PBS
This graphic novelist and reaing ambassador tells kids to reach beyond their comfort zone
Graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang wrestled with his identity growing up, but he̥s made the Chinese-American experience one of the main subjects of his critically acclaimed work. One of this year̥s MacArthur Fellowship winners and the...
PBS
18 Years After September 11th, An Oral History That Recalls The Details
For everyone old enough to remember September 11th, 2001, their experience of that catastrophic day is seared into memory. But details of what the victims, survivors and emergency responders endured have faded from national consciousness...
PBS
Why Jimmy Carter may be the most misunderstood president in American history
Why Jimmy Carter May Be The Most Misunderstood President In American History
Crash Course
The Rise of the West and Historical Methodology: Crash Course World History
In which John Green talks about the methods of writing history by looking at some of the ways that history has been written about the rise of the West. But first he has to tell you what the West is. And then he has to explain the Rise of...
Crash Course
Ancient & Medieval Medicine: Crash Course History of Science
The history of medicine is about two of our big questions: one, what is life? What makes it so special, so fragile, so… goopy!? Two, how do we know what we know? Why should I take my doctor’s advice? Why are deep-fried Oreos bad for me?...
TED Talks
When the world is burning, is art a waste of time? | R. Alan Brooks
Is art worth it? "Hell yeah," says graphic novelist R. Alan Brooks -- art has the power to scare dictators, inspire multitudes and change hearts and minds across the world. Reflecting on his journey to become an artist at a time when the...
Be Smart
How Some Words Get Forgetted
English is a confusing language for many reasons. But the irregular verbs might be the most confusing part. Why is "told" the past tense of "tell" but "smold" isn't the past tense of "smell"? It turns out that the study of irregular...
Crash Course
Slavery, Ghosts, and Beloved: Crash Course Literature 214
In which John Green teaches you about Beloved by Toni Morrison. I'll warn you up front, this book is something of a downer. That's because it deals with subjects like slavery, the death of a child, a potential haunting, and a bunch of...
TED Talks
Michelle Kuo: The healing power of reading
Reading and writing can be acts of courage that bring us closer to others and ourselves. Author Michelle Kuo shares how teaching reading skills to her students in the Mississippi Delta revealed the bridging power of the written word --...
SciShow
7 Science Illustrators You Should Know
Long before we had cameras scientists still needed visual documentation—enter the science illustrator! Chapters VITRUVIAN MAN Credit: Leonardo da Vinci 0:34 ANDREAS VESALIUS 1:25 DE HUMANI CORPORIS FABRICA 1:59 MARIA SIBYLLA MERIAN 2:39...
SciShow
The Not-So-Silver Lining: When Positive Thinking Backfires
There are a multitude of books and motivational speakers that insist that anyone can think their way to happiness, but that advice really isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.
TED Talks
TED: Your words may predict your future mental health | Mariano Sigman
Can the way you speak and write today predict your future mental state, even the onset of psychosis? In this fascinating talk, neuroscientist Mariano Sigman reflects on ancient Greece and the origins of introspection to investigate how...
TED Talks
TED: The creativity, innovation and ingenuity languishing in US prisons | Brittany K. Barnett
The freedom journey doesn't end when someone is released from prison. In many ways, it begins. Attorney and entrepreneur Brittany K. Barnett fights to free people from prison and champions restoring and nurturing the creative ingenuity...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Michelle Brown: What is a butt tuba and why is it in medieval art?
A rabbit attempts to play a church organ, while a knight fights a giant snail and a naked man blows a trumpet with his rear end. These bizarre images, painted with squirrel-hair brushes on vellum or parchment by monks, nuns and urban...
TED Talks
James Geary: Metaphorically speaking
Aphorism enthusiast and author James Geary waxes on a fascinating fixture of human language: the metaphor. Friend of scribes from Aristotle to Elvis, metaphor can subtly influence the decisions we make, Geary says.
TED Talks
TED: Fractals and the art of roughness | Benoit Mandelbrot
At TED2010, mathematics legend Benoit Mandelbrot develops a theme he first discussed at TED in 1984 -- the extreme complexity of roughness, and the way that fractal math can find order within patterns that seem unknowably complicated.
TED Talks
The value of your humanity in an automated future | Kevin Roose
To futureproof your job against robots and AI, you should learn how to code, brush up on your math skills and crack open an engineering textbook, right? Wrong. In this surprisingly comforting talk, tech journalist Kevin Roose makes the...
TED Talks
William Noel: Revealing the lost codex of Archimedes
How do you read a two-thousand-year-old manuscript that has been erased, cut up, written on and painted over? With a powerful particle accelerator, of course! Ancient books curator William Noel tells the fascinating story behind the...
TED Talks
TED: The mind-bending art of deep time | Katie Paterson
Short-sightedness may be the greatest threat to humanity, says conceptual artist Katie Paterson, whose work engages with deep time -- an idea that describes the history of the Earth over a time span of millions of years. In this lively...
TED Talks
Chiki Sarkar: How India's smartphone revolution is creating a new generation of readers and writers
India has the second largest population of any country in the world -- yet it has only 50 decent bookstores, says publisher Chiki Sarkar. So she asked herself: How do we get more people reading books? Find out how Sarkar is tapping into...
Crash Course
The Northern Renaissance: Crash Course European History
The European Renaissance may have started in Florence, but it pretty quickly moved out of Italy and spread the art, architecture, literature, and humanism across Europe to places like France, Spain, England, and the Low Countries....
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The evolution of the book - Julie Dreyfuss
What makes a book a book? Is it just anything that stores and communicates information? Or does it have to do with paper, binding, font, ink, its weight in your hands, the smell of the pages? To answer these questions, Julie Dreyfuss...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Why should you read Dante's "Divine Comedy"? | Sheila Marie Orfano
Abandon all hope, ye who enter here... Inscribed above the Gate of Hell, this prophecy sets into motion an epic journey for salvation. Written over 10 years, Dante Alighieri's three-part narrative poem "Divine Comedy" is both an...
TED Talks
Ron McCallum: How technology allowed me to read
Months after he was born, in 1948, Ron McCallum became blind. In this charming, moving talk, he shows how he reads -- and celebrates the progression of clever tools and adaptive computer technologies that make it possible. With their...