TED Talks
Elizabeth Dunn: Helping others makes us happier -- but it matters how we do it
Research shows that helping others makes us happier. But in her groundbreaking work on generosity and joy, social psychologist Elizabeth Dunn found that there's a catch: it matters how we help. Learn how we can make a greater impact --...
TED Talks
Bob Langert: The business case for working with your toughest critics
As a "corporate suit" (his words) and former VP of sustainability at McDonald's, Bob Langert works with companies and their strongest critics to find solutions that are good for both business and society. In this actionable talk, he...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why should you read “Fahrenheit 451”? - Iseult Gillespie
Ray Bradbury’s novel imagines a world where books are banned- and possessing, let alone reading them, is forbidden.The protagonist, Montag, is a fireman responsible for destroying what remains. The story raises the question: how can you...
Crash Course
Sex & Sexuality: Crash Course Sociology
While sociology is a social science, we can use it to explore some intensely personal, private things. Today we’ll explore what sociology can tell us about sex and sexuality. We’ll also see what the three sociological paradigms have to...
TED Talks
TED: Science and democracy | Lee Smolin
Physicist Lee Smolin talks about how the scientific community works: as he puts it, "we fight and argue as hard as we can," but everyone accepts that the next generation of scientists will decide who's right. And, he says, that's how...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why should you read "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding? | Jill Dash
After witnessing the atrocities of his fellow man in World War II, William Golding was losing his faith in humanity. Later, during the Cold War, as superpowers began threatening one another with nuclear annihilation, he was forced to...
TED Talks
TED: The ethical dilemma of designer babies | Paul Knoepfler
Creating genetically modified people is no longer a science fiction fantasy; it's a likely future scenario. Biologist Paul Knoepfler estimates that within fifteen years, scientists could use the gene editing technology CRISPR to make...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Iseult Gillespie: The wicked wit of Jane Austen
Whether she's describing bickering families, quiet declarations of love, or juicy gossip, Jane Austen's writing often feels as though it was written just for you. Her dry wit and cheeky playfulness informs her heroines, whose...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why should you read Charles Dickens? - Iseult Gillespie
The starving orphan seeking a second helping of gruel. The spinster wasting away in her tattered wedding dress. The stone-hearted miser plagued by the ghost of Christmas past. More than a century after his death, these remain...
TED Talks
Ashweetha Shetty: How education helped me rewrite my life
There's no greater freedom than finding your purpose, says education advocate Ashweetha Shetty. Born to a poor family in rural India, Shetty didn't let the social norms of her community stifle her dreams and silence her voice. In this...
Crash Course
Cultures, Subcultures, and Countercultures: Crash Course Sociology
What is culture? How do we define it and how does it change? We’ll explore different categories of culture, like low culture, high culture, and sub-cultures. We'll also revisit our founding theories to consider both a structural...
SciShow
What Really Happened to Phineas Gage?
In 1848, Phineas Gage survived a seemingly unsurvivable injury to his brain, but the tale of that event has become quite colorful, and inaccurate, in many cases. So, what REALLY happened to Phineas Gage?
TED Talks
Luisa Neubauer: Why you should be a climate activist
"I dream of a world where geography classes teach about the climate crisis as this one great challenge that was won by people like you and me," says climate activist Luisa Neubauer. With Greta Thunberg, Neubauer helped initiate "Fridays...
Crash Course
2,000 Years of Chinese History! The Mandate of Heaven and Confucius World History
In which John introduces you to quite a lot of Chinese history by discussing the complicated relationship between the Confucian scholars who wrote Chinese history and the emperors (and empress) who made it. Included is a brief...
TED Talks
Jasmine Crowe: What we're getting wrong in the fight to end hunger
In a world that's wasting more food than ever before, why do one in nine people still go to bed hungry each night? Social entrepreneur Jasmine Crowe calls for a radical transformation to our fight to end global hunger -- challenging us...
Crash Course
Religion: Crash Course Sociology
Today we’re turning our sociological eye to another major social institution: religion. We’ll use symbolic interactionism to help us understand the dichotomy of the Sacred vs. the Profane. We’ll compare the perspectives of structural...
TED Talks
TED: What foods did your ancestors love? | Aparna Pallavi
Around the world, Indigenous food cultures vanish because of industrialized agriculture and a shifting, Western-influenced concept of the ideal diet. Food researcher Aparna Pallavi explores why once-essential culinary traditions...
Crash Course
Social Development: Crash Course Sociology
What makes you… you? How did you get to be that way? Today we’re talking about social development, starting with the role of nature and nurture in influencing a person’s development. We’ll discuss socialization, the importance of care &...
TED Talks
Heidi Boisvert: How I'm using biological data to tell better stories -- and spark social change
What kinds of stories move us to act? To answer this question, creative technologist Heidi Boisvert is measuring how people's brains and bodies unconsciously respond to different media. She shows how she's using this data to determine...
TED Talks
Liz Kleinrock: How to teach kids to talk about taboo topics
When one of Liz Kleinrock's fourth-grade students said the unthinkable at the start of a class on race, she knew it was far too important a teachable moment to miss. But where to start? Learn how Kleinrock teaches kids to discuss taboo...
TED Talks
TED: Why people of different faiths are painting their houses of worship yellow | Nabila Alibhai
Divisions along religious lines are deepening, and we're doubting more and more how much we have in common. How can we stand boldly and visibly together? Inspired by an idea from her collaborator Yazmany Arboleda, place-maker Nabila...
TED Talks
David Ikard: The real story of Rosa Parks -- and why we need to confront myths about black history
Black history taught in US schools is often watered-down, riddled with inaccuracies and stripped of its context and rich, full-bodied historical figures. Equipped with the real story of Rosa Parks, professor David Ikard highlights how...
TED Talks
TED: What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness | Robert Waldinger
What keeps us happy and healthy as we go through life? If you think it's fame and money, you're not alone - but, according to psychiatrist Robert Waldinger, you're mistaken. As the director of a 75-year-old study on adult development,...
TED Talks
TED: Capitalism isn't an ideology -- it's an operating system | Bhu Srinivasan
Bhu Srinivasan researches the intersection of capitalism and technological progress. Instead of thinking about capitalism as a firm, unchanging ideology, he suggests that we should think of it as an operating system -- one that needs...