TED Talks
Kare Anderson: Be an opportunity maker
We all want to use our talents to create something meaningful with our lives. But how to get started? (And ... what if you're shy?) Writer Kare Anderson shares her own story of chronic shyness, and how she opened up her world by helping...
TED Talks
How your brain responds to stories -- and why they're crucial for leaders | Karen Eber
How do the world's best leaders and visionaries earn trust? They don't just present data -- they also tell great stories. Leadership consultant Karen Eber demystifies what makes for effective storytelling and explains how anyone can...
TED Talks
Katharine Wilkinson: How empowering women and girls can help stop global warming
If we really want to address climate change, we need to make gender equity a reality, says writer and environmentalist Katharine Wilkinson. As part of Project Drawdown, Wilkinson has helped scour humanity's wisdom for solutions to draw...
SciShow
9 Weird Ways Animals Communicate
We all know ducks quack, dogs bark, and birds chirp, but that barely scratches the surface of all the amazing ways animals have devised to talk to each other!
TED Talks
TED: When we design for disability, we all benefit | Elise Roy
I believe that losing my hearing was one of the greatest gifts I've ever received, says elise Roy. As a disability rights lawyer and design thinker, she knows that being Deaf gives her a unique way of experiencing and reframing the world...
TED Talks
Mark Pagel: How language transformed humanity
Biologist Mark Pagel shares an intriguing theory about why humans evolved our complex system of language. He suggests that language is a piece of "social technology" that allowed early human tribes to access a powerful new tool:...
TED Talks
Yana Buhrer Tavanier: How to recover from activism burnout
When you're feeling burned out as an activist, what's the best way to bounce back? TED Senior Fellow Yana Buhrer Tavanier explores the power of "playtivism" -- the incorporation of play and creativity into movements for social change....
TED Talks
TED: The search for "aha!" moments | Matt Goldman
In 1988, Matt Goldman co-founded Blue Man Group, an off-Broadway production that became a sensation known for its humor, blue body paint and wild stunts. The show works on the premise that certain conditions can create "aha moments" --...
TED Talks
TED: A better way to talk about love | Mandy Len Catron
* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. In love, we fall. We're struck, we're crushed, we swoon. We burn with passion. Love makes us crazy and makes us...
TED Talks
TED: Why are these 32 symbols found in ancient caves all over europe? | Genevieve von Petzinger
Written language, the hallmark of human civilization, didn't just suddenly appear one day. Thousands of years before the first fully developed writing systems, our ancestors scrawled geometric signs across the walls of the caves they...
TED Talks
Erin McKean: Go ahead, make up new words!
In this fun, short talk from TEDYouth, lexicographer Erin McKean encourages — nay, cheerleads — her audience to create new words when the existing ones won’t quite do. She lists out 6 ways to make new words in English, from compounding...
TED Talks
TED: Could fish social networks help us save coral reefs? | Mike Gil
Mike Gil spies on fish: using novel multi-camera systems and computer vision technology, the TED Fellow and his colleagues explore how coral reef fish behave, socialize and affect their ecosystems. Learn more about how fish of different...
TED Talks
TED: How our friendship survives our opposing politics | Caitlin Quattromani and Lauran Arledge
Can you still be friends with someone who doesn't vote the same way as you? For Caitlin Quattromani and Lauran Arledge, two best friends who think very differently about politics, the outcome of the 2016 uS presidential election could...
Crash Course
Why Human Evolution Matters: Crash Course Big History 204
This week on Crash Course Big History, Emily is talking about process of human evolution, and the knack for innovation that has allowed humans to become so dominant on the Earth. Human innovation, and the ability to build on those...
SciShow
Why Don't Whales Deafen Themselves?
Whales have a lot of the same ear parts as humans, but they are capable of making sounds that could easily shatter a human's eardrums. So why are they seemingly immune from their own sense-shattering sounds?
TED Talks
TED: What baby boomers can learn from millennials at work -- and vice versa | Chip Conley
For the first time ever, we have five generations in the workplace at the same time, says entrepreneur Chip Conley. What would happen if we got intentional about how we all work together? In this accessible talk, Conley shows how age...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What makes a language... a language? | Martin Hilpert
Outside of China, Mandarin and Cantonese are often referred to as Chinese dialects, despite being even more dissimilar than Spanish and Italian. On the other hand, speakers of Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish, which are three distinct...
SciShow
7 Wacky Ways Birds Use Feathers
Feathers are good for flying, but they help birds do a lot more than just soar through the skies. Chapters View all AUDIBLE COMMUNICATION 1:32 MUFFLING SOUNDS 2:23 HEARING 3:52 DIGESTIVE AID 5:17 FISHING 6:41 SNOWSHOEING 8:48
SciShow
Why Do We Keep Needing New "G"s?
What’s with all the "G"s and why do we keep having to develop new ones to use our phones in this technology.
TED Talks
TED: The rapid growth of the Chinese internet -- and where it's headed | Gary Liu
The Chinese internet has grown at a staggering pace -- it now has more users than the combined populations of the US, UK, Russia, Germany, France and Canada. Even with its imperfections, the lives of once-forgotten populations have been...
TED Talks
TED: 10 ways to have a better conversation | Celeste Headlee
When your job hinges on how well you talk to people, you learn a lot about how to have conversations -- and that most of us don't converse very well. Celeste Headlee has worked as a radio host for decades, and she knows the ingredients...
TED Talks
TED: My journey from Marine to actor | Adam Driver
Before he fought in the galactic battles of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Adam Driver was a united States Marine with 1/1 Weapons Company. He tells the story of how and why he became a Marine, the complex transition from soldier to...
SciShow
Why Do You Stick Out Your Tongue When You Concentrate?
Have you ever done something that required a ton of concentration, like threading a needle, and noticed that sometimes your tongue pokes out involuntarily? It turns out this reflex could be a leftover from the evolution of human language!
TED Talks
TED: Why you should love gross science | Anna Rothschild
What can we learn from the slimy, smelly side of life? In this playful talk, science journalist Anna Rothschild shows us the hidden wisdom of "gross stuff" and explains why avoiding the creepy underbelly of nature, medicine and...