TED
TED features talks and performances from the TED Conference, along with originals, podcasts, and other content on technology, entertainment, design, science, business, global issues, the arts, and related subjects.
The Dignity Index Scores Political Language, Not the People Using It
Tami Pyfer argues that political disagreement becomes dangerous when it turns into contempt: the belief that people on the other side are not merely wrong but evil or undeserving of a place in the community. Drawing on her experience as a former Utah policy adviser and a mother of five children with different political views, she and her colleagues developed the Dignity Index, an eight-point scale for assessing language in political disputes. Pyfer says the tool can help people recognise contempt in their own words and make room for disagreement without denying one another’s dignity.
Family-Friendly Third Spaces Can Keep Parents Connected
Writer Stacey McLachlan argues that parental loneliness is reinforced by social spaces that leave young children—and their parents—out. In her TEDxVancouver talk, she describes creating Witching Hour, gatherings at bars and other venues where children could play while adults talked, as a way to keep parents connected to ordinary social life. Her broader case is that shared, multi-generational places help sustain the relationships that support both parents and the wider community.
Dating Dealbreakers Can Screen Out Partners Who Build Lasting Relationships
Dating columnist and breakup coach Amy Chan argues that modern daters’ habit of scanning for flaws can turn preferences into dealbreakers—and screen out partners capable of building lasting relationships. In her TEDxVancouver talk, she says dating apps and social media reinforce that impulse by encouraging people to treat partners as customizable options and prioritize visible traits over commitment, appreciation and conflict skills. Chan urges daters to distinguish genuine incompatibilities from preferences and give people outside their usual type a chance.
Foraging Turns Familiar Neighborhoods Into Places of Food and Belonging
Forager and educator Alexis Nikole Nelson argues that learning to identify and gather wild food is also a way to pay closer attention to the places where people live. In a TED conversation, she makes the case for starting small and harvesting carefully, while connecting foraging to food access, the history of who has been allowed to gather, and the choices involved in how food reaches the table.
Whole-Genome Embryo Screening Can Reveal Risks Standard IVF Tests Miss
Noor Siddiqui argues that whole-genome sequencing can give parents using IVF information about embryo health risks that standard tests leave unread. Her company, Orchid, uses the technology to help parents choose among embryos; Siddiqui says this could reduce the risk of serious inherited disease. In her talk, she also discusses traits such as endurance and bone density, while leaving open where society should draw the line between disease screening and selecting for other characteristics.
Shared Meals Give Strangers a Route Into Civic Conversation
Civic leader Anuj Gupta argues that shared meals can build the familiarity and conversation democracy depends on, even when they cannot resolve political disagreement. Drawing on a decade of *Breaking Bread, Breaking Barriers* dinners in Philadelphia, he says recipes offer a practical way for strangers to exchange family histories and memories—and to find common ground without ignoring their differences.
Deep Listening Separates Understanding From Agreement
Author and mediator Emily Kasriel argues that listening to someone with views you find disturbing does not mean agreeing with them or abandoning your own values. In her TED talk, she presents deep listening as a way to understand what another person means while remaining able to challenge them—a practice she says can keep difficult conversations open and help people form connections across political, cultural and personal divides.
Five Design Principles Can Make Downtowns More Walkable and Welcoming
Community designer Zach DeBoer argues that US cities built around cars have sacrificed the social, economic and safety benefits of walkable places. In his TEDx talk, he looks to Disney theme parks not as templates to copy, but as examples of how density, varied buildings, slower streets and local identity can make ordinary downtowns more inviting to explore.
A Silicon Valley Program Helped 44,000 People Avoid Homelessness
Jen Loving, who leads Destination: Home, argues that homelessness prevention should begin before people lose their housing, when a job loss, medical emergency or other crisis puts them at risk. Her organization says its Silicon Valley program has helped more than 44,000 people stay housed since 2017; through Right at Home, it is extending the model to communities across the US.
Culturally Rooted Play Reached 50,000 Rohingya Children in Cox’s Bazar
For Rohingya children displaced to camps in Bangladesh, Erum Mariam argues, play rooted in their own culture can help restore pride and confidence. The Bangladeshi educator describes how her team built small play labs with Rohingya families, using familiar games, rhymes and art to give children ways to participate and reconnect with their culture.
Good Games Use Constraints to Focus Creative Play
Game designer Eric Zimmerman argues that rules do not limit play so much as give it a structure people can explore. In a TED talk drawing on video games, tabletop games and installations, he shows how carefully chosen constraints can focus attention and invite improvisation—while too many can shut it down. His method is to understand a system, find where its conventions can be altered, and use rules to guide what people do.
Couples Build Compatibility Through Private Rituals, Not Matching Traits
Social psychologist Eli J. Finkel argues that lasting compatibility is less about finding someone who matches a list of preferred traits than about building a shared world through private phrases, rituals and repeated moments. That world, which he calls a couple’s love motif, can make commitment feel like an expression of individual authenticity rather than a compromise of it.
