TED Talks

193–240 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 Mark Applebaum: The mad scientist of music 2012 · Talk · 16 min Mark Applebaum writes music that breaks the rules in fantastic ways, composing a concerto for a florist and crafting a musical instrument from junk and found… Internet Archive Adam Grant: The surprising habits of original thinkers 2016 · Talk · 15 min How do creative people come up with great ideas? Organizational psychologist Adam Grant studies "originals": thinkers who dream up new ideas and take action… Internet Archive James Nachtwey's searing photos of war 2007 · Talk · 21 min 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,… Internet Archive Greta Thunberg: The disarming case to act right now on climate 2018 · Talk Climate activist Greta Thunberg first heard about climate change when she was eight years old. She absorbed the solutions adults threw at her — recycle paper,… Internet Archive Tom Wujec: Build a tower, build a team 2010 · Talk · 6 min Tom Wujec presents some surprisingly deep research into the "marshmallow problem" -- a simple team-building exercise that involves dry spaghetti, one yard of… Internet Archive David Hoffman shares his Sputnik mania 2008 · Talk · 3 min Filmmaker David Hoffman shares footage from his feature-length documentary Sputnik Mania, which shows how the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik in 1957 led to… Internet Archive Andrew Bird's one-man orchestra of the imagination 2010 · Talk · 19 min Musical innovator Andrew Bird winds together his trademark violin technique with xylophone, vocals and sophisticated electronic looping. Add in his uncanny… Internet Archive Irwin Redlener on surviving a nuclear attack 2008 · Talk · 25 min The face of nuclear terror has changed since the Cold War, but disaster-medicine expert Irwin Redlener reminds us the threat is still real. He looks at some… Internet Archive Alain de Botton: A kinder, gentler philosophy of success 2009 · Talk · 16 min Alain de Botton examines our ideas of success and failure -- and questions the assumptions underlying these two judgments. Is success always earned? Is… Internet Archive David Pogue: 10 top time-saving tech tips 2013 · Talk · 5 min Tech columnist David Pogue shares 10 simple, clever tips for computer, web, smartphone and camera users. And yes, you may know a few of these already -- but… Internet Archive Hyeonseo Lee: My escape from North Korea 2013 · Talk · 12 min As a child growing up in North Korea, Hyeonseo Lee thought her country was “the best on the planet.” It wasn't until the famine of the 90s that she began to… Internet Archive Markham Nolan: How to separate fact and fiction online 2012 · Talk · 13 min By the end of this talk, there will be 864 more hours of video on YouTube and 2.5 million more photos on Facebook and Instagram. So how do we sort through the… Internet Archive Richard Dawkins: The universe is queerer than we can suppose 2006 · Talk · 22 min 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. Internet Archive Benjamin Zander on music and passion 2008 · Talk · 20 min Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it -- and by extension, our untapped love for… Internet Archive Cameron Russell: Looks aren't everything. Believe me, I'm a model. 2013 · Talk · 9 min Cameron Russell admits she won “a genetic lottery”: she's tall, pretty and an underwear model. But don't judge her by her looks. In this fearless talk, she… Internet Archive Karen Bass: Unseen footage, untamed nature 2012 · Talk · 10 min At TED2012, filmmaker Karen Bass shares some of the astonishing nature footage she's shot for the BBC and National Geographic -- including brand-new,… Internet Archive Andy Puddicombe: All it takes is 10 mindful minutes 2013 · Talk · 9 min When is the last time you did absolutely nothing for 10 whole minutes? Not texting, talking or even thinking? Mindfulness expert Andy Puddicombe describes the… Internet Archive Tracy Chevalier: Finding the story inside the painting 2012 · Talk · 14 min When Tracy Chevalier looks at paintings, she imagines the stories behind them: How did the painter meet his model? What would explain that look in her eye?… Internet Archive Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice 2006 · Talk · 19 min 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… Internet Archive David Carson on design + discovery 2009 · Talk · 22 min Great design is a never-ending journey of discovery -- for which it helps to pack a healthy sense of humor. Sociologist and surfer-turned-designer David… Internet Archive Lisa Harouni: A primer on 3D printing 2012 · Talk · 14 min 2012 may be the year of 3D printing, when this three-decade-old technology finally becomes accessible and even commonplace. Lisa Harouni gives a useful… Internet Archive Ernesto Sirolli: Want to help someone? Shut up and listen! 