The article covers underrated TED Talks that are a great listen for a broad audience. They will relate to self-improvement, public speaking, and more.

We’ll first cover why anyone should listen to a TED Talk. Then we’ll delve into the underrated TED Talks that are worth listening to for any audience. Lastly, we’ll end with a few related questions about the topic.

Why Listen to TED Talks?

TED Talks involve well-practised speakers who demonstrate the ability to express themselves very clearly and charismatically. Hence, from a public speaking standpoint, they’re great models to learn from and get better at speaking eloquently. 

Furthermore, these talks tend to involve innovative ideas from people at the top of their fields. They explain it so well that the audience is expected to have no prior knowledge of the field to understand them. Surely, learning these ideas can facilitate critical thinking and make you more aware of important topics. 

Related: How to prepare for a TED Style Talk?

What Are Some Underrated Ted Talks That You Should Be Listening To?

Know your worth, and then ask for it | Casey Brown

Just around 8 minutes of watch that explains why communicating your worth is important when you sell yourself. How often is it that you get a salary that seems disproportionate to the quality of work you put in? By knowing your worth and communicating it, you increase your chances of getting what you want.

Casey Brown is a pricing consultant and knows well what organizations and individuals can do to get better paid for their efforts. Rhetorics and pauses are used well to supplement her speech content. Her body language is confident and professional.

The surprisingly charming science of your gut | Giulia Enders

At around 14 minutes, it helps to understand the role of your gut in everyday life and how it is linked to your brain. Subsequently, this knowledge can uncover the role of anxiety and depression in perpetuating gut issues, and vice versa. As an organ that is often ignored, it is hardly cared for. This talk will give you enough reason to take care of your gut health.

Giulia Enders is a writer and a scientist, involved in the study of gut. She speaks humbly and at a slow pace, which allows more than enough breathing space. The tone and other voice features are very minimally manipulated. As you’ll see in the 6th TED Talk we cover, these can be changed enormously to have a drastic impact on the audience.

Why comfort will ruin your life | Bill Eckstrom 

Spanning 12 minutes and 34 seconds, this talk explains how discomfort is a necessity for growth. Of course, this should not mean you have to dive into discomfort at every moment without reason. If you’re working towards some purpose that requires you to tolerate discomfort (e.g., the process of muscle gain, learning a new skill, admitting mistakes, etc.), then it is ideal you do so. Being ready for this discomfort and going for it is pretty much a surefire way to grow.

Bill Eckstrom is a writer and is quite concerned with growth and performance. He displays good storytelling skills in his talk with the usage of tone and sound switching. His body language is professional, with minimal hand gestures.

How not to take things personally? | Frederik Imbo

A simple concept yet it’s incredibly hard for a lot of us- to not take things personally. It is quite often we come across a situation where we’re faced with criticism or judgment that feels totally unwarranted. Does this tell more about us or the other person? How much does it say about us, if at all? The talk helps put things into perspective, put well within 18 minutes.

Frederik Imbo is said to be an expert in communication. He’s also involved in NLP, acting, and keynote speaking. Starting off his talk as if it’s a football match taking place, he uses innovative methods to act his character as a coach until he builds up enough storyline to connect it to his speech topic.

A lot of rhetorical questions are used, and you can observe him responding as if he got an answer back from the audience. Pauses are used very well throughout the speech and his talk makes it feel like he’s talking to you 1 on 1. If that’s what you’re aiming for, he’s great to model after.

Why Change Is So Scary — and How to Unlock Its Potential | Maya Shankar

At under 14 minutes, this talk explains how we eventually come across unprecedented changes and how we can propel ourselves to turn them into opportunities for growth. Changes can be scary, and understandably so because it’s uncharted territory. Learning how to cope with changes can be a helpful skill, and this talk will help you with that.

Maya Shankar is a cognitive scientist and also runs the podcast “A Slight Change of Plans”. Her body language is comfortable- open and friendly. She uses rhetoric and a bit of humour at different points in her talk. Furthermore, she talks at a moderate pace, with sentences that are not too long and uses pauses sufficiently enough after each sentence to be able to avoid going out of breath.

How to speak so that people want to listen | Julian Treasure

This talk, spanning 10 minutes, is a must-watch for people interested in public speaking. It enumerates ways you can use your voice to change how you come across and the extent to which people want to listen. It also talks about what you need to avoid to not come off as unpleasant to listen to. It’ll improve your public speaking skills as well as general social skills and make sure your audience is more interested and engaged.

The speaker in this talk, Julian Treasure, is a well-renowned orator. He is an excellent source to learn both speaking and listening skills. He shows how you can manipulate voice, tone, pitch, pace, silence, and volume to come off differently.

Related: What makes a good public speaker?

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Next, we will cover some related questions about the topic.

Are Ted Talks reliable sources of information?

They are quite reliable, as they undergo a good amount of scrutiny and are required to be transparent about their information sources. Know more here.

That said, any information should be critically evaluated based on your judgment and available evidence. 

What is The Most Famous TED Talk?

The most famous TED Talk is “Do schools kill creativity?” It’s from 2006 and has over 75 million views. It talks about the challenges of the education system as it were and how it can be changed to better nurture creativity and different forms of intelligence.

The second most famous is “Your body language may shape who you are” which will tell you enough about power posing to help you get through a difficult anxiety-provoking event. 

Related: Great public speaking examples to refer to and motivational speakers to learn from.

Conclusion

The article covered various underrated TED Talks along with a brief description of each of them. It also covered questions about the topic. We wish you happy learning!

Check out public speaking coaching to get some hands-on experience with public speaking and experience great results.