The BEST episodes of TED Talks season 2016

#1 - Raffaello D'Andrea: Meet the dazzling flying machines of the future

Season 2016 - Episode 34 - Aired 2/19/2016

When you hear the word "drone," you probably think of something either very useful or very scary. But could they have aesthetic value? Autonomous systems expert Raffaello D'Andrea develops flying machines, and his latest projects are pushing the boundaries of autonomous flight -- from a flying wing that can hover and recover from disturbance to an eight-propeller craft that's ambivalent to orientation ... to a swarm of tiny coordinated micro-quadcopters. Prepare to be dazzled by a dreamy, swirling array of flying machines as they dance like fireflies above the TED stage.

#2 - Auke Ijspeert: A Robot That Runs And Swims Like A Salamander

Season 2016 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/28/2016

Roboticist Auke Ijspeert designs biorobots, machines modeled after real animals that are capable of handling complex terrain and would appear at home in the pages of a sci-fi novel. The process of creating these robots leads to better automata that can be used for fieldwork, service, and search and rescue. But these robots don't just mimic the natural world -- they help us understand our own biology better, unlocking previously unknown secrets of the spinal cord.

#3 - Suzanne Simard: How trees talk to each other

Season 2016 - Episode 145 - Aired 7/22/2016

#4 - James Veitch: This Is What Happens When You Reply To Spam Email

Season 2016 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/8/2016

Suspicious emails: unclaimed insurance bonds, diamond-encrusted safe deposit boxes, close friends marooned in a foreign country. They pop up in our inboxes, and standard procedure is to delete on sight. But what happens when you reply? Follow along as writer and comedian James Veitch narrates a hilarious, weeks-long exchange with a spammer who offered to cut him in on a hot deal.

#5 - Harry Cliff: Have We Reached The End Of Physics?

Season 2016 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/4/2016

Why is there something rather than nothing? Why does so much interesting stuff exist in the universe? Particle physicist Harry Cliff works on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and he has some potentially bad news for people who seek answers to these questions. Despite the best efforts of scientists (and the help of the biggest machine on the planet), we may never be able to explain all the weird features of nature. Is this the end of physics? Learn more in this fascinating talk about the latest research into the secret structure of the universe.

#6 - Celeste Headlee: 10 Ways To Have A Better Conversation

Season 2016 - Episode 31 - Aired 2/16/2016

When your job hinges on how well you talk to people, you learn a lot about how to have conversations -- and that most of us don't converse very well. Celeste Headlee has worked as a radio host for decades, and she knows the ingredients of a great conversation: Honesty, brevity, clarity and a healthy amount of listening. In this insightful talk, she shares 10 useful rules for having better conversations. "Go out, talk to people, listen to people," she says. "And, most importantly, be prepared to be amazed."

#7 - Sebastian Wernicke: How To Use Data To Make A Hit Tv Show

Season 2016 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/5/2016

Does collecting more data lead to better decision-making? Competitive, data-savvy companies like Amazon, Google and Netflix have learned that data analysis alone doesn't always produce optimum results. In this talk, data scientist Sebastian Wernicke breaks down what goes wrong when we make decisions based purely on data -- and suggests a brainier way to use it.

#8 - David Sedlak: 4 Ways We Can Avoid A Catastrophic Drought

Season 2016 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/7/2016

As the world's climate patterns continue to shift unpredictably, places where drinking water was once abundant may soon find reservoirs dry and groundwater aquifers depleted. In this talk, civil and environmental engineer David Sedlak shares four practical solutions to the ongoing urban water crisis. His goal: to shift our water supply towards new, local sources of water and create a system that is capable of withstanding any of the challenges climate change may throw at us in the coming years.

#9 - Tasos Frantzolas: Everything you hear on film is a lie

Season 2016 - Episode 204 - Aired 10/27/2016

Sound design is built on deception -- when you watch a movie or TV show, nearly all of the sounds you hear are fake. In this audio-rich talk, Tasos Frantzolas explores the role of sound in storytelling and demonstrates just how easily our brains are fooled by what we hear.

#10 - Isaac Lidsky: What reality are you creating for yourself?

Season 2016 - Episode 188 - Aired 10/6/2016

Reality isn't something you perceive; it's something you create in your mind. Isaac Lidsky learned this profound lesson firsthand, when unexpected life circumstances yielded valuable insights. In this introspective, personal talk, he challenges us to let go of excuses, assumptions and fears, and accept the awesome responsibility of being the creators of our own reality.

#11 - Allan Adams: What the discovery of gravitational waves means

Season 2016 - Episode 33 - Aired 2/18/2016

More than a billion years ago, two black holes in a distant galaxy locked into a spiral, falling inexorably toward each other, and collided. 'All that energy was pumped into the fabric of time and space itself,' says theoretical physicist Allan Adams, 'making the universe explode in roiling waves of gravity.' About 25 years ago, a group of scientists built a giant laser detector called LIGO to search for these kinds of waves, which had been predicted but never observed. In this mind-bending talk, Adams breaks down what happened when, in September 2015, LIGO detected an unthinkably small anomaly, leading to one of the most exciting discoveries in the history of physics.

#12 - Judson Brewer: A simple way to break a bad habit

Season 2016 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/3/2016

Can we break bad habits by being more curious about them? Psychiatrist Judson Brewer studies the relationship between mindfulness and addiction -- from smoking to overeating to all those other things we do even though we know they're bad for us. Learn more about the mechanism of habit development and discover a simple but profound tactic that might help you beat your next urge to smoke, snack or check a text while driving.

