Top Ten Travel TED Talks

I hope you have already discovered the exciting world of TED Talks, but if you haven’t, then in addition to having introduced you to a world of almost-free travel which you can simply unlock by sensibly using your everyday spending to obtain massive hordes of frequent flyer miles and points, I am now more than happy to also introduce you to TED.

TED is an organization dedicated to the spread of innovative and inspiring ideas. At TED conferences around the world, and in smaller TEDx gatherings in smaller communities, speakers share a presentation no longer than 18 minutes on an idea they believe is worth sharing.

I got turned on to TED.com a few years ago through a Facebook friend who’s always sharing interesting things. Since then I’ve listened to hundreds if not thousands of these brief talks and been inspired on a breadth of topics I might never have otherwise discovered. My enthusiasm for the idea even took me so far as to host a TEDx event in my community. At TEDxAmmon.com you’ll find presentations from 10 speakers which are sure to inspire you.

But before you get off on that tangent, let’s get to the Top Ten Travel TED Talks:

1) How to make work/life balance work: Nigel Marsh – If you watch no more of these talks, at least watch this one as it actually inspired this entire post. The key point he makes is that we need to get real about how much time we spend working vs. how much time we spend with family. This is excellent.

2) The value of travel: Rick Steves – There’s a reason that this guy is as popular as he is, he’s incredibly articulate about the joys of travel, and this talk is no exception. I love the point he makes about travel being flat without experiences with local people.  I couldn’t agree more!

3) Where is home?: Pico Iyer – Pico makes the very interesting point that where we are from is more about where we discover ourselves than it is about where we were raised. In cities all over the world, there exists a conglomerate of cultures. Listen on.

4) Learn to travel, travel to learn: Robin Esrock – Robin got in an accident which yielded him a broken knee, but it also yielded him a $20,000 settlement, which he used to visit 24 countries in three months. As a WW, you don’t need to sacrifice your knee, or your $2ok and you can do the same thing.

5) A journey from Afghanistan: Abbas Nazari – Abbas fled from the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in 2001 and his story is an incredible one. This is a talk that will really inspire you.

6) The power of time off: Stefan Sagmeister – Ahh, it’s a beautiful thing. There’s finally a fever pitch of fervor about the idea of not waiting until the end of your life to enjoy the frills of retirement.

7) A plane you can drive: Anna Mracek Dietrich – Now this is an idea I can get on board with.  How about the thought of a vehicle that can both drive and fly… talk about revolutionizing travel.

8)  The anticipation of travel: Jen Rubio – This is a really well-done and under-appreciated talk about how travel may not mean doing the same things everyone says we need to do.

9)  Life in the deep oceans: David Gallo – While you may not be able to travel to see many if any of the creatures documented in this TED talk, it will inspire you to explore the underdiscovered corners of the Earth.

10) Travel Writing and Global Change: Lavinia Spalding – We can relate with people anywhere in the world and we can care about people we may never see again. This is a great presentation about how much we all have in common.

Have you seen any other travel-related TED talks that we need to know about? How do you get inspired to travel? Please share your methods in the comments and tell us which of these was your favorite.