TED Talks

577–624 of 2,913 films, free to watch, from the world's open archives.

Where these films come from, and who sees what

Every film here plays from the archive that keeps it: the Internet Archive, Wikimedia Commons, the NASA Image and Video Library, the Library of Congress and Open Images (the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision). Nothing is copied to this site. Each film's page names its archive, links to its page there, and states its licence or status as the archive does.

Archive films carry no age ratings, so each is placed from the collections it sits in and the subjects the archive gives it, cautiously. Sexual content and nudity are left out altogether.

Little OnesFilms for young children by name: nursery rhymes, lullabies, preschool.
KidsCartoons and animation, children's and family films, and educational films, unless they deal with war, propaganda, crime, horror or drugs, or carry racial caricature.
TweensDocumentaries, science, nature and space, classic comedies, newsreels, commercials and lectures.
TeensEverything else, including anything we cannot tell about; war, crime, horror and westerns go no lower.
AdultSexual themes (such as the old "sex hygiene" films), gore, surgery, slaughter, atrocity footage.
Internet Archive Sarah Parcak: Archeology from space 2012 · Talk · 5 min In this short talk, TED Fellow Sarah Parcak introduces the field of "space archeology" -- using satellite images to search for clues to the lost sites of past… Internet Archive Ben Kacyra: Ancient wonders captured in 3D 2011 · Talk · 12 min Ancient monuments give us clues to astonishing past civilizations -- but they're under threat from pollution, war, neglect. Ben Kacyra, who invented a… Internet Archive Eddi Reader sings "Kiteflyer's Hill" 2007 · Talk · 6 min Singer/songwriter Eddi Reader performs "Kiteflyer's Hill," a tender look back at a lost love. With Thomas Dolby on piano. Internet Archive Nigel Marsh: How to make work-life balance work 2011 · Talk · 10 min Work-life balance, says Nigel Marsh, is too important to be left in the hands of your employer. At TEDxSydney, Marsh lays out an ideal day balanced between… Internet Archive Van Jones: The economic injustice of plastic 2011 · Talk · 12 min Van Jones lays out a case against plastic pollution from the perspective of social justice. Because plastic trash, he shows us, hits poor people and poor… Internet Archive Birke Baehr: What's wrong with our food system 2010 · Talk · 5 min 11-year-old Birke Baehr presents his take on a major source of our food -- far-away and less-than-picturesque industrial farms. Keeping farms out of sight… Internet Archive Kavita Ramdas: Radical women, embracing tradition 2010 · Talk · 18 min Investing in women can unlock infinite potential around the globe. But how can women walk the line between Western-style empowerment and traditional culture?… Internet Archive Keith Chen: Could your language affect your ability to save money? 2013 · Talk · 12 min What can economists learn from linguists? Behavioral economist Keith Chen introduces a fascinating pattern from his research: that languages without a concept… Internet Archive Qi Zhang's electrifying organ performance 2009 · Talk · 3 min Organ virtuoso Qi Zhang plays her electric rendering of "Ridiculous Fellows" from Prokofiev's "The Love for Three Oranges" orchestral suite. This exhilarating… Internet Archive Dimitar Sasselov: How we found hundreds of potential Earth-like planets 2010 · Talk · 18 min Astronomer Dimitar Sasselov and his colleagues search for Earth-like planets that may, someday, help us answer centuries-old questions about the origin and… Internet Archive Stuart Firestein: The pursuit of ignorance 2013 · Talk · 18 min What does real scientific work look like? As neuroscientist Stuart Firestein jokes: It looks a lot less like the scientific method and a lot more like… Internet Archive Annie Lennox: Why I am an HIV/AIDS activist 2010 · Talk · 9 min For the last eight years, pop singer Annie Lennox has devoted the majority of her time to her SING campaign, raising awareness and money to combat HIV/AIDS.