TED Talks

2,305–2,352 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 Jeffrey Brown: How we cut youth violence in Boston by 79 percent 2015 · Talk · 18 min An architect of the "Boston miracle," Rev. Jeffrey Brown started out as a bewildered young pastor watching his Boston neighborhood fall apart around him, as… Internet Archive Karina Galperin: Why don't we write words the way we pronounce them? 2017 · Talk · 16 min How much energy and brain power do we devote to learning how to spell? Language evolves over time, and with it the way we spell — is it worth it to spend so… Internet Archive Oscar Schwartz: Can a computer write poetry? 2016 · Talk · 11 min If you read a poem and feel moved by it, but then find out it was actually written by a computer, would you feel differently about the experience? Would you… Internet Archive Robert Muggah: The biggest risks facing cities -- and some solutions 2017 · Talk With fantastic new maps that show interactive, visual representations of urban fragility, Robert Muggah articulates an ancient but resurging idea: cities… Internet Archive Sherwin Nuland on hope 2009 · Talk · 12 min Surgeon and writer Sherwin Nuland meditates on the idea of hope -- the desire to become our better selves and make a better world. It's a thoughtful 12… Internet Archive Amel Karboul: The global learning crisis -- and what to do about it 2017 · Talk The most important infrastructure we have is educated minds, says former Tunisian government minister Amel Karboul. Yet too often large investments go to more… Internet Archive Aparna Mehta: Where do your online returns go? 2018 · Talk Do you ever order clothes online in different sizes and colors, just to try them on and then send back what doesn't work? Aparna Mehta used to do this all… Internet Archive Rose Goslinga: Crop insurance, an idea worth seeding 2014 · Talk · 10 min Across sub-Saharan Africa, small farmers are the bedrock of national and regional economies—unless the weather proves unpredictable and their crops fail. The… Internet Archive Sangeeta Bhatia: This tiny particle could roam your body to find tumors 2016 · Talk · 10 min What if we could find cancerous tumors years before they can harm us — without expensive screening facilities or even steady electricity? Physician,… Internet Archive Andrew Bastawrous: Get your next eye exam on a smartphone 2014 · Talk · 6 min Thirty-nine million people in the world are blind, and the majority lost their sight due to curable and preventable diseases. But how do you test and treat… Internet Archive Chris Downey: Design with the blind in mind 2013 · Talk · 11 min What would a city designed for the blind be like? Chris Downey is an architect who went suddenly blind in 2008; he contrasts life in his beloved San Francisco… Internet Archive Diébédo Francis Kéré: How to build with clay... and community 2013 · Talk · 12 min Diébédo Francis Kéré knew exactly what he wanted to do when he got his degree in architecture… He wanted to go home to Gando in Burkina Faso, to help his… Internet Archive Kaki King: A musical escape into a world of light and color 2015 · Talk · 11 min A genre unto herself, Kaki King fuses the ancient tradition of working with one's hands with digital technology, projection-mapping imagery onto her guitar in… Internet Archive Melissa Walker: Art can heal PTSD's invisible wounds 2016 · Talk · 9 min Trauma silences its victims, says creative arts therapist Melissa Walker, but art can help those suffering from the psychological wounds of war begin to open… Internet Archive Patrícia Medici: The coolest animal you know nothing about ... and how we can save it 2015 · Talk · 11 min Although the tapir is one of the world's largest land mammals, the lives of these solitary, nocturnal creatures have remained a mystery. Known as "the living… Internet Archive Ronald Sullivan: How I help free innocent people from prison 2016 · Talk Harvard Law professor Ronald Sullivan fights to free wrongfully convicted people from jail — in fact, he has freed some 6,000 innocent people over the course… Internet Archive Sara Seager: The search for planets beyond our solar system 2015 · Talk · 16 min Every star we see in the sky has at least one planet orbiting it, says astronomer Sara Seager. So what do we know about these exoplanets, and how can we find… Internet Archive Silk Road Ensemble: "Turceasca" 2017 · Talk · 6 min Grammy-winning Silk Road Ensemble display their eclectic convergence of violin, clarinet, bass, drums and more in this energetic rendition of the traditional… Internet Archive Wendy Woods: The business benefits of doing good 2017 · Talk "The only way we're going to make substantial progress on the challenging problems of our time is for business to drive the solutions," says social impact… Internet Archive Carina Morillo: To understand autism, don't look away 2016 · Talk · 7 min Carina Morillo knew almost nothing about autism when her son Ivan was diagnosed — only that he didn't speak or respond to words, and that she had to find… Internet Archive Ivan Krastev: Can democracy exist without trust? 2012 · Talk · 14 min Five great revolutions have shaped political culture over the past 50 years, says theorist Ivan Krastev. He shows how each step forward -- from the cultural… Internet Archive Jakob Trollback rethinks the music video 2008 · Talk · 3 min What would a music video look like if it were directed by the music, purely as an expression of a great song, rather than driven by a filmmaker's concept?