Narcolepsy Went Undiagnosed for 19 Years as Exhaustion Was Mistaken for Laziness
For nearly two decades, sleep health educator Lindsay Scola treated her exhaustion as the cost of ambition, until a narcolepsy diagnosis showed that what she had taken for laziness was a neurological disorder. In her TEDx talk, she argues that many people with sleep disorders remain undiagnosed because symptoms are mistaken for ordinary tiredness and medical training gives sleep too little attention. She urges people whose fatigue feels unusual to seek answers beyond sleep-hygiene advice.
Personal Conversations Lift Voter Turnout by Five to Seven Points
Katie Paris argues that campaigns can move voters more effectively by organizing through existing relationships than by relying on messages aimed at strangers. In her TED talk, the founder of Red Wine and Blue says the group’s members start with people they know, build trust through local gatherings and practice, and encourage those contacts to reach others. Paris says an independent analyst found turnout among people members contacted rose by five to seven percentage points, compared with campaigns that spend millions to move turnout by a fraction of a point.
Reginald Dwayne Betts Has Opened More Than 600 Prison Libraries
Reginald Dwayne Betts argues that prison libraries put books—and the possibility of imagining who a person could become—within reach, while hope passes from one person to another. Sentenced to nine years at 16, Betts says books helped him imagine himself as someone who could choose a different path; he has since opened more than 600 Freedom Libraries in prisons, with former friends and fellow prisoners helping carry the work to others.
Wealth Inequality Is Deepening the Distance Between Americans and Democracy
Writer Xochitl Gonzalez argues that wealth inequality threatens democracy not only by leaving financially struggling Americans feeling shut out of politics, but also by giving billionaires reason to benefit from undemocratic arrangements. Drawing on research into the psychology of social class, she says growing up with or without money shapes people’s sense of agency and security—and their ideas about what good leadership looks like.
Four Dam Removals Reconnected the Klamath River and Revived Its Salmon Run
After the Klamath River’s salmon runs fell to five percent of their historical abundance, Yurok advocate Amy Bowers Cordalis argued that removing four dams was necessary to restore the river and sustain Yurok life. She says the removal—the largest dam-removal project in US history—became possible through tribal rights, litigation and a coalition of Indigenous nations and other allies. Three days after the first dam breach, salmon moved upstream past historical spawning grounds they had not reached in a hundred years.
Topic, Intent, Point: A Framework for Clearer Workplace Conversations
Communication expert Chris Fenning argues that the first minute of a workplace conversation should tell listeners what the subject is, why they are being told about it and what they should take away. In his TEDxEindhoven talk, he sets out a three-part framework—Topic, Intent, Point—for giving that context before the details, reducing the risk of confusion and mismatched expectations.
A Founder’s Success Could Not Quiet His Belief That He Wasn’t Enough
Blake Mycoskie says his belief that he was not enough drove years of striving for achievement and, eventually, a plan to end his life that he did not carry out. The TOMS Shoes founder credits telling friends and family he was not okay with saving his life. In his TED talk, he argues that shame keeps people silent about mental illness and calls for treating it as an expected part of life so people can seek support sooner.
Redirecting Finance Could Turn Shipping Into a Clean-Economy Engine
Climate strategist Joojin Kim argues that maritime shipping offers an unusually concentrated point of leverage in the fight against emissions: the sector burns fossil fuels, carries oil and gas, and relies on steel made with coal. After working to persuade South Korean banks to stop financing coal, Kim wants to apply the same financial pressure to shipping, while building markets for cleaner ships and fuels. His case is that redirecting investment could change not just the industry, but the supply chains it connects.
Curiosity Helps Teachers See Beyond Student Data and Circumstances
Educator Stephen Nobles argues that curiosity helps teachers see students as more than their circumstances or the data attached to them. In his account, withholding judgment can make room for students’ questions, abilities and ambitions to emerge—and help them take greater ownership of their learning.
Decentralized Tools Can Keep People Connected When Governments Shut Them Out
Venezuelan activist Leopoldo López argues that open-source, decentralized technology can give people more control over money, communication and information when governments or companies can restrict access. Drawing on his seven years as a political prisoner, he asks who holds the keys to the systems people rely on, citing examples from payments, journalism, internet access and AI.
A Singapore Library Shares Its Costs Across 180 Shelves
In her TEDxSingapore talk, photographer Rebecca Toh argues that a shared library can create connection by giving people a practical way to build and care for a public space together. In Singapore, 180 people each rent a shelf for their personal collections, while volunteers staff a library that visitors can use for free. Toh says the shelves make strangers’ interests visible—and the shared work has turned the library into a place where people feel at home.
The Accordion’s 226 Buttons Give One Instrument a Remarkable Range
Accordionist Maria Telesheva argues that the instrument’s range depends on a player coordinating its many controls: 226 buttons, registers that alter its tone and bellows that shape its dynamics. She describes mastering those demands as both physical work and an intense mental exercise, and points to the music she plays—from Bach to the Beatles and AC/DC—as evidence of the repertoire she embraces.