TED: Ideas worth spreading TED Talks Daily Audio Selection

TED Talks Daily Audio Selection

Want TED Talks on the go? Every weekday, 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.
Daily English South Africa Education · Science
1,097 Episodes
520 – 540

The cosmic war between monotony and creativity | David Deutsch

Theoretical physicist David Deutsch delivers a mind-bending meditation on the "great monotony" -- the idea that nothing novel has appeared in the universe for billions of years -- and shows how humanity's capacity to create explanatory knowledge could be the thing that bucks this trend. "Humans are not playthings of…
14 Oct 2019 10AM 14 min

The psychology of your future self | Dan Gilbert

"Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they're finished." Dan Gilbert shares recent research on a phenomenon he calls the "end of history illusion," where we somehow imagine that the person we are right now is the person we'll be for the rest of time. Hint: that's not…
11 Oct 2019 6AM 7 min

What Bruce Lee can teach us about living fully | Shannon Lee

Most of us know Bruce Lee as the famous martial artist and action film star -- but he was also a philosopher who taught "self-actualization": the practice of how to be yourself in the best way possible. In this inspiring talk, Bruce's daughter Shannon Lee takes us inside the mind…
10 Oct 2019 3PM 11 min

How we're using DNA tech to help farmers fight crop diseases | Laura Boykin

Nearly 800 million people worldwide depend on cassava for survival -- but this critical food source is under attack by entirely preventable viruses, says computational biologist and TED Senior Fellow Laura Boykin. She takes us to the farms in East Africa where she's working with a diverse team of scientists…
10 Oct 2019 10AM 12 min

A personal plea for humanity at the US-Mexico border | Juan Enriquez

In this powerful, personal talk, author and academic Juan Enriquez shares stories from inside the immigration crisis at the US-Mexico border, bringing this often-abstract debate back down to earth -- and showing what you can do every day to create a sense of belonging for immigrants. "This isn't about kids…
9 Oct 2019 10AM 11 min

A radical plan to end plastic waste | Andrew Forrest

Plastic is an incredible substance for the economy -- and the worst substance possible for the environment, says entrepreneur Andrew Forrest. In a conversation meant to spark debate, Forrest and head of TED Chris Anderson discuss an ambitious plan to get the world's biggest companies to fund an environmental revolution…
8 Oct 2019 5PM 15 min

The transformative power of video games | Herman Narula

A full third of the world's population -- 2.6 billion people -- play video games, plugging into massive networks of interaction that have opened up opportunities well beyond entertainment. In a talk about the future of the medium, entrepreneur Herman Narula makes the case for a new understanding of gaming…
8 Oct 2019 10AM 11 min

An ancient rock suggests a new theory for how life started | Tara Djokic

Exactly when and where did life on Earth begin? Scientists have long thought that it emerged three billion years ago in the ocean -- until astrobiologist Tara Djokic and her team made an unexpected discovery in the western Australian desert. Learn how an ancient rock found near a hot volcanic…
7 Oct 2019 10AM 9 min

Innovation is the antidote to corruption | Efosa Ojomo

Traditional thinking on corruption goes like this: if you put good laws in place and enforce them well, then economic development increases and corruption falls. In reality, we have the equation backwards, says innovation researcher Efosa Ojomo. In this compelling talk, he offers new thinking on how we could potentially…
4 Oct 2019 10AM 11 min

What happens in your brain when you taste food | Camilla Arndal Andersen

With fascinating research and hilarious anecdotes, neuroscientist Camilla Arndal Andersen takes us into the lab where she studies people's sense of taste via brain scans. She reveals surprising insights about the way our brains subconsciously experience food -- and shows how this data could help us eat healthier without sacrificing…
3 Oct 2019 10AM 13 min

What the US health care system assumes about you | Mitchell Katz

The US health care system assumes many things about patients: that they can take off from work in the middle of the day, speak English, have a working telephone and a steady supply of food. Because of that, it's failing many of those who are most in need, says Mitchell…
2 Oct 2019 10AM 16 min

How community-led conservation can save wildlife | Moreangels Mbizah

Conservationist and TED Fellow Moreangels Mbizah studied the famous Cecil the lion until he was shot by a trophy hunter in 2015. She wonders how things could've gone differently, asking: "What if the community that lived next to Cecil was involved in protecting him?" In a quick talk, Mbizah shares…
1 Oct 2019 3PM 6 min

Why you should shop at your local farmers market | Mohammad Modarres

The average farmer in America makes less than 15 cents of every dollar on a product that you purchase at a store. They feed our communities, but farmers often cannot afford the very foods they grow. In this actionable talk, social entrepreneur Mohammad Modarres shows how to put your purchasing…
1 Oct 2019 10AM 6 min

A wall won't solve America's border problems | Will Hurd

"Building a 30-foot-high concrete structure from sea to shining sea is the most expensive and least effective way to do border security," says Congressman Will Hurd, a Republican from Texas whose district encompasses two times zones and shares an 820-mile border with Mexico. Speaking from Washington, DC in a video…
26 Sep 2019 10AM 17 min

How we're building the world's largest family tree | Yaniv Erlich

Genealogist Yaniv Erlich helped build the world's largest family tree -- comprising 13 million people and going back more than 500 years. He shares fascinating patterns that emerged from the work -- about our love lives, our health, even decades-old criminal cases -- and shows how crowdsourced genealogy databases can…
25 Sep 2019 10AM 9 min

Can seaweed help curb global warming? | Tim Flannery

It's time for planetary-scale interventions to combat climate change -- and environmentalist Tim Flannery thinks seaweed can help. In a bold talk, he shares the epic carbon-capturing potential of seaweed, explaining how oceangoing seaweed farms created on a massive scale could trap all the carbon we emit into the atmosphere…
23 Sep 2019 3PM 13 min
520 – 540