TED Talks: Watch The Most Popular TED Talks Of All Time
TED Talks have inspired millions of people around the world. Covering every topic under the sun, from health and fitness to technology to creativity, there is a TED Talk to suit everyone’s needs and desires. Check out these incredible TED Talks, the cream of the crop.
1. Business Insider gives insight into the most popular TED Talk of them all, Sir Ken Robinson’s “Do schools kill creativity?”
Featured on TED talks & watched by millions – See Sir Ken Robinson on 9.11 @ the Plaza — http://t.co/1vtiEFzhtd pic.twitter.com/633dL0cpJV
— El Paso Live (@ElPasoLive) September 7, 2015
While Robinson uses many effective public speaking strategies in his talk, the most important thing he does is make the audience laugh. Carmine Gallo, who has written the book The Storyteller’s Secret, says Robinson’s talk is funnier than the movie Anchorman.
“In the first five minutes of his speech, Robinson gets about 10 laughs. At two laughs a minute, that makes [his] talk funnier than the movie Anchorman (1.6 laughs per minute) and on par with The Hangover (2.5 laughs per minute).”
2. Lifehack lists a number of the best TED talks of all time. Pranav Mistry provides wonderful insight to how the physical world is able to take advantage of today’s technology to interact with the world of data in his talk “The thrilling potential of Sixth Sense.” Mistry stresses what we should do is most important than what we can do.
“What we can do is not important. What we should do is more important.”
3. Another of the most popular TED Talks is Daniel Kahneman’s “The riddle of experience vs. memory.” The focus here is why humans are often irrational and why memory often fails to lead in the right direction. Kahneman stresses that people tend to choose between memories of experiences rather than actual experiences.
“We don’t choose between experiences, we choose between memories of experiences. Even when we think about the future, we don’t think of our future normally as experiences. We think of our future as anticipated memories.”
4. David Gallo gives one of the best TED Talks ever on what exists beneath the surface of Earth’s oceans. Titled “Underwater Astonishments,” this talk focuses on the fact that there is still so much about the planet Earth that is unknown.
“Today we’ve only explored about 3 percent of what’s out there in the ocean. Already we’ve found the world’s highest mountains, the world’s deepest valleys, underwater lakes, underwater waterfalls… There’s still 97 percent, and either that 97 percent is empty or is just full of surprises.”
5. This one is sure to remain a popular one. Mary Roach’s “10 things you didn’t know about an orgasm” is definitely one of the most popular TED Talks. Roach reveals 10 of the funniest and most intriguing pieces of information about orgasm.
“If you can trigger the Lazarus reflex in a dead person, why not the orgasm reflex?”
6. Hans Rosling shows how big data can be used to disprove many of the myths of the developing world in his TED Talk called “The best stats you’ve ever seen.”
“I have shown that Swedish top students know statistically significantly less about the world than the chimpanzees.”
7. “Brain Magic” is one of the most popular TED Talks. Given by Keith Barry, this talk demonstrates how the brain can fool the human body. There is some pretty funny audience participation.
“I’m going to show you all how easy it is to manipulate the human mind once you know how.”
8. Finally, another of the very best TED Talks of all time is David Blaine’s talk called “How I held my breath for 17 minutes.” He talks about passion, how he held his breath for so long, and what it means to him to perform these death-defying feats.
“As a magician, I think everything is possible. And I think if something is done by one person it can be done by others.”
[Composite Photo by Andreas Rentz, Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images]
