Crash Course
100 Years of Solitude Part 1: Crash Course Literature 306
Our first of two episodes about Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel, 100 Years of Solitude. This week, we're looking at the Buendia family, and their many generations of people with the same names. We'll also look at the fascinating way the...
3Blue1Brown
How pi was almost 6.283185
Happy pi day! Did you know that in some of his notes, Euler used the symbol pi to represent 6.28..., before the more familiar 3.14... took off as a standard?
TED Talks
TED: The little risks you can take to increase your luck | Tina Seelig
Luck is rarely a lightning strike, isolated and dramatic -- it's much more like the wind, blowing constantly. Catching more of it is easy but not obvious. In this insightful talk, Stanford engineering school professor Tina Seelig shares...
TED Talks
Arthur Benjamin: A performance of "Mathemagic"
In a lively show, mathemagician Arthur Benjamin races a team of calculators to figure out 3-digit squares, solves another massive mental equation and guesses a few birthdays. How does he do it? He’ll tell you.
SciShow
Take a Trip Through Space!
Take a trip through our star area, using only the ten hundred most used words, inspired by Randall Munroe of XKCD.
TED Talks
Jarrett J. Krosoczka: Why lunch ladies are heroes
Children's book author Jarrett Krosoczka shares the origins of the Lunch Lady graphic novel series, in which undercover school heroes serve lunch...and justice! His new project, School Lunch Hero Day, reveals how cafeteria lunch staff...
TED Talks
TED: 5 ways to kill your dreams | Bel Pesce
All of us want to invent that game-changing product, launch that successful company, write that best-selling book. And yet so few of us actually do it. TED Fellow and Brazilian entrepreneur Bel Pesce breaks down five easy-to-believe...
SciShow
Turns Out "The Lorax" Is Probably a Real Monkey
Scientists found, on a Kenyan plateau, a tree and a monkey that you might just know. But humans make changes, as we often do, and now these small creatures may soon fade from view.
TED Talks
TED: How to practice safe sexting | Amy Adele Hasinoff
* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. Sexting, like anything that's fun, runs its risks -- but a serious violation of privacy shouldn't be one of them....
SciShow
Could We Breed Giant Spiders?
If, for some wild reason, we decided that breeding humongous spiders was a good idea, could we actually pull it off?
Bozeman Science
Scientific Phenomenon and Sensemaking
In this video Paul Andersen explains how scientific phenomenon and sensemaking can be used in the science classroom to engage students and drive inquiry.
TED Talks
Elizabeth Gilbert: Your elusive creative genius
Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. It's a funny, personal and surprisingly...
SciShow
Can Pets Be Allergic to People?
Maybe you have a dog or cat who greets you with a sneezing fit once you walk in the door from work. Is it possible you're the problem?
TED Talks
TED: Living beyond limits | Amy Purdy
When she was 19, Amy Purdy lost both her legs below the knee. And now ... she's a pro snowboarder (and a killer competitor on "Dancing with the Stars"!). In this powerful talk, she shows us how to draw inspiration from life's obstacles.
TED Talks
TED: How I'm using LEGO to teach Arabic | Ghada Wali
After a visit to a European library in search of Arabic and Middle Eastern texts turned up only titles about fear, terrorism and destruction, Ghada Wali resolved to represent her culture in a fun, accessible way. The result: a colorful,...
Crash Course
The Parable of the Sower: Crash Course Literature 406
This week, John is teaching you about the near-future dystopia in Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower. Parable of the Sower tells the story of Lauren Oya Olamina, and her life growing up in a post-climate change, semi-lawless America....
TED Talks
Tyler Cowen: Be suspicious of simple stories
Like all of us, economist Tyler Cowen loves a good story. But in this intriguing talk, he asks us to step away from thinking of our lives -- and our messy, complicated irrational world -- in terms of a simple narrative.
PBS
How Many Humans Have the Same Number of Body Hairs?
Do two people on the planet have the exact same number of body hairs? How about more than two? There's a simple yet powerful mathematical principle that can help you find out the answer. Kelsey Houston-Edwards breaks down the Pigeonhole...
TED Talks
AJ Jacobs: My year of living biblically
Author, philosopher, prankster and journalist AJ Jacobs talks about the year he spent living biblically -- following the rules in the Bible as literally as possible.
TED Talks
Lesley Hazleton: On reading the Koran
Lesley Hazleton sat down one day to read the Koran. And what she found -- as a non-Muslim, a self-identified "tourist" in the Islamic holy book -- wasn't what she expected. With serious scholarship and warm humor, Hazleton shares the...
TED Talks
Shilo Shiv Suleman: Using tech to enable dreaming
Has our technology -- our cell phones and iPods and cameras -- stopped us from dreaming? Young artist Shilo Shiv Suleman says no, as she demos "Khoya," her new storybook for iPad, which floats us through a magical world in 7 minutes of...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why should you read "Moby Dick"? | Sascha Morrell
A mountain separating two lakes. A room papered floor to ceiling with bridal satins. The lid of an immense snuffbox. These seemingly unrelated images take us on a tour of a sperm whale's head in Herman Melville's "Moby Dick." Though the...