TED Talks
TED: The truth about human population decline | Jennifer D. Sciubba
With birth rates falling, the worldwide human population is getting older and smaller. According to traditional thinking, this spells a future of labor shortages, bankrupt social security systems and overall economic collapse. Before you...
PBS
The Island of Huge Hamsters and Giant Owls
Back in the late Miocene epoch, there was an island--or maybe a group of islands-- in the Mediterranean Sea that was populated with fantastic giant beasts. It’s a lesson in the very strange, but very real, powers of natural selection.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The merciless mercenaries of the Italian Renaissance | Stephanie Honchell Smith
During the 14th and 15th centuries, mercenaries known as condottieri dominated Italian warfare, profiting from— and encouraging— the region's intense political rivalries. As rulers competed for power and prestige, their disputes often...
SciShow
Science on Trial in Italy
Hank has some thoughts on the news that several Italian scientists who were convicted of 29 counts manslaughter for making an "inadequate risk-assessment" before an earthquake.
SciShow
Can We Predict Earthquakes?
Hank talks about why it is so difficult for scientists to predict earthquakes in the short term.
SciShow
Beware the Bug Spit: How Spittlebugs Accidentally Doom Plants
Ever wondered what makes those balls of white foam you sometimes find clinging to plants? Spittlebugs create these bubbly cocoons after feeding on a plant’s fluids; but unfortunately, their eating habits help transmit a deadly bacteria...
SciShow
The Truth About Leonardo Da Vinci
A true "Renaissance Man", inventor, artist & scholar Leonardo da Vinci was one of the most diversely talented individuals of all time. His "unquenchable curiosity" led him to make discoveries and inventions that were beyond his time, not...
Crash Course
Futurism and Constructivism: Crash Course Theater #39
It's time to go Back...to the Future. By which I mean, we're going back into the past to talk about Futurism. Which seems like it would be cool, but it was started by this terrible guy Martinetti, who also wrote the Italian Fascist...
PBS
As High Temperatures Hurt Sicily's Food Production, Rising Sea Levels Threaten Housing
Climate change experts in Sicily, Italy are warning that rising sea waters
are threatening some of the island's most crucial heavy industrial plants.
They are also forecasting food shortages because crops are being destroyed.
The island...
PBS
Italian olive trees are withering from this deadly bacteria
The Salento region in southern Italy is synonymous with its renowned olive groves, some of which are thousands of years old. But a deadly bacteria, which causes trees to wither, is threatening a critical part of Salento's livelihood and...
PBS
In Italy, rising anxiety over falling birth rates
Family size has been shrinking in the industrialized world for decades, and in Italy, the decline has been particularly dramatic. A generation ago, Italian mothers commonly had more than four children. Now they average less than two....
PBS
Inside African Migrants' Fight Against ‘Slave-Like’ Conditions In Italy
Some 13,000 migrants, mainly from Africa, have landed in Italy so far this
year — three times the number from the same period in 2020. The struggle
for migrants doesn't end when they reach European shores. Senior Producer
Adam Raney...
PBS
Desperate migrants share horror stories from Libya
The sea route from Libya to Italy is dangerous, even deadly, for African migrants and refugees who are desperate to cross. Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports from a Doctors Without Borders rescue ship that's attempting to save...
PBS
After Italy’s Pandemic Nightmare, Economy Falters — And Poverty Spreads
The global economy is likely to take a massive hit from the pandemic, and the World Bank warns poverty levels will rise as a result. It’s already happening in Italy, Europe's third-largest economy. The country suffered a devastating...
PBS
Can Italian Tourism Industry Survive The Pandemic?
Italy is emerging from its COVID-19 nightmare into what is usually its busiest season for tourism. The industry normally brings in 13 percent of the country’s $2 trillion GDP. But there is no normal this year, and most tourists are not...
PBS
As Europe battles over border policy, migrants flood to Spain
Three years into the migration crisis, Europe remains as divided as ever about how to handle the influx of people arriving illegally from Africa. Spain has overtaken Italy as their main entry point, in part because of its
more welcoming...
PBS
When migrants' desparate journey becomes a deadly journey
The NewsHour's Malcolm Brabant was there, and the cameras were rolling, as the Doctors Without Borders rescue ship he was on came across a horrific scene: More than 20 migrants dead on an unseaworthy ship that was taking them from...
PBS
Grieving Northern Italians Mount Campaign To Investigate Officials’ Pandemic Response
Italy was hit hard by COVID-19 early in the pandemic. Now, prosecutors have begun an investigation into whether the failure to lock down two towns near the northern city of Bergamo contributed to thousands of deaths related to the...
Crash Course
Of Pentameter & Bear Baiting - Romeo & Juliet Part I: Crash Course English Literature
In which John Green examines Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare. John delves into the world of Bill Shakespeare's famous star-crossed lovers and examines what the play is about, its structure, and the context in which it was written....
Crash Course
Pee Jokes, the Italian Renaissance, Commedia Dell'Arte: Crash Course Theater #12
This week, we're going to Italy for a Renaissance. The Middle Ages are over, and it's time to talk about the flourishing of art and humanism across Europe. Painting, sculpture, music, architecture, and plays with fart jokes were all...
TED Talks
Maurizio Seracini: The secret lives of paintings
Art history is far from set in stone. Engineer Maurizio Seracini spent 30 years searching for Leonardo da Vinci's lost fresco "The Battle of Anghiari," and in the process discovered that many paintings have layers of history hidden...
Crash Course
The Northern Renaissance: Crash Course European History
The European Renaissance may have started in Florence, but it pretty quickly moved out of Italy and spread the art, architecture, literature, and humanism across Europe to places like France, Spain, England, and the Low Countries....
Crash Course
Roman Engineering: Crash Course History of Science
The Romans developed a lot of infrastructure like roads and aqueducts to both help their cities flourish and to... you know... be better at war. But the interesting thing about Roman Engineering is how it was almost all focused on Techne...