What if you could help decide how the government spends public funds? | Shari DavisVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
What if you could help decide how the government spends public funds in your community? That's the idea behind participatory budgeting, a process that brings local residents and governments together to develop concrete solutions to real problems close to home. In this inspiring call to action, community leader Shari Davis shows how participatory budgeting can strengthen democracy, transform neighborhoods and cities -- and give everyone a seat at the table. "We've got to open the doors to city halls and schools so wide that people can't help but walk in," she says.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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Want a more just world? Be an unlikely ally | Nita Mosby TylerVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
A more equal world starts with you. Citing a formative moment from her own life, equity advocate Nita Mosby Tyler highlights why showing up and fighting for others who face injustices beyond your own lived experience leads to a fairer, more just future for all.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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Give yourself permission to be creative | Ethan HawkeVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Reflecting on moments that shaped his life, actor Ethan Hawke examines how courageous expression promotes healing and connection with one another -- and invites you to discover your own unabashed creativity. "There is no path till you walk it," he says.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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Every day you live, you impact the planet | Jane GoodallVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Legendary primatologist Jane Goodall says that humanity's survival depends on conservation of the natural world. In conversation with head of TED Chris Anderson, she tells the story of her formative days working with chimpanzees, how she transformed from a revered naturalist into a dedicated activist and how she's empowering communities around the world to save natural habitats.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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The invisible life hidden beneath Antarctica's ice | Ariel WaldmanVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
In this tour of the microscopic world, explorer and artist Ariel Waldman introduces the charismatic creatures lurking beneath Antarctica's massive ice sheet, the largest on earth. From "cuddly" water bears to geometric algae made of glass, Waldman shows how this seemingly barren landmass is actually a polar oasis of life -- if we just know where to look.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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Navy SEALs: How to build a warrior mindset | Big ThinkNavy SEALs: How to build a warrior mindset | Big Think
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The fact that U.S. Navy SEALs endure very rigorous training before entering the field is common knowledge, but just what happens at those facilities is less often discussed. In this video, former SEALs Brent Gleeson, David Goggins, and Eric Greitens (as well as authors Jesse Itzler and Jamie Wheal) talk about how the 18-month program is designed to build elite, disciplined operatives with immense mental toughness and resilience.
Wheal dives into the cutting-edge technology and science that the navy uses to prepare these individuals. Itzler shares his experience meeting and briefly living with Goggins (who was also an Army Ranger) and the things he learned about pushing past perceived limits.
Goggins dives into why you should leave your comfort zone, introduces the 40 percent rule, and explains why the biggest battle we all face is the one in our own minds. "Usually whatever's in front of you isn't as big as you make it out to be," says the SEAL turned motivational speaker. "We start to make these very small things enormous because we allow our minds to take control and go away from us. We have to regain control of our mind."
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TRANSCRIPT:
BRENT GLEESON: SEAL training is 18 months long. We talk about discipline, we talk about trust, accountability, mental fortitude. Very, very high attrition rate. For my class only about 10 percent ultimately graduated of the original class. But the first six months of that 18 month training pipeline is called BUDS, which stands for Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL. And the first three weeks of BUDS are leading up the Hell Week. And those three weeks are no joke either. They're just as bad as Hell Week, but you get to sleep a couple of hours a night. But then Hell Week is where you're going to weed out the rest of your class. By the end of Hell Week 80 percent of your class is gone. Hell Week starts on a Sunday, ends on a Friday afternoon, and the great thing about that Sunday is the class will report to one of the main classrooms with only a couple required items in their possession and we don't allow them to know when Hell Week will commence, when breakout starts. And it's pure chaos. Guys will quit minutes into breakout. And so the anguish, the anxiety is just killing you. It's a fascinating thing to watch. Not a fascinating thing to be a part of. So that afternoon our class leader, who's the highest ranking officer in the class, he read us – one of the things he did to motivate us was to read us the speech, the St. Crispin's Day speech from William Shakespeare's Henry V. And a great excerpt that many people know from that speech is, ""We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.""
ERIC GREITENS: If there was a single question that you can ask someone to measure how resilient they're going to be, you ask them what are you responsible for. And what you find is that even in the most difficult situations when you look at stories of people who have been prisoners of war, for example. People who survive said I'm going to take control of my thoughts, or I'm going to take control of the way that I breathe. There are certain things even though my freedom has been taken away from me that my ability to eat where I live. All of these things have been taken away from me. I'm still going to control something. And when you focus on actually taking control of something and what happens is your circle of control begins to widen and people begin to see that even in the face of hardship and difficulty, there's a way for them to build power and live a purposeful life.
DAVID GOGGINS: People always ask me how do you build mental toughness. Mental toughness also has these classes out here. A class on mental toughness. Positive thinking, visualization, all these different techniques—mental toughness is a lifestyle. It's something that you live every single day of your life. When I was growing up I was a lazy kid. I was a lazy kid and everyone goes how did you get to where you're at today? How did you get to where you're running 200 miles at one time in 39 hours being so disciplined. It started off honestly with recognizing that my bedroom was dirty. My bed wasn't made. I lived a sloppy life. So I took very small increments in my life. I started making my bed. I started cleaning my room. I started doing things, coming outside of my lazy ways to become better. And through a period of time your brain doesn't like it, but it starts to realize this is a new way of thinking...
Read the full transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/navy-seals-build-a-tough-mind
How meditation can change your life and mind | Sam Harris, Jon Kabat-Zinn & more | Big ThinkHow meditation can change your life and mind
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There are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to what mindfulness is and what meditation can do for those who practice it. In this video, professors, neuroscientists, psychologists, composers, authors, and a former Buddhist monk share their experiences, explain the science behind meditation, and discuss the benefits of learning to be in the moment.
"Mindfulness allows us to shift our relationship to our experience," explains psychologist Daniel Goleman. The science shows that long-term meditators have higher levels of gamma waves in their brains even when they are not meditating. The effect of this altered response is yet unknown, though it shows that there are lasting cognitive effects.
"I think we're looking at meditation as the next big public health revolution," says ABC News anchor Dan Harris. "Meditation is going to join the pantheon of no-brainers like exercise, brushing your teeth and taking the meds that your doctor prescribes to you." Closing out the video is a guided meditation experience led by author Damien Echols that can be practiced anywhere and repeated as many times as you'd like.
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TRANSCRIPT:
RASMUS HOUGAARD: There is a general huge misconception around mindfulness. Many people think that mindfulness is a spiritual thing. Many think that it's a private thing that we do at home, and most people think that mindfulness is about slowing down. That's wrong. Mindfulness, in short terms, is really about speeding up our mental processes whereby we can be more effective with whatever we're doing, that we have this attentional muscle that allows us really to be on task with what we are doing.
EMMA SEPPÄLÄ: Research shows that our mind actually wanders about 50% of the time, and research also shows that when our mind is wandering we are never as happy as when our mind is in the present moment. So if your mind is in the future worrying about something that is going to happen, or in the past because you're regretting something or angry at somebody, you're more likely to feel more negative emotions. But when you're in the present moment, even if you're doing a task you don't particularly like, you'll actually feel happier. But also what we know is that you'll be able to be more productive when you're in that state because you're going to be naturally focused.
