PBS
How Luminiferous Aether Led to Relativity
As the 19th century came to a close, physicists were feeling pretty satisfied with the state of their science. The great edifice of physical theory seemed complete. A few minor experiments remained to verify everything. Little did those...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: 6 myths about the Middle Ages that everyone believes | Stephanie Honchell Smith
Medieval Europe. Where unbathed, sword-wielding knights ate rotten meat, thought the Earth was flat, defended chastity-belt wearing maidens, and tortured their foes with grisly gadgets. Except... this is more fiction than fact. So, where...
Crash Course
The Mind/Brain: Crash Course History of Science
Scientists in the nineteenth century discovered a lot about life and matter. But exactly what kind of stuff is the human brain? That one was—and is—tricky. The brain sciences—with experiments and therapies tied to biological theories of...
Crash Course
Modern Life: Crash Course European History
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...
TED Talks
TED: Why great architecture should tell a story | Ole Scheeren
For architect Ole Scheeren, the people who live and work inside a building are as much a part of that building as concrete, steel and glass. He asks: Can architecture be about collaboration and storytelling instead of the isolation and...
TED Talks
Kwame Anthony Appiah: Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question)
Plenty of good things are done in the name of religion, and plenty of bad things too. But what is religion, exactly — is it good or bad, in and of itself? Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah offers a generous, surprising view.
Crash Course
Race Melodrama and Minstrel Shows: Crash Course Theater #30
We’re continuing our discussion of nineteenth-century American theater with a look at some upsetting parts of the US's theatrical past. In the nineteenth century, race and racism contributed to a unique and troubling performance culture,...
SciShow
When Organisms Invade | Compilation
Invasive species are more than just unwelcome guests, and while some can be super harmful, others might actually be helpful!
SciShow
Pneumatic Tubes: Transportation of the Past... And Future?
Wouldn't it be nice if our transportation was as sleek as in The Jetsons or Futurama? Flying cars are cool, but what about a giant network of human-sized tubes that run through buildings and across entire cities? Well guess what? The...
TED Talks
Mustafa Akyol: Faith versus tradition in Islam
Journalist Mustafa Akyol talks about the way that some local cultural practices (such as the seclusion of women) have become linked, in the popular mind, to the articles of faith of Islam. Has the world's general idea of the Islamic...
TED Talks
Tim Brown: Designers -- think big!
Tim Brown says the design profession has a bigger role to play than just creating nifty, fashionable little objects. He calls for a shift to local, collaborative, participatory "design thinking" -- starting with the example of...
Curated Video
Samurai, Daimyo, Matthew Perry, and Nationalism: Crash Course World History
In which John Green teaches you about Nationalism. Nationalism was everywhere in the 19th century, as people all over the world carved new nation-states out of old empires. Nationalist leaders changed the way people thought of themselves...
TED Talks
TED: How computers are learning to be creative | Blaise Aguera y Arcas
We're on the edge of a new frontier in art and creativity -- and it's not human. Blaise Aguera y Arcas, principal scientist at Google, works with deep neural networks for machine perception and distributed learning. In this captivating...
TED Talks
Neil MacGregor: 2600 years of history in one object
A clay cylinder covered in Akkadian cuneiform script, damaged and broken, the Cyrus Cylinder is a powerful symbol of religious tolerance and multi-culturalism. In this enthralling talk Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum,...
TED Talks
Margaret Wertheim: The beautiful math of coral
Margaret Wertheim leads a project to re-create the creatures of the coral reefs using a crochet technique invented by a mathematician -- celebrating the amazements of the reef, and deep-diving into the hyperbolic geometry underlying...
TED Talks
Naomi Oreskes: Why we should trust scientists
Many of the world's biggest problems require asking questions of scientists -- but why should we believe what they say? Historian of science Naomi Oreskes thinks deeply about our relationship to belief and draws out three problems with...
SciShow
The Bone Wars: A Feud That Rocked U.S. Paleontology
The Bone Wars resulted in the description of some of the most famous dinosaurs we know of today, but not without some pretty big mistakes.
SciShow
Why Billions of Passenger Pigeons Died in Under a Century
How could the most abundant bird in North America go extinct so quickly? Short answer: us.
Crash Course
The Rise of Melodrama: Crash Course Theater #28
At the turn of the 18th century, audience were ready to go over the top, and get some really, really dramatic theater in their lives. Like, a dog dueling a man type of dramatic. In London, only two theaters were licensed, but...
TED Talks
Sean Carroll: Distant time and the hint of a multiverse
Cosmologist Sean Carroll attacks -- in an entertaining and thought-provoking tour through the nature of time and the universe -- a deceptively simple question: Why does time exist at all? The potential answers point to a surprising view...
TED Talks
TED: Capitalism will eat democracy -- unless we speak up | Yanis Varoufakis
Have you wondered why politicians aren't what they used to be, why governments seem unable to solve real problems? economist Yanis Varoufakis, the former Minister of Finance for Greece, says that it's because you can be in politics today...
TED Talks
Charles Leadbeater: Education innovation in the slums
Charles Leadbeater went looking for radical new forms of education -- and found them in the slums of Rio and Kibera, where some of the world's poorest kids are finding transformative new ways to learn. And this informal, disruptive new...
TED Talks
TED: The global power shift | Paddy Ashdown
Paddy Ashdown believes we are living in a moment in history where power is changing in ways it never has before. In a spellbinding talk he outlines the three major global shifts that he sees coming.
TED Talks
Sherwin Nuland: The extraordinary power of ordinary people
Sherwin Nuland, a surgeon and a writer, meditates on the idea of hope -- the desire to become our better selves and make a better world. It's a thoughtful 12 minutes that will help you focus on the road ahead.