Entertaining Learning

I have a gym membership and prefer to workout there. It's where I get most of my reading done while I'm on the ellipitcal. But we also have a treadmill in the laundry room, and if I miss a morning, I have no excuse not to get to some work in on it. It's tough to run and read at the same time, so I'll watch Law and Order reruns courtesy of Netflix or the recent Modern Family episodes. They help to pass the time by, until I remembered that I could do treadmill work and learn at the same time. As funny as the recent Modern Family episodes have been, there's the part of me that will feel some guilt if I don't at least counter the entertainment with some learning, which is where www.ted.com comes in. TED is a site of short and often entertaining lectures- most are 20 minutes- from really interesting people doing really interesting things. Not all are great, but some are, and really provoke some good thoughts. Some of the more interesting ones I've seen lately while on the laundry room treadmill:

• We need to talk about injustice - I know I'm guilty of thinking things are ok in terms of race and justice. This talk illustrates that we have miles to go.


• The power of introverts- I'm an introvert (yet not as much as I used to be) and this talk reminds us that there's a place for introverts in the world


• The happy secret to better work- tempting to dismiss this as more 'self-help psycho babble', but can you really dismiss the idea that if you're generous and thankful and helpful that you'll be happier and feel better about your work?

What TED talks would you suggest?