TED Talks Daily

Lead poisoning robs the world's kids of millions of IQ points a day and kills more people than wars, natural disasters and road accidents combined — yet we treat it as a problem we've already solved. Drew McCartor, who runs the nonprofit Pure Earth, has spent nearly two decades proving it doesn't have to be this way. He presents their three-step fix that's already working in places from Georgia to Ghana, and makes the case that we can finally beat a crisis hiding in plain sight. (This ambitious idea is part of The Audacious Project, TED’s initiative to inspire and fund global change.)

Valorie Kondos Field knows a lot about winning. As the longtime coach of the UCLA women's gymnastics team, she won championship after championship and has been widely acclaimed for her leadership. In this inspiring, brutally honest and, at times, gut-wrenching talk, she shares the secret to her success. Hint: it has nothing to do with "winning."(This episode originally aired in 2021.)

Author Gregg Ward spent decades grappling with guilt from a personal tragedy before recognizing a different path forward — where purpose replaced self-punishment. What he learned about transforming regret into positive change might make you rethink your own mistakes.

Around the world, people who work hard are often seen as morally good -- even if they produce little to no results. Social psychologist Azim Shariff analyzes the roots of this belief and suggests a shift towards a more meaningful way to think about effort, rather than admiring work for work's sake.(This episode originally aired in 2023.)

Social entrepreneur Van Jones believes a new human civilization is being born in real time — and that our technology is racing ahead of our wisdom. In this urgent and hopeful talk, he reframes the AI debate, showing why the real danger isn't the technology itself but rather the communities it leaves behind. His solution? A new deal between big tech and humanity, built on a different kind of "AI" that we desperately need.

Cognitive scientist Maya Shankar and author Simone Stolzoff have each spent years studying how people navigate uncertainty (and why it often feels so difficult). In this conversation, they discuss why your discomfort with not having the answers might be holding you back — and how leaning into life’s unpredictable moments can unlock resilience, growth and new possibilities. (This conversation was part of an exclusive TED Membership event. TED Membership is the best way to support and engage with the big ideas you love from TED. To learn more, visit ted.com/membership.)

Pew Research Center president Michael Dimock has spent years listening to what Americans think — and what they're telling him right now is pretty dark. But buried in the data is something revealing: people are ready for bold democratic reform that the country hasn't seen in decades. He explores how America's founders didn't create a finished system of government but rather launched an ongoing project that requires each generation to renew, adapt and reimagine democracy. The survey says Americans are ready to do the work.

Generative AI hallucinates, creating a truth problem that science can't afford. Computer scientist Tudor Achim thinks a 400-year-old idea holds the fix: Leibniz's dream of a logical framework where errors are simply impossible. Learn about his idea for mathematical superintelligence that would ground AI in formal verification, turning unreliable chatbots into rigorous partners for scientific discovery.

Arriving in the devastated neighborhoods of Los Angeles after the 2025 Southern California wildfires, journalist Nonny de la Peña started scanning the remains — what firefighters called “Nuketown.” Beneath the rubble, her team uncovered a surprising range of things that had survived. From a shockingly undamaged car to family heirlooms in a safety deposit box, see how her team found the story by stepping inside it.