The TED Interview

By TED

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What's The TED Interview about?

Sit down with author and podcaster Steven Johnson to hear from leading thinkers and creators from around the world. The TED Interview is a space for guests to further delve into their groundbreaking work, give us a peek into how they discover and explore fascinating ideas, and, in some cases, even defend their thinking. This season, we’re looking at the future of intelligence. Ponder how we can train ourselves to see into the future with Jane McGonigal, find the humanities in science with Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, and listen in on the thought processes of Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Jennifer Egan. Welcome to your front-row seat to great conversations with the world’s brightest minds.

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Introducing Good Sport

02.08.2023

This week on The TED Interview we’re excited to introduce TED’s newest podcast, Good Sport, hosted by veteran sports producer Jody Avirgan. What can sports teach us about life – and each other? Good Sport brings you invigorating stories from ...

The TED Interview episodes:

02.08.2023 Introducing Good Sport This week on The TED Interview we’re excited to introduce TED’s newest podcast, Good Sport, hosted by veteran sports producer Jody Avirgan. What can sports teach us about life – and each other? Good Sport brings you invigorating stories from ...
01.04.2023 Our Predictions for 2023 \| After Hours Curious about 2023? Youngme, Mihir and Felix from the podcast After Hours are back with their celebrated predictions episode. Who will acquire Spotify? Will Twitter implode? What’s the trend in inflation and energy prices? Who will top the music charts? ...
11.17.2022 The music of David Byrne’s mind David Byrne views life through many lenses. He’s a musician, author, filmmaker, curator, conservationist, digital music theorist, bicycle advocate, visual artist... the list goes on. But through his many trajectories – from co-founding the acclaimed band Talking Heads to his ...
11.10.2022 The hidden gifts of visual thinking with Temple Grandin When she was just 18, scientist, industrial designer, animal behaviorist, and autism activist Temple Grandin created one of her most well-known inventions: the hug machine. Inspired by the squeeze chute–a device that holds and soothes cattle before they’re handled–Temple designed ...
11.03.2022 Inciting joy with Ross Gay Nearly every day for a year, American poet Ross Gay sat down and wrote about something that delighted him–from carrying a small tomato plant through an airport to playing a pickup basketball game.The result was his first nonfiction book, “The ...
10.27.2022 Randall Munroe answers your wildest questions How many soulmates do you think people have? What if you tried to funnel all the water from Niagara falls through a straw? Do you think it’s possible? if you sold the whole planet for scrap–what parts would be most ...
10.20.2022 A future without pandemics? with Mark Smolinski In 2011, when medical doctor and epidemiologist Mark Smolinski was working as a science advisor for the blockbuster film “Contagion,” the film ran a campaign that asked communities: “What are you gonna do to prepare for the next pandemic?” A ...
10.13.2022 Atul Gawande on why American healthcare desperately needs innovation Before the COVID-19 pandemic, life expectancy in the United States was 79. Today it’s 76. When compared to other countries like the UK and Japan, where life expectancy is above 80, it’s clear that the U.S. has a lot of ...
10.06.2022 Linda Villarosa on the hidden toll of racism on health When Linda Villarosa was the health editor of Essence Magazine, she says she had a one-track mind. A former college athlete, Linda grew up, like many of us, thinking about health on an individual level. But after reporting on environmental ...
09.29.2022 Can AI make healthcare human again? with Eric Topol Eric Topol is a leading health expert whose writing and explainers about Covid-19 have helped people better understand the complexities of the global pandemic. As a doctor, author, and one of the most cited researchers in medicine, Eric has dedicated ...
09.22.2022 Ed Yong on how animal senses reveal the world around us Like any animal, humans understand the world through our senses. But unlike other creatures, we can't detect magnetic fields with our bodies, or the flow of water from a fish swimming hundreds of feet in the distance. But Ed Yong ...
09.15.2022 Mark Cuban doesn’t believe in following your passions \| ReThinking w/ Adam Grant Mark Cuban has gone from selling garbage bags door-to-door to selling internet companies for billions, acquiring an NBA team, and becoming a beloved “Shark” on Shark Tank. Mark reveals to Adam how he turns problems into opportunities in entrepreneurship, basketball, ...
09.08.2022 Pete Souza, Reagan and Obama’s White House Photographer \| Design Matters Pete Souza has taken some iconic photographs. A former Chief Official White House Photographer for both U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan AND Barack Obama, Pete’s career has taken him from teaching basic photography in Kansas to taking pictures for National Geographic, ...
09.01.2022 A brain implant that turns your thoughts into text \| Tom Oxley \| TED Tech "What if you could control digital devices using just the power of thought? That's the incredible promise behind the Stentrode -- an implantable brain-computer interface that collects and wirelessly transmits information directly from the brain, without the need for open ...
