In which John Green teaches you about population. So, how many people can reasonably live on the Earth? Thomas Malthus got it totally wrong in the 19th century, but for some reason, he keeps coming up when we talk about population. In...

Sergeant-Major Morris regaled his friends with epic tales from faraway lands— until one asked about an artifact the Sergeant had alluded to. Slowly, he produced the object: a mummified monkey’s paw. He explained that a holy man had...

Hundreds of millions of migrant workers travel within their countries to seek out means of survival — often leaving behind all they know for months or even years. Many face poverty and exploitation, and they need a robust social safety...

When technologist Luis von Ahn was building the popular language-learning platform Duolingo, he faced a big problem: Could an app designed to teach you something ever compete with addictive platforms like Instagram and TikTok? He...

The human population of the world will soon peak – and then decrease – thanks to a combination of two quickly changing economic and educational trends.

A clip from America Ferrera's TED Talk "My identity is a superpower -- not an obstacle" from TED2019 Hollywood needs to stop resisting what the world actually looks like, says actor, director and activist America Ferrera. Tracing the...

Poor Theater and Theater of the Oppressed were two sort of concurrent movements that shared some of the same aims. Jerzy Grotowski's Poor Theater eschewed the use of lighting, props, costumes, makeup, and many of the other trappings of...

In 1998, a school district removed one of American literature's most acclaimed works from its curriculum. Parents pushing for the ban said the book was both "sexually explicit" and "anti-white." The book at the center of this debate was...

It has been nearly three weeks since an enormous explosion at Beirut’s port tore through the city. With Lebanon already suffering from food scarcity, economic collapse and the coronavirus pandemic, the blast turned a grim situation to...

Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Kenya, where private capital is being used to help install toilets and sanitation facilities in the country's poorest areas.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is a massive country, with a land area the size of Alaska and Texas combined. It’s also home to a large part of the Congo Basin rainforest, a habitat for countless species and a crucial absorber of...

The global economy is likely to take a massive hit from the pandemic, and the World Bank warns poverty levels will rise as a result. It’s already happening in Italy, Europe's third-largest economy. The country suffered a devastating...

Book: Honor’s Voice: The Transformation of Abraham Lincoln

In Britain, pubs reopened over July 4th weekend after nearly three months of coronavirus lockdowns. Patrons expressed their desire to get out and socialize after the long period of isolation, and business owners took special precautions...

Spectacular giant statues evoke history and mystery on Easter Island, a place that has symbolized what humans can achieve and then destroy. Now everywhere you look on the island, home to about 6,000 residents, there are signs of coastal...

Cultural objects around the world are routinely threatened by war, looting and human impact. But a kind of modern-day renaissance workshop called Factum Arte outside Madrid is taking an innovative approach to understanding and preserving...

If we want to fix our politics, we have to do something about inequality, says social psychologist Keith Payne. Showing how economic inequality changes the way people see and behave towards one another, Payne helps explain the rise of...

* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. In an emotionally charged talk, MacArthur-winning activist Majora Carter details her fight for environmental...

Half of the world's poorest people have something in common: they're small farmers. In this eye-opening talk, activist Andrew Youn shows how his group, One Acre Fund, is helping these farmers lift themselves out of poverty by delivering...

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...

We feel instinctively that societies with huge income gaps are somehow going wrong. Richard Wilkinson charts the hard data on economic inequality, and shows what gets worse when rich and poor are too far apart: real effects on health,...

Millions of baby boomers are moving into their senior years with empty pockets and declining choices to earn a living. And right behind them is a younger generation facing the same challenges. In this deeply personal talk, author...

How do we make sure that development and aid money actually goes to the people who most need it? Sanjay Pradhan of the World Bank Institute lays out three guidelines to help relief efforts make the most impact -- while curbing...

Modern American health care is defined by its high costs, high overhead and inaccessibility -- especially for low-income patients. What if we could redesign the system to serve the poor and still have doctors make money? In an...