Movies are really good at making us feel. Happy, sad, excited, etc... Part of that is because they use so many different types of media all at once. Photography, music, performance, and editing all play into their ability to communicate...

Have you found yourself staying up late, joylessly bingeing TV shows and doomscrolling through the news, or simply navigating your day uninspired and aimless? Chances are you're languishing, says organizational psychologist Adam Grant --...

When someone asks you where you're from … do you sometimes not know how to answer? Writer Taiye Selasi speaks on behalf of "multi-local" people, who feel at home in the town where they grew up, the city they live now and maybe another...

Poet and policymaker Aaron Maniam describes how the language we use to explain COVID-19 shapes the way we think about it -- whether it's as a "war," a "journey" or, as he suggests, an "ecology." He encourages us to explore a range of...

A trip into space produces physiological effects in human beings, but it can also change a person in a profound, psychological way.

When a musician rips into a totally sweet solo, it can give you goosebumps and send a chill down your spine, but how does that happen?

Diseases of the body garner sympathy, says comedian Ruby Wax -- except those of the brain. Why is that? With dazzling energy and humor, Wax, diagnosed a decade ago with clinical depression, urges us to put an end to the stigma of mental...

Tan Le's astonishing new computer interface reads its user's brainwaves, making it possible to control virtual objects, and even physical electronics, with mere thoughts (and a little concentration). She demos the headset, and talks...

The border between our physical world and the digital information surrounding us has been getting thinner and thinner. Designer and engineer Jinha Lee wants to dissolve it altogether. As he demonstrates in this short, gasp-inducing talk,...

The term Kafkaesque has entered the vernacular to describe unnecessarily complicated and frustrating experiences, especially with bureaucracy. But does standing in a long line to fill out confusing paperwork really capture the richness...

It's amazing what a rigged game of Monopoly can reveal. In this entertaining but sobering talk, social psychologist Paul Piff shares his research into how people behave when they feel wealthy. (Hint: badly.) But while the problem of...

How often do you see the true beauty of the night sky? TED Fellow Lucianne Walkowicz shows how light pollution is ruining the extraordinary -- and often ignored -- experience of seeing directly into space.

explore a speculative digital world without screens in this fanciful demo, a mix of near reality and far-future possibility. Wearing the HoloLens headset, Alex Kipman demos his vision for bringing 3D holograms into the real world,...

SciShow Space takes you on a tour of Mercury, the sun's closest friend, where a year is just a day and half long, and the surface holds many surprises -- like ice!

Jacek Utko is an extraordinary Polish newspaper designer whose redesigns for papers in Eastern Europe not only win awards, but increase circulation by up to 100%. Can good design save the newspaper? It just might.

What are the methods twitter bots use to fool us, and what are some of the challenges in doing so?

When Bran Ferren was just 9, his parents took him to see the Pantheon in Rome — and it changed everything. In that moment, he began to understand how the tools of science and engineering become more powerful when combined with art, with...

If you are a living, breathing human being, chances are you have felt sad at least a few times in your life. But what exactly is melancholy, and what (if anything) should we do about it? Courtney Stephens details our still-evolving...

Good design looks great, yes -- but why shouldn't it also feel great, smell great and sound great? Designer Jinsop Lee (a TED Talent Search winner) shares his theory of 5-sense design, with a handy graph and a few examples. His hope: to...

The list of symptoms for “Long COVID” are even more vast than the opinions about the right name for the condition. But the more we learn about it, and how it is similar to other post-infection syndromes, the better we can help those who...

Sex is as much mental as it is physical -- and imagination is the most powerful tool we have to expand our personal agency and capacity for pleasure, says sexual wellness storyteller Gina Gutierrez. The founder of audio-erotica company...

Solar storms are really common, but occasionally they can be huge, causing more than pretty light shows in the auroras. What would happen nowadays if we had a massive solar storm?

The rise of lootboxes in video games has led to numerous investigations seeking to establish just how close to gambling they are. While the science behind lootboxes is only just beginning to come in, we do know a lot about how other...

SciShow explains how smells can bring back early memories -- even memories that your brain didn't know you had.