TED Talks Daily Audio Selection

What is the meaning of work? | Roy Bahat and Bryn Freedman

Roy Bahat was worried. His company invests in new technology like AI to make businesses more efficient -- but, he wondered, what was AI doing to the people whose jobs might change, go away or become less fulfilling? The question sent him on a two-year research odyssey to discover what…

19 Feb 2019 10AM 11 min

Lessons from past presidents | Doris Kearns Goodwin

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin talks about what we can learn from American presidents, including Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson. Then she shares a moving memory of her own father, and of their shared love of baseball.

18 Feb 2019 6AM 18 min

The age of genetic wonder | Juan Enriquez

Gene-editing tools like CRISPR enable us to program life at its most fundamental level. But this raises some pressing questions: If we can generate new species from scratch, what should we build? Should we redesign humanity as we know it? Juan Enriquez forecasts the possible futures of genetic editing, exploring…

15 Feb 2019 10AM 18 min

A love story about the power of art as organizing | Aja Monet and phillip agnew

In a lyrical talk full of radical imagination, poet Aja Monet and community organizer phillip angew share the story of how they fell in love and what they've learned about the powerful connection between great social movements and meaningful art. Journey to Smoke Signals Studio in Miami, their home and…

14 Feb 2019 10AM 12 min

3 ways to practice civility | Steven Petrow

What does it mean to be civil? Journalist Steven Petrow looks for answers in the original meaning of the word, showing why civility shouldn't be dismissed as conversation-stifling political correctness or censorship. Learn three ways we can each work to be more civil -- and start talking about our differences…

13 Feb 2019 10AM 14 min

How doctors can help low-income patients (and still make a profit) | P.J. Parmar

Modern American health care is defined by its high costs, high overhead and inaccessibility -- especially for low-income patients. What if we could redesign the system to serve the poor and still have doctors make money? In an eye-opening (and surprisingly funny) talk, physician P.J. Parmar shares the story of…

12 Feb 2019 3PM 11 min

Why noise is bad for your health -- and what you can do about it | Mathias Basner

Silence is a rare commodity these days. There's traffic, construction, air-conditioning, your neighbor's lawnmower ... and all this unwanted sound can have a surprising impact on your health, says noise researcher Mathias Basner. Discover the science behind how noise affects your health and sleep -- and how you can get…

12 Feb 2019 10AM 10 min

How women in Pakistan are creating political change | Shad Begum

Activist Shad Begum has spent her life empowering women to live up to their full potential. In a personal talk, she shares her determined struggle to improve the lives of women in her deeply religious and conservative community in northwest Pakistan -- and calls for women around the world to…

11 Feb 2019 10AM 14 min

America's forgotten working class | J.D. Vance

J.D. Vance grew up in a small, poor city in the Rust Belt of southern Ohio, where he had a front-row seat to many of the social ills plaguing America: a heroin epidemic, failing schools, families torn apart by divorce and sometimes violence. In a searching talk that will echo…

8 Feb 2019 6AM 15 min

What your breath could reveal about your health | Julian Burschka

There's no better way to stop a disease than to catch and treat it early, before symptoms occur. That's the whole point of medical screening techniques like radiography, MRIs and blood tests. But there's one medium with overlooked potential for medical analysis: your breath. Technologist Julian Burschka shares the latest…

7 Feb 2019 10AM 13 min

How we can help the "forgotten middle" reach their full potential | Danielle R. Moss

You know the "forgotten middle": they're the students, coworkers and regular people who are often overlooked because they're seen as neither exceptional nor problematic. How can we empower them to reach their full potential? Sharing her work helping young people get to and through college, social activist Danielle R. Moss…

6 Feb 2019 10AM 13 min

The uncomplicated truth about women's sexuality | Sarah Barmak

Is women's sexuality actually more complicated than men's? The answer is no, says author Sarah Barmak. In an eye-opening talk, she shows how a flawed understanding of the female body has shaped our culture for centuries, debunking some age-old myths and offering a richer definition of pleasure that gets closer…

5 Feb 2019 11AM 11 min

How do we learn to work with intelligent machines? | Matt Beane

The path to skill around the globe has been the same for thousands of years: train under an expert and take on small, easy tasks before progressing to riskier, harder ones. But right now, we're handling AI in a way that blocks that path -- and sacrificing learning in our…

4 Feb 2019 10AM 10 min

How we can start to heal the pain of racial division | Ruby Sales

"Where does it hurt?" It's a question that activist and educator Ruby Sales has traveled the US asking, looking deeply at the country's legacy of racism and searching for sources of healing. In this moving talk, she shares what she's learned, reflecting on her time as a freedom fighter in…

1 Feb 2019 11AM 21 min

An astronaut's story of curiosity, perspective and change | Leland Melvin

What job is best for a young man who's been a tennis ace, a cross-country traveler, a chemistry nerd and an NFL draftee? How about ... astronaut? Leland Melvin tells the story of the challenges he's accepted and the opportunities he's seized -- and how they led him to the…

31 Jan 2019 3PM 13 min

The way we think about biological sex is wrong | Emily Quinn

Did you know that almost 150 million people worldwide are born intersex -- with biology that doesn't fit the standard definition of male or female? (That's as many as the population of Russia.) At age 10, Emily Quinn found out she was intersex, and in this wise, funny talk, she…

31 Jan 2019 10AM 14 min

The disarming case to act right now on climate change | Greta Thunberg

In this passionate call to action, 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg explains why, in August 2018, she walked out of school and organized a strike to raise awareness of global warming, protesting outside the Swedish parliament and grabbing the world's attention. "The climate crisis has already been solved. We already…

30 Jan 2019 2PM 11 min

Reflections from a lifetime fighting to end child poverty | Marian Wright Edelman

What does it take to build a national movement? In a captivating conversation with TEDWomen curator Pat Mitchell, Marian Wright Edelman reflects on her path to founding the Children's Defense Fund in 1973 -- from the early influence of growing up in the segregated American South to her activism with…

30 Jan 2019 10AM 16 min

Can we solve global warming? Lessons from how we protected the ozone layer | Sean Davis

The Montreal Protocol proved that the world could come together and take action on climate change. Thirty years after the world's most successful environmental treaty was signed, atmospheric scientist Sean Davis examines the world we avoided when we banned chlorofluorocarbons -- and shares lessons we can carry forward to address…

29 Jan 2019 10AM 10 min

The power of women's anger | Soraya Chemaly

Anger is a powerful emotion -- it warns us of threat, insult, indignity and harm. But across the world, girls and women are taught that their anger is better left unvoiced, says author Soraya Chemaly. Why is that, and what might we lose in this silence? In a provocative, thoughtful…

28 Jan 2019 10AM 11 min