100 Great Ted and TEDx Talks for Speakers to Study

One of the best ways to become a better public speaker is to study great public speakers.

As I’ve been working on my own speaking, I’ve spent more time watching great talks and paying attention not just to what the speaker says, but how they say it. How do they open? How do they tell stories? How do they use humor? How do they structure an idea? And what keeps an audience engaged for 10, 15, or 20 minutes?

TED and TEDx talks are particularly interesting to study because speakers have a limited amount of time to communicate an idea and capture an audience. The best talks often combine storytelling, structure, delivery, emotion, humor, visuals, and a clear central message.

So I put together this list of 100 talks to study as I work on becoming a better speaker.

This isn’t intended to simply be a list of popular TED Talks. I’ve organized the talks around different aspects of communication — from speaking fundamentals and storytelling to persuasion, stage presence, humor, conversation, and leadership.

For each talk, I’ve also included what I plan to study while watching it.

My goal is to work through the list, take notes, experiment with these techniques in my own speeches, and share what I learn along the way.

If you’re working on becoming a better speaker too, you can use the list as a public speaking curriculum: watch the talks, study the speakers, and pay attention to what makes their ideas connect with an audience.

Let’s start with the fundamentals.

Phase 1 — Message & Speaking Fundamentals

How I Plan to Use This List

The goal isn’t just to watch 100 talks. It’s to study them deliberately. For each talk, I plan to focus on the communication technique highlighted in the What to Study column and take notes on what the speaker actually does.

That might mean studying the first 60 seconds of a talk, noticing how a story is structured, listening for changes in pace and vocal variety, or looking at how a speaker transitions from one idea to the next.

Then comes the most important part: trying the techniques. The real value comes from taking an idea from a great speaker, experimenting with it in a speech or presentation, and deciding what works for your own speaking style.