The videos on this page are compliments of TED, a site holding an amazing video collage of 190+ inspired talks, acting, comedic, and musical offerings by some of our world’s artists, thinkers, and doers.
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Benjamin Zander: Classical music with shining eyes
Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it—and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections. Since 1979, Benjamin Zander has been the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic. He is known around the world as both a guest conductor and a speaker on leadership. He uses music to help people open their minds and create joyful harmonies that bring out the best in themselves and their colleagues.
Isabel Allende: Tales of Passion
In one of the most beloved talks from TED2007, novelist Isabel Allende talks about writing, women, passion, feminism. She tells stories of powerful women she has known, some larger-than-life, and some simply living with grace, dignity and ingenuity in a world that, in too many ways, still treats women unjustly.
Deborah Scranton: Scenes from “The War Tapes”
Filmmaker Deborah Scranton talks about and shows clips from her award-winning documentary, which put cameras in the hands of Charlie Company, a unit of the National Guard, for one year in Iraq. The soldiers’ raw footage and diary excerpts tell a powerful, unsettling story of modern war.
Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law
The Net’s most adored lawyer brings together John Philip Sousa, celestial copyrights, and the “ASCAP cartel” to build a case for creative freedom. He pins down the key shortcomings of our dusty, pre-digital intellectual property laws, and reveals how bad laws beget bad code. Then, in an homage to cutting-edge artistry, he throws in some of the most hilarious remixes you've ever seen.
Erin McKean: Redefining the dictionary
Is the beloved paper dictionary doomed to extinction? When does a made-up word become real? And could you use synecdochical in a sentence, please? In this infectiously exuberant talk, leading lexicographer Erin McKean looks at the many ways in which today's print dictionary is poised for transformation in this internet era.