The BEST episodes of TED Talks season 2007
Every episode of TED Talks season 2007, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of TED Talks season 2007!
TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. TEDTalks began as a simple attempt to share what happens at TED with the world. Under the moniker "ideas worth spreading," talks were released online. They rapidly attracted a global audience in the millions. Indeed, the reaction was so enthusiastic that the entire TED website has been reengineered around TEDTalks, with the goal of giving everyone on-demand access to the world's most inspiring voices. [TED-Ed and TEDx are separate TVDB series and should NOT be listed here. Episode ordering and dates are sourced from YouTube.]
#1 - Ross Lovegrove: The power and beauty of organic design
Season 2007 - Episode 38 - Aired 1/16/2007
Designer Ross Lovegrove expounds his philosophy of "fat-free" design and offers insight into several of his extraordinary products, including the Ty Nant water bottle and the Go chair.
#2 - Steven Levitt: The freakonomics of McDonalds vs. drugs
Season 2007 - Episode 31 - Aired 1/16/2007
Freakonomics author Steven Levitt presents new data on the finances of drug dealing. Contrary to popular myth, he says, being a street-corner crack dealer isn't lucrative: It pays below minimum wage. And your boss can kill you.
Watch Now:Amazon#3 - Nick Bostrom: Humanity's biggest problems aren't what you think they are
Season 2007 - Episode 75 - Aired 5/16/2007
Oxford philosopher and transhumanist Nick Bostrom examines the future of humankind and asks whether we might alter the fundamental nature of humanity to solve our most intrinsic problems.
#4 - Will Wright: Spore, birth of a game
Season 2007 - Episode 108 - Aired 7/17/2007
In a friendly, high-speed presentation, Will Wright demos his newest game, Spore, which promises to dazzle users even more than his previous masterpieces.
#5 - James Kunstler: How bad architecture wrecked cities
Season 2007 - Episode 76 - Aired 5/16/2007
In James Howard Kunstler's view, public spaces should be inspired centers of civic life and the physical manifestation of the common good. Instead, he argues, what we have in America is a nation of places not worth caring about.
#6 - Nora York: "What I Want"
Season 2007 - Episode 77 - Aired 5/16/2007
Nora York gives a stunning performance of her song "What I Want," with Jamie Lawrence (keyboards), Steve Tarshis (guitar) and Arthur Kell (bass).
#7 - Paul Bennett: Design is in the details
Season 2007 - Episode 78 - Aired 5/16/2007
Showing a series of inspiring, unusual and playful products, British branding and design guru Paul Bennett explains that design doesn't have to be about grand gestures, but can solve small, universal and overlooked problems.
#8 - Rives: A mockingbird remix of TED2006
Season 2007 - Episode 79 - Aired 5/17/2007
Rives recaps the most memorable moments of TED2006 in the free-spirited rhyming verse of a fantastical mockingbird lullaby.
#9 - Sheila Patek: Measuring the fastest animal on earth
Season 2007 - Episode 81 - Aired 5/17/2007
Biologist Sheila Patek talks about her work measuring the feeding strike of the mantis shrimp, one of the fastest movements in the animal world, using video cameras recording at 20,000 frames per second.
#10 - Thom Mayne: Architecture is a new way to connect to the world
Season 2007 - Episode 83 - Aired 5/17/2007
Architect Thom Mayne has never been one to take the easy option, and this whistle-stop tour of the buildings he's created makes you glad for it. These are big ideas cast in material form.
#11 - Thomas Dolby & Rachelle Garniez: "La Vie en Rose"
Season 2007 - Episode 84 - Aired 5/17/2007
Featuring the vocals and mischievous bell-playing of accordionist and singer Rachelle Garniez, the TED House Band -- led by Thomas Dolby on keyboard -- delivers this delightful rendition of the Edith Piaf standard "La Vie en Rose."
#12 - Rev. Tom Honey: How could God have allowed the tsunami?
