TED Talks
How distributed work can unlock your potential | Avani Prabhakar
The option to work from home means that work truly works for everyone, says Avani Prabhakar, chief people officer of a large tech company. She explains how flexibility and asynchronous collaboration in a distributed workplace can unlock...
MinutePhysics
Ye Olde Debunking
Have you ever wondered where "Ye Olde" spelling comes from? Today we unravel this thorny linguistic issue.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why don't "tough" and "dough" rhyme? | Arika Okrent
Spelling reformers have been advocating for changes to make English spelling more intuitive and less irregular. One example of its messiness: take the “g-h” sound from “enough,” the “o” sound from “women” and the “t-i” sound from...
TED Talks
TED: How to make learning as addictive as social media | Luis von Ahn
When technologist Luis von Ahn was building the popular language-learning platform Duolingo, he faced a big problem: Could an app designed to teach you something ever compete with addictive platforms like Instagram and TikTok? He...
SciShow
Learning Mnemonics: Can You Really Hack Your Memory?
There are lots of strategies to remember information when you need it most. These are shortcuts called mnemonics.
SciShow
5 Computer Scientists Who Changed Programming Forever
It's taken the work of many programmers to turn computers into something we carry in our pockets, and here are five (technically 10!) that we think you should be aware of.
Crash Course
Mythical Language and Idiom: Crash Course World Mythology #41
It's the end of the world, everybody. Well, it's the end of our mythology series, anyway. This week, we're talking about how mythological themes have made their way into the English language. We're taking on the Herculean task of...
PBS
Author Robert McCrum Explains How English Has Taken Root Worldwide (Jul. 23, 2010)
"Globish" Author Robert McCrum explains why the English language went global and how it has become the first worldwide language.
PBS
Author Marlon James On Never Outgrowing The Magical
Marlon James is best known for writing literary fiction, including “A Brief History of Seven Killings,” which won the prestigious Man Booker Prize. But his latest book, “Black Leopard, Red Wolf,” draws on a lifelong love of comics and...
PBS
NYC program helps refugee kids prepare for school
Students at the Refugee Youth Summer Academy in New York City are taking their first steps to adjusting to life in a U.S. classroom. This year's class of 118 students comes from families who have been granted asylum in the U.S. The...
Curated Video
The Seven Years War: Crash Course World History
In which John teaches you about the Seven Years War, which may have lasted nine years. Or as many as 23. It was a very confusing was. The Seven Years War was a global war, fought on five continents, which is kind of a lot. John focuses...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Denice Frohman: "Accents"
This animation is part of the TED-Ed series, "There's a Poem for That," which features animated interpretations of poems both old and new that give language to some of life's biggest feelings. [Poem by Denice Frohman, directed by KAPWA /...
Be Smart
How Some Words Get Forgetted
English is a confusing language for many reasons. But the irregular verbs might be the most confusing part. Why is "told" the past tense of "tell" but "smold" isn't the past tense of "smell"? It turns out that the study of irregular...
Crash Course
Gender, Guilt, and Fate - Macbeth, Part 2: Crash Course Literature 410
This week on Crash Course Literature, John Green is continuing to talk about Shakespeare's dark, bloody, Scottish play, Macbeth. This time around, we're looking at the play's characters operate, how the play deals with gender, and the...
Crash Course
Expansion and Consequences: Crash Course European History
European exploration had a lot of side effects. When the Old World and the New World began to interact, people, wealth, food, animals, and disease began to flow in both directions. In the New World, countless millions were killed by...
Crash Course
Of Pentameter & Bear Baiting - Romeo & Juliet Part I: Crash Course English Literature
In which John Green examines Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare. John delves into the world of Bill Shakespeare's famous star-crossed lovers and examines what the play is about, its structure, and the context in which it was written....
SciShow
Agriculture May Have Changed How People Speak | SciShow News
The development of agriculture was a huge game changer for human beings and it may have even changed the way we speak.
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How many verb tenses are there in English? - Anna Ananichuk
How many different verb tenses are there in a language like English? At first, the answer seems obvious - there's past, present, and future. But it isn't quite that simple. Anna Ananichuk explains how thanks to something called...
TED Talks
TED: Language shouldn't be a barrier to climate action | Sophia Kianni
Most scientific literature is written only in English, creating an alarming knowledge gap for the 75 percent of the world who don't speak it. That's a big problem for climate change -- because it's hard to take action on something you...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: A brief history of Spanish | Ilan Stavans
Beginning in the third century BCE, the Romans conquered the Iberian peninsula. This period gave rise to several regional languages in the area that's now Spain, including Castilian, Catalan, and Galician. One of these would become...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Mysteries of vernacular: Zero - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel
Though the first written number system can be dated back to 2500 years ago in Mesopotamia, a zero-like symbol did not appear until 7th century CE India. Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel track the evolution of zero from a dot to the symbol...
Crash Course
Lord of the Flies: Crash Course Literature 305
This week, John i s talking about one of his least favorite novels, The Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Lord of the Flies is a novel of ideas, and John doesn't agree with the central idea of the novel, which diminished his...
TED Talks
How AI can help shatter barriers to equality | Jamila Gordon
Jamila Gordon believes in the power of human connection -- and artificial intelligence -- to help people who might otherwise be left behind. Telling the story of her own path from refugee to global tech executive, she shows how AI is...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: A brief history of plural words - John McWhorter
All it takes is a simple S to make most English words plural. But it hasn't always worked that way (and there are, of course, exceptions). John McWhorter looks back to the good old days when English was newly split from German -- and...