TED Talks Daily

Who could you call at 2am when everything’s gone wrong? Friendship expert Sheridan Voysey believes we’re in a friendship recession, with many of us forgetting how to foster meaningful relationships. He explores three hidden barriers keeping us apart, why it feels harder to make friends as an adult — and how to nurture the deep connections that sustain us. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for...

Solar energy and storage are the fastest, cheapest ways to add electricity to the grid. So why are small towns across the US pausing or banning these projects? Clean energy entrepreneur Jon Powers shows how fossil fuel companies are waging disinformation campaigns at the local level — and calls for a rapid-response team that sends trusted messengers (like firefighters and farmers) to get communiti...

Many people fear AI is eroding our humanity, replacing real relationships with synthetic ones that leave us lonelier than ever. Digital anthropologist Jennifer Cearns believes the opposite may be true. After talking to hundreds of people who turn to AI for grief, love, friendship and more, she pokes holes in this familiar fear — and hints at what these strange new relationships can teach us about...

Parenting an eye-rolling teenager glued to a gaming system is not a simple feat, but what if you could turn screen time into an opportunity for connection? Hannah Boquet shares how she decided to play video games with her kids and discovered the power of esports to foster trust, communication and essential life skills. Dive deeper into how you can strengthen family bonds, support your child’s deve...

In the long term, shutting down a coal mine means cleaner air and a healthier environment — but in the short term, it can devastate a community or family that relied on the mine's paychecks to make ends meet. Environmental justice advocate Payton M. Wilkins thinks we can protect both workers and the planet with an age-old solution: unions. He digs into the economic fallout of ditching fossil f...

No matter where you fall on the corporate food chain, you have power at work—you just might not know how to use it. In this new series on Unlocking Your Power at Work, Anne and Frances dig into how to discover, build, and use your power, explore common power dynamics in the workplace, and learn from people who use their full power with honesty and swagger. Kara Swisher is one of the most influenti...

Do you feel short on time? Writer and work expert Danielle Roberts would like to help you with that. In this quick talk, she makes the case that free time isn't a reward you earn but a civil right you're owed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Laura Smythe spent years in legacy newsrooms, and she thinks the habits journalists use to vet information should belong to all of us. Using Fyre Festival as a cautionary tale, she explains why media literacy is a vital skill in our age of deepfakes and algorithmic feeds — and describes the country that’s already found a way to start teaching it in elementary school. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com...

Jessica Irwin is many things: a photographer, artist, author, performer. She also happens to be nonverbal, born with cerebral palsy that affects the muscles she needs to talk. Speaking through a device that turns her typed words into speech, she gives a sharp, funny and urgent reminder that being unable to speak has nothing to do with intelligence — and shares a few easy ways anyone can better com...

Urban planner James Rojas has led hundreds of workshops where participants creatively design their ideal communities with small objects — and he's noticed that people of every age, income and background build strikingly similar places. Through play and storytelling, he shows how we can use our childhood memories and imaginations to shape the places we live and love. Hosted on Acast. See acast....

With more information at our fingertips than ever before, learning should be getting easier ... yet the opposite seems to be true, says cognitive scientist Tania Lombrozo. Drawing on her research into how our minds understand and reason, she explores why more information can actually make learning harder — and shares the critical skill all great learners possess. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pri...

For all of human history, a baby's DNA was determined by chance at conception: the so-called genetic lottery. "That era is over," says Noor Siddiqui, whose company builds screening tools to read the whole genome of embryos in an effort to give parents more genetic information than standard IVF. She makes the case that this kind of technology helps families understand and reduce healt...

Monica Lewinsky is an anti-bullying activist and host of Reclaiming with Monica, a podcast that shines her guests’ unguarded conversations about how they make sense of the world. In this episode filmed in front of a live audience at TED 2026, Chris interviews Monica on how she finds healing throughout the years. They discuss the role of public shaming in an online world, the differences between ca...

Activist Leopoldo López learned the true value of freedom in a solitary confinement cell, when someone else decided if he would eat or see sunlight. In this searching conversation, he explains why democracy is losing ground across the globe, the state of Venezuela's transition after Maduro's capture and the 2026 earthquakes — and why he founded the World Liberty Congress to unite activists...

What does confidence look like? Public speaking expert Cara Hale Alter studies how to project confidence and credibility — and she's pinpointed two key behaviors that shape how others see you. In this actionable talk, she explains how to make sure you're showing your true potential at work and beyond. Vote for our show in the Signal Awards for Most Inspirational podcast! Hosted on Acast. S...

Homelessness can feel like an issue that’s too big and complicated to fix, something we've learned to walk past. Jen Loving, who leads the nonprofit Destination: Home, has spent her entire life proving that mindset is wrong. She shows why we must stop waiting until someone is pushed outside before intervening — and introduces Right at Home, a proven model helping communities across the US keep...

Workers everywhere are quietly redesigning their jobs around AI, boosting productivity but also creating new kinds of problems. AI advisor Julie Bedard thinks she has a fix. She shares new research on three areas for leaders to focus on — including how to avoid "AI brain fry" — and why we need to shape this change rather than let it happen to us. Vote for our show in the Signal Awards fo...

Do you avoid talking to people you disagree with? Author and mediator Emily Kasriel thinks you should try it out. She explains why engaging with ideas that bother you is one of the most powerful things you can do — and presents her framework for “deep listening” that can help you form relationships across generations, cultures and political divides. Vote for our show in the Signal Awards for Most...

When parents first have kids, some risk entering “the loneliest decade,” where they fall out of touch with friends. Writer Stacey McLachlan decided to do something different when she had her daughter, refusing to let her social life slip away. In this witty talk, she shares her solution — and why it matters for all of us. Vote for our show in the Signal Awards for Most Inspirational podcast! Hoste...

Technology has been promising to revolutionize education for a long time. Online learning, smartphones, and even asynchronous classes during COVID seemed for a while like they might finally transform what learning can look like, but all we really learned was that changing education is slower and harder than anyone wants it to be. Could AI finally be the unlock we’ve been looking for? Leah Belsky h...

As AI reshapes work, school and love, what part of being human can't a machine take over? In a wide-ranging conversation, psychotherapist Esther Perel and TED's vision steward Sal Khan provide their unique takes on the answer. From personalized learning and AI companions to "emotional capitalism" and the rituals we create to live with uncertainty, the two explore if we're get...

On paper, Blake Mycoskie is a glowing success story: he founded TOMS Shoes, building a global brand that has given away more than 100 million pairs of shoes to children in need. Yet despite his success, his struggle with depression nearly cost him his life. In this personal talk, he explores the all-too-common shame that keeps people suffering in silence — and shares his new mission to spread the...

All children develop at different paces — so why do schools expect every student to learn the same way? Early education researcher Anna Rainio introduces "playworlds," a learning activity where adults and kids create imaginary stories together. She shows how pretend play helps students find their place — and the power of a teacher or parent starting with a simple question: Why not? Hoste...

Tami Pyfer has five kids who belong to five different political parties, and sometimes family conversations get heated. Drawing on her work as a former policy advisor to the governor of Utah, she wanted to find a healthier way for people to talk about politics without contempt. The result is the Dignity Index: an eight-point scale that measures the language we use to disagree, aiming to ease polit...

With humor and hard science, obstetrician and gynecologist Jaime Seeman reveals why building muscle is one of the best ways to combat women’s top health risks. Learn the truth behind three weightlifting myths that prevent women from getting serious about strength training — and why your future self will thank you for picking up those dumbbells. (This episode originally aired in 2025.) Hosted on Ac...