Looking for a self-esteem boost, motivation, or a mental breakthrough? TED Talks has you covered!
Would you believe me if I told you I had a whole YouTube playlist for TED Talks? It’s true! Okay, it’s a combination of TED Talks, spoken word poetry and Alan Watts lectures. However, I think they all fit the same bill. They calm and engage the audience in a thought-provoking concept, whatever the topic may be!
Here’s a bit of history: TED Talks (as in Technology, Entertainment, Design) began as a conference in the 1980s. With roots in the early days of Silicon Valley, TED Talks hosts it’s main annual conference in Vancouver each year, with TEDxTalks occurring regionally across the world throughout the year. In the list of previous conference speakers, you’ll find actors, writers, activists, all the way to former Presidents and Nobel Prize winners!
TED Talks are a great source of inspiration. You’ll find stories of strength, triumph, and perseverance; all things that will help you reach that peak!
Here’s ten of my favorite TED Talks, to get you started on your own rabbit hole (as I’ve found myself on more than a handful of nights).
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Looks aren’t everything. Believe me, I’m a model | Cameron Russell.
Wouldn’t life be easier if you were a supermodel? You get to travel, people fawn over you, and you stop traffic with your picture perfect looks. How glamorous, right? Well, wrong. Okay, sometimes wrong. Cameron Russell began modeling at sixteen, but only part-time, before graduating with honors from Columbia University in 2013. In her lecture, she discusses the realities of being a model: it’s a predominantly white space, with little to no diversity. As well, for a career so focused on looks, your coworkers are not only the most beautiful, but more often, they’re also the most insecure. Russell implores her audience to measure their values outside of their image, and remember that a picture may say a thousand words, but a person can say a million.
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Strange Answers to the Psychopath Test | Jon Ronson.
Last year I gave this Ted Talk a shoutout, because it was the culmination in Jon Ronson’s book of the same name (which was part of my January 2020 reading list). If reading the full story is too much time and energy, this twenty minute Ted Talk will feed your fascination with the spooky realities of being a psychopath. Ronson discusses meeting a criminal locked in an asylum as well as a grandiose former business executive who specialized in firing people. Do high self esteem and bouts of violence make you a psychopath? Maybe. Maybe not. But maybe.
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I grew up in a cult. It was heaven — and hell | Lilia Tarawa.
Imagine if those terrifying documentaries you consume like oxygen was your reality. Lilia Tarawa describes life inside a cult, growing up in the Gloriavale Christian Community. She had a happy childhood, filled with music and friends. However, her moments of happiness were underscored with nightmarish domineering abuse, both emotional and physical. She received special privileges as the granddaughter of the leader, but her classmates and close friends did not receive the same luck. Lilia, along with her siblings and parents, fled the cult when she was nineteen. She now lives a happy life as a businesswoman, writer, and public speaker, sharing her story and inspiring others to break free of the people who pull you down deep. Note: you may tear up watching this.
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My Son was a Columbine Shooter. This is my Story | Sue Klebold.
The world changed forever on April 20, 1999, when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold committed a bloody massacre against the students and faculty of their high school. Some twenty years later, Dylan’s mother describes what it is like to have your life change in an instant, to find that the son you knew was a stranger. It is a heartbreaking beseechment to connect with others, and discuss mental health on a more serious level. Her son wrote in his journal about self-harm and suicidal thoughts prior to the massacre. Violence can be tempered, and avoided, if the tough conversations happen.
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Grand Slam Poetry Champion | Harry Baker.
Remember how I said my playlist consisted of both Ted Talks AND Slam Poetry? This lecture REALLY brings the power as a performance of slam poetry. Harry Baker performs three of his poems, turning phrases about numbers and Pippa Middleton and love, faster than you can comprehend. People can SLAM spoken word poetry without much effort, and I get why, but I still find the rhythm and dance of the performance more captivating than words. See what I did there?
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5 Hindrances to Self Mastery | Master Shi Heng Yi.
After experiencing education in a more Western tradition, Shi Heng Yi felt that something was missing. As a result, he studied at the Shaolin monastery, becoming the headmaster of Shaolin Temple Europe in Germany. His lecture discusses the five hindrances, the five things that stop you from achieving your goals. His calm but powerful perspective inconveniences, because you will feel compelled to admit your failures. The only thing REALLY standing in your way is you. Now go climb that mountain!
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Plus Size? More like My Size | Ashley Graham.
Wearing a dark blue dress, model Ashley Graham walks onstage, without even addressing the audience, and instead addressing herself in a carefully placed mirror. She tells her reflection “You are bold, you are brilliant, and you are beautiful.” That opening line has become my mantra on the days I need it most. Graham shares her story with the audience, coming from a small town and running off to join the fashion circus in the Big Apple. Despite being told “no, you’re too big,” she became the first plus-sized model on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (a benchmark of success in the modeling industry), among appearances on other fashion magazine covers and founding her own swimsuit company. Ashley encourages the audience to be authentic, even if it doesn’t fit the mould. You might just break it!
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The Art of Being Yourself | Caroline McHugh.
The Scottish brogue should be enough for you, to be honest. If you want more information, this lecture discusses what it means to not only be yourself, but to believe in yourself. When you realize how little people will focus on the moments that take up residence in your mind as failures, you free yourself to positivity. This lecture particularly focuses on comparison as the thief of joy. Focusing on only yourself, and what you bring, rather than what you bring compared to others, will change your life.
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“Locker Room Talk.” Says who? | Alexis Jones.
In the era of #MeToo, sexism has experienced a watershed moment, in which both men and women stand up and say “This has happened to me. It should have never happened to me, and it should never happen to anyone, again.” Alexis Jones takes the conversation a step further, describing visiting college campuses across the country to discuss sexual assault against women, in the so-called locker rooms where the dehumanizing of women begins (or, dare I say, continues). Alexis delivers one-two punches on sharing statistics with footballers, who roll their eyes until she pulls up photos of their sisters, friends, and girlfriends, and dares them to consider what it would be like if THEY said they had been assaulted. It is a powerful declaration that these conversations should end, in or out of the locker room.
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The Price of Shame | Monica Lewinsky.
When you think about it, Monica Lewinsky is the first cyberbullying victim. As the world wide web TRULY became world wide, the Clinton-Lewinsky affair exploded, with millions accessing the story and hurling insults in forums and chatrooms across the globe. At 23, Monica thought her life was over, as her name became synonymous with “slut,” “bimbo,” and “that woman.” After years away from the spotlight, Monica returned to the public eye to share the more brutally honest truth of the affair, and the shame and bullying she experienced from beginning to… has it ended yet? Nowadays, Monica is more than willing to poke fun at the scandal on Twitter, but still calls for a more compassionate internet. I hope we can see that become a reality.
Ted Talks make for good background noise when accomplishing tasks. Granted, the recommended sidebar of ANY Youtube video can be a slippery slope (didn’t I just turn on my computer ten minutes ago, not four hours ago?), but I find Ted Talks to be at least more productive than, say, a compilation of Criminal Minds TikToks. Who would waste their time with that?
Definitely not me. Ever.