Marc Pachter has conducted live interviews with some of the most intriguing characters in recent American history as part of a remarkable series created for the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. He reveals the secret to a great interview and shares extraordinary stories of talking with Steve Martin, Clare Booth Luce and more.

Very good presentation by Philippe Starck on why design is important.

Very good talk on how the Internet may not be spoiling human intimacy but in fact help to grow it.

Social Media Revolution: Is social media a fad? Or is it the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? This video details out social media facts and figures that are hard to ignore.

Tim Brown says the design profession is preoccupied with creating nifty, fashionable objects — even as pressing questions like clean water access show it has a bigger role to play. He calls for a shift to local, collaborative, participatory “design thinking.”

Dean Hunt interviews Gary Vaynerchuk, star of his internet Wine Show ‘Wine Library TV’. (Warning: Contains rather strong language!) Gary has also just released his new marketing / motivation book called ‘CRUSH IT! How to cash in on your passion.’

Advertising adds value to a product by changing our perception, rather than the product itself. Rory Sutherland makes the daring assertion that a change in perceived value can be just as satisfying as what we consider real value.

David Logan talks about the five kinds of tribes that humans naturally form — in schools, workplaces, even the driver’s license bureau.

Seth Godin and Tom Peters provide their opinion on blogging.

Why do people succeed? Is it because they’re smart? Or are they just lucky? Neither. Analyst Richard St. John condenses years of interviews into an unmissable 3-minute slideshow on the real secrets of success.

John Gerzema gave an interesting TEDx talk on how customers are dealing with the current economy and how communications technology is making capitalism better.

RSS explained in plain English.

The goal of giving form to a complex situation like the credit crisis is to quickly supply the essence of the situation to those unfamiliar and uninitiated.

Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don’t …