TED Talks

385–432 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 Dr. Seyi Oyesola tours a hospital in Nigeria 2008 · Talk · 14 min Dr. Seyi Oyesola takes a searing look at health care in underdeveloped countries. His photo tour of a Nigerian teaching hospital -- all low-tech hacks and… Internet Archive Mark Ronson: The exhilarating creativity of remixing 2014 · Talk · 16 min Sampling isn't about "hijacking nostalgia wholesale," says Mark Ronson. It's about inserting yourself into the narrative of a song while also pushing that… Internet Archive Kirby Ferguson: Embrace the remix 2012 · Talk · 9 min Nothing is original, says Kirby Ferguson, creator of Everything is a Remix. From Bob Dylan to Steve Jobs, he says our most celebrated creators borrow, steal… Internet Archive Sophal Ear: Escaping the Khmer Rouge 2009 · Talk · 6 min TED Fellow Sophal Ear shares the compelling story of his family's escape from Cambodia under the rule of the Khmer Rouge. He recounts his mother's cunning and… Internet Archive Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense 2009 · Talk · 8 min This demo -- from Pattie Maes' lab at MIT, spearheaded by Pranav Mistry -- was the buzz of TED. It's a wearable device with a projector that paves the way for… Internet Archive Read Montague: What we're learning from 5,000 brains 2012 · Talk · 13 min Mice, bugs and hamsters are no longer the only way to study the brain. Functional MRI (fMRI) allows scientists to map brain activity in living, breathing,… Internet Archive Charles Anderson discovers dragonflies that cross oceans 2009 · Talk · 16 min While living and working as a marine biologist in Maldives, Charles Anderson noticed sudden explosions of dragonflies at certain times of year. He explains… Internet Archive MacMaster + Leahy play the fiddle 2009 · Talk · 27 min Natalie MacMaster and her musical partner Donnell Leahy play several tunes from the Cape Breton tradition -- a sprightly, soulful style of folk fiddling. It's… Internet Archive Michael Merzenich on re-wiring the brain 2009 · Talk · 23 min Neuroscientist Michael Merzenich looks at one of the secrets of the brain's incredible power: its ability to actively re-wire itself. He's researching ways to… Internet Archive Julie Burstein: 4 lessons in creativity 2012 · Talk · 17 min Radio host Julie Burstein talks with creative people for a living -- and shares four lessons about how to create in the face of challenge, self-doubt and… Internet Archive Magnus Larsson: Turning dunes into architecture 2009 · Talk · 11 min Architecture student Magnus Larsson details his bold plan to transform the harsh Sahara desert using bacteria and a surprising construction material: the sand… Internet Archive Sal Khan: Let's teach for mastery -- not test scores 2016 · Talk · 10 min Would you choose to build a house on top of an unfinished foundation? Of course not. Why, then, do we rush students through education when they haven't always… Internet Archive Kathryn Schulz: On being wrong 2011 · Talk · 17 min Most of us will do anything to avoid being wrong. But what if we're wrong about that? "Wrongologist" Kathryn Schulz makes a compelling case for not just… Internet Archive Kent Larson: Brilliant designs to fit more people in every city 2012 · Talk · 16 min How can we fit more people into cities without overcrowding? Kent Larson shows off folding cars, quick-change apartments and other innovations that could make… Internet Archive Noel Bairey Merz: The single biggest health threat women face 2012 · Talk · 16 min Surprising, but true: More women now die of heart disease than men, yet cardiovascular research has long focused on men. Pioneering doctor C. Noel Bairey Merz… Internet Archive Richard St. John: "Success is a continuous journey" 2009 · Talk · 3 min In his typically candid style, Richard St. John reminds us that success is not a one-way street, but a constant journey. He uses the story of his business'… Internet Archive Jennifer Granholm: A clean energy proposal -- race to the top! 2013 · Talk · 12 min Kicking off the TED2013 conference, Jennifer Granholm asks a very American question with worldwide implications: How do we make more jobs? Her big idea:… Internet Archive Tom Wujec demos the 13th-century astrolabe 2009 · Talk · 9 min Rather than demo another new technology, Tom Wujec reaches back to one of our earliest but most ingenious devices -- the astrolabe. With thousands of uses,… Internet Archive Bill Gates: Innovating to zero! 2010 · Talk · 27 min At TED2010, Bill Gates unveils his vision for the world's energy future, describing the need for miracles to avoid planetary catastrophe and explaining why… Internet Archive Frank Gehry as a young rebel 2008 · Talk · 44 min Before he was a legend, architect Frank Gehry takes a whistlestop tour of his early work, from his house in Venice Beach to the American Center in Paris,… Internet Archive Rory Stewart: Why democracy matters 2012 · Talk · 13 min The public is losing faith in democracy, says British MP Rory Stewart. Iraq and Afghanistan’s new democracies are deeply corrupt; meanwhile, 84 percent of… Internet Archive Megan Kamerick: Women should represent women in media 2012 · Talk · 10 min How do you tell women’s stories? Ask women to tell them. At TEDxABQ, Megan Kamerick shows how the news media underrepresents women as reporters and news… Internet Archive Emiliano Salinas: A civil response to violence 2011 · Talk · 12 min In this passionate talk from TEDxSanMigueldeAllende that's already caused a sensation in Mexico, Emiliano Salinas, son of former president Carlos Salinas de… Internet Archive Shashi Tharoor: Why nations should pursue "soft" power 2009 · Talk · 17 min India is fast becoming a superpower, says Shashi Tharoor -- not just through trade and politics, but through "soft" power, its ability to share its culture… Internet