You're fluent in this language (and don't even know it)

You won't believe your eyes ... Open in your browser

This week on TED.com July 28, 2018

Talk of the week Christoph Niemann: You are fluent in this language (and don't even know it) 12:42 minutes · Filmed Apr 2018 · Posted Jul 2018 · TED2018 In this funny, relatable talk, explore a language we all speak: the language of pictures. Illustrator Christoph Niemann shows us how, with a few simple lines, an artist can tap into our emotions and minds -- all without words. Watch now »

Playlist of the week Great TED Talks for language practice Learning a language? We've collected 11 TED Talks that can help you practice -- and inspire you to stick with it. (Pro tip: Select subtitles in your preferred language to read along, too.) Watch » 11 TED Talks to choose from • Total run time 2:08:20

Catch up on this week's newest TED Talks Let's face it, online dating can be hard. So many potential people, so much time wasted ... is it even worth it? Christina Wallace thinks it can work -- if you do it right. In this funny, practical talk, Wallace shares how she used her MBA skill set to invent the "zero date" approach to get the most from dating apps -- and how you can, too. Watch » Do you think you're good at spotting fake videos, where famous people say things they've never said in real life? See how they're made in this astonishing talk and tech demo. Computer scientist Supasorn Suwajanakorn shows how, as a grad student, he used AI and 3D modeling to create photorealistic fake videos of people synced to audio. Learn the ethical implications and the creative possibilities of this tech -- and the steps to fight against its misuse. Watch » You might be investing in a tobacco company without knowing it. In a bold talk, oncologist Dr. Bronwyn King tells the story of how she uncovered the deep ties between the tobacco industry and the global finance sector, which invests our money in cigarette companies through big banks, insurers and pension funds. Learn about the worldwide movement to create tobacco-free investments and how each of us can join. Watch » Right now, an AI can be trained to look at medical images and spot disease ... which is amazing ... but it takes tens of thousands of images to "train" the AI, making the process expensive and slow. TED Fellow Pratik Shah is working on a clever system to speed things up -- and can even use photos taken on doctors' cell phones. Learn about his work to bring expensive high tech down to your local doctors' office. Watch » Parents and kids spend lots of time in doctors' waiting rooms. What if those hours could be used for something productive -- like saving money? That's why pediatrician and TED Fellow Lucy Marcil started offering free tax prep to parents right in the waiting room. Bonus: In the process, many parents found that they qualified for a big tax credit they didn't even know about. An inspiring talk about finding small, smart ways to help others. Watch » In case you missed this much-discussed talk: "Ideas can and do change the world," says historian Rutger Bregman, sharing his case for a provocative one: guaranteed basic income. Learn more about the idea's 500-year history and a forgotten modern experiment where it actually worked -- and imagine how much energy and talent we would unleash if we got rid of poverty once and for all. Watch »

Read more on ideas.ted.com Creativity: Take our quiz: What's your creative type? Unleash your own creativity by finding out how you best express yourself We humans: How to introduce yourself so you’ll be unforgettable Learn this simple trick to share your story  Arts & design: Meet the creator of the world's biggest connect-the-dots It's all about the process, says Phil Hansen

Quote of the Week “ How many of you have had your doctor ask you about sex? Your mental health? Alcohol use? These questions are almost universal. But how many of you have had your doctor ask you about money? Most of us haven't. Yet ... poverty creates conditions that may elevate stress hormone levels and impair brain development. Poor children in the US are one and a half times more likely to die and twice as likely to be hospitalized as their middle-class counterparts." Lucy Marcil Why doctors are offering free tax prep in their waiting rooms

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Where are all the aliens?

A talk to ponder ... Open in browser

This week on TED.com July 21, 2018

Talk of the week Stephen Webb: Where are all the aliens? 13:18 minutes · Filmed Apr 2018 · Posted Jul 2018 · TED2018 The universe is incredibly old, astoundingly vast and populated by trillions of planets -- so where are all the aliens? Astronomer Stephen Webb has an explanation: we're alone in the universe. In a mind-expanding talk, he spells out the remarkable barriers a planet would need to clear in order to host an extraterrestrial civilization -- and makes a case for the beauty of our potential cosmic loneliness. "The silence of the universe is shouting, 'We're the creatures who got lucky,'" Webb says. Watch now »

Collection of the week How to connect with others Sometimes, relating to other people doesn't come naturally. These talks offer new insights into how to connect ... and celebrate the ways we are more alike than you think. Watch » 7 TED Talks to choose from • Total run time 1:33:19

Catch up on this week's new TED Talks What if you could search the surface of the Earth the same way you search the internet? Will Marshall and his team at Planet use the world's largest fleet of satellites to image the entire Earth every day. Now they're moving on to a new project: using AI to index all the visible objects on the planet over time -- which could make ships, trees, houses and everything on Earth searchable. Watch » Once your smart devices can talk to you, who else are they talking to? Kashmir Hill and Surya Mattu wanted to find out -- so they outfitted Hill's apartment with 18 different internet-connected devices and built a special router to track how often they contacted their servers and see what they were reporting back. The results were surprising -- and more than a little bit creepy. (This talk contains mature language.) Watch » History is written by the victors, as the saying goes -- but what would it look like if it was written by social media? Journalist and TED Fellow Mikhail Zygar is on a mission to show us with Project1917, a "social network for dead people" that posts the real diaries and letters of more than 3,000 people who lived during the Russian Revolution, showing the daily thoughts of key figures like Lenin and Trotsky -- and ordinary people in that extraordinary time. Watch » Have you ever had a really bad customer-service interaction with a front-line staffer at a store, a doctor's office, a bank? It might be because the staffer wasn't adequately trained to help you -- or worse, was "trained" by a computer program to ask intrusive questions and give you canned responses. In this witty, provocative talk, Tamekia MizLadi Smith shares a unique, human-focused workplace training program that will inspire front-line workers (and their bosses) to communicate with compassion and respect. Watch »

