TED Talks with English transcript

13:23

TEDWomen 2016

Jude Kelly: Why women should tell the stories of humanity

2016-10-261,249,968 views

Readability: 3.3

---

For many centuries (and for many reasons) critically acclaimed creative genius has generally come from a male perspective. As theater director Jude Kelly points out in this passionately reasoned talk, that skew affects how we interpret even non-fictional women's stories and rights. She thinks there's a more useful, more inclusive way to look at the world, and she calls on artists -- women and men -- to paint, draw, write about, film and imagine a gender-equal society.

Play

08:45

TEDxBeaconStreet

Joy Buolamwini: How I'm fighting bias in algorithms

2016-11-191,223,943 views

Readability: 5.3

---

MIT grad student Joy Buolamwini was working with facial analysis software when she noticed a problem: the software didn't detect her face -- because the people who coded the algorithm hadn't taught it to identify a broad range of skin tones and facial structures. Now she's on a mission to fight bias in machine learning, a phenomenon she calls the "coded gaze." It's an eye-opening talk about the need for accountability in coding ... as algorithms take over more and more aspects of our lives.

Play

12:42

TEDWomen 2016

Caroline Paul: To raise brave girls, encourage adventure

2016-10-261,958,625 views

Readability: 3.2

---

Gutsy girls skateboard, climb trees, clamber around, fall down, scrape their knees, get right back up -- and grow up to be brave women. Learn how to spark a little productive risk-taking and raise confident girls with stories and advice from firefighter, paraglider and all-around adventurer Caroline Paul.

Play

15:18

TEDNYC

Megan Phelps-Roper: I grew up in the Westboro Baptist Church. Here's why I left

2017-02-159,147,153 views

Readability: 4.5

---

What's it like to grow up within a group of people who exult in demonizing ... everyone else? Megan Phelps-Roper shares details of life inside America's most controversial church and describes how conversations on Twitter were key to her decision to leave it. In this extraordinary talk, she shares her personal experience of extreme polarization, along with some sharp ways we can learn to successfully engage across ideological lines.

Play

13:42

TEDxVienna

Carrie Poppy: A scientific approach to the paranormal

2016-10-221,934,309 views

Readability: 3.5

---

What's haunting Carrie Poppy? Is it ghosts or something worse? In this talk, the investigative journalist narrates her encounter with a spooky feeling you'll want to warn your friends about and explains why we need science to deal with paranormal activity.

Play

05:00

TED Talks Live

Sara Ramirez: "Rollercoaster"

2015-11-011,132,926 views

Readability: 2.6

---

Singer, songwriter and actress Sara Ramirez is a woman of many talents. Joined by Michael Pemberton on guitar, Ramirez sings of opportunity, wisdom and the highs and lows of life in this live performance of her song, "Rollercoaster."

Play

07:21

TEDxBeaconStreet

Ani Liu: Smelfies, and other experiments in synthetic biology

2016-11-19938,374 views

Readability: 4.9

---

What if you could take a smell selfie, a smelfie? What if you had a lipstick that caused plants to grow where you kiss? Ani Liu explores the intersection of technology and sensory perception, and her work is wedged somewhere between science, design and art. In this swift, smart talk, she shares dreams, wonderings and experiments, asking: What happens when science fiction becomes science fact?

Play

15:19

TEDWomen 2016

Kathy Hull: Stories from a home for terminally ill children

2016-10-261,028,397 views

Readability: 4.2

---

To honor and celebrate young lives cut short, Kathy Hull founded the first freestanding pediatric palliative care facility in the United States, the George Mark Children's House. Its mission: to give terminally ill children and their families a peaceful place to say goodbye. She shares stories brimming with wisdom, joy, imagination and heartbreaking loss.

Play

06:09

TEDNYC

Lux Narayan: What I learned from 2,000 obituaries

2017-01-261,705,669 views

Readability: 4.4

---

Lux Narayan starts his day with scrambled eggs and the question: "Who died today?" Why? By analyzing 2,000 New York Times obituaries over a 20-month period, Narayan gleaned, in just a few words, what achievement looks like over a lifetime. Here he shares what those immortalized in print can teach us about a life well lived.

Play

06:11

TED Residency

Jeff Kirschner: This app makes it fun to pick up litter

2016-12-131,385,758 views

Readability: 4.2

---

The earth is a big place to keep clean. With Litterati -- an app for users to identify, collect and geotag the world's litter -- TED Resident Jeff Kirschner has created a community that's crowdsource-cleaning the planet. After tracking trash in more than 100 countries, Kirschner hopes to use the data he's collected to work with brands and organizations to stop litter before it reaches the ground.