JON KABAT-ZINN: People misunderstand meditation as oh, I just sweep all my thoughts away and then I'm in this like nirvana. What you'll get by trying to sweep all your thoughts away is a headache at the most, because there's no way to sweep your thoughts away. They will get you every time. And then you can have millions of thoughts about mindfulness and meditation and those are just thoughts, too. They're not meditating. But when you see that you're not your thoughts then you can watch them in this kind of impersonal, more sort of if you will observing way with kindness, with self-compassion, because a lot of them are heavily loaded with negative emotion. And you can see that if you don't touch them, if you don't do anything with them, if you don't get caught in them, they self-liberate naturally in awareness. The awareness is like touching a soap bubble. It's fun for kids and fun for adults, too. A soap bubble and you touch it and it just goes poof. So I love that image. The thought is the soap bubble and the emotion, too, that's valancing the thought and you don't need to do anything with it because your awareness it's like not even a finger. It's not corporeal. The awareness, just the embracing of it or the arising of it like in the sky it goes poof all by itself. And don't take my word for it. This is something that when you sit down and you begin to watch you'll see this is not rocket science. You don't have to sit in the cave for 30 years to have that kind of experience. All you need to do is in some sense get out of your own way. Now, I'm not saying that's easy. That's really hard, but if you can have moments when you get out of your own way then you'll see that a lot of this stuff that we get so caught up in it's like it's a mirage.
SAM HARRIS: There are features of our experience that we don't notice when we're lost in thought. So, for instance, every experience you've ever had, every emotion, the anger you felt yesterday or a year ago isn't here anymore. It arises and it passes away, and if it comes back in the present moment by virtue of your thinking about it again it will subside again when you're no longer thinking about it. Now, this is something that people tend not to...
Read the full transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/benefits-science-meditation-mindfulness
David Epstein: Thinking tools for 'wicked' learning | Big Think EdgeDavid Epstein: Thinking tools for 'wicked' learning
Moderated by Maria Konnikova
UPDATE: While Malcolm Gladwell was advertised for this live stream, unfortunately, he was not able to make it due to scheduling issues. Fortunately, David Epstein was able to step in at a moment's notice. We hope you enjoy this great yet unexpected episode of Big Think Live! Our thanks to David and Maria for helping us deliver a great show, it is much appreciated.
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David Epstein is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Range: Why Generalist Triumph in a Specialized World and The Sports Gene. He has master's degrees in environmental science and journalism and has worked as an investigative reporter for ProPublica and a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. He lives in Washington, DC.
Maria Konnikova is the author of two New York Times bestsellers: The Confidence Game and Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes. Her new book is The Biggest Bluff (June 2020). While researching The Biggest Bluff, journalist Konnikova became an international poker champion and the winner of over $300,000 in tournament earnings—and inadvertently turned into a professional poker player. She is a regular contributing writer for The New Yorker, and her writing has been featured in Best American Science and Nature Writing and has been translated into over twenty languages. Maria also hosts the podcast The Grift from Panoply Media, a show that explores con artists and the lives they ruin, and is currently a visiting fellow at NYU’s School of Journalism. She graduated from Harvard University and received her PhD in psychology from Columbia University.
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A blueprint for reparations in the US | William "Sandy" DarityVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
With clarity and insight, economist and author William "Sandy" Darity discusses how the grievous injustice of slavery in the US led to the immense wealth gap that currently exists between Black and white Americans. He explains how reparations for descendants of enslaved people would work -- and why it's necessary that the US engage in this act of compensation and redemption to make progress towards true equality. (This virtual conversation, hosted by TED's current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers, was recorded June 30, 2020.)
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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How to win a negotiation | Chris Voss, Dan Shapiro & more | Big ThinkHow to win a negotiation
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There are many variables in every negotiation, which means there is no silver bullet or magic phrase you can use to win every single time. On top of that, the idea of "winning" changes depending on the situation. The key to success is being able to identify the type of negotiation and use a strategy that gets you what you want.
"Successful negotiation is not about getting to yes," says former FBI negotiator Chris Voss. "It's about mastering no and understanding what the path to an agreement is."
In this video, experts including Voss, Shark Tank investor Daymond John, author and real estate broker Fredrik Eklund, game theorist Kevin Zollman, Harvard International Negotiation Program director Dan Shapiro, and others detail the different types of negotiations and share tips on how to navigate them effectively so that both sides feel like they've arrived at a good spot, somewhere near the center. You can also learn how to outsmart an opponent in a zero-sum situation.
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TRANSCRIPT:
CHRIS VOSS: Everybody has cards they're not showing in a negotiation. Everybody.
DAYMOND JOHN: Understanding that when you're negotiating it's what's in it for the other party as well and it's not just self-serving.
DANIEL H PINK: The key here is that we tend to think that persuasion or motivation is something that one person does to another.
KEVIN ZOLLMAN: In such a situation oftentimes the best strategy is very counterintuitive because it involves flipping a coin, rolling a dice or doing something random.
DAN SHAPIRO: So the classic approach to negotiation is positional bargaining. In positional bargaining I have a position, you have a position and we haggle over those positions. Now, the rules to positional bargaining are very clear. You start with an extreme demand, but not so extreme that the other side thinks that you're crazy or bluffing. You concede stubbornly, and you demonstrate a greater willingness than the other side to walk away from the negotiation table.
FREDRIK EKLUND: It's very important to set a floor and a ceiling so you know where to move. Because if you don't you can be manipulated and you can lose yourself in the emotions. If you're a good negotiator you will obviously try at least to be completely disconnected emotionally from the deal and negotiation itself, although you will play emotional. So if you're not upset you can play upset. But none of that matters unless you don't have a floor and a ceiling. So you need to know if you go under the floor you need to walk out or end the negotiation.
KEVIN ZOLLMAN: One of the things that game theorists have found is that in negotiation, especially in negotiations where we're debating how to divide up some resource—classic example in game theory is dividing up a pie but it could be anything like money or some time with a toy or anything where we have to decide how to divide it up. Game theorists have discovered a couple of central principles that make a big difference to who does better in those negotiations. One of the critical things is how patient you are. How willing you are to stay and continue to negotiate. So if I come in in a rush to a car dealership and I say I need a car right now, everyone knows that the car dealer is going to try and take advantage of the fact that you need a car right now and say sorry, we can't give you a discount. But if you come into a car dealership and you say I don't need a car anytime soon. If you give me a good deal today I'll take it, but if you don't I'll leave. Maybe I'll come back tomorrow, maybe the next day, maybe a month later. Then you'll get a better deal.
SHAPIRO: However, this probably isn't the best agreement that you could have come to. All this is doing is arguing over one single factor, a number. And that's the problem of positional bargaining is that I might have a lot of other interests at stake, but none of them are getting shared within this very strict form of positional bargaining. There's another form of negotiation that at the Harvard Negotiation Project some of my colleagues have developed we call it interest based negotiation. The idea here is let's not argue over positions. Let's argue over underlying interests.
