Friendship is one of the great joys of life. These talks about connecting with others might inspire you to pick up the phone and say hello to someone important to you.

Explore the poetic and unexpected pleasures of embracing the strangers who make fleeting appearances in our lives. Learn more about the benefits of talking to strangers.

These thoughtful talks explore the timeless concept of beauty. How do we decide what — and who — is beautiful? What role does this play in our lives?

A story, a work of art, a face, a designed object -- how do we tell that something is beautiful? And why does it matter so much to us? Designer Richard Seymour explores our response to beauty and the surprising power of objects that exhibit it.

Nature’s beauty can be fleeting -- but not through Louie Schwartzberg’s lens. His stunning time-lapse photography, accompanied by powerful words from Benedictine monk Brother David Steindl-Rast, serves as a meditation on being grateful for every day.

Model and activist Winnie Harlow says she finds beauty in everything, from photos on Instagram to the sheen on a shiny bald head. In this short talk, she explains how living with vitiligo helped her reject societal standards of beauty and define it on her own terms.

Humans have always been captivated by beauty, and for almost as long, we've been marketed products and new technologies to help us achieve certain beauty standards. Elise Hu is a journalist and the author of "Flawless: Lessons in looks and culture from the K-beauty industry." In this episode, she shares the fascinating insights she's learned fro...

Armed with a sense of humor and laypeople's terms, Nobel winner Murray Gell-Mann drops some knowledge on TEDsters about particle physics, asking questions like, Are elegant equations more likely to be right than inelegant ones?

Beauty is about more than the body you inhabit -- it's a way of being that goes beyond genetics or societal ideals. Aboriginal writer and former model Sasha Sarago invites you to decolonize beauty, moving away from the monolithic Eurocentric archetype and towards a more essential, authentic understanding of self that belongs to everyone.

In graphic design, Marian Bantjes says, throwing your individuality into a project is heresy. She explains how she built her career doing just that, bringing her signature delicate illustrations to storefronts, valentines and even genetic diagrams.

In an enchanting lyrical rendition of William Blake's poem "Sleep Sleep Beauty Bright," singer Martha Redbone blends rhythm, blues and soul with traditional Native American music.

TED collaborates with animator Andrew Park to illustrate Denis Dutton's provocative theory on beauty -- that art, music and other beautiful things, far from being simply "in the eye of the beholder," are a core part of human nature with deep evolutionary origins.

This partner dance is "a beautiful expression of unity" that celebrates "diversity through collaboration," offers Shadé Zahrai (accompanied onstage by Aric Yegudkin). Zahrai suggests that we are all dancers on the stage of life, with a part to play in building our collective future.

Meditations on the universal beauty and understanding that connects humanity.

The ceramics designer Eva Zeisel looks back on a 75-year career. What keeps her work as fresh today (her latest line debuted in 2008) as in 1926? Her sense of play and beauty, and her drive for adventure. Listen for stories from a rich, colorful life.

When photographer Stefen Chow took his young daughter to a playground for the first time, he was struck by her visceral reaction to the new surroundings. To better understand her interaction with these spaces and to correct his own detachment from them, Chow attached a camera to a drone and launched an aerial photography project about Singapore'...

Delali Bright shares her personal story of how growing up in West Africa, she was bullied and marginalized for being skinny. Her family worried about her, put her on diets, and found her embarrassing and shameful. Then, she moved to the U.S. in her 30s, where she was suddenly seen as beautiful! Through her story, Delali illuminates the importanc...

Pollination: it's vital to life on Earth, but largely unseen by the human eye. Filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg shows us the intricate world of pollen and pollinators with gorgeous high-speed images from his film "Wings of Life," inspired by the vanishing of one of nature's primary pollinators, the honeybee.

In his poem "The Coming Out Beauty," Muslim Sahib invites us along on his journey of self-love and self-acceptance, weaving together elements of culture, family, beauty and queerness. He compels the audience to proclaim "I am beautiful," encouraging them to celebrate self-love. In his second piece, "419 sq ft," he explores the experience of clai...

To those who feel like they don't belong: there is beauty in being a misfit. Author Lidia Yuknavitch shares her own wayward journey in an intimate recollection of patchwork stories about loss, shame and the slow process of self-acceptance. "Even at the moment of your failure, you are beautiful," she says. "You don't know it yet, but you have the...

David McCandless turns complex data sets (like worldwide military spending, media buzz, Facebook status updates) into beautiful, simple diagrams that tease out unseen patterns and connections. Good design, he suggests, is the best way to navigate information glut -- and it may just change the way we see the world.

To those who feel like they don't belong: there is beauty in being a misfit.

Adaptive, intelligent and consistent, algorithms are emerging as the ultimate formula for everything from matching consumers to products to assessing medical diagnoses. Vishal Sikka shares his appreciation for the algorithm, charting both its inherent beauty and its growing power.

This is a special podcast collaboration between TED Talks Daily, and Vibe Check, a show hosted by Sam Sanders, Saeed Jones, and Zach Stafford. Sam and Zach talk to Elise about her new book, “Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital”. Elise gave her thoughts on body modification, digital culture setting beauty standards, a...

The natural world is one of immense, awe-inspiring and even therapeutic beauty that many of us rarely connect with. Filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg uses bleeding edge nature photography to make a case for the restorative qualities of nature immersion and for technology's potential as our bridge to such experiences.

A collection of studies and photography series that showcase the intrigue, beauty and diversity of human life.

Life is a constant state of both joy and sorrow, dark and light, bitter and sweet. In a meditative conversation, author Susan Cain explores how being attuned to the bittersweetness of life -- and being fully present for both the happy times and the sad times -- helps us navigate love and loss and connect to the "insane beauty" of the world. (Thi...

Using examples from birdsong, the natural lilt of emphatic language and even a cooking pan lid, singer-songwriter and TED Fellow Meklit Hadero shows how the everyday soundscape, even silence, makes music. "The world is alive with musical expression," she says. "We are already immersed."

Get a bird's eye view of Earth's mesmerizing beauty, from the sky and outer space.

Geena Rocero is an award-winning producer, director and author of "Horse Barbie: A Memoir."