TED Talks with English transcript

Michael Metcalfe: A provocative way to finance the fight against climate change

TED@State Street Boston

Michael Metcalfe: A provocative way to finance the fight against climate change
1,264,421 views

Will we do whatever it takes to fight climate change? Back in 2008, following the global financial crisis, governments across the world adopted a "whatever it takes" commitment to monetary recovery, issuing $250 billion worth of international currency to stem the collapse of the economy. In this delightfully wonky talk, financial expert Michael Metcalfe suggests we can use that very same unconventional monetary tool to fund a global commitment to a green future.

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Ameera Harouda: Why I put myself in danger to tell the stories of Gaza

TED2016

Ameera Harouda: Why I put myself in danger to tell the stories of Gaza
1,102,156 views

When Ameera Harouda hears the sounds of bombs or shells, she heads straight towards them. "I want to be there first because these stories should be told," says Gaza's first female "fixer," a role that allows her to guide journalists into chaotic, war zone scenarios in her home country, which she still loves despite its terrible situation. Find out what motivates Harouda to give a voice to Gaza's human suffering in this unforgettable talk.

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R. Luke DuBois: Insightful human portraits made from data

TED2016

R. Luke DuBois: Insightful human portraits made from data
1,338,549 views

Artist R. Luke DuBois makes unique portraits of presidents, cities, himself and even Britney Spears using data and personality. In this talk, he shares nine projects -- from maps of the country built using information taken from millions of dating profiles to a gun that fires a blank every time a shooting is reported in New Orleans. His point: the way we use technology reflects on us and our culture, and we reduce others to data points at our own peril.

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Shivani Siroya: A smart loan for people with no credit history (yet)

TED2016

Shivani Siroya: A smart loan for people with no credit history (yet)
1,669,346 views

Trust: How do you earn it? Banks use credit scores to determine if you're trustworthy, but there are about 2.5 billion people around the world who don't have one to begin with -- and who can't get a loan to start a business, buy a home or otherwise improve their lives. Hear how TED Fellow Shivani Siroya is unlocking untapped purchasing power in the developing world with InVenture, a start-up that uses mobile data to create a financial identity. "With something as simple as a credit score," says Siroya, "we're giving people the power to build their own futures."

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Chris Anderson: TED's secret to great public speaking

TED Studio

Chris Anderson: TED's secret to great public speaking
5,536,245 views

There's no single formula for a great talk, but there is a secret ingredient that all the best ones have in common. TED curator Chris Anderson shares this secret -- along with four ways to make it work for you. Do you have what it takes to share an idea worth spreading?

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Kenneth Lacovara: Hunting for dinosaurs showed me our place in the universe

TED2016

Kenneth Lacovara: Hunting for dinosaurs showed me our place in the universe
2,150,567 views

What happens when you discover a dinosaur? Paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara details his unearthing of Dreadnoughtus -- a 77-million-year-old sauropod that was as tall as a two-story house and as heavy as a jumbo jet -- and considers how amazingly improbable it is that a tiny mammal living in the cracks of the dinosaur world could evolve into a sentient being capable of understanding these magnificent creatures. Join him in a celebration of the Earth's geological history and contemplate our place in deep time.

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Aditi Gupta: A taboo-free way to talk about periods

TEDxGatewayWomen

Aditi Gupta: A taboo-free way to talk about periods
1,676,262 views

It's true: talking about menstruation makes many people uncomfortable. And that taboo has consequences: in India, three out of every 10 girls don't even know what menstruation is at the time of their first period, and restrictive customs related to periods inflict psychological damage on young girls. Growing up with this taboo herself, Aditi Gupta knew she wanted to help girls, parents and teachers talk about periods comfortably and without shame. She shares how she did it.

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Joshua Prager: Wisdom from great writers on every year of life

TEDActive 2015

Joshua Prager: Wisdom from great writers on every year of life
1,797,150 views

As different as we humans are from one another, we all age along the same great sequence, and the shared patterns of our lives pass into the pages of the books we love. In this moving talk, journalist Joshua Prager explores the stages of life through quotations from Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, William Trevor and other great writers, set to visualizations by graphic designer Milton Glaser. "Books tell us who we've been, who we are, who we will be, too," Prager says.

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Christiana Figueres: The inside story of the Paris climate agreement

TED2016

Christiana Figueres: The inside story of the Paris climate agreement
1,194,337 views

What would you do if your job was to save the planet? When Christiana Figueres was tapped by the UN to lead the Paris climate conference (COP 21) in December 2015, she reacted the way many people would: she thought it would be impossible to bring the leaders of 195 countries into agreement on how to slow climate change. Find out how she turned her skepticism into optimism -- and helped the world achieve the most important climate agreement in history.

