Long ago, the Hawaiian wind goddess wielded a gourd that housed the winds of the Islands. It came to hold her bones, along with the life force they carried, and was eventually passed to her grandson, Paka'a. Like his father before him,...

Soft percussion and a toasty scent mark the violent transformation of tough seeds into cloud-like puffs. This is the almost magical process of popcorn-making. Dozens of kinds of popcorn are now grown in the US, with different strains...

Around the world, people who work hard are often seen as morally good -- even if they produce little to no results. Social psychologist Azim Shariff analyzes the roots of this belief and suggests a shift towards a more meaningful way to...

I think of legacy as the weaving together of our stories passed on as a whole, says Haida storyteller Cohen Bradley. Highlighting the significance of potlatch ceremonies (or gift-giving feasts) and other Indigenous traditions of the...

The Irish Renaissance in the early 20th century included a wealth of new plays written both in Ireland, and by Irish ex-patriots elsewhere. W.B. Yeats, Lady Augusta Gregory, and J.M. Synge were creating a new national theater of Ireland...

TED Fellow Jawad Sharif was born with a rebellious streak -- and he's used it in his documentary films to amplify the unheard voices of Pakistan. Sharing three stories of everyday heroes -- a high-altitude mountaineer, a folk musician of...

It's 791 CE. As the morning sun shines on the Golden Gate Palace, brother and sister Hisham and Asma prepare for the journey of a lifetime: the hajj, a holy pilgrimage to Mecca. They intend to travel with the big hajj caravan— but a...

Performing two original songs, stand-up comedian, writer and musician Marcia Belsky shares comical commentary on some peculiar aspects of our culture -- from Instagram-stalking your crush to fending off mansplainers on social media --...

People have been captivated by horses for a long time. They appear more than any other animal in cave paintings dating back 30,000 years. But how did horses make the journey from wild animals to ones humans could hitch themselves to and...

In 1998, a school district removed one of American literature's most acclaimed works from its curriculum. Parents pushing for the ban said the book was both "sexually explicit" and "anti-white." The book at the center of this debate was...

Indigenous wisdom can help solve the planetary crises that colonialism started, says lawyer Jennifer "Jing" Corpuz. Her ancestors, the Kankanaey-Igorot people of the Philippines, are known for creating the Banaue Rice Terraces:...

Media and advertising companies still use the same old demographics to understand audiences, but they're becoming increasingly harder to track online, says media researcher Johanna Blakley. As social media outgrows traditional media, and...

For the next half of this series, we will be discussing Human Geography — so we’ll still be looking at the Earth, but specifically, how human activity affects and is influenced by the Earth. Naturally, we thought the best place to start...

When we think of how we respond to outbreaks, we often think of physical things like vaccines or medicines, but there is another factor that is just as critical to understand: culture! Culture determines how we collaborate and use the...

If we want to build back better after the pandemic, we must reconsider philanthropy and create a new kind of capitalism that's rooted in generosity and accountability, says Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation. In this vital...

Stem cells are widely believed to hold great promise in medical research because of their ability to transform into all sorts of other cell types, and scientists can grow it in living mice.

The year was 1776. In Bavaria, new ideals of rationalism, religious freedom and universal human rights competed with the Catholic church's heavy influence over public affairs. Adam Weishaupt, a law professor frustrated with the Church's...

Archaeologist and curator Chip Colwell collects artifacts for his museum, but he also returns them to where they came from. In a thought-provoking talk, he shares how some museums are confronting their legacies of stealing spiritual...

The midwife Xoquauhtli has a difficult choice to make. She owes a debt to her patron Teteoinnan, the female warrior goddess at the center of the Aztec seasonal festival, who must be kept happy or she will bring bad luck. Xoquauhtli...

Global obesity rates are on the rise, but body shaming campaigns are doing more harm than good, says medical anthropologist Nancy N. Chen. Reflecting on how the cultural histories of body ideals have changed over time, she offers a new...

Nanahuatl, weakest of the Aztec gods, sickly and covered in pimples, had been chosen to form a new world. There had already been four worlds, each set in motion by its own "Lord Sun," and each had been destroyed. For a new world to be...

TED collaborates with animator Andrew Park to illustrate Denis Dutton's provocative theory on beauty -- that art, music and other beautiful things, far from being simply "in the eye of the beholder," are a core part of human nature with...

Inventor, entrepreneur and visionary Ray Kurzweil explains in abundant, grounded detail why, by the 2020s, we will have reverse-engineered the human brain and nanobots will be operating your consciousness.

* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. In the United States, two institutions guide teenagers on the journey to adulthood: college and prison. Sociologist...