Steven Pinker: What our language habits reveal
Steven Pinker: Is the world getting better or worse? A look at the numbers
Was 2017 really the "worst year ever," as some would have us believe? In his analysis of recent data on homicide, war, poverty, pollution and more, psychologist Steven Pinker finds that we're doing better now in every one of them when compared with 30 years ago. But progress isn't inevitable, and it doesn't mean everything gets better for everyo...
Steven Pinker: Human nature and the blank slate
Steven Pinker: The surprising decline in violence
Steven Pinker and Rebecca Newberger Goldstein: The long reach of reason
Here's a TED first: an animated Socratic dialog! In a time when irrationality seems to rule both politics and culture, has reasoned thinking finally lost its power? Watch as psychologist Steven Pinker is gradually, brilliantly persuaded by philosopher Rebecca Newberger Goldstein that reason is actually the key driver of human moral progress, eve...
Steven Johnson: The Web as a city
Eric Berlow and Sean Gourley: Mapping ideas worth spreading
Peter van Uhm: Why I chose a gun
Abigail Marsh: Why some people are more altruistic than others
Robert Muggah: How to protect fast-growing cities from failing
Worldwide, violence is on the decline, but in the crowded cities of the global south — cities like Aleppo, Bamako and Caracas — violence is actually accelerating, fueled by the drug trade, mass unemployment and civil unrest. Security researcher Robert Muggah turns our attention toward these "fragile cities," super-fast-growing places where infra...
Paul Bloom: Can prejudice ever be a good thing?
Paul Sereno: Digging up dinosaurs
Stewart Brand and Chris Anderson: Mammoths resurrected, geoengineering and other thoughts from a futurist
Stewart Brand is a futurist, counterculturist and visionary with a very wide-ranging mind. In conversation with TED Curator Chris Anderson, Brand discusses ... just about everything: human nature, bringing back the wooly mammoth, geoengineering, rewilding and science as organized skepticism -- plus the story of an acid trip on a San Francisco ro...
Yuval Noah Harari: The war in Ukraine could change everything
Concerned about the war Ukraine? You're not alone. Historian Yuval Noah Harari provides important context on the Russian invasion, including Ukraine's long history of resistance, the specter of nuclear war and his view of why, even if Putin wins all the military battles, he's already lost the war. (This conversation, hosted by TED global curator...