TED Talks
TED: It's time to rethink the role of First Lady | Irina Karamanos Adrian
Irina Karamanos Adrian didn't plan on becoming Chile's First Lady — but she set out to transform the role all the same. She shares how she's fighting gender stereotypes and protecting democracy by shifting political power back to where...
TED Talks
TED: The ordinary people doing extraordinary things in Ukraine | Oleksandra Matviichuk
How do we defend people's freedom and dignity against authoritarianism, when the "law of war" doesn't seem to apply anymore? In the face of the Russian occupation of Ukraine, human rights lawyer and Nobel laureate Oleksandra Matviichuk...
TED Talks
TED: Lessons from my father, Alexey Navalny | Dasha Navalnaya
Dasha Navalnaya is the daughter of Alexey Navalny, the politician and leader of the Russian opposition to Vladimir Putin. Sharing the story of her father's poisoning, persecution and current imprisonment, she details what it was like...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What really caused the Irish Potato Famine | Stephanie Honchell Smith
For over 200 years, potatoes thrived in Ireland; roughly half the country’s residents lived almost entirely on potatoes. But when harvesting began in 1845, farmers found their potatoes blackened and shriveled. While this failed harvest...
PBS
Families with transgender children struggle to navigate wave of anti-trans politics
Texas is the largest state in the country to ban transition-related medical care for minors, joining 19 other states that have restricted access. Laura Barrón-López recently spent time in Texas to learn more about the law and spoke with...
TED Talks
TED: Is the US headed towards another civil war? | Barbara F. Walter
Based on her work for a CIA task force aimed at predicting civil wars, political scientist Barbara F. Walter examines the rise in extremism and threats to democracies around the globe -- and paints an unsettling picture of the increasing...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The merciless mercenaries of the Italian Renaissance | Stephanie Honchell Smith
During the 14th and 15th centuries, mercenaries known as condottieri dominated Italian warfare, profiting from— and encouraging— the region's intense political rivalries. As rulers competed for power and prestige, their disputes often...
Crash Course
Political Ideology: Crash Course Government and Politics #35
So today Craig is going to look at political ideology in America. We're going to focus on liberals and conservatives and talk about the influencers of both of these viewpoints. Now, it's important to remember that political ideologies...
SciShow
NASA Needs You
Hank usually likes to keep science and politics separated, but the reality is that a lot of scientific research in the United States is funded by the government. This is a problem right now because the disfunction in the world of...
TED Talks
TED: The next global superpower isn't who you think | Ian Bremmer
Who runs the world? Political scientist Ian Bremmer argues it's not as simple as it used to be. With some eye-opening questions about the nature of leadership, he asks us to consider the impact of the evolving global order and our...
TED Talks
TED: Pussy Riot's powerful message to Vladimir Putin | Nadya Tolokonnikova
Nadya Tolokonnikova, founding member of the anti-Putin resistance group Pussy Riot, was named a top enemy of Russia for speaking out against Vladimir Putin's dictatorship throughout the last decade. In this inspiring talk, she tells the...
PBS
In Ta-Nehisi Coates’ new novel, memory is a superpower
To make the case for reparations for the toll of slavery, acclaimed writer Ta-Nehisi Coates has offered forceful advocacy and powerful data-driven argument. With his first novel, "The Water Dancer," he uses fiction to illuminate the...
PBS
New book ‘The Aftermath’ examines the political influence and legacy of the baby boomers
The impact of the baby boom generation is impossible to ignore. The roughly 76 million people born between 1946 and 1964 have reshaped American society at each stage of their lives. Philip Bump of The Washington Post takes a closer look...
TED Talks
TED: How to transform your climate concern into action | Jane Fonda
Actor and activist Jane Fonda discusses her frontline work fighting for climate action, including recent efforts to support climate-minded candidates running for office in the US and to break the fossil fuel industry's stranglehold on...
TED Talks
TED: What you can learn from people who disagree with you | Shreya Joshi
Youth leader Shreya Joshi diagnoses a key source of political polarization in the US and shows why having "uncomfortable conversations" with people you disagree with is crucial to bridging the divide. "When we are able to recognize what...
TED Talks
TED: A moral blueprint for reimagining capitalism | Manish Bhardwaj
We know capitalism exacerbates injustice and inequality worldwide. So how can we fix it? Professor and social entrepreneur Manish Bhardwaj thinks we need to integrate "moral clarity" -- which he defines as "doing the right thing because...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Mao Zedong's infamous mango cult | Vivian Jiang
In August 1968, factory workers overheard news of a mandatory meeting. Whispered rumors described shipments of a gift from the country's Communist leader, Chairman Mao Zedong. And sure enough, managers soon distributed a gift to every...
PBS
Low-wage immigrant workers are especially vulnerable to sexual abuse. How can they say #MeToo?
Every day, about 50 people are sexually assaulted or raped in the workplace
in the U.S. While the entertainment industry and the political world have
been in the headlines, the problem extends to those who work in hotels,
clean...
PBS
Between vegetarian caf_ and Trump caf_, a political chasm in Texas
Three months since the election and a few weeks into the new Trump administration, recent public opinion polls show we live in a deeply divided country. So what are voters saying about the new president? William Brangham has a tale of...
PBS
Arthur Brooks on why we hate our political enemies -- and how to stop
Arthur Brooks is the former president of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington, D.C., think tank. Troubled by the level of animosity in the current U.S. political landscape, he's analyzed why we increasingly hate...
PBS
With new book on political divisiveness, former GOP official rings an 'alarm bell'
Peter Wehner served in three Republican White Houses. Now, he's written a book about the current state of national political discourse. In “The Death of Politics,” Wehner analyzes the tone and rhetoric used by President Trump, and how...
PBS
Doris Kearns Goodwin on what today's leaders can learn from past 'turbulent times'
In her new book, "Leadership in Turbulent Times," presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin explores the trajectories of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson, arguing that for all four of...
PBS
Novelist Valeria Luiselli On Writing To Document ‘Political Violence’
The U.S. is reportedly experiencing illegal immigration at the highest rates since 2007, with significant increases in the number of unaccompanied minors. It is these child migrants who are the subject of Valeria Luiselli’s book “Lost...
PBS
How Residents From El Paso Feel About Border Barriers
Amid the roiling national debate about immigration and a border wall, construction crews in El Paso, Texas, are busy replacing 20 miles of wire mesh fencing with a bollard-style structure. Border Patrol says this kind of barrier is...