"The way we spend our hours defines our lives...TED speakers explore how we make choices about time, meaning and attention in a world of infinite options."

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"A second glance can change everything...TED speakers will make you think twice about robots, history lessons and even wine bottles."

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"Have you ever fallen asleep in school or during a work meeting? Maybe you felt your eyes glaze over as your boss or a teacher droned on and on about a topic that had no relevance to you. What's missing from these classrooms and conference rooms is engagement: A state of being absorbed, alert, and eager to learn. This week, psychologist and neuroscientist Mary Helen Immordino-Yang explores why so many of us feel apathetic at school and at work, and how to cultivate the magic of engagement."

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"William Ury, cofounder of Harvard’s Program on Negotiation, is one of the world’s best-known experts on negotiation. He is coauthor of Getting to Yes, the all-time best selling negotiation book in the world. He is also the author of Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situations and Possible: How We Survive (and Thrive) in an Age of Conflict."

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"The host of Hidden Brain on NPR discusses the lies we all tell ourselves and the role they play in easing everyday life."

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"When should you stay the course in life, and when should you shift with changing tides? This [episode explores] case studies from the world of business to explore the science of inflection points — changes that dramatically transform the course of events. Researcher Rita McGrath of Columbia University explains why we fail to see impending moments of upheaval, and what we can do to be more adept at spotting them."

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"We encounter friction every day — in all its forms — as we brush our teeth, go for a jog, argue with a friend. This hour, TED speakers explore how this force can be dialed up or down to improve our lives."

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"Ellen Langer is a psychologist at Harvard who studies the mind-body connection. She’s published some of the most remarkable scientific findings [on the interaction of our minds and bodies]. Can we really improve our physical health by changing our mind?"

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1: The Chain of Events. "We tend to think of tragedies as a single terrible moment, rather than the result of multiple bad decisions. Can this pattern be reversed? We try — with stories about wildfires, school shootings, and love."

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Part 2: Life and Death. "In medicine, failure can be catastrophic. It can also produce discoveries that save millions of lives. Tales from the front line, the lab, and the I.T. department."

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Part 3: Grit vs Quit. "Giving up can be painful. That’s why we need to talk about it. Today: stories about glitchy apps, leaky paint cans, broken sculptures — and a quest for the perfect bowl of ramen. Part of the series."

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Part 4: Extreme Resiliency. "Everyone makes mistakes. How do you learn from them? Lessons from the classroom, the Air Force, and the world’s deadliest infectious disease."

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"...A lively discussion about the most important skills for leaders to build -- and the most vital steps for organizations to put people first."

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"Poet and author Maggie Smith isn’t sure where she falls on the spectrum from optimism to pessimism. But her viral poem 'Good Bones' and her bestselling books have inspired countless readers with profound insights on the messiness of being human. In this episode, Maggie and Adam discuss strategies for handling complex emotions, sustaining hope while acknowledging reality, and accepting ambiguity in life and art. They explore the value of asking questions that may not have a satisfying answer — or any answer at all."

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"Too many teams are less than the sum of their parts, and building a great team requires more than just picking an all-star roster or doing trust falls. Adam dives into the hard-hitting research on what makes teams work."

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"In life and work, we have a hard time changing course. When we wind up in a miserable job, a failing project, or a floundering romantic relationship, we rationalize, make excuses, and stick with our bad decisions—even when the writing's on the wall. Why? Usually we assume the driving force is sunk costs: we don't want to admit we've wasted that time or money. But in fact, the root of our stubbornness is a psychological trap called 'escalation of commitment.' Once we understand that, we can start taking steps to protect ourselves from… well, ourselves."

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"Emotions are like opinions — everyone has them...We know that it’s possible to transform our feelings by changing how we think and talk about them...In this episode, Lisa and Adam bust myths about how emotions are constructed in the brain and experienced in the body. They discuss the surprising evidence that language doesn’t just describe emotions — it shapes them. And they examine how managing your emotions is easier than you may realize."

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"...More than 20 years after releasing his blockbuster book The Tipping Point, Malcolm has decided to rethink his first famous ideas by writing his new book, Revenge of the Tipping Point. He and Adam riff on the value of acknowledging our past mistakes, strategies for coping with failure and ways to avoid the traps of homogeneous cultures."

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Why you should define your fears instead of your goals "The hard choices -- what we most fear doing, asking, saying -- are very often exactly what we need to do. How can we overcome self-paralysis and take action? Tim Ferriss encourages us to fully envision and write down our fears in detail, in a simple but powerful exercise he calls "fear-setting." Learn more about how this practice can help you thrive in high-stress environments and separate what you can control from what you cannot."

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