TED Talks
TED: Filming democracy in Ghana | Jarreth Merz
Jarreth Merz, a Swiss-Ghanaian filmmaker, came to Ghana in 2008 to film the national elections. What he saw there taught him new lessons about democracy -- and about himself.
TED Talks
Tara Houska: The Standing Rock resistance and our fight for indigenous rights
Still invisible and often an afterthought, indigenous peoples are uniting to protect the world's water, lands and history -- while trying to heal from genocide and ongoing inequality. Tribal attorney and Couchiching First Nation citizen...
TED Talks
Ariana Curtis: Museums should honor the everyday, not just the extraordinary
Who deserves to be in a museum? For too long, the answer has been "the extraordinary" -- those aspirational historymakers who inspire us with their successes. But those stories are limiting, says museum curator Ariana Curtis. In a...
TED Talks
TED: The power of diversity within yourself | Rebeca Hwang
Rebeca Hwang has spent a lifetime juggling identities -- Korean heritage, Argentinian upbringing, education in the United States -- and for a long time she had difficulty finding a place in the world to call home. Yet along with these...
TED Talks
TED: What we can do to die well | Timothy Ihrig
The healthcare industry in America is so focused on pathology, surgery and pharmacology -- on what doctors "do" to patients -- that it often overlooks the values of the human beings it's supposed to care for. Palliative care physician...
TED Talks
TED: Your words may predict your future mental health | Mariano Sigman
Can the way you speak and write today predict your future mental state, even the onset of psychosis? In this fascinating talk, neuroscientist Mariano Sigman reflects on ancient Greece and the origins of introspection to investigate how...
TED Talks
TED: The politics of fiction | Elif Shafak
Listening to stories widens the imagination; telling them lets us leap over cultural walls, embrace different experiences, feel what others feel. Elif Shafak builds on this simple idea to argue that fiction can overcome identity politics.
TED Talks
TED: America's forgotten working class | J.D. Vance
J.D. Vance grew up in a small, poor city in the Rust Belt of southern Ohio, where he had a front-row seat to many of the social ills plaguing America: a heroin epidemic, failing schools, families torn apart by divorce and sometimes...
TED Talks
TED: How to have a healthier, positive relationship to sex | Tiffany Kagure Mugo and Siphumeze Khundayi
* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. From our fear of women's bodies to our sheepishness around the word "nipple," our ideas about sex need an upgrade,...
TED Talks
TED: There's no such thing as not voting | eric Liu
Many people like to talk about how important voting is, how it's your civic duty and responsibility as an adult. eric Liu agrees with all that, but he also thinks it's time to bring joy back to the ballot box. The former political...
TED Talks
TED: The magic of Khmer classical dance | Prumsodun Ok
For more than 1,000 years, Khmer dancers in Cambodia have been seen as living bridges between heaven and earth. In this graceful dance-talk hybrid, artist Prumsodun Ok -- founder of Cambodia's first all-male and gay-identified dance...
TED Talks
TED: Political common ground in a polarized united States | Gretchen Carlson, David Brooks
How can we bridge the gap between left and right to have a wiser, more connected political conversation? Journalist Gretchen Carlson and op-ed columnist David Brooks share insights on the tensions at the heart of American politics today...
TED Talks
Amanda Williams: Why I turned Chicago's abandoned homes into art
Amanda Williams shares her lifelong fascination with the complexity of color: from her experiences with race and redlining to her discovery of color theory to her work as a visual artist. Journey with Williams to Chicago's South Side and...
TED Talks
TED: Why open a school? To close a prison | Nadia Lopez
Our kids are our future, and it's crucial they believe it themselves. That's why Nadia Lopez opened an academic oasis in Brownsville, Brooklyn, one of the most underserved and violent neighborhoods in New York -- because she believes in...
TED Talks
TED: Why Brexit happened -- and what to do next | Alexander Betts
We are embarrassingly unaware of how divided our societies are, and Brexit grew out of a deep, unexamined divide between those that fear globalization and those that embrace it, says social scientist Alexander Betts. How do we now...
TED Talks
Rana Abdelhamid: 3 lessons on starting a movement from a self-defense trailblazer
At 16, Rana Abdelhamid started teaching self-defense to women and girls in her neighborhood. Almost 10 years later, these community classes have grown into Malikah: a global grassroots network creating safety, power and solidarity for...
TED Talks
TED: A highly scientific taxonomy of haters | Negin Farsad
TeD Fellow Negin Farsad weaves comedy and social commentary to cleverly undercut stereotypes of her culture. In this uproarious talk/stand-up hybrid, Farsad speaks on her documentary, The Muslims Are Coming!, narrates her fight with the...
TED Talks
TED: Can art amend history? | Titus Kaphar
Artist Titus Kaphar makes paintings and sculptures that wrestle with the struggles of the past while speaking to the diversity and advances of the present. In an unforgettable live workshop, Kaphar takes a brush full of white paint to a...
TED Talks
TED: Living sculptures that stand for history's truths | Sethembile Msezane
In the century-old statues that occupy Cape Town, Sethembile Mzesane didn't see anything that looked like her own reality. So she became a living sculpture herself, standing for hours on end in public spaces dressed in symbolic costumes,...
TED Talks
Beeban Kidron: The shared wonder of film
Movies have the power to create a shared narrative experience and to shape memories and worldviews. British film director Beeban Kidron invokes iconic film scenes -- from Miracle in Milan to Boyz n the Hood -- as she shows how her group...
TED Talks
TED: The revolutionary power of diverse thought | elif Shafak
From populist demagogues, we will learn the indispensability of democracy, says novelist elif Shafak. "From isolationists, we will learn the need for global solidarity. And from tribalists, we will learn the beauty of cosmopolitanism." A...
TED Talks
Liu Bolin: The invisible man
Can a person disappear in plain sight? That's the question Liu Bolin's remarkable work seems to ask. The Beijing-based artist is sometimes called "The Invisible Man" because in nearly all his art, Bolin is front and center — and...
TED Talks
TED: Bridges should be beautiful | Ian Firth
Bridges need to be functional, safe and durable, but they should also be elegant and beautiful, says structural engineer Ian Firth. In this mesmerizing tour of bridges old and new, Firth explores the potential for innovation and variety...
TED Talks
TED: How teachers can help kids find their political voices | Sydney Chaffee
Social justice belongs in our schools, says educator Sydney Chaffee. In a bold talk, she shows how teaching students to engage in activism helps them build important academic and life skills -- and asks us to rethink how we can use...