TED Talks Daily
The missing piece in the story of migration | Sonia Shah and Zeke Hernandez
21 Aug 2025
Headlines often reduce migration to crisis and controversy, leaving out the bigger picture that movement is a natural, even necessary part of who we are. As borders tighten and debates intensify, journalist Sonia Shah and professor Zeke Hernandez unravel our historical understanding of migration and examine immigration's impact on creating resilient, safe and economically flourishing societies.For a chance to give your own TED Talk, fill out the Idea Search Application: ted.com/ideasearch.Interested in learning more about upcoming TED events? Follow these links:TEDNext: ted.com/futureyouTEDSports: ted.com/sportsTEDAI Vienna: ted.com/ai-viennaTEDAI San Francisco: ted.com/ai-sf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Full Episode
You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. As natural disasters and war force more and more people from their homes, immigration has become a divisive, politicized issue around the world.
In this conversation, hosted by TED's Whitney Pennington Rogers, journalist Sonia Shah and Professor Zeke Hernandez discuss the truth behind human migration, the pitfalls of restrictive immigration policies, and how to actually promote a more resilient, safe, and economically flourishing society.
Hello, and thank you for watching TED Explains, where we take the biggest headlines of the moment and offer clarity around what it all means and context on why it matters. I'm Whitney Pennington-Rogers, and I'm your host for this conversation. These days, it's virtually impossible to watch the news and not see stories about migration. It is and has always been the defining force of humanity.
Around the world, people are on the move for an array of reasons, from climate change to conflict to economic shifts and, of course, the enduring human pursuit of opportunity and safety. And yet, the headlines often reduce migration to crisis and controversy, leaving out the bigger picture that movement is a natural, even necessary part of who we are.
As borders tighten and debates intensify, it's more important than ever to understand what's really driving migration today, how it's shaping our global future, and what it means for all of us. To help us make sense of this moment, I'm thrilled to be joined today by two big thinkers in the space of human migration.
Journalist Sonia Shah, who is a past TED speaker and an author whose most recently released book, The Next Great Migration, unravels our historical understanding of migration and its impact on the present moment.
and Zeke Hernandez, who is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and the author of The Truth About Immigration, which examines immigration's impact on the economy and beyond. Hello to you both. Hi, thanks for having us.
Hi, yeah, great to be here.
Thank you both so much for being here. Well, we have so much to get into, so I'm just going to dive right in. And I think one of the bigger questions around this issue when we think about migration is looking around to understand whether or not this moment feels different and actually whether it is different from others we've seen in history. So that will actually be my first question.
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