Louise Mabulo grew up on seemingly strange farming tips from her parents and grandparents — like planting crops during a full moon or burying a rock beneath them. Now a farmer and climate activist herself, she sees how these practical...

Do you feel overwhelmed by the complex issues facing our world, not to mention your own personal problems? Spirituality is the key to staying grounded and hopeful -- even for skeptics, says actor and author Rainn Wilson. He explains why...

In 1960, composer John Cage went on television to share his latest work. But rather than using traditional instruments, Cage appeared surrounded by household clutter, including a bathtub, ice cubes, a toy fish, a rubber duck, several...

TED talks about what should humans take to space (and leave behind)?

In which John Green concludes teaching you about Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. You'll learn about the historical contexts of Things Fall Apart, including 19th century colonization and 20th century decolonization. We're going to...

When TED Fellow Xavier Vilalta was commissioned to create a multistory shopping mall in Addis Ababa, he panicked. Other centers represented everything he hated about contemporary architecture: wasteful, glass towers requiring tons of...

The term "compassion" -- typically reserved for the saintly or the sappy -- has fallen out of touch with reality. At a special TEDPrize@UN, journalist Krista Tippett deconstructs the meaning of compassion through several moving stories,...

People want to be religious, says scholar Karen Armstrong; we should help make religion a force for harmony. She asks the TED community to help build a Charter for Compassion -- to restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious...

Join Rev. James Forbes at the dinner table of his Southern childhood, where his mother and father taught him what compassion really means day to day -- sharing with those who need love.

New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly shares a portfolio of her wise and funny cartoons about modern life -- and talks about how humor can empower women to change the rules.

At a moment when the world seems to be spinning out of control, religion might feel irrelevant -- or like part of the problem. But Rabbi Sharon Brous believes we can reinvent religion to meet the needs of modern life. In this impassioned...

Please Note: This episode contains post-mortem photographs: those of people taken after their death. If you would prefer not to see those images, please feel welcome to look away from the screen at 0:17 to 0:27 and listen...

This week, we're headed north. To check out the gods of the Northmen. Or the Norse. That's right, we're talking Thor, Loki, Freyr, Freya, Odin, Frigg, Baldr, and Tyr. And Fenrir. And the Frost Giants. There's a lot to cover here, and...

People who live near the equator use more spices per recipe than people who live far from the equator. But that isn't for the reason you think. Spices and other plant ingredients have special powers that make them a truly magical superfood!

Many people in the United States and Latin America have grown up celebrating the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's voyage. But was he an intrepid explorer who brought two worlds together or a ruthless exploiter who brought...

The legal system of Saudi Arabia is based on Sharia. Sharia is the paramount body of Islamic law, a collection of fundamental principles derived from different sources including the Holy Quran, the Sunna—the sayings and traditions of the...

Many of the values and basic assumptions the Japanese make about life have their origins in Buddhism and Shintoism. The primacy of the group or the collective good and the value placed on maintaining harmony are particularly strong and...

The Japanese see themselves as unique in the world and love to talk about what makes them so. From their perspective, Western culture is taking over, so showing an interest in their customs and traditions is sure to make a good...

Throughout Japanese history, the Japanese have believed in the divine ancestry of the imperial family as one of Japan’s unique virtues. Explore the ancient legend about the divinity of the imperial family beginning with the sun goddess...

The Chinese dragon is one of the world’s most globally recognized monsters. Playing a major role throughout Chinese history, they were both creators and destroyers and controlled the elements. They've influenced everything from politics...

Know These Rules When Traveling And Not Offend Anyone

Planning your next trip? Don’t leave without these genius ideas from Bright Side Travel Tricks!

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