TED Talks Daily
Want TED Talks on the go? Everyday, this feed brings you our latest talks in audio format. Hear thought-provoking ideas on every subject imaginable – from Artificial Intelligence to Zoology, and everything in between – given by the world's leading thinkers and doers. This collection of talks, given at TED and TEDx conferences around the globe, is also available in video format. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Recent Episodes
How do you navigate life's growing number of transitions with meaning, purpose and skill? Writer Bruce Feiler offers a powerful way to handle uncertain, painful and confusing times -- or "lifequakes",...
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Bruce Feiler shares insights from his Life Story Project, a three-year journey collecting hundreds of life stories across America. After his father's suicide attempts and his own cancer diagnosis, Feiler discovered that the traditional linear life model is dead. His research reveals that we spend up to half our adult lives in transition, navigating what he calls 'lifequakes'—massive bursts of change that reshape our stories. He offers a framework for mastering life transitions through five practical tips, emphasizing that transitions aren't obstacles to endure but healing opportunities that help us rewrite our life stories.
- The Death of the Linear Life
- The Reality of Lifequakes and Constant Transition
There's more health advice available than ever before — and no easy way to tell what’s worth your time. From biotech breakthroughs to smarter cancer screening, physician Dhruv Khullar and microbiologi...
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Dr. Dhruv Kular and microbiologist Zach Abbott explore the cutting edge of health science, from genetic engineering and AI in medicine to the microbiome revolution. They challenge the obsession with health metrics, advocate for a more intuitive understanding of wellness, and discuss how biotechnology can transform both medicine and our food system. The conversation navigates the gray areas between innovation and ethics, emphasizing the importance of balancing technological advancement with human values and individual agency.
- The Problem with Health Metrics
- The Future of Medicine: AI and Genetic Engineering
Climate expert Ari Matusiak spends his days working to rewire America's energy system, and he has an idea: instead of tech companies building new power plants for their AI data centers, they should in...
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Ari Matusiak presents a solution to rising energy bills driven by AI data centers' massive power demands. He proposes 'homegrown energy'—a model where tech companies invest in household upgrades like solar panels, heat pumps, and batteries instead of building new power plants. This approach could provide a third of AI's power needs while reducing consumer energy bills by up to $2,000 annually, creating a win-win scenario for communities and tech companies alike.
- The Rising Energy Crisis in America
- The AI Power Demand Explosion
In seven years as a political prisoner in Venezuela, activist Leopoldo López kept asking one question: Who holds the keys to freedom? Now the leader of an alliance of dissidents and exiles from more t...
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Katie Paris quit her career in Washington, DC, to figure out how to make politics feel less like strangers shouting at each other and more like friends looking out for each other. In this practical ta...
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The wiggly wonder of music | Jacob Collier
Sep 15, 2026Grammy-winning musician Jacob Collier has a name for the feeling that moves through a great piece of music: the wiggle. Watch him break down the idea into its three parts — melody, rhythm and harmony ...
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Musician and composer Jacob Collier delivers an inspiring TED Talk about 'the wiggle' - his theory that the same qualities that make music move us can help us navigate life's challenges. Through a live performance of 'What a Wonderful World' and engaging explanations, he explores three types of musical wiggles (melody, rhythm, and harmony) and reveals how these principles teach us to be flexible, resilient, and open to life's curveballs rather than rigid and brittle.
- Opening Performance: What a Wonderful World
- Introducing The Wiggle Concept
After working for years in film, fashion and graphic design, visual artist Kelly A. Boesch found a new collaborator to work with: AI. She walks through how she uses the technology to create dreamlike ...
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Visual artist and filmmaker Kelly Besch shares her journey of incorporating AI into her creative process, demonstrating how it has become a collaborative tool that bridges the gap between imagination and creation. She addresses common questions about AI art's legitimacy while showcasing her work in images, film, and music, ultimately arguing that AI represents the beginning of a creative renaissance when guided by human intention and emotion.
