Whether someone's running for President or to be on their school board, there's a lot that a politician has to do to try to sway voters. But did you know that what name they use is on that list? Research shows that whether you choose...

As a futurist who helps people prepare for all different kinds of possibilities, Jane McGonigal thinks we overuse words like "unthinkable" and "unimaginable." She introduces three hypothetical scenarios, showing how you can foster the...

Your government has introduced a plan to address record-breaking rates of traffic tickets and deadly hovercar accidents. They propose assigning “driver credit scores” to every citizen, but would need to install cameras and microphones in...

We're programmed to think every issue is binary: "us vs. them." But Daniel Lubetzky, the founder of KIND Snacks, says the real enemy isn't a person but a mindset. He introduces a new initiative that aims to bring together "builders" from...

Democracy is about having choices — and authoritarianism is about not having them, says lawyer and writer Ian Bassin. Detailing the seven steps of the authoritarian playbook, he invites us all to put aside our differences and rethink our...

Our brains are hardwired to crave community and belonging — a tribal instinct that drives politics in the United States, says political strategist Sarah Longwell. She shares what she learned trying to convince people to vote against...

A flourishing democracy next door is a scary thing for an autocrat, says Ukrainian historian Olesya Khromeychuk. Detailing the history of Ukraine's long struggle for sovereignty and freedom — against Russian tsars, communist dictators...

Democracy is more fun and inviting when you take it into your own hands, says creator and activist Sofia Ongele. Sharing how she's using coding and social media to defend democracy, Ongele invites us to identify our own creative...

Based on her work for a CIA task force aimed at predicting civil wars, political scientist Barbara F. Walter examines the rise in extremism and threats to democracies around the globe -- and paints an unsettling picture of the increasing...

In elections, your vote may be influenced by design of the ballot itself, especially when you don’t have strong feelings about which candidate to elect.

Most countries recognize 18 as the start of adulthood by granting various freedoms and privileges. Yet there's no exact age or moment in development that we can point to as having reached full maturity. If there's no consensus on exactly...

So, "modern" is kind of a loaded term, but today we're going to talk about modern life in Europe, as it looked around the time the 19th century turned into the 20th. We'll look at what life was like in the rapidly growing urban centers...

A historic number of Latinx voters participated in the 2020 US presidential election, including a record number of young people casting their ballots for the first time. Civic leader María Teresa Kumar takes a look at the issues closest...

The bizarre Arrow's Impossibility Theorem, or Arrow's Paradox, shows a counterintuitive relationship between fair voting procedures and dictatorships.

Imagine we want to build a new space port at one of four recently settled Martian bases, and are holding a vote to choose its location. Of the 100 colonists on Mars, 42 live on West Base, 26 on North Base, 15 on South Base, and 17 on...

Selma tells the story of Martin Luther King Jr. and one of the greatest non-violent protests in U.S. history. Ava DuVernay directs this historical drama that captured hearts and minds but also made us ask some questions about historical...

Jarreth Merz, a Swiss-Ghanaian filmmaker, came to Ghana in 2008 to film the national elections. What he saw there taught him new lessons about democracy -- and about himself.

If you play video games, you've shot a gun. And those guns are REALISTIC. So real that many are actually LICENSED by IRL arms dealers. Which means that when you buy a video game, you're also putting money in the pockets of those gun...

Negative campaigns—or campaigns that work by painting opposing candidates in a negative light—have been used for decades. But today, thanks to information that can be gained from social media, these campaigns may be even more effective...

Many people like to talk about how important voting is, how it's your civic duty and responsibility as an adult. eric Liu agrees with all that, but he also thinks it's time to bring joy back to the ballot box. The former political...

In elections, your vote may be influenced by design of the ballot itself, especially when you don’t have strong feelings about which candidate to elect.

We are embarrassingly unaware of how divided our societies are, and Brexit grew out of a deep, unexamined divide between those that fear globalization and those that embrace it, says social scientist Alexander Betts. How do we now...

Everyone's heard of Martin Luther King Jr. But do you know the woman Dr. King called "the architect of the civil rights movement," Septima Clark? The teacher of some of the generation's most legendary activists -- like Rosa Parks, Diane...

SciShow gives you latest in science news, including what "unstoppable" melting in Antarctica really means, and how you can help scientists increase the awesome through the 2014 Longitude Prize.