Jacob Collier on the joy of music and improvisation | ReThinking with Adam Grant

@jacobcollier is a Grammy-winning musician, an exceptional teacher and communicator, and a rousing innovator onstage. Jacob joins Adam in front of a live audience at TED to give an interactive performance and share his perspective on audience participation, his insights on communication, and his unconventional approach to making music that defies genre. They also discuss Jacob’s strategy for dealing with hecklers, his “harmonically irresponsible” covers of popular songs, and the innate human desire to wiggle. Host & Guest Host: Adam Grant (Instagram: @adamgrant | LinkedIn: @adammgrant | Website: https://adamgrant.net/) Guest: Jacob Collier (Instagram: @jacobcollier | YouTube: @JacobCollier | Website: https://www.jacobcollier.com/) Join us in person at a TED conference: https://tedtalks.social/events Become a TED Member to support our mission: https://ted.com/membership Subscribe to a TED newsletter: https://ted.com/newsletters Follow TED! X: https://www.twitter.com/TEDTalks Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ted Facebook: https://facebook.com/TED LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ted-conferences TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tedtoks Podcasts: https://www.ted.com/podcasts The TED Audio Collective is a collection of podcasts for the curious. The TED Audio Collective videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organiz...). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com.

Jacob CollierguestAdam Granthost

Nov 5, 202543mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: November 5, 2025
Duration: 43m
Channel: Re:Thinking with Adam Grant
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

@jacobcollier is a Grammy-winning musician, an exceptional teacher and communicator, and a rousing innovator onstage. Jacob joins Adam in front of a live audience at TED to give an interactive performance and share his perspective on audience participation, his insights on communication, and his unconventional approach to making music that defies genre. They also discuss Jacob’s strategy for dealing with hecklers, his “harmonically irresponsible” covers of popular songs, and the innate human desire to wiggle. Host & Guest Host: Adam Grant (Instagram: @adamgrant | LinkedIn: @adammgrant | Website: https://adamgrant.net/) Guest: Jacob Collier (Instagram: @jacobcollier | YouTube: @JacobCollier | Website: https://www.jacobcollier.com/) Join us in person at a TED conference: https://tedtalks.social/events Become a TED Member to support our mission: https://ted.com/membership Subscribe to a TED newsletter: https://ted.com/newsletters Follow TED! X: https://www.twitter.com/TEDTalks Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ted Facebook: https://facebook.com/TED LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ted-conferences TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tedtoks Podcasts: https://www.ted.com/podcasts The TED Audio Collective is a collection of podcasts for the curious. The TED Audio Collective videos may be used for non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons License, Attribution–Non Commercial–No Derivatives (or the CC BY – NC – ND 4.0 International) and in accordance with our TED Talks Usage Policy (https://www.ted.com/about/our-organiz...). For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), please submit a Media Request at https://media-requests.ted.com.

SPEAKERS

Jacob Collier
guest
Grammy-winning musician, composer, arranger, and vocalist known for harmony-rich improvisation and audience-choir performances.
Adam Grant
host
Organizational psychologist at Wharton and host of the ReThinking podcast.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Re:Thinking with Adam Grant, featuring Jacob Collier and Adam Grant, Jacob Collier on the joy of music and improvisation | ReThinking with Adam Grant explores jacob Collier reframes music as permission, play, and shared joy Collier explains “The Audience Choir” as a leadership practice of giving people permission to participate, rooted in early lessons from watching his mother conduct orchestras.

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