How AI is unearthing hidden scientific knowledge | Sara Beery
Ecologist and AI researcher Sarah Beery explains how vast ecological databases like iNaturalist contain far more information than simple species sightings, including individual identification, species interactions, vegetation, and food webs. She describes how her team at MIT built an AI-powered system called Inquire that lets scientists search millions of images using natural language queries to rapidly extract research-ready datasets, dramatically accelerating ecological discovery. The talk closes with a call for widespread citizen participation in data collection to help build a more complete, actionable picture of life on Earth and support conservation in the face of the biodiversity crisis.
The army of autonomous robots restoring nature | Tom Chi
Impact investor Tom Chi challenges the popular belief that economic growth must come at the expense of nature, arguing instead that the economy is physically a subset of the ecology because everything is ultimately mined or grown. He quantifies the scale of current extraction and describes how outdated industrial processes damage ecosystems, then presents three key shifts: closing material loops through advanced recycling, transforming agriculture with regenerative practices and AI-guided breeding, and using robotics for large-scale restoration on land and underwater. Through concrete examples-from battery recycling and adaptive crops to mangrove-planting drones and a low-cost coral and seagrass-planting robot-he illustrates how modern technology can actively repair ecosystems while supporting a resilient future economy.
These AI devices protect nature in real time | Juan M. Lavista Ferres
Host Elise Hugh introduces a TED talk by Juan M. Lavista Ferres about how a new AI-enabled device network called Sparrow can transform conservation work. Lavista Ferres explains how conservationists currently rely on slow, labor-intensive data collection and shows how Sparrow uses solar power, edge computing, and satellite connectivity to process images and sounds in real time. He describes how this system can automatically identify individual animals, analyze acoustic biodiversity, detect wildfires early, and drastically shorten the time between data collection and action, potentially making the difference between species survival and extinction.
3 tips to make your world beautifully wild | Isabella Tree
Host Elise Hu introduces environmentalist and conservationist Isabella Tree, who shares how rewilding-allowing nature and animals to restore ecosystems-can be done not only on large estates but also in ordinary gardens and urban spaces. Tree describes the transformation of her family's debt-ridden, intensively farmed land into a thriving, biodiverse rewilding project through free-roaming animals and habitat change. She then offers three practical tips for rewilding any green space and concludes with examples of urban rewilding and the mindset shift required to embrace messier, less controlled landscapes.
#2406 - Russell Crowe
Joe Rogan talks with Russell Crowe about Crowe's new film "Nuremberg" and the psychological, historical, and moral questions raised by portraying Hermann Göring and the Nazi leadership at the post‑war trials. They range across topics including gambling and addiction, alcohol and social media use, war and political polarization, Crowe's intense recent work schedule and burnout, and his long‑term project restoring and rewilding his Australian farm. The conversation also examines invasive species and land management, media consolidation and propaganda, healthcare systems, and the need for nuance when understanding both historical figures and contemporary issues.
How to measure the planet's heartbeat | Yadvinder Malhi
Ecosystem ecologist Yadvinder Mali explains how he and colleagues measure and map the flows of energy, carbon, and nutrients that sustain ecosystems, from forests and soils to coral reefs. He introduces the idea of "vibrancy"-the complexity and spread of energy through many species-as a key determinant of ecosystem health and resilience. Using examples from English woodlands, savannas, and tropical atolls, he argues that valuing nature only for carbon undermines this vibrancy, and that working with the wild energies of the biosphere gives both ecosystems and human communities their best chance to adapt to climate change.
The hidden cost of buying gold | Claudia Vega
Rainforest toxicologist and TED Fellow Claudia Vega explains how artisanal gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon releases large amounts of mercury, causing severe environmental damage and public health risks locally and globally. She describes the mining process, mercury's toxic effects, and the massive deforestation in Madre de Dios, as well as her work establishing the first mercury lab in the Peruvian Amazon to generate local data for communities, policymakers, and international agreements. In conversation with TED Fellows Program Director Lily James Olds, she discusses working with indigenous communities, changing mining practices, the limits of "green" gold, the need for consumer awareness and traceability, and her fears about fake news and hope in small but real changes.
What separates us from chimpanzees? | Jane Goodall
Host Elise Hugh introduces a 2003 TED Talk by primatologist Jane Goodall, presented as a tribute after news of her death, highlighting her groundbreaking work with chimpanzees and its impact on how we understand humans and other animals. In the talk, Goodall describes chimpanzee cognition and culture, the environmental and social forces threatening great apes and human communities, and her youth program Roots and Shoots. She closes by arguing that hope lies in our individual and collective choices to live more lightly on the planet and act with compassion toward all life.
#613 - Forrest Galante
Forrest Galante discusses growing up on a farm and safari operation in Zimbabwe, witnessing wildlife decline and later violent land seizures that forced his family to flee during the land reform era. He explains how that background led him into wildlife biology and television, covering his work on "Extinct or Alive," his new series "Animals on Drugs," and hands-on conservation projects like chemically and surgically castrating invasive hippos in Colombia. The conversation ranges through close calls with deadly snakes, the ethics of extinction and de‑extinction, invasive species, and why reconnecting with wild places can ground people in a hyperconnected world.