TED Talks
TED: 3 questions to ask yourself about US citizenship | Jose Antonio Vargas
At age 16, journalist and filmmaker Jose Antonio Vargas found out he was in the United States illegally. Since then, he's been thinking deeply about immigration and what it means to be a US citizen -- whether it's by birth, law or...
TED Talks
TED: A new understanding of human history and the roots of inequality | David Wengrow
What if the commonly accepted narratives about the foundation of civilization are all wrong? Drawing on groundbreaking research, archaeologist David Wengrow challenges traditional thinking about the social evolution of humanity -- from...
TED Talks
3 ways to upgrade democracy for the 21st century | Max Rashbrooke
Democracy needs an update -- one that respects and engages citizens by involving them in everyday political decisions, says writer and researcher Max Rashbrooke. He outlines three global success stories that could help move democratic...
TED Talks
TED: What the Russian Revolution would have looked like on social media | Mikhail Zygar
History is written by the victors, as the saying goes -- but what would it look like if it was written by everyone? Journalist and TED Fellow Mikhail Zygar is on a mission to show us with Project1917, a "social network for dead people"...
Crash Course
Interest Groups: Crash Course Government and Politics
Today, Craig is going to talk about something you fans out there have been demanding for months - money in politics. Specifically, we're going to talk about special interest groups and their role in the U.S. political system. Special...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The rise of modern populism | Takis S. Pappas
In many democratic countries, charismatic leaders vilify political opponents, disparage institutions, and claim to be for the people. Some critics label this approach as authoritarian or fascist, while others argue that these leaders are...
TED Talks
TED: A new approach to defending the human rights of migrants | Itamar Mann
In this gripping talk, litigator and TED Fellow Itamar Mann details the perilous boat migrations of asylum seekers crossing the Mediterranean Sea. With a surplus of evidence gathered by researchers and activists, he explains how lawyers...
TED Talks
TED: How to be fearless in the face of authoritarianism | Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya
How do you stand up to authoritarianism? And what does it mean to be "fearless"? In this powerful talk, housewife-turned-politician Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya describes her unlikely bid to defeat Belarus's long-time autocratic leader in...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The fight for the right to vote in the United States - Nicki Beaman Griffin
In the United States today, if you are over eighteen, a citizen, and the resident of a state, you can vote (with some exceptions). So, how have voting rights changed since the first election in 1789? Nicki Beaman Griffin outlines the...
TED Talks
TED: Nationalism vs. globalism: the new political divide | Yuval Noah Harari
How do we make sense of today's political divisions? In a wide-ranging conversation full of insight, historian Yuval Harari places our current turmoil in a broader context, against the ongoing disruption of our technology, climate, media...
Crash Course
The Constitution, the Articles, and Federalism Crash Course US History
In which John Green teaches you about the United States Constitution. During and after the American Revolutionary War, the government of the new country operated under the Articles of Confederation. While these Articles got the young...
TED Talks
Eric X. Li: A tale of two political systems
It's a standard assumption in the West: As a society progresses, it eventually becomes a capitalist, multi-party democracy. Right? Eric X. Li, a Chinese investor and political scientist, begs to differ. In this provocative,...
Crash Course
Democracy, Authoritarian Capitalism, and China: Crash Course World History 230
In which John Green teaches you about the end of World History, and the end of the world as we know it, kind of. For the last hundred years or so, it seemed that one important ingredient for running an economically successful country was...
TED Talks
Patrick Chappatte: A free world needs satire
We need humor like we need the air we breathe, says editorial cartoonist Patrick Chappatte. In a talk illustrated with highlights from a career spent skewering everything from dictators and ideologues to selfies and social media mobs,...
Curated Video
The French Revolution: Crash Course World History
In which John Green examines the French Revolution, and gets into how and why it differed from the American Revolution. Was it the serial authoritarian regimes? The guillotine? The Reign of Terror? All of this and more contributed to the...
TED Talks
TED: The future of digital communication and privacy | Will Cathcart
People send 100 billion WhatsApp messages every day -- and they're all encrypted to protect them from potentially curious entities like companies, governments and even WhatsApp itself. With our increased reliance on digital communication...
TED Talks
TED: How your personality shapes your politics | Dannagal G. Young
Social psychologist Dannagal G. Young breaks down the link between our psychology and politics, showing how personality types largely fall into people who prioritize openness and flexibility (liberals) and those who prefer order and...
TED Talks
George Takei: Why I love a country that once betrayed me
When he was a child, George Takei and his family were forced into an internment camp for Japanese-Americans, as a "security" measure during World War II. 70 years later, Takei looks back at how the camp shaped his surprising, personal...
Curated Video
The Persians & Greeks: Crash Course World History
In which John compares and contrasts Greek civilization and the Persian Empire. Of course we're glad that Greek civilization spawned modern western civilization, right? Maybe not. From Socrates and Plato to Darius and Xerxes, John...
TED Talks
Michael Sandel: The lost art of democratic debate
Democracy thrives on civil debate, Michael Sandel says -- but we're shamefully out of practice. He leads a fun refresher, with TEDsters sparring over a recent Supreme Court case (PGA Tour Inc. v. Martin) whose outcome reveals the...
TED Talks
TED: How to see past your own perspective and find truth | Michael Patrick Lynch
The more we read and watch online, the harder it becomes to tell the difference between what's real and what's fake. It's as if we know more but understand less, says philosopher Michael Patrick Lynch. In this talk, he dares us to take...
Crash Course
The Progressive Era Crash Course US History
In which John Green teaches you about the Progressive Era in the United States. In the late 19th and early 20th century in America, there was a sense that things could be improved upon. A sense that reforms should be enacted. A sense...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: What did democracy really mean in Athens? - Melissa Schwartzberg
While we might consider elections to be the cornerstone of democracy, the Athenians who coined the term actually employed a lottery system to choose most of their politicians. Melissa Schwartzberg describes the ins and outs of the...
Crash Course
The French Revolution Crash Course World History
In which John Green examines the French Revolution, and gets into how and why it differed from the American Revolution. Was it the serial authoritarian regimes? The guillotine? The Reign of Terror? All of this and more contributed to the...