PBS
The top library books people tried to ban or censor last year
Battles have erupted at schools, school boards and library meetings across the country as parents, lawmakers and advocacy groups are debating books. The American Library Association documented more than 1,200 demands to censor books and...
Curated Video
Nigeria women authors challenge Muslim traditions TO RUN 0400
Nestled among vegetables, plastic kettles and hand-dyed fabric in market stalls are the signs of a feminist revolution: piles of poorly printed books by women that advocate forcefully against conservative Muslim traditions such as child...
Crash Course
The Silent Era: Crash Course Film History
The Silent Era of Hollywood set a lot of things into motion in terms of how movies were made and sold. Big stars were one of the main ways studios tried to make their movies stand apart from one another and get the public to make choices...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Alex Gendler: Why should you read "The Master and Margarita"?
The Devil has come to town. But don't worry– all he wants to do is stage a magic show. This absurd premise forms the central plot of Mikhail Bulgakov's masterpiece, "The Master and Margarita." Its blend of political satire, historical...
TED Talks
Michael Anti: Behind the Great Firewall of China
Michael Anti (aka Jing Zhao) has been blogging from China for 12 years. Despite the control the central government has over the Internet -- "All the servers are in Beijing" -- he says that hundreds of millions of microbloggers are in...
Crash Course
Media Regulation: Crash Course Government and Politics
Today we wrap up our discussion of the media by talking about how the government interacts with and influences the content we see. Now it may be easy to assume that because we live in a free-market capitalist society, the only real...
TED Talks
TED: A Magna Carta for the web | Tim Berners-Lee
Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web 25 years ago. So it’s worth a listen when he warns us: There’s a battle ahead. Eroding net neutrality, filter bubbles and centralizing corporate control all threaten the web’s wide-open...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: History's "worst" nun | Theresa A. Yugar
Juana Ramírez de Asbaje sat before a panel of prestigious theologians, jurists, and mathematicians. They had been invited to test Juana's knowledge with the most difficult questions they could muster. But she successfully answered every...
TED Talks
TED: The case for a decentralized internet | Tamas Kocsis
Who controls the internet? Increasingly, the answer is large corporations and governments -- a trend that's threatening digital privacy and access to information online, says web developer Tamas Kocsis. In this informative talk, Kocsis...
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...
Curated Video
Cyber Security for Absolute Beginners - 2022 Edition - Part 02 - Anonymizer
In this video, we will look at the tools and software used to make activity on the Internet untraceable.
Brainwaves Video Anthology
Amanda Jones - That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America
Amanda Jones, author of That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America, shares her story as a small-town school librarian in Louisiana who has faced harassment and threats since speaking out against censorship at a library...
Great Big Story
The Parthenon of Books, A Stand Against Censorship
Discover Marta Minujín's installation in Germany, built with 100,000 banned books to spark conversations on freedom of expression.
One Minute History
190 - Dictatorship - One Minute History
A Dictatorship is Characterized by a single ruler holding absolute power. Roman Dictators such as Julius Caesar and Nero ruled with no mercy. Dictators like Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan conquered their domains. Dictators were...
Curated Video
Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier: Free Speech in School
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the right to free speech. But when student journalists in Missouri wrote a series of articles on teen sex and divorce in 1983, their school appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court for the...
Great Big Story
The Strange History of Soviet X-Ray Records
Explore the fascinating and clandestine world of music rebellion in Soviet Russia through the lens of x-ray records. In the era of strict censorship, ingenious individuals defied the government's bans on Western music by creating bootleg...
Great Big Story
The Parthenon of Books, A Stand Against Censorship
Discover Marta Minujín's installation in Germany, built with 100,000 banned books to spark conversations on freedom of expression.
Curated Video
Ray Bradbury
Awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation, recognizing a lifetime of influential literary works, Ray Bradbury wrote from a desire to “live forever”. Through sci fi, fantasy, horror and mystery to themes of death, loneliness and the dark...
Mr. Beat
Why You Don't Hear Dirty Words on Radio or TV | FCC v. Pacifica Foundation
In episode 18 of Supreme Court Briefs, a son doesn't like his teenage son hearing bad words on the radio, so takes action. George Carlin, meanwhile, remains perplexed.
Curated Video
Chinese Censorship
Chinese scholar and literary translator Michael Berry (UCLA) discusses censorship and self-censorship in the contemporary Chinese cultural industry.
Brainwaves Video Anthology
Deborah Caldwell-Stone Free People Read Freely
Deborah Caldwell-Stone is Director of ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom and Executive Director of the Freedom to Read Foundation. For over twenty years she has worked closely with library professionals and library trustees on a wide...
Brainwaves Video Anthology
Cathy Collins - Freedom to Learn
Cathy Collins has worked as a Library Media & Technology Specialist for 23 years at the K-12 level. She is currently serving as a Library Media Specialist at Sharon Middle School. She holds a Doctorate in Education with a specialization...
Step Back History
How Comedy Saved Free Speech
There are a lot of claims of censorship wafting around public discourse, and article after article of think pieces claiming that the right to speak your mind has become embattled. To give this context, let’s talk about a different case...
TLDR News
Are Conservatives Silenced By Social Media? Trump's Twitter, Shadow Bans & Algorithms - TLDR News
In the last week an old conversation about social media fairness as reignited, with those on the right claiming that their views are being suppressed by social media. So in this video, we investigate the claim and discover whether the...