Play

60:09

TED Dialogues

Yuval Noah Harari: Nationalism vs. globalism: the new political divide

2017-02-152,979,417 views

Readability: 4.3

---

How do we make sense of today's political divisions? In a wide-ranging conversation full of insight, historian Yuval Harari places our current turmoil in a broader context, against the ongoing disruption of our technology, climate, media -- even our notion of what humanity is for. This is the first of a series of TED Dialogues, seeking a thoughtful response to escalating political divisiveness. Make time (just over an hour) for this fascinating discussion between Harari and TED curator Chris Anderson.

Play

15:45

TEDWomen 2016

Stacy Smith: The data behind Hollywood's sexism

2016-10-261,160,204 views

Readability: 4.4

---

Where are all the women and girls in film? Social scientist Stacy Smith analyzes how the media underrepresents and portrays women -- and the potentially destructive effects those portrayals have on viewers. She shares hard data behind gender bias in Hollywood, where on-screen males outnumber females three to one (and behind-the-camera workers fare even worse.)

Play

10:45

TEDxMidAtlantic

Michael Botticelli: Addiction is a disease. We should treat it like one

2016-10-211,620,936 views

Readability: 4

---

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 with addictions with kindness, compassion and fairness. In a personal, thoughtful talk, he encourages the millions of Americans in recovery today to make their voices heard and confront the stigma associated with substance use disorders.

Play

16:14

TEDxRiodelaPlata

Karina Galperin: Should we simplify spelling?

2015-09-24590,752 views

Readability: 4.3

---

How much energy and brain power do we devote to learning how to spell? Language evolves over time, and with it the way we spell -- is it worth it to spend so much time memorizing rules that are filled with endless exceptions? Literary scholar Karina Galperin suggests that it may be time for an update in the way we think about and record language. (In Spanish with English subtitles)

Play

12:30

TEDWomen 2016

Brittney Cooper: The racial politics of time

2016-10-26877,007 views

Readability: 4.6

---

Cultural theorist Brittney Cooper examines racism through the lens of time, showing us how historically it has been stolen from people of color, resulting in lost moments of joy and connection, lost years of healthy quality of life and the delay of progress. A candid, thought-provoking take on history and race that may make you reconsider your understanding of time, and your place in it.

Play

14:11

TEDxWarwick

Jonathan Rossiter: A robot that eats pollution

2016-03-051,337,180 views

Readability: 3.3

---

Meet the "Row-bot," a robot that cleans up pollution and generates the electricity needed to power itself by swallowing dirty water. Roboticist Jonathan Rossiter explains how this special swimming machine, which uses a microbial fuel cell to neutralize algal blooms and oil slicks, could be a precursor to biodegradable, autonomous pollution-fighting robots.

Play

10:21

TED@IBM

Grady Booch: Don't fear superintelligent AI

2016-11-152,866,438 views

Readability: 4.7

---

New tech spawns new anxieties, says scientist and philosopher Grady Booch, but we don't need to be afraid an all-powerful, unfeeling AI. Booch allays our worst (sci-fi induced) fears about superintelligent computers by explaining how we'll teach, not program, them to share our human values. Rather than worry about an unlikely existential threat, he urges us to consider how artificial intelligence will enhance human life.

Play

14:22

TEDxBeaconStreet

Margaret Bourdeaux: Why civilians suffer more once a war is over

2015-11-14979,657 views

Readability: 4.6

---

In a war, it turns out that violence isn't the biggest killer of civilians. What is? Illness, hunger, poverty -- because war destroys the institutions that keep society running, like utilities, banks, food systems and hospitals. Physician Margaret Bourdeaux proposes a bold approach to post-conflict recovery, setting priorities on what to fix first

Play

08:38

TEDNYC

Lara Setrakian: 3 ways to fix a broken news industry

2017-01-261,252,226 views

Readability: 4.2

---

Something is very wrong with the news industry. Trust in the media has hit an all-time low; we're inundated with sensationalist stories, and consistent, high-quality reporting is scarce, says journalist Lara Setrakian. She shares three ways we can fix the news to better inform all of us about the complex issues of our time.

Play

12:26

TEDWomen 2016

Miriam Zoila Pérez: How racism harms pregnant women -- and what can help

2016-10-26954,890 views

Readability: 5

---

Racism is making people sick -- especially black women and babies, says Miriam Zoila Pérez. The doula turned journalist explores the relationship between race, class and illness and tells us about a radically compassionate prenatal care program that can buffer pregnant women from the stress that people of color face every day.

