The BEST episodes of TED Talks season 2019
Every episode of TED Talks season 2019, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of TED Talks season 2019!
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 - Joanne Chory: How supercharged plants could slow climate change
Season 2019 - Episode 95 - Aired 5/2/2019
Plants are amazing machines -- for millions of years, they've taken carbon dioxide out of the air and stored it underground, keeping a crucial check on the global climate. Plant geneticist Joanne Chory is working to amplify this special ability: with her colleagues at the Salk Plant Molecular and Cellular Biology Laboratory, she's creating plants that can store more carbon, deeper underground, for hundreds of years. Learn more about how these supercharged plants could help slow climate change. (This ambitious plan is a part of the Audacious Project, TED's initiative to inspire and fund global change.)
Watch Now:Amazon
#2 - Jack Dorsey: How Twitter needs to change
Season 2019 - Episode 85 - Aired 4/17/2019
Can Twitter be saved? In a wide-ranging conversation with TED's Chris Anderson and Whitney Pennington Rodgers, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey discusses the future of the platform -- acknowledging problems with harassment and moderation and proposing some fundamental changes that he hopes will encourage healthy, respectful conversations. "Are we actually delivering something that people value every single day?" Dorsey asks.
Watch Now:Amazon
#3 - Dropbox: How one team turned a sprint project into a marathon success
Season 2019 - Episode 51 - Aired 2/12/2019
TED Resident Keith Kirkland and his team at WearWorks use haptic technology to develop products and experiences that communicate information through touch. In 2017, they were faced with a seemingly impossible challenge: quickly develop a device for a blind ultra-marathon runner to compete -- unaided and unassisted -- in the New York City Marathon. Jennifer Brook, a design researcher at Dropbox, explains how the team at WearWorks navigated the challenges and tensions of designing this groundbreaking new technology.
#4 - Adena Friedman: What's the future of capitalism?
Season 2019 - Episode 226 - Aired 10/11/2019
Global markets let people put their money behind ideas that make society better. So why does capitalism get a lot of the blame for the world's problems? In this forward-thinking talk, Nasdaq president and CEO Adena Friedman explains how markets can level the playing field -- as long as we imagine more and new ways to balance the capitalistic foundations of choice and freedom.
#5 - Dan Clay: Why you should bring your whole self to work
Season 2019 - Episode 38 - Aired 2/5/2019
Dan Clay was worried about being dismissed as "too gay" at work, so he dialed down his personality. But then his alter ego, Carrie Dragshaw, went viral online. Here's what happened next.
#6 - Scott Williams: The impact of a TED Talk -- one year later
Season 2019 - Episode 20 - Aired 1/14/2019
In 2017, Scott Williams highlighted the invaluable role of informal caregivers within society on the TED@Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany stage. Since then, over a million have seen his talk. Williams joins curator Bruno Giussani to discuss the influence of his talk both within Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and on the general public.
#7 - Renzo Vitale: "Drottning Kristina"
Season 2019 - Episode 19 - Aired 1/14/2019
Composer and pianist Renzo Vitale performs his piece "Drottning Kristina," bringing the audience along on a warm, meditative yet energetic instrumental journey that closely reflects the tempos of life.
#8 - Kathy Vinokurov: Challenging the perception of belonging
Season 2019 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/14/2019
What happens when you're Russian, grow up in Israel and work for an international pharmaceutical company in Germany? You end up with a multinational background that may be difficult for your peers to understand or relate to on a personal level. Materials scientist Kathy Vinokurov believes that we can break down these cultural barriers — using something as simple as a homemade cake.
#9 - Daniel Sherling: How we use a shipping container to spark scientific curiosity
Season 2019 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/14/2019
"How can students get excited about science if they don't have access to the resources?" asks science education promoter Daniel Sherling. Answer? Bring the fun science to schools — with a mobile science lab meant to encourage engaged, dynamic learning! Sherling explains how he, his team and a bright yellow shipping container tour North America with a single goal: to spark curiosity in the next generation of scientists.
#10 - Doreen Koenning: Can sharks help us fight cancer?
Season 2019 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/14/2019
Medicine made from human antibodies help us battle cancer and other diseases — but they blend into our immune system so well, it's difficult to track their side effects. Shark antibodies, by contrast, stand out like a sore thumb. Antibody researcher Doreen Koenning has dedicated her career to studying how these proteins could become a valuable tool in clinical drug trials — and potentially create a new breed of treatment in the fight against cancer.
#11 - Sarah Klein: The possibilities of human-centric lighting
Season 2019 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/14/2019
Lighting, which is often selected based on installation costs, can actually help us improve how we work, help with jetlag, and even improve our sleep. Researcher Sarah Klein believes we need to think of light differently — not just as illumination, but as a tool for our emotional and biological well-being.
#12 - Lars Jönsson: "Healthcare Anthem of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany"
Season 2019 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/14/2019
A thoughtful ode to health care, composed by Tilo Alpermann and performed on the TED@Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany stage by Lars Jönnson.
#13 - Vikas Jaitely: How we can fight antibiotic-resistant superbugs with a new class of vaccines
Season 2019 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/14/2019
The alarming rise of "superbugs" could claim up to 10 million lives globally by 2050 due to their unique ability to resist antibiotics. However, pharmacist Vikas Jaitely is researching ways we can battle these drug-resistant bacteria — by studying how they evolve in order to create more effective treatments and vaccines.
