You probably didn't learn this in sex education...

A few things you've always wanted to know about sex: why we enjoy it, how to explain it, and, importantly, how flowers do it.

At this point in life, you're well aware of where babies come from. These talks on the complexities of healthy sexuality will teach you a few other tricks.

Everyone has an opinion about how to legislate sex work (whether to legalize it, ban it or even tax it) ... but what do workers themselves think would work best? Activist Juno Mac explains four legal models that are being used around the world and shows us the model that she believes will work best to keep sex workers safe and offer greater self...

Social psychologist and sex researcher Terri Conley thinks it's high time we stop feeling guilty about enjoying casual sex—no matter what society says. In this entertaining talk, Conley interrogates three common myths about sexuality and gender and suggests a few new, guilt-free ways to think about our sex lives.

Seriously, let's talk about sex: 8 insightful talks to spark the conversations we need to have in (and out of) the bedroom.

Poop, parasites, dead duck sex, eating bugs, and many more impolite -- but fascinating -- topics. These talks are for the non-squeamish.

Menopause isn't just hot flashes, says gynecologist and sexual medicine specialist Maria Sophocles. It's often accompanied by overlooked symptoms like painful sex or loss of libido. Shedding light on what she calls the "bedroom gap," or the difference in sexual expectations of men and women in midlife due to societal norms, Sophocles advocates f...

From our fear of women's bodies to our sheepishness around the word "nipple," our ideas about sex need an upgrade, say sex educators (and hilarious women) Tiffany Kagure Mugo and Siphumeze Khundayi. For a radical new take on sex positivity, the duo take the TED stage to suggest we look to Africa for erotic wisdom both ancient and modern, showing...

How much do you really know about the science of sex? Not enough, suggests science communicator Pere Estupinyà. In this fun and educational talk, he describes his own journey into the realm of sexology and its fascinating recent discoveries while making the case that a healthy sex life is contingent on an open mind. In Spanish with subtitles.

What if we stopped seeing females (of every species) as passive and instead welcomed the extraordinary diversity of sexuality? Through tales of same-sex bird couples, sexually transformative fish and unexpectedly promiscuous chimps, zoologist Lucy Cooke invites us to embrace the "genderless continuum" of females in nature, ditching archaic sexua...

In this eye-opening talk, author and former sex worker Juniper Fitzgerald challenges societal beliefs about mothers in the sex work industry and discusses how a systemic overhaul of their representation can empower them personally and professionally.

At TEDGlobal 2010, author Matt Ridley shows how, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas. It's not important how clever individuals are, he says; what really matters is how smart the collective brain is.

Siphumeze Khundayi is founder and artistic director of HOLAAfrica, sparking conversations about sex and sexuality.

Consent can be a tricky topic to talk about in sex education curriculums, but it doesn't have to be. In this hilarious and relatable talk, sex educator and TED Fellow Kaz offers a fresh look at teaching young people about the core principles of consent -- and shows how demystifying this topic leads to healthier and more satisfying relationships ...

The common thinking on biological sex goes like this: females have two X chromosomes in their cells, while males have one X and one Y. In this myth-busting talk, science writer and podcaster Molly Webster shows why the so-called "sex chromosomes" are more complicated than this simple definition -- and reveals why we should think about them diffe...

For some reason, says educator Al Vernacchio, the metaphors for talking about sex in the US all come from baseball -- scoring, getting to first base, etc. The problem is, this frames sex as a competition, with a winner and a loser. Instead, he suggests a new metaphor, one that's more about shared pleasure, discussion and agreement, fulfillment a...

In this performance, Sarah Jones brings you to the front row of a classroom in the future, as a teacher plugs in different personas from the year 2016 to show their varied perspectives on sex work. As she changes props, Jones embodies an elderly homemaker, a “sex work studies” major, an escort, a nun-turned-prostitute and a guy at a strip club f...

The ocean plays host to a peculiar party of wild, marine sex life that's perhaps quirkier (and kinkier) than you can fathom. But is human behavior interrupting these raunchy reproductive acts? Take a deep dive with marine biologist Marah J. Hardt to discover what exactly goes down under the sea -- and why your own wellness depends on the healthy...

Carin Bondar is an expert on the sexual life of animals -- and loves to tell their wild sex stories.

How can we unlock the door to our own authentic sexual well-being? Sex educator Emily Nagoski suggests that the key is realizing that we are all normal, whatever our proclivities. In this playful but informative take on sex positivity, she delves into the science of sexuality to demonstrate how we can shed our insecurities and define pleasure on...

Sunitha Krishnan has dedicated her life to rescuing women and children from sex slavery, a multimilion-dollar global market. In this courageous talk, she tells three powerful stories, as well as her own, and calls for a more humane approach to helping these young victims rebuild their lives.

From something as small and complex as a chromosome to something as seemingly simple as the weather, sex determination systems vary significantly across the animal kingdom. Biologist and teacher Aaron Reedy shows us the amazing differences between species when it comes to determination of gender. [Directed by Buzzco Associates, Inc., narrated by...

“If you really want to know a people, start by looking inside their bedrooms," says Shereen El Feki, who traveled through the Middle East for five years, talking to people about sex. While those conversations reflected rigid norms and deep repression, El Feki also discovered that sexual conservatism in the Arab world is a relatively new thing. S...

Sex buying doesn't just happen late at night on street corners in the shady part of town -- it also happens online, in the middle of the workday, using company equipment and resources. With this problem comes an opportunity, says attorney Nikki Clifton, because it means that the business community is in a unique position to educate and mobilize ...

The curator of HOLAAfrica, Tiffany Kagure Mugo is a wine bar philosopher who pontificates on all things and is willing to learn about everything else.

Where are teens supposed to learn about sex, asks student speaker Thea Holcomb. From alarmist imagery about sexually transmitted diseases? From the Internet and all its attendant judgment, bias and dysfunction? The answer, she suggests, lies with peer educators. In this talk, Holcomb explains why properly trained peer educators are the right peo...

On a reef in the Pacific Ocean, 17,000 camouflage groupers dart about in the cloudy water. It is, in fact, an underwater orgy— turned feeding frenzy. An orgy might seem like a rather flamboyant way to breed, but sex in the sea is a surprisingly inventive affair. So what other sneaky escapades are happening under the sea? Luka Seamus Wright offer...

In this enlightening, funny talk, Marlene Zuk shares just some of the ways that insects are truly astonishing -- and not least for the creative ways they have sex.

For intersex people -- those born with sex characteristics outside the traditional definitions of female and male -- the stakes to appear "normal" are high. Drawing on her personal experience, Susannah Temko reveals the shame, prejudice and harm faced by the intersex community, as they're forced to conform to a binary understanding of sex that u...