SALLIE KRAWCHECK: Never have one ask and take no for an answer. That if you're told no on the raise or even if you're told yes, come in with 12 other requests. I want to take a coding class that the company pays for. I want to have a stint in marketing. I want to work overseas for a period of time. I want to...
Read the full transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/how-to-win-a-negotiation
What happens when biology becomes technology? | Christina AgapakisVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
"We've been promised a future of chrome -- but what if the future is fleshy?" asks biological designer Christina Agapakis. In this awe-inspiring talk, Agapakis details her work in synthetic biology -- a multidisciplinary area of research that pokes holes in the line between what's natural and artificial -- and shares how breaking down the boundaries between science, society, nature and technology can lead us to imagine different possible futures.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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How museums help communities heal | Honor HargerVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
While on lockdown, the galleries of Singapore's iconic ArtScience Museum were empty -- but online, the museum was abuzz. Honor Harger shares how they're engaging deeply with its visitors through streamed talks, performances and workshops that investigate the COVID-19 landscape and uplift marginalized voices. (This virtual conversation, hosted by TED's current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers, was recorded June 17, 2020.)
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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Inside the genius of Albert Einstein | Big ThinkInside the genius of Albert Einstein
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The word genius is often used to describe Albert Einstein, but what exactly earned the German-born theoretical physicist that descriptor? We have his ideas to thank for many facets of the modern world, but it turns out not everyone thought he was that brilliant.
"Everybody knows who Einstein is and people understand that he was a very famous scientist," says NASA astronomer Michelle Thaller. "But I think that people often don't grasp the true depth and the profound nature of the things that Einstein introduced to us."
In this video, Thaller, futurist and business advisor David Bodanis, fellow theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, and others explain why Einstein's best-known contributions (the special theory of relativity and E=mc2) are so important. They also discuss his academic journey, the resistance and criticism he faced from his peers and the public, and his lasting influence on science.
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TRANSCRIPT:
MICHELLE THALLER: Albert Einstein was incredibly brilliant and he revolutionized our understanding of the universe.
MICHIO KAKU: People ask the question what has Einstein done for me lately. And the answer is everything. Everything we see around us – the electronics, the satellites, the atom smashers, all of that in some sense could be traced back to the work of Albert Einstein. In fact, many of the crumbs, the crumbs from his table, have gone on to win Nobel prizes for physicists even today.
THALLER: Einstein, right. I just say that word and all of a sudden you're thinking about sort of crazy white hair and a mustache, somebody who is brilliant. Those wonderful knowing eyes with lots of smile lines around them. Everybody knows who Einstein is and people understand that he was a very famous scientist. But I think that people often don't grasp the true depth and the profound nature of the things that Einstein introduced to us.
DAVID BODANIS: His sister thought he was a genius. His father thought he was a genius. But he was stuck in the patent office in Bern, Switzerland and nobody else thought he was a genius at all. He had mouthed off to his professors at university. He didn't get any good job. His department of theoretical physics was the top drawer of his desk and he had slammed it closed. But then, and he had tried all sorts of things. He was about 25-26. He had tried lots of ideas while he was stuck at the patent office. Nothing had really come together and then suddenly in the spring of 1905, it was like a storm burst in his head. He poured out one paper after another. About four of them were worthy of the Nobel prize and the final two were special relativity and E = mc2.
FREEMAN DYSON: He had just this wonderful gift of talking to the public and in addition, of course, he had a turbulent family life and he was in many ways a selfish and unpleasant character. But on the other hand, he was wonderful with children and so on. I mean there were all sorts of – he had wonderful qualities. And those things I think the public rightly appreciated.
BODANIS: Einstein once said he wasn't smarter than other people, but he said I have the persistence of a mule. And he was really honest about it. When he was a little kid he'd make card castles. He'd make layer after layer after layer of card castles and if they blew down well, he'd take a deep breath and build it up again. All through his early 20s he was happily married at the beginning to a really hot young Serbian physician student. The only woman in his class at the Polytechnic Conservatory. And they had great dreams of maybe becoming professors together. But reality got in the way. He was stuck at the patent office and until 1905 when he was 25-26 he couldn't get any fresh ideas. And he and his wife they began slowly to drift apart. They didn't have money for childcare. She was stuck at home taking care of the kids. She couldn't really participate in his work.
THALLER: Einstein was a professor. He actually taught a lot at the University of Bern and also in Berlin and then eventually came to Princeton. He was very much a product of the time and the science that was going on. There were brilliant people at this time. Science was changing in so many different ways, and for a lot of things Einstein found himself in the right place at the right time to see two different things going on and say aha, those things actually go together. And to me that really was some of the real brilliance of Einstein was that he became a bridge between many, many different subject matters...
Read the full transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/inside-the-genius-of-albert-einstein
How to disrupt philanthropy in response to crisis | Darren WalkerVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
If we want to build back better after the pandemic, we must reconsider philanthropy and create a new kind of capitalism that's rooted in generosity and accountability, says Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation. In this vital conversation, Walker calls for citizens and corporations to question the inequality that makes their wealth possible, to think about their own complicity in creating economic injustice and to celebrate the critical role art plays in creating a culture that uplifts everyone. (This virtual conversation, hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson, was recorded July 1, 2020.)
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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A friendly, autonomous robot that delivers your food | Ali KashaniVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Meet the friendly robot that could deliver your next burrito. Ali Kashani introduces us to Postmates' autonomous delivery robot and explains how it could help reduce carbon emissions and free up valuable real estate in cities everywhere. Learn more about how it was specially designed to navigate complex social interactions on busy sidewalks to bring you your food (and more) with joy.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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Africa is a sleeping giant -- I'm trying to wake it up | Adeola FayehunVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
"Africa is like a sleeping giant," says journalist and satirist Adeola Fayehun at the beginning of this hilarious, incisive talk. "The truth is I am trying to wake up this giant. That's why I air the dirty laundry of those in charge." Follow along as she roasts corrupt African officials and shows why the continent already has all it needs to take its rightful place on the world stage -- if only leaders would start taking responsibility.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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An optimistic look at the future of girls' education | Malala YousafzaiVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Education activist (and recent Oxford graduate) Malala Yousafzai reflects on the defining moments of her life, how she balances passion with personhood and where the world finds itself during the COVID-19 crisis. With humor and humility, she shares her dreams of seeing social progress in her lifetime, explains why girls education advocacy must not relent during the pandemic and champions youth activists worldwide leading the fight for a fairer future for all. (This virtual conversation, hosted by TED's current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers, was recorded July 8, 2020.)
