TED Motivation

Kailash Satyarthi: How to make peace? Get angry

How did a young man born into a high caste in India come to free 83,000 children from slavery? Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi offers a surprising piece of advice to anyone who wants to change the world for the better: Get angry at injustice. In this powerful talk,…

14 Apr 2015 18 min

Boniface Mwangi: The day I stood up alone

Photographer Boniface Mwangi wanted to protest against corruption in his home country of Kenya. So he made a plan: He and some friends would stand up and heckle during a public mass meeting. But when the moment came ... he stood alone. What happened next, he says, showed him who…

8 Apr 2015 7 min

Dave Isay: Everyone around you has a story the world needs to hear

Dave Isay opened the first StoryCorps booth in New York’s Grand Central Terminal in 2003 with the intention of creating a quiet place where a person could honor someone who mattered to them by listening to their story. Since then, StoryCorps has evolved into the single largest collection of human…

26 Mar 2015 21 min

Joe Madiath: Better toilets, better life

In rural India, the lack of toilets creates a big, stinking problem. It leads to poor quality water, one of the leading causes of disease in India, and has a disproportionately negative effect on women. Joe Madiath introduces a program to help villagers help themselves, by building clean, protected water…

23 Jan 2015 12 min

Why is India so filthy? The Ugly Indian

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. The Ugly Indian is an anonymous collective that does not talk to media, wants no publicity and works with the motto - Only Work No Talk. However, they made an exception for TEDxBangalore so that…

15 Jan 2015 17 min

Ben Saunders: To the South Pole and back — the hardest 105 days of my life

This year, explorer Ben Saunders attempted his most ambitious trek yet. He set out to complete Captain Robert Falcon Scott’s failed 1912 polar expedition — a four-month, 1,800-mile round trip journey from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole and back. In the first talk given after his adventure,…

3 Dec 2014 17 min

Rosie King: How autism freed me to be myself

“People are so afraid of variety that they try to fit everything into a tiny little box with a specific label,” says 16-year-old Rosie King, who is bold, brash and autistic. She wants to know: Why is everyone so worried about being normal? She sounds a clarion call for every…

25 Nov 2014 6 min

Debra Jarvis: Yes, I survived cancer. But that doesn't define me

Debra Jarvis had worked as a hospital chaplain for nearly 30 years when she was diagnosed with cancer. And she learned quite a bit as a patient. In a witty, daring talk, she explains how the identity of “cancer survivor” can feel static. She asks us all to claim our…

31 Oct 2014 16 min

Susan Etlinger: What do we do with all this big data?

Does a set of data make you feel more comfortable? More successful? Then your interpretation of it is likely wrong. In a surprisingly moving talk, Susan Etlinger explains why, as we receive more and more data, we need to deepen our critical thinking skills. Because it's hard to move beyond…

21 Oct 2014 12 min

Eman Mohammed: The courage to tell a hidden story

Eman Mohammed is one of the few female photojournalists in the Gaza Strip. Though openly shunned by many of her male colleagues, she is given unprecedented access to areas denied to men. In this short, visual talk, the TED Fellow critiques gender norms in her community by bringing light to…

30 Sep 2014 4 min

Zak Ebrahim: I am the son of a terrorist. Here's how I chose peace.

If you’re raised on dogma and hate, can you choose a different path? Zak Ebrahim was just seven years old when his father helped plan the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. His story is shocking, powerful and, ultimately, inspiring.

10 Sep 2014 9 min

Colin Grant: The son of a difficult father

Colin Grant has spent a lifetime navigating the emotional landscape between his father’s world and his own. Born in England to Jamaican parents, Grant draws on stories of shared experience within his immigrant community — and reflects on how he found forgiveness for a father who rejected him.

9 Sep 2014 17 min

Isabel Allende: How to live passionately—no matter your age

Author Isabel Allende is 71. Yes, she has a few wrinkles—but she has incredible perspective too. In this candid talk, meant for viewers of all ages, she talks about her fears as she gets older and shares how she plans to keep on living passionately.

4 Sep 2014 8 min

Why it pays to work hard - Richard St. John

Nothing comes easy, and behind every success are hours of plain hard work. Sounds intimidating, but Richard St. John proposes a simple shift in attitude to turn mediocre into incredible.

21 Jul 2014 6 min

Renata Salecl: Our unhealthy obsession with choice

We face an endless string of choices, which leads us to feel anxiety, guilt and pangs of inadequacy that we are perhaps making the wrong ones. But philosopher Renata Salecl asks: Could individual choices be distracting us from something bigger—our power as social thinkers? A bold call for us to…

10 Jul 2014 15 min

Julian Treasure: How to speak so that people want to listen

Have you ever felt like you're talking, but nobody is listening? Here's Julian Treasure to help. In this useful talk, the sound expert demonstrates the how-to's of powerful speaking — from some handy vocal exercises to tips on how to speak with empathy. A talk that might help the world…

30 Jun 2014 9 min

Ruth Chang: How to make hard choices

Here's a talk that could literally change your life. Which career should I pursue? Should I break up — or get married?! Where should I live? Big decisions like these can be agonizingly difficult. But that's because we think about them the wrong way, says philosopher Ruth Chang. She offers…

23 Jun 2014 14 min

Stella Young: I'm not your inspiration, thank you very much

Stella Young is a comedian and journalist who happens to go about her day in a wheelchair — a fact that doesn't, she'd like to make clear, automatically turn her into a noble inspiration to all humanity. In this very funny talk, Young breaks down society's habit of turning disabled…

11 Jun 2014 9 min

Elizabeth Gilbert: Success, failure and the drive to keep creating

Elizabeth Gilbert was once an "unpublished diner waitress," devastated by rejection letters. And yet, in the wake of the success of 'Eat, Pray, Love,' she found herself identifying strongly with her former self. With beautiful insight, Gilbert reflects on why success can be as disorienting as failure and offers a…

16 May 2014 7 min

Mellody Hobson: Color blind or color brave?

The subject of race can be very touchy. As finance executive Mellody Hobson says, it's a "conversational third rail." But, she says, that's exactly why we need to start talking about it. In this engaging, persuasive talk, Hobson makes the case that speaking openly about race — and particularly about…

6 May 2014 14 min