Get the behind-the-scenes story from visual strategist Dan Goods about how a single question launched NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab into action at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, propelling an unprecedented pivot from space-exploring robots to live-saving ventilators. It'll inspire you to wonder: "Is what I'm doing right now the most importa...

You're the chief advisor to an eccentric king who needs to declare his successor. He wants his heir to be good at arithmetic, lucky, and above all else, honest. So he's devised a competition to test his children, and ordered you to choose the winner. The future of the kingdom is in your hands. Can you find the worthiest successor? Dan Katz shows...

You’ve spent months creating a basketball-playing robot, the Dunk-O-Matic, and you’re excited to demonstrate its capabilities. Until you read an advertisement: “See the Dunk-O-Matic face human players and automatically adjust its skill to create a fair game for every opponent!” That’s not what you were told to create. Can you recalibrate your ro...

It's your first day at Magnificent Marigold's Magical Macademy. But before you can learn your first spell you must get through the sorting ceremony. And the sorting hat has chosen you for a special challenge. The Macademy had 8 founders who established four houses, and there was once a mysterious fifth house. Can you figure out who founded what?...

In 2007, researchers surveyed 180 teachers to understand if they held stereotypes about their students. The most commonly held opinion was that Asian students were significantly more industrious, intelligent, and gentle. This might seem like a good thing, but treating this stereotype as reality can cause a surprising amount of harm. Densho and S...

We all know that when we make decisions in groups, they don't always go right -- and sometimes they go very wrong. How can groups make good decisions? With his colleague Dan Ariely, neuroscientist Mariano Sigman has been inquiring into how we interact to reach decisions by performing experiments with live crowds around the world. In this fun, fa...

In the mid-18th century, England was crazy for ketchup. The sauce was a staple, but this ketchup wasn’t the ubiquitous red goop you’re familiar with today. In fact, it was a sweet and savory brown sauce that didn’t even have tomatoes in it. So where did this early ketchup come from, and how did it become the dip we know and love? Dan Kwartler tr...

What happens when a mall falls into ruin? Filmmaker Dan Bell guides us through abandoned monoliths of merchandise, providing a surprisingly funny and lyrical commentary on consumerism, youth culture and the inspiration we can find in decay.

You and your team have crash-landed on an ancient planet. Can you appease the three alien overlords who rule it and get your team safely home? Created by logician Raymond Smullyan, and popularized by his colleague George Boolos, this riddle has been called the hardest logic puzzle ever. Alex Gendler shows how to solve it. [Directed by Artrake St...

We often think of bias and prejudice as rooted in ignorance. But as psychologist Paul Bloom seeks to show, prejudice is often natural, rational ... even moral. The key, says Bloom, is to understand how our own biases work -- so we can take control when they go wrong.

Your closet is likely full of all kinds of materials -- leather, cotton, nylon and polyester, to name a few -- that contribute to fashion's sustainability crisis. Biomaterials investigator Dan Widmaier explains how we could look to nature for sustainable replacements for these much-used materials and introduces a leather alternative made from mu...

Anger researcher Ryan Martin draws from a career studying what makes people mad to explain some of the cognitive processes behind anger and why a healthy dose of it is, in fact, useful. "Your anger exists in you because it offered your ancestors an evolutionary advantage," he says. "It's a powerful and healthy force in your life."

If you think social media is powerful, keep an eye on immersive video games, says futurist Noah Raford. As more and more people are drawn into gaming and virtual worlds, the communities they forge are spawning real-world social movements. Raford urges us to recognize what's really going on -- and then harness those forces to build the future we ...

Over the years, people have come up with some truly awful apologies. From classic non-apologies, to evasive excuses, and flimsy corporate promises, it's all too easy to give a bad apology. Good apologies generally share certain elements, and considering these factors can help you make amends in a variety of situations. Explore what to do— and no...

In the 1600s, an expansive autonomous settlement called Palmares reached its height in Brazil. It was founded and led by people escaping from slavery, also called maroons. It was one of the world's largest maroon communities, its population reaching beyond 10,000— and its citizens were at constant war with colonial forces. Marc Adam Hertzman &am...

With humor and persistence, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock dives into the hidden but influential world of brand marketing, on his quest to make a completely sponsored film about sponsorship. (And yes, onstage naming rights for this talk were sponsored too. By whom and for how much? He'll tell you.)

Many workplaces have become increasingly lonely, even before the coronavirus pandemic made more of us literally remote. It's not just an unpleasant feeling -- loneliness can hurt our health and our job performance. Find out why it's time for happy hours to finally die -- and how it might take less than a minute to start building real connections...

In a special live taping at the 92nd Street Y in New York, Adam talks with Revisionist History's Malcolm Gladwell about how to avoid doing highly undesirable tasks, what makes an idea interesting, and why Malcolm thinks we shouldn't root for the underdog. This episode is brought to you by Accenture, Bonobos, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Warby Pa...

While NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory usually works on Mars Rover Perseverance and redirection of asteroids, in times of crisis they focus their collective energy for the greater good. Learn about what it was like when NASA had to pivot during the pandemic.

Tainá Guedes is a cookbook author, artist, curator and mastermind behind Berlin Food Art Week. Furthermore she is the CEO of Entretempo Kitchen Gallery. Tainá believes that food systems provide a key entry point for dealing with the greatest crises of our time, from poverty to climate change. She combines food with artistic expression in order...