Oil companies may seem invincible, but they are more vulnerable than you think, says climate justice litigator Melinda Janki. She tells the story of how she took on ExxonMobil in her home country of Guyana, notching historic wins against...

Feeling stuck on the big issues? Neuroscientist Kris De Meyer has a surprising fix. Instead of waiting for information to get you motivated, he shows how taking small actions in your personal life can rewire your brain to get unstuck....

Afghan activist Nila Ibrahimi shares her experience using song to protest — and ultimately reverse — oppressive laws in Afghanistan just before the Taliban took back control of the country. In a brief Q&A with Head of TED Chris Anderson,...

Justin Trudeau has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015. There's a lot to dig into from his years in office — and from his life before, as well. He sits down with organizational psychologist Adam Grant to discuss lessons...

Everything our bodies do— whether physical or mental— uses energy. Studies have found that many individuals seem to have a daily threshold for making decisions, and an extended period of decision-making can lead to cognitive exhaustion....

Are there any non-human animals that take a task they don't want to do and think to themselves "Eh, I'll do it tomorrow"? Even if they know the task will be harder and/or more unpleasant by putting it off? One of our Patreon subscribers...

Physicists have a long history of sticking our noses where they don’t belong - and one of our favorite places to step beyond our expertise is the question of consciousness and free will. Sometimes our musings are insightful, sometimes...

In elections, your vote may be influenced by design of the ballot itself, especially when you don’t have strong feelings about which candidate to elect.

There's a downside to the upside, and believe it or not, an upside to the downside. Here's why considering the worst case might lead to better outcomes. Hosted by: Hank Green (he/him)

Lawyers are advocates for their clients -- and, in court, they're usually the ones who do the talking. Should that always be the case? In an effort to shift this power dynamic, TED Fellow and legal aid activist Lam Ho shares how lawyers...

In 1998, a school district removed one of American literature's most acclaimed works from its curriculum. Parents pushing for the ban said the book was both "sexually explicit" and "anti-white." The book at the center of this debate was...

Today, Craig Benzine is going to dive into the factors that influence judicial decisions. As you may have noticed, the Supreme Court recently handed down some pretty big decisions on same-sex marriage (in Obergefell v Hodges) and the...

This week Craig Benzine talks about what happens when a case makes it to the Supreme Court of the United States (or the SCOTUS). We're going to focus on court procedure today. We talk about how to petition to get your case heard, how...

Today, in our final lab, Jabril tries to make an AI to settle the question once and for all, "Will a cat or a dog make us happier?" But in building this AI, Jabril will accidentally incorporate the very bias he was trying to avoid. So...

Fairness is one of the quickest ways to lose or gain trust. A lot of times we assume unfair people are incompetent or opportunistic. In this episode, Evelyn chats about how we perceive fairness and what the hurdles are to being "fair" in...

What would you do if you found out that cancer could be lurking in your genes? More people are getting news like that these days as more kinds of cancer are being linked to specific genes and genetic tests let doctors screen your...

Scientists today think reason and emotion aren’t at odds like they’ve traditionally been presented, and even rely on each other to help us get through this thing called life.

In elections, your vote may be influenced by design of the ballot itself, especially when you don’t have strong feelings about which candidate to elect.

Dan Gilbert presents research and data from his exploration of happiness -- sharing some surprising tests and experiments that you can also try on yourself. Watch through to the end for a sparkling Q&A with some familiar TED faces.

Greece has been the poster child for European economic crisis, but former Prime Minister George Papandreou wonders if it's just a preview of what's to come. “Our democracies," he says, "are trapped by systems that are too big to fail, or...

The good news is it's now clearly cheaper to save the planet than to ruin it, says engineer and investor John Doerr. "The bad news is: we are fast running out of time." In this conversation with climate policy expert Hal Harvey, the two...

Whether people are gambling, haggling, or just doing their best to save lives out there, losing is tough to deal with.

Only one in nine people in the united States gets the care and treatment they need for addiction and substance abuse. A former Director of National Drug Control Policy, Michael Botticelli is working to end this epidemic and treat people...

Investing in green energy, holding large corporations accountable for their pollution, stopping pipeline and oil extraction initiatives -- these are non-negotiable actions to protect the planet, but they are still just the bare minimum,...