TED Talks
Maira Kalman: The illustrated woman
Author and illustrator Maira Kalman talks about her life and work, from her covers for The New Yorker to her books for children and grown-ups. She is as wonderful, as wise and as deliciously off-kilter in person as she is on paper.
TED Talks
George Smoot: The design of the universe
At Serious Play 2008, astrophysicist George Smoot shows stunning new images from deep-space surveys, and prods us to ponder how the cosmos -- with its giant webs of dark matter and mysterious gaping voids -- got built this way.
TED Talks
Niels Diffrient: Rethinking the way we sit down
Design legend Niels Diffrient talks about his life in industrial design (and the reason he became a designer instead of a jet pilot). He details his quest to completely rethink the office chair starting from one fundamental data set: the...
TED Talks
Evan Grant: Making sound visible through cymatics
Evan Grant demonstrates the science and art of cymatics, a process for making soundwaves visible. Useful for analyzing complex sounds (like dolphin calls), it also makes complex and beautiful designs.
TED Talks
Ronny Edry: Israel and Iran: A love story?
When war between Israel and Iran seemed imminent, Israeli graphic designer Ronny Edry shared a poster on Facebook of himself and his daughter with a bold message: "Iranians ... we [heart] you." Other Israelis quickly created their own...
SciShow
4 Buildings Too Awesome to Be Real (For Now)
Humans take up a lot of space, but engineers are already coming up with some amazing solutions for the future.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How do jetpacks work? And why don't we all have them? | Richard Browning
In 1961, Yuri Gagarin piloted a spacecraft in humanity's first manned space flight. A week later, Bell Aerosystems debuted a gas-powered rocket pack that could fly 35 meters in 13 seconds. Unfortunately, engineers knew this short flight...
TED Talks
TED: How cohousing can make us happier (and live longer) | Grace Kim
Loneliness doesn't always stem from being alone. For architect Grace Kim, loneliness is a function of how socially connected we feel to the people around us -- and it's often the result of the homes we live in. She shares an age-old...
TED Talks
Al Seckel: Visual illusions that show how we (mis)think
Al Seckel, an expert on illusions, explores the perceptual illusions that fool our brains. He shares loads of cool tricks to prove that not only are we easily fooled, we kind of like it.
TED Talks
Jakob Trollback: A new kind of music video
What would a music video look like if it were directed by the music, purely as an expression of a great song, rather than driven by a filmmaker's concept? Designer Jakob Trollback shares the results of his experiment in the form.
TED Talks
Raghava KK: My 5 lives as an artist
With endearing honesty and vulnerability, Raghava KK tells the colorful tale of how art has taken his life to new places, and how life experiences in turn have driven his multiple reincarnations as an artist -- from cartoonist to...
TED Talks
Markus Fischer: A robot that flies like a bird
Plenty of robots can fly -- but none can fly like a real bird. That is, until Markus Fischer and his team at Festo built SmartBird, a large, lightweight robot, modeled on a seagull, that flies by flapping its wings. A soaring demo fresh...
TED Talks
David Kelley: How to build your creative confidence
Is your school or workplace divided between the "creatives" versus the practical people? Yet surely, David Kelley suggests, creativity is not the domain of only a chosen few. Telling stories from his legendary design career and his own...
TED Talks
TED: A bold plan to transform access to the US social safety net | Amanda Renteria
Digital public servant Amanda Renteria has seen that the millions of people who rely on government welfare services are often discouraged from seeking them out, frustrated by long lines and unnecessarily complicated processes. At Code...
TED Talks
TED: 4 ways to build a human company in the age of machines | Tim Leberecht
In the face of artificial intelligence and machine learning, we need a new radical humanism, says Tim Leberecht. For the self-described "business romantic," this means designing organizations and workplaces that celebrate authenticity...
TED Talks
Majd Mashharawi: How I'm making bricks out of ashes and rubble in Gaza
Majd Mashharawi was walking through her war-torn neighborhood in Gaza when an idea flashed in her mind: What if she could take the rubble and transform it into building materials? See how she designed a brick made out of ashes that's...
TED Talks
Dale Dougherty: We are makers
America was built by makers -- curious, enthusiastic amateur inventors whose tinkering habit sparked whole new industries. At TED@MotorCity, MAKE magazine publisher Dale Dougherty says we're all makers at heart, and shows cool new tools...
TED Talks
Stefan Sagmeister: 7 rules for making more happiness
Using simple, delightful illustrations, designer Stefan Sagmeister shares his latest thinking on happiness -- both the conscious and unconscious kind. His seven rules for life and design happiness can (with some customizations) apply to...
TED Talks
TED: The future we're building -- and boring | elon Musk
elon Musk discusses his new project digging tunnels under LA, the latest from Tesla and SpaceX and his motivation for building a future on Mars in conversation with TeD's Head Curator, Chris Anderson.
TED Talks
Péter Fankhauser: Meet Rezero, the dancing ballbot
Engineering student Péter Fankhauser demonstrates Rezero, a robot that balances on a ball. Designed and built by students, Rezero is the first ballbot made to move quickly and gracefully -- and even dance. (Could the Star Wars sphere...
TED Talks
Rogier van der Heide: Why light needs darkness
Lighting architect Rogier van der Heide offers a beautiful new way to look at the world -- by paying attention to light (and to darkness). Examples from classic buildings illustrate a deeply thought-out vision of the play of light around...
TED Talks
Sirena Huang: An 11-year-old's magical violin
Violinist Sirena Huang gives a technically brilliant and emotionally nuanced performance. In a charming interlude, the 11-year-old praises the timeless design of her instrument.
TED Talks
Keith Bellows: The camel's hump
Keith Bellows gleefully 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 camera crew as close as humanly possible to a one-ton...
TED Talks
Ueli Gegenschatz: Extreme wingsuit flying
Wingsuit jumping is the leading edge of extreme sports -- an exhilarating feat of almost unbelievable daring, where skydivers soar through canyons at over 100MPH. Ueli Gegenschatz talks about how (and why) he does it, and shows...