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Mary Norris: The nit-picking glory of The New Yorker's Comma Queen

TED2016

Mary Norris: The nit-picking glory of The New Yorker's Comma Queen
1,186,688 views

"Copy editing for The New Yorker is like playing shortstop for a Major League Baseball team -- every little movement gets picked over by the critics," says Mary Norris, who has played the position for more than thirty years. In that time, she's gotten a reputation for sternness and for being a "comma maniac," but this is unfounded, she says. Above all, her work is aimed at one thing: making authors look good. Explore The New Yorker's distinctive style with the person who knows it best in this charming talk.

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Hugh Evans: What does it mean to be a citizen of the world?

TED2016

Hugh Evans: What does it mean to be a citizen of the world?
1,703,187 views

Hugh Evans started a movement that mobilizes "global citizens," people who self-identify first and foremost not as members of a state, nation or tribe but as members of the human race. In this uplifting and personal talk, learn more about how this new understanding of our place in the world is galvanizing people to take action in the fights against extreme poverty, climate change, gender inequality and more. "These are ultimately global issues," Evans says, "and they can only be solved by global citizens demanding global solutions from their leaders."

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Stephen Petranek: Your kids might live on Mars. Here's how they'll survive

TED2015

Stephen Petranek: Your kids might live on Mars. Here's how they'll survive
5,768,369 views

It sounds like science fiction, but journalist Stephen Petranek considers it fact: within 20 years, humans will live on Mars. In this provocative talk, Petranek makes the case that humans will become a spacefaring species and describes in fascinating detail how we'll make Mars our next home. "Humans will survive no matter what happens on Earth," Petranek says. "We will never be the last of our kind."

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Parag Khanna: How megacities are changing the map of the world

TED2016

Parag Khanna: How megacities are changing the map of the world
1,157,320 views

"I want you to reimagine how life is organized on earth," says global strategist Parag Khanna. As our expanding cities grow ever more connected through transportation, energy and communications networks, we evolve from geography to what he calls "connectography." This emerging global network civilization holds the promise of reducing pollution and inequality -- and even overcoming geopolitical rivalries. In this talk, Khanna asks us to embrace a new maxim for the future: "Connectivity is destiny."

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Adam Grant: The surprising habits of original thinkers

TED2016

Adam Grant: The surprising habits of original thinkers
15,037,019 views

How do creative people come up with great ideas? Organizational psychologist Adam Grant studies "originals": thinkers who dream up new ideas and take action to put them into the world. In this talk, learn three unexpected habits of originals -- including embracing failure. "The greatest originals are the ones who fail the most, because they're the ones who try the most," Grant says. "You need a lot of bad ideas in order to get a few good ones."

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Juan Enriquez: We can reprogram life. How to do it wisely

TED Talks Live

Juan Enriquez: We can reprogram life. How to do it wisely
2,107,612 views

For four billion years, what lived and died on Earth depended on two principles: natural selection and random mutation. Then humans came along and changed everything — hybridizing plants, breeding animals, altering the environment and even purposefully evolving ourselves. Juan Enriquez provides five guidelines for a future where this ability to program life rapidly accelerates. "This is the single most exciting adventure human beings have been on," Enriquez says. "This is the single greatest superpower humans have ever had."

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Dan Gross: Why gun violence can't be our new normal

TED2016

Dan Gross: Why gun violence can't be our new normal
1,287,489 views

It doesn't matter whether you love or hate guns; it's obvious that the US would be a safer place if there weren't thousands of them sold every day without background checks. Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, makes a passionate, personal appeal for something that more than 90 percent of Americans want: background checks for all gun sales. "For every great movement around the world, there's a moment where you can look back and say, 'That's when things really started to change,'" Gross says. "For the movement to end gun violence in America, that moment is here."

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Lisa Nip: How humans could evolve to survive in space

TEDxBeaconStreet

Lisa Nip: How humans could evolve to survive in space
1,721,172 views

If we hope to one day leave Earth and explore the universe, our bodies are going to have to get a lot better at surviving the harsh conditions of space. Using synthetic biology, Lisa Nip hopes to harness special powers from microbes on Earth -- such as the ability to withstand radiation -- to make humans more fit for exploring space. "We're approaching a time during which we'll have the capacity to decide our own genetic destiny," Nip says. "Augmenting the human body with new abilities is no longer a question of how, but of when."

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Knut Haanaes: Two reasons companies fail -- and how to avoid them

TED@BCG London

Knut Haanaes: Two reasons companies fail -- and how to avoid them
2,083,658 views

Is it possible to run a company and reinvent it at the same time? For business strategist Knut Haanaes, the ability to innovate after becoming successful is the mark of a great organization. He shares insights on how to strike a balance between perfecting what we already know and exploring totally new ideas -- and lays out how to avoid two major strategy traps.

