The BEST episodes of TED Talks season 2009
Every episode of TED Talks season 2009, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of TED Talks season 2009!
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.]
#1 - Barry Schwartz: Our Loss of Wisdom
Season 2009 - Episode 28 - Aired 2/7/2009
#2 - Simon Sinek: How Great Leaders Inspire Action
Season 2009 - Episode 23 - Aired 9/16/2009
Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership — starting with a golden circle and the question "Why?" His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers ...
#3 - Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology
Season 2009 - Episode 15 - Aired 11/1/2009
At TEDIndia, Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data -- including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper "laptop." In an onstage Q&A, Mistry says he'll open-source the software behind SixthSense, to open its possibilities to all.
#4 - Bobby McFerrin - Watch me play ... the audience!
Season 2009 - Episode 22 - Aired 6/1/2009
In this fun, 3-min performance from the World Science Festival, musician Bobby McFerrin uses the pentatonic scale to reveal one surprising result of the way our brains are wired.
#5 - Mary Roach: 10 things you didn't know about orgasm
Season 2009 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/1/2009
"Bonk" author Mary Roach delves into obscure scientific research, some of it centuries old, to make 10 surprising claims about sexual climax, ranging from the bizarre to the hilarious. (This talk is aimed at adults. Viewer discretion advised.)
#6 - Ray Zahab treks to the South Pole
Season 2009 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/1/2009
Extreme runner Ray Zahab shares an enthusiastic account of his record-breaking trek on foot to the South Pole -- a 33-day sprint through the snow.
#7 - Exploring the mind of a killer | Jim Fallon
Season 2009 - Episode 30 - Aired 7/16/2009
#8 - Rory Sutherland: Life lessons from an ad man
Season 2009 - Episode 14 - Aired 7/1/2009
Advertising adds value to a product by changing our perception, rather than the product itself. Rory Sutherland makes the daring assertion that a change in perceived value can be just as satisfying as what we consider “real” value -- and his conclusion has interesting consequences for how we look at life.
#9 - Louise Fresco: We need to feed the whole world
Season 2009 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/1/2009
Louise Fresco shows us why we should celebrate mass-produced, supermarket-style white bread. She says environmentally sound mass production will feed the world, yet leave a role for small bakeries and traditional methods.
#10 - Ray Anderson: The business logic of sustainability
Season 2009 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/1/2009
At his carpet company, Ray Anderson has increased sales and doubled profits while turning the traditional "take / make / waste" industrial system on its head. In a gentle, understated way, he shares a powerful vision for sustainable commerce.
#11 - Jonathan Drori: Why we're storing billions of seeds
Season 2009 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/1/2009
In this brief talk from TED U 2009, Jonathan Drori encourages us to save biodiversity -- one seed at a time. Reminding us that plants support human life, he shares the vision of the Millennium Seed Bank, which has stored over 3 billion seeds to date from dwindling yet essential plant species.
#12 - Cary Fowler: One seed at a time, protecting the future of food
Season 2009 - Episode 19 - Aired 7/1/2009
The varieties of wheat, corn and rice we grow today may not thrive in a future threatened by climate change. Cary Fowler takes us inside a vast global seed bank, buried within a frozen mountain in Norway, that stores a diverse group of food-crop for whatever tomorrow may bring.
#13 - Jay Walker: The world's English mania
Season 2009 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/1/2009
Jay Walker explains why two billion people around the world are trying to learn English. He shares photos and spine-tingling audio of Chinese students rehearsing English — "the world's second language" — by the thousands.
#14 - Stefan Sagmeister: The Power of Time Off
Season 2009 - Episode 24 - Aired 7/21/2006
Every seven years, designer Stefan Sagmeister closes his New York studio for a yearlong sabbatical to rejuvenate and refresh their creative outlook. He explains the often overlooked value of time off and shows the innovative projects inspired by his time in Bali. TEDGlobal 2009
#15 - Richard St. John: Success is a continuous journey
Season 2009 - Episode 25 - Aired 2/1/2009
In his typically candid style, Richard St. John reminds us that success is not a one-way street, but a constant journey. He uses the story of his business' rise and fall to illustrate a valuable lesson — when we stop trying, we fail.
#16 - Robert Thurman: Expanding your circle of compassion
Season 2009 - Episode 26 - Aired 10/1/2009
It's hard to always show compassion — even to the people we love, but Robert Thurman asks that we develop compassion for our enemies. He prescribes a seven-step meditation exercise to extend compassion beyond our inner circle.
#17 - Stefana Broadbent: How the Internet enables intimacy
Season 2009 - Episode 27 - Aired 7/1/2009
We worry that IM, texting, Facebook are spoiling human intimacy, but Stefana Broadbent's research shows how communication tech is capable of cultivating deeper relationships, bringing love across barriers like distance and workplace rules.
#18 - Daniel Pink The puzzle of motivation
Season 2009 - Episode 12 - Aired 7/1/2009
Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories -- and maybe, a way forward. Bidding adieu to his last "real job" as Al Gore's speechwriter, Dan Pink went freelance to spark a right-brain revolution in the career marketplace.
#19 - Dan Ariely on our buggy moral code
Season 2009 - Episode 11 - Aired 2/1/2009
Behavioral economist Dan Ariely studies the bugs in our moral code: the hidden reasons we think it's OK to cheat or steal (sometimes). Clever studies help make his point that we're predictably irrational -- and can be influenced in ways we can't grasp.
#20 - Dan Ariely asks, Are we in control of our own decisions?
Season 2009 - Episode 10 - Aired 5/19/2009
Behavioral economist Dan Ariely, the author of Predictably Irrational, uses classic visual illusions and his own counterintuitive (and sometimes shocking) research findings to show how we're not as rational as we think when we make decisions.
#21 - Robert Wright: The evolution of compassion
Season 2009 - Episode 9 - Aired 10/1/2009
Robert Wright uses evolutionary biology and game theory to explain why we appreciate the Golden Rule ("Do unto others..."), why we sometimes ignore it and why there’s hope that, in the near future, we might all have the compassion to follow it.
#22 - Carolyn Porco: Could a Saturn moon harbor life?
Season 2009 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/1/2009
Carolyn Porco shares exciting new findings from the Cassini spacecraft's recent sweep of one of Saturn's moons, Enceladus. Samples gathered from the moon's icy geysers hint that an ocean under its surface could harbor life.
#23 - Dan Dennett: Cute, sexy, sweet, funny
Season 2009 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/1/2009
Why are babies cute? Why is cake sweet? Philosopher Dan Dennett has answers you wouldn't expect, as he shares evolution's counterintuitive reasoning on cute, sweet and sexy things (plus a new theory from Matthew Hurley on why jokes are funny).
#24 - Oliver Sacks: What hallucination reveals about our minds
Season 2009 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/1/2009
Neurologist and author Oliver Sacks brings our attention to Charles Bonnet syndrome -- when visually impaired people experience lucid hallucinations. He describes the experiences of his patients in heartwarming detail and walks us through the biology of this under-reported phenomenon
#25 - Brian Cox: What went wrong at the LHC
Season 2009 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/1/2009
In this short talk from TED U 2009, Brian Cox shares what's new with the CERN supercollider. He covers the repairs now underway and what the future holds for the largest science experiment ever attempted.