In which Mike Rugnetta teaches you about Ma'ui, prominent hero of many cultures in Oceania, aka the Pacific Island nations. Ma'ui is just the kind of hero we're interested in here at Crash Course. He's a culture hero, he's a an...

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...

How does psychological trauma affect children's developing brains? In this powerful talk, social worker Luis H. Zayas discusses his work with refugees and asylum-seeking families at the US-Mexico border. What emerges is a stunning...

Volcanoes can show nature's rage. What are the biggest eruptions we've witnessed in our history?

In which John Green teaches you MORE about Bill Shakespeare's Hamlet. John talks about gender roles in Hamlet, and what kind of power and agency Ophelia and Gertrude had, if they had any at all (spoiler alert: we think they did). You'll...

In 2006, a movie took on authoritarianism and the violent aftershocks of the Spanish Civil War—all through the eyes of an innocent young girl and the fairy tale world she discovers in the woods. Pan's Labyrinth is both a beautifully...

We've all heard, “breast is best," but is it true? What's the real science behind breast milk and baby formula?

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 --...

I want all families to be made whole, to be reunified, to be together -- as is our right, says writer, poet and student Elizabeth Zion. In this profoundly moving talk, Zion shares the impacts of family separation, including her personal...

Shocking, but true: the United States has the highest rate of deaths for new mothers of any developed country -- and 60 percent of them are preventable. With clarity and urgency, physician Elizabeth Howell explains the causes of maternal...

As a global community, we all want to end poverty. Mia Birdsong suggests a great place to start: Let's honor the skills, drive and initiative that poor people bring to the struggle every day. She asks us to look again at people in...

Chromosome shenanigans have resulted in some unexpected hybrid fishes. Also, this record-breaking mouse lives at a ridiculous altitude.

Hank goes from space to sex and then to motherhood, covering the SpaceX launch, a mission to the moons of Jupiter, intersexual workplace rivalries, the evolution of male homosexuality, the fossil evidence of squishy baby skulls, toddler...

Breast milk grows babies' bodies, fuels neurodevelopment, provides essential immunofactors and safeguards against famine and disease -- why, then, does science know more about tomatoes than mother's milk? Katie Hinde shares insights into...

Rebeca Hwang has spent a lifetime juggling identities -- Korean heritage, Argentinian upbringing, education in the United States -- and for a long time she had difficulty finding a place in the world to call home. Yet along with these...

Charles Darwin had a great mind, but a not-so great body. Scientists have spent years trying to uncover the mysteries of his poor health.

As theaters closed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the creatives who populated their stages were plunged into a state of seemingly endless uncertainty. Aided by a delightful and metaphorically resonant piece of performance...

Listening to stories widens the imagination; telling them lets us leap over cultural walls, embrace different experiences, feel what others feel. Elif Shafak builds on this simple idea to argue that fiction can overcome identity politics.

Patricia Kuhl shares astonishing findings about how babies learn one language over another -- by listening to the humans around them and "taking statistics" on the sounds they need to know. Clever lab experiments (and brain scans) show...

You've probably heard of the risque novel "50 Shades of Grey," now the best selling paperback of all time. But you may not know that it's actually fan fiction! It seems shocking that a fan fiction novel has become so popular, but 50...

Slave codes were a method of protecting the investment of white enslavers in the Colonies by restricting the lives of enslaved people in almost every imaginable way. The codes restricted enslaved people’s ability to move around, or...

Artist LaToya Ruby Frazier spent five months living in Flint, Michigan, documenting the lives of those affected by the city's water crisis for her photo essay "Flint is Family." As the crisis dragged on, she realized it was going to take...

At 16, Rana Abdelhamid started teaching self-defense to women and girls in her neighborhood. Almost 10 years later, these community classes have grown into Malikah: a global grassroots network creating safety, power and solidarity for...

Due to an odd quirk of genetics and some unique evolutionary circumstances, two humans who lived at different times in the distant past managed to pass on a very small fraction of their genomes to you. And to me. To all of us.