TED Talks
Paul A. Kramer: Our immigration conversation is broken -- here's how to have a better one
How did the US immigration debate get to be so divisive? In this informative talk, historian and writer Paul A. Kramer shows how an "insider vs. outsider" framing has come to dominate the way people in the US talk about immigration --...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What causes an economic recession? | Richard Coffin
For millennia, the people of Britain had been using bronze to make tools and jewelry, and as a currency for trade. But around 800 BCE, that began to change: the value of bronze declined, causing social upheaval and an economic crisis—...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: A day in the life of a teenage samurai | Constantine N. Vaporis
The year is 1800 in the castle town of Kôchi, Japan. It's just after sunrise, and 16-year-old Mori Banshirô is already hard at work practicing drills with his long sword. He is an ambitious samurai in training, and today he must impress...
TED Talks
TED: Pirates, nurses and other rebel designers | Alice Rawsthorn
In this ode to design renegades, Alice Rawsthorn highlights the work of unlikely heroes, from Blackbeard to Florence Nightingale. Drawing a line from these bold thinkers to some early modern visionaries like Buckminster Fuller, Rawsthorn...
TED Talks
TED: We can reprogram life. How to do it wisely | Juan enriquez
For four billion years, what lived and died on earth depended on two principles: natural selection and random mutation. Then humans came along and changed everything - hybridizing plants, breeding animals, altering the environment and...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The complicated history of surfing - Scott Laderman
Today, surfing is a multi-billion-dollar global industry, with tens of millions of enthusiasts worldwide. For some it's a serious sport; for others, just a way to let loose. But despite its casual association with fun and sun, surfing...
TED Talks
TED: A small country with big ideas to get rid of fossil fuels | Monica Araya
How do we build a society without fossil fuels? using her native Costa Rica as an example of positive action on environmental protection and renewables, climate advocate Monica Araya outlines a bold vision for a world committed to clean...
Crash Course
Humans and Energy: Crash Course World History 207
In which Stan Muller subs for John Green and teaches you about energy and humanity. Today we discuss the ideas put forth by Alfred Crosby in his book, Children of the Sun. Historically, almost all of the energy that humans use has been...
SciShow
Viking Sunstones and Mummy Health Secrets
Today on SciShow news, dead person wisdom is helping enrich our understanding of the natural world - how did Vikings manage to be such awesome navigators? And is heart disease inherent in human beings? Scientists think mummies may have...
SciShow
The World's Bird Poop Obsession
Here's something to think about the next time you clean your windshield.
SciShow
This Might Be a Brand-New Kind of Star | Space News
Astronomers have theorized about an invisible star made up of theoretic particles in the past, but did we recently detect the gravitational waves of two of them colliding? Plus, extraterrestrial rocks from a decades-old mission keep...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The dark history of Mount Rushmore | Ned Blackhawk and Jeffrey D. Means
Between 1927 and 1941, workers blasted 450,000 tons of rock from a mountainside using chisels, jackhammers, and dynamite. Gradually, they carved out Mount Rushmore. Today, the monument draws nearly 3 million people to South Dakota's...
TED-Ed
How one person saved over 2,000 children from the Nazis | Iseult Gillespie
In 1943, Irena Sendler and Janina Grabowska froze when they heard Gestapo pounding on the front door. Knowing she was minutes from arrest, Irena tossed Janina her most dangerous possession: a glass jar containing the names of over 2,000...
TED Talks
Brandon Clifford: Architectural secrets of the world's ancient wonders
How did ancient civilizations move massive stones to build Stonehenge, the Pyramids and the Easter Island statues? In this quick, delightful talk, TED Fellow Brandon Clifford reveals some architectural secrets of the past and shows how...
SciShow
6 Diseases That Have Shaped Human History
Infectious diseases have had some pretty major impacts on human history… and that’s putting it mildly. Here are 6 diseases that shaped human history
TED Talks
TED: Can art amend history? | Titus Kaphar
Artist Titus Kaphar makes paintings and sculptures that wrestle with the struggles of the past while speaking to the diversity and advances of the present. In an unforgettable live workshop, Kaphar takes a brush full of white paint to a...
Crash Course
The Northern Renaissance: Crash Course European History
The European Renaissance may have started in Florence, but it pretty quickly moved out of Italy and spread the art, architecture, literature, and humanism across Europe to places like France, Spain, England, and the Low Countries....
TED Talks
T. Morgan Dixon and Vanessa Garrison: The most powerful woman you've never heard of
Everyone's heard of Martin Luther King Jr. But do you know the woman Dr. King called "the architect of the civil rights movement," Septima Clark? The teacher of some of the generation's most legendary activists -- like Rosa Parks, Diane...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why do we love? A philosophical inquiry - Skye C. Cleary
Ah, romantic love; beautiful and intoxicating, heart-breaking and soul-crushing... often all at the same time! If romantic love has a purpose, neither science nor psychology has discovered it yet _ but over the course of history, some of...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why do we feel nostalgia? - Clay Routledge
Nostalgia was once considered an illness confined to specific groups of people. Today, people all over the world report experiencing and enjoying nostalgia. But how does nostalgia work? And is it healthy? Clay Routledge details the way...
SciShow
From Scarred Lungs to Diabetes: How COVID May Stick With People Long-Term | SciShow News
Even though we are still in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists are trying to figure out the ways in which this disease may stick with people in the long term - from lasting lung damage to potentially triggering...
SciShow
The Real Mayan Apocalypse
There are just six weeks left until the celestial odometer that is the Mayan calendar clicks over to the next b'akt'un, but in the meantime, scientists have been trying to solve the mystery behind the collapse of the Mayan civilization....
PBS
What Colors Were Dinosaurs?
We know a lot about dinosaurs but there's one question that has plagued paleontologists for decades: what color were they?
TED Talks
TED: The case for curiosity-driven research | Suzie Sheehy
Seemingly pointless scientific research can lead to extraordinary discoveries, says physicist Suzie Sheehy. In a talk and tech demo, she shows how many of our modern technologies are tied to centuries-old, curiosity-driven experiments --...