TED2006
Rives: A mockingbird remix of TED2006
821,369 views
Readability: 4.5
Rives recaps the most memorable moments of TED2006 in the free-spirited rhyming verse of a fantastical mockingbird lullaby.
TED Talks with English transcript
TED2003
Jeff Bezos: The electricity metaphor for the web's future
1,547,891 views
The dot-com boom and bust is often compared to the Gold Rush. But Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos says it's more like the early days of the electric industry.
TED2005
William McDonough: Cradle to cradle design
1,878,449 views
Readability: 4.2
Green-minded architect and designer William McDonough asks what our buildings and products would look like if designers took into account "all children, all species, for all time."
TED2003
Evelyn Glennie: How to truly listen
5,875,532 views
In this soaring demonstration, deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie illustrates how listening to music involves much more than simply letting sound waves hit your eardrums.
TED2003
Dan Dennett: The illusion of consciousness
3,868,782 views
Readability: 3.2
Philosopher Dan Dennett makes a compelling argument that not only don't we understand our own consciousness, but that half the time our brains are actively fooling us.
TED2005
Caroline Lavelle: Casting a spell on the cello
477,656 views
Readability: 3.1
Caroline Lavelle plays the cello like a sorceress casting a spell, occasionally hiding behind her wild mane of blond hair as she sings of pastoral themes. She performs "Farther than the Sun," backed by Thomas Dolby on keyboards.
TED2006
Jill Sobule: Global warming's theme song, "Manhattan in January"
718,541 views
Readability: 4.8
A happy song about global warming, from Jill Sobule.
TEDGlobal 2005
Richard Dawkins: Why the universe seems so strange
4,013,427 views
Readability: 4.6
Biologist Richard Dawkins makes a case for "thinking the improbable" by looking at how the human frame of reference limits our understanding of the universe.
TED2004
Dan Gilbert: The surprising science of happiness
18,394,509 views
Readability: 3.7
Dan Gilbert, author of "Stumbling on Happiness," challenges the idea that we'll be miserable if we don't get what we want. Our "psychological immune system" lets us feel truly happy even when things don't go as planned.
TED2006
Tony Robbins: Why we do what we do
28,814,797 views
Tony Robbins discusses the "invisible forces" that motivate everyone's actions -- and high-fives Al Gore in the front row.
TED2006
Dan Dennett: Let's teach religion -- all religion -- in schools
3,728,395 views
Readability: 3.9
Philosopher Dan Dennett calls for religion -- all religion -- to be taught in schools, so we can understand its nature as a natural phenomenon. Then he takes on The Purpose-Driven Life, disputing its claim that, to be moral, one must deny evolution.
TEDGlobal 2005
Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice
14,210,098 views
Readability: 3.5
Psychologist Barry Schwartz takes aim at a central tenet of western societies: freedom of choice. In Schwartz's estimation, choice has made us not freer but more paralyzed, not happier but more dissatisfied.
TED2006
Hans Rosling: The best stats you've ever seen
14,386,844 views
Readability: 3.6
You've never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, statistics guru Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called "developing world."
TEDGlobal 2005
Jacqueline Novogratz: Invest in Africa's own solutions
1,016,168 views
Readability: 3.7
Jacqueline Novogratz applauds the world's heightened interest in Africa and poverty, but argues persuasively for a new approach.
TED2006
Neil Gershenfeld: Unleash your creativity in a Fab Lab
871,282 views
Readability: 4.8
MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld talks about his Fab Lab -- a low-cost lab that lets people build things they need using digital and analog tools. It's a simple idea with powerful results.
TED2005
Ben Saunders: Why did I ski to the North Pole?
914,689 views
Readability: 3.6
Arctic explorer Ben Saunders recounts his harrowing solo ski trek to the North Pole, complete with engaging anecdotes, gorgeous photos and never-before-seen video.