… Internet Archive Bjorn Lomborg sets global priorities 2007 · Talk · 16 min Given $50 billion to spend, which would you solve first, AIDS or global warming? Danish political scientist Bjorn Lomborg comes up with surprising answers. Internet Archive Chris Abani muses on humanity 2008 · Talk · 16 min Chris Abani tells stories of people: People standing up to soldiers. People being compassionate. People being human and reclaiming their humanity. It's… Internet Archive Maysoon Zayid: I got 99 problems... palsy is just one 2014 · Talk · 14 min "I have cerebral palsy. I shake all the time," Maysoon Zayid announces at the beginning of this exhilarating, hilarious talk. (Really, it's hilarious.) "I'm… Internet Archive Norman Foster's green agenda 2008 · Talk · 32 min Architect Norman Foster discusses his own work to show how computers can help architects design buildings that are green, beautiful and "basically… Internet Archive Chris Anderson on TED's nonprofit transition 2008 · Talk · 12 min Chris Anderson gave this talk in 2002, prior to taking over leadership of TED. Founder Richard Saul Wurman was leaving, and TED's future was in the balance.… Internet Archive Suzanne Talhouk: Don't kill your language 2014 · Talk · 14 min More and more, English is a global language; speaking it is perceived as a sign of being modern. But -- what do we lose when we leave behind our mother… Internet Archive J.D. Vance: America's forgotten working class 2016 · Talk · 14 min 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… Internet Archive Emilie Wapnick: Why some of us don't have one true calling 2015 · Talk · 12 min What do you want to be when you grow up? Well, if you're not sure you want to do just one thing for the rest of your life, you're not alone. In this… Internet Archive John McWhorter: 4 reasons to learn a new language 2016 · Talk · 10 min English is fast becoming the world's universal language, and instant translation technology is improving every year. So why bother learning a foreign… Internet Archive Lauren Zalaznick: The conscience of television 2011 · Talk · 13 min TV executive Lauren Zalaznick thinks deeply about pop television. Sharing results of a bold study that tracks attitudes against TV ratings over five decades,… Internet Archive Todd Humphreys: How to fool a GPS 2012 · Talk · 15 min Todd Humphreys forecasts the near-future of geolocation when millimeter-accurate GPS "dots" will enable you to find pin-point locations, index-search your… Internet Archive Jane Chen: A warm embrace that saves lives 2010 · Talk · 4 min In the developing world, access to incubators is limited by cost and distance, and millions of premature babies die each year. TED Fellow Jane Chen shows an… Internet Archive Mark Forsyth: What’s a snollygoster? A short lesson in political speak 2012 · Talk · 6 min Most politicians choose their words carefully, to shape the reality they hope to create. But does it work? Etymologist Mark Forsyth shares a few entertaining… Internet Archive Daniel Suarez: The kill decision shouldn't belong to a robot 2013 · Talk · 13 min As a novelist, Daniel Suarez spins dystopian tales of the future. But on the TEDGlobal stage, he talks us through a real-life scenario we all need to know… Internet Archive James B. Glattfelder: Who controls the world? 2013 · Talk · 14 min James Glattfelder studies complexity: how an interconnected system -- say, a swarm of birds -- is more than the sum of its parts. And complexity theory, it… Internet Archive Majora Carter: 3 stories of local eco-entrepreneurship 2010 · Talk · 17 min The future of green is local -- and entrepreneurial. At TEDxMidwest, Majora Carter brings us the stories of three people who are saving their own communities… Internet Archive Rob Dunbar: Discovering ancient climates in oceans and ice 2010 · Talk · 18 min Rob Dunbar hunts for data on our climate from 12,000 years ago, finding clues inside ancient seabeds and corals and inside ice sheets. His work is vital in… Internet Archive Ivan Oransky: Are we over-medicalized? 