TED Talks
Ayah Bdeir: Building blocks that blink, beep and teach
Imagine a set of electronics as easy to play with as Legos. TED Fellow Ayah Bdeir introduces littleBits, a set of simple, interchangeable blocks that make programming as simple and important a part of creativity as snapping blocks together.
TED Talks
Clay Shirky: Why SOPA is a bad idea
What does a bill like PIPA/SOPA mean to our shareable world? At the TED offices, Clay Shirky delivers a proper manifesto -- a call to defend our freedom to create, discuss, link and share, rather than passively consume.
TED Talks
Young-ha Kim: Be an artist, right now!
Why do we ever stop playing and creating? With charm and humor, celebrated Korean author Young-ha Kim invokes the world's greatest artists to urge you to unleash your inner child -- the artist who wanted to play forever.
TED Talks
TED: The trick to regaining your childlike wonder | Zach King
When we ditch our assumptions, new ideas can enter the world, says filmmaker Zach King. In an entertaining talk full of props and surprises, King shows us the trick to regaining our sense of childlike wonder through the power of...
TED Talks
Martin Danoesastro: What are you willing to give up to change the way we work?
What does it take to build the fast, flexible, creative teams needed to challenge entrenched work culture? For transformation expert Martin Danoesastro, it all starts with one question: "What are you willing to give up?" He shares...
TED Talks
Woody Norris: Hypersonic sound and other inventions
Woody Norris shows off two of his inventions that use sound in new ways, including the Long Range Acoustic Device, or LRAD. He talks about his untraditional approach to inventing and education, because, as he puts it: "Almost nothing has...
TED Talks
Brian Dettmer: Old books reborn as art
What do you do with an outdated encyclopedia in the information age? With X-Acto knives and an eye for a good remix, artist Brian Dettmer makes beautiful, unexpected sculptures that breathe new life into old books.
TED Talks
TED: The beauty of being a misfit | Lidia Yuknavitch
To those who feel like they don't belong: there is beauty in being a misfit. Author Lidia Yuknavitch shares her own wayward journey in an intimate recollection of patchwork stories about loss, shame and the slow process of...
TED Talks
TED: Massively multi-player… thumb-wrestling? | Jane McGonigal
What happens when you get an entire audience to stand up and connect with one another? Chaos, that's what. At least, that's what happened when Jane McGonigal tried to teach TED to play her favorite game. Then again, when the game is...
TED Talks
TED: The real-life superheroes helping Syrian refugees | Feras Fayyad
Society has a set of stories it tells itself about who refugees are and what they look like, says documentarian and TED Fellow Feras Fayyad. With his films, he's on a mission to separate the facts about refugees from fiction, as a form...
TED Talks
TED: Do kids think of sperm donors as family? | Veerle Provoost
How do we define a parent -- or a family? Bioethicist Veerle Provoost explores these questions in the context of non-traditional families, ones brought together by adoption, second marriages, surrogate mothers and sperm donations. In...
TED Talks
Tom Wujec: 3 ways the brain creates meaning
Information designer Tom Wujec talks through three areas of the brain that help us understand words, images, feelings, connections. In this short talk from TEDU, he asks: How can we best engage our brains to help us better understand big...
TED Talks
Aparna Rao: High-tech art (with a sense of humor)
Artist and TED Fellow Aparna Rao re-imagines the familiar in surprising, often humorous ways. With her collaborator Soren Pors, Rao creates high-tech art installations -- a typewriter that sends emails, a camera that tracks you through...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Can you solve the counterfeit coin riddle? - Jennifer Lu
You're the realm's greatest mathematician, but ever since you criticized the Emperor's tax laws, you've been locked in the dungeon. Luckily for you, one of the Emperor's governors has been convicted of paying his taxes with a counterfeit...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How brass instruments work - Al Cannon
What gives the trumpet its clarion ring and the tuba its gut shaking oompah-pah? And what makes the trombone so jazzy? Al Cannon shows how these answers lie not in the brass the instruments are made of, but in the journey that air takes...
TED Talks
Yves Behar: Designing objects that tell stories
Designer Yves Behar digs up his creative roots to discuss some of the iconic objects he's created (the Leaf lamp, the Jawbone headset). Then he turns to the witty, surprising, elegant objects he's working on now -- including the "$100...
TED Talks
Mick Ebeling: The invention that unlocked a locked-in artist
The nerve disease ALS left graffiti artist TEMPT paralyzed from head to toe, forced to communicate blink by blink. In a remarkable talk at TEDActive, entrepreneur Mick Ebeling shares how he and a team of collaborators built an...
TED Talks
TED: Electronic pills that could transform how we treat disease | Khalil Ramadi
Could a small jolt of electricity to your gut help treat chronic diseases? Medical hacker and TED Fellow Khalil Ramadi is developing a new, noninvasive therapy that could treat diseases like diabetes, obesity, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's...
TED Talks
Lawrence Lessig: Laws that choke creativity
Lawrence Lessig, the Net’s most celebrated lawyer, cites John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights and the "ASCAP cartel" in his argument for reviving our creative culture.
TED Talks
Dan Phillips: Creative houses from reclaimed stuff
In this funny and inspiring talk, Dan Phillips tours us through a dozen homes he's built in Texas using recycled and reclaimed materials in wildly creative ways. Brilliant, low-tech design details will refresh your own drive to make more...
TED Talks
TED: How AI could compose a personalized soundtrack to your life | Pierre Barreau
Meet AIVA, an artificial intelligence that has been trained in the art of music composition by reading more than 30,000 of history's greatest scores. In a mesmerizing talk and demo, Pierre Barreau plays compositions created by AIVA and...
TED Talks
TED: Sci-fi stories that imagine a future Africa | Nnedi Okorafor
My science fiction has different ancestors -- African ones, says writer Nnedi Okorafor. In between excerpts from her "Binti" series and her novel "Lagoon," Okorafor discusses the inspiration and roots of her work -- and how she opens...
TED Talks
Massimo Banzi: How Arduino is open-sourcing imagination
Massimo Banzi helped invent the Arduino, a tiny, easy-to-use open-source microcontroller that's inspired thousands of people around the world to make the coolest things they can imagine -- from toys to satellite gear. Because, as he...
TED Talks
Martin Villeneuve: How I made an impossible film
Canadian filmmaker Martin Villeneuve talks about "Mars et Avril," the sci-fi spectacular he made with virtually no money over a seven-year stretch. In this charming talk, he explains the various ways he overcame financial and logistical...