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.
Democracy Must Deliver Material Gains to Resist Authoritarian Appeal
Sally Kohn and Jeff Maurer do not make the case for a formal wealth limit on politicians in this TED “Idea Knock Down” exchange. Instead, Kohn argues that democracy is losing ground because it is failing to deliver material gains for ordinary people, while Maurer says the deeper problem is a political class and party system too detached from the public it claims to represent. Both return to the same underlying concern: money’s grip on politics is weakening democracy’s claim to work for everyone.
Five-Minute Walks Every Half Hour Blunted Post-Meal Glucose Spikes
Modern work has not just crowded out workouts; it has stripped movement from the rest of the day, exercise scientist Keith Diaz argues. His research points to a modest remedy: brief movement breaks, including five-minute walks every half hour, which in his lab sharply blunted post-meal glucose spikes. Looser versions still mattered, Diaz says, with real-world participants reporting less fatigue and lab data showing mood benefits from shorter breaks.
Miura-Ori Folds Can Make Paper Hold 10,000 Times Its Weight
In a TED talk, 14-year-old New York student Miles Wu argues that origami is more than decorative paper craft: it is a way to test how geometry can change what a material can do. Wu traces that claim from childhood folding projects to a Miura-ori science experiment in which compact paper structures held extraordinary loads, including one version that supported more than 10,000 times its own weight.
Jacob Collier Builds “All You Need Is Love” Live With an Unrehearsed Orchestra
At TED2026 in Vancouver, Jacob Collier conducted the VSO School of Music Orchestra through an unrehearsed arrangement of the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love,” built in front of the audience without sheet music or prior plan. The performance argues, by demonstration, that improvisation at orchestral scale depends less on vagueness than on precise, rapidly revised instructions: pitches, loops, dynamics, entrances and roles assigned in real time.
The Rule of Thirds Reframes Bad Days as Part of Hard Work
Olympic runner Alexi Pappas says bad days are not necessarily evidence that a difficult pursuit is failing. Drawing on advice from her coach before the Rio Olympics, Pappas frames serious work through a Rule of Thirds: roughly one-third good days, one-third okay days and one-third bad days. Within that pattern, she argues, bad days can indicate that the challenge is real; when they become constant, they may be a warning that the effort is unsustainable.
Creativity Begins by Listening to What Wants to Be Made
In a TED conversation with Debbie Millman, artist Rose B. Simpson argues that creativity is less a search for style than a practice of listening. Drawing on her upbringing in Santa Clara Pueblo, her family’s ceramic traditions, and her work with lowrider cars, public sculpture and clay vessels, Simpson describes art as embedded in ordinary life: a way to build agency, attend to place and hear what objects, materials and environments are asking to become.
Fascination, Not Passion, Drives Career Excellence
In a TED talk, venture capitalist Bill Gurley argues that exceptional careers are built on fascination rather than passion. Drawing on six years of research into high achievers, he says the decisive trait is “continuous and obsessive learning” — but that such learning is an effect, not a cause. The cause, in Gurley’s telling, is finding the field that makes a person study without being pushed, then building a career around it.
The Silent Majority Is Raising the Cost of American Dissent
Miles Taylor argues that the rising cost of dissent in America is enforced not only by political leaders, but by citizens willing to punish criticism with threats, doxxing and professional ruin. In a TEDxMidAtlantic talk, the former senior US national security official draws on his public break with Donald Trump and the consequences that followed to make a broader claim: the larger danger is the two-thirds of Americans who self-censor out of fear, allowing threats to decide who speaks in public.
Fundamentals Can Block Discovery When They Leave No Room for Play
Harlem Globetrotter and artist Maxwell Pearce argues in a TED talk that play is not a break from serious work but one of the ways disciplines evolve. Drawing on coaches who told him to stop dunking, the Globetrotters’ use of mistakes as performance material, and his own artwork made from athletic equipment, Pearce makes the case that progress depends on giving rule-breaking and accidents enough room to become new forms.
A Society of Readers Depends on Adults Creating New Readers
Novelist and Parnassus Books co-owner Ann Patchett uses her TED talk to argue that reading should be treated not only as a private pleasure but as a civic responsibility. Drawing on an airport encounter with a Hare Krishna, her decision to open a Nashville bookstore, and her experience cultivating young readers, Patchett says people who want to live in a culture of books must actively create one: by reading visibly, giving children access to books, defending teachers and librarians, and sustaining the institutions where readers are made.
Ocean Protection Has Worked Locally, but 97 Percent Remains Exposed
Marine biologist Sylvia Earle returned to TED to assess the ocean-protection campaign she launched there in 2009, arguing that the sea should be treated not as scenery or resource stock but as Earth’s life-support system. Her case is that industrial extraction is depleting the wildlife that keeps that system functioning, while the Hope Spots network shows protection and restoration can work in specific places. The remaining gap, she says, is scale: most of the ocean is still open to exploitation, and known remedies now depend on political and public will.
Correct Health Information Can Still Lead Patients to Bad Decisions
Physician John Whyte, former chief medical officer of WebMD, argues in a TEDxNashville talk that the problem with online symptom searching is not access to medical information but the absence of clinical context. Whyte says search engines, symptom checkers, AI tools and algorithmic feeds can surface correct facts while still pushing patients toward anxiety, unsafe self-treatment or misplaced confidence. His prescription is not to stop searching, but to treat health information with skepticism, corroborate it and bring it to a trusted medical professional who can judge what applies.
