• Premiered: Feb 1984
  • Episodes: 2472
  • Followers: 10
  • Running
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Season 2004
2004x1
Dan Gilbert: The surprising science of happiness
Episode overview
Air date
Feb 01, 2004
Dan Gilbert, author of "Stumbling on Happiness," challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our "psychological immune system" lets us feel truly happy even when things don’t go as planned.
2004x2
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on flow
Episode overview
Air date
Feb 01, 2004
Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi asks, "What makes a life worth living?" Noting that money cannot make us happy, he looks to those who find pleasure and lasting satisfaction in activities that bring about a state of "flow."
2004x3
Dean Ornish: Healing and other natural wonders
Episode overview
Air date
Feb 01, 2004
Dean Ornish talks about simple, low-tech and low-cost ways to take advantage of the body's natural desire to heal itself. Dean Ornish is a clinical professor at UCSF and founder of .. show full overview
2004x4
Steven Strogatz: How things in nature tend to sync up
Episode overview
Air date
Feb 01, 2004
Mathematician Steven Strogatz shows how flocks of creatures (like birds, fireflies and fish) manage to synchronize and act as a unit -- when no one's giving orders. The powerful tendency extends into the realm of objects, too.
2004x5
Joseph Pine on what consumers want
Episode overview
Air date
Feb 01, 2004
Customers want to feel what they buy is authentic, but "Mass Customization" author Joseph Pine says selling authenticity is tough because, well, there's no such thing. He talks about a few experiences that may be artificial but make millions anyway.
2004x6
Malcolm Gladwell on spaghetti sauce
Episode overview
Air date
Feb 01, 2004
Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell gets inside the food industry's pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce -- and makes a larger argument about the nature of choice and happiness.
2004x7
Steven Levitt: The freakonomics of crack dealing
Episode overview
Air date
Feb 01, 2004
Freakonomics author Steven Levitt presents new data on the finances of drug dealing. Contrary to popular myth, he says, being a street-corner crack dealer isn’t lucrative: It pays below minimum wage. And your boss can kill you.
2004x8
Eve Ensler: happiness in body and soul
Episode overview
Air date
Feb 01, 2004
Eve Ensler, creator of "The Vagina Monologues," shares how a discussion about menopause with her friends led to talking about all sorts of sexual acts onstage, waging a global campaign to end violence toward women and finding her own happiness.
2004x9
Stefan Sagmeister Yes, design can make you happy
Episode overview
Air date
Feb 01, 2004
Graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister takes the audience on a whimsical journey through moments of his life that made him happy -- and notes how many of these moments have to do with good design. www.ted.com/talks/view/id/50
2004x10
Al Seckel says our brains are mis-wired
Episode overview
Air date
Feb 01, 2004
Al Seckel, a cognitive neuroscientist, explores the perceptual illusions that fool our brains. Loads of eye tricks help him prove that not only are we easily fooled, we kind of like it.
2004x11
Sergey Brin and Larry Page on Google
Episode overview
Air date
Feb 01, 2004
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin offer a peek inside the Google machine, sharing tidbits about international search patterns, the philanthropic Google Foundation, and the company's dedication to innovation and employee happiness.
2004x12
Michael Shermer on strange beliefs
Episode overview
Air date
Feb 01, 2004
Why do people see the Virgin Mary on a cheese sandwich or hear demonic lyrics in "Stairway to Heaven"? Using video and music, skeptic Michael Shermer shows how we convince ourselves to believe -- and overlook the facts.
2004x15
Rachelle Garniez: La Vie en Rose
Episode overview
Air date
Feb 01, 2004
Featuring the vocals and mischievous bell-playing of accordionist and singer Rachelle Garniez, the TED House Band -- led by Thomas Dolby on keyboard -- delivers this delightful rendition of the Edith Piaf standard "La Vie en Rose."
2004x16 Season finale
Susan Savage-Rumbaugh: The gentle genius of bonobos
Episode overview
Air date
Feb 01, 2004
Savage-Rumbaugh's work with bonobo apes, which can understand spoken language and learn tasks by watching, forces the audience to rethink how much of what a species can do is determined by biology — and how much by cultural exposure.
2004x13
Ze Frank's nerdcore comedy
Episode overview
Air date
Nov 25, 2012
Performer and web toymaker Ze Frank delivers a hilarious nerdcore standup routine, then tells us what he's seriously passionate about: helping people create and interact using simple, addictive web tools.
2004x14
Nancy Etcoff Happiness and its surprises
Episode overview
Air date
Nov 25, 2012
Cognitive researcher Nancy Etcoff looks at happiness -- the ways we try to achieve and increase it, the way it's untethered to our real circumstances, and its surprising effect on our bodies.

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