Ted talks what is love

Nora McInerny We don't "move on" from grief. We move forward with it Posted Apr Aja Monet and phillip agnew A love story about the power of art as organizing Posted Feb David Puts To find your perfect mate, think like an evolutionist Posted Feb George Blair-West 3 ways to build a happy marriage and avoid divorce Posted Jan Tony Luciani A mother and son's photographic journey through dementia Posted Jan Amy Nicole Baker 7 common questions about workplace romance Posted Dec Isadora Kosofsky Intimate photos of a senior love triangle Posted Sep A verb?

A noun? A universal truth? An ideal? A common thread of all religions? A cult? A neurological phenomenon? There's no shortage of answers. Some are all-encompassing. It conquers all. It's all you need. It's all there is. These are all comparisons, though, ways of defining it by contrast, by saying it's more important than all other things, but is it? Sure, love matters more than your standard turkey sandwich, but does it matter more than shelter?

Or sanity? Or an exceptional turkey sandwich? No matter your answer, you're just ranking it, not defining it.

To learn more about our very real, very physical need for romantic love, Helen Fisher and her research team took MRIs of people in love -- and people who had just been dumped. Leslie Morgan Steiner was in "crazy love" -- that is, madly in love with a man who routinely abused her and threatened her life. Steiner tells the story of her relationship, correcting misconceptions many people hold about victims of domestic violence, and explaining how we can all help break the silence.

Keiichiro Hirano believes authentic self-love starts with being open to knowing all of our "selves"—whether we like them or not. In his tender talk from TEDxKyoto, Hirano suggests that with the help of our loved ones we can begin to honestly and completely love who we are.

In Japanese with English subtitles. Is love a signal winding through your neural pathways? A cliche? A cult? Love is easy to compare but difficult to define, maybe because we're fundamentally biased; we try to define love while falling in or out of it.

And love feels differently to every person who feels it, but this subjective emotion has evolutionary explanations, too. Brad Troe What does Kendrick Lamar have in common with Disney's "Moana"? She shares how she uses pop culture to help people develop resilience and advance social change -- and explains why cultivating love is the key to connection, Finding the right mate is no cakewalk -- but is it even mathematically likely?

The dates she liked didn't write her back, and her own profile attracted crickets and worse. So, as any fan of data would do: she started making a spreadsheet.

Hear the story of how she went on to hack her online dating life -- with frustrating, funny and life-changing results. Thomas Dolby. To write his first studio album in decades, "A Map of the Floating City," Thomas Dolby has been working in the inspirational setting of a restored lifeboat. At TED he premieres a gorgeous, evocative song from that album -- about one night with a legend. He's backed by members of the modern string quartet Ethel.

LZ Granderson. In a funny talk with an urgent message, LZ Granderson points out the absurdity in the idea that there's a "gay lifestyle," much less a "gay agenda. Being a good partner -- and being a good parent.