Play

14:26

TEDxMileHigh

Amy Adele Hasinoff: How to practice safe sexting

2016-06-251,570,366 views

Readability: 4.7

---

Sexting, like anything that's fun, runs its risks -- but a serious violation of privacy shouldn't be one of them. Amy Adele Hasinoff looks at problematic responses to sexting in mass media, law and education, offering practical solutions for how individuals and tech companies can protect sensitive (and, ahem, potentially scandalous) digital files.

Play

04:18

TED2015

Rodrigo y Gabriela: An electrifying acoustic guitar performance

2015-03-162,785,906 views

Readability: 2.3

---

Guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela combine furiously fast riffs and dazzling rhythms to create a style that draws on both flamenco guitar and heavy metal in this live performance of their song, "The Soundmaker."

Play

14:17

TEDxManchester

Aala El-Khani: What it's like to be a parent in a war zone

2016-02-141,063,850 views

Readability: 4.7

---

How do parents protect their children and help them feel secure again when their homes are ripped apart by war? In this warm-hearted talk, psychologist Aala El-Khani shares her work supporting -- and learning from -- refugee families affected by the civil war in Syria. She asks: How can we help these loving parents give their kids the warm, secure parenting they most need?

Play

18:38

TEDxMidAtlantic

Jeff Speck: 4 ways to make a city more walkable

2013-10-252,173,018 views

Readability: 3.7

---

Freedom from cars, freedom from sprawl, freedom to walk your city! City planner Jeff Speck shares his "general theory of walkability" -- four planning principles to transform sprawling cities of six-lane highways and 600-foot blocks into safe, walkable oases full of bike lanes and tree-lined streets.

Play

15:34

TEDMED 2016

Sue Klebold: My son was a Columbine shooter. This is my story

2016-11-3010,022,839 views

Readability: 4

---

Sue Klebold is the mother of Dylan Klebold, one of the two shooters who committed the Columbine High School massacre, murdering 12 students and a teacher. She's spent years excavating every detail of her family life, trying to understand what she could have done to prevent her son's violence. In this difficult, jarring talk, Klebold explores the intersection between mental health and violence, advocating for parents and professionals to continue to examine the link between suicidal and homicidal thinking.

Play

12:27

TED@IBM

Joshua Smith: New nanotech to detect cancer early

2016-11-151,060,909 views

Readability: 6.3

---

What if every home had an early-warning cancer detection system? Researcher Joshua Smith is developing a nanobiotechnology "cancer alarm" that scans for traces of disease in the form of special biomarkers called exosomes. In this forward-thinking talk, he shares his dream for how we might revolutionize cancer detection and, ultimately, save lives.

Play

11:23

TEDxManhattanBeach

Eduardo Briceño: How to get better at the things you care about

2016-11-053,260,700 views

Readability: 4.6

---

Working hard but not improving? You're not alone. Eduardo Briceño reveals a simple way to think about getting better at the things you do, whether that's work, parenting or creative hobbies. And he shares some useful techniques so you can keep learning and always feel like you're moving forward.

Play

19:07

TEDWomen 2016

Thordis Elva and Tom Stranger: Our story of rape and reconciliation

2016-10-265,570,439 views

Readability: 4.4

---

In 1996, Thordis Elva shared a teenage romance with Tom Stranger, an exchange student from Australia. After a school dance, Tom raped Thordis, after which they parted ways for many years. In this extraordinary talk, Elva and Stranger move through a years-long chronology of shame and silence, and invite us to discuss the omnipresent global issue of sexual violence in a new, honest way. For a Q&A with the speakers, visit go.ted.com/thordisandtom.

Play

13:48

TEDxBeaconStreet

Nagin Cox: What time is it on Mars?

2016-11-192,082,690 views

Readability: 3.2

---

Nagin Cox is a first-generation Martian. As a spacecraft engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Cox works on the team that manages the United States' rovers on Mars. But working a 9-to-5 on another planet -- whose day is 40 minutes longer than Earth's -- has particular, often comical challenges.

Play

12:44

TEDxStanford

Salil Dudani: How jails extort the poor

2016-04-241,115,590 views

Readability: 3.8

---

Why do we jail people for being poor? Today, half a million Americans are in jail only because they can't afford to post bail, and still more are locked up because they can't pay their debt to the court, sometimes for things as minor as unpaid parking tickets. Salil Dudani shares stories from individuals who have experienced debtors' prison in Ferguson, Missouri, challenging us to think differently about how we punish the poor and marginalized.

Play