For years, one of my infatuations has been TED Talks. Every few months or so I will binge TED Talk videos on YouTube. TED Talk speakers are experts in a variety of fields, many of which I have never even considered. By watching Ted Talks on many different subjects, you can become much more well-rounded and gain a little bit of knowledge in a lot of areas. Podcast episodes are updates daily from Monday through Friday and are typically no longer than 15 minutes, so it is totally achievable to listen to them while walking to class or meetings.
Because TED Talks cover such a wide range of subjects, everyone can find one that appeals to them. For example, I listened to a TED Talk a couple of months ago about how we would be able to curate meat without actually killing animals by fostering animal’s muscle cells. Since I became a vegetarian a couple of years go because I do not agree with the animal cruelty, the prospective idea of having meat without killing animals was very interesting to me. Of course, there are issues to this idea, and it will be an expensive process at first, but the speaker did a great job of explaining the process and societal effects to an audience that had no prior knowledge.
Another interesting TED Talk I listened to recently from the TED Talk Daily podcast was entitled “How radical hospitality can change the lives of the formerly incarcerated | Reuben Jonathon Miller.” In this episode, Miller discussed the issues with the American prison system and how the rehabilitation ideology is deeply flawed and has long-lasting negative effects on former inmates. Miller recounts a time in which he followed around a formerly incarcerated man to see how hard the system has made his life post-prison. He talks about the lack of resources, communication, and opportunities for the individuals. When Miller went around with this man, he expressed such gratitude for Miller’s actions even though Miller thought that he had not done anything significant. This episode was not only a call for change, but also an informational segment.
No matter what your interests are, TED Talks Daily will have episodes that appeal to you. The episodes are scientific, sociological, technological, innovative, and more. If you are looking to learn something, I am sure that you will be able to find some in the list of episodes. It is so great that episodes come out every weekday because even if you do not like one day’s episode, you have plenty of other episodes to look through. Whichever episode you choose to listen to, you will be gaining some interesting information that you probably would not have been exposed to otherwise.