TEDtalks are all about positive messages, feel-good things, incredible challenges that the speaker or audience face and how they can be overcome. People listening to or attending TEDtalks get a feeling that “they are making a difference” or “broadening their minds” with each 18-minute talk-talk.

The topics presented are never polarizing, because there’s no “feel good” in pissing off half the audience.

Abortion is polarizing. It is not intrinsically a “feel good” subject, whether you are pro-choice or not. It doesn’t fit the TEDtalks paradigm.

TEDtalks are usually quite intellectual, rarely emotional.

I’ve watched many TEDtalks, and used them with my EFL students. The videos are easy to download, I can add subtitles at will, and the subjects are often interesting, and sometimes thought-provoking. But TED is an offspring of the self-actualization movement. The focus is rarely about people actually doing something meaningful to help other people.