Brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor studied her own stroke as it happened -- and has become a powerful voice for how we can choose to replace our stress, fear and anxiety with feelings of joy and deep inner peace.
Why you should listen
Now, Taylor is not only an educator about neuroplasticity and the ability of the brain to recover from trauma, but she is passionate about helping people differentiate the skill sets and character profiles that radiate from our two limbic emotional and two cortical thinking modules of cells. We have much more power over what is going on inside of our brains than we have ever been trained, and replacing stress, fear and anxiety with feelings of joy and deep inner peace is a skill we all can learn.
She is the author of My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey (2008) and Whole Brain Living: The Anatomy of Choice and the Four Characters That Drive Our Life (2021).
Jill Bolte Taylor’s TED Talks
More news and ideas from Jill Bolte Taylor
Live from TED2026
The ripple effect of an idea
April 14, 2026
At TED, we say that ideas change everything. And it’s the people behind these ideas who make TED the powerful community it is. Each talk sparks something: a new question, a shift in perspective, a feeling that lingers longer than expected. Those who hear the talk then forward along that nugget of insight, in a […]
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Two TEDsters nominated for Oscars and more TED community news
February 22, 2019
As usual, the TED community is making headlines. Below, some highlights. A close look at the beauty and pain of hospice care. End Game, a short documentary that follows the last few days of terminally ill patients, is up for an Oscar this weekend. The heart-rending film highlights the work of doctors and caregivers — […]
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Nuclear fission reactors, Africa’s Einsteins and the healing power of nature: A recap of “Beauty and the Brain,” All-Stars Session 2 at TED2014
March 18, 2014
By Liz Jacobs and Thu-Huong Ha Our brains work in mysterious ways. They make us laugh, they make us cry, and sometimes, they make us 19-year old geniuses. The 11 speakers in this All-Stars session specialize in areas of the brain as diverse as personality, trauma and gender, but they all agree: Our minds […]
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