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Carol Fishman Cohen: How to get back to work after a career break

TEDxBeaconStreet

Carol Fishman Cohen: How to get back to work after a career break
3,217,633 views

If you've taken a career break and are now looking to return to the workforce, would you consider taking an internship? Career reentry expert Carol Fishman Cohen thinks you should. In this talk, hear about Cohen's own experience returning to work after a career break, her work championing the success of "relaunchers" and how employers are changing how they engage with return-to-work talent.

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Tabetha Boyajian: The most mysterious star in the universe

TED2016

Tabetha Boyajian: The most mysterious star in the universe
7,280,951 views

Something massive, with roughly 1,000 times the area of Earth, is blocking the light coming from a distant star known as KIC 8462852, and nobody is quite sure what it is. As astronomer Tabetha Boyajian investigated this perplexing celestial object, a colleague suggested something unusual: Could it be an alien-built megastructure? Such an extraordinary idea would require extraordinary evidence. In this talk, Boyajian gives us a look at how scientists search for and test hypotheses when faced with the unknown.

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Paula Hammond: A new superweapon in the fight against cancer

TED Talks Live

Paula Hammond: A new superweapon in the fight against cancer
1,601,223 views

Cancer is a very clever, adaptable disease. To defeat it, says medical researcher and educator Paula Hammond, we need a new and powerful mode of attack. With her colleagues at MIT, Hammond engineered a nanoparticle one-hundredth the size of a human hair that can treat the most aggressive, drug-resistant cancers. Learn more about this molecular superweapon and join Hammond's quest to fight a disease that affects us all.

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Danielle Feinberg: The magic ingredient that brings Pixar movies to life

TED Talks Live

Danielle Feinberg: The magic ingredient that brings Pixar movies to life
3,035,525 views

Danielle Feinberg, Pixar's director of photography, creates stories with soul and wonder using math, science and code. Go behind the scenes of Finding Nemo, Toy Story, Brave, WALL-E and more, and discover how Pixar interweaves art and science to create fantastic worlds where the things you imagine can become real. This talk comes from the PBS special "TED Talks: Science & Wonder."

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Haley Van Dyck: How a start-up in the White House is changing business as usual

TED2016

Haley Van Dyck: How a start-up in the White House is changing business as usual
1,052,171 views

Haley Van Dyck is transforming the way America delivers critical services to everyday people. At the United States Digital Service, Van Dyck and her team are using lessons learned by Silicon Valley and the private sector to improve services for veterans, immigrants, the disabled and others, creating a more awesome government along the way. "We don't care about politics," she says. "We care about making government work better, because it's the only one we've got."

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Linus Torvalds: The mind behind Linux

TED2016

Linus Torvalds: The mind behind Linux
4,901,513 views

Linus Torvalds transformed technology twice -- first with the Linux kernel, which helps power the Internet, and again with Git, the source code management system used by developers worldwide. In a rare interview with TED Curator Chris Anderson, Torvalds discusses with remarkable openness the personality traits that prompted his unique philosophy of work, engineering and life. "I am not a visionary, I'm an engineer," Torvalds says. "I'm perfectly happy with all the people who are walking around and just staring at the clouds ... but I'm looking at the ground, and I want to fix the pothole that's right in front of me before I fall in."

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Angélica Dass: The beauty of human skin in every color

TED2016

Angélica Dass: The beauty of human skin in every color
2,472,894 views

Angélica Dass's photography challenges how we think about skin color and ethnic identity. In this personal talk, hear about the inspiration behind her portrait project, Humanæ, and her pursuit to document humanity's true colors rather than the untrue white, red, black and yellow associated with race.

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Siyanda Mohutsiwa: How young Africans found a voice on Twitter

TED2016

Siyanda Mohutsiwa: How young Africans found a voice on Twitter
1,074,183 views

What can a young woman with an idea, an Internet connection and a bit of creativity achieve? That's all Siyanda Mohutsiwa needed to unite young African voices in a new way. Hear how Mohutsiwa and other young people across the continent are using social media to overcome borders and circumstance, accessing something they have long had to violently take: a voice.

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Alex Kipman: A futuristic vision of the age of holograms

TED2016

Alex Kipman: A futuristic vision of the age of holograms
3,560,199 views

Explore a speculative digital world without screens in this fanciful demo, a mix of near reality and far-future possibility. Wearing the HoloLens headset, Alex Kipman demos his vision for bringing 3D holograms into the real world, enhancing our perceptions so that we can touch and feel digital content. Featuring Q&A with TED's Helen Walters.

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Astro Teller: The unexpected benefit of celebrating failure

TED2016

Astro Teller: The unexpected benefit of celebrating failure
2,686,287 views

"Great dreams aren't just visions," says Astro Teller, "They're visions coupled to strategies for making them real." The head of X (formerly Google X), Teller takes us inside the "moonshot factory," as it's called, where his team seeks to solve the world's biggest problems through experimental projects like balloon-powered Internet and wind turbines that sail through the air. Find out X's secret to creating an organization where people feel comfortable working on big, risky projects and exploring audacious ideas.

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