Archive Cesar Harada: A novel idea for cleaning up oil spills 2012 · Talk · 14 min When TED Senior Fellow Cesar Harada heard about the devastating effects of the BP Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, he quit his dream job and moved to… Internet Archive Sheikha Al Mayassa: Globalizing the local, localizing the global 2012 · Talk · 10 min Sheikha Al Mayassa, a patron of artists, storytellers and filmmakers in Qatar, talks about how art and culture create a country's identity -- and allow every… Internet Archive Joshua Foer: Feats of memory anyone can do 2012 · Talk · 20 min There are people who can quickly memorize lists of thousands of numbers, the order of all the cards in a deck (or ten!), and much more. Science writer Joshua… Internet Archive Susan Solomon: The promise of research with stem cells 2012 · Talk · 14 min Calling them "our bodies' own repair kits," Susan Solomon advocates research using lab-grown stem cells. By growing individual pluripotent stem cell lines,… Internet Archive Ze Frank's nerdcore comedy 2006 · Talk · 19 min Performer and web toymaker Ze Frank delivers a hilarious nerdcore standup routine, then tells us what he's seriously passionate about: helping people create… Internet Archive Alain de Botton: Atheism 2.0 2012 · Talk · 19 min What aspects of religion should atheists (respectfully) adopt? Alain de Botton suggests a "religion for atheists" -- call it Atheism 2.0 -- that incorporates… Internet Archive Kary Mullis celebrates the experiment 2009 · Talk · 29 min Biochemist Kary Mullis talks about the basis of modern science: the experiment. Sharing tales from the 17th century and from his own backyard-rocketry days,… Internet Archive Raffaello D'Andrea: The astounding athletic power of quadcopters 2013 · Talk · 16 min In a robot lab at TEDGlobal, Raffaello D'Andrea demos his flying quadcopters: robots that think like athletes, solving physical problems with algorithms that… Internet Archive Riccardo Sabatini: How to read the genome and build a human being 2016 · Talk · 15 min Secrets, disease and beauty are all written in the human genome, the complete set of genetic instructions needed to build a human being. Now, as scientist and… Internet Archive Abigail Washburn: Building US-China relations ... by banjo 2012 · Talk · 6 min TED Fellow Abigail Washburn wanted to be a lawyer improving US-China relations -- until she picked up a banjo. She tells a moving story of the remarkable… Internet Archive David Deutsch on our place in the cosmos 2006 · Talk · 19 min Legendary scientist David Deutsch puts theoretical physics on the back burner to discuss a more urgent matter: the survival of our species. The first step… Internet Archive Brian Cox: What went wrong at the LHC 2009 · Talk · 3 min In this short talk from TED U 2009, Brian Cox shares what's new with the CERN supercollider. He covers the repairs now underway and what the future holds for… Internet Archive Alice Goffman: How we're priming some kids for college — and others for prison 2015 · Talk · 16 min In the United States, two institutions guide teenagers on the journey to adulthood: college and prison. Sociologist Alice Goffman spent six years in a… Internet Archive Bahia Shehab: A thousand times no 2012 · Talk · 5 min Art historian Bahia Shehab has long been fascinated with the Arabic script for ‘no.’ When revolution swept through Egypt in 2011, she began spraying the image… Internet Archive Helen Fisher studies the brain in love 2008 · Talk · 15 min Why do we crave love so much, even to the point that we would die for it? To learn more about our very real, very physical need for romantic love, Helen… Internet Archive Bill Stone: Exploring deep caves (and someday the moon) 2007 · Talk · 17 min Bill Stone, a maverick cave explorer who has plumbed Earth’s deepest abysses, discusses his efforts to mine lunar ice for space fuel and to build an… Internet Archive Edward Burtynsky on manufactured landscapes 2006 · Talk · 34 min Accepting his 2005 TED Prize, photographer Edward Burtynsky makes a wish: that his images -- stunning landscapes that document humanity's impact on the world… Internet Archive Cynthia Breazeal: The rise of personal robots 2011 · Talk · 14 min As a grad student, Cynthia Breazeal wondered why we were using robots on Mars, but not in our living rooms. The key, she realized: training robots to interact… Internet Archive John Green: The nerd's guide to learning everything online 2015 · Talk · 18 min Some of us learn best in the classroom, and some of us ... well, we don't. But we still love to learn, to find out new things about the world and challenge… Internet Archive John Graham-Cumming: The greatest machine that never was 2012 · Talk · 12 min Computer science began in the 30's ... the 1830's. John Graham-Cumming tells the story of Charles Babbage's mechanical, steam-powered "analytical engine" and… Internet Archive Beau Lotto: Optical illusions show how we see 2009 · Talk · 16 min Beau Lotto's color games puzzle your vision, but they also spotlight what you can't normally see: how your brain works. This fun, first-hand look at your own… Internet Archive Shimon Schocken: The self-organizing computer course 2012 · Talk · 16 min Shimon Schocken and Noam Nisan developed a curriculum for their students to build a computer, piece by piece. When they put the course online -- giving away… Internet Archive Frances Frei: How to build (and rebuild) trust 2018 · Talk Trust is the foundation for everything we do. But what do we do when it's broken? In an eye-opening talk, Harvard Business School professor Frances Frei gives… Internet Archive Barry Schwartz on our loss of wisdom 2009 · Talk · 20 min Barry Schwartz makes a passionate call for "practical wisdom" as an antidote to a society gone mad with bureaucracy. He argues powerfully that rules often…