TED Talks
TED: Poems of war, peace, women, power | Suheir Hammad
Poet Suheir Hammad performs two spine-tingling spoken-word pieces: "What I Will" and "break (clustered)" -- meditations on war and peace, on women and power. Wait for the astonishing line: "Do not fear what has blown up. If you must,...
SciShow
Can You Really Be Scared to Death?
Can you literally "die of fright?" Turns out, you can! In this episode of SciShow Hank explores the mechanisms in your body that activate when you get scared, and how they can sometimes get out of hand.
TED Talks
TED: Enough with the fear of fat | Kelli Jean Drinkwater
In a society obsessed with body image and marked by a fear of fat, Kelli Jean Drinkwater engages in radical body politics through art. She confronts the public's perception of bigger bodies by bringing them into spaces that were once off...
SciShow
How Swearing Can Help With Pain
If you've ever been chastised for erupting into profanity after stubbing your toe in the middle of the night, science has your back on this one.
TED Talks
TED: How to be fearless in the face of authoritarianism | Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya
How do you stand up to authoritarianism? And what does it mean to be "fearless"? In this powerful talk, housewife-turned-politician Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya describes her unlikely bid to defeat Belarus's long-time autocratic leader in...
Crash Course
Tragedy Lessons from Aristotle: Crash Course Theater #3
Aristotle. He knows a lot, right? And if you choose to believe Aristotle, then you must believe all the mechanics of tragedy that Mike is about to lay on you. This week, we're looking at Aristotle's rules for the basic elements of...
TED Talks
TED: What doctors should know about gender identity | Kristie Overstreet
Kristie Overstreet is on a mission to ensure that the transgender community gets their health care needs met. In this informative, myth-busting talk, she provides a primer for understanding gender identity and invites us to shift how we...
SciShow
You’re More Likeable Than You Think!
Meeting new people is exciting, but also kind of overwhelming and you might have found yourself wondering if they really liked you. But turns out, they do really like you most of the time, and you might be just too hard on yourself.
TED Talks
Brené Brown: The power of vulnerability
Brené Brown studies human connection -- our ability to empathize, belong, love. In a poignant, funny talk, she shares a deep insight from her research, one that sent her on a personal quest to know herself as well as to understand...
TED Talks
TED: Talk about your death while you're still healthy | Michelle Knox
Do you know what you want when you die? Do you know how you want to be remembered? In a candid, heartfelt talk about a subject most of us would rather not discuss, Michelle Knox asks each of us to reflect on our core values around death...
SciShow
Humanity’s Deepest, Darkest Fear
Most of us experience specific fears at one point or another, like of death or the future, but psychologists believe there might be one underlying fear from which all others originate.
TED Talks
TED: How I use sonar to navigate the world | Daniel Kish
Daniel Kish has been blind since he was 13 months old, but has learned to "see" using a form of echolocation. He clicks his tongue and sends out flashes of sound that bounce off surfaces in the environment and return to him, helping him...
SciShow
Why You’re More Afraid of Sharks Than Cows
Tons of people are afraid of sharks, but the reasons have a lot more to do with how our brains deal with risk than anything to do with these super cool sea critters. Heads up: This video contains footage of sharks.
Be Smart
Why I'm Scared of Spiders
I'm scared of spiders. I'm not afraid to admit it. I love them in a scientific sense, or from a "let me look at you from way over here" sense, but that's as close as I get. Here's a look at the science of why some of us are afraid of...
TED Talks
TED: What to do when everything feels broken | Daniel Alexander Jones
Some call me a soul sonic superstar, says Jomama Jones, the alter ego of TED Fellow and theater artist Daniel Alexander Jones. In this stunning talk and performance, Jomama Jones invites us to consider how coming undone can be the first...
SciShow
Why Is It So Hard to Make a Decision?
Even when you know what you want to do, sometimes actually doing the thing is hard. Luckily, research suggests a few ways you can make it a little easier.
TED-Ed
What few people know about the program that "saved" America | Meg Jacobs
In 1932, one in four Americans was unemployed, marking the highest unemployment rate in the country's history. The Democratic presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt promised a New Deal— a comprehensive set of legislation to support...
TED Talks
TED: It takes a community to eradicate hate | Wale Elegbede
Standing up to discrimination and hate should be everyone's business, says community activist Wale Elegbede. In this vital talk, he shares how his community in La Crosse, Wisconsin came together to form an interfaith group in response to...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How did Hitler rise to power? - Alex Gendler and Anthony Hazard
Decades after the fall of the Third Reich, it feels impossible to understand how Adolf Hitler, the tyrant who orchestrated one of the largest genocides in human history, could ever have risen to power in a democratic country. So how did...
MinuteEarth
Epigenetics: Why Inheritance Is Weirder Than We Thought
Epigenetics: Why Inheritance Is Weirder Than We Thought
TED Talks
TED: The colorful, shapeshifting wonder of the Amazon's praying mantises | Leo Lanna and Lvcas Fiat
In this captivating talk, journey into the surprisingly colorful nights of the Amazon Rainforest, as artistic entomologist Leo Lanna and designer Lvcas Fiat introduce us to the shapeshifting wonder of a creature they've fallen in love...
PBS
Is Twitter the Newest Form of Literature?
Everyone is familiar with Twitter, the uber-popular micro-blogging site, which limits the user to 140 characters. The tweet is perfect for sharing your favorite links and updating the world about your life, but it might also be the...
TED Talks
TED: The future of digital communication and privacy | Will Cathcart
People send 100 billion WhatsApp messages every day -- and they're all encrypted to protect them from potentially curious entities like companies, governments and even WhatsApp itself. With our increased reliance on digital communication...
Crash Course
If One Finger Brought Oil - Things Fall Apart part I: Crash Course Literature 208
In which John Green teaches you about Chinua Achebe's 1958 novel, Things Fall Apart. You'll learn about Igboland, a region in modern day Nigeria, prior to the arrival of the British Empire. Achebe tells the story of Okonkwo, an Igbo...