This week on the channel +4.8M views this week

Listening isn't surrender, Emily Kasriel tells TED

Her deep-listening framework anchors a nine-upload week that also finds common ground in shared recipes and walkable streets.

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TED Story of October 29, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.

Why It’s So Hard to Listen When You Disagree | Emily Kasriel | TED

Things we can learn from the video

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0:04The mistaken belief that listening implies agreement can make disagreement harder to navigate.
3:07Childhood associations between listening and obedience can persist as a fear of surrendering your own views.
4:56Self-reflection, pauses and attention to unspoken concerns help listeners connect beyond the surface of an argument.
7:49Kasriel describes a participant reconsidering prejudices against Syrian refugees without abandoning her core values.
9:20Practice begins with someone you already know whose perspective conflicts with your own.

Emily Kasriel remembers an interview she wishes she had handled differently. Facing Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi early in her career, she kept circling back to confrontation rather than listening, and the interview ended prematurely.

That regret gives "Why It's So Hard to Listen When You Disagree | Emily Kasriel | TED" a personal starting point. Her central distinction is simple: hearing someone out does not require adopting their beliefs. She traces some of our resistance to childhood, when being told to listen often meant being told to obey.

Kasriel's talk is TED's most-watched new upload this week, approaching 100,000 views. Her practical framework asks listeners to examine their own assumptions, pause and use a "third ear" for what matters but goes unspoken. In the comments, viewers pick up on the difference between listening and agreement; one describes initially wondering what careful listening could accomplish if neither person's opinion changed.

A related idea arrives through the kitchen. In "Why You Should Share a Recipe with a Stranger | Anuj Gupta | TED," Gupta argues that the memories behind meals can connect people across divides. That newer talk currently draws the most daily views on the channel, with Kasriel's next and Eli J. Finkel's relationship talk also remaining busy.

Elsewhere, Zach DeBoer looks to Disney's walkable streets for lessons in downtown design. TED's subscriber count stayed unchanged, while daily viewing is below its usual level. Among nearby education channels, TED-Ed is running slightly above its usual daily audience and CrashCourse added subscribers. For TED, the week's distinctive thread is connection: across a disagreement, over a meal or around the next street corner.

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Where next?

Also in Explainers, history and educationVideo taking off 464x its usual first dayDex Hunter-Torricke questions who gets AI's promised rewardsThe former Google DeepMind communications leader uses his TEDxBerlin talk to argue that better technology alone will not produce a fairer world.Channel: TEDx Talks · Story of November 3, 2026

A different discovery todayVideo taking off 12x its usual first dayFrom "please don't leave" to "ask Grok": John Oliver's midterm tourThe election-week main story drew about 3.8 million views in under a day, and its comment section filled more than twice as fast as usual.Channel: LastWeekTonight · Story of November 3, 2026

What viewers say

at first i thought what would be the benefit of listening so carefully when our opinions on certain topics would not change anyways — but after listening to the talk i can say it surely has some great benefits
@hb-d92hSee it on YouTube
Completely agree to listen to opinions different from your own. Yes, it’s difficult to do but so important. Be open minded. That’s how you check yourself.
@thecuratedmessSee it on YouTube
'Third Ear' means tuning to what's important but not spoken.

Hmm.
@jetiromediaSee it on YouTube

Public comments from the video's page on YouTube