SciShow
6 Animals Living Their Best Lives in Cities | Synurbic Species
When humans build a city, most species in the area tend to disappear. But there are some, called synurbic species, that are living their best lives in our concrete jungles.
SciShow
The Real Mayan Apocalypse
There are just six weeks left until the celestial odometer that is the Mayan calendar clicks over to the next b'akt'un, but in the meantime, scientists have been trying to solve the mystery behind the collapse of the Mayan civilization....
TED Talks
TED: Future tech will give you the benefits of city life anywhere | Julio Gil
Don't believe predictions that say the future is trending towards city living. urbanization is actually reaching the end of its cycle, says logistics expert Julio Gil, and soon more people will be choosing to live (and work) in the...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How do we study the stars? - Yuan-Sen Ting
Our best technology can send men to the Moon and probes to the edge of our solar system, but these distances are vanishingly small compared to the size of the universe. How then can we learn about the galaxies beyond our own? Yuan-Sen...
TED Talks
TED: How COVID-19 reshaped US cities | Kevin J. Krizek
The pandemic spurred an unprecedented reclamation of urban space, ushering in a seemingly bygone era of pedestrian pastimes, as cars were sidelined in favor of citizens. Highlighting examples from across the United States, environmental...
TED Talks
TED: The case for a 4-day work week | Juliet Schor
The traditional approach to work needs a redesign, says economist Juliet Schor. She's leading four-day work week trials in countries like the US and Ireland, and the results so far have been overwhelmingly positive: from increased...
TED Talks
TED: How is your city tackling the climate crisis? | Marvin Rees
If we can unlock the full potential of our cities, we can minimize the price the planet pays for hosting us in our growing numbers, says Marvin Rees, the Mayor of Bristol, UK, who understands deeply how cities can help (or hurt) the...
TED Talks
TED: How food shapes our cities | Carolyn Steel
Every day, in a city the size of London, 30 million meals are served. But where does all the food come from? Architect Carolyn Steel discusses the daily miracle of feeding a city, and shows how ancient food routes shaped the modern world.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why is Aristophanes called "The Father of Comedy"? - Mark Robinson
Aristophanes, often referred to as the Father of Comedy, wrote the world's earliest surviving comic dramas. They're stuffed full of parodies, songs, sexual jokes and surreal fantasy -- and they've shaped how comedy's been written and...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How the world's first subway system was built - Christian Wolmar
It was the dawn of 1863, and London's not-yet-opened subway system - the first of its kind in the world - had the city in an uproar. Most people thought the project, which cost more than 100 million dollars in today's money, would never...
TED Talks
TED: American bipartisan politics can be saved -- here's how | Bob Inglis
Former Republican member of the u.S. Congress Bob Inglis shares an optimistic message about how conservatives can lead on climate change and other pressing problems -- and how free enterprise (and working together across ideologies) hold...
TED Talks
TED: 7 principles for building better cities | Peter Calthorpe
More than half of the world's population already lives in cities, and another 2.5 billion people are projected to move to urban areas by 2050. The way we build new cities will be at the heart of so much that matters, from climate change...
TED Talks
TED: 4 environmental 'heresies' | Stewart Brand
The man who helped usher in the environmental movement in the 1960s and '70s has been rethinking his positions on cities, nuclear power, genetic modification and geo-engineering. This talk at the US State Department is a foretaste of his...
Crash Course
The 17th Century Crisis: Crash Course European History
The 17th Century in Europe was pretty rough in a lot of ways. The Thirty Years War involved a lot of countries, and a lot of battles, and it was terrible for everyone involved, as wars have aa historical tendency to be. At the same time,...
TED Talks
Débora Mesa Molina: Stunning buildings made from raw, imperfect materials
What would it take to reimagine the limits of architecture? Débora Mesa Molina offers some answers in this breathtaking, visual tour of her work, showing how structures can be made with overlooked materials and unconventional methods --...
TED Talks
Xavier Vilalta: Architecture at home in its community
When TED Fellow Xavier Vilalta was commissioned to create a multistory shopping mall in Addis Ababa, he panicked. Other centers represented everything he hated about contemporary architecture: wasteful, glass towers requiring tons of...
TED Talks
Helen Marriage: Public art that turns cities into playgrounds of the imagination
Visual artist Helen Marriage stages astonishing, large-scale public art events that expand the boundaries of what's possible. In this visual tour of her work, she tells the story of three cities she transformed into playgrounds of the...
TED Talks
Alex Steffen: The shareable future of cities
How can cities help save the future? Alex Steffen shows some cool neighborhood-based green projects that expand our access to things we want and need -- while reducing the time we spend in cars.
TED Talks
TED: How urban agriculture is transforming Detroit | Devita Davison
There's something amazing growing in the city of Detroit: healthy, accessible, delicious, fresh food. In a spirited talk, fearless farmer Devita Davison explains how features of Detroit's decay actually make it an ideal spot for urban...
TED Talks
TED: Why Africa needs community-led conservation | Resson Kantai Duff
Conservation efforts in Africa have typically been led by "parachute conservationists" -- outsiders who drop in thinking they have all the answers, hire locals to implement them and then disappear. But conservationist Resson Kantai Duff...
SciShow
What Will the World Look Like, 2°C Warmer?
A world only 2°C warmer, or 3.6°F, would be one that is much different than the world we live in today, but what does that actually look like?
TED Talks
TED: Nature is everywhere -- we just need to learn to see it | emma Marris
How do you define "nature?" If we define it as that which is untouched by humans, then we won't have any left, says environmental writer emma Marris. She urges us to consider a new definition of nature -- one that includes not only...
TED Talks
Federica Bianco: How we use astrophysics to study earthbound problems
To study a system as complex as the entire universe, astrophysicists need to be experts at extracting simple solutions from large data sets. What else could they do with this expertise? In an interdisciplinary talk, TED Fellow and...
TED Talks
TED: The arts festival revolution | David Binder
David Binder is a major Broadway producer, but last summer he found himself in a small Australian neighborhood, watching locals dance and perform on their lawns -- and loving it. He shows us the new face of arts festivals, which break...