SciShow
Are Colors Real?
The sky is blue, but according to whom? Could the rules of our language affect the way we perceive color?
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Where do new words come from? - Marcel Danesi
There are over 170,000 words currently in use in the English language. Yet every year, about a thousand new words are added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Where do they come from, and how do they make it into our everyday lives?...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: What makes a poem a poem? - Melissa Kovacs
What exactly makes a poem - a poem? Poets themselves have struggled with this question, often using metaphors to approximate a definition. Is a poem a little machine? A firework? An echo? A dream? Melissa Kovacs shares three recognizable...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: All the World's a Stage by William Shakespeare
An animated interpretation of William Shakespeare's poem "All the World's a Stage"
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What is dyslexia? - Kelli Sandman-Hurley
Dyslexia affects up to 1 in 5 people, but the experience of dyslexia isn't always the same. This difficulty in processing language exists along a spectrum -- one that doesn't necessarily fit with labels like "normal" and "defective."...
TED Talks
TED: What we don't teach kids about sex | Sue Jaye Johnson
As parents, it's our job to teach our kids about sex. But beyond "the talk," which covers biology and reproduction, there's so much more we can say about the human experience of being in our bodies. Introducing "The Talk 2.0," Sue Jaye...
TED Talks
eL Seed: Street art with a message of hope and peace
What does this gorgeous street art say? It's Arabic poetry, inspired by bold graffiti and placed where a message of hope and peace can do the most good. In this quietly passionate talk, artist and TED Fellow eL Seed describes his...
SciShow
Common Misconceptions About Evolution
Evolution is particularly vulnerable to misunderstandings around the scientific language. SciShow clears up some confusing language!
Crash Course
Language, Voice, and Holden Caulfield: The Catcher in the Rye Part 1
In which John Green examines JD Salinger's novel The Catcher in the Rye. John pulls out the old school literary criticism by examining the text itself rather than paying attention to the biographical or historical context of the novel...
Crash Course
George Orwell's 1984, Part 2: Crash Course Literature 402
In which John Green continues discussing George Orwell's 1984. Today we're talking about what the novel 1984 has to say about what some have called today's surveillance society. We'll also look at the idea that language can be used as a...
TED Talks
Steven Pinker: Human nature and the blank slate
Steven Pinker's book The Blank Slate argues that all humans are born with some innate traits. Here, Pinker talks about his thesis, and why some people found it incredibly upsetting.
Crash Course
1984 by George Orwell, Part 1: Crash Course Literature 401
In which John Green returns for a dystopian new season of Crash Course Literature! We're starting with George Orwell's classic look at the totalitarian state that could be in post-war England. Winston Smith is under the eye of Big...
TED Talks
Ethan Zuckerman: Listening to global voices
Sure, the web connects the globe, but most of us end up hearing mainly from people just like ourselves. Blogger and technologist Ethan Zuckerman wants to help share the stories of the whole wide world. He talks about clever strategies to...
SciShow
Are People Really Left-Brained or Right-Brained?
SciShow explains how some great, Nobel-winning research into the human brain turned into a meme of misunderstanding that lasted for decades.
SciShow
Is Coding a Math Skill or a Language Skill? Neither? Both?
There are aspects of computer code that look like language and some that seem more like algebra, and since we may be headed for a future where many people will need to learn to code, researchers are interested in figuring out how exactly...
TED Talks
TED: Should we simplify spelling? | Karina Galperin
How much energy and brain power do we devote to learning how to spell? Language evolves over time, and with it the way we spell -- is it worth it to spend so much time memorizing rules that are filled with endless exceptions? Literary...
TED Talks
TED: Poetry, music and identity | Jorge Drexler
One night in 2002, a friend gave Jorge Drexler the chorus to a song and challenged him to write the rest of it using a complex, poetic form known as the "Decima." In this fascinating talk, Drexler examines the blended nature of identity,...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why should you read "The Handmaid's Tale"? - Naomi R. Mercer
Margaret Atwood's speculative fiction masterpiece The Handmaid's Tale explores the consequences of complacency and how power can be wielded unfairly. Atwood's chilling vision of a dystopian regime has captured readers' imaginations since...
SciShow
Will Learning Another Language Make You Smarter?
People used to say being bilingual was bad for your brain. Now, we know that's not true—but does it actually make you smarter?
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The meaning of life according to Simone de Beauvoir - Iseult Gillespie
At the age of 21, Simone de Beauvoir became the youngest person to take the philosophy exams at France’s most esteemed university. But as soon as she mastered the rules of philosophy, she wanted to break them. Her desire to explore the...
TED Talks
Carvens Lissaint: "Put the financial aid in the bag"
At TEDYouth 2011, performance artist Carvens Lissaint shows how to use language, metaphor and imagery to express a powerful idea -- as in this spoken-word performance, a stirring plea to make college education more accessible.
TED Talks
TED: This is your brain on communication | uri Hasson
Neuroscientist uri Hasson researches the basis of human communication, and experiments from his lab reveal that even across different languages, our brains show similar activity, or become "aligned," when we hear the same idea or story....
TED Talks
Jay Walker: The world's English mania
Jay Walker explains why two billion people around the world are trying to learn English. He shares photos and spine-tingling audio of Chinese students rehearsing English -- "the world's second language" -- by the thousands.
TED Talks
TED: 4 reasons to learn a new language | John McWhorter
English is fast becoming the world's universal language, and instant translation technology is improving every year. So why bother learning a foreign language? Linguist and Columbia professor John McWhorter shares four alluring benefits...