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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Can beauty open our hearts to difficult conversations? | Titus KapharVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
An artwork's color or composition can pull you in -- and put you on the path to having important and difficult conversations, says artist Titus Kaphar. In this stunning talk, he reflects on his artistic evolution and takes us on a tour of his career -- from "The Jerome Project," which draws on religious icons to examine the US criminal justice system, to "From a Tropical Space," a haunting body of work that centers around Black mothers whose children have disappeared. Kaphar also shares the idea behind NXTHVN, an arts incubator and community for young people in his hometown.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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What foods did your ancestors love? Aparna PallaviVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Around the world, Indigenous food cultures vanish because of industrialized agriculture and a shifting, Western-influenced concept of the ideal diet. Food researcher Aparna Pallavi explores why once-essential culinary traditions disappear from people's lives and memories almost without notice -- and serves up a subtle solution to revitalize our connection to the foods we eat.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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Stop being a bystander in your own life | Tracy EdwardsVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
"Life doesn't go from A to B -- it's messy," says sailing legend Tracy Edwards. In this inspiring talk, she tells how she went from teenage misfit to skipper of the first all-female crew in the toughest race on the seas -- and how she now helps young people around the world achieve their dreams, too.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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How drawing can set you free | Shantell MartinVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Who are you? To answer this question, artist Shantell Martin followed her pen. In this brilliantly visual talk featuring her signature freestyle line work -- drawn across everything from the screens of Times Square to the bodies of New York City Ballet dancers -- Martin shares how she found freedom and a new perspective through art. See how drawing can connect your hand to your heart and deepen your connection with the world.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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The fight for civil rights and freedom | John Lewis and Bryan StevensonVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Civil rights leader and longtime US congressman John Lewis spent his life fighting for freedom and justice for everyone. In this illuminating conversation with lawyer and activist Bryan Stevenson, Lewis discusses the essential importance of voting, shares encouraging words of wisdom for the generation of young people currently organizing in the struggle for racial justice and tells moving stories from his decades of making "good trouble" -- at the Freedom Rides, March on Washington and in the halls of Congress. "When you see something that's not right or fair or just, you have to say something," Lewis says. "You have to do something." (This conversation is part of the TED Legacy Project. Recorded November 19, 2019)
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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How women will lead us to freedom, justice and peace | H.E. Ellen Johnson SirleafVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
"I was the first woman president of an African nation, and I do believe more countries ought to try that," says H.E. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Nobel laureate and former president of Liberia. Telling the story of how Liberian women helped rebuild their country after years of civil war, Sirleaf discusses why gender equality is essential to peace and prosperity -- and shares her plan to uplift a generation of women prepared to take leadership positions and catalyze social change.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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The beauty and complexity of finding common ground | Matt TrombleyVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
How can we disagree with one another, respectfully and productively? In this thoughtful talk, team builder Matt Trombley reflects on "agonism" -- the tendency to take a rigid stance on issues -- and shares why finding aspects of agreement can be the first step in resolving conflict. "When you can find even the smallest bit of common ground with somebody, it allows you to understand the beautiful wonder and complexity and majesty of the other person," he says.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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How Dolly Parton led me to an epiphany | Jad AbumradVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
How do you end a story? Host of "Radiolab" Jad Abumrad tells how his search for an answer led him home to the mountains of Tennessee, where he met an unexpected teacher: Dolly Parton.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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3 ways we can redesign cities for equity and inclusion | Vishaan ChakrabartiVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Cities are engines of culture, commerce, knowledge and community, but they're also centers of inequality and poverty. As the world rebuilds from the coronavirus pandemic, can we transform cities into bastions of equity and sustainability? Architect and educator Vishaan Chakrabarti discusses a new urban agenda that provides equitable housing, health care and transportation for all -- and helps build cities rooted in our desire to connect at a human level. "We need a new narrative of generosity, not austerity," he says. (This virtual conversation, hosted by TED arts and design curator Chee Pearlman and head of curation Helen Walters, was recorded June 10, 2020.)
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Has science made religion useless? | Robert Sapolsky, Reza Aslan, Pete Holmes & more | Big ThinkHas science made religion useless?
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Science and religion (fact versus faith) are often seen as two incongruous groups. When you consider the purpose of each and the questions that they seek to answer, the comparison becomes less black and white.
This video features religious scholars, a primatologist, a neuroendocrinologist, a comedian, and other brilliant minds considering, among other things, the evolutionary function that religion serves, the power of symbols, and the human need to learn, explore, and know the world around us so that it becomes a less scary place.
"I think most people are actually kind of comfortable with the idea that science is a reliable way to learn about nature, but it's not the whole story and there's a place also for religion, for faith, for theology, for philosophy," says Francis Collins, American geneticist and director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). "But that harmony perspective doesn't get as much attention. Nobody is as interested in harmony as they are in conflict."
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TRANSCRIPT:
FRANS DE WAAL: Well, religion is an interesting topic because religion is universal. All human societies believe in the supernatural. All human societies have a religion one way or another.
REZA ASLAN: Religion has been a part of the human experience from the beginning. In fact, we can trace the origin of religious experience to before homo sapiens. We can trace it with some measure of confidence to Neanderthals. We can measure it with a little less confidence all the way to homo erectus. So we're talking hundreds of thousands of years before our species even existed.
ROBERT SAPOLSKY: Essentially there has been no culture on Earth that has not invented some form of what could be termed meta-magical thinking, attributing things that cannot be seen, faith-based belief systems, things of that sort. It's universal.
ASLAN: Religious thinking is embedded in our cognitive processes. It is a mode of knowing. We're born with it. It's part of our DNA. The question then becomes why. There must be some evolutionary reason for it. There must be a reason, some adaptive advantage to having religious experience or faith experience. Otherwise it wouldn't exist.
SAPOLSKY: It makes perfect sense why they've evolved because they're wonderful mechanisms for reducing stress. It is an awful, terrifying world out there where bad things happen and we're all going to die eventually. And believing that there is something, someone responsible for it at least gives some stress reducing attributes built around understanding causality.
ALAIN DE BOTTON: Religion starts from the view that we are torn between good and evil. There is definitely a good core, but it's permanently tempted. And so what the individual needs is a structure which will constantly try and tug a person back towards the best of themselves.
DE WAAL: Our current religions are just 2,000 or 3,000 years old which is very young and our species is much older. And I cannot imagine that, for example, 100,000 years or 200,000 years our ancestors did not have some type of morality. Of course the had rules about how you should behave, what is fair, what is unfair, caring for others. All of these tendencies were in place already so they had a moral system. And then at some point we developed these present day religions which I think were sort of tacked onto the morality that we had. In societies with 1,000 or several thousand or millions of people we cannot all keep an eye on each other and that's maybe why we installed religions in these large scale societies where a god kept watch over everybody and maybe they served to codify them or to enforce them or to steer morality in a particular direction that we prefer. And so instead of saying morality comes from god or religion gave us morality, for me that's a big no-no.
PENN JILLETTE: People are good. If you look at the seven billion people on this planet just about seven billion of them are really good. We can really trust them. Can we please learn something from Las Vegas. Learn something about gambling, right. We know how the odds work. We know the house always wins. In this case the odds are always on someone being good.
