TED Talks
TED: How food shapes our cities | Carolyn Steel
Every day, in a city the size of London, 30 million meals are served. But where does all the food come from? Architect Carolyn Steel discusses the daily miracle of feeding a city, and shows how ancient food routes shaped the modern world.
Crash Course
The Rise of Melodrama: Crash Course Theater #28
At the turn of the 18th century, audience were ready to go over the top, and get some really, really dramatic theater in their lives. Like, a dog dueling a man type of dramatic. In London, only two theaters were licensed, but...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How the world's first subway system was built - Christian Wolmar
It was the dawn of 1863, and London's not-yet-opened subway system - the first of its kind in the world - had the city in an uproar. Most people thought the project, which cost more than 100 million dollars in today's money, would never...
Crash Course
Straight Outta Stratford-Upon-Avon - Shakespeare's Early Days: Crash Course Theater #14
This is the story of how a young Englishman named William Shakespeare stormed London's theater scene in the late 16th century, and wrote a bunch of plays and poems that have had pretty good staying power. We'll learn about Shakespeare's...
TED Talks
Helen Marriage: Public art that turns cities into playgrounds of the imagination
Visual artist Helen Marriage stages astonishing, large-scale public art events that expand the boundaries of what's possible. In this visual tour of her work, she tells the story of three cities she transformed into playgrounds of the...
SciShow
Why Aren't Commercial Jets Getting Faster?
Airplanes are one of the quickest ways to get anywhere, but commercial jets haven't gotten much fast since the 1950's. Why is that?
TED Talks
TED: Climate justice can't happen without racial justice | David Lammy
Why has there been so little mention of saving Black lives from the climate emergency? For too long, racial justice efforts have been distinguished from climate justice work, says David Lammy, Member of Parliament for Tottenham, England....
TED Talks
Steven Wise: Chimps have feelings and thoughts. They should also have rights
Chimpanzees are people too, you know. Ok, not exactly. But lawyer Steven Wise has spent the last 30 years working to change these animals' status from "things" to "persons." It's not a matter of legal semantics; as he describes in this...
TED Talks
Daniele Quercia: Happy maps
Mapping apps help us find the fastest route to where we’re going. But what if we’d rather wander? Researcher Daniele Quercia demos “happy maps” that take into account not only the route you want to take, but how you want to feel along...
TED Talks
Lord Nicholas Stern: The state of the climate — and what we might do about it
How can we begin to address the global, insidious problem of climate change — a problem that's too big for any one country to solve? Economist Nicholas Stern lays out a plan, presented to the UN's Climate Summit in 2014, showing how the...
MinutePhysics
London Bridge Was Sold to the US
London Bridge has already been rebuilt twice! But what happened to the bridges that came down?
TED Talks
TED: Why you should define your fears instead of your goals | Tim Ferriss
The hard choices -- what we most fear doing, asking, saying -- are very often exactly what we need to do. How can we overcome self-paralysis and take action? Tim Ferriss encourages us to fully envision and write down our fears in detail,...
TED Talks
TED: Perspective is everything | Rory Sutherland
The circumstances of our lives may matter less than how we see them, says Rory Sutherland. At TEDxAthens, he makes a compelling case for how reframing is the key to happiness.
TED Talks
TED: How fake news does real harm | Stephanie Busari
On April 14, 2014, the terrorist organization Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok, Nigeria. Around the world, the crime became epitomized by the slogan #BringBackOurGirls -- but in Nigeria, government...
SciShow
The Rise and Fall of Cahokia: North America’s First City
They often don’t get as much attention, but North America had major cities long before European colonizers arrived, but the residents left behind no written history. How have archaeologists pieced together the details of these population...
TED Talks
TED: How I built a jet suit | Richard Browning
We've all dreamed of flying -- but for Richard Browning, flight is an obsession. He's built an Iron Man-like suit that leans on an elegant collaboration of mind, body and technology, bringing science fiction dreams a little closer to...
TED Talks
TED: Weaving narratives in museum galleries | Thomas P. Campbell
* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. As the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Thomas P. Campbell thinks deeply about curating—not...
TED Talks
Luke Syson: How I learned to stop worrying and love "useless" art
Luke Syson was a curator of Renaissance art, of transcendent paintings of saints and solemn Italian ladies -- Very Serious Art. And then he changed jobs, and inherited the Met's collection of ceramics -- pretty, frilly, "useless"...
TED Talks
TED: The debut of the British Paraorchestra | Charles Hazlewood + British Paraorchestra
There are millions of prodigiously gifted musicians of disability around the world, and Charles Hazlewood is determined to give them a platform. Watch the debut performance of the British Paraorchestra.
TED Talks
Steven Johnson: How the "ghost map" helped end a killer disease
Author Steven Johnson takes us on a 10-minute tour of The Ghost Map, his book about a cholera outbreak in 1854 London and the impact it had on science, cities and modern society.
TED Talks
TED: What happens when a city runs out of room for its dead | Alison Killing
If you want to go out and start your own cemetery in the uK, says Alison Killing, "you kind of can." She thinks a lot about where we die and are buried -- and in this talk, the architect and TED Fellow offers an eye-opening economic and...
TED Talks
TED: How to solve traffic jams | Jonas Eliasson
It's an unfortunate reality in nearly every major city—road congestion, especially during rush hours. Jonas Eliasson reveals how subtly nudging just a small percentage of drivers to stay off major roads can make traffic jams a thing of...
SciShow
Why Do We Keep Planting Trees That Smell Like Semen?
What's that awful smell? Cat urine? Semen? Rancid butter? Possibly one of these gorgeous city trees?
Crash Course
World War II Civilians and Soldiers: Crash Course European History
Our look at World War II continues with a closer examination of just how the war impacted soldiers in the field, and the people at home. For many of the combatants, the homefront and the warfront were one and the same. The war disrupted...