08.25.2022 How do we fix the restaurant tipping system? with Saru Jayaraman How often do you go back and forth over how much to tip at the end of a meal? Depending on the state, in the U.S. that choice could be the difference between a livable income or financial mayhem for ...
08.18.2022 Michael Schur on every moral question ever Michael Scott, Leslie Knope, Detective Jake Peralta–television producer and writer Michael Schur has created some of TV’s most beloved sitcom characters on shows like The Office, Parks and Recreation, and The Good Place. Still, his shows and his philosophy are ...
08.11.2022 Aaron Bastani is thinking about automated luxury…communism? With such rampant inequality across the globe, it’s difficult to imagine that in the near future, society could be a place of abundance where everyone has education, healthcare, or housing. But for journalist Aaron Bastani, this improved state of affairs ...
08.04.2022 Juliet Schor wants a four-day work week Before labor unions fought for them, society didn’t have weekends as we know them. In the 13th century, the average male peasants in the UK only worked 135 days a year. In a post-pandemic and increasingly virtual world, what is ...
07.28.2022 DeepMind's Demis Hassabis on the future of AI Demis Hassabis is one of tech's most brilliant minds. A chess-playing child prodigy turned researcher and founder of headline-making AI company DeepMind, Demis is thinking through some of the most revolutionary—and in some cases controversial—uses of artificial intelligence. From the ...
07.21.2022 Jennifer Egan on storytelling in a data-hooked world Jennifer Egan is a journalist and writer whose novel “A Visit from the Goon Squad” won both the 2011 Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Using a unique format—including a whole chapter told through Powerpoint—Egan ...
07.14.2022 Garry Kasparov on chess, technology and democracy Garry Kasparov is one of the greatest chess players of all time. He was one of the youngest world champions ever, and had a 20-year streak as the world’s top-rated player. But even though he is known as a champion, ...
07.07.2022 Chanda Prescod-Weinstein connects history to the stars The way Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a theoretical physicist, sees it, Harriet Tubman is the Great American Astronomer. Using the North Star, with no formal training, Harriet Tubman led hundreds of enslaved people to freedom. Chanda is a night sky expert, too. ...
06.30.2022 How to predict the future with Jane McGonigal Future forecaster and game designer Jane McGonigal ran a social simulation game in 2008 that had players dealing with the effects of a respiratory pandemic set to happen in the next decade. She wasn’t literally predicting the 2020 pandemic—but she ...
06.23.2022 Steven Johnson wants to know how enlightenment happens It’s official, the TED Interview has a new host! In Chris’s last episode as head of the show, he interviews his successor, bestselling science and technology author Steven Johnson. Two self-described intellectual soulmates, Chris and Steven take a deep dive ...
06.16.2022 Unlocking the mysteries of our brain \| David Eagleman The way that our brain perceives the world is profoundly informed by our senses–so what would happen if we could heighten them—or even create a whole NEW sense? In one of his last episodes as host of the show, Chris ...
04.15.2022 What’s on Elon Musk’s mind? What will it take to build a future worth being excited about? Elon Musk believes we already have the tools that will help us create one, but we must take bold action to get there. In conversation with head of ...
06.26.2021 The limitless potential of human knowledge \| David Deutsch In an ever expanding world, it can be easy to think of our lives as insignificant. But according to David Deutsch, we all possess one skill that gives each of us infinite reach: our ability to attain knowledge. In the ...
06.17.2021 The science and ethics of rewriting our DNA \| Jennifer Doudna Biochemist Jennifer Doudna won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for pioneering CRISPR, a revolutionary biotech tool that can edit DNA with unprecedented precision and ease. But how exactly does CRISPR work, and what consequences may arise from altering our ...
06.10.2021 Can planting trees really stop climate change? \| Thomas Crowther From governments to airlines to your favorite eco-friendly clothing brand, tree-planting campaigns are everywhere. Reforesting the planet has become one of the quickest, easiest and most ubiquitous ways to reduce our carbon footprint...but is it actually helping to stop climate ...
06.08.2021 Bonus: How to give a killer speech \| How To! We all have to give a presentation at some point in our lives—on a stage, in a conference room, and, these days, on Zoom. So what makes a good speech? In this episode from How To! science writer David Epstein ...
06.03.2021 The end of our 50-year stagnation \| Tyler Cowen Some believe our world has changed at a rapid pace in recent decades. From the rise of the internet to the proliferation of startups spinning out inventions, it can certainly seem that way. In this episode, though, economist Tyler Cowen ...
05.27.2021 How to turn grit into a lifelong habit \| Angela Duckworth What does it take to persevere and succeed, not just in our careers but in all aspects of our lives? For psychologist Angela Duckworth, the answer can be summed up in one concept: grit. She explains the ingredients in grit ...
05.20.2021 What it really takes to make change \| Jacqueline Novogratz From the strikes that transformed the world's view on climate change to the marches that demanded equity and justice for Black lives, there has been a new awakening of people passionate about creating change. As founder and CEO of Acumen, ...
