From Siri to Alexa to Google, virtual assistants already permeate our lives. What will the next generation of these digital helpers look and sound like? Customer experience professional Karen Lellouche Tordjman gives us a glimpse of where they’re headed -- and breaks down the two key challenges engineers need to crack in order to usher in a new age of truly smart voice assistants. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TED Fellow Tom Osborn wants more young people to have access to the mental health support they need. With the Shamiri Institute, he and his team are training 18- to 22-year-olds to deliver evidence-based mental health care to their peers in Kenya -- which has only two clinicians for every million people. Hear how their community-first, youth-oriented model could become a template to help kids across the world lead successful, independent lives. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

By 2100, the UN estimates that the world’s population will grow to just over 11 billion people. Architect Vishaan Chakrabarti wants us to start thinking about how we’ll house all these people -- and how new construction can fight climate change rather than make it worse. In this visionary talk, Chakrabarti proposes a “Goldilocks” solution to sustainable housing that exists in the sweet spot between single-family homes and towering skyscrapers. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if we treated the risk of pandemics the same way we treat the risk of fires? In this eye-opening talk, infectious disease epidemiologist Jennifer B. Nuzzo unpacks how the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904 sparked a cultural shift in how we defend against fires -- and explains why pandemics demand the same sort of reaction. She breaks down the data we need to gather when facing possible danger, the drills we need to ready ourselves and the defenses that could keep future threats at bay -- so next time, we're prepared. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Many companies have made strides when it comes to prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), but one group remains largely left out: people who have been involved in the criminal justice system. Social impact investor Nyra Jordan introduces us to "fair chance hiring" -- the practice of hiring people with criminal justice records -- and shares four steps companies can take to make sure everyone has a shot at getting a job. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For children growing up in refugee camps, education is a powerful tool of liberation. In this inspiring talk, Makhtoum Abdalla, displaced as a child in Sudan and now living with his family in the Otash camp in Darfur, shares his biggest dream: to ensure all children are educated and taught the skills needed to become “captains of their destiny.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Memory foam, air purifiers, scratch-resistant lenses: these are just a few of the everyday items originally developed for space missions. Aerospace engineer Eric Hinterman invites us to dream big and imagine what technological advancements could come next, explaining why establishing a human presence on Mars is a big step for life on Earth -- and a giant leap toward becoming a space-faring species. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision protecting people’s right to have an abortion in the United States, will be overturned within a year, says reproductive rights attorney Kathryn Kolbert. In this electrifying call to action, she breaks down the systematic attack against reproductive freedom in the US and envisions what a post-Roe world could look like. “First, we’ve got to build a badass social justice movement,” she says. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We will get out of this pandemic, says Maria Van Kerkhove, the COVID-19 Technical Lead of the World Health Organization (WHO). The question is how fast -- and if we’ll take what we’ve learned from the past two years and apply it to the next emerging pathogen. In conversation with TED current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers, Van Kerkhove provides insights on the Omicron variant, details a pandemic preparedness protocol under development at WHO and shares what we all can do to bring the pandemic to a speedy end. “Remain vigilant,” Van Kerkhove says. “Everything you do ... will either get us closer to ending this pandemic -- or it will prolong it.” (This conversation was recorded on December 3, 2021.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There’s been explosive investment in new technologies aimed at decarbonizing the planet. But climate investor Dawn Lippert says something key is missing from this strategy: investment in the local people these solutions would most affect. She shares how she’s bridging the gap between investment in new tech and local communities -- by getting closer to the places where these ideas are being put into action. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this deeply moving talk, educator Shabana Basij-Rasikh shares the harrowing story of evacuating more than 250 students, staff and family members from the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA) -- the country’s first and only all-girls boarding school -- to Rwanda after the Taliban took power in 2021. An exceptional story of hope, resilience and dreaming big for future generations of Afghan girls -- and a challenge for the world to not look away. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kindness can go a long way when it comes to reshaping a business. Having saved a fashion company from the brink of bankruptcy, entrepreneur James Rhee shares the value of investing in a culture of compassion at work -- and shows why we should all lead with our hearts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When it comes to big problems like climate change, we tend to focus on big solutions -- but many of the best ideas come from people on the ground, facing day-to-day conservation battles. Sharing her effort to protect the Leseur ecosystem in Indonesia (the last place on Earth where the Sumatran rhino, tiger, elephant and orangutan still roam together in the wild), TED Fellow and conservationist Farwiza Farhan explains the challenges women face on the front lines of forest preservation within patriarchal societies -- and the resilient, world-changing power they hold. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The doctrine of “first, do no harm” is the basis of the Hippocratic Oath, one of the world’s oldest codes of ethics. It governs the work of physicians -- but climate and health campaigner Shweta Narayan says it should go further. In this essential talk, she highlights the interdependence of environmental and human health and emphasizes the necessity of placing health at the heart of all climate solutions. “It’s impossible to have healthy people on a sick planet,” she says. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For thousands of years, the Amazon rainforest has provided food, water and spiritual connection for its Indigenous inhabitants and the world. But the endless extraction of its natural resources by oil companies and others is destroying the lives of those who live there, says Waorani leader Nemonte Nenquimo, and threatening the overall stability of Earth's biosphere. In this powerful talk, she reminds us of the destruction that continues to happen to the world's largest tropical rainforest -- and demands respect for Mother Nature. "The forest is our teacher," she says. (Filmed in Ecuador by director Tom Laffay and associate producer Emily Wright, in collaboration with Amazon Frontlines. In Spanish with subtitles.) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"How much more damage do we have to endure before we realize that it's cheaper to save this planet than to ruin it?" asks engineer and investor John Doerr. In conversation with Countdown cofounder Lindsay Levin, Doerr and systems innovator Ryan Panchadsaram lay out six big objectives that -- if pursued with speed and scale -- could transform society and get us to net-zero emissions by 2050. An action plan to solve the world's climate crisis, backed up by a proven system for setting goals for success. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As you get older, your eyes worsen and become susceptible to a disease called age-related macular degeneration -- the leading cause of blindness, with no cure in sight. Sharing the science of how your vision works, researcher Joshua Chu-Tan offers breakthrough insights on a lesser-known protein that could change the treatment for this disease, preserving the gift of sight for longer and improving the quality of life for millions of people. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’ve been hearing about self-driving cars for years, but autonomous vehicle entrepreneur Aicha Evans thinks we need to dream more daringly. In this exciting talk, she introduces us to robotaxis: fully autonomous, eco-friendly shuttles that would take you from place to place and take up less space on the streets than personal cars. Learn how this new technology works -- and what a future where we hail robotaxis would look like. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TED Fellow and education innovator Larry Irvin envisions a world where every child can see themselves reflected in their teachers. With his team at Brothers Empowered to Teach, Irvin is providing pathways to careers in education for Black men, who currently make up less than three percent of all teachers in the US -- offering training, personal and professional development and job placement. He shares how their holistic, people-centered approach is changing education. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if we had a map of ... everything? Jack Dangermond, a visionary behind the geographic information system (GIS) technology used to map and analyze all kinds of complex data, walks us through the interconnected technologies gathering information about every crack and corner of the Earth. Learn how this "living atlas" and "geospatial nervous system" can help us better understand our changing planet -- and let nature guide our actions towards a more sustainable future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.