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-Ed
TED-Ed: Why should you read Flannery O’Connor? - Iseult Gillespie
Find out why Flannery O’Connor, an American novelist, is known as a master of the grotesque in Southern Gothic literature. -- Flannery O’Connor scribbled tales of outcasts, intruders and misfits staged in the world she knew best: the...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The myth of Anansi, the trickster spider | Emily Zobel Marshall
Long ago, all stories belonged to Nyame, the all-seeing Sky God. But one creature, Anansi, was determined to bring the stories down to Earth. Anansi went to Nyame and requested to take ownership of the world's stories. The Sky God told...
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: The "greenhouse-in-a-box" empowering farmers in India | Sathya Raghu Mokkapati
For smallholder farmers in India, agriculture has long been an unreliable source of income -- crops that flourish one season can fail the next, thanks to heat, pests and disease. But climate risk is now making the profession nearly...
PBS
When Quasars When Quasars Collide STJC
In this video, we discuss the reports about the detection of a pair of supermassive black holes orbiting only one light year apart from each other. Studying the dance of these giants should tell us a ton about how black holes grow.
SciShow
Do You Really Know What You Think You Do?
We are generally pretty confident when it comes to things that we know really well. But what if your brain is lying to you... tricking you into thinking you know everything, but you really know nothing?
TED Talks
TED: How farming could employ Africa's young workforce -- and help build peace | Kola Masha
Africa's youth is coming of age rapidly, but job growth on the continent isn't keeping up. The result: financial insecurity and, in some cases, a turn towards insurgent groups. In a passionate talk, agricultural entrepreneur Kola Masha...
Be Smart
Exoplanets: Are There Other Earths?
We live in one of a hundred billion of galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars. And now, thanks to modern astronomy, we know that the Milky Way is home to perhaps a hundred billion planets! In the past two decades, these...
TED Talks
TED: Why I'm a weekday vegetarian | Graham Hill
We all know the arguments that being vegetarian is better for the environment and for the animals -- but in a carnivorous culture, it can be hard to make the change. Graham Hill has a powerful, pragmatic suggestion: Be a weekday veg.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why doesn't the Leaning Tower of Pisa fall over? | Alex Gendler
In 1990, the Italian government enlisted top engineers to stabilize Pisa's famous Leaning Tower. There'd been many attempts during its 800 year history, but computer models revealed the urgency of their situation. The tower would topple...
SciShow
How the Vitamins Got Their Names
The list of vitamins can be kind of confusing, what with all those B vitamins and a random K thrown in. But every name has its story.
SciShow
What We've Learned from the Pluto Flyby!
New Horizons is teaching us all about Pluto! And it's definitely not what we were expecting.
TED Talks
TED: A circle of caring | Jok Church
Did you ever have a teacher who cared for you when no one else did? Jok Church tells a short, moving story of the teacher who sheltered him as a young gay teen and helped him grow -- and how, many years later, he and his partner had the...
TED Talks
TED: Our treatment of HIV has advanced. Why hasn't the stigma changed? | Arik Hartmann
The treatment of HIV has significantly advanced over the past three decades -- why hasn't our perception of people with the disease advanced along with it? After being diagnosed with HIV, Arik Hartmann chose to live transparently, being...
SciShow
How Jupiter’s Moons Showed Us the Speed of Light
Light travels through space as fast as anything in the universe possibly can, but before scientists could figure out light’s speed, they had to figure out whether that speed was even finite.
TED Talks
TED: The new age of corporate monopolies | Margrethe Vestager
Margrethe Vestager wants to keep european markets competitive -- which is why, on behalf of the eu, she's fined Google $2.8 billion for breaching antitrust rules, asked Apple for $15.3 billion in back taxes and investigated a range of...
Crash Course
Newtonian Gravity: Crash Course Physics
I'm sure you've all heard about Isaac Newton and that apple that fell on his head and how that was a huge deal to our understanding of gravity. Well... let's talk about that. In this episode of Crash Course Physics, Shini sits down to...
TED Talks
TED: The radical, revolutionary resilience of Black joy | Miracle Jones
In the face of trauma, happiness is resilience: a revolutionary act of thriving despite all odds, rather than wilting or surrendering. Community organizer and activist Miracle Jones offers a heart-to-heart meditation on the role of joy...
SciShow
The Protein That Switches on Puberty
Puberty is a wild time in human bodies, and so much goes on as they transform from a child to an adult. But it turns out, the whole process is controlled by a single protein - and it’s probably one you’ve never even heard of.
TED Talks
Lisa Godwin: How teachers can help students navigate trauma
"To make a difference in the life of a child ... I made the commitment to tell my personal story," says educator Lisa Godwin. In this moving talk, she shares her experience of overcoming childhood trauma with the quiet, unwavering...
TED Talks
TED: My secret to creating real magic | Christina Tosi
In an infectiously joyous talk, Milk Bar founder Christina Tosi shares the sugary jolt of her first food memory and behind-the-scenes stories of her bakery's famously inventive cakes, cookies and treats. This talk may make you hungry --...
TED Talks
TED: How Africa can use its traditional knowledge to make progress | Chika ezeanya-esiobu
Chika ezeanya-esiobu wants to see Africans unleash their suppressed creative and innovative energies by acknowledging the significance of their indigenous, authentic knowledge. In this powerful talk, she shares examples of untapped,...
SciShow
Robert Evans, Supernova Superstar
A backyard astronomer holds the world record for most supernovas found by searching manually. He's memorized what over a thousand galaxies look like.