My good friend asked me to curate a shortlist of my favourite TED videos for his rumination. I thought I’d share them round.

While we’re here, I must take a moment to say that TED is simply one of the most enlightening things I’ve encountered online. It is perfectly pitched to teach, inspire or entertain within a digestible time limit. I typically watch TED talks while cooking my dinner so it doesn’t feel like I’m losing valuable media-consumption time while bound to the mundanity of prepping vegetables. Yeh, learn while you chop.

This is just an eclectic taster, you know like a seafood platter. I’ll probably post some more soon.

• Pure inspiration, delivered perfectly – Sir Ken Robinson Says Schools Kill Creativity …and his beautiful follow-up about Changing Educational Paradigms.
• Convincing evidence that mushrooms will change the world, especially the mighty Mycilium – Paul Stamets on 6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save the World.
• Gripping insight into insight itself. How it feels to open up the creative right brain hemisphere – Jill Bolte-Taylor’s Powerful Stroke of Insight.
• Introducing the designer’s designer, Ross Lovegrove Shares Organic Designs.
• A quick show of just how complex and beautiful marine life can be – David Gallow Shows Underwater Astonishments.
• Practical approaches to design in a disadvantaged part of the US – Emily Pilloton Teaches Design for Change.