2012 · Talk · 17 min When most well-intentioned aid workers hear of a problem they think they can fix, they go to work. This, Ernesto Sirolli suggests, is naïve. In this funny and… Internet Archive Daniel Goleman on compassion 2007 · Talk · 13 min Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, asks why we aren't more compassionate more of the time. Internet Archive Matt Cutts: Try something new for 30 days 2011 · Talk · 3 min Is there something you've always meant to do, wanted to do, but just ... haven't? Matt Cutts suggests: Try it for 30 days. This short, lighthearted talk… Internet Archive Maya Beiser(s) and her cello(s) 2011 · Talk · 20 min Cellist Maya Beiser plays a gorgeous eight-part modern etude with seven copies of herself, and segues into a meditative music/video hybrid -- using tech to… Internet Archive Cynthia Erivo: "Natural Woman" and "Johnny and Donna" 2017 · Talk "I love to sing," says Cynthia Erivo, "because it's the fast-track route to the heart." Listen as Erivo meditates on the superpower of music to connect us to… Internet Archive Oliver Sacks: What hallucination reveals about our minds 2009 · Talk · 18 min Neurologist and author Oliver Sacks brings our attention to Charles Bonnet syndrome -- when visually impaired people experience lucid hallucinations. He… Internet Archive Lisa Bu: How books can open your mind 2013 · Talk · 6 min What happens when a dream you've held since childhood … doesn't come true? As Lisa Bu adjusted to a new life in the United States, she turned to books to… Internet Archive Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education 2011 · Talk · 20 min Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in… Internet Archive Ed Yong: Suicidal crickets, zombie roaches and other parasite tales 2014 · Talk · 13 min We humans set a premium on our own free will and independence ... and yet there's a shadowy influence we might not be considering. As science writer Ed Yong… Internet Archive Bunker Roy: Learning from a barefoot movement 2011 · Talk · 19 min In Rajasthan, India, an extraordinary school teaches rural women and men -- many of them illiterate -- to become solar engineers, artisans, dentists and… Internet Archive Paul Stamets on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world 2008 · Talk · 17 min Mycologist Paul Stamets lists 6 ways the mycelium fungus can help save the universe: cleaning polluted soil, making insecticides, treating smallpox and even… Internet Archive Tavi Gevinson: A teen just trying to figure it out 2012 · Talk · 7 min Fifteen-year-old Tavi Gevinson had a hard time finding strong female, teenage role models -- so she built a space where they could find each other. At… Internet Archive Larry Smith: Why you will fail to have a great career 2012 · Talk · 15 min In this funny and blunt talk, Larry Smith pulls no punches when he calls out the absurd excuses people invent when they fail to pursue their passions. Internet Archive Handspring Puppet Co.: The genius puppetry behind War Horse 2011 · Talk · 18 min "Puppets always have to try to be alive," says Adrian Kohler of the Handspring Puppet Company, a gloriously ambitious troupe of human and wooden actors.… Internet Archive Hetain Patel: Who am I? Think again 2013 · Talk · 9 min How do we decide who we are? Hetain Patel's surprising performance plays with identity, language and accent -- and challenges you to think deeper than surface… Internet Archive Andrew Solomon: Love, no matter what 2013 · Talk · 23 min What is it like to raise a child who's different from you in some fundamental way (like a prodigy, or a differently abled kid, or a criminal)? In this quietly… Internet Archive Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation 2009 · Talk · 18 min Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards… Internet Archive Brian Little: Who are you, really? The puzzle of personality 2016 · Talk · 15 min What makes you, you? Psychologists like to talk about our traits, or defined characteristics that make us who we are. But Brian Little is more interested in… Internet Archive Arvind Gupta: Turning trash into toys for learning 2011 · Talk · 15 min At the INK Conference, Arvind Gupta shares simple yet stunning plans for turning trash into seriously entertaining, well-designed toys that kids can build… Internet Archive Dan Ariely asks, Are we in control of our own decisions? 2009 · Talk · 17 min Behavioral economist Dan Ariely, the author of Predictably Irrational, uses classic visual illusions and his own counterintuitive (and sometimes shocking)… Internet Archive Wayne McGregor: A choreographer’s creative process in real time 2012 · Talk · 15 min We all use our body on a daily basis, and yet few of us think about our physicality the way Wayne McGregor does. He demonstrates how a choreographer… Internet Archive Melissa Marshall: Talk nerdy to me 2012 · Talk · 4 min Melissa Marshall brings a message to all scientists (from non-scientists): We're fascinated by what you're doing. So tell us about it -- in a way we can… Internet Archive Stephen Hawking asks big questions about the universe 2008 · Talk · 10 min In keeping with the theme of TED2008, professor Stephen Hawking asks some Big Questions about our universe -- How did the universe begin? How did life begin?… Internet Archive Harry Baker: A love poem for lonely prime numbers 2015 · Talk · 14 min Performance poet (and math student) Harry Baker spins a love poem about his favorite kind of numbers — the lonely, love-lorn prime. Stay on for two more… Internet Archive Mark Pagel: How language transformed humanity 2011 · Talk · 20 min Biologist Mark Pagel shares an intriguing theory about why humans evolved our complex system of language. He suggests that language is a piece of "social… Internet Archive Sheena Iyengar on the art of choosing 2010 · Talk · 24 min Sheena Iyengar studies how we make choices -- and how we feel about the choices we make. At TEDGlobal, she talks about both trivial choices (Coke v. Pepsi)… Internet Archive Richard Turere: My invention that made peace with lions 2013 · Talk · 7 min In the Masai community where 13-year-old Richard Turere lives, cattle are all-important. But lion attacks were growing more frequent. In this short, inspiring…