TED Talks
Eric Whitacre: A virtual choir 2,000 voices strong
In a moving and madly viral video last year, composer Eric Whitacre led a virtual choir of singers from around the world. He talks through the creative challenges of making music powered by YouTube, and unveils the first 2 minutes of his...
TED Talks
Julian Baggini: Is there a real you?
What makes you, you? Is it how you think of yourself, how others think of you, or something else entirely? Philosopher Julian Baggini draws from philosophy and neuroscience to give a surprising answer.
TED Talks
Karen Armstrong: Let's revive the Golden Rule
Weeks from the Charter for Compassion launch, Karen Armstrong looks at religion's role in the 21st century: Will its dogmas divide us? Or will it unite us for common good? She reviews the catalysts that can drive the world's faiths to...
TED Talks
Stefana Broadbent: How the Internet enables intimacy
We worry that IM, texting, Facebook are spoiling human intimacy, but Stefana Broadbent's research shows how communication tech is capable of cultivating deeper relationships, bringing love across barriers like distance and workplace rules.
SciShow
Smaller, Better, Faster, Stronger: the "Antibodies" of the Future | Antibodies Mini-Series Part 3
These days, we’re pretty good at harnessing the power of antibodies for medicines and as molecular tools, but they do have some drawbacks. So, cutting-edge researchers are hoping to develop smaller and more stable alternatives, and...
TED Talks
Golan Levin: Art that looks back at you
Golan Levin, an artist and engineer, uses modern tools -- robotics, new software, cognitive research -- to make artworks that surprise and delight. Watch as sounds become shapes, bodies create paintings, and a curious eye looks back at...
TED Talks
Sunni Brown: Doodlers, unite!
Studies show that sketching and doodling improve our comprehension -- and our creative thinking. So why do we still feel embarrassed when we're caught doodling in a meeting? Sunni Brown says: Doodlers, unite! She makes the case for...
SciShow
Human-Powered Helicopters and a Red Fox: SciShow Talk Show #8
Da Vinci imagined a helicopter powered solely by human muscles. Now more than 500 years later, two teams are using advanced materials to try and make that dream come true. Hank and Catilin discuss these two teams and the Sikorsky Prize...
SciShow
Founding An Inbreeding-Free Space Colony
How much genetic diversity would we need to found a colony on another planet?
TED Talks
Del Harvey: Protecting Twitter users (sometimes from themselves)
Del Harvey heads up Twitter’s Trust and Safety Team, and she thinks all day about how to prevent worst-case scenarios -- abuse, trolling, stalking -- while giving voice to people around the globe. With deadpan humor, she offers a window...
TED Talks
TED: Beautiful new words to describe obscure emotions | John Koenig
John Koenig loves finding words that express our unarticulated feelings -- like "lachesism," the hunger for disaster, and "sonder," the realization that everyone else's lives are as complex and unknowable as our own. Here, he meditates...
TED Talks
Al Seckel: Visual illusions that show how we (mis)think
Al Seckel, an expert on illusions, explores the perceptual illusions that fool our brains. He shares loads of cool tricks to prove that not only are we easily fooled, we kind of like it.
TED Talks
Jonathan Drori: What we think we know
Starting with four basic questions (that you may be surprised to find you can't answer), Jonathan Drori looks at the gaps in our knowledge -- and specifically, what we don't about science that we might think we do.
TED Talks
Omar Ahmad: Political change with pen and paper
Want your local politician to pay attention to an issue you care about? Send a monthly handwritten letter, says former mayor Omar Ahmad -- it's more effective than email, phone, or even writing a check. He shares four steps to writing a...
SciShow
Sinkholes, Robotic Mules & Fluffy the Tarantula: SciShow Talk Show #7
Hank is joined by Peter Winkler with some news about sinkholes and DARPA's new robotic mule, and then the boys are joined by Jessi from Animal Wonders and her special friend "Fluffy" the Chilean rose hair tarantula.
TED Talks
Joseph Gordon-Levitt: How craving attention makes you less creative
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has gotten more than his fair share of attention from his acting career. But as social media exploded over the past decade, he got addicted like the rest of us -- trying to gain followers and likes only to be left...
TED Talks
Stefon Harris: There are no mistakes on the bandstand
What is a mistake? By talking through examples with his improvisational jazz quartet, Stefon Harris walks us to a profound truth: many actions are perceived as mistakes only because we don't react to them appropriately.
TED Talks
Jennifer Lin: Improvising on piano, aged 14
Pianist and composer Jennifer Lin gives a magical performance, talks about the process of creativity and improvises a moving solo piece based on a random sequence of notes.
TED Talks
Bruce McCall: What is retro-futurism?
Bruce McCall paints a retro-future that never happened -- full of flying cars, polo-playing tanks and the RMS Tyrannic, "The Biggest Thing in All the World." At Serious Play '08, he narrates a brisk and funny slideshow of his...
TED Talks
Rory Sutherland: Sweat the small stuff
It may seem that big problems require big solutions, but ad man Rory Sutherland says many flashy, expensive fixes are just obscuring better, simpler answers. To illustrate, he uses behavioral economics and hilarious examples.
SciShow
Why Are Mules Sterile?
Horse plus donkey — it seems like an unlikely combination. I mean, they're different species! And yet, when they get together, they can produce a mule or the lesser-known hinny. Either way, those offspring usually can't become parents...
TED Talks
TED: What I learned from going blind in space | Chris Hadfield
There's an astronaut saying: In space, “there is no problem so bad that you can’t make it worse.” So how do you deal with the complexity, the sheer pressure, of dealing with dangerous and scary situations? Retired colonel Chris Hadfield...
TED Talks
Nick Bostrom: What happens when our computers get smarter than we are?
Artificial intelligence is getting smarter by leaps and bounds -- within this century, research suggests, a computer AI could be as "smart" as a human being. And then, says Nick Bostrom, it will overtake us: "Machine intelligence is the...
SciShow
3 Things You May Not Want to Know About Dust Mites
Fair warning: After learning about dust mites, you may never want to sleep in your bed again.