TED Talks
TED: How to weave a cultural legacy through storytelling | Cohen Bradley
I think of legacy as the weaving together of our stories passed on as a whole, says Haida storyteller Cohen Bradley. Highlighting the significance of potlatch ceremonies (or gift-giving feasts) and other Indigenous traditions of the...
PBS
Pachinko’ author Min Jin Lee answers your questions
Min Jin Lee, author of our July pick for the NewsHour-New York Times book club Now Read This, joins Jeffrey Brown to answer questions from readers, plus Jeff announces August’s book.
PBS
What makes education different from school
Because Tara Westover had never been allowed to go to school, the only history she had learned was the history her father taught her. "His perspective was my perspective," she says, and his fears became her fears. But when she discovered...
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...
Crash Course
Into Africa and Wole Soyinka: Crash Course Theater #49
It's difficult to talk about African theater thanks to colonialism. Pre-colonial Africa was home to many spoken languages, and not nearly as many written languages. The chain of oral tradition was broken by colonial policies, and so many...
Crash Course
Crash Course Theater and Drama Preview!
We're back! This year Mike Rugnetta is teaching you about theater and drama. Are you in drama club? Want to know about the history of theater? Maybe learn some theater history? Have a lot of fun? This is the series for you! Over the next...
TED Talks
TED: The fairy tales of the fossil fuel industry -- and a better climate story | Luisa Neubauer
The fossil fuel industry is a factory of fairy tales, says activist and School Strike for Climate organizer Luisa Neubauer. Tracing the industry's five-decade trickle of lies about climate science, she busts the myth that economic growth...
TED Talks
TED: Why people love watching sports | Kate Fagan
Sure, sports are about athleticism -- but what actually keeps fans invested? Journalist Kate Fagan takes a fascinating deep-dive into lesser-known moments in women's sports history and its media coverage, revealing why stakes and...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: When did slavery actually end in the United States? | Karlos Hill and Soraya Field Fiorio
At the end of the Civil War, though slavery was technically illegal in all states, it still persisted in the last bastions of the Confederacy. This was the case when Union General Gordon Granger marched his troops into Galveston, Texas...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: History vs. Thomas Jefferson | Frank Cogliano
Thomas Jefferson, founding father of the United States and primary author of the Declaration of Independence, was part of America's fight for freedom and equality. But in his personal life, he held over 600 people in slavery. Are his...
TED Talks
TED: How Black queer culture shaped history | Channing Gerard Joseph
Names like Bayard Rustin, Frances Thompson and William Dorsey Swann have been largely erased from US history, but they and other Black queer leaders played central roles in monumental movements like emancipation, civil rights and LGBTQ+...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What if you experienced every human life in history? | TED-Ed
Imagine that your life began as one of the planet's first humans. After dying, you're reincarnated as the second human ever to live. You then return as the third person, the fourth, the fifth, and so on – living the lives of every human...
TED Talks
TED: How to find your voice for climate action | Fehinti Balogun
Actor and activist Fehinti Balogun pieces together multiple complex issues -- climate change, colonialism, systemic racism -- in a talk that's part spoken-word poem, part diagnosis of entrenched global problems. Seeing the connections is...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: 6 myths about the Middle Ages that everyone believes | Stephanie Honchell Smith
Medieval Europe. Where unbathed, sword-wielding knights ate rotten meat, thought the Earth was flat, defended chastity-belt wearing maidens, and tortured their foes with grisly gadgets. Except... this is more fiction than fact. So, where...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How do airplanes stay in the air? | Raymond Adkins
By 1917, Albert Einstein had explained the relationship between space and time. But, that year, he designed a flawed airplane wing. His attempt was based on an incomplete theory of how flight works. Indeed, insufficient and inaccurate...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The continents are moving. When will they collide? | Jean-Baptiste P. Koehl
In the early 20th century, Alfred Wegener's theory of Continental Drift laid the foundation for our modern theory of plate tectonics. And today we know something even more exciting: Pangea was only the latest in a long lineage of...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: A day in the Islamic Golden Age | Birte Kristiansen and Petra Sijpesteijn
It's 791 CE. As the morning sun shines on the Golden Gate Palace, brother and sister Hisham and Asma prepare for the journey of a lifetime: the hajj, a holy pilgrimage to Mecca. They intend to travel with the big hajj caravan— but a...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How horses changed history | William T. Taylor
People have been captivated by horses for a long time. They appear more than any other animal in cave paintings dating back 30,000 years. But how did horses make the journey from wild animals to ones humans could hitch themselves to and...
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...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: One of the most "dangerous" men in American history | Keenan Norris
In 1830, David Walker sewed a pamphlet into the lining of a coat. The volume was thin enough to be hidden, but its content was far from insubstantial. At the time, many members of the US government considered this pamphlet to be one of...
PBS
Mudlarkers uncover archaeological treasures along London’s river banks
The phrase "One person's trash is another's treasure," certainly applies to author Lara Maiklem. She is what's known as a "mudlarker" and spends her spare time scouring the shores of London’s River Thames for artifacts. Maiklem wrote a...
PBS
How This Year's Antiracism Protests Differ From Past Social Justice Movements
Philadelphia protests over the killing of Walter Wallace Jr. represent only
the latest in a year of nationwide demonstrations against racism and police
violence. The ongoing movement has captured attention and provided
political...
PBS
Kevin Young intertwines personal and public history
As a writer, editor and archivist, Kevin Young is a poet actively engaged with the world. In his new collection, Brown, Young draws heavily on his boyhood in Topeka, Kansas, tying it in large and small ways to the wider world. Jeffrey...
PBS
South Africa grapples with reminders of apartheid
Protests in South Africa over a statue of a 19th century diamond magnate
and colonial conqueror set off a national debate two years ago about the
remnants of apartheid. As part of his ongoing series, Culture at Risk,
Jeffrey Brown...