#14 - Boris Hesser: A grassroots healthcare revolution in Africa
Season 2019 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/14/2019
Half the world's population doesn't have access to basic health care. The answer to bridging this divide lies in pharmacies, which Boris A. Hesser believes can be developed into bonafide centers of community care. In this forward-thinking talk, Hesser explains how he and his team are working to bring affordable health care to everyone, everywhere.
#15 - Deutsche Philharmonie Merck: "Part II. The Journey Through Time" / "Ruslan and Lyudmila"
Season 2019 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/14/2019
Composed by its conductor, Ben Palmer in 2018, the Deutsche Philharmonie Merck performs "Part II. The Journey Through Time" to celebrate the 350th anniversary of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. This is followed by a second piece by Mikhail Glinka, "Ruslan and Lyudmila," an overture based on a poem by Pushkin, providing a contemplative melody with toiling bravado, soaring strings and notes of inspiration — which one could imagine as the sounds of a working mind struck by brilliance.
#16 - Gunjan Bhardwaj: How blockchain and AI can help us decipher medicine's big data
Season 2019 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/14/2019
When diagnosed with a disease, it's often overwhelming to sort through mountains of medical data to figure out what therapies are available, pinpoint where they're offered and identify the best experts to help. Complexity specialist Gunjan Bhardwaj recognizes that mining this information may best be done using a system of artificial intelligence and blockchain to help people, within and outside the medical field, navigate and comprehend such "deep, dense and diverse" data — entering a new era where all research is searchable and shareable.
#17 - Julie Cordua: How we can eliminate child sexual abuse material from the internet
Season 2019 - Episode 230 - Aired 10/15/2019
Social entrepreneur Julie Cordua works on a problem that isn't easy to talk about: the sexual abuse of children in images and videos on the internet. At Thorn, she's building technology to connect the dots between the tech industry, law enforcement and government -- so we can swiftly end the viral distribution of abuse material and rescue children faster. Learn more about how this scalable solution could help dismantle the communities normalizing child sexual abuse around the world today. (This ambitious plan is part of the Audacious Project, TED's initiative to inspire and fund global change.)
#18 - David Deutsch: After billions of years of monotony, the universe is waking up
Season 2019 - Episode 229 - Aired 10/14/2019
Theoretical physicist David Deutsch delivers a mind-bending meditation on the "great monotony" -- the idea that nothing novel has appeared in the universe for billions of years -- and shows how humanity's capacity to create explanatory knowledge could be the thing that bucks this trend. "Humans are not playthings of cosmic forces," he says. "We are users of cosmic forces."
#19 - First Aid Kit: "King of the World" / "Nothing Has to Be True" / "My Silver Lining"
Season 2019 - Episode 228 - Aired 10/11/2019
Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit blend sweet vocal harmonies, raw melodies and honest lyrics in a lively performance of their original songs: "King of the World", "Nothing Has to Be True" and "My Silver Lining."
#20 - The Bloom Twins: "Wrong" / "Small Town Weirdos"
Season 2019 - Episode 227 - Aired 10/11/2019
In an intoxicating performance, the Bloom Twins -- multi-instrumentalist sisters Anna and Sonya Kupriienko -- perform their special brand of "dark pop": a haunting collision of melody and electronic tracks.
#21 - Nicola Sturgeon: What Brexit means for Scotland
Season 2019 - Episode 171 - Aired 7/30/2019
First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon joined TEDSummit in Edinburgh to deliver a visionary talk about making collective well-being the main aim of public policy and the economy. Watch the full talk at go.ted.com/nicolasturgeon. It was a charged week in UK politics; that same morning, Boris Johnson assumed office as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. After the talk, Head of TED Chris Anderson joined First Minister Sturgeon to ask a few questions about the political situation in the UK.
#22 - Nivruti Rai: An open-source database to create "guardian angel" AI
Season 2019 - Episode 122 - Aired 5/28/2019
Imagine an extra brain that knows us better than we know ourselves, that exists "with us, beside us, experiencing our world with us ... always connected, always processing, always watching." Nivruti Rai believes that AI systems could become these kinds of guardian angels, if given the chance. In this future-forward talk, Rai explains how machine-learning could flourish once it's able to analyze complex traffic patterns.
#23 - Jochen Wegner: What happened when we paired up thousands of strangers to talk politics
Season 2019 - Episode 186 - Aired 9/3/2019
In spring 2019, more than 17,000 Europeans from 33 countries signed up to have a political argument with a complete stranger. They were part of "Europe Talks," a project that organizes one-on-one conversations between people who disagree — sort of like a Tinder for politics. Editor Jochen Wegner shares the unexpected things that happened when people met up to talk — and shows how face-to-face discussions could get a divided world to rethink itself.
#24 - Climbing PoeTree: "Being Human" / "Awakening"
Season 2019 - Episode 148 - Aired 6/25/2019
Alixa Garcia and Naima Penniman of Climbing PoeTree combine impactful poetry and sharp beatboxing in a spoken word performance of "Being Human." They're joined by the captivating vocals and instrumental melodies of Claudia Cuentas and Tonya Abernathy for "Awakening."
#25 - Resistance Revival Chorus: "The Rich Man's House" / "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind Stayed on Freedom)"
Season 2019 - Episode 139 - Aired 6/12/2019
Resistance Revival Chorus, a collective of more than 60 women, fill the TED World Theater with a rhapsodic performance of "The Rich Man's House" and "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind Stayed on Freedom)." They show us how joy can be an act of resistance.