TED Announces New Season Of Podcasts

 The TED podcast network announced its new season of podcasts in early October. Like many podcasting content creators, TED has been busy expanding its network. For instance, in early August, Twenty Thousand Hertz, a successful podcast about sound, became part of a family of podcasts being launched by TED. 

TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). Popular TED podcasts include The TED Radio Hour, Worklife With Adam Grant and TED Interview. 

Below is the list of TED podcasts for this new season:

Pindrop returns

Escape with host Saleem Reshamwala and journey across the globe in search of the world’s most surprising and imaginative ideas. Pindrop is a deep dive into the ideas that shape a particular spot on the map, brought to you by the people who live there.

New episodes will take listeners to Lima, Peru, where hip-hop artists are trying to save an endangered language (and restore the nation’s pride along the way); then over to Rapa Nui (aka Easter Island), one of the most remote places on earth, where the pandemic has inspired a complete reimagining of island life; and on a road trip to find a real-life Black utopia in North Carolina — and the possibilities it inspires for future generations.

Pindrop is made possible with support from Marriott Hotels and Women Will, a Grow with Google program.

Pindrop returns with four new episodes beginning October 14.

Design Matters joins the family

A show about how incredibly creative people design the arc of their lives, the iconic Design Matters with Debbie Millman will join the TED family in October. It’s a podcast about design: an inquiry into the broader world of creative culture through wide-ranging conversations with designers, writers, artists, curators, musicians and other luminaries of contemporary thought. Design Matters will continue to be produced independently, with TED amplifying the podcast to its global audience.

Design Matters episodes are available on TED platforms in October.

Sincerely, X is free and available to the public

Some ideas are too risky to share in the open. Sincerely, X is a space to share those controversial ideas anonymously. Hosted by poet, performer and educator Sarah Kay, this powerful show is a window into stories that usually stay hidden, an honest look at experiences typically too painful or difficult to share.

Previously only on the Luminary app, season two is being made available on all podcast platforms. In the first episode, we hear from a small-town preacher in the Deep South with a radical secret: he doesn’t believe in hell. We’ll also meet a sociopath who reveals what society can learn from her condition; a former cult member who teaches us how to let go of the past; and much more.

Sincerely, X episodes drop on TED’s platforms October 22, with a new episode every week for 10 weeks.

TED Business, hosted by Modupe Akinola, associate professor of management at Columbia Business School, will take listeners through some of the most creative and surprising TED Talks that illuminate the business world. Strictly business topics are just the beginning: TED Business will also dig into relevant talks on psychology, science, design, democracy — stretching listeners’ sense of what really matters in business.

Episodes available weekly, starting October 12

TED Health provides a curated selection of the best health-related TED Talks. From smart daily habits to new medical breakthroughs, doctors and researchers share discoveries and ideas about medicine and well-being.

Episodes available weekly, starting October 13

Twenty Thousand Hertz is hosted by Dallas Taylor, creative director of Defacto Sound. The lovingly crafted podcast reveals the stories behind the world’s most recognizable and interesting sounds. In upcoming episodes, modern paleontology shares what dinosaurs really sound like (October 7) and how we might create a sonic utopia in the future (November 11).

New episodes available every other Wednesday

TED Talks Daily, TED’s flagship podcast, will begin publishing talks from Countdown — a global initiative to combat climate change — beginning in mid-October. The first TED Talk to publish will be from Prince William, The Duke of Cambridge, followed by talks from climate impact scholar Johan Rockström, electrification advocate Monica Araya and UK parliament member David Lammy. These talks will also be published in a special Countdown podcast to showcase the most exciting ideas about fighting climate change.

Talks from Countdown will begin publishing October 10

TED Radio Hour investigates the biggest questions of our time with the help of the world’s greatest thinkers. Can we preserve our humanity in the digital age? Where does creativity come from? And what’s the secret to living longer? In each episode, host Manoush Zomorodi explores a big idea through a series of TED Talks and original interviews, inspiring us to learn more about the world, our communities and, most importantly, ourselves.

In October, TED Radio Hour will release an exciting episode featuring the cohost of NPR’s All Things Considered Mary Louise Kelly, biophysicist and neuroscientist Jim Hudspeth, writer and “part-time cyborg” Rebecca Knill, musician and acoustic engineer Renzo Vitale and TED’s own Dallas Taylor, the host of Twenty Thousand Hertz.

New episodes available every Friday

Check out the TED podcast network for podcast shows you've already enjoyed or try out one of their existing shows that you've not yet heard.