The BEST episodes of TED Talks season 2012

#1 - Brené Brown: Listening to shame

Season 2012 - Episode 12 - Aired 3/16/2012

Shame is an unspoken epidemic, the secret behind many forms of broken behavior. Brené Brown, whose earlier talk on vulnerability became a viral hit, explores what can happen when people confront their shame head-on. Her own humor, humanity and vulnerability shine through every word.

#2 - Bryan Stevenson: We need to talk about an injustice

Season 2012 - Episode 5 - Aired 3/5/2012

In an engaging and personal talk -- with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks -- human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America's justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country's black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. These issues, which are wrapped up in America's unexamined history, are rarely talked about with this level of candor, insight and persuasiveness.

#3 - Ronny Edry: Israel and Iran: A love story?

Season 2012 - Episode 142 - Aired 9/1/2012

When war between Israel and Iran seemed imminent, Israeli graphic designer Ronny Edry shared a poster on Facebook of himself and his daughter with a bold message: "Iranians ... we [heart] you." Other Israelis quickly created their own posters with the same message — and Iranians responded in kind. The simple act of communication inspired surprising Facebook communities like "Israel loves Iran," "Iran loves Israel" and even "Palestine loves Israel."

#4 - Reggie Watts disorients you in the most entertaining way

Season 2012 - Episode 48 - Aired 5/25/2012

Reggie Watts' beats defy boxes. Unplug your logic board and watch as he blends poetry and crosses musical genres in this larger-than-life performance.

#5 - Melissa Marshall: Talk nerdy to me

Season 2012 - Episode 91 - Aired 10/11/2012

#6 - Faith Jegede: What I've learned from my autistic brothers

Season 2012 - Episode 107 - Aired 4/1/2012

Faith Jegede tells the moving and funny story of growing up with her two brothers, both autistic — and both extraordinary. In this talk from the TED Talent Search, she reminds us to pursue a life beyond what is normal.

#7 - Play Maurizio Seracini: The secret lives of paintings

Season 2012 - Episode 92 - Aired 6/1/2012

Art history is far from set in stone. Engineer Maurizio Seracini spent 30 years searching for Leonardo da Vinci's lost fresco "The Battle of Anghiari," and in the process discovered that many paintings have layers of history hidden underneath. Should they be part of the viewing experience too?

#8 - Eddie Obeng: Smart failure for a fast-changing world

Season 2012 - Episode 93 - Aired 6/1/2012

The world is changing much more rapidly than most people realize, says business educator Eddie Obeng — and creative output cannot keep up. In this spirited talk, he highlights three important changes we should understand for better productivity, and calls for a stronger culture of “smart failure."

#9 - John Wilbanks: Let's pool our medical data

Season 2012 - Episode 94 - Aired 6/1/2012

When you're getting medical treatment, or taking part in medical testing, privacy is important; strict laws limit what researchers can see and know about you. But what if your medical data could be used — anonymously — by anyone seeking to test a hypothesis? John Wilbanks wonders if the desire to protect our privacy is slowing research, and if opening up medical data could lead to a wave of health care innovation.

#10 - Beau Lotto + Amy O'Toole: Science is for everyone, kids included

Season 2012 - Episode 95 - Aired 10/17/2012

#11 - Heather Brooke: My battle to expose government corruption

Season 2012 - Episode 96 - Aired 6/1/2012

Our leaders need to be held accountable, says journalist Heather Brooke. And she should know: Brooke uncovered the British Parliamentary financial expenses that led to a major political scandal in 2009. She urges us to ask our leaders questions through platforms like Freedom of Information requests — and to finally get some answers.

#12 - Ryan Merkley: Online video -- annotated, remixed and popped

Season 2012 - Episode 97 - Aired 6/1/2012

Videos on the web should work like the web itself: dynamic, full of links, maps and information that can be edited and updated live, says Ryan Merkley. On the TED stage he demos Mozilla's Popcorn Maker, a web-based tool for easy video remixing.

#13 - Pankaj Ghemawat: Actually, the world isn't flat

Season 2012 - Episode 98 - Aired 6/1/2012

It may seem that we're living in a borderless world where ideas, goods and people flow freely from nation to nation. We're not even close, says Pankaj Ghemawat. With great data (and an eye-opening survey), he argues that there's a delta between perception and reality in a world that's maybe not so hyperconnected after all.

