TED Talks
Daniel Libeskind: 17 words of architectural inspiration
Daniel Libeskind builds on very big ideas. Here, he shares 17 words that underlie his vision for architecture -- raw, risky, emotional, radical -- and that offer inspiration for any bold creative pursuit.
TED Talks
Bjarke Ingels: 3 warp-speed architecture tales
Danish architect Bjarke Ingels rockets through photo/video-mingled stories of his eco-flashy designs. His buildings not only look like nature -- they act like nature: blocking the wind, collecting solar energy -- and creating stunning...
TED-Ed
The rise of the Ottoman Empire | Mostafa Minawi
In the late 13th century, Osman I established a small principality sandwiched between a crumbling Byzantine Empire and a weakened Sultanate of the Seljuk of Rum, in what is now Turkey. In just a few generations, this territory had...
TED Talks
Candy Chang: Before I die I want to ...
In her New Orleans neighborhood, artist and TED Fellow Candy Chang turned an abandoned house into a giant chalkboard asking a fill-in-the-blank question: "Before I die I want to ___." Her neighbors' answers -- surprising, poignant, funny...
TED Talks
Robin Nagle: What I discovered in New York City trash
New York City residents produce 11,000 tons of garbage every day. Every day! This astonishing statistic is just one of the reasons Robin Nagle started a research project with the city's Department of Sanitation. She walked the routes,...
TED Talks
TED: Why we need to imagine different futures | Anab Jain
Anab Jain brings the future to life, creating experiences where people can touch, see and feel the potential of the world we're creating. Do we want a world where intelligent machines patrol our streets, for instance, or where our...
SciShow
The Rise and Fall of Cahokia: North America’s First City
They often don’t get as much attention, but North America had major cities long before European colonizers arrived, but the residents left behind no written history. How have archaeologists pieced together the details of these population...
TED Talks
TED: The 15-minute city | Carlos Moreno
Living in a city means accepting a certain level of dysfunction: long commutes, noisy streets, underutilized spaces. Carlos Moreno wants to change that. He makes the case for the "15-minute city," where inhabitants have access to all the...
TED Talks
James Howard Kunstler: The ghastly tragedy of the suburbs
In James Howard Kunstler's view, public spaces should be inspired centers of civic life and the physical manifestation of the common good. Instead, he argues, what we have in America is a nation of places not worth caring about.
TED Talks
Kate Orff: Reviving New York's rivers -- with oysters!
Architect Kate Orff sees the oyster as an agent of urban change. Bundled into beds and sunk into city rivers, oysters slurp up pollution and make legendarily dirty waters clean -- thus driving even more innovation in "oyster-tecture."...
TED Talks
TED: The real harm of the global arms trade | Samantha Nutt
In some parts of the world, it's easier to get an automatic rifle than a glass of clean drinking water. Is this just the way it is? Samantha Nutt, doctor and founder of the international humanitarian organization War Child, explores the...
TED-Ed
The epic of Gilgamesh, the king who tried to conquer death | Soraya Field Fiorio
In 1849, in the ancient city of Nineveh in Iraq, archaeologists sifted through dusty remains, hoping to find records to prove that Bible stories were true. What they found instead was a 4,000-year-old story inscribed on crumbling clay...
TED Talks
Marvin Minsky: Health and the human mind
Listen closely -- Marvin Minsky's arch, eclectic, charmingly offhand talk on health, overpopulation and the human mind is packed with subtlety: wit, wisdom and just an ounce of wily, is-he-joking? advice.
TED Talks
Paul Romer: The world's first charter city?
Back in 2009, Paul Romer unveiled the idea for a "charter city" -- a new kind of city with rules that favor democracy and trade. This year, at TED2011, he tells the story of how such a city might just happen in Honduras ... with a little...
TED Talks
Chris Downey: Design with the blind in mind
What would a city designed for the blind be like? Chris Downey is an architect who went suddenly blind in 2008; he contrasts life in his beloved San Francisco before and after -- and shows how the thoughtful designs that enhance his life...
TED Talks
Amanda Burden: How public spaces make cities work
More than 8 million people are crowded together to live in New York City. What makes it possible? In part, it’s the city’s great public spaces — from tiny pocket parks to long waterfront promenades — where people can stroll and play....
Crash Course
Lost in Translation: Crash Course Film Criticism
It's time to take a look at a quieter, sweeter, and maybe happier film in this series. Sophia Coppola's "Lost in Translation" is a wonderful romantic comedy that doesn't play by the usual rules of its genre. In this episode, Michael...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The many meanings of Michelangelo's Statue of David - James Earle
We typically experience classic works of art in a museum, stripped of their original contexts, but that serene setting can belie a tumultuous history. Take Michelangelo's statue of David: devised as a religious symbol, adopted as a...
TED Talks
Janet Echelman: Taking imagination seriously
Janet Echelman found her true voice as an artist when her paints went missing -- which forced her to look to an unorthodox new art material. Now she makes billowing, flowing, building-sized sculpture with a surprisingly geeky edge. A...
TED Talks
Reed Kroloff: A tour of modern architecture
Reed Kroloff gives us a new lens for judging new architecture: is it modern, or is it romantic? Look for glorious images from two leading practices -- and a blistering critique of the 9/11 planning process.
TED Talks
TED: What a driverless world could look like | Wanis Kabbaj
What if traffic flowed through our streets as smoothly and efficiently as blood flows through our veins? Transportation geek Wanis Kabbaj thinks we can find inspiration in the genius of our biology to design the transit systems of the...
TED Talks
TED: In the opioid crisis, here's what it takes to save a life | Jan Rader
* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. As a fire chief and first responder, Jan Rader has spent her career saving lives. But when the opioid epidemic hit...
TED Talks
Jennifer 8. Lee: The hunt for General Tso
Reporter Jennifer 8. Lee talks about her hunt for the origins of familiar Chinese-American dishes -- exploring the hidden spots where these two cultures have (so tastily) combined to form a new cuisine.
TED Talks
TED: How to build an equitable and just climate future | Peggy Shepard
Everyone has the right to a clean environment -- but major disparities exist when it comes to who faces the consequences of pollution. Environmental justice leader Peggy Shepard points to the disproportionate impact that hazardous...