billgatesPolio. Data. Education.

These are all interests of Bill Gates, so it was no surprise to see the topics appear on his list of his top TED talks.

The folks at TED asked Gates to name his favorite talks and though it was difficult for him, the Microsoft co-founder picked 13 of his favorites. Subjects include Bruce Aylward speaking about how we can eradicate polio from the world, to Susan Cain explaining the power of introverts. Gates’ wife, Melinda, made it on the list for her talk on birth control.

Gates has given several of his own TED talks in the past on topics like the importance of great teachers.

Here are his favorites:

  1. The best stats you’ve ever seen — Hans Rosling
  2. The danger of science denial — Michael Specter
  3. The history of our world in 18 minutes — David Christian
  4. Let’s put birth control back on the agenda — Melinda Gates
  5. How we’ll stop polio for good — Bruce Aylward
  6. How do we heal medicine? — Atul Gawande
  7. The surprising decline in violence — Steven Pinker
  8. Could this laser zap malaria?— Nathan Myhrvold
  9. Let’s use video to reinvent education — Salman Khan
  10. How PhotoSynth can connect the world’s images — Blaise Aguera y Arcas
  11. How I held my breath for 17 minutes — David Blaine
  12. The power of introverts — Susan Cain
  13. Robots that fly … and cooperate — Vijay Kumar
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