In which John introduces you to quite a lot of Chinese history by discussing the complicated relationship between the Confucian scholars who wrote Chinese history and the emperors (and empress) who made it. Included is a brief...

The aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact had a huge impact on the countries of Eastern Europe. As the former satellite states turned away from communism and Soviet influence, some of them shifted toward...

Today, we are going to start our discussion on user experience. We've talked a lot in this series about how computers move data around within the computer, but not so much about our role in the process. So today, we're going to look at...

Sarah Parcak uses satellites orbiting hundreds of miles above earth to uncover hidden ancient treasures buried beneath our feet. There's a lot to discover; in the egyptian Delta alone, Parcak estimates we've excavated less than a...

In this episode of Black American History, Clint Smith teaches you about the complicated history of racial tension in South Central Los Angeles. You'll learn about the Watts Rebellion of 1965, a 6-day uprising in response to police...

At the heart of alchemy was the quest to turn ordinary metals into gold. Despite the hopelessness of that goal, alchemists still made a lot of discoveries that formed the foundation of modern chemistry and medicine.

In which John Green teaches you about Sub-Saharan Africa! So, what exactly was going on there? It turns out, it was a lot of trade, converting to Islam, visits from Ibn Battuta, trade, beautiful women, trade, some impressive...

This week on Crash Course Literature, John Green is continuing to talk about Shakespeare's dark, bloody, Scottish play, Macbeth. This time around, we're looking at the play's characters operate, how the play deals with gender, and the...

The 21st century brought a whole new host of challenges to the world, and Europe was no exception. In this video you'll learn about how an increasingly connected and complex world led to some pretty deep rifts in countries across the...

Squeaks has a big problem! Every year, he grows lettuce in the Fort's greenhouse, but this year it just won't grow. Luckily, Mister Brown knows someone who can help Squeaks and his lettuce: botanist and inventor George Washington Carver!...

The James Webb Space Telescope has launched! But it was a very long road to get to this point, and we’ve been following the progress for a decade!

If you have a tattoo, you're part of a rich cultural history that dates back at least 8,000 years. Where did this practice of body modification come from, and how has its function changed over time? Addison Anderson tracks the history of...

In which John Green, Hank Green, and Emily Graslie teach you about, well, everything. Big History is the history of everything. We're going to start with the Big Bang, take you right through all of history (recorded and otherwise), and...

The Apollo 11 moon landing was about the astronauts, mission control, software and hardware all working together as a seamless integrated system. None of which would have been possible without the contributions of one engineer: Margaret...

So, "modern" is kind of a loaded term, but today we're going to talk about modern life in Europe, as it looked around the time the 19th century turned into the 20th. We'll look at what life was like in the rapidly growing urban centers...

The year was 1776. In Bavaria, new ideals of rationalism, religious freedom and universal human rights competed with the Catholic church's heavy influence over public affairs. Adam Weishaupt, a law professor frustrated with the Church's...

Today, about one-tenth of the world's population are southpaws. Why are such a small proportion of people left-handed -- and why does the trait exist in the first place? Daniel M. Abrams investigates how the uneven ratio of lefties and...

The midwife Xoquauhtli has a difficult choice to make. She owes a debt to her patron Teteoinnan, the female warrior goddess at the center of the Aztec seasonal festival, who must be kept happy or she will bring bad luck. Xoquauhtli...

Archaeologist and curator Chip Colwell collects artifacts for his museum, but he also returns them to where they came from. In a thought-provoking talk, he shares how some museums are confronting their legacies of stealing spiritual...

Sometimes, diagnosing patients is pretty easy, but other times... not so much. Luckily, in a medical setting we have tools that can help us figure out what's wrong with patients, and how to help them. In this episode of Crash Course...

In which John Green teaches you about the Little Ice Age. The Little Ice Age was a period of global cooling that occurred from the 13th to the 19th centuries. This cooling was likely caused by a number of factors, including unusual solar...

In the 1860s, scientists believed they were on the verge of uncovering the brain's biggest secret: how the brain's signals travel through the body. They believed these impulses travelled uninterrupted along a massive web of tissue. But...

The secret to winning an argument isn't grand rhetoric or elegant style, says US Supreme Court litigator Neal Katyal -- it takes more than that. With stories of some of the most impactful cases he's argued before the Court, Katyal shows...

Uprisings of enslaved people in the United States were not uncommon, and they had a big influence on how the institution of slavery evolved. One uprising that gets less attention, historically, is the German Coast Uprising that took...