We’ve told you before that there really isn’t any evidence that animals consume mind-altering substances because they feel good to them. This makes it appear that the fondness for psychoactive drugs is, pretty...human. What is it about...

Settle in for a smörgåsbord of brain facts.

The mirror test is supposed to be a way to figure out when an animal is self-aware, but there might be only one particular animal this test works well on: humans.

When people travel a long distance, they'll usually use a map. But there are lots of animals that travel really long distances, too, and they can't use maps... so how do they not get lost? Our friend Dr. Turtleman...

Thanks to observations of galaxy redshifts, we can tell that the universe is EXPANDING! Knowing that the universe is expanding and how quickly its expanding also allows us to run the clock backwards 14 billion years to the way the...

Doubling human life expectancy in a century is our greatest achievement, says author Steven Johnson. How did we make it happen -- and can we keep it going? Backed by fascinating historical anecdotes, he shares some life-lengthening...

At MIT, Dina Katabi and her team are working on a bold new way to monitor patients' vital signs in a hospital (or even at home), without wearables or bulky, beeping devices. Bonus: it can see through walls. In a mind-blowing talk and...

In this video Paul Andersen explains the importance of scale in science and engineering. The Universe varies in size along three scales: size, timespan, and energy. Many phenomenon are too small and fast, or two large and slow to...

Work that's dictated by a fixed schedule, place and job description doesn't make sense anymore, says leadership expert Debbie Lovich. In light of the cultural shift towards remote work sparked by the pandemic, Lovich gives three...

Now that we’ve left behind the philosophy of religion, it’s time to start exploring what other ways might exist to find meaning in the world. Today we explore essentialism and its response: existentialism. We’ll also learn about...

In which John Green teaches you about Charlotte Bronte's classic coming of age novel, Jane Eyre. Look, we don't like to make judgement values here, but Jane Eyre is awesome. By which we mean the book is great, and the character is...

For the last 12 years, Carter Emmart has been coordinating the efforts of scientists, artists and programmers to build a complete 3D visualization of our known universe. He demos this stunning tour and explains how it's being shared with...

In 1884, an unlucky patient who had a rapidly growing cancer in his neck came down with an unrelated bacterial skin infection. As he recovered from the infection, the cancer surprisingly began to recede. The infection had stimulated the...

Physicist Lee Smolin talks about how the scientific community works: as he puts it, "we fight and argue as hard as we can," but everyone accepts that the next generation of scientists will decide who's right. And, he says, that's how...

Narcissism isn't just a personality type that shows up in advice columns; it's actually a set of traits classified and studied by psychologists. But what causes it? And can narcissists improve on their negative traits? W. Keith Campbell...

Whether she's describing bickering families, quiet declarations of love, or juicy gossip, Jane Austen's writing often feels as though it was written just for you. Her dry wit and cheeky playfulness informs her heroines, whose...

In which John Green talks about the many revolutions of Latin America in the 19th century. At the beginning of the 1800s, Latin America was firmly under the control of Spain and Portugal. The revolutionary zeal that had recently created...

How would you measure a personality? What, exactly, is the self? Well, as you've come to expect, it's not that easy to nail down an answer for those questions. Whether you're into blood, bile, earth, wind, fire, or those Buzzfeed...

For the last 50 years we've wondered whether plants can think... Haven't we?

In which John Green continues to teach you about Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. (WARNING: When Slaughterhouse-Five was published, some of the crude language in the book caused controversy. We quote one mildly controversial line in...

Paul Andersen introduces Anatomy and Physiology in this podcast. He starts by describing how the form of an object fits the function. He then explains the themes of homeostasis and hierarchy. He describes the four major types of tissues;...

America's school systems are funded by the 50 states. In this fiery talk, Bill Gates says that state budgets are riddled with accounting tricks that disguise the true cost of health care and pensions and weighted with worsening deficits...

Paul Andersen explains how scientists analyze and interpret data. Data can be organized in a table and displayed using a graph. Students should learn how to present and evaluate data.

In which John Green teaches you about Hamlet, William Shakespeare's longest and most-performed play. People love Hamlet. The play that is, not necessarily the character. Hamlet is a Tragedy with a capital T (I guess I don't have to point...