddess talks abou

Have you had your daily dose of fun? It's not just enjoyable, it's also essential for your health and happiness, says science journalist Catherine Price. She proposes a new definition of fun -- what she calls "true fun" -- and shares

What if saving lives and growing a company went hand in hand? Public health expert Myriam Sidibe thinks many businesses are going about social impact all wrong — and leaving millions of dollars on the table at the same time. Drawing from decades of exp

Headlines often reduce migration to crisis and controversy, leaving out the bigger picture that movement is a natural, even necessary part of who we are. As borders tighten and debates intensify, journalist Sonia Shah and professor Zeke Hernandez unrav

It's a hard nut to crack: in order to prevent food waste, we rely on plastic packaging and refrigeration, which harm the environment. What if we could turn to nature to address these challenges? Engineer and chemist Jenny Du shares how a simple pla

Does the world still need classical music? What about orchestras? In this gorgeous talk and performance, violinist Joshua Bell and the Chamber Orchestra of America play selections of classical music masterpieces — from Mozart’s Symphony No. 25 to Schub

Over the last 40 years, Brazil has lost an area larger than California to deforestation — and 90 percent of the clear-cutting has been illegal, all part of a multi-billion-dollar global environmental crime economy. Civic entrepreneur Ilona Szabó de Car

Competitive sports give athletes structure, community and purpose. And an outlet for their passion. So what happens when, because of injury or age, they can’t play anymore? Does the competitive drive find a new home? Or get slowly extinguished? Jody ta

Does venting actually help you cool off, or does it just add fuel to the fire? Social psychologist Jennifer Parlamis busts common myths about anger, showing how curiosity — not catharsis — can keep you calm. Discover the surprising science behind anger

What if ending food insecurity meant ditching charity models that haven’t been updated since the 1960s? Dion Dawson, TED Fellow and founder of Dion’s Chicago Dream, shares how he turned a spontaneous idea for giving back to his community into a thrivin

The real lever of a meaningful life isn’t intelligence or hustle — it’s personal agency, says Cate Hall, former Supreme Court attorney and once the world’s top-ranked female poker player. Sharing her journey from the throes of addiction to leading a mu

In an enchanting talk and performance, singer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Yijia Tu traces a path from the world’s biggest stages to a family lullaby passed down through the generations, showing how music carries memory across centuries and cu

Are you unemployed, or just an entrepreneur who doesn’t know it yet? Drawing on a decade of experience building a social platform that connects self-employed pioneers in the informal economy, social entrepreneur Anuj Tanna unpacks three surprising leve

Common knowledge is the secret engine of social life, letting us coordinate everything from meet-ups to markets to international diplomacy. In this fascinating talk, experimental cognitive scientist Steven Pinker explores its momentous impact, threadin

In this season of WorkLife, we’re pairing each of our regular episodes with a companion interview to do a deeper dive into the topic. This is the deeper dive for our episode on how to say no. Linda Babcock is a professor emerita of economics at Carnegi

Growing up in the public eye, multi-hyphenate creator Bryce Dallas Howard experienced the familiar pressure to share her life with the world on social media. But with her mother's steadfast guidance, Howard learned to set personal boundaries and sa

Struggling communities don’t need handouts — they need bold new ways to root wealth. Meet Molly Hemstreet — a TED Fellow, Southern Appalachia native and cofounder of worker support network the Industrial Commons — who’s flipping the script on generatio

What makes music “real” — is it the instruments, the voice, the creator’s intention or something else entirely? Dustin Ballard, the creative force behind the viral channel “There I Ruined It,” explores the weird, wonderful and sometimes unsettling ways

With humor and hard science, obstetrician and gynecologist Jaime Seeman reveals why building muscle is one of the best ways to combat women’s top health risks. Learn the truth behind three weightlifting myths that prevent women from getting serious abo

Clean energy visionary Lei Zhang loves the Gobi Desert — the most Mars-like place on Earth. Why? Because of the promise it holds to provide the free, abundant solar and wind energy to fuel humanity’s next leap forward. Sharing the story behind one of t

What would Immanuel Kant say about a fender bender? In a surprisingly funny trip through the teachings of some of history's great philosophers, TV writer and producer Michael Schur (from hit shows like "The Office" and "The Good Plac

Ai Weiwei joins to discuss his new memoir “1000 Years of Joys and Sorrows,” depicting a century-long epic tale of China told through a story of his family.