- Kelly's Creative Transformation Through AI
- Expanding Into AI Video and Music Production
How to turn setbacks into success | Amy Shoenthal
Sep 13, 2026Success rarely happens in a straight line, with setbacks all but guaranteed along the way. What's the best way to recover? Leadership coach Amy Shoenthal lays out the four phases of the "setback cycle...
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Why is it so hard for men to open up? A journalist and an entrepreneur answer | Joshua Johnson and Blake Mycoskie
Sep 12, 2026Is conversation a lost art, or is it just evolving? Journalist Joshua Johnson and social entrepreneur Blake Mycoskie answer questions on everything from the male loneliness crisis to what it actually ...
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Blake Mikoski and Joshua Johnson engage in a raw, vulnerable conversation about male loneliness, the art of deep connection, and how to have meaningful conversations in an increasingly disconnected world. They share personal stories about their fathers, discuss the importance of asking good questions, and reveal practical strategies for building authentic relationships. The conversation covers everything from Blake's 19-year adventure club with friends to Joshua's poignant experience trying to connect with his estranged father before his death.
- The State of Real Conversation
- How Lonely Men Can Start Connecting
3D printing promised to reinvent how we make things, but it's mostly stuck producing prototypes with a high level of waste. Designer and TED Fellow Schendy Kernizan found a different way — by printing...
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Manufacturing innovator and TED Fellow Skendi Kernizan introduces a revolutionary 3D printing technology that eliminates gravity's constraints by printing objects inside a reusable gel. This process enables custom, soft-material manufacturing without molds or waste, bridging the gap between prototyping and production. Growing up in Haiti taught him to innovate with limited resources, and his personal experience with rigid medical braces inspired his focus on products that conform to the human body rather than forcing bodies into standard shapes.
- The Limitations of Traditional 3D Printing
- Drawing Calligraphy in Space: How the Technology Works
What does a war look like when you sit still long enough to draw it? Reportage artist and TED Fellow George Butler sketches the people that the news passes by: a 99-year-old survivor of the Holodomor ...
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Reportage artist George Butler shares his two-decade journey documenting war zones through drawings rather than photographs. Speaking at TED 2026, he argues that the news fails us by promoting destruction over humanity, while his slow, deliberate drawing process allows him to witness and share the deeply human stories behind the headlines—from a 99-year-old woman who survived multiple wars to an architect who drew him back from his hospital bed. Butler makes a compelling case for slowing down and cherishing human connection rather than consuming news, revealing that drawing is ultimately just an excuse to give people time and truly see them.
- The Scene in Kramatorsk: Destruction vs. Humanity
- Drawing as a Different Way of Seeing
How does bullying take root? Social psychologist Amy Cuddy got an inside view of this question after she became the target of a coordinated campaign to discredit her. Drawing on her own experience and...
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Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shares her harrowing experience of being targeted by a sustained bullying campaign from academic colleagues after her viral TED Talk on power posing. She explains how bullying differs from conflict, the predictable stages it follows, and most importantly, how collective action through 'social bravery' can stop these patterns. Drawing on eight years of research, she reveals that bullies need audiences to succeed and that refusing participation can render them powerless.
- From Viral Success to Targeted Attacks
- The Devastating Personal Impact
Wealth inequality gets talked about as an economic problem. Writer Xochitl Gonzalez makes the case that it's a civic one, too — a slow, quiet threat to democracy. Drawing on her research into the psyc...
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Writer and inequality expert Xochitl González explores how social class shapes identity, behavior, and political views in America. Drawing from personal experience and scientific research, she examines how growing up with or without financial security fundamentally affects worldview, decision-making, and engagement with democracy. González argues that extreme wealth inequality has created a class apartheid that threatens democracy itself, as different socioeconomic groups live increasingly separate lives with divergent values and political priorities.
- The Coffee Incident: When Past Trauma Meets Present Reality
- The Hidden Impact of Social Class on Identity
Every kid needs a champion | Rita Pierson
Sep 07, 2026Rita Pierson, a teacher for 40 years, once heard a colleague say, "They don't pay me to like the kids." Her response: "Kids don't learn from people they don't like.'" A rousing call to educators to be...
