Your brain uses tons of calories, just in its daily work of keeping you alive. So does thinking extra hard use even MORE calories? QQ fills you in!

A liberal arts education is critical to forming true leaders, says university head Patrick Awuah -- because it builds decision-making skills, an ethical framework and a broad vision. Awuah himself left a career at Microsoft in the US to...

We all have memories that seem like they happened yesterday, but can you really trust them?

Listening to stories widens the imagination; telling them lets us leap over cultural walls, embrace different experiences, feel what others feel. Elif Shafak builds on this simple idea to argue that fiction can overcome identity politics.

Millions of baby boomers are moving into their senior years with empty pockets and declining choices to earn a living. And right behind them is a younger generation facing the same challenges. In this deeply personal talk, author...

A simple Q&A

A little over a decade ago, a neuroscientist found "significant activation" in the neural tissue of a dead fish. While it didn't prove the existence of zombie fish, it did point out a huge statistical problem.

Known worldwide for her courage and clarity, Christiane Amanpour has spent the past three decades interviewing business, cultural and political leaders who have shaped history. In conversation with TED Curator Chris Anderson, Amanpour...

Some people are capable of concentrating in a storm of noise and motion, and some get distracted by the slightest squeak of a classmate’s chair. This has to do with our brain’s ability to filter, and not only are both entirely natural,...

In a world deeply divided, how do we have hard conversations with nuance, curiosity, respect? Veteran reporter Eve Pearlman introduces "dialogue journalism": a project where journalists go to the heart of social and political divides to...

* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. Currency -- the bills and coins you carry in your wallet and in your bank account -- is founded on marketing, on...

If patients seem to be unaware of their obvious conditions and symptoms, it might not be that they're in denial, but their brain might actually prevent them from realizing their disabilities.

Your brain is hard-wired to do all sorts of things when you are not consciously thinking about something. But just because it’s normal for your mind to wander doesn’t mean that it’s always good! Luckily, once you know how it works, you...

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

Beauty is about more than the body you inhabit -- it's a way of being that goes beyond genetics or societal ideals. Aboriginal writer and former model Sasha Sarago invites you to decolonize beauty, moving away from the monolithic...

Using examples from vacations to colonoscopies, Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman reveals how our "experiencing selves" and our "remembering selves" perceive happiness differently. This new insight has...

The majority of us can probably agree that the sound of nails on a chalkboard is unpleasant, but why is that? Theories range from evolutionary survival mechanisms to the anatomy of the human ear. Find out more in this episode of SciShow!

iO Tillett Wright has photographed 2,000 people who consider themselves somewhere on the LGBTQ spectrum -- and asked many of them: Can you assign a percentage to how gay or straight you are? Most people, it turns out, consider themselves...

Failed at keeping your resolutions in the past? Psychologists have some insights and advice for you to stick to them this year.

In Lebanon there is one gunshot a year that isn’t part of a scene of routine violence: The opening sound of the Beirut International Marathon. In a moving talk, marathon founder May El-Khalil explains why she believed a 26.2-mile running...

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...

The line between public and private has blurred in the past decade, both online and in real life, and Alessandro Acquisti is here to explain what this means and why it matters. In this thought-provoking, slightly chilling talk, he shares...

Very few of us hold jobs that line up directly with our past experiences or what we studied in college. Take TED Resident Jason Shen; he studied biology but later became a product manager at a tech company. In this quick, insightful talk...

The people behind fake posts can rely on a few tricks to get you on board. But there are ways to spot them, and ways to avoid falling for what they have to say.