Season 2007 - Episode 85 - Aired 5/17/2007
In the days following the tragic South Asian tsunami of 2004, the Rev. Tom Honey pondered the question, How could a loving God have done this? Here is his answer.
#13 - Vik Muniz: Art with wire, sugar, chocolate and string
Season 2007 - Episode 86 - Aired 5/17/2007
Vik Muniz makes art from pretty much anything, be it shredded paper, wire, clouds or diamonds. Here he describes the thinking behind his work and takes us on a tour of his incredible images.
#14 - William McDonough: Cradle to cradle design
Season 2007 - Episode 87 - Aired 5/17/2007
Green-minded architect and designer William McDonough asks what our buildings and products would look like if designers took into account "all children, all species, for all time."
#15 - Stew: "Black Men Ski"
Season 2007 - Episode 89 - Aired 5/18/2007
What happens when a black man visits Aspen? Singer/songwriter Stew and his band are about to let you know.
#16 - Steven Johnson: A guided tour of the Ghost Map
Season 2007 - Episode 90 - Aired 5/18/2007
Author Steven Johnson takes us on a 10-minute tour of The Ghost Map, his book about a cholera outbreak in 1854 London and the impact it had on science, cities and modern society.
#17 - John Doerr: Seeking salvation and profit in greentech
Season 2007 - Episode 93 - Aired 5/30/2007
"I don't think we're going to make it," John Doerr proclaims, in an emotional talk about climate change and investment. Spurred on by his daughter, who demanded he fix the mess the world is heading for, he and his partners.
#18 - Ethel: "Blue Room"
Season 2007 - Episode 94 - Aired 6/20/2007
The avant-garde string quartet Ethel performs the third movement from Phil Kline's four-part suite "The Blue Room and Other Stories." Searching melodic lines show off the deep, emotional musicality of these passionate players.
#19 - Anand Agarawala: BumpTop desktop is a beautiful mess
Season 2007 - Episode 95 - Aired 6/20/2007
Anand Agarawala presents BumpTop, a user interface that takes the usual desktop metaphor to a glorious, 3-D extreme, transforming file navigation into a freewheeling playground of crumpled documents and clipping-covered "walls."
#20 - Janine Benyus: 12 sustainable design ideas from nature
Season 2007 - Episode 88 - Aired 5/17/2007
In this inspiring talk about recent developments in biomimicry, Janine Benyus provides heartening examples of ways in which nature is already influencing the products and systems we build.
#21 - Bjorn Lomborg: Global priorities bigger than climate change
Season 2007 - Episode 7 - Aired 1/12/2007
Given $50 billion to spend, which would you solve first, AIDS or global warming? Danish political scientist Bjorn Lomborg comes up with surprising answers.
#22 - Caroline Lavelle: A cello performance that casts a spell
Season 2007 - Episode 59 - Aired 5/1/2007
Caroline Lavelle plays the cello like a sorceress casting a spell, occasionally hiding behind her wild mane of blond hair as she sings of pastoral themes. She performs "Farther than the Sun," backed by Thomas Dolby on keyboards.
#23 - Murray Gell-Mann: Beauty and truth in physics
Season 2007 - Episode 149 - Aired 12/7/2007
Armed with a sense of humor and laypeople's terms, Nobel winner Murray Gell-Mann drops some knowledge on TEDsters about particle physics, asking questions like, Are elegant equations more likely to be right than inelegant ones?
#24 - Phil Borges: Documenting our endangered cultures
Season 2007 - Episode 8 - Aired 1/12/2007
Photographer Phil Borges shows rarely seen images of people from the mountains of Dharamsala, India, and the jungles of the Ecuadorean Amazon. In documenting these endangered cultures, he intends to help preserve them.
#25 - Robert Neuwirth: The "shadow cities" of the future
Season 2007 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/12/2007
Robert Neuwirth, author of Shadow Cities, finds the worlds squatter sites -- where a billion people now make their homes -- to be thriving centers of ingenuity and innovation. He takes us on a tour.