TED Talks Daily

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TED Talks Daily episodes

June 04 Why the best ideas come from play | Maxwell Pearce
Coaches kept telling Maxwell Pearce to stick to the fundamentals. Good thing he didn't listen. A Harlem Globetrotter and artist, he went on to build a global reputation for gravity-defying dunks and a theory that the same playful rule-breaking is what powers progress in every field. In this joyful talk, he makes the case that play isn't the opposite of serious work — it's the secret ingredient behind it.
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13 min
June 03 Why you should disappoint your parents | Desiree Akhavan (re-release)
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When filmmaker Desiree Akhavan told her Iranian immigrant parents she was in love with a woman, she knew they would object. She explains why it's worth the risk to let people get to know the real you.
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12 min
June 02 The love of my life (and why I need to share it with you) | Ann Patchett
If you want to live in a world where people read, novelist Ann Patchett has news for you: it's your job to help create that reality. Tracing her path from a chance airport encounter through a career writing iconic novels and opening a beloved independent bookstore, she makes the case that reading isn't a private pleasure but a civic act that builds empathy, sustains a "long-format brain" and pulls people out of isolation. Ready to lose yourself in a book?

(Following her talk, Elise Hu, host of TED Talks Daily, interviews Patchett on the joys and challenges of owning a bookstore. They also discuss whether audiobooks count as reading, the inefficiency of book banning, and how to raise young people to be readers. Patchett also teases the books she’s excited about in 2026.)
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38 min
June 01 How to escape the smartphone doom loop | Larz May, Elise Hu
Larz May has spent a decade building digital wellness programs for young people, and she's discovered something quietly radical: the smartphone doom loop of screen dependence and anxiety isn't inevitable, and joy (not restriction) is the way out. She makes the case for a different relationship with technology — starting with swapping screens for some analog fun.
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18 min
May 31 Sunday Pick: Kristen Bell on delivering honesty with empathy | from ReThinking with Adam Grant
On today's "Sunday Pick" on TED Talks Daily, we're bring you an episode from the TED Podcast ReThinking with Adam Grant. You probably know Kristen Bell as the star behind characters like Veronica Mars, Princess Anna from Frozen, and Eleanor from The Good Place. In this episode, Adam sits down with Kristen live at BetterUp’s Uplift leadership summit to examine how she’s learning to overcome her people pleasing tendencies and stop internalizing other people’s emotions. Kristen gets in character to demonstrate how to be honest without being unkind. She also makes the case that compliments are underrated, opens up about her strategies for dealing with envy, and offers a surprising theory of why we overexplain.
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43 min
May 30 The counterintuitive secret of leadership | Jessica Kriegel
Control is an illusion — and the leaders who chase it are holding their teams back. Workplace culture expert Jessica Kriegel explores the tactic that leaders who want to achieve extraordinary results should try instead.
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15 min
May 29 How screens stole childhood — and how to get it back | Jonathan Haidt
Humans aren't just social — we're ultrasocial, wired like bees and ants for deep connection. So what happens when smartphones take over childhood, tablets replace textbooks and AI companies infiltrate our kids’ lives? Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out three principles of technoskepticism — and explains why, two years after sounding the alarm in “The Anxious Generation,” he's more concerned (and hopeful) than ever before.
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22 min
May 28 The invisible infrastructure in the sky | Adam Bry
Drones aren't just weapons of war; they're becoming first responders, infrastructure inspectors and guardians of the grid. Adam Bry, who leads the top drone manufacturer in the US, shows how autonomous drones are transforming emergency response and public safety — from detecting faulty power lines and preventing wildfires to catching crime in real time. During his talk, he demos the technology live from the TED stage, piloting a drone in Tokyo from his laptop in Vancouver.
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12 min
May 27 My $60 million science experiment | Mark Rober
Mark Rober spent years trying to land a rover on Mars. Now, the former NASA engineer turned science YouTuber with millions of subscribers is launching a new mission: to teach the next generation of big problem solvers. That's why he's spending 60 million dollars to build a STEM curriculum kids actually want. With squirrel obstacle courses, giant lasers and elephant toothpaste explosions, who wouldn't want to learn from YouTube's top engineer?
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16 min
May 26 The missing ingredient in every peace deal | Hiba Qasas
What if the path to peace starts with self-interest? After four decades inside some of the world's most dangerous conflict zones, mediator Hiba Qasas has learned that most peacebuilding efforts get it wrong from the start. She makes a provocative case that conciliation shouldn't begin with empathy — and reveals how leading with shared incentives brought hundreds of Israeli and Palestinian leaders into active collaboration, even in the midst of war. (Following her talk, Elise Hu, host of TED Talks Daily, interviews Qasas on our collective responsibility to advocate for peacemaking.)

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34 min

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