Read more on ideas.ted.com Tech: Here's how companies and governments want to use our data » Data isn't "the new oil," says James Bridle ... it's the new nuclear power. Environment: Our favorite ocean experts on the plastic stuff they wish you'd all stop using » Say no to plastic bags, reduce microfibers and microbeads, and more ways to de-plastify your life Design: Inside a Bangkok park that's built to flood » In this frequently flooded city, an amazing park makes green space -- and stores a million gallons of water, using some very clever design tricks

Quote of the Week “ Teaching people transitional change, instead of shocking them into change, is always a better way of implementing change." Tamekia MizLadi Smith How to train employees to have difficult conversations

ted radio hour: the five senses The five senses shape all our experience of the world around us, but we still don't fully understand them. This episode, TED speakers explore how our brains make sense of sensation, and how our minds manufacture "reality." Listen on Apple Podcasts, on the TED Android app, NPR One or wherever you get your podcasts.

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How to build synthetic DNA and send it across the internet

What if you could download your own medicine? View it in your browser

This week on TED.com July 14, 2018

Talk of the week Dan Gibson: How to build synthetic DNA and send it across the internet 15:08 minutes · Filmed Apr 2018 · Posted Jul 2018 · TED2018 Biologist Dan Gibson edits and programs DNA, just like coders program a computer. But his "code" creates life, giving scientists the power to convert digital information into biological material like proteins and vaccines. Now he's on to a new project: "biological transportation," which holds the promise of beaming new medicines across the globe over the internet. Learn more about how this technology could change the way we respond to disease outbreaks and enable us to download personalized prescriptions in our homes. Watch now »

Playlist of the week For the love of introverts (4 talks) A celebration of time spent in good company. (Sorry extroverts -- we love you, too.) Watch » Total run time 1:09:46

Catch up this week's new TED Talks At MIT, Dina Katabi and her team are working on a bold new way to monitor patients' vital signs in a hospital (or even at home), without wearables or bulky, beeping devices. Bonus: it can see through walls! In a mind-blowing talk and demo, Katabi previews a system that captures the reflections of signals like Wi-Fi as they bounce off people, creating a record of vitals for healthcare workers and patients. Watch » In this surprising talk, Elizabeth White opens up about a problem few people are willing to talk about: personal finances. Millions of baby boomers like her are moving into their senior years with empty pockets, and right behind them is a younger generation facing the same challenges. Join this honest conversation about financial trouble: how to face it, and how to survive it. Watch » Africa's next generation is coming of age, but job growth on the continent isn't keeping up. The result: financial insecurity and, in some cases, a turn towards insurgent groups. In a passionate talk, agricultural entrepreneur Kola Masha details his plan to bring leadership and investment to small farmers in Africa -- and employ this rising generation. Watch » The Chinese internet has grown at a staggering pace -- it now has more users than the combined populations of the US, UK, Russia, Germany, France and Canada, says South China Morning Post CEO Gary Liu. In a fascinating talk, Liu details how the tech industry in China has developed -- from the innovative, like AI-optimized train travel, to the dystopian, like a social credit rating that both rewards and restricts citizens. Watch » There are about a hundred trillion microbes living inside your gut -- protecting you from infection, aiding digestion and regulating your immune system. As our bodies adapt to life in modern society, we've started to lose some of our normal microbes; at the same time, diseases linked to a loss of diversity in the microbiome are skyrocketing. Computational microbiologist Dan Knights shares some intriguing new discoveries about our microbiome -- and how it might affect our health. Watch » Legendary architect Renzo Piano -- the mind behind such indelible buildings as The Shard in London, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the new Whitney Museum of Art in New York City -- takes us on a stunning tour through his life's work. With the aid of gorgeous imagery, Piano makes an eloquent case for architecture as the answer to our dreams, aspirations and desire for beauty. "Universal beauty is one of the few things that can change the world," he says. "This beauty will save the world. One person at a time, but it will do it." Watch »

Read more on ideas.ted.com We humans: One bold opinion on the next upgrade to capitalism >> A thoughtful look at what we truly value Culture: How one chef is using food to help people find jobs (and share great meals) >> An ambitious nonprofit that helps people cook together -- and eat together Science & tech: Meet a drone that flies into the plume of a whale >> Thar she blows! A new project is revolutionizing what we know about whales by collecting DNA and images in ways never before possible.

Quote of the Week “ The internet exists in a restricted, arguably manipulated form within China, yet it is massive and has vastly improved the lives of its citizens. The country's largest e-commerce platform, Taobao, now boasts 580 million monthly active users. It's about 80 percent larger than Amazon. On-demand travel, between bikes and cars, now accounts for 10 billion trips a year in China. That's two-thirds of all trips taken around the world. So even in its imperfection, the growth of the Chinese internet should not be dismissed." Gary Liu The rapid growth of the Chinese internet — and where it's headed

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