TED Talks Daily

What does it take to fly a plane? For TED Fellow Refilwe Ledwaba, it took perseverance and drive — and an instructor who took the time to teach to her learning style. Today, as founder of Girls Fly Africa, Ledwaba is empowering the next generation of pilots, particularly young women, with the engineering skills, professional networks and hands-on experience they need to take flight into a sky-high career.

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Artificial intelligence is changing everything — but at what cost? AI sustainability expert Sasha Luccioni exposes how tech companies' massive data centers are burning through energy and wrecking the planet. She introduces a powerful alternative: small but mighty AI models that could flip the script and make the technology smarter, fairer and sustainable.

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Ecosystem scientist Yadvinder Malhi takes us on a jaw-dropping journey through the hidden flows of energy that make life on Earth tick. From sun-soaked forests to tropical islands, he shows how his team measures the vibrancy of ecosystems across the world. This complex web of energy isn't just nature's masterpiece, he says — it's a lifeline for all of us that call this planet home.

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Imagine watching a movie where the main character turns, looks right at you and asks what to do next. That's the future of entertainment that AI engineer Christoph Lassner envisions, featuring interactive, AI-powered stories that you don’t just watch but also help create. He unpacks what this could mean for storytelling, imagining a world in which creators use generative AI to set the scene — and then let viewers take control of the rest.

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Neuroscientist Jennifer Pfeifer digs into the fascinating brain changes driving young people’s behavior during the critical years of adolescence. She debunks some of the biggest misunderstandings about teens — including puberty, hormones and the impact of social media on mental health — and shows how to support kids during this period of growth and possibility. 

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Being open and vulnerable with your loneliness, sadness and fear can help you find comfort and feel less alone, says writer and artist Jonny Sun. In an honest talk filled with his signature illustrations, Sun shares how telling stories about feeling like an outsider helped him tap into an unexpected community and find a tiny sliver of light in the darkness.

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Reflecting on moments that shaped his life, actor Ethan Hawke examines how courageous expression promotes healing and connection with one another -- and invites you to discover your own unabashed creativity. "There is no path till you walk it," he says.

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More than 8,000 satellites orbit Earth, taking photos every day. Food security specialist and TED Fellow Catherine Nakalembe shows how she uses this imagery to help smallholder farmers across Africa prepare for floods, droughts and crop failures. Learn why real innovation isn’t always about shinier technology — it’s about making the tech truly fit the problem it’s solving.

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Troy Vincent Sr. — a professional football player for 15 years and now an executive for the NFL — is here to share the future of the game: flag football. He discusses how this new version of the sport is opening doors for young women and girls to take the field, creating a global movement ahead of its debut at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

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Landfills across African cities are catching fire and releasing methane, an invisible greenhouse gas with more short-term warming potential than CO2. Sustainable strategist Mohamed A. Sultan reveals how local communities are turning this crisis into opportunity, diverting hundreds of tons of waste from landfills and helping thousands of farmers adopt more sustainable techniques. Learn why cutting methane emissions is a win-win opportunity to drive down global temperatures while also creating more livable cities. (This ambitious idea is part of The Audacious Project, TED’s initiative to inspire and fund global change.)

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