SciShow
The First Conservation Efforts Protected… Poop?!
The idea of conservation might seem like a thing that’s only popped up in the last century or so, but organized efforts to conserve resources that directly benefit humans go back centuries!
TED Talks
Jared Ficklin: New ways to see music (with color! and fire!)
Designer Jared Ficklin creates wild visualizations that let us see music, using color and even fire (a first for the TED stage) to analyze how sound makes us feel. He takes a brief digression to analyze the sound of a skatepark -- and...
Curated Video
The Roman Empire. Or Republic. Or...Which Was It?: Crash Course World History
In which John Green explores exactly when Rome went from being the Roman Republic to the Roman Empire. Here's a hint: it had something to do with Julius Caesar, but maybe less than you think. Find out how Caesar came to rule the empire,...
Crash Course
Separation of Powers and Checks and Balances: Crash Course Government and Politics
In which Craig Benzine teaches you about the US Governments Separation of powers and the system of checks and balances. In theory, the Legislative Branch, the Executive Branch, and the Judicial Brach are designed to keep each other in...
PBS
Is Gravity An Illusion?
Most of us take gravity as an assumed part of our living realities, but why? Basic physics introduces us to the concept of gravity from a Newtonian sense, but when you start factoring Einstein into an understanding of gravity, things get...
PBS
The Misunderstood Nature of Entropy
Entropy is surely one of the most intriguing and misunderstood concepts in all of physics. The entropy of the universe must always increase - so says the second law of thermodynamics. It's a law that seems emergent from deeper laws -...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How is power divided in the United States government? - Belinda Stutzman
Articles I-III of the United States Constitution allow for three separate branches of government (legislative, executive, and judicial), along with a system of checks and balances should any branch get too powerful. Belinda Stutzman...
SciShow
Antimatter Light Spectrum Discovered!
Scientists were able to measure the emission lines of antimatter! And we may have some new clues about how dinosaurs lost their teeth on the way to becoming birds.
Crash Course
The Rise of Cotton Crash Course Black American History
Cotton is everywhere in our modern world, and it became a hugely important crop in the 19th century United States. Cotton was a huge economic boon to the US, and much of that wealth was built on the backs of enslaved laborers. And cotton...
Crash Course
The Economics of Immigration: Crash Course Econ
Is Immigration good or bad? Immigration is a touchy subject in the United States. The 2016 election has been filled with debate about the subject, and both proponents and opponents have lots of reasons for their stance. But, this is a...
TED-Ed
Who decides how long a second is? | John Kitching
In 1967, researchers gathered to answer a long-running scientific question: just how long is a second? It might seem obvious at first. A second is the tick of a clock, the swing of a pendulum, the time it takes to count to one. But how...
Be Smart
El Nino and Why We Can't Predict the Weather
What is El Nino? Why can't we predict the weather? Just a few slight changes in global climate patterns can drastically shift the weather. Thanks to chaos theory, even our smartest meteorologists can't predict weather correctly.
Crash Course
Media Policy & You: Crash Course Media Literacy
Copyright and other media regulations have always been a bit tricky, but the internet made all of that infinitely more complicated. But what does all of that mean for you, the consumer?
TED-Ed
A brief history of divorce | Rod Phillips
Formally or informally, human societies across place and time have made rules to bind and dissolve couples. The stakes of who can obtain a divorce, and why, have always been high. Divorce is a battlefield for some of society's most...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The fight for the right to vote in the United States - Nicki Beaman Griffin
In the United States today, if you are over eighteen, a citizen, and the resident of a state, you can vote (with some exceptions). So, how have voting rights changed since the first election in 1789? Nicki Beaman Griffin outlines the...
SciShow
The Fog That Killed 12,000 People
How can smog affect the life expectancy of people? Scientists have investigated the causes and repercussions of The Great Smog of London in 1952, and continue to study the effects of air pollution around the world today.
Be Smart
What's The Hottest Hot and Coldest Cold?
The hottest and coldest temperatures in our universe are rarely witnessed, but in these rare spots, our understanding of physics is challenged. Weird things happen at extreme hot and absolute cold.
Crash Course
The First & Zeroth Laws of Thermodynamics: Crash Course Engineering #9
In today’s episode we’ll explore thermodynamics and some of the ways it shows up in our daily lives. We’ll learn the zeroth law of thermodynamics, what it means to reach a thermal equilibrium, and define the first law of thermodynamics....
TED Talks
TED: How labor unions shape society | Margaret Levi
The weekend. Social Security. Health insurance. What do these things have in common? They all exist thanks to the advocacy of labor unions. Political economist Margaret Levi explains how these organizations forge equality and protect...
MinutePhysics
Football, Physics, and Symmetry
Two linemen colliding can light a 60W bulb for over a minute!
TED Talks
TED: Questioning the universe | Stephen Hawking
In keeping with the theme of TED2008, professor Stephen Hawking asks some Big Questions about our universe -- How did the universe begin? How did life begin? Are we alone? -- and discusses how we might go about answering them.
Crash Course
Judicial Review: Crash Course Government and Politics
Today, Craig Benzine is going to tell you about the Supreme Court's most important case, Marbury v. Madison, and how the court granted itself the power of judicial review. Judicial review is the power to examine and invalidate actions of...
Crash Course
Congressional Committees: Crash Course Government and Politics
This week Craig Benzine clears up the role of committees in Congress. We’ll talk about standing committees, joint committees, conference committees, and caucuses (and not the candidate-choosing kinds) as well as the staff agencies that...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Are we living in a simulation? | Zohreh Davoudi
All life on Earth— living and inanimate, microscopic and cosmic— is governed by mathematical laws with apparently arbitrary constants. And this opens up a question: If the universe is completely governed by these laws, couldn't a...