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When technologist Luis von Ahn was building the popular language-learning platform Duolingo, he faced a big problem: Could an app designed to teach you something ever compete with addictive platforms like Instagram and TikTok? He explains how Duolingo

Cartoonist Liana Finck's drawings hold our hands through life's predicaments, big and small: dating, breakups, what to make for dinner, how to leave a party without being rude, how to think about our relationship with God. In a funny, moving ta

Before algorithms ruled our feeds, the internet was a mess — glitchy, chaotic and full of unexpected magic. Internet culture writer Michael Sun reflects on the wild digital world of the 2000s — and makes a funny, wry case for why we need to reclaim its

With a genius combination of smart tech, local food and bold partnerships, Wawira Njiru and her nonprofit Food4Education have gone from serving 25 children in a makeshift kitchen to becoming a cornerstone of Kenya’s school meals system, delivering half

Maps have long helped us understand the world — now, they can help us shape it. Digital cartographer Peter Wilczynski introduces the Living Globe: a real-time, data-rich digital twin of Earth that fuses satellite imagery, sensor data and AI. Watch for

How did a small, economically vulnerable country become a trailblazer in sustainable industry? Clean economy builder James Mnyupe explores how Namibia is teaming up with partners from around the world to turn sun, wind and water into green hydrogen — a

Are you feeling overwhelmed, uninspired, or burned out at work? In this special Unsolicited Advice episode, Anne and Frances are getting ready for summer by tackling the importance of rest and the power of intention. They offer unexpected tips and tric

"You don't predict the future -- you imagine the future," says sci-fi writer Charlie Jane Anders. In a talk that's part dream, part research-based extrapolation, she takes us on a wild, speculative tour of the delights and challenges

The rapidly evolving field of protein design is revealing solutions to some of the world’s greatest problems, whether it's blocking a virus, breaking down a pollutant or creating brand-new materials. In conversation with TED’s Whitney Pennington Ro

In this urgent talk, political scientist Heni Ozi Cukier analyzes the social, economic, political and military conditions that preceded the last two world wars, revealing how historical patterns and today’s geopolitical shifts may be pointing us in a d

As a film and television director, Barry Sonnenfeld had millions of dollars riding on his ability to get his cast and crew to play along — and much of what he learned along the way applies to everyday life. Here, he shares nine bits of wisdom and whims

Impact investor and Acumen CEO Jacqueline Novogratz unveils a bold vision to bring off-grid solar electricity to 700 million people still living in darkness, transforming lives while slashing emissions. She asks a thought-provoking question: What if th

What can you hear in silence? In this exploration of sound, host of the podcast "Twenty Thousand Hertz" Dallas Taylor tells the story of arguably the most debated musical composition in recent history -- composer John Cage's iconic piece

What would it look like if we took friendship as seriously as we take romance? Rhaina Cohen, author of the book The Other Significant Others: Reimagine Life with Friendship at the Center, talks to Chris about the value of platonic relationships. They g

With his art, photographer Platon seeks to strip away assumptions and leave viewers with a window into his subject's character, filling our eyes with wonder and curiosity. Sharing extraordinary stories of what it's like to photograph some of th

Could a robot ever be funny? In a sharp standup act, comedian Jena Friedman lambasts the mad dash to develop AI and offers a surprising take on why it will never replace comedians. (Contains mature content.)

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You’ve probably had a bad boss, but you might not realize how easy it is to become one. Leadership experts Jamie Woolf and Christopher Bell unpack “power blindness” — how authority can warp your perspective — and share smart, practical ways to break th

In a talk that's by turns heartbreaking and hilarious, writer and podcaster Nora McInerny shares her hard-earned wisdom about life and death. Her candid approach to something that will, let's face it, affect us all, is as liberating as it is gu

The US political system is broken — and the solution might be in the palm of your hands, says political strategist Bradley Tusk. Drawing on his deep experience with lobbying and marketing, he makes the case for allowing Americans to vote on their phone

The Middle East is a climate hotspot, with many parts of the region set to experience an increase in temperature by five to eight degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Palestinian peace activist Nada Majdalani discusses how the climate crisis coul

Barcelona is a city that can’t be separated from its art–you might picture Gaudí architecture, Picasso paintings, or flamenco and jazz spilling onto the streets and into the night. But there’s another art scene that’s breaking into the mainstream from

With levity and profound insight, artist Maira Kalman reflects on life, death, dinner parties, not knowing the right answers, the joys of eating a hot dog from a street vendor and more. This talk, interwoven with her delightful paintings, is itself an

Remember that gut-clenching fear of speaking up in class? Organizational psychologist Rafael Chiuzi reveals how that same feeling shows up in the workplace, limiting productivity and the free exchange of ideas. Backed by decades of research and hands-o

In a conversation about visionary leadership, M-PESA CEO Sitoyo Lopokoiyit speaks with impact investor and Acumen CEO Jacqueline Novogratz about how he grew a nascent mobile payment service into Africa’s largest fintech platform — which now handles nea

Poet Safiya Sinclair performs "Marigolds: A Letter to Wonder," an original poem she created for TED that explores memory, beauty and the fragility of life. After the poem, she talks with TED's Helen Walters about her writing process — and

Exhausted from carrying water up a hill to keep her small farm in Kenya thriving, Josephine Waweru received an unexpected call that offered a nearly unbelievable solution. She shares how one simple device allowed her crops (and her dreams) to flourish

In a moment that stunned the world in 2019, the famed Notre-Dame in Paris went up in flames, threatening the future of the centuries-old Gothic treasure. Philippe Villeneuve, the chief architect of the cathedral’s restoration, recounts the collective e