05.13.2021 How youth gave climate the urgency it needed \| Xiye Bastida Before the pandemic struck, young people everywhere abandoned their classrooms and took to the streets. Xiye Bastida was a driving force among these youth climate activists in the U.S. Xiye grew up in Mexico, moved to New York at 13 ...
05.06.2021 Work is never going back to normal \| Simon Sinek Work as we knew it is undergoing seismic shifts as the pandemic in the U.S. wanes. As some businesses reopen, even people lucky enough to work from home face big questions. What lessons do we take from this past year? ...
04.22.2021 How COVID vaccines are revolutionizing medicine \| Adrian Hill This past year, scientists racing to stop the novel coronavirus delivered vaccines at a pace and scale the world has never seen before. Adrian Hill, director of Oxford University's vaccine research institute, recounts how he and his team developed the ...
04.15.2021 The race to build AI that benefits humanity \| Sam Altman In this new season of the TED Interview, conversations with people who make a case for...optimism. Not some blind, hopeful feeling but the conviction that somewhere out there are solutions that, given the right attention and resources, can guide us ...
10.08.2020 A special announcement from TED on climate Today, we're re-sharing a conversation with Christiana Figueres, because we've got a special update for you from TED. On Saturday, October 10, we'll launch Countdown: an exciting new global initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis, turning ...
07.16.2020 Malala Yousafzai on why educating girls changes everything The youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Malala Yousafzai has been an international advocate for girls' education since she was 15 years old and was shot by the Taliban for speaking out about girls' education. Now, as a fresh ...
07.09.2020 The role of the wealthy in achieving equality with Darren Walker Born in a charity hospital and now president of the Ford Foundation, Darren Walker has been on both sides of the “inequality equation." He explains the need for the wealthy to acknowledge their complicity in a system that sustains racism ...
07.02.2020 Al Gore on the new urgency of the climate crisis Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore has been a leader in climate advocacy for over 40 years. He argues that amid the global pandemic and worldwide calls for racial justice, climate action can help create a “clean, prosperous, just future” ...
06.25.2020 A path to peace in Afghanistan with President Ashraf Ghani The war in Afghanistan has wrought turmoil and loss of life for nearly two decades. But that is just one side of the story. President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani digs into what's needed to bring peace and positive change to ...
06.18.2020 Why a company’s future depends on putting its employees first with Dan Schulman How can businesses recover from the pandemic's unprecedented economic destruction? PayPal CEO Dan Schulman argues that it's by improving the financial health of their employees. His company has pioneered research into Net Disposable Income, and he contends that ensuring every ...
06.11.2020 How Taiwan used digital tools to solve the pandemic with Audrey Tang Taiwan has succeeded in avoiding a pandemic lockdown, in part through an innovative digital strategy. Audrey Tang, Taiwan's Digital Minister, shares how tools and techniques like crowdsourcing, a transparent supplies system and the use of humor have resulted in less ...
06.05.2020 Reckoning with racial injustice in the U.S. -- and where we go from here Featuring Dr. Bernice King, CEO of the King Center and daughter of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; Rashad Robinson, President of Color of Change; Anthony Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU; and Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff, CEO of the Center ...
05.28.2020 What we learn from the crisis can make our economy stronger with Kristalina Georgieva What will it take to put the pieces of the global economy back together? Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva takes us inside the massive economic stimulus efforts leading the world toward recovery and renewal. She argues ...
04.24.2020 What we get wrong about global growth with Dambisa Moyo Global economist Dambisa Moyo was raised in Zambia and educated in England and the United States. Tune into her unique worldview and how it’s shaped her thinking on issues like overseas aid, climate, democracy and the rise of the coronavirus ...
04.17.2020 Design your life for happiness with Elizabeth Dunn Psychologist Elizabeth Dunn argues that happiness is made not found and explains how our everyday choices—in matters from time to money to technology—help create it. This episode was recorded on February 5, 2020.
04.10.2020 The world after the coronavirus pandemic with Fareed Zakaria The coronavirus pandemic is more global, dramatic and unusual than any crisis we've seen in a long time, says journalist Fareed Zakaria. Listen as he shares his perspective on how we can recover from the economic fallout, why certain countries ...
04.09.2020 What coronavirus means for the global economy with Ray Dalio "I'm a capitalist. I believe in the system. I believe you can increase the size of the pie and you could divide it well," says Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates. He offers wide-ranging insight and advice on how we ...

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