Scientific progress depends on trust, but trust is not guaranteed. This week explores how it’s built, where it breaks, and what happens when the systems behind medicine and research begin to falter.
In Part 1 of their conversation, Katherine Eban and Jay Walker examine the systems behind scientific truth, including how research is funded, reviewed, and validated. What emerges is a structure under strain, where incentives and opacity shape what becomes accepted as evidence. Trust is not assumed. It is built or weakened by design.
In Guinea-Bissau, the consequences of those system pressures come into focus. Eban’s reporting reveals how a clinical study involving vulnerable populations raised serious ethical and scientific concerns. Here, questions of oversight and accountability become tangible, shaping real lives, real risks, and real uncertainty about what can be trusted.
What happens when the systems behind drug approval and manufacturing fail to hold? In her TEDMED Talk, Eban exposes vulnerabilities in the global generic drug supply, where trust is often assumed but not always verified. Seen alongside her reporting and this conversation, the question expands. How do we know when trust has been compromised?
A collection of Talks exploring curiosity, resilience, and the unexpected forces that shape how we adapt, create, and grow.
Adventurer, author, and speaker Sarah Outen recently completed an epic five-year, 25,000 mile journey cycling, rowing, and kayaking across the globe. Watch Sarah’s 2016 TEDMED Talk to learn…
NANDA, a high-energy troupe of comic actors, literally turns everything upside down – including themselves – with a mishmash of traditional theater, vaudeville, kung-faux fighting, circus, dance, juggling…
Inside of each one of us exists at least one potential masterpiece. Steve Connell and Sekou Andrews put a unique spin on how to call it forth.
Filmmaker and global explorer Holly Morris investigates the healing power of home, even when the motherland is poisonous, providing profound implications for today’s refugee crisis and other political…
At TEDMED, Debra Jarvis offers a witty yet daring look at the way that survivors of disease and trauma can achieve new levels of emotional and psychological healing.
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Theresa Santoro, President and CEO, RVNAhealth
Looking for your next big idea? Tap “Surprise Me” to discover a TEDMED Talk that challenges assumptions, sparks curiosity, or reframes how you see health and care.
Start with what moves you. Browse Talks and Podcasts by theme, specialty, or speaker, and follow the ideas shaping medicine, science, and the future of human health.
Thematic collections inspired by our TEDMED stage. Explore curated Talks organized around the ideas and breakthroughs shaping health and medicine.
TEDMED is where medical breakthroughs and the latest learnings are shared in interest and understandable ways. Learn about what is happening in health and medicine from the leaders that are shaping its future.
Chairman & CEO, Qualcomm
Co-Founder & CEO, Proteus
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Big ideas, delivered from the TEDMED stage. Watch Talks from physicians, scientists, artists, and innovators shaping the future of health.
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