#14 - David Pizarro: The strange politics of disgust

Season 2012 - Episode 99 - Aired 5/1/2012

What does a disgusting image have to do with how you vote? Equipped with surveys and experiments, psychologist David Pizarro demonstrates a correlation between your sensitivity to disgusting cues — a photo of feces, an unpleasant odor — and your own moral or political conservatism.

#15 - Lemn Sissay: A child of the state

Season 2012 - Episode 100 - Aired 6/1/2012

Literature has long been fascinated with fostered, adopted and orphaned children, from Moses to Cinderella to Oliver Twist to Harry Potter. So why do many parentless children feel compelled to hide their pasts? Poet and playwright Lemn Sissay tells his own moving story.

#16 - Doris Kim Sung: Metal that breathes

Season 2012 - Episode 101 - Aired 5/1/2012

Modern buildings with floor-to-ceiling windows give spectacular views, but they require a lot of energy to cool. Doris Kim Sung works with thermo-bimetals, smart materials that act more like human skin, dynamically and responsively, and can shade a room from sun and self-ventilate.

#17 - Marco Tempest: A cyber-magic card trick like no other

Season 2012 - Episode 102 - Aired 6/1/2012

The suits, numbers and colors in a deck of cards correspond to the seasons, moon cycles and calendar. Marco Tempest straps on augmented reality goggles and does a card trick like you’ve never seen before, weaving a lyrical tale as he deals. (This version fixes a glitch in the original performance, but is otherwise exactly as seen live by the TEDGlobal audience, including the dazzling augmented reality effects.)

#18 - Rory Stewart: Why democracy matters

Season 2012 - Episode 103 - Aired 6/1/2012

The public is losing faith in democracy, says British MP Rory Stewart. Iraq and Afghanistan’s new democracies are deeply corrupt; meanwhile, 84 percent of people in Britain say politics is broken. In this important talk, Stewart sounds a call to action to rebuild democracy, starting with recognizing why democracy is important — not as a tool, but as an ideal.

#19 - Sanjay Pradhan: How open data is changing international aid

Season 2012 - Episode 104 - Aired 6/1/2012

How do we make sure that development and aid money actually goes to the people who most need it? Sanjay Pradhan of the World Bank Institute lays out three guidelines to help relief efforts make the most impact — while curbing corruption. One key: connecting the players who are working to change broken systems with the data they need.

#20 - Emma Teeling: The secret of the bat genome

Season 2012 - Episode 105 - Aired 9/1/2012

In Western society, bats are often characterized as creepy, even evil. Zoologist Emma Teeling encourages us to rethink common attitudes toward bats, whose unique and fascinating biology gives us insight into our own genetic makeup.

#21 - Adam Garone: Healthier men, one moustache at a time

Season 2012 - Episode 106 - Aired 11/1/2011

Adam Garone has an impressive moustache, and it's for a good cause. A co-founder of Movember, Garone's initiative to raise awareness for men's health — by having men grow out their moustaches every November — began as a dare in a bar in 2003. Now, it's a worldwide movement that raised $126 million for prostate cancer research last year.

#22 - Rachel Botsman: The currency of the new economy is trust

Season 2012 - Episode 74 - Aired 6/1/2012

There's been an explosion of collaborative consumption — web-powered sharing of cars, apartments, skills. Rachel Botsman explores the currency that makes systems like Airbnb and Taskrabbit work: trust, influence, and what she calls "reputation capital."

#23 - Vicki Arroyo: Let's prepare for our new climate

Season 2012 - Episode 82 - Aired 6/1/2012

As Vicki Arroyo says, it's time to prepare our homes and cities for our changing climate, with its increased risk of flooding, drought and uncertainty. She illustrates this inspiring talk with bold projects from cities all over the world — local examples of thinking ahead.

#24 - Margaret Heffernan: Dare to Disagree

Season 2012 - Episode 144 - Aired 6/29/2012

Most people instinctively avoid conflict, but as Margaret Heffernan shows us, good disagreement is central to progress. She illustrates (sometimes counterintuitively) how the best partners aren’t echo chambers — and how great research teams, relationships and businesses allow people to deeply disagree.

#25 - Andrew McAfee: Are droids taking our jobs?

Season 2012 - Episode 75 - Aired 6/1/2012

Robots and algorithms are getting good at jobs like building cars, writing articles, translating — jobs that once required a human. So what will we humans do for work? Andrew McAfee walks through recent labor data to say: We ain't seen nothing yet. But then he steps back to look at big history, and comes up with a surprising view of what comes next.