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...
PBS
Poet Sherman Alexie Talks 'Faces' & 'War Dances' (Oct. 22, 2009)
Author Sherman Alexie talks about his new book of poetry called "Faces" and his new short story collection, "War Dances."
PBS
Poet Amanda Gorman On How She Prepared For Inauguration Day
The poet who will carry on a tradition and present her new work, "The Hill We Climb" at the inauguration this week is already quite accomplished at the age of 22. Jeffrey Brown talked to Amanda Gorman to learn more, as part of our...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Grammar's great divide: The Oxford comma - TED-Ed
If you read "Bob, a DJ and a clown" on a guest list, are three people coming to the party, or only one? That depends on whether you're for or against the Oxford comma -- perhaps the most hotly contested punctuation mark of all time. When...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Denice Frohman: "Accents"
This animation is part of the TED-Ed series, "There's a Poem for That," which features animated interpretations of poems both old and new that give language to some of life's biggest feelings. [Poem by Denice Frohman, directed by KAPWA /...
Crash Course
Gender, Guilt, and Fate - Macbeth, Part 2: Crash Course Literature 410
This week on Crash Course Literature, John Green is continuing to talk about Shakespeare's dark, bloody, Scottish play, Macbeth. This time around, we're looking at the play's characters operate, how the play deals with gender, and the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why are some people left-handed? - Daniel M. Abrams
Today, about one-tenth of the world's population are southpaws. Why are such a small proportion of people left-handed -- and why does the trait exist in the first place? Daniel M. Abrams investigates how the uneven ratio of lefties and...
Crash Course
Love or Lust? Romeo and Juliet Part II: Crash Course English Literature
In which John Green returns to William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to explore the themes of true love, lust, and whether Romeo and Juliet were truly, deeply in love, or they were just a pair of impetuous teens. How exactly did Romeo...
Crash Course
Of Pentameter & Bear Baiting - Romeo & Juliet Part I: Crash Course English Literature
In which John Green examines Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare. John delves into the world of Bill Shakespeare's famous star-crossed lovers and examines what the play is about, its structure, and the context in which it was written....
Crash Course
Slavery, Ghosts, and Beloved: Crash Course Literature 214
In which John Green teaches you about Beloved by Toni Morrison. I'll warn you up front, this book is something of a downer. That's because it deals with subjects like slavery, the death of a child, a potential haunting, and a bunch of...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How optical illusions trick your brain - Nathan S. Jacobs
Optical illusions are images that seem to trick our minds into seeing something different from what they actually are. But how do they work? Nathan S. Jacobs walks us through a few common optical illusions and explains what these tricks...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Is life meaningless? And other absurd questions | Nina Medvinskaya
Albert Camus grew up surrounded by violence. His homeland of Algeria was mired in conflict. He lost his father in World War I. Seeing World War II's devastation, Camus grew despondent. What was the meaning behind all this endless...
TED Talks
Andrew Fitzgerald: Adventures in Twitter fiction
In the 1930s, broadcast radio introduced an entirely new form of storytelling; today, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter are changing the scene again. Andrew Fitzgerald takes a look at the (aptly) short but fascinating history of new...
Crash Course
Fate, Family, and Oedipus Rex: Crash Course Literature 202
In which John Green teaches you about one of the least family-friendly family dramas in the history of family dramas, Oedipus Rex. Sophocles' most famous play sees it's main character, who seems like he's got it all together, find out...
3Blue1Brown
Who (else) cares about topology? Stolen necklaces and Borsuk-Ulam: Topology - Part 2 of 3
How a famous theorem in topology, the Borsuk-Ulam theorem, can be used to solve a counting puzzle that seems completely distinct from topology.
Crash Course
Ophelia, Gertrude, and Regicide - Hamlet II: Crash Course Literature 204
In which John Green teaches you MORE about Bill Shakespeare's Hamlet. John talks about gender roles in Hamlet, and what kind of power and agency Ophelia and Gertrude had, if they had any at all (spoiler alert: we think they did). You'll...
Crash Course
Race Melodrama and Minstrel Shows: Crash Course Theater #30
We’re continuing our discussion of nineteenth-century American theater with a look at some upsetting parts of the US's theatrical past. In the nineteenth century, race and racism contributed to a unique and troubling performance culture,...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How to make your writing funnier - Cheri Steinkellner
Did you ever notice how many jokes start with _Did you ever notice?" And what's the deal with "What's the deal?" There's a lot of funny to be found simply by noticing the ordinary, everyday things you don't ordinarily notice every day....
Crash Course
The Raft, the River, and The Weird Ending of Huckleberry Finn: Crash Course Literature 303
This week, we're continuing our discussion of Mark Twain's 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.' This is part two of our talk about Huck Finn, and this time we're looking at the metaphors in the book, a little bit about what the...
Crash Course
Free Will, Witches, Murder, and Macbeth, Part 1: Crash Course Literature 409
The Sound! The Fury! Today, we're talking about Shakespeare's Scottish play, Macbeth. So, was Macbeth really predestined to do all the murdering and bad kinging and other terrible stuff? That's the big question in Macbeth, and it's one...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The myth of Arachne and Athena - Iseult Gillespie
From sailors who were turned into pigs, nymphs that sprouted into trees, and a gaze that converted the beholder to stone, Greek mythology brims with shape-shifters. The powerful Gods usually changed their own forms at will - but for...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why should you read "A Midsummer Night's Dream?" - Iseult Gillespie
By the light of the moon, a group sneaks into the woods, where they take mind-altering substances, switch it up romantically and brush up against creatures from another dimension. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” sees Shakespeare play with...
Crash Course
Citizen Kane: Crash Course Film Criticism
Try CuriosityStream today: http://curiositystream.com/crashcourse and use the promo code "crashcourse" to get the first two months free! Is Citizen Kane the BEST MOVIE EVER MADE? Is that even an answerable question? Michael Aranda will...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why should you read Sylvia Plath? - Iseult Gillespie
Explore the haunting and intimate works of poet Sylvia Plath, who digs into issues of mental health, trauma and sexuality in works like “The Bell Jar.” -- Under her shrewd eye and pen, Sylvia Plath turned everyday objects into haunting...