Accessing TED Talks for newbies (and veterans)

TEDxSalem might be a local audi­ence’s first for­ay into the world of TED talks, but there are a num­ber of ways to access ideas worth spread­ing, and most are avail­able for no charge.

The first stop on any tour of TED is www.ted.com. The site fea­tures all of the talks giv­en a the pre­em­i­nent TED con­fer­ences around the world, and offers the oppor­tu­ni­ty to go deep quick on every­thing from the impor­tance of vul­tures to the ecosys­tem to explo­rations how video gam­ing can make us bet­ter prob­lem-solvers.

One of the more fun ways to access top­ics that you nev­er knew inter­est­ed you is through the site’s Sur­prise Me search. With two ques­tions about the emo­tion­al state you want to reach and how much time you have, the results will typ­i­cal­ly present you with a num­ber of options.

For par­ents and edu­ca­tors of all stripes, ed.ted.com, can­not be rec­om­mend­ed high­ly enough. The site offers micro-lessons that can be used as fod­der for, or part of, larg­er con­ver­sa­tions.  Every­thing from the chem­istry of auto­mo­biles to how writ­ers of books and film devel­oped fic­tion­al lan­guages is cov­ered.

Look­ing for more syn­the­sis and draw­ing con­nec­tions between var­i­ous TED Talks? Try the TED Radio Hour pro­duced by NPR. The show fea­tures TED talks focused around spe­cif­ic themes and often calls upon the lec­tur­ers them­selves to add fur­ther insight than they could squeeze into their min­utes on the stage. For a sam­ple, we rec­om­mend a recent episode titled What is Orig­i­nal?  It fea­tures four dif­fer­ent speak­ers on every­thing from remix cul­ture to bor­rowed ideas in fash­ion.

Those with a Net­flix sub­scrip­tion can access a num­ber of TED Talk col­lec­tions grouped around themes rang­ing from life­hack­ing that will make you more pro­duc­tive and effi­cient to the impact of social media on dai­ly and inter­na­tion­al inter­ac­tions.

If a par­tic­u­lar TED Talk leaves you want­i­ng to know more about a top­ic, try search­ing TED Books for a more fleshed-out approach to the sub­ject. The books, which are usu­al­ly more like long-form essays, may take you deep­er into the mind of a schiz­o­phrenic or help you get involved in the efforts to erad­i­cate land­mines. All the books are avail­able in for­mats suit­able for most e‑readers and usu­al­ly only $2.

The vast amount of knowl­edge and human expe­ri­ence cat­a­logued in all these spaces can be equal parts inspir­ing and over­whelm­ing, but there real­ly is no sub­sti­tute for expe­ri­enc­ing a live TED event. Whether you’re a TED Talk vet­er­an or a new­bie, we’d love to have you along for the sec­ond annu­al TEDxSalem. Buy your tick­ets here.