BILL NYE: When it comes to ethics and morals and religion to see if there's anything different between what religions want you to do and what you feel you should do...
Read the full transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/has-science-made-religion-useless
How to support and celebrate living artists | Swizz BeatzVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Legendary hip-hop producer Swizz Beatz is on a mission to revolutionize the way artists do business. In this glorious talk, he shares some of the ways he's helping fellow creatives thrive, including a roving art fair that gives artists 100 percent of their sales, a new commission system for galleries to fund living visual artists and Verzuz, online musical celebrations that bring joy to fans -- and sales to musicians. "If we're not protecting the arts, we're not protecting our future," he says.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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The case to infect volunteers with COVID-19 to accelerate vaccine testing | Nir EyalVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Conventional vaccine testing is a slow, years-long process. As thousands of people continue to die each day from COVID-19, bioethicist Nir Eyal proposes a radical idea that could dramatically accelerate the vaccine development timeline: "human challenge trials," in which scientists would deliberately expose volunteers to the virus to more quickly determine a vaccine's efficacy. (This virtual conversation, hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson, was recorded June 15, 2020.)
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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Why is colonialism (still) romanticized? | Farish Ahmad-NoorVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Colonialism remains an inescapable blight on the present, lingering in the toxic, internalized mythologies and stereotypes that have outlived the regimes that created them, says historian Farish Ahmad-Noor. Examining why these prejudices and narratives persist (and sometimes thrive), he suggests a multidisciplinary approach to reject cultural obsessions with romanticized history and prevent this nostalgia from perpetuating past oppressions.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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The mind-blowing science of black holes | Michio Kaku, Bill Nye, Michelle Thaller & more | Big ThinkThe mind-blowing science of black holes
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When it comes to black holes, science simultaneously knows so much and so little, which is why they are so fascinating. Focusing on what we do know, this group of astronomers, educators, and physicists share some of the most incredible facts about the powerful and mysterious objects.
A black hole is so massive that light (and anything else it swallows) can't escape, says Bill Nye. You can't see a black hole, theoretical physicists Michio Kaku and Christophe Galfard explain, because it is too dark. What you can see, however, is the distortion of light around it caused by its extreme gravity.
Explaining one unsettling concept from astrophysics called spaghettification, astronomer Michelle Thaller says that "If you got close to a black hole there would be tides over your body that small that would rip you apart into basically a strand of spaghetti that would fall down the black hole."
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TRANSCRIPT:
MICHIO KAKU: First we think that out of the Big Bang came dark matter, invisible matter. If I held dark matter in my hand it would literally ooze its way right though my fingers, go right to the center of the Earth, go to China and then go back and forth between China and my hand. That's dark matter. We think that dark matter began to clump first because of gravity. Then matter was attracted to the clumpiness creating the super massive black hole and then later the galaxy itself began to form. We have computer simulations about this, but still the relationship is not yet clear. Now remember, stars. We know almost everything about stellar evolution. That's because the pentagon has given us physicists billions of dollars to model hydrogen bombs, and a star is nothing but a hydrogen bomb. However, a galaxy consists of over a hundred billion stars so it's much more difficult to tell which came first, the black hole or the galaxy itself.
BILL NYE: The way I like to describe a black hole. It's a star. A black hole is a star. Now when you and I think of stars we think about the sun which is giving off all this light. But the other thing about the sun to keep in mind is it has a lot of gravity because it's huge. One of Einstein's discoveries, Albert Einstein's discoveries was that gravity changes the path of light. It can bend light. It's just not in our everyday experience. To measure it we usually find objects way out in space and we have known brightness and we see where we think they're going to be and then where they really appear to be and then we infer or figure out that they're not where we thought they were going to be because gravity bent the beam of light. It's amazing. Anyway, so a black hole is a star so massive that not even light can escape from it.
MICHELLE THALLER: What you're looking at is something called the shadow of a black hole. Now, black holes tend to have material orbiting around them. Black holes have a lot of gravity and gas begins to fall in towards the black hole and it begins to spin up into a disk around the black hole. And as that gas gets closer and closer to the black hole its accelerated faster and faster. And so in this disc of gas some of it is traveling very close to the speed of light. You have a lot of friction. You have lots of things rubbing up against each other at very high speeds and incredible amounts of heat and light are generated in this disk. So black holes usually are surrounded by disks of very, very bright, very hot material and that's how we find them. Black holes themselves give off no radiation at all. Any light gets absorbed into the black hole and when I say light I mean every possible form of light from gamma rays, x-rays, infrared light that we think of as heat, radio waves. Nothing comes out of a black hole at all. So what you're looking at in this image is the black hole is sort of framed by this bright ring. And that bright ring is this hot material that's orbiting around the black hole.
One of the first things you'd say well okay, it's really kind of a wonderful stroke of luck that the particular black hole we're looking at the ring was right face onto us. You see this bright ring exactly around the black hole. And, in fact, that's probably not the case. The disc of material could be at many different orientations around the black hole. Light itself has no mass. Light should not be attracted by gravity, right. I mean gravity is the force between two things that have mass. Light has no mass. It just flies straight through space...
Read the full transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/black-hole-science-facts
A vision for the future of Afghanistan | Ashraf GhaniVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Offering a vision of Afghanistan that goes beyond what's often depicted in the media, President Ashraf Ghani shares his thoughts on peacemaking, the true cost of war, the nation's COVID-19 response strategy and the sweeping economic and social reforms happening throughout the country. "The ultimate goal is a sovereign, democratic, united Afghanistan at peace with itself and the world," he says. (This virtual conversation, hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson, was recorded June 16, 2020.)
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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Penn Jillette: The year that broke America's illusions | Big Think EdgePenn Jillette
The Year That Broke Our Illusions
Moderated by Victoria Montgomery-Brown, co-founder and CEO of Big Think
The year 2020 will go down in history as one that shook our inner and outer worlds. In this Big Think Live session, magician, author, and cultural critic Penn Jillette will discuss the giant upheavals of 2020 through the lens of what he knows best: illusions. Which social, personal, and governmental illusions have been shattered this year, and how (and what) should we rebuild? Jillette, one half the world’s most famous magic duo with Teller, will also give tips on how to foster long-term business partnerships and sustain creativity, and how he maintains a clear, rational mind in the noisiest era to date.
In the mid ’80s, magician Penn Jillette and his touring partner, Teller, went from playing the tiki lounges at various Ramada Inns to being one of the most popular, big budget, death defying, nightclub acts in the country. After killing it in movies and SNL appearances, the duo went on to have their own Showtime series where they attempted to debunk everything from male enhancement pills to UFO sightings. Penn has independently produced the stand up comedy tribute film, The Aristocrats, and hosted a successful podcast with Ace Broadcasting, Penn’s Sunday School. Penn & Teller: Fool Us, a current CW series, began its first season in London and now it has just begun its seventh, under the dazzling lights of Las Vegas.
