TED Talks
Chrystia Freeland: The rise of the new global super-rich
Technology is advancing in leaps and bounds -- and so is economic inequality, says writer Chrystia Freeland. In an impassioned talk, she charts the rise of a new class of plutocrats (those who are extremely powerful because they are...
Be Smart
Tuatara All the Way Down
During the 2017 Project For Awesome livestream, I promised I'd make a tuatara video if we hit our fundraising goal, and I'm a man of my word! Little did I know I'd get to meet a tuatara and learn things about a 200 million year old...
SciShow
Hooray for Astromice!
This week on SciShow Space News, we’re learning more about the side effects of space travel… from mice. Plus, we explore the most luminous galaxy!
TED Talks
Dean Kamen: To invent is to give
Inventor Dean Kamen lays out his argument for the Segway and offers a peek into his next big ideas (portable energy and water purification for developing countries).
TED Talks
Baratunde Thurston: How to deconstruct racism, one headline at a time
Baratunde Thurston explores the phenomenon of white Americans calling the police on black Americans who have committed the crimes of ... eating, walking or generally "living while black." In this profound, thought-provoking and often...
SciShow
Why Lizards Don't Run Marathons
Lizards tend to scurry around in short bursts rather than running long distances, and the reason why might be nearly as old as life on land.
SciShow
Do Animals Mourn Their Dead?
We can't know if or how animals understand death, but behavioral changes in some species could mean they experience something similar to human grief.
SciShow
Why We Send Animals to Space
What happens when you send a duck, a rooster and a sheep with monkeys and dogs into space? Scientists had to find out -- and for decades, they've been studying life in space with the help of some crawly, wiggly, fluttery, furry friends.
TED Talks
Nick Bostrom: How civilization could destroy itself -- and 4 ways we could prevent it
Humanity is on its way to creating a "black ball": a technological breakthrough that could destroy us all, says philosopher Nick Bostrom. In this incisive, surprisingly light-hearted conversation with Head of TED Chris Anderson, Bostrom...
TED Talks
TED: One woman, five characters, and a sex lesson from the future | Sarah Jones
In this performance, Sarah Jones brings you to the front row of a classroom in the future, as a teacher plugs in different personas from the year 2016 to show their varied perspectives on sex work. As she changes props, Jones embodies an...
SciShow
The Blinding White Remains of a Dying Sea | Weird Places: White Sands
The aptly named White Sands National Park is home to over 400 square kilometers of blindingly white sand. It's the culmination of a remarkable 250 million year process of sorting, transporting, and purifying gypsum to make a truly...
Crash Course
Why are People Moving to Cities? Crash Course Geography
According to the UN, people living in urban places now outnumber those in rural areas — which is a pretty new phenomenon for many parts of the world. So today, we’re going to discuss factors that have led to this shift in populations...
SciShow
A New Binary Asteroid (That's Also a Comet!)
Astronomers discovered something cool about an object in the asteroid belt (2006 VW139/288P), and the European Space Agency is conducting a bed rest study that could help us get on our way to Mars.
TED Talks
Andrew Bastawrous: Get your next eye exam on a smartphone
Thirty-nine million people in the world are blind, and the majority lost their sight due to curable and preventable diseases. But how do you test and treat people who live in remote areas, where expensive, bulky eye equipment is hard to...
SciShow
7 Animals We Used to Think Were Extinct (But Aren't!)
Species that no longer exist vastly outnumber those that currently populate the planet, but occasionally we rediscover a species we thought was extinct!
Bozeman Science
Communities
Paul Andersen explains the major classification terms in ecology and how a community can be measured by species composition and species diversity. The symbiosis of leaf cutter ants is included. The podcast ends with a discussion of...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Beware of nominalizations (AKA zombie nouns) - Helen Sword
Few mistakes sour good writing like nominalizations, or, as Helen Sword likes to call them, zombie nouns. Zombie nouns transform simple and straightforward prose into verbose and often confusing writing. Keep your nouns away from...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Vampires: Folklore, fantasy and fact - Michael Molina
The myth of the bloodsucking vampire has stalked humans from ancient Mesopotamia to 18th-century Eastern Europe, but it has differed in the terrifying details. So, how did we arrive at the popular image we know, love and fear today? And...
TED Talks
TED: How to escape the cynicism trap | Jamil Zaki
Some days, it's hard to be optimistic. But cynicism -- the idea that people are inherently selfish, greedy and dishonest -- is making humanity lonelier and more divided, says psychologist Jamil Zaki. Presenting fascinating research on...
SciShow
These Lice Dive Kilometers Under the Ocean!
Lice don’t just thrive in the biomes of body hair and fur, they can also live in a place that seems like it should be bug-free: the oceans.
TED Talks
Kitra Cahana: A glimpse of life on the road
As a young girl, photojournalist and TED Fellow Kitra Cahana dreamed about running away from home to live freely on the road. Now as an adult and self-proclaimed vagabond, she follows modern nomads into their homes -- boxcars, bus stops,...
TED Talks
TED: Why stay in Chernobyl? Because it's home. | Holly Morris
Chernobyl was the site of the world's worst nuclear accident and, for the past 27 years, the area around the plant has been known as the Exclusion Zone. And yet, a community of about 200 people live there -- almost all of them elderly...