PBS
How USAID cuts are impacting the fight against HIV in Kenya
The Trump administration's cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development have had reverberations around the world. The agency, which operated in over 100 nations and employed thousands of people, has been virtually eliminated. In...
PBS
Projects bringing water to drought-ridden land could end with USAID’s dismantling
As the Trump administration ends USAID's mission, a project to bring water to drought-ridden lands is now in peril. In partnership with the Pulitzer Center, William Brangham and producer Molly Knight Raskin traveled to a community in...
TED Talks
TED: This refrigerator is saving lives | Norah Magero
TED Fellow and renewable energy expert Norah Magero envisions an Africa that pioneers its own technological future, shifting the narrative from dependence and consumption to self-reliance and innovation. She shares how she developed...
TED Talks
TED: The unsung heroes fighting malnutrition | Shruthi Baskaran-Makanju
The pastoralists in Africa sustainably produce meat and milk to help feed the continent. But their way of life — and work — is under threat. Food systems advocate Shruthi Baskaran-Makanju explains how best to preserve these vital...
PBS
When We Tamed Fire
The ability to make and use fire has fundamentally changed the arc of our evolution. The bodies we have today were, in many ways, shaped by that time when we first tamed fire.
PBS
When Giant Hypercarnivores Prowled Africa
These hyaenodonts gave the world some of its largest terrestrial, carnivorous mammals ever known. And while these behemoths were the apex predators of their time, they were no match for a changing world.
PBS
The Risky Paleo Diets of Our Ancestors
We can track our history of eating just about anything back through the fossil record and see the impact it’s had on our evolution. Throughout time, part of the secret to our success as a species has been our early - and sometimes fatal...
TED Talks
TED: The tree-growing movement restoring Africa's vital landscapes | Wanjira Mathai
2023 Audacious Project grantee Wanjira Mathai is at the forefront of re-greening the planet. Through the forest restoration initiative Restore Local, she's working to help both Africa's people and its landscapes flourish. Learn more...
SciShow
Should We Be Raising Kids Barefoot?
While most of us only think about our shoes in terms of how they complete our outfits, there's a lot more impact that your choice of footwear can have on your life. Turns out that shoes can change how your feet grow and develop. So is it...
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.
SciShow
The World's First Malaria Vaccine Gets a Shot in Africa | SciShow News
Last week, the World Health Organization announced that a malaria vaccine has finally made it through all the regulatory hurdles and is being distributed in the country of Malawi. Learn how it works and why it’s taken so long to develop...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why did the British Empire burn, sink, and hide these documents? | Audra A. Diptée
In 2009, five Kenyan people took a petition to the British Prime Minister. They claimed they endured human rights abuses in the 1950s, while Kenya was under British colonial rule, and demanded reparations. They had no documentary...
PBS
Sanitation to Kenya's Poor
Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Kenya, where private capital is being used to help install toilets and sanitation facilities in the country's poorest areas.
PBS
Why a Kenyan island might teach the world how to beat AIDS
A massive HIV test-and-treat study is underway in Kenya and Uganda. Migratory men in the fishing industry there have been hit especially hard, and researchers are trying creative ways to encourage them to get tested. William Brangham...
PBS
Fighting the public health threat of counterfeit drugs
Fake pharmaceuticals are a multi-billion dollar problem around the world.
Made and packaged to look like the real deal, these phonies may contain a
fraction of the active ingredients or none at all. these fake drugs can
have serious...
PBS
Erasing the pain and taboo of fistulas
Roughly one million women in the developing world suffer from obstetric
fistula, an injury that results from inadequate medical care and causes
incontinence. But beyond the physical effects, the condition can subject
them to shame and...
PBS
Kenya Elephants
Widespread illegal poaching in the African wild is threatening elephants
and putting them at risk of disappearing in 10 to 15 years. Using some of
the same techniques developed to fight terrorism, a new intelligence-led
effort...
PBS
In remote Kenyan villages, solar start-ups bring light
Some 1.3 billion people around the globe don’t have access to an electric
grid. But solar startup companies say harnessing an abundant resource --
the sun -- can light up some of the world’s most remote areas. In this
Kenyan village,...
PBS
How high-tech replicas can help save our cultural heritage
Cultural objects around the world are routinely threatened by war, looting and human impact. But a kind of modern-day renaissance workshop called Factum Arte outside Madrid is taking an innovative approach to understanding and preserving...
TED Talks
Sangu Delle: In praise of macro -- yes, macro -- finance in Africa
In this short, provocative talk, financier Sangu Delle questions whether microfinance — small loans to small entrepreneurs -- is the best way to drive growth in developing countries. "We seem to be fixated on this romanticized idea that...
TED Talks
TED: A vehicle built in Africa, for Africa | Joel Jackson
Joel Jackson wants to reimagine transportation around the needs of the African consumer. He's designed an SuV that's rugged enough for long stretches of uneven terrain and affordable enough to be within reach of those who need it most....
TED Talks
Rose Goslinga: Crop insurance, an idea worth seeding
Across sub-Saharan Africa, small farmers are the bedrock of national and regional economies—unless the weather proves unpredictable and their crops fail. The solution is insurance, at a vast, continental scale, and at a very low,...
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...
TED Talks
Robert Neuwirth: The hidden world of shadow cities
Robert Neuwirth, author of "Shadow Cities," finds the world's squatter sites -- where a billion people now make their homes -- to be thriving centers of ingenuity and innovation. He takes us on a tour.