A lot of academics and scientists I know dislike TED talks. First the name means (T)echnology, (E)ntertainment, and (D)esign -- which are all proximal to, but quite different from, actual science. If anything, it turns science into consumer products, and gloms it with self-help and entertainment in a quasi-megachurch format (hint: "innovation" is the savior; and everything is cast as innovation, esp. technological). Second, it induces a race to the bottom in terms of simplification and overselling conclusion / significance (compare with the perspective that knowledge production requires deep backgrounds to truly understand, and that the results of most experiments / analyses / models of the real world are fairly nuanced). Third, the stuff that comes from their franchising (TEDx) contains some real garbage.