… Internet Archive Leticia Gasca: Don't fail fast -- fail mindfully 2018 · Talk We celebrate bold entrepreneurs whose ingenuity led them to success, but what happens to those who fail? Far too often, they bury their stories out of shame… Internet Archive Levon Biss: Mind-blowing, magnified portraits of insects 2017 · Talk Photographer Levon Biss was looking for a new, extraordinary subject when one afternoon he and his young son popped a ground beetle under a microscope and… Internet Archive Lucy Kalanithi: What makes life worth living in the face of death 2016 · Talk · 16 min In this deeply moving talk, Lucy Kalanithi reflects on life and purpose, sharing the story of her late husband, Paul, a young neurosurgeon who turned to… Internet Archive Michael Shellenberger: How fear of nuclear power is hurting the environment 2016 · Talk · 14 min "We're not in a clean energy revolution; we're in a clean energy crisis," says climate policy expert Michael Shellenberger. His surprising solution: nuclear.… Internet Archive Steven Levitt on child carseats 2008 · Talk · 19 min Steven Levitt shares data that shows car seats are no more effective than seatbelts in protecting kids from dying in cars. However, during the question and… Internet Archive Bronwyn King: You may be accidentally investing in cigarette companies 2017 · Talk Tobacco causes more than seven million deaths every year — and many of us are far more complicit in the problem than we realize. In a bold talk, oncologist… Internet Archive Caleb Barlow: Where is cybercrime really coming from? 2017 · Talk · 14 min Cybercrime netted a whopping $450 billion in profits last year, with 2 billion records lost or stolen worldwide. Security expert Caleb Barlow calls out the… Internet Archive Chip Kidd: The art of first impressions -- in design and life 2015 · Talk · 18 min Book designer Chip Kidd knows all too well how often we judge things by first appearances. In this hilarious, fast-paced talk, he explains the two techniques… Internet Archive Ian Firth: Bridges should be beautiful 2018 · Talk Bridges need to be functional, safe and durable, but they should also be elegant and beautiful, says structural engineer Ian Firth. In this mesmerizing tour… Internet Archive Kate Adams: 4 larger-than-life lessons from soap operas 2016 · Talk · 12 min Soap operas and telenovelas may be overblown and exaggerated, but as Kate Adams shows us, they often reflect the intensity and drama of real life. Adams, a… Internet Archive Kate Marvel: Can clouds buy us more time to solve climate change? 2017 · Talk Climate change is real, case closed. But there's still a lot we don't understand about it, and the more we know the better chance we have to slow it down. One… Internet Archive Marco Tempest: A cyber-magic card trick like no other 2012 · Talk · 6 min The suits, numbers and colors in a deck of cards correspond to the seasons, moon cycles and calendar. Marco Tempest straps on augmented reality goggles and… Internet Archive Michael Murphy: Architecture that's built to heal 2016 · Talk · 15 min Architecture is more than a clever arrangement of bricks. In this eloquent talk, Michael Murphy shows how he and his team look far beyond the blueprint when… Internet Archive Siamak Hariri: How do you build a sacred space? 2017 · Talk · 12 min To design the Bahá'í Temple of South America, architect Siamak Hariri focused on illumination — from the temple's form, which captures the movement of the sun… Internet Archive Simone Giertz: Why you should make useless things 2018 · Talk In this joyful, heartfelt talk featuring demos of her wonderfully wacky creations, Simone Giertz shares her craft: making useless robots. Her inventions —… Internet Archive Alexander Belcredi: How a long-forgotten virus could help us solve the antibiotics crisis 2018 · Talk Viruses have a bad reputation — but some of them could one day save your life, says biotech entrepreneur Alexander Belcredi. In this fascinating talk, he… Internet Archive Armando Azua-Bustos: The most Martian place on Earth 2017 · Talk How can you study Mars without a spaceship? Head to the most Martian place on Earth — the Atacama Desert in Chile. Astrobiologist Armando Azua-Bustos grew up… Internet Archive Benjamin Barber: Why mayors should rule the world 2013 · Talk · 18 min It often seems like federal-level politicians care more about creating gridlock than solving the world's problems. So who's actually getting bold things done?… Internet Archive Christoph Adami: Finding life we can't imagine 2011 · Talk · 18 min How do we search for alien life if it's nothing like the life that we know? At TEDxUIUC Christoph Adami shows how he uses his research into artificial life --… Internet Archive Cosmin Mihaiu: Physical therapy is boring -- play a game instead 2015 · Talk · 6 min You’ve just been injured, and you’re on the way home from an hour of physical therapy. The last thing you want to do on your own is confusing exercises that… Internet Archive Hadyn Parry: Re-engineering mosquitos to fight disease 2013 · Talk · 13 min In a single year, there are 200-300 million cases of malaria and 50-100 million cases of dengue fever worldwide. So: Why haven’t we found a way to effectively… Internet Archive Mindy Scheier: How adaptive clothing empowers people with disabilities 2017 · Talk Do you have a favorite T-shirt or pair of jeans that transforms you and makes you feel confident — makes you feel like you? That's because what you wear can… Internet Archive Radhika Nagpal: What intelligent machines can learn from a school of fish 2017 · Talk Science fiction visions of the future show us AI built to replicate how our minds work — but what if we modeled it instead on the other kinds of intelligence… Internet Archive Sam Martin: Claim your "manspace" 2009 · Talk · 4 min Author Sam Martin shares photos of a quirky world hobby that's trending with the XY set: "manspaces." (They're custom-built hangouts where a man can claim a… Internet Archive Sinéad Burke: Why design should include everyone 2017 · Talk · 9 min Sinéad Burke is acutely aware of details that are practically invisible to many of us. At 105 centimeters (or 3' 5") tall, the designed world — from the… Internet Archive David Baron: You owe it to yourself to experience a total solar eclipse 2017 · Talk On August 21, 2017, the moon's shadow will race from Oregon to South Carolina in what some consider to be the most awe-inspiring spectacle in all of nature: a…