TED Talks
TED: How to have better political conversations | Robb Willer
Robb Willer studies the forces that unite and divide us. As a social psychologist, he researches how moral values -- typically a source of division -- can also be used to bring people together. Willer shares compelling insights on how we...
Crash Course
Deviance: Crash Course Sociology
What is social deviance? Who defines what is deviant and how to people come to behave that way? Today we’re going to explore biological and psychological approaches to explaining deviance, including what each perspective can bring to the...
TED Talks
TED: The tyranny of merit | Michael Sandel
What accounts for our polarized public life, and how can we begin to heal it? Political philosopher Michael Sandel offers a surprising answer: those who have flourished need to look in the mirror. He explores how "meritocratic hubris"...
TED Talks
TED: How (and why) Russia hacked the uS election | Laura Galante
Hacking, fake news, information bubbles ... all these and more have become part of the vernacular in recent years. But as cyberspace analyst Laura Galante describes in this alarming talk, the real target of anyone looking to influence...
SciShow
Could Scientists Predict the Next Political Crisis?
Thanks to modern science and technology, we can predict what the weather will be like in 5 days, but it’s still a bit more challenging to predict what will happen to us and our societies.
TED Talks
Guy-Philippe Goldstein: How cyberattacks threaten real-world peace
Nations can now attack other nations with cyber weapons: silent strikes on another country's computer systems, power grids, dams that leave no trace behind. (Think of the Stuxnet worm.) Guy-Philippe Goldstein shows how cyberattacks can...
TED Talks
Liz Diller: A new museum wing ... in a giant bubble
How do you make a great public space inside a not-so-great building? Liz Diller shares the story of imagining a welcoming, lighthearted -- even, dare we say it, sexy -- addition to the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC. (From The Design...
TED Talks
TED: Fake videos of real people -- and how to spot them | Supasorn Suwajanakorn
Do you think you're good at spotting fake videos, where famous people say things they've never said in real life? See how they're made in this astonishing talk and tech demo. Computer scientist Supasorn Suwajanakorn shows how, as a grad...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: What "Orwellian" really means - Noah Tavlin
If you've watched the news or followed politics, chances are you've heard the term Orwellian thrown around in one context or another. But have you ever stopped to think about what it really means, or why it's used so often? Noah Tavlin...
TED Talks
TED: A mother and son united by love and art | Deborah Willis and Hank Willis Thomas
An art school professor once told Deborah Willis that she, as a woman, was taking a place from a good man -- but the storied photographer says she instead made a space for a good man, her son Hank Willis Thomas. In this moving talk, the...
TED Talks
TED: How the US government spies on people who protest -- including you | Jennifer Granick
What's stopping the American government from recording your phone calls, reading your emails and monitoring your location? Very little, says surveillance and cybersecurity counsel Jennifer Granick. The government collects all kinds of...
TED Talks
TED: We're building a dystopia just to make people click on ads | Zeynep Tufekci
We're building an artificial intelligence-powered dystopia, one click at a time, says techno-sociologist Zeynep Tufekci. In an eye-opening talk, she details how the same algorithms companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon use to get...
TED Talks
Julius Maada Bio: A vision for the future of Sierra Leone
When Julius Maada Bio first seized political power in Sierra Leone in 1996, he did so to improve the lives of its citizens. But he soon realized that for democracy to flourish, its foundation needs to be built on the will of the people....
Crash Course
Congressional Decisions: Crash Course Government and Politics
This week Craig breaks out the crystal ball to try and figure out why our congresspeople do the things that they do. We’ll talk about the three motivating factors of congressional decisions - constituency, interest groups, and political...
TED Talks
TED: Capitalism will eat democracy -- unless we speak up | Yanis Varoufakis
Have you wondered why politicians aren't what they used to be, why governments seem unable to solve real problems? economist Yanis Varoufakis, the former Minister of Finance for Greece, says that it's because you can be in politics today...
TED Talks
TED: The antidote to apathy | Dave Meslin
Local politics -- schools, zoning, council elections -- hit us where we live. So why don't more of us actually get involved? Is it apathy? Dave Meslin says no. He identifies 7 barriers that keep us from taking part in our communities,...
TED Talks
Carole Cadwalladr: Facebook's role in Brexit -- and the threat to democracy
In an unmissable talk, journalist Carole Cadwalladr digs into one of the most perplexing events in recent times: the UK's super-close 2016 vote to leave the European Union. Tracking the result to a barrage of misleading Facebook ads...
TED Talks
Dolores Huerta: How to overcome apathy and find your power
"Sí, se puede!" -- "Yes, we can!" It's the rallying cry Dolores Huerta came up with as a young activist in the 1970s, and she's lived by it in her tireless pursuit of civil rights ever since. With her signature wit and humor, Huerta...
TED Talks
Ashraf Ghani: How to rebuild a broken state
Ashraf Ghani's passionate and powerful 10-minute talk, emphasizing the necessity of both economic investment and design ingenuity to rebuild broken states, is followed by a conversation with TED curator Chris Anderson on the future of...
TED Talks
Samantha Power: A complicated hero in the war on dictatorship
Would you negotiate with someone you knew to be evil, to save lives? Samantha Power tells a story of a complicated hero, Sergio Vieira de Mello. This UN diplomat walked a thin moral line, negotiating with the world's worst dictators to...
TED Talks
Lawrence Lessig: We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim
There is a corruption at the heart of American politics, caused by the dependence of Congressional candidates on funding from the tiniest percentage of citizens. That's the argument at the core of this blistering talk by legal scholar...
TED Talks
Michael Tubbs: The political power of being a good neighbor
Michael Tubbs is the youngest mayor in American history to represent a city with more than 100,000 people -- and his policies are sparking national conversations. In this rousing talk, he shares how growing up amid poverty and violence...
SciShow
Why Is It So Hard to Make a Realistic Twitter Bot?
What are the methods twitter bots use to fool us, and what are some of the challenges in doing so?
TED Talks
How compassion could save your strained relationships | Betty Hart
When personal relationships and ideological differences collide, the result can lead to strained relations -- or even years of silence and distance. Actor Betty Hart offers an alternative to cold shoulders and haughty hellos: compassion,...