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Rita Pearson, an educator from a family of educators spanning 40 years, delivers a powerful TED talk about the critical role of human connection and relationships in education. She argues that meaningful learning cannot occur without significant relationships between teachers and students, sharing personal stories and practical examples of how she built connections with struggling students. Pearson emphasizes that every child deserves a champion who believes in them and refuses to give up, challenging teachers to see beyond curriculum and test scores to the human beings in their classrooms.
- The Foundation: Education Reform and Human Connection
- Kids Don't Learn from People They Don't Like
When technologist Luis von Ahn was building the popular language-learning platform Duolingo, he faced a big problem: Could an app designed to teach you something ever compete with addictive platforms ...
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Luis Van Ahn, co-founder of Duolingo, shares how his language-learning app uses psychological techniques from social media and gaming to make education accessible and engaging for everyone. He discusses the importance of making learning as addictive as entertainment apps, the freemium model that enables wealth redistribution, and his vision for applying these methods to other educational subjects. With over 2 billion people learning foreign languages worldwide, Duolingo has successfully made screen time productive by reaching more language learners than all U.S. high schools combined.
- From Guatemala to Educational Equity
- Why Start with Language Learning
Math isn't just for "math kids" — it's for everyone, says learning expert Shalinee Sharma. She outlines four simple steps to transform your approach to math, creating an environment where any kid can ...
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Math learning expert Shalini Sharma challenges the myth that some people are naturally 'math people' while others aren't. Drawing from 12 years observing millions of students and visiting classrooms globally, she presents four steps to build a math mind: believe in yourself, understand concepts rather than memorize, make practice fun through games, and give math a second chance. She argues that with the right approach, anyone can develop mathematical thinking and even learn to love math.
- The Myth of Being a 'Math Person'
- Step One: Believe
Video games naturally tap into the way we learn: they focus our attention and track our progress as we head toward a clear goal. Kris Alexander, a professor of video game design and passionate gamer h...
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Video game expert Chris Alexander makes a compelling case for integrating video game design principles into modern education. Drawing from his personal experience as a student who played games during lectures to enhance focus, Alexander argues that video games naturally cater to diverse learning styles, combat cognitive overload, and provide clear objectives that traditional education often lacks. He demonstrates how gaming technologies are already embedded across industries and advocates for educators to adopt the engagement strategies used by successful streaming platforms and game designers.
- The Game Boy Incident: Challenging Traditional Learning
- Cognitive Overload and Learning Channels
Forget home economics and standardized tests, education visionary Trish Millines Dziko has a much more engaging and fulfilling way for students to develop real-world skills. Get schooled by Dziko as s...
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Education advocate Trish Milanis de Zaco presents a compelling vision for transforming public education through project-based learning. She contrasts traditional test-focused schooling with an approach that develops students' critical thinking, leadership, and authentic engagement through interdisciplinary projects, sharing examples from schools that have successfully implemented this model from kindergarten through high school.
- The Alpha Centauri Project: Project-Based Learning in Action
- The Crisis in Traditional Public Education
Leaving a high-flying job in consulting, Angela Lee Duckworth took a job teaching math to seventh graders in a New York public school. She quickly realized that IQ wasn't the only thing separating the...
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Psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth shares her groundbreaking research on grit—passion and perseverance for long-term goals—as the key predictor of success across diverse settings. After leaving management consulting to teach seventh grade math in New York City, she observed that IQ alone didn't determine student success. Her subsequent research at West Point, the National Spelling Bee, and Chicago public schools consistently revealed that grit, not talent or intelligence, best predicted who would succeed. Duckworth introduces growth mindset as a promising approach to building grit but emphasizes how much remains unknown about developing this crucial quality.
- From Consulting to Teaching: Discovering What IQ Misses
- Researching Success Across Extreme Environments
What's the biggest barrier to thriving? A philosopher and a space architect answer | Ariel Ekblaw and Meghan Sullivan
Sep 05, 2026Philosopher Meghan Sullivan and space architect Ariel Ekblaw don't usually work at the same altitude ... but put them in a room together, and they'll answer the big questions. Drawing on wisdom from A...
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