Every Tuesday at the K & A head office in Tokyo, rewriters and instructors gather in the lunch room for our weekly viewing of a TED Talk.

TED is a nonprofit organization dedicated to “ideas worth spreading.” Every year since 1984, annual conferences held in Long Beach, California, showcase speakers from the technology, entertainment, and design worlds. Their challenge? Give the talk of their lives: in 18 minutes or less. Over the years, luminaries ranging from Al Gore to Jane Goodall to Dave Eggers have graced the TED stage with wit, insight, and style. The conference is invitation-only, but there’s good news for the rest of us: over 450 TED Talks are posted online, available for viewing free of charge.

Primatologist Susan Savage-Rumbaugh discussed her lifelong work with bonobo apes. These apes can understand spoken language and learn tasks by watching, prompting Dr. Sue to speculate which has a greater role in skill acquisition: biology, or cultural exposure.

(Having grown up in the harsh wilderness of the Canadian interior, my feelings on this argument are mixed.)