TED Talks
TED: Stories from a home for terminally ill children | Kathy Hull
To honor and celebrate young lives cut short, Kathy Hull founded the first freestanding pediatric palliative care facility in the United States, the George Mark Children's House. Its mission: to give terminally ill children and their...
TED Talks
Sherwin Nuland: The extraordinary power of ordinary people
Sherwin Nuland, a surgeon and a writer, meditates on the idea of hope -- the desire to become our better selves and make a better world. It's a thoughtful 12 minutes that will help you focus on the road ahead.
TED Talks
TED: The dangers of willful blindness | Margaret Heffernan
Gayla Benefield was just doing her job -- until she uncovered an awful secret about her hometown that meant its mortality rate was 80 times higher than anywhere else in the US. But when she tried to tell people about it, she learned an...
TED Talks
TED: Never, ever give up | Diana Nyad
In the pitch-black night, stung by jellyfish, choking on salt water, singing to herself, hallucinating … Diana Nyad just kept on swimming. And that's how she finally achieved her lifetime goal as an athlete: an extreme 100-mile swim from...
SciShow
The SpaceX Explosion
What went wrong with SpaceX's Falcon 9 on September 1st? And an update on our old friend Philae!
SciShow
Why Do Roosters Crow?
Michael Aranda goes to the barnyard to answer one of the most frequently asked questions about animals: Why do roosters crow? Short answer: Because they're jerks. Longer answer: They're jerks that tend to get noticed more than the other...
TED Talks
TED: What security means to me | Eve Ensler
Playwright Eve Ensler explores our modern craving for security -- and why it makes us less secure. Listen for inspiring, heartbreaking stories of women making change.
SciShow
How Pocket Calculators Changed Electronics Forever
We don't think of pocket calculators as being all that special these days, but in reality their rise coincided with many of the innovations we take for granted today.
Crash Course
Post-World War I Recovery: Crash Course European History
In which John Green looks at Europe's attempts to recover from the devastation of World War I and forge a lasting peace. The peace did not last. Today we're talking about the economic cultural recovery of the 1920s, and the economic...
TED Talks
Frances Larson: Why public beheadings get millions of views
In a disturbing — but fascinating — walk through history, Frances Larson examines humanity's strange relationship with public executions … and specifically beheadings. As she shows us, they have always drawn a crowd, first in the public...
SciShow
3 Space Mission Problems in a Week - SciShow News
It's been a tough week for space missions, from a failed Soyuz launch to two emergency shutdowns of space-based telescopes.
TED Talks
Suleika Jaouad: What almost dying taught me about living
"The hardest part of my cancer experience began once the cancer was gone," says author Suleika Jaouad. In this fierce, funny, wisdom-packed talk, she challenges us to think beyond the divide between "sick" and "well," asking: How do you...
TED Talks
TED: How urban spaces can preserve history and build community | Walter Hood
Can public spaces both reclaim the past and embrace the future? Landscape architect Walter Hood has explored this question over the course of an iconic career, with projects ranging from Lafayette Square Park in San Francisco to the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why is it so hard to cure the common cold? | TED-Ed
On average, adults catch more than 150 colds throughout their lives. Even with similar symptoms, the cause could be different each time. Common colds are caused by at least 8 different families of virus, each of which can have its own...
TED Talks
Bruce McCall: What is retro-futurism?
Bruce McCall paints a retro-future that never happened -- full of flying cars, polo-playing tanks and the RMS Tyrannic, "The Biggest Thing in All the World." At Serious Play '08, he narrates a brisk and funny slideshow of his...
SciShow
A Farewell to the Arecibo Observatory | SciShow News
On December 1, 2020, Arecibo's long-story came crashing down to an end. While it's sad to see this monumental observatory go, it's worth looking back over the many discoveries it's made over the last 60 years.
Crash Course
Islam, the Quran, and the Five Pillars All Without a Flamewar Crash Course World History
In which John Green teaches you the history of Islam, including the revelation of the Qu'ran to Muhammad, the five pillars of Islam, how the Islamic empire got its start, the Rightly Guided Caliphs, and more. Learn about hadiths, Abu...
SciShow
Have We Contaminated the Moon?
Humans are full of microbes. Humans also went to the Moon. Does that mean we left colonies over there?
TED Talks
Pico Iyer: Where is home?
More and more people worldwide are living in countries not considered their own. Writer Pico Iyer -- who himself has three or four “origins” -- meditates on the meaning of home, the joy of traveling and the serenity of standing still.
TED Talks
TED: How I climbed a 3,000-foot vertical cliff -- without ropes | Alex Honnold
Imagine being by yourself in the dead center of a 3,000-foot vertical cliff -- without a rope to catch you if you fall. For professional rock climber Alex Honnold, this dizzying scene marked the culmination of a decade-long dream. In a...
TED Talks
Dawn Landes: A song for my hero, the woman who rowed into a hurricane
Singer-songwriter Dawn Landes tells the story of Tori Murden McClure, who dreamed of rowing across the Atlantic in a small boat -- but whose dream was almost capsized by waves the size of a seven-story building. Through video, story and...
MinuteEarth
Vampire Life is Hard
Blood-suckers may seem like they have it easy, but feeding on blood comes with a lot of challenges.
TED Talks
My mother's final wish -- and the right to die with dignity | Elaine Fong
After a terminal cancer diagnosis upended 12 years of remission, all Elaine Fong's mother wanted was a peaceful end of life. What she received instead became a fight for the right to decide when. Fong shares the heart-rending journey to...
SciShow
Why Do You Always Get Sick After Exams
Why can you usually stay healthy while you’re going through a stressful situation, but then you get sick right after?