TED2004
Ze Frank: Nerdcore comedy
7,005,246 views
Performer and web toymaker Ze Frank delivers a hilarious nerdcore standup routine, then tells us what he's seriously passionate about: helping people create and interact using simple, addictive web tools.
TED2006
Julia Sweeney: Letting go of God
4,604,979 views
When two young Mormon missionaries knock on Julia Sweeney's door one day, it touches off a quest to completely rethink her own beliefs, in this excerpt from Sweeney's solo show "Letting Go of God."
TED2007
Bill Clinton: My wish: Rebuilding Rwanda
933,889 views
Readability: 4.6
Accepting the 2007 TED Prize, Bill Clinton asks for help in bringing health care to Rwanda -- and the rest of the world.
TED2007
James Nachtwey: My wish: Let my photographs bear witness
1,643,934 views
Readability: 5.3
Accepting his 2007 TED Prize, war photographer James Nachtwey shows his life's work and asks TED to help him continue telling the story with innovative, exciting uses of news photography in the digital era.
TED2007
E.O. Wilson: My wish: Build the Encyclopedia of Life
1,596,443 views
Readability: 5.2
As E.O. Wilson accepts his 2007 TED Prize, he makes a plea on behalf of all creatures that we learn more about our biosphere -- and build a networked encyclopedia of all the world's knowledge about life.
TED2007
Dean Kamen: Luke, a new prosthetic arm for soldiers
1,874,096 views
Readability: 2.5
Inventor Dean Kamen previews the prosthetic arm he’s developing at the request of the US Department of Defense. His quiet commitment to using technology to solve problems -- while honoring the human spirit -- has never been more clear.
TEDSalon 2006
Nora York: Singing "What I Want"
438,874 views
Readability: 7.9
Nora York gives a stunning performance of her song "What I Want," with Jamie Lawrence (keyboards), Steve Tarshis (guitar) and Arthur Kell (bass).
TED2003
Juan Enriquez: The life code that will reshape the future
831,634 views
Readability: 3.4
Scientific discoveries, futurist Juan Enriquez notes, demand a shift in code, and our ability to thrive depends on our mastery of that code. Here, he applies this notion to the field of genomics.
TEDGlobal 2005
Iqbal Quadir: How mobile phones can fight poverty
589,394 views
Readability: 3.2
Iqbal Quadir tells how his experiences as a kid in poor Bangladesh, and later as a banker in New York, led him to start a mobile phone operator connecting 80 million rural Bangladeshi -- and to become a champion of bottom-up development.
TED2004
Al Seckel: Visual illusions that show how we (mis)think
2,460,814 views
Readability: 3.6
Al Seckel, an expert on illusions, explores the perceptual illusions that fool our brains. He shares loads of cool tricks to prove that not only are we easily fooled, we kind of like it.
TED2004
Sheila Patek: The shrimp with a kick!
1,659,037 views
Biologist Sheila Patek talks about her work measuring the feeding strike of the mantis shrimp, one of the fastest movements in the animal world, using video cameras recording at 20,000 frames per second.
TED2004
Susan Savage-Rumbaugh: The gentle genius of bonobos
2,759,598 views
Readability: 4.1
Savage-Rumbaugh's work with bonobo apes, which can understand spoken language and learn tasks by watching, forces the audience to rethink how much of what a species can do is determined by biology -- and how much by cultural exposure.
TEDGlobal 2005
Sasa Vucinic: Why we should invest in a free press
650,115 views
Readability: 3.4
A free press -- papers, magazines, radio, TV, blogs -- is the backbone of any true democracy (and a vital watchdog on business). Sasa Vucinic, a journalist from Belgrade, talks about his new fund, which supports media by selling "free press bonds."
TEDGlobal 2005
Alex Steffen: The route to a sustainable future
1,733,451 views
Readability: 3.7
Worldchanging.com founder Alex Steffen argues that reducing humanity’s ecological footprint is incredibly vital now, as the western consumer lifestyle spreads to developing countries.