I enjoy very much following the TED talks. Here is a list of my favorite talks that were posted until 2008.

I split the talks in four categories, each consisting of 5 entries. The brilliant ones are just brilliant, both content and delivery wise. The insightful ones are those that make a point I consider worth knowing. The entertaining ones are exactly that: fun to watch and listen. The hands-on category features nice examples of how to give demos. I added Hans Rosling both in the brilliant and in the hands-on section because I just like what he is doing and how he presents it :).

Brilliant:

1. Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?
2. Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight
3. Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you’ve ever seen
4. Majora Carter: Greening the ghetto
5. Seth Godin: Sliced bread and other marketing delights

Insightful:

1. Vilayanur Ramachandran: A journey to the center of your mind
2. Malcolm Gladwell: What we can learn from spaghetti sauce
3. Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice
4. Larry Lessig: How creativity is being strangled by the law
5. Dan Gilbert: Why are we happy? Why aren’t we happy?

Entertaining:

1. Lennart Green: Close-up card magic
2. John Hodgman: A brief digression on matters of lost time
3. Andy Hobsbawm: Do the green thing
4. Michael Shermer: Why people believe strange things
5. Rives: Is 4 a.m. the new midnight?

Hands-on:

1. Blaise Aguera y Arcas: Jaw-dropping Photosynth demo
2. Jeff Han: Unveiling the genius of multi-touch interface design
3. Anand Agarawala: BumpTop desktop is a beautiful mess
4. Johnny Lee: Creating tech marvels out of a $40 Wii Remote
5. Hans Rosling: New insights on poverty and life around the world