TED in bulk!

We love TED talks in our family. So, I was delighted to discover last weekend that Netflix recently bundled years of these TED conference speeches, from the first in 1984 through this year, according to theme. (If you’re not familiar with TED, shake hands with it here: http://www.ted.com/

There are more than 1,110 TED talks online, on politics and religion, architecture and design, animals and nature, psychology and health, technology and entertainment, and everything in between and within those themes. Regarding food and farming  — including their relationship to health, environment, culture, economy, etc. — there’s now a TED series available through Netflix called “Chew On This.”

Be careful, you can get sucked in for hours – enthralled, entertained, informed, challenged, inspired and sometimes dumbfounded by some of the world’s brightest and best thinkers on a huge range of topics. But then, a TED talk is typically about 15 minutes in length. (The range is about 5 minutes to 25 minutes.)  You could be enlightened by a dozen brilliant speakers, on as many topics, in the time it takes to watch a mindless movie. So, checking a few out isn’t a bad way to spend part of a rainy afternoon.

It’s hard to pick favorites, but these are just a few of mine:

On food:

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_barber_s_surprising_foie_gras_parable.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/ann_cooper_talks_school_lunches.html

On food as medicine:

On other random stuff:

http://www.ted.com/talks/joshua_klein_on_the_intelligence_of_crows.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/billy_collins_everyday_moments_caught_in_time.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html