TED Talks Daily (SD video)

What if you could create new music using your favorite musician's voice? Sharing her melodic gifts with the world, multidisciplinary artist Holly Herndon introduces Holly+, an AI-powered instrument that lets people sing with her own voice. Musician Pher joins her onstage to demonstrate this mind-blowing tech while singing into two microphones -- one that amplifies his natural voice and another that makes him sound just like Holly.

Among the dinosaurs, giant sea dragons roamed the ancient ocean. Millions of years later, paleontologist Dean R. Lomax and his team freed the remains of one of these colossal creatures from the Earth. Settle in to learn about the once-in-a-lifetime discovery of the 10-meter-long Rutland ichthyosaur: the largest and most complete ichthyosaur ever unearthed in Britain and one of the greatest finds in the country's paleontological history.

Is capitalism a good thing? Journalist Katherine Mangu-Ward makes the case that "weirdos" left alone to innovate and explore far-out ideas in a free market system are our best hope for the future. She asks us to reconsider our qualms about capitalism, failure and corporate death, analyzing the recent history of General Motors and Facebook to illustrate why we're better off with a lot less government intervention.

In this captivating talk, journey into the surprisingly colorful nights of the Amazon Rainforest, as artistic entomologist Leo Lanna and designer Lvcas Fiat introduce us to the shapeshifting wonder of a creature they've fallen in love with: the praying mantis. Using an innovative approach that fuses science, art and conservation, Lanna and Fiat uncover the unimaginable biodiversity in this natural kingdom, proving that the age of exploration on Earth is far from over.

While doctors take an oath to do no harm, there's a good chance their unconscious biases can seep into how seriously they take your pain. Physician Sheetal DeCaria explains how perception impacts medical care and treatment -- and calls for health care professionals to check in with how they do their patient checkups.

"When teachers and families work together, everyone wins," says education technology entrepreneur and TED Fellow Heejae Lim. She shines a light on an underutilized resource in US public education -- a family's love for their children -- and shows that, with the right tools and tech, schools can remove language barriers, foster meaningful connections and help every student thrive.

Chemical plants create many of the materials found in everyday items, from the shoes you wear to the car you drive to the cell phone in your pocket. But the massive carbon footprint from chemical manufacturing is leading to climate breakdown. Sustainable engineering researcher Miguel A. Modestino presents his team's pioneering work on electrochemical engineering -- the design and implementation of new chemical reactions that source their energy directly from electricity, as opposed to fossil fuels -- and explains how it could reduce the world's dependence on oil and gas, protect its natural treasures and keep the economy humming.

The price of insulin in the US is both outrageous and deadly to those who can't live without it. Diabetes advocate Brooke Bennett shares her own struggles living with type 1 diabetes and how the astronomical cost of a life-saving drug leaves millions struggling to survive. A rallying cry for an affordable and humane livelihood for those with chronic illness.

Neuroscientist Sergiu P. Pasca has made it his life's work to understand how the human brain builds itself -- and what makes it susceptible to disease. In a mind-blowing talk laden with breakthrough science, he shows how his team figured out how to grow "organoids" and what they call brain "assembloids" -- self-organizing clumps of neural tissue derived from stem cells that have shown the ability to form circuits -- and explains how these miniature parts of the nervous system are bringing us closer to demystifying the brain.

With quick wit and sharp insight, writer Jeanette Winterson lays out a vision of the future where human and machine intelligence meld -- forming what she calls "alternative intelligence" -- and takes a philosophical look at our species, asking: Are we smart enough to survive how smart we are? (Followed by a Q&A with TED's head of curation Helen Walters)

"The metaverse is already on fire, and we haven't even built it yet," says TED Fellow and video game lawyer Micaela Mantegna. She lays out why the metaverse is at risk of inheriting some of the internet's worst traits, like unchecked surveillance -- and shows how we could redirect its fate through new laws grounded in kindness and connection.

Taking cues from soft robotics and the natural world, conceptual artist Anicka Yi builds lighter-than-air machines that roam and react like autonomous life forms. Her floating "aerobes" inspire us to think about new ways of living with machines -- and to ponder how they could evolve into living creatures. "What if our machines could be more than just our tools, and instead, a new type of companion species?" she asks.

Everyone has the right to a clean environment -- but major disparities exist when it comes to who faces the consequences of pollution. Environmental justice leader Peggy Shepard points to the disproportionate impact that hazardous environmental conditions have on Black, brown and Indigenous communities and challenges us to build a truly equitable future that turns "sacrifice zones" -- where community health is sacrificed for the sake of development -- into "green zones" that redress the legacy of pollution and harmful policies.

A talented trio of dancers brings to life choreographer Nina McNeely's contemporary dance piece "Once There Was III." Settle in for a dazzling, hypnotic performance.

Plastics are everywhere -- they're in our favorite electronic devices, they package our food and insulate our homes. Today, the total mass of plastic is twice the total mass of all living organisms on the planet, and it's starting to change the processes that allow the Earth's climate system to work. Plastic pollution researcher Patricia Villarrubia-Gómez breaks down the consequences of producing all of this plastic at every stage, from fossil fuel extraction to the disposal of single-use plastics in landfills and oceans. The first step to breaking free of our plastic problem is admitting we have one.