Long jealous of his older brother Osiris, the god who ruled all of Egypt, the warrior god Set plotted to overthrow him. Hosting an extravagant party as a ruse, Set announced a game— whoever could fit perfectly in a wooden chest could...

In eastern Europe, in the 17th century a couple of "great powers" were coming into their own. The vast empire of Russia was modernizing under Peter the Great, and the relatively tiny state of Prussia was evolving as well. Russia (and...

Musician and activist Bono accepts the 2005 TED Prize with a riveting talk, arguing that aid to Africa isn't just another celebrity cause; it's a global emergency.

Museums have been a part of human history for over 2,000 years -- but they weren't always like the ones we visit today. J.V. Maranto uncovers the evolution of museums, from the first museum in 530 BC (curated by a princess) to PT...

Crash Course Big History is back! It turns out, we couldn't tell all of the 13.8 billion years of the history of the universe in 10 Crash Course Episodes. So, Big History host Emily Graslie has returned to add 6 more episodes that look...

With his art, photographer Platon seeks to strip away assumptions and leave viewers with a window into his subject's character, filling our eyes with wonder and curiosity. Sharing extraordinary stories of what it's like to photograph...

Marine archeologists accidentally found the world’s oldest known intact shipwreck, and their work scanning, diving, and exploring has given us some very cool insights into more than just our history sailing the oceans.

In 1881, doctor William Halsted rushed to help his sister Minnie, who was hemorrhaging after childbirth. He quickly inserted a needle into his arm, withdrew his own blood, and transferred it to her. After a few uncertain minutes, she...

Colonialism remains an inescapable blight on the present, lingering in the toxic, internalized mythologies and stereotypes that have outlived the regimes that created them, says historian Farish Ahmad-Noor. Examining why these prejudices...

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Black American Women were struggling with both racism and misogyny as they fought for their rights. Black Women formed clubs and organized to make sure civil and political rights were extended...

Diabetes has a history dating back to Ancient Greece. Our treatment of it, however, is more recent and was originally made possible with the help of man's best friend. Due to physiological traits shared with humans, dogs have saved...

Perpetual motion machines - devices that can do work indefinitely without any external energy source - have captured many inventors' imaginations because they could totally transform our relationship with energy. There's just one...

In which John Green teaches you about what westerners call the middle ages and the lives of the aristocracy...in Japan. The Heian period in Japan lasted from 794CE to 1185CE, and it was an interesting time in Japan. Rather than being...

Earlier this week, a team of researchers announced that they’d made a discovery about how we inherit mitochondrial DNA from our parents that could change what we know about not only disease inheritance, but human history as a whole.

Fossils can provide clues to the conditions that ancient species lived in, like what their environments felt like, how deep in the water some species lived, or even how long the Sun was out!

Today, we’re going to take a closer look at borders and the stories they tell. When we look at a map, the shapes we’re seeing can seem so permanent, but a map is just a snapshot of the Earth at a particular time, and by looking a...

In the grand scheme of history, modern reality is a bizarre exception when compared to the worlds of ancient, precolonial and Indigenous civilizations, where myths ruled and gods roamed, says historian Greg Anderson. So why do Westerners...

Learn about the Greek physician and philosopher Galen of Pergamon, whose experiments and discoveries changed medicine. -- In the 16th century, an anatomist named Andreas Vesalius made a shocking discovery: the most famous human anatomy...

Trilobites are famous not just because they were so beautifully functional, or because they happened to preserve so well. They're known the world over because they were everywhere!

A clay cylinder covered in Akkadian cuneiform script, damaged and broken, the Cyrus Cylinder is a powerful symbol of religious tolerance and multi-culturalism. In this enthralling talk Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum,...

* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. From our fear of women's bodies to our sheepishness around the word "nipple," our ideas about sex need an upgrade,...

When radium was first discovered, its luminous green color inspired people to add it into beauty products and jewelry. It wasn't until much later that we realized that radium's harmful effects outweighed its visual benefits....

J.D. Vance grew up in a small, poor city in the Rust Belt of southern Ohio, where he had a front-row seat to many of the social ills plaguing America: a heroin epidemic, failing schools, families torn apart by divorce and sometimes...

Cities designed like families can last for generations. Skeptical? Look to master architect Liu Thai Ker, who transformed Singapore into a modern marvel with his unique approach to sustainable urban design. Liu shares creative wisdom and...