SciShow
This Famous Medieval Book May Be a Hoax
The Voynich manuscript is a subject of fascination with its mysterious drawings of plants, people, and stars, as well as its indecipherable text. But rather than hiding ancient secrets, this book might be a medieval fraud, created by an...
TED Talks
TED: How targeted ads might just save your life | Sandersan Onie
Could the tech industry's complex algorithms support people during their darkest times, rather than just deliver targeted ads? Drawing from his own experience with depression, global mental health researcher Sandersan Onie shows how...
SciShow
Ballot Design Has a Sneaky Influence on Your Vote
In elections, your vote may be influenced by design of the ballot itself, especially when you don’t have strong feelings about which candidate to elect.
PBS
Spoken Word Club
Through verse, members of the Spoken Word Club at the Santa Fe Indian School articulate identities both modern and traditional, and maintain links to the past through native language and culture.
Crash Course
Political Thought in the Harlem Renaissance: Crash Course Black American History
When we think about the Harlem Renaissance, the arts come immediately to mind. But new political theories were also blossoming during this time. We'v talked about Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, but today we'll get into some...
SciShow
The New Era of Negative Campaigns
Negative campaigns—or campaigns that work by painting opposing candidates in a negative light—have been used for decades. But today, thanks to information that can be gained from social media, these campaigns may be even more effective...
TED Talks
TED: Let's design social media that drives real change | Wael Ghonim
Wael Ghonim helped touch off the Arab Spring in his home of egypt ... by setting up a simple Facebook page. As he reveals, once the revolution spilled onto the streets, it turned from hopeful to messy, then ugly and heartbreaking. And...
SciShow
Ballot Design Has a Sneaky Influence on Your Vote
In elections, your vote may be influenced by design of the ballot itself, especially when you don’t have strong feelings about which candidate to elect.
TED Talks
William Noel: Revealing the lost codex of Archimedes
How do you read a two-thousand-year-old manuscript that has been erased, cut up, written on and painted over? With a powerful particle accelerator, of course! Ancient books curator William Noel tells the fascinating story behind the...
TED Talks
Chris Bliss: Comedy is translation
Every act of communication is, in some way, an act of translation. Writer Chris Bliss talks about the way that great comedy can translate deep truths for a mass audience.
TED Talks
Kevin Kelly: How technology evolves
Tech enthusiast Kevin Kelly asks "What does technology want?" and discovers that its movement toward ubiquity and complexity is much like the evolution of life.
TED Talks
Ananda Shankar Jayant: Fighting cancer with dance
Renowned classical Indian dancer Ananda Shankar Jayant was diagnosed with cancer in 2008. She tells her personal story of not only facing the disease but dancing through it, and gives a performance revealing the metaphor of strength that...
TED Talks
TED: Everyday moments, caught in time | Billy Collins
Combining dry wit with artistic depth, Billy Collins shares a project in which several of his poems were turned into delightful animated films in a collaboration with Sundance Channel. Five of them are included in this wonderfully...
TED Talks
Mike Matas: A next-generation digital book
Software developer Mike Matas demos the first full-length interactive book for the iPad -- with clever, swipeable video and graphics and some very cool data visualizations to play with. The book is "Our Choice," Al Gore's sequel to "An...
TED Talks
TED: 6 ways to save the internet | Roger McNamee
The next big shift is now, and it's not what you think: Facebook is the new Windows; Google must be sacrificed. Tech investor Roger McNamee presents 6 bold ways to prepare for the next internet.
PBS
Are Prime Numbers Made Up?
Is math real or simply something made up by mathematicians? You can't physically touch a number yet using numbers we're able to build skyscrapers and launch rockets into space. Mathematician Kelsey Houston-Edwards explains this...
TED Talks
Scott McCloud: The visual magic of comics
In this unmissable look at the magic of comics, Scott McCloud bends the presentation format into a cartoon-like experience, where colorful diversions whiz through childhood fascinations and imagined futures that our eyes can hear and touch.
TED Talks
Mikko Hypponen: Three types of online attack
Cybercrime expert Mikko Hypponen talks us through three types of online attack on our privacy and data -- and only two are considered crimes. "Do we blindly trust any future government? Because any right we give away, we give away for...
TED Talks
Alan Siegel: Let's simplify legal jargon!
Tax forms, credit agreements, healthcare legislation: They're crammed with gobbledygook, says Alan Siegel, and incomprehensibly long. He calls for a simple, sensible redesign -- and plain English -- to make legal paperwork intelligible...
TED Talks
TED: Is Pivot a turning point for web exploration? | Gary Flake
Gary Flake demos Pivot, a new way to browse and arrange massive amounts of images and data online. Built on breakthrough Seadragon technology, it enables spectacular zooms in and out of web databases, and the discovery of patterns and...
TED Talks
Elizabeth Gilbert: Your elusive creative genius
Elizabeth Gilbert muses on the impossible things we expect from artists and geniuses -- and shares the radical idea that, instead of the rare person "being" a genius, all of us "have" a genius. It's a funny, personal and surprisingly...
TED Talks
TED: 404, the story of a page not found | Renny Gleeson
Oops! Nobody wants to see the 404: Page Not Found. But as Renny Gleeson shows us, while he runs through a slideshow of creative and funny 404 pages, every error is really a chance to build a better relationship.
TED Talks
Ronny Edry: Israel and Iran: A love story?
When war between Israel and Iran seemed imminent, Israeli graphic designer Ronny Edry shared a poster on Facebook of himself and his daughter with a bold message: "Iranians ... we [heart] you." Other Israelis quickly created their own...
SciShow
The Surprising Connection Between Reading and Rhythm
You might know of dyslexia as a reading disorder, but years of research suggests that people with dyslexia might struggle with processing letters because they also have trouble processing rhythm.