TED Talks
TED: How Syria's architecture laid the foundation for brutal war | Marwa Al-Sabouni
What caused the war in Syria? Oppression, drought and religious differences all played key roles, but Marwa Al-Sabouni suggests another reason: architecture. Speaking to us over the Internet from Homs, where for the last six years she...
TED Talks
Robert Neuwirth: The hidden world of shadow cities
Robert Neuwirth, author of "Shadow Cities," finds the world's squatter sites -- where a billion people now make their homes -- to be thriving centers of ingenuity and innovation. He takes us on a tour.
TED Talks
Daniele Quercia: Happy maps
Mapping apps help us find the fastest route to where we’re going. But what if we’d rather wander? Researcher Daniele Quercia demos “happy maps” that take into account not only the route you want to take, but how you want to feel along...
TED Talks
TED: The antidote to apathy | Dave Meslin
Local politics -- schools, zoning, council elections -- hit us where we live. So why don't more of us actually get involved? Is it apathy? Dave Meslin says no. He identifies 7 barriers that keep us from taking part in our communities,...
TED Talks
Kiran Bedi: A police chief with a difference
Kiran Bedi has a surprising resume. Before becoming Director General of the Indian Police Service, she managed one of the country's toughest prisons -- and used a new focus on prevention and education to turn it into a center of learning...
TED Talks
TED: Don't ask where I'm from, ask where I'm a local | Taiye Selasi
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...
TED Talks
Teddy Cruz: How architectural innovations migrate across borders
As the world's cities undergo explosive growth, inequality is intensifying. Wealthy neighborhoods and impoverished slums grow side by side, the gap between them widening. In this eye-opening talk, architect Teddy Cruz asks us to rethink...
TED Talks
TED: Who belongs in a city? | OluTimehin Adegbeye
Underneath every shiny new megacity, there's often a story of communities displaced. In this moving, poetic talk, OluTimehin Adegbeye details how government land grabs are destroying the lives of thousands who live in the coastal...
TED Talks
TED: Coding a better government | Jennifer Pahlka
Can government be run like the Internet, permissionless and open? Coder and activist Jennifer Pahlka believes it can -- and that apps, built quickly and cheaply, are a powerful new way to connect citizens to their governments -- and...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Corruption, wealth and beauty: The history of the Venetian gondola - Laura Morelli
It's hard to imagine Venice without the curious, banana-shaped gondolas that glide down the canals. How did these boats come to be the trademark transportation of Venice? Laura Morelli details the history of the gondola, explaining why...
TED Talks
TED: The problem of vaccine spoilage -- and a smart sensor to help | Nithya Ramanathan
Refrigerators do much more than store your groceries -- they're also vital to preserving and distributing vaccines. Illustrating the realities of (and threats to) global vaccine supply chains, technologist and TED Fellow Nithya...
TED Talks
TED: Planet City -- a sci-fi vision of an astonishing regenerative future | Liam Young
Get transported on a stunningly rendered, sci-fi safari through Planet City: an imaginary metropolis of 10 billion people, from the brain of director and architect Liam Young. Explore the potential outcomes of an urban space designed to...
TED Talks
TED: Why good hackers make good citizens | Catherine Bracy
Hacking is about more than mischief-making or political subversion. As Catherine Bracy describes in this spirited talk, it can be just as much a force for good as it is for evil. She spins through some inspiring civically-minded projects...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Ethical dilemma: The burger murders | George Siedel and Christine Ladwig
You founded a company that manufactures meatless burgers that are sold in stores worldwide. But you've recently received awful news: three people in one city died after eating your burgers. A criminal has injected poison into your...
SciShow
The Strange Scourge of Light Pollution
Light pollution -- it's not just the bane of light sleepers and frustrated astronomers. It also is tinkering with the biological cycles of all kinds of living things, including us! SciShow takes you behind the glare to understand the...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Real life sunken cities - Peter Campbell
Though people are most familiar with Plato's fictional Atlantis, many real underwater cities actually exist. Peter Campbell explains how sunken cities are studied by scientists to help us understand the lives of our ancestors, the...
TED Talks
TED: A secret weapon against Zika and other mosquito-borne diseases | Nina Fedoroff
Where did Zika come from, and what can we do about it? Molecular biologist Nina Fedoroff takes us around the world to understand Zika's origins and how it spread, proposing a controversial way to stop the virus -- and other deadly...
TED Talks
TED: 4 ways to make a city more walkable | Jeff Speck
Freedom from cars, freedom from sprawl, freedom to walk your city! City planner Jeff Speck shares his "general theory of walkability" -- four planning principles to transform sprawling cities of six-lane highways and 600-foot blocks into...
TED Talks
Ron Finley: A guerrilla gardener in South Central LA
Ron Finley plants vegetable gardens in South Central LA -- in abandoned lots, traffic medians, along the curbs. Why? For fun, for defiance, for beauty and to offer some alternative to fast food in a community where "the drive-thrus are...
TED Talks
Marco Tempest: The electric rise and fall of Nikola Tesla
Combining projection mapping and a pop-up book, Marco Tempest tells the visually arresting story of Nikola Tesla -- called "the greatest geek who ever lived" -- from his triumphant invention of alternating current to his penniless last...
Be Smart
The Surprising Places We Waste Energy
We use a LOT of energy, but we waste a lot too. Where that waste happens might surprise, you though. We don't just waste energy when we leave the lights on or the thermostat cranked down too low. It happens at the dinner table and the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Can you solve the penniless pilgrim riddle? - Daniel Finkel
After months of travel, you've arrived at Duonia, home to the famous temple that's the destination of your pilgrimage. The walk from the welcome center to the temple isn't a long one ... but there's a problem. Can you outsmart the city's...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How do you decide where to go in a zombie apocalypse? - David Hunter
Can geography save your life in case of, say, a zombie apocalypse? Understanding the push and pull factors that create geographic movement -- or how people, resources, and even ideas travel -- might help you determine the location that's...
MinutePhysics
London Bridge Was Sold to the US
London Bridge has already been rebuilt twice! But what happened to the bridges that came down?