2012 · Talk · 10 min Reuters health editor Ivan Oransky warns that we’re suffering from an epidemic of preposterous preconditions -- pre-diabetes, pre-cancer, and many more. In… Internet Archive Duarte Geraldino: What we're missing in the debate about immigration 2017 · Talk Between 2008 and 2016, the United States deported more than three million people. What happens to those left behind? Journalist Duarte Geraldino picks up the… Internet Archive Nick Bostrom on our biggest problems 2007 · Talk · 16 min Oxford philosopher and transhumanist Nick Bostrom examines the future of humankind and asks whether we might alter the fundamental nature of humanity to solve… Internet Archive Ben Saunders skis to the North Pole 2006 · Talk · 18 min Arctic explorer Ben Saunders recounts his harrowing solo ski trek to the North Pole, complete with engaging anecdotes, gorgeous photos and never-before-seen… Internet Archive Freeman Dyson says: let's look for life in the outer solar system 2008 · Talk · 19 min Physicist Freeman Dyson suggests that we start looking for life on the moons of Jupiter and out past Neptune, in the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud. He talks… Internet Archive Genevieve von Petzinger: Why are these 32 symbols found in ancient caves all over Europe? 2015 · Talk · 12 min Written language, the hallmark of human civilization, didn't just suddenly appear one day. Thousands of years before the first fully developed writing… Internet Archive Hannah Brencher: Love letters to strangers 2012 · Talk · 4 min Hannah Brencher's mother always wrote her letters. So when she felt herself bottom into depression after college, she did what felt natural -- she wrote love… Internet Archive Jamie Bartlett: How the mysterious dark net is going mainstream 2015 · Talk · 14 min There’s a parallel Internet you may not have run across yet — accessed by a special browser and home to a freewheeling collection of sites for everything from… Internet Archive Reed Kroloff on modern and romantic architecture 2008 · Talk · 15 min Reed Kroloff gives us a new lens for judging new architecture: is it modern, or is it romantic? Look for glorious images from two leading practices -- and a… Internet Archive Peter Donnelly shows how stats fool juries 2006 · Talk · 21 min Oxford mathematician Peter Donnelly reveals the common mistakes humans make in interpreting statistics -- and the devastating impact these errors can have on… Internet Archive Steven Johnson tours the Ghost Map 2007 · Talk · 10 min Author Steven Johnson takes us on a 10-minute tour of The Ghost Map, his book about a cholera outbreak in 1854 London and the impact it had on science, cities… Internet Archive Suheir Hammad: Poems of war, peace, women, power 2011 · Talk · 5 min Poet Suheir Hammad performs two spine-tingling spoken-word pieces: "What I Will" and "break (clustered)" -- meditations on war and peace, on women and power.… Internet Archive Al Seckel says our brains are mis-wired 2007 · Talk · 14 min Al Seckel, a cognitive neuroscientist, explores the perceptual illusions that fool our brains. Loads of eye tricks help him prove that not only are we easily… Internet Archive Janet Stovall: How to get serious about diversity and inclusion in the workplace 2018 · Talk Imagine a workplace where people of all colors and races are able to climb every rung of the corporate ladder — and where the lessons we learn about diversity… Internet Archive Lisa Margonelli: The political chemistry of oil 2010 · Talk · 17 min In the Gulf oil spill's aftermath, Lisa Margonelli says drilling moratoriums and executive ousters make for good theater, but distract from the issue at its… Internet Archive Elizabeth Lindsey: Curating humanity's heritage 2011 · Talk · 10 min It's been said that when an elder dies, it's as if a library is burned. Anthropologist Elizabeth Lindsey, a National Geographic Fellow, collects the deep… Internet Archive Euvin Naidoo on investing in Africa 2007 · Talk · 19 min South African investment banker Euvin Naidoo explains why investing in Africa can make great business sense. Internet Archive Rishi Manchanda: What makes us get sick? Look upstream. 2014 · Talk · 18 min Rishi Manchanda has worked as a doctor in South Central Los Angeles for a decade, where he’s come to realize: His job isn’t just about treating a patient’s… Internet Archive Alyson McGregor: Why medicine often has dangerous side effects for women 2015 · Talk · 15 min For most of the past century, drugs approved and released to market have been tested only on male patients, leading to improper dosing and unacceptable side…