#13 - Shonda Rhimes: My Year Of Saying Yes To Everything

Season 2016 - Episode 32 - Aired 2/17/2016

Shonda Rhimes, the titan behind Grey's Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder, is responsible for some 70 hours of television per season, and she loves to work. "When I am hard at work, when I am deep in it, there is no other feeling," she says. She has a name for this feeling: The hum. The hum is a drug, the hum is music, the hum is God's whisper in her ear. But what happens when it stops? Is she anything besides the hum? In this moving talk, join Rhimes on a journey through her "year of yes" and find out how she got her hum back.

#14 - Aomawa Shields: How We'll Find Life On Other Planets

Season 2016 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/6/2016

Astronomer Aomawa Shields searches for clues that life might exist elsewhere in the universe by examining the atmospheres of distant exoplanets. When she isn't exploring the heavens, the classically trained actor (and TED Fellow) looks for ways to engage young women in the sciences using theater, writing and visual art. 'Maybe one day they'll join the ranks of astronomers who are full of contradictions,' she says, 'and use their backgrounds to discover, once and for all, that we are truly not alone in the universe.'

#15 - Michael Shellenberger: How fear of nuclear power is hurting the environment

Season 2016 - Episode 172 - Aired 9/14/2016

"We're not in a clean energy revolution; we're in a clean energy crisis," says climate policy expert Michael Shellenberger. His surprising solution: nuclear. In this passionate talk, he explains why it's time to overcome longstanding fears of the technology, and why he and other environmentalists believe it's past time to embrace nuclear as a viable and desirable source of clean power.

#16 - Julie Lythcott-Haims: How to raise successful kids — without over-parenting

Season 2016 - Episode 171 - Aired 9/13/2016

By loading kids with high expectations and micromanaging their lives at every turn, parents aren't actually helping. At least, that's how Julie Lythcott-Haims sees it. With passion and wry humor, the former Dean of Freshmen at Stanford makes the case for parents to stop defining their children's success via grades and test scores. Instead, she says, they should focus on providing the oldest idea of all: unconditional love.

#17 - Neha Narula: The future of money

Season 2016 - Episode 170 - Aired 9/12/2016

What happens when the way we buy, sell and pay for things changes, perhaps even removing the need for banks or currency exchange bureaus? That's the radical promise of a world powered by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. We're not there yet, but in this sparky talk, digital currency researcher Neha Narula describes the collective fiction of money — and paints a picture of a very different looking future.

#18 - Franz Freudenthal: A new way to heal hearts without surgery

Season 2016 - Episode 169 - Aired 9/9/2016

At the intersection of medical invention and indigenous culture, pediatric cardiologist Franz Freudenthal mends holes in the hearts of children across the world, using a device born from traditional Bolivian loom weaving. "The most complex problems in our time," he says, "can be solved with simple techniques, if we are able to dream."

#19 - David Camarillo: Why helmets don't prevent concussions — and what might

Season 2016 - Episode 168 - Aired 9/8/2016

What is a concussion? Probably not what you think it is. In this talk from the cutting edge of research, bioengineer (and former football player) David Camarillo shows what really happens during a concussion — and why standard sports helmets don't prevent it. Here's what the future of concussion prevention looks like.

#20 - Courtney E. Martin: The new American Dream

Season 2016 - Episode 167 - Aired 9/7/2016

For the first time in history, the majority of American parents don't think their kids will be better off than they were. This shouldn't be a cause for alarm, says journalist Courtney Martin. Rather, it's an opportunity to define a new approach to work and family that emphasizes community and creativity. "The biggest danger is not failing to achieve the American Dream," she says in a talk that will resonate far beyond the US. "The biggest danger is achieving a dream that you don't actually believe in."

#21 - Sal Khan: Let's teach for mastery — not test scores

Season 2016 - Episode 166 - Aired 9/6/2016

Would you choose to build a house on top of an unfinished foundation? Of course not. Why, then, do we rush students through education when they haven't always grasped the basics? Yes, it's complicated, but educator Sal Khan shares his plan to turn struggling students into scholars by helping them master concepts at their own pace.

#22 - James Veitch: The agony of trying to unsubscribe

Season 2016 - Episode 165 - Aired 9/2/2016

It happens to all of us: you unsubscribe from an unwanted marketing email, and a few days later another message from the same company pops up in your inbox. Comedian James Veitch turned this frustration into whimsy when a local supermarket refused to take no for an answer. Hijinks ensued.

#23 - Jonathan Tepperman: The risky politics of progress

Season 2016 - Episode 164 - Aired 9/1/2016

Global problems such as terrorism, inequality and political dysfunction aren't easy to solve, but that doesn't mean we should stop trying. In fact, suggests journalist Jonathan Tepperman, we might even want to think riskier. He traveled the world to ask global leaders how they're tackling hard problems — and unearthed surprisingly hopeful stories that he's distilled into three tools for problem-solving.

#24 - Kio Stark: Why you should talk to strangers

Season 2016 - Episode 163 - Aired 8/31/2016

"When you talk to strangers, you're making beautiful interruptions into the expected narrative of your daily life — and theirs," says Kio Stark. In this delightful talk, Stark explores the overlooked benefits of pushing past our default discomfort when it comes to strangers and embracing those fleeting but profoundly beautiful moments of genuine connection.

#25 - Christopher Bell: Bring on the female superheroes!

Season 2016 - Episode 162 - Aired 8/30/2016

Why is it so hard to find female superhero merchandise? In this passionate, sparkling talk, media studies scholar (and father of a Star Wars-obsessed daughter) Christopher Bell addresses the alarming lack of female superheroes in the toys and products marketed to kids — and what it means for how we teach them about the world.