TED-Ed
TED-Ed: History vs. Augustus - Alex Gendler and Peta Greenfield
His reign marked the beginning of one of history's greatest empires . . . and the end of one of its first republics. Was Rome's first emperor a visionary leader who guaranteed his civilization's place in history, or a tyrant who...
TED Talks
TED: Clues to prehistoric times, found in blind cavefish | Prosanta Chakrabarty
TeD Fellow Prosanta Chakrabarty explores hidden parts of the world in search of new species of cave-dwelling fish. These subterranean creatures have developed fascinating adaptations, and they provide biological insights into blindness...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why is this 2,500 year old shipwreck so well-preserved? | Helen Farr and Jon Adams
In 2017, researchers off the Bulgarian coast discovered the oldest intact shipwreck ever found. This ancient Greek vessel was not only nearly 2,500 years old, but was just one of 65 shipwrecks found at the bottom of the Black Sea in...
TED Talks
TED: Hamilton vs. Madison and the birth of American partisanship | Noah Feldman
The divisiveness plaguing American politics today is nothing new, says constitutional law scholar Noah Feldman. In fact, it dates back to the early days of the republic, when a dispute between Alexander Hamilton and James Madison led the...
TED Talks
TED: What's so sexy about math? | Cedric Villani
Hidden truths permeate our world; they're inaccessible to our senses, but math allows us to go beyond our intuition to uncover their mysteries. In this survey of mathematical breakthroughs, Fields Medal winner Cedric Villani speaks to...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Does trickle-down economics actually work? | Jonathan Smith
In 1981, the US economy was struggling: unemployment rates were climbing and inflation had peaked at an all-time high. To combat these issues, President Reagan introduced a number of economic policies, including tax cuts for large...
TED Talks
Joseph Nye: Global power shifts
Historian and diplomat Joseph Nye gives us the 30,000-foot view of the shifts in power between China and the US, and the global implications as economic, political and "soft" power shifts and moves around the globe.
TED Talks
TED: Why are these 32 symbols found in ancient caves all over europe? | Genevieve von Petzinger
Written language, the hallmark of human civilization, didn't just suddenly appear one day. Thousands of years before the first fully developed writing systems, our ancestors scrawled geometric signs across the walls of the caves they...
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-Ed
TED-Ed: The murder of ancient Alexandria's greatest scholar - Soraya Field Fiorio
Dive into the life of one of Ancient Rome’s most powerful figures, Hypatia of Alexandria, a renowned scholar and political advisor to the city's leaders. -- In the city of Alexandria in 415 CE, the bishop and the governor were in a...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What causes economic bubbles? - Prateek Singh
During the 1600's, the exotic tulip became a nationwide sensation; some single bulbs even sold for ten times the yearly salary of a skilled craftsman. Suddenly, though, the demand completely plummeted, leaving the tulip market in a...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: History's "worst" nun | Theresa A. Yugar
Juana Ramírez de Asbaje sat before a panel of prestigious theologians, jurists, and mathematicians. They had been invited to test Juana's knowledge with the most difficult questions they could muster. But she successfully answered every...
Crash Course
When is Thanksgiving Colonizing America Crash Course US History
In which John Green teaches you about the (English) colonies in what is now the United States. He covers the first permanent English colony at Jamestown, Virginia, the various theocracies in Massachusetts, the feudal kingdom in Maryland,...
TED Talks
Paul Bloom: The origins of pleasure
Why do we like an original painting better than a forgery? Psychologist Paul Bloom argues that human beings are essentialists -- that our beliefs about the history of an object change how we experience it, not simply as an illusion, but...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: When will the next ice age happen? - Lorraine Lisiecki
Throughout Earth's history, climate has varied greatly. For hundreds of millions of years, the planet had no polar ice caps. Without this ice, the sea level was 70 meters higher. At the other extreme, about 700 million years ago, Earth...
Crash Course
Why Human Evolution Matters: Crash Course Big History 204
This week on Crash Course Big History, Emily is talking about process of human evolution, and the knack for innovation that has allowed humans to become so dominant on the Earth. Human innovation, and the ability to build on those...
Crash Course
Reform and Revolution 1815-1848: Crash Course European History
In the aftermath of the revolutions and upheaval in 18th and early 19th century Europe, there was a hunger for reform across the continent. Reformers like Robert Owen, Charles Fourier, and Auguste Comte proposed radical new ideas, and at...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The philosophy of cynicism - William D. Desmond
In the 4th century BCE, a young Diogenes of Sinope was found to be counterfeiting coins. He was stripped of his citizenship, his money, all his possessions and sent into exile. He decided he would live self-sufficiently, close to nature,...
MinuteEarth
MinuteEarth Explains: Space
In this collection of classic MinuteEarth videos, we travel beyond Earth and explore some of our favorite mysteries about space.
Crash Course
The Clinton Years, or the 1990s Crash Course US History
In which John Green teaches you about the United States as it was in the 1990s. You'll remember from last week that the old-school Republican George H.W. Bush had lost the 1992 presidential election to a young upstart Democrat from...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How does anesthesia work? - Steven Zheng
When under anesthesia, you can't move, form memories, or -- hopefully -- feel pain. And while it might just seem like you are asleep for that time, you actually aren't. What's going on? Steven Zheng explains what we know about the...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The poet who painted with his words - Genevieve Emy
Among the great poets of literary history, certain names like Homer, Shakespeare and Whitman are instantly recognizable. However, there's an early 20th century great poet whose name you may not know: Guillaume Apollinaire. Genevieve Emy...
TED Talks
TED: The next manufacturing revolution is here | Olivier Scalabre
economic growth has been slowing for the past 50 years, but relief might come from an unexpected place -- a new form of manufacturing that is neither what you thought it was nor where you thought it was. Industrial systems thinker...