TED Conferences LLC

The world is full of leadership programs, but the best way to learn how to lead might be right under your nose. In this clear, candid talk, Roselinde Torres describes 25 years observing truly great leaders at work, and shares the three simple but crucial questions would-be company chiefs need to ask to thrive in the future.

"If you come to one of our hospitals missing a limb, no one will believe you till they get a CAT scan, MRI, or orthopedic consult," jokes Stanford professor Abraham Verghese. In this TEDTalk, Verghese calls for a return to the traditional one-on-one physical exam, arguing that ordering tests instead of talking to and examining the patient may mean overlooking a problematic condition that can be treated sooner rather than later. But beyond the clinical...

Most people instinctively avoid conflict, but as management thinker Margaret Heffernan shows us in this TEDTalk, good disagreement is central to progress. She illustrates (sometimes counterintuitively) how the best partners aren't echo chambers - and how great research teams, relationships, and businesses allow people to deeply disagree.

Jonathan Haidt studies how and why we evolved to be moral. By understanding more about our moral roots, his hope is that we can learn to be tolerant of those whose morals don't match ours, but who are equally good and moral people on their own terms. In this TEDTalk, Haidt explores five moral precepts that form the basis of our value systems, whether we're left, right, or center. However, he also pinpoints the differing values that liberals and conservatives...

Majora Carter is a visionary voice in city planning who views urban renewal through an environmental lens. The South Bronx native draws a direct connection between ecological, economic, and social degradation, spawning her motto, "Green the ghetto!" Carter managed to bring the South Bronx its first open-waterfront park in 60 years, Hunts Point Riverside Park, and was able to score $1.25 million in federal funds for a greenway. In this emotionally...

Diseases of the body garner sympathy, says comedian Ruby Wax - except for those of the brain. Why is that? With dazzling energy and humor, Wax, diagnosed a decade ago with clinical depression, urges us in this TEDTalk to put an end to the stigma of mental illness.

Psychologist Susan Blackmore studies memes - self-replicating components of culture that travel through society via human consciousness, in a manner similar to viruses. In this TEDTalk, Blackmore makes a bold new argument: that technology has begun to drive not only the circulation of memes but the invention of them. She says that we have spawned a new kind of meme called the "teme," which spreads itself via digital communication and, all on its own,...

In this TEDTalk, Alexander Tsiaras shares his spectacular visualization that realistically depicts the development of a fetus from conception to birth - marveling as much at the technology as at the miracle of life itself. Tsiaras, chief of scientific visualization in Yale's Department of Medicine, wrote the algorithms for the micromagnetic resonance imaging machine that makes the computer-generated look at life inside the womb possible.

"Being in a gang - selling drugs for a gang - is perhaps the worst job in all of America. And that's what I'd like to convince you of today." In this TEDTalk, Freakonomics coauthor Steven Levitt presents data on the finances of drug dealing to illustrate that contrary to popular myth, being a street-corner crack dealer isn't lucrative; it pays below minimum wage (and comes with the added drawback of possibly dying a sudden and violent death). Levitt's...

When you're getting medical treatment, or taking part in medical testing, privacy is important; strict laws limit what researchers can see and know about you. But what if your medical data could be used - anonymously - by anyone seeking to test a hypothesis? In this TEDTalk, data commons advocate John Wilbanks questions whether the desire to protect our privacy is slowing research, and if opening up medical data could lead to a wave of health care...