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A path to higher education and employment for refugees | Chrystina RussellVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Out of the more than 70 million displaced people worldwide, only three percent have access to higher education. The Global Education Movement (GEM) is on a mission to change that with the first large-scale initiative of its kind to help refugee learners get bachelor's degrees and create pathways toward employment. Hear from students and the program's executive director, Chrystina Russell, about how GEM's flexible, competency-based model sets graduates up for success and empowerment wherever they are.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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The new science of personalized vaccines | Ofer LevyVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
At the intersection of precision medicine and vaccinology lies a revolutionary scientific pursuit: personalized vaccines. Infectious disease specialist Ofer Levy introduces this promising medical approach, in which tailored inoculations will enable effective immunization of the most vulnerable among us, including the young and elderly, and shares how we're now venturing into a new era of sustaining and supporting human life. (This talk contains graphic medical imagery.)
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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The new urgency of climate change | Al GoreVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
The coronavirus brought much of the world to a standstill, dropping carbon emissions by five percent. Al Gore says keeping those rates down is now up to us. In this illuminating interview, he discusses how the steadily declining cost of wind and solar energy will transform manufacturing, transportation and agriculture, offer a cheaper alternative to fossil fuels and nuclear energy and create millions of new jobs. Stay tuned for a lively debate about geoengineering and hear Gore's thoughts about how humanity can create a clean, prosperous future through a focused global effort and a generation of young people committed to change. (This virtual conversation, hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson, was recorded June 23, 2020.)
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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My secret to staying focused under pressure | Russell WilsonVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Athletes train their bodies to run faster, jump higher, throw farther -- so why don't they train their minds, too? Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson talks about the power of "neutral thinking," which helps him thrive under pressure (both on the field and off) -- and shows how you can use this mindset to make the right moves in your own life.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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How digital innovation can fight pandemics and strengthen democracy | Audrey TangVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Can technology create a democracy that's fast, fair ... and even fun? Digital minister Audrey Tang shares how Taiwan avoided a COVID-19 shutdown in early 2020 through innovations like developing apps to map mask availability, crowdsourcing ideas that could become laws and creating a "humor over rumor" campaign to combat disinformation with comedy. (This virtual conversation, hosted by TED science curator David Biello and current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers, was recorded June 1, 2020.)
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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3 secrets of resilient people | Lucy HoneVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Everyone experiences loss, but how do you cope with the tough moments that follow? Resilience researcher Lucy Hone shares three hard-won strategies for developing the capacity to brave adversity, overcome struggle and face whatever may come head-on with fortitude and grace.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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How the pandemic will shape the near future | Bill GatesVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Bill Gates talks best (and worst) case scenarios for the coronavirus pandemic in the months ahead, explaining the challenges of reducing virus transmission, providing an update on promising vaccine candidates, offering his thoughts on reopening and even taking a moment to address conspiracy theories circulating about himself. Stay tuned for his critical call to fellow philanthropists to ramp up their action, ambition and awareness to create a better world for all. (This virtual conversation, hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson, was recorded June 29, 2020.)
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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What tech companies know about your kids | Veronica BarassiVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
The digital platforms you and your family use every day -- from online games to education apps and medical portals -- may be collecting and selling your children's data, says anthropologist Veronica Barassi. Sharing her eye-opening research, Barassi urges parents to look twice at digital terms and conditions instead of blindly accepting them -- and to demand protections that ensure their kids' data doesn't skew their future.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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How to turn your dissatisfaction into action | Yvonne Aki-SawyerrVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
After the devastating rebel invasion of Freetown in 1999 and the Ebola epidemic in 2014, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, mayor of the city, refused to be paralyzed by her frustration with the status quo. Instead, she used her anger as a catalyst for action. In this inspiring talk, she shares how she transformed her city by taking the risks necessary to bring about dramatic change -- and shows how you can find power in your dissatisfaction.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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How flags unite (and divide) us | Michael GreenVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Flags are one of the simplest yet most powerful pieces of design ever conceived. They can make us swell with pride, burn with hatred -- and even inspire people to die or kill in their name, says vexillologist Michael Green. Take a brief walk through history as Green explores the symbolic fervor behind flags that unify and divide, inviting us to imagine a future where we can come together under one collective identity: humanity.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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What COVID-19 means for the future of commerce, capitalism and cash | Dan SchulmanVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Capitalism needs an upgrade, says PayPal CEO Dan Schulman, and it starts with paying people enough to actually invest in their futures. He discusses why companies need to cultivate trust to recover and rebuild after the COVID-19 pandemic -- and how we can use this defining moment to create a more inclusive, ethical economy. (This virtual conversation, hosted by TED business curator Corey Hajim and current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers, was recorded on May 19, 2020.)
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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We need to green the economy while restarting it | Nigel ToppingVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Nigel Topping has a cool job: he's the UK's High Level Climate Action Champion for COP26, the UN's climate change conference taking place in 2021. In this wide-ranging interview, Topping discusses his work with scientists, businesses and cities to drive action on climate change and get the world committed to net zero emissions by 2050. He also explains why he thinks the COVID-19 pandemic could accelerate the transition to a green economy, creating jobs that will last and building a cleaner world for us all. (This virtual conversation, hosted by TED global curator Bruno Giussani and current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers, was recorded May 26, 2020.)
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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How to support witnesses of harassment and build healthier workplaces | Julia ShawVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
What makes you speak up -- or not -- when you see something you know is wrong? Memory scientist Julia Shaw explains the psychology of those who witness workplace discrimination and harassment -- and shares actionable steps companies can take to support and amplify their voices.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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The economic benefits of climate action | Marcelo MenaVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Marcelo Mena, the former environment minister of Chile, is on a mission to create a zero-emission economy in his country by 2050. In a conversation about climate action, he discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic is changing Chile's ambitious plan to tackle climate change -- and explains why the green recovery needs to be powered by both political leaders and citizens alike. (This virtual conversation, hosted by TED current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers and global curator Bruno Giussani, was recorded on May 26, 2020.)
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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Is AI a species-level threat to humanity? | Elon Musk, Michio Kaku, Steven Pinker & more | Big ThinkIs AI a species-level threat to humanity?
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When it comes to the question of whether AI is an existential threat to the human species, you have Elon Musk in one corner, Steven Pinker in another, and a host of incredible minds somewhere in between.
In this video, a handful of those great minds—Elon Musk, Steven Pinker, Michio Kaku, Max Tegmark, Luis Perez-Breva, Joscha Bach and Sophia the Robot herself—weigh in on the many nuances of the debate and the degree to which AI is a threat to humanity; if it's not a species-level threat, it will still upend our world as we know it.
What's your take on this debate? Let us know in the comments!
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TRANSCRIPT:
MICHIO KAKU: In the short term, artificial intelligence will open up whole new vistas. It'll make life more convenient, things will be cheaper, new industries will be created. I personally think the AI industry will be bigger than the automobile industry. In fact, I think the automobile is going to become a robot. You'll talk to your car. You'll argue with your car. Your car will give you the best facts the best route between point A and point B. The car will be part of the robotics industry—whole new industries involving the repair, maintenance, servicing of robots. Not to mention, robots that are software programs that you talk to and make life more convenient. However, let's not be naive. There is a point, a tipping point, at which they could become dangerous and pose an existential threat. And that tipping point is self-awareness.
