Ted Radio Hour

Original broadcast date: September 15, 2017. From data collection to gene editing to AI, what we once considered science fiction is now becoming reality. This hour, TED speakers explore the future consequences of our present actions.Guests include designer Anab Jain, futurist Juan Enriquez, biologist Paul Knoepfler, and neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris.

There's no greater threat to humanity than climate change. What can we do to stop the worst consequences? This hour, TED speakers explore how we can save our planet and whether we can do it in time. Guests include climate activist Greta Thunberg, chemical engineer Jennifer Wilcox, research scientist Sean Davis, food innovator Bruce Friedrich, and psychologist Per Espen Stoknes.

Original broadcast date: July 21, 2017. We often know how to plan for the future, but find it hard to take the necessary steps. This hour, TED speakers challenge the inevitable and explore what to do today to prepare ourselves for tomorrow. TED speakers include neuroscientists Daniel Levitin and Rebecca Brachman, writer Lisa Genova, epidemiologist Seth Berkley, and behavioral economist Daniel Goldstein.

Failure can feel lonely and final. But can we learn from failure, even reframe it, to feel more like a temporary setback? This hour, TED speakers on changing a crushing defeat into a stepping stone. Guests include entrepreneur Leticia Gasca, psychology professor Alison Ledgerwood, astronomer Phil Plait, former professional athlete Charly Haversat, and UPS training manager Jon Bowers.

Original broadcast date: December 15, 2017. Are deception and secrecy categorically wrong? Or can they be a necessary means to an end? This hour, TED speakers share stories of going undercover to explore unknown territory, and find the truth. Guests include poet and activist Theo E.J. Wilson, journalist Jamie Bartlett, counter-terrorism expert Mubin Shaikh, and educator Shabana Basij-Rasikh.

Our greatest breakthroughs and triumphs have one thing in common: creativity. But how do you ignite it? And how do you rekindle it? This hour, TED speakers explore ideas on jumpstarting creativity. Guests include economist Tim Harford, producer Helen Marriage, artificial intelligence researcher Steve Engels, and behavioral scientist Marily Oppezzo.

Original broadcast date: June 10, 2016. We usually get wiser with age, but that doesn't mean we have to grow up to wise up. This hour, TED speakers explore what it means to find wisdom at every stage of life. Guests include journalist Joshua Prager, writer Adora Svitak, conservationist Boyd Varty, advocate Tony Porter, and psychiatrist Robert Waldinger.

Who should get to keep secrets, and who should demand to know them? In this hour, TED speakers talk about the damage secrets can do, and the shifting roles we play when we keep, or share them. In a special updated interview, Global Witness co-founder Charmian Gooch explains how secrecy and corruption have changed in the five years since she gave her TED talk. Other guests from the original 2015 episode include PostSecret founder Frank Warren, equality advocate Ash Beckham, and journalist Glenn Greenwald.

Original broadcast date: July 29, 2016. Failure can be devastating, but it can also make us stronger and smarter. This week, TED speakers explore how failure clears the way for success, in our everyday work, and our innermost lives. Guests include entrepreneur Astro Teller, economist Tim Harford, author Casey Gerald, and writer Lidia Yuknavitch.

What does it take to change the world for the better? This hour, TED speakers explore ideas on activism—what motivates it, why it matters, and how each of us can make a difference. Guests include civil rights activist Ruby Sales, labor leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta, author Jeremy Heimans, "craftivist" Sarah Corbett, and designer and futurist Angela Oguntala.

Original broadcast date: March 4, 2016. What makes an idea, a brand, or a behavior catch fire? This hour, TED speakers explore the mysteries behind the many things we spread: laughter and sadness, imagination, viruses and viral ideas. Guests include neuroscientist Sophie Scott, entrepreneur Seth Godin, philanthropist Bill Gates, social scientist Nicholas Christakis, and historian Yuval Harari.

Racism isn't always obvious, but it can be found almost everywhere. This hour, TED speakers explore the effects of everyday and systemic racism in America—and how we can work to defeat it. Guests include authors Brittney Cooper and Monique Morris, journalism professor Pat Ferrucci, clinical psychologist Howard Stevenson, and anti-racism educator Travis Jones.

Original broadcast date: June 19, 2015. We live our lives by the calendar and the clock, but time is also an abstraction, even an illusion. In this hour, TED speakers explore how our sense of time changes depending on who and where we are. Guests include director Cesar Kuriyama, poet Rives, psychologists Dan Gilbert and Laura Carstensen, and cosmologist Sean Carroll.

Why do many of us hate, even fear math? Why are we convinced we're bad at it? This hour, TED speakers explore the myths we tell ourselves and how changing our approach can unlock the beauty of math. Guests include budgeting specialist Phylecia Jones, mathematician and educator Dan Finkel, math teacher Eddie Woo, educator Masha Gershman, and radio personality and eternal math nerd Adam Spencer.

Original broadcast date: August 25, 2017. How much of who we are is biology? How much is learned? And how much can we change? This hour, TED speakers on how genes and experience collaborate — and compete — to make us who we are. TED speakers include neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky, epigeneticist Moshe Szyf, pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris, and psychologist Brian Little.

What makes someone lucky? Can luck be controlled, is it random, or is it based on something else entirely? This hour, TED speakers explore ideas about why some people seem so much luckier than others. Guests include former professional poker player Liv Boeree, professor of entrepreneurship Tina Seelig, community activist Amy Hunter, journalist Mark Sutcliffe, and youth services advocate Eshauna Smith.

(Original broadcast date: June 16, 2017.) Many of us are lured by the promise of self-improvement, but find it hard to follow through. In our 100th episode, TED speakers reveal ways to discover our better selves. TED speakers include entrepreneur Jia Jang, Headspace co-founder Andy Puddicombe, psychologist Emily Balcetis, technologist Matt Cutts, and New York Times columnist David Brooks.

How does bias distort our thinking, our listening, our beliefs... and even our search results? How can we fight it? This hour, TED speakers explore ideas about the unconscious biases that shape us. Guests include writer and broadcaster Yassmin Abdel-Magied, climatologist J. Marshall Shepherd, journalist Andreas Ekström, and experimental psychologist Tony Salvador.

Original broadcast date: July 17, 2015. In a world with limited resources, can we find ways to salvage what's disappearing? Can we innovate our way out of a finite landscape? This hour, TED speakers explore ideas about living with less. Guests include ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin, ecologist Jon Foley, economist Ramanan Laxminarayan, community organizer Rob Hopkins, and researcher Navi Radjou.

The Me Too movement has changed the way we think and talk about gender discrimination. This hour, TED speakers explore how the conversation has moved beyond a hashtag, and where we go from here. Guests include Me Too movement founder Tarana Burke, actor and activist Ashley Judd, writer Laura Bates, and anti-sexism educator Jackson Katz.