15:41 The place that travel writer Pico Iyer would most like to go? Nowhere. In a counterintuitive and lyrical meditation, Iyer takes a look at the incredible insight that comes with taking time for stillness. In our world of constant movement and distraction, he teases out strategies we all can use to take back a few minutes out of every day, or a few days out of every season.

06:17 This extraordinarily beautiful, inspiring GoPro video features 3 mermaid-like free diver sirens with mono fins dancing together with three three humpback whales in the Tonga seas. It’s set to the the voice of Alan Watts, telling us to dream the dream of what we are actually living today.

03:38 An inspiring and truly profound talk backed with lovely images and a quiet soundtrack. You cannot watch this video without feeling you are worth something just by existing, and that life is so much more than we usually give it credit for.

02:35 In this talk The Dalai Lama stresses a secular approach to compassion that reaches beyond individual creeds and beliefs. He speaks of the need for mutual respect and friendship, the care and education of children, and ongoing dialogue for conflict resolution.

07:23 We live in a world of unseeable beauty, so subtle and delicate that it is imperceptible to the human eye. To bring this invisible world to light, filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg bends the boundaries of time and space with high-speed cameras, time lapses, and microscopes. In this video he he shares mind-blowing images from his new 3D film “Mysteries of the Unseen World,” which slow down, speed up, and magnify the astonishing wonders of nature. You’ll never look at the world the same way again.  

05:40 Selections from interviews filmed shortly before Joseph Campbell’s death in 1987.

08:48 Gravity. The stars in day. Thoughts. The human genome. Time. Atoms. So much of what really matters in the world is impossible to see. This video will have you questioning what you actually know.

09:23 This remarkable commencement address by the late David Foster Wallace is a meditation on the frustration of daily life and the importance of perspective as seen from Wallace’s eloquent, darkly humorous point-of-view. The video is an awesome combination of poetic verbiage and cadence with perfectly edited imagery and motion graphics.

03:58 An inspirational and though provoking short talk about discovering who you are and what you are truly capable of – enhanced with a powerful series of resonant images.

17:40 In this compelling talk backed by stunning illustrations, Professor David Christian offers an enlightening, wide-angle look at complexity, life, and humanity, set against our slim share of the cosmic timeline.

03:05 A remarkable lecture from the Buddhist teacher Alan Watts on living a purposeful, satisfying life and asking yourself what you really desire – set to music and resonant video images.

18:03 In this very personal talk at TED, J.J. Abrams traces his love for the unseen mystery – a passion that’s evident in his films and TV shows – back to its magical beginnings.

09:56 Schwartzberg’s stunning time-lapse photography and human vignettes, accompanied by music and powerful words from Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast, serve as a meditation on being grateful for every day and giving back to those who are less fortunate.

05:07 Using three iPods as magical props synchronizing videos across multiple screens, Marco Tempest spins a clever, surprisingly heartfelt meditation on truth and lies, art and emotion.

20:27 In this extraordinary talk interwoven with videos, Salman Khan tells how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, which offers a carefully structured series of educational videos providing complete curricula in math and other subjects.

17:30 The LXD (the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers) electrify the TED stage with an emerging global street-dance culture and their acrobatic superpowers.

14:35 Composer Eric Whitacre shares the story behind his ‘Virtual Choir’ project which brought together singers from around the world as well as the creative challenges of making music powered by YouTube – and he unveils the first 2 minutes of Sleep, performed with a video choir of 2,052.

15:36 Join John Hardy on a tour of the Green School, his off-the-grid school in Bali. The centerpiece of the campus is a spiraling Heart of School, one of the world’s largest freestanding bamboo buildings.

11:40 Why don’t we get the best out of people? Robinson argues that it’s because we’ve been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. “We are educating people out of their creativity.” Animated infographics illuminate the talk by this world-renowned education and creativity expert.

17:34 Far from being simply ‘in the eye of the beholder,’ art, music and other beautiful things are a core part of human nature with deep evolutionary origins – as Denis Dutton explains in this provocative animated presentation.

04:07 This video blends a superb talk by Steven Johnson on creativity, incubation, and innovation as the source of good ideas with well-conceived information graphics.

18:44 In this inspiring graduation address the Amazon CEO makes the case that our character is reflected not in the gifts we’re endowed with at birth, but by the choices we make over the course of a lifetime. His talk starts about 6 minutes into the video, after the introduction.

21:20 Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our beliefs about what will make us happy are often wrong and our ‘psychological immune system’ lets us feel truly happy even when things don’t go as planned.

