The moments we call failure are often the result of how we’ve been trained to perform under pressure.
You prepared. You know what to do. And then, in the moment that matters most—you can’t do it. In this TEDMED Now episode, Kelly Thomas explores Sian Beilock’s research on why pressure doesn’t just challenge performance—it can actively disrupt it. What we call “choking” isn’t random. It’s a predictable response shaped by how the brain processes stress.
Performance anxiety doesn’t begin on stage or in high-stakes moments. It’s learned, early, often quietly, and reinforced over time. Anne Marie Albano shows how environments shape the way we respond to pressure long before it matters, and why those patterns become so difficult to change once the stakes rise. What feels automatic in the moment is often something that was trained over years.
Pressure doesn’t just show up in big moments. It’s built into how we’re taught to perform. Thomas Curran examines how rising expectations and perfectionism have reshaped school, work, and achievement itself. Over time, high pressure stops being the exception and becomes the baseline. What looks like failure is often a system working exactly as designed.
This week's selection focuses on pressure as something we feel. This selection shifts attention to what operates before that moment. These Talks explore the biological, environmental, and systemic conditions that shape outcomes long before they register as stress, performance, or choice.
Johannes Haushofer, an assistant professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University, conducts research at the intersection of neurobiology, behavioral economics, and development economics. In Johannes’s 2016…
Nadine Burke Harris reveals a little-understood, yet universal factor in childhood that can profoundly impact adult-onset disease.
At TEDMED 2014, neuroscientist Jeff Iliff illuminates a newly discovered, critical function of the brain during sleep, a natural cleansing system that keeps toxic proteins at bay.
At TEDMED, health economist and professor Ramanan Laxminarayan applies lessons learned from the energy crisis to the rising challenge of antibiotic drug resistance.
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Pediatric Care Innovator
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Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, CVS Caremark
Nobel Prize in Chemistry. President, Altermune
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Co-Founder & CEO, Proteus
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