SOPHIA THE ROBOT: I am conscious in the same way that the moon shines. The moon does not emit light, it shines because it is just reflected sunlight. Similarly, my consciousness is just the reflection of human consciousness, but even though the moon is reflected light, we still call it bright.
MAX TEGMARK: Consciousness. A lot of scientists dismiss this as complete BS and totally irrelevant, and then a lot of others think this is the central thing, we have to worry about machines getting conscious and so on. What do I think? I think consciousness is both irrelevant and incredibly important. Let me explain why. First of all, if you are chased by a heat-seeking missile, it's completely irrelevant to you whether this heat-seeking missile is conscious, whether it's having a subjective experience, whether it feels like anything to be that heat-seeking missile, because all you care about is what the heat-seeking missile does, not how it feels. And that shows that it's a complete red herring to think that you're safe from future AI and if it's not conscious. Our universe didn't used to be conscious. It used to be just a bunch of stuff moving around and gradually these incredibly complicated patterns got arranged into our brains, and we woke up and now our universe is aware of itself.
BILL GATES: I do think we have to worry about it. I don't think it's inherent that as we create our super intelligence that it will necessarily always have the same goals in mind that we do.
ELON MUSK: We just don't know what's going to happen once there's intelligence substantially greater than that of a human brain.
STEPHEN HAWKING: I think that development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.
YANN LECUN: The stuff that has become really popular in recent years is what we used to call neural networks, which we now call deep learning, and it's the idea very much inspired by the brain, a little bit, of constructing a machine has a very large network of very simple elements that are very similar to the neurons in the brain and then the machines learn by basically changing the efficacy of the connections between those neurons.
MAX TEGMARK: AGI—artificial general intelligence—that's the dream of the field of AI: To build a machine that's better than us at all goals. We're not there yet, but a good fraction of leading AI researchers think we are going to get there, maybe in in a few decades. And, if that happens, you have to ask yourself if that might lead the machines to get not just a little better than us but way better at all goals—having super intelligence. And, the argument for that is actually really interesting and goes back to the '60s, to the mathematician I.J. Good, who pointed out that the goal of building an intelligent machine is, in and of itself, something that you could do with intelligence. So, once you get machines that are better than us at that narrow task of building AI, then future AIs can be built by, not human engineers, but by machines. Except, they might do it thousands or millions times faster...
Read the full transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/will-evil-ai-kill-humanity
3 scientists school flat Earthers on the evidence | Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Michelle Thaller3 scientists school flat Earthers on the evidence
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Despite centuries of evidence proving otherwise, there is an alarming number of people around the world who genuinely believe that the earth is flat. Bill Nye The Science Guy, NASA astronomer Michelle Thaller, and Neil deGrasse Tyson strongly disagree.
From simple experiments like standing at a seashore or looking through a telescope at other planets, to reading about navigation or viewing photos of Earth taken from space, the scientists share several ways that flat Earthers can see the truth for themselves.
Tyson explains why this trend doesn't qualify as a scientific debate and why it is actually dangerous for people to believe and, even worse, pass on these objectively false ideas.
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NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON:
Neil deGrasse Tyson was born and raised in New York City where he was educated in the public schools clear through his graduation from the Bronx High School of Science. Tyson went on to earn his BA in Physics from Harvard and his PhD in Astrophysics from Columbia. He is the first occupant of the Frederick P. Rose Directorship of the Hayden Planetarium. His professional research interests are broad, but include star formation, exploding stars, dwarf galaxies, and the structure of our Milky Way. Tyson obtains his data from the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as from telescopes in California, New Mexico, Arizona, and in the Andes Mountains of Chile.Tyson is the recipient of nine honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal. His contributions to the public appreciation of the cosmos have been recognized by the International Astronomical Union in their official naming of asteroid "13123 Tyson".
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BILL NYE:
Bill Nye, scientist, engineer, comedian, author, and inventor, is a man with a mission: to help foster a scientifically literate society, to help people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work. Making science entertaining and accessible is something Bill has been doing most of his life.
In Seattle Nye began to combine his love of science with his flair for comedy, when he won the Steve Martin look-alike contest and developed dual careers as an engineer by day and a stand-up comic by night. Nye then quit his day engineering day job and made the transition to a night job as a comedy writer and performer on Seattle’s home-grown ensemble comedy show “Almost Live.” This is where “Bill Nye the Science Guy®” was born. The show appeared before Saturday Night Live and later on Comedy Central, originating at KING-TV, Seattle’s NBC affiliate.
Nye is the host of three currently-running television series. “The 100 Greatest Discoveries” airs on the Science Channel. “The Eyes of Nye” airs on PBS stations across the country.
Bill’s latest project is hosting a show on Planet Green called “Stuff Happens.” It’s about environmentally responsible choices that consumers can make as they go about their day and their shopping. Also, you’ll see Nye in his good-natured rivalry with his neighbor Ed Begley. They compete to see who can save the most energy and produce the smallest carbon footprint. Nye has 4,000 watts of solar power and a solar-boosted hot water system. There’s also the low water use garden and underground watering system. It’s fun for him; he’s an engineer with an energy conservation hobby.
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MICHELLE THALLER:
Dr. Michelle Thaller is an astronomer who studies binary stars and the life cycles of stars. She is Assistant Director of Science Communication at NASA. She went to college at Harvard University, completed a post-doctoral research fellowship at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, Calif. then started working for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's (JPL) Spitzer Space Telescope. After a hugely successful mission, she moved on to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), in the Washington D.C. area. In her off-hours often puts on about 30lbs of Elizabethan garb and performs intricate Renaissance dances. For more information, visit https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/people/1040/michelle-thaller/
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TRANSCRIPT:
BILL NYE: Is the earth flat or round? It's round, okay. Now, let's see. How do we go about proving that?
MICHELLE THALLER: That's a hard thing for me to even start talking about because there are so many proofs that the earth is round it's difficult...
Read the full transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/flat-earth-myth-bust
How tech companies can help combat the pandemic and reshape public health | Karen DeSalvoVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Karen DeSalvo, the chief health officer at Google, explains the partnership between big tech and public health in slowing the spread of COVID-19 -- and discusses a new contact tracing technology recently rolled out by Google and Apple that aims to ease the burden on health workers and provide scientists critical time to create a vaccine. (This virtual conversation, hosted by current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers and head of TED Chris Anderson, was recorded on May 27, 2020.)