10:09 Time influences who we are as a person, how we view relationships, and how we act in the world. Our often unconscious attitudes toward time can shape our personalities, work, health, well-being, and the life we lead. This powerful message is expressed through animated infographics synced to a talk by Stanford Professor Philip Zimbardo.

10:48 Brilliant video on what motivates us in life and work, using the audio from a talk by Dan Pink and whiteboard animations. Pink compares the latest scientific discoveries about the mind to the old beliefs that claim people can only be motivated by the hope of gain and the fear of loss. His thesis is that what motivates us once our basic survival needs are met is the ability to grow and develop to realize our fullest potential.

10:40 Fast-paced, creatively animated exploration of the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it influences us by bestselling author and social and ethical prophet Jeremy Rifkin.

07:07 Celebrated physicist Richard Feynman explains what fire, magnets, rubber bands (and more) are like at the scale of the jiggling atoms they’re made of. This accessible, enchanting BBC conversation reveals a teeming nano-world that’s just plain fun to imagine.

03:04 McFerrin uses movement and sound to demonstrate the pattern of the pentatonic scale. He gives his audience one note and then a second one to repeat to illustrate music’s interaction with the brain and our emotions.

10:00 Illuminating talk on what meditation really is, expressed in clear, simple language. Sogyal Rinpoche is a Tibetan lama renowned for his ability to make Tibetan Buddhist teaching relevant to modern men and women of all faiths by drawing out their universal message while losing none of their authenticity, purity, and power.

1:12:05 Jon Kabat-Zinn leads a spirited class on mindfulness and meditation at Google. It’s a wonderful session, and one that’s particularly relevant to people working in technology and media.

05:33 An inspiring video focusing on grateful and joyous living; the message is enhanced with beautiful visuals and quiet music.

04:15 In clear language, Tolle explains the process of entering the ‘miraculous’ state of presence that is always available to us so that we don’t remain ‘lost in the maze of our own compulsive thoughts.’

03:22 An illuminating talk on the power of compassion and on living a meaningful life.

04:30 Excellent BBC TV interview, illuminating Jung’s views on death and living life. A central focus of the exchange is that living is looking forward, not backwards.

15:19 In this compelling, graphically illustrated talk Pollan explores how our industrial food system is keeping us overly dependent on fossil fuels, destroying our environment, and making us sick. Breaking this cycle requires fundamentally changing our relationship to food.

22:46 National Geographic Explorer Wade Davis celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the world’s indigenous cultures, which are disappearing from the planet at an alarming rate.

20:14 An entertaining, provocative talk. Godin discusses some poorly designed gadgets and goods – exploring the reasons why they are that way, and how to fix them.

18:56 Csikszentmihalyi is best known for his pioneering work in understanding happiness, creativity, human fulfillment, and flow – all of which he weaves into this TED talk on what makes a life worth living. Noting that money cannot make us happy, he looks to those who find pleasure and lasting satisfaction in activities that bring about a state of ‘flow’ – his word for heightened focus and immersion.

14:12 Why do people see the Virgin Mary on a cheese sandwich or hear demonic lyrics in Stairway to Heaven? In his TED talk skeptic Michael Shermer uses video and music to show how we convince ourselves to believe – and overlook the facts.

19:50 TED talk by magician Keith Barry showing how easy it is to manipulate minds once you know how – via a hypnotic trick employing telekinesis or second sight. He involves the audience in some astounding feats of brain magic.

18:07 Geek humorist John Hodgman rambles through a story about aliens, physics, time, space, and the way all of these somehow contribute to a sweet, perfect memory of falling in love.

20:59 Rowling exhorts her audience to move the world in a positive direction instead of working only for their own personal welfare in this remarkable and inspiring Commencement Address at Harvard in 2008.

23:59 In this illuminating talk about biomimicry Janine Benyus illustrates fascinating examples of ways nature influences the products and systems we build.

19:29 In this funny, personal and surprisingly moving talk Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat Pray Love, muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses – and shares the radical idea that instead of the rare person ‘being’ a genius all of us ‘have’  genius.

28:19 Brilliant, provocative talk on game design and the future of technology. Jesse Schell weaves together various technologies — social web, reality TV, iPhone, geolocation data — and lays out the future as he sees it. He posits that the future of games is in finding psychological angles and making experiences based in reality.

18:37 A spirited examination told through compelling stories, showing how traditional rewards aren’t always as effective as we think.

19:07 In this vibrant talk string theorist Brian Greene explains how our understanding of the universe has evolved from Einstein’s notions of gravity and space-time to superstring theory, where minuscule strands of energy vibrating in 11 dimensions create every particle and force in the universe.