TEDMED

06/03/2026

Awareness matters.
But awareness alone does not build safer systems.

In his Talk, Ralph Nader points to an overlooked pattern in social change: many major advances begin with people who organize, study the system, and apply pressure over time.

The work is not always loud.
But it can be world-shaping.

Watch the full TEDMED Talk: https://ow.ly/tsnC50Z5XR1

06/02/2026

Visibility can reveal a problem.
It rarely solves one.

In this TEDMED In Context, we revisit Ralph Nader’s argument that meaningful social change is not built through spectacle alone. It takes organized citizens, sustained pressure, and people willing to understand how systems actually move.

Power is rarely immovable.
Sometimes, it is simply unchallenged.

Watch Ralph Nader's full TEDMED Talk: https://ow.ly/WAGR50Z5XJ6

05/29/2026

This week, we looked at behavior from two angles.

Judson Brewer shows how habits are reinforced through reward-based learning.
Niobe Way shows how social patterns are taught, normalized, and repeated.

Together, they raise a bigger question:

What are our systems training us to do?

To scroll when we feel discomfort?
To disconnect when we need closeness?
To perform strength instead of asking for support?

Behavior change is not just personal. Sometimes the loop is bigger than one person.

What behavior do you think our culture keeps rewarding, even when it harms us?
Comment below.

05/28/2026

Habits do not only live in the brain.

Some are taught by culture.

In her Talk, Niobe Way challenges the idea that boys are naturally less emotional, less relational, or less in need of close friendships.

Those patterns, she argues, are not simply biological. They are reinforced by the world around them.

We reward independence over connection.
Thinking over feeling.
The self over relationships.

And over time, those values become behaviors people learn to repeat.

This is the social side of this week’s idea: if behavior is shaped by loops, we also have to ask what our culture keeps rewarding.

Watch Niobe Way’s full Talk: https://ow.ly/S4Rs50Z3PVQ

05/27/2026

Most habits do not begin with a decision.

They begin with a loop.

A trigger appears.
A behavior follows.
A reward teaches the brain whether to keep repeating it.

That is why behavior change is so difficult. The problem is not simply that we lack discipline. It is that the brain has learned a pattern, and it keeps running the pattern because it expects a reward.

Judson Brewer’s work asks us to interrupt the loop differently: not with force, but with curiosity.

What does the urge feel like?
What happens if we pay closer attention?
Is the reward actually what the brain expected?

That is where change begins to get interesting.

Save this for the next time you catch yourself on autopilot.

05/26/2026

Behavior change is often framed as a battle of willpower.

Try harder.
Resist more.
Be more disciplined.

But Judson Brewer’s work points to a different mechanism: the brain changes when it gets new information.

The cigarette tastes harsh.
The scroll feels empty.
The snack is not as satisfying as expected.

That moment matters.

When the expected reward changes, the loop can begin to weaken. Not because we forced ourselves out of it, but because the brain updated what it thought it was getting.

In this episode, we look at the science of habit change and why curiosity may be more powerful than control.

Listen to the full Now episode: https://ow.ly/4jh450Z3BGw

05/21/2026

It depends on whether people trust the messenger.

This week’s TEDMED theme explores vaccine confidence, misinformation, social belonging, and why uncertainty must be communicated as part of science, not as a failure of it.

Explore our playlist on trust and messaging in medicine.

Explore the playlist:

What does it take to trust medicine? Not in theory, but in practice, where information is filtered, treatments are manufactured, and decisions are shaped long before they reach …

05/20/2026

Sara Gorman explains why health communication cannot rely on facts alone.

When beliefs are tied to fear, identity, or community, more information may not resolve mistrust. It may deepen it.

That does not mean evidence matters less. It means trust matters more.

Watch the talk: https://ow.ly/6l2V50Z1Kcz

05/19/2026

Heidi Larson’s TEDMED Talk reframed vaccine hesitancy as something more complex than a lack of information.

It is connected to trust, identity, social belonging, and whether people feel heard by the institutions asking them to act.

TEDMED’s new In Context update revisits Larson’s Talk through the years since COVID-19, when public health communication became faster, louder, and more fragile.

Watch the update. https://ow.ly/WYSn50Z125z

05/14/2026

Compassion is often treated as a human virtue.

Frans de Waal shows something more biological.

In chimpanzee communities, consolation is observable behavior. After conflict or distress, some individuals comfort others. And in de Waal’s data, the alpha male does more of this consolation behavior than anyone else.

That matters because it reframes compassion. It is not just a moral ideal or emotional softness. It is a social behavior with deep biological roots.

Paired with Jennifer Stellar’s research on awe, compassion, and health, the larger idea becomes clear: connection is not decorative. It is part of how social beings recover, regulate, and survive.

Watch Frans de Waal’s TEDMED Talk: https://ow.ly/uBs150YXKxS