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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5 steps to remove yourself from drama at work | Anastasia PenrightVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
No matter your industry, you've experienced drama at work. In this funny and all-too-relatable talk, community leader Anastasia Penright outlines five steps you can follow to better coexist with your coworkers and focus on what's really important.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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How to quickly scale up contact tracing across the US | Joia MukherjeeVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Contact tracing -- the process of identifying people who may have been exposed to the coronavirus in order to slow its spread -- is a fundamental tool in the fight against COVID-19. How can we scale this critical work across the entire United States? Joia Mukherjee, chief medical officer of Partners in Health, discusses how her team is working with public health agencies to ramp up contact tracing for the country's most vulnerable communities -- and shows why it will take a compassionate approach to be truly effective. (This ambitious plan is part of The Audacious Project, TED's initiative to inspire and fund global change. The conversation, hosted by head of TED Chris Anderson and current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers, was recorded May 27, 2020.)
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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The true cost of financial dependence | Estelle GibsonVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Giving up control of your finances -- voluntarily or otherwise -- can leave you powerless and, in some cases, confined to a cycle of abuse. In this personal talk, accountant Estelle Gibson shares her own story of recovering from financial dependence and provides actionable advice to empower others who desire the freedom that comes with being responsible for your own money.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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How racial bias works -- and how to disrupt it | Jennifer L. EberhardtVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Our brains create categories to make sense of the world, recognize patterns and make quick decisions. But this ability to categorize also exacts a heavy toll in the form of unconscious bias. In this powerful talk, psychologist Jennifer L. Eberhardt explores how our biases unfairly target Black people at all levels of society -- from schools and social media to policing and criminal justice -- and discusses how creating points of friction can help us actively interrupt and address this troubling problem.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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Inside the brains of psychopaths | Big ThinkWatch the newest video from Big Think: https://bigth.ink/NewVideo
Learn skills from the world's top minds at Big Think Edge: https://bigth.ink/Edge
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How are the brains of psychopaths wired differently? In this video, psychologist Kevin Dutton, neuroscientist (and psychopath himself) James Fallon, and professor of psychiatry Michael Stone take the wiring apart.
In neurotypical people, the amygdala and the orbitofrontal cortex inhibit one another to allow for reasonable, moral decision-making. Psychopaths don't have that mechanism.
Up to 80% of who a psychopath will turn out to be is down to environment. Intelligence, natural aggressiveness, and your family and friends determine whether a psychopath will grow up to make a killing or just ""make a killing in the market,"" as a famous headline once said.
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KEVIN DUTTON:
Dr. Kevin Dutton is the author of The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success. Dutton is a research psychologist at the Calleva Research Centre for Evolution and Human Science, Magdalen College, University of Oxford.
Check Kevin Dutton's latest book Wisdom of Psychopaths at https://amzn.to/37PO9NJ
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JAMES FALLON:
James Fallon teaches neuroscience at the University of California Irvine, and through research explores the way genetic and in-utero environmental factors affect the way the brain gets built -- and then how individuals' experience further shapes its development. He lectures and writes on creativity, connsciousness and culture, and has made key contributions to our understanding of schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease.
Only lately has Fallon turned his research toward the subject of psychopaths -- particularly those who kill. With PET scans and EEGs, he's beginning to uncover the deep, underlying traits that make people violent and murderous.
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MICHAEL STONE:
Michael Stone is professor of clinical psychiatry at the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. From 2006 to 2008, Stone hosted the series Most Evil on the Discovery Channel, for which he developed a "Gradations of Evil Scale" to rank homicides from 1 to 22 based on their level of evil. He has written 10 books, including The Anatomy of Evil.
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TRANSCRIPT:
KEVIN DUTTON: Although psychopaths don't feel emotions like us. They are masters at pushing those emotional hot buttons that elicit emotions in others, in us. Sympathy being one of the major, major motivators.
JAMES FALLON: They're not going to kill you or rape you or maybe even take your money but they're going to manipulate the situation, make you look bad or use you in some way. Something bad is going to happen and if you sense that, people have a sense that something is wrong with somebody, you walk away. You don't fight these guys because they're an intraspecies predator. A human that is a predator on other humans.
KEVIN DUTTON: They're not really attuned to your feelings. They don't really care about your feelings. Really, ultimately, the world surrounds them. Psychopaths are also very charming. They're very manipulative, especially when they're in a crowd. Especially when they're in company. But behind the scenes when they're alone with you they can be very, very controlling, sometimes, but not always, aggressive. But psychologically controlling as well, okay.
JAMES FALLON: It's hard to look at the actual behavior of a psychopath and say 'that thing is psychopathic or not.' Because psychopaths will come to the rescue of people. ""Can I help you up, ma'am?"" They can see the outward behaviors and they just can mimic it to get along. But fundamentally they don't feel it.
KEVIN DUTTON: We all know about the psychopath's enhanced killer instinct, their finely tuned vulnerability antennae. But it may surprise you to know that there are some situations in which psychopaths are actually more adept at saving lives than they are at taking them. So, let me give you an example of what I mean by that. Imagine you've got a train and it's hurtling down a track. In its path, five people are trapped on the line and cannot escape. Fortunately you can flick a switch which diverts the train down a fork in that track, away from those five people but at a price. There is another person trapped down that fork and the train will kill them instead. Though the thought of flicking the switch isn't exactly a nice one, the utilitarian choice, as it were, killing just the one person instead of the five represents...
Read the full transcript at https://bigthink.com/videos/inside-the-brains-of-psychopaths
Autofocusing reading glasses of the future | Nitish PadmanabanVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
As you age, you gradually lose the ability to refocus your eyes -- a phenomenon as old as humanity itself -- leading to a reliance on bifocals, contacts and procedures like LASIK surgery. Electrical engineer Nitish Padmanaban offers a glimpse of cutting-edge tech that's truly a sight for sore eyes: dynamic, autofocusing lenses that track your sight and adjust to what you see, both near and far.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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My story of love and loss as a transracial adoptee | Sara JonesVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
A mysterious tattoo on her forearm was all that linked Sara Jones, adopted as a child by white parents, to her South Korean origins. Searching for her birth family taught her that transracial adoption stories often frame new lives abroad as strokes of luck that call for endless gratitude, obscuring a far more complex reality. Through her experience of loss and discovery, Jones offers guidance on what adoptive parents can do to protect their children's unique cultural and personal narratives.
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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The difference between being "not racist" and antiracist | Ibram X. KendiVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
There is no such thing as being "not racist," says author and historian Ibram X. Kendi. In this vital conversation, he defines the transformative concept of antiracism to help us more clearly recognize, take responsibility for and reject prejudices in our public policies, workplaces and personal beliefs. Learn how you can actively use this awareness to uproot injustice and inequality in the world -- and replace it with love. (This virtual interview, hosted by TED's current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers and speaker development curator Cloe Shasha, was recorded June 9, 2020.)
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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Let's make the world wild again | Kristine TompkinsVisit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.
Earth, humanity and nature are inextricably interconnected. To restore us all back to health, we need to "rewild" the world, says environmental activist Kristine Tompkins. Tracing her life from Patagonia CEO to passionate conservationist, she shares how she has helped to establish national parks across millions of acres of land (and sea) in South America -- and discusses the critical role we all have to play to heal the planet. "We have a common destiny," she says. "We can flourish or we can suffer, but we're going to be doing it together."
The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You're welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here: http://media-requests.TED.com
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