Who could you call at 2am when everything’s gone wrong? Friendship expert Sheridan Voysey believes we’re in a friendship recession, with many of us forgetting how to foster meaningful relationships. He explores three hidden barriers keeping us apart, why it feels harder to make friends as an adult — and how to nurture the deep connections that sustain us. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Solar energy and storage are the fastest, cheapest ways to add electricity to the grid. So why are small towns across the US pausing or banning these projects? Clean energy entrepreneur Jon Powers shows how fossil fuel companies are waging disinformation campaigns at the local level — and calls for a rapid-response team that sends trusted messengers (like firefighters and farmers) to get communities straight answers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Many people fear AI is eroding our humanity, replacing real relationships with synthetic ones that leave us lonelier than ever. Digital anthropologist Jennifer Cearns believes the opposite may be true. After talking to hundreds of people who turn to AI for grief, love, friendship and more, she pokes holes in this familiar fear — and hints at what these strange new relationships can teach us about ourselves. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Parenting an eye-rolling teenager glued to a gaming system is not a simple feat, but what if you could turn screen time into an opportunity for connection? Hannah Boquet shares how she decided to play video games with her kids and discovered the power of esports to foster trust, communication and essential life skills. Dive deeper into how you can strengthen family bonds, support your child’s development — and maybe even be considered “cool” by your kid.(This episode originally aired in 2025.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the long term, shutting down a coal mine means cleaner air and a healthier environment — but in the short term, it can devastate a community or family that relied on the mine's paychecks to make ends meet. Environmental justice advocate Payton M. Wilkins thinks we can protect both workers and the planet with an age-old solution: unions. He digs into the economic fallout of ditching fossil fuels and shows why unions are well-positioned to push the transition to clean energy and green jobs.(This episode originally aired in 2024.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

No matter where you fall on the corporate food chain, you have power at work—you just might not know how to use it. In this new series on Unlocking Your Power at Work, Anne and Frances dig into how to discover, build, and use your power, explore common power dynamics in the workplace, and learn from people who use their full power with honesty and swagger. Kara Swisher is one of the most influential voices in media and has built a career holding the powerful accountable. In this episode, she reflects with Anne and Frances on her own path to power and what she’s learned from watching some people become corrupted by power while others learn to wield it for good. She also argues that people don’t leave jobs early or often enough, and makes the case for pursuing more than just the opportunities that are offered to you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you feel short on time? Writer and work expert Danielle Roberts would like to help you with that. In this quick talk, she makes the case that free time isn't a reward you earn but a civil right you're owed. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Laura Smythe spent years in legacy newsrooms, and she thinks the habits journalists use to vet information should belong to all of us. Using Fyre Festival as a cautionary tale, she explains why media literacy is a vital skill in our age of deepfakes and algorithmic feeds — and describes the country that’s already found a way to start teaching it in elementary school. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jessica Irwin is many things: a photographer, artist, author, performer. She also happens to be nonverbal, born with cerebral palsy that affects the muscles she needs to talk. Speaking through a device that turns her typed words into speech, she gives a sharp, funny and urgent reminder that being unable to speak has nothing to do with intelligence — and shares a few easy ways anyone can better communicate with nonverbal people. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Urban planner James Rojas has led hundreds of workshops where participants creatively design their ideal communities with small objects — and he's noticed that people of every age, income and background build strikingly similar places. Through play and storytelling, he shows how we can use our childhood memories and imaginations to shape the places we live and love. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With more information at our fingertips than ever before, learning should be getting easier ... yet the opposite seems to be true, says cognitive scientist Tania Lombrozo. Drawing on her research into how our minds understand and reason, she explores why more information can actually make learning harder — and shares the critical skill all great learners possess. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For all of human history, a baby's DNA was determined by chance at conception: the so-called genetic lottery. "That era is over," says Noor Siddiqui, whose company builds screening tools to read the whole genome of embryos in an effort to give parents more genetic information than standard IVF. She makes the case that this kind of technology helps families understand and reduce health risks, raising the question: How much should we know about our children's DNA before birth? (Followed by a brief Q&A with TED’s vision steward Sal Khan) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Monica Lewinsky is an anti-bullying activist and host of Reclaiming with Monica, a podcast that shines her guests’ unguarded conversations about how they make sense of the world. In this episode filmed in front of a live audience at TED 2026, Chris interviews Monica on how she finds healing throughout the years. They discuss the role of public shaming in an online world, the differences between cancel culture and accountability culture, and how to have more empathy after surviving trauma. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Activist Leopoldo López learned the true value of freedom in a solitary confinement cell, when someone else decided if he would eat or see sunlight. In this searching conversation, he explains why democracy is losing ground across the globe, the state of Venezuela's transition after Maduro's capture and the 2026 earthquakes — and why he founded the World Liberty Congress to unite activists in the fight against autocracies. (This conversation, hosted by TED's Whitney Pennington Rodgers, 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.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What does confidence look like? Public speaking expert Cara Hale Alter studies how to project confidence and credibility — and she's pinpointed two key behaviors that shape how others see you. In this actionable talk, she explains how to make sure you're showing your true potential at work and beyond. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.