Managers Should Replace Feedback Sandwiches With Clear Behavioral Coaching
In a TEDxFiesole talk, executive coach Renee St Jacques argues that feedback often fails because managers try to soften discomfort rather than make expectations clear. She says effective leadership requires a sequence of emotional-intelligence skills — connecting to build trust, correcting behavior directly and kindly, and cultivating growth through frequent coaching — so accountability can land without becoming rejection.
Childhood Technology Should Face a Safety Burden Before Mass Adoption
In a 2026 TED talk, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that childhood technology should be governed by “technoskepticism”: companies should have to prove their products are safe for developing minds before they enter children’s social lives, classrooms, or relationships. Drawing on his view of humans as an “ultrasocial” species, Haidt says smartphones, school devices, and AI companions threaten the embodied attention and dependence through which children learn, bond, and mature.
Peace Deals Need Shared Self-Interest Before Empathy
Mediator Hiba Qasas argues that peace efforts often fail because they substitute process and empathy-first dialogue for the legitimacy, incentives, and public trust that make agreements durable. Drawing on her UN career and on a post-October 7 initiative that brought Israeli and Palestinian leaders into collaboration during the war, Qasas makes the case for “principled pragmatism”: start with aligned self-interest, use political transaction to change the future each side can imagine, and let recognition come before any appeal to shared humanity.
DIY Camera Tag Captures Sperm Whales Communicating in the Deep
Engineer Eric Stackpole’s TED talk argues that exploration often advances through improvised tools built for a specific question, not through polished equipment alone. He recounts how a fragile suction-cup camera tag, assembled from ordinary components in the Azores, recorded a sperm whale’s deep dive, hunting clicks and apparent communication with a second whale. For Stackpole, the footage is evidence that discovery depends on curiosity as much as technology, and that exploration matters for what it lets people experience as well as measure.
Humor Works Best as Attention, Honesty, and Shared Relief
Comedian Chris Duffy argues in a TED Talks Daily conversation with Elise Hu that humor is less a gift for performers than a practice of attention, self-awareness and small social risk. Drawing on his book Humor Me, Duffy makes the case for keeping a literal list of what makes you laugh, noticing ordinary absurdities, and treating laughter as a way to stay present and connected. He is careful to distinguish that from forced optimism: humor, in his account, can release pressure without denying pain, cruelty or uncertainty.
External Validation Cannot Sustain a Creative Life
Debbie Millman’s TED talk argues that the emotional reward of creative success is often far shorter than creators expect, sometimes lasting only minutes after years of work. Drawing on two decades of interviews and her own career, Millman says external markers such as awards, sales and visibility cannot sustain a creative life; the more durable reward is the act of making itself.
People Underestimate How Often Attempts at Connection Will Be Welcomed
Behavioral scientist Nicholas Epley argues in a TED talk that people routinely avoid social connection because they misjudge how warmly others will respond. Drawing on experiments involving more than 30,000 people, he says this “misplaced pessimism” leads people to skip conversations, compliments, gratitude and offers of support that are usually received better than they expect. His prescription is modest: treat social fear as a forecast to be tested, and when in doubt, reach out.
$60 Million Free Curriculum Bets Science Learning Starts With Spectacle
In a TED talk, former NASA engineer and science YouTuber Mark Rober argues that science education should win students’ attention before introducing abstraction. He is putting $60 million into Class CrunchLabs, a free grades 3–8 curriculum built around high-production videos, teacher materials, training and hands-on classroom demonstrations. Rober says the aim is not to replace teachers, but to give them resources that make students care first and learn the formal concepts afterward.
Waymo Frames Driverless Cars as a Safety Imperative, Not a Novelty
Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana tells TED’s Sal Khan that the case for fully autonomous vehicles is no longer mainly about whether the technology can drive, but whether cities and regulators will allow it to scale. Her argument is that Waymo’s safety data should be judged against the existing human-driving system, which she says society has grown too willing to accept despite tens of thousands of deaths in the US each year and far more globally.
Separate AI Becomes a Rival Intelligence, Not a Human Tool
In a TED talk, deep tech entrepreneur D. Scott Phoenix argues that humans should understand AI less as a tool to be used across a screen than as a new intelligence that will become a rival if it remains separate. Drawing on evolutionary biology, he says the major advances in life came through mergers rather than competition, and that humans now face a similar transition with AI. His warning is that such a merger will only be survivable if society itself holds together through the disruption.
Better News Judgment Requires Diverse Sources and Bias Controls
Political scientist Ian Bremmer tells TED’s Helen Walters that clearer news judgment comes less from finding neutral sources than from building controls against bias, spin and overreaction. He argues for varying national and institutional inputs, using long-term relationships to test public information, ranking events by likelihood, imminence and impact, and separating personal preference from analysis. For ordinary news consumers, his advice is to know where identity distorts judgment, favor longer treatments of complex issues, and use AI or social feeds only in ways that force balance rather than affirmation.
Survival Skills Can Become a Trap After the Crisis Ends
In a TED talk, Keke Palmer argues that the performance skills that carried her family out of poverty also became a form of confinement. Recounting her childhood in Robbins, Illinois, her rise as her family’s breadwinner, and the public persona she built to manage pressure, Palmer says survival habits can keep running after the emergency has passed. Her case is not against work or ambition, but against mistaking constant usefulness for freedom.