TED Talks
Shereen El Feki: Pop culture in the Arab world
Shereen El Feki shows how some Arab cultures are borrowing trademarks of Western pop culture -- music videos, comics, even Barbie -- and adding a culturally appropriate twist. The hybridized media shows how two civilizations, rather than...
TED Talks
TED: Greg Gage: How to control someone else's arm with your brain
Greg Gage is on a mission to make brain science accessible to all. In this fun, kind of creepy demo, the neuroscientist and TED Senior Fellow uses a simple, inexpensive DIY kit to take away the free will of an audience member. It's not a...
TED Talks
TED: What Wikipedia teaches us about balancing truth and beliefs | Katherine Maher
Even with public trust at an all-time low, Wikipedia continues to maintain people's confidence. How do they do it? Former CEO of Wikimedia Foundation Katherine Maher delves into the transparent, adaptable and community-building ways the...
Be Smart
Could We Clone Ourselves?
Is the science of Orphan Black realistic? Could we clone humans, or engineer them to have customized traits? We take a look at today's genetic engineering technologies to find out if designer babies and human cloning is, or should be, a...
TED Talks
Arthur Ganson: Moving sculpture
Sculptor and engineer Arthur Ganson talks about his work -- kinetic art that explores deep philosophical ideas and is gee-whiz fun to look at.
TED Talks
Robert Hammond: Building a park in the sky
New York was planning to tear down the High Line, an abandoned elevated railroad in Manhattan, when Robert Hammond and a few friends suggested: Why not make it a park? He shares how it happened in this tale of local cultural activism.
TED Talks
Dustin Yellin: A journey through the mind of an artist
Dustin Yellin makes mesmerizing artwork that tells complex, myth-inspired stories. How did he develop his style? In this disarming talk, he shares the journey of an artist -- starting from age 8 -- and his idiosyncratic way of thinking...
TED Talks
Greg Gage: How to control someone else's arm with your brain
Greg Gage is on a mission to make brain science accessible to all. In this fun, kind of creepy demo, the neuroscientist and TED Senior Fellow uses a simple, inexpensive DIY kit to take away the free will of an audience member. It's not a...
TED Talks
TED: The Panama Papers exposed a huge global problem. What's next? | Robert Palmer
On April 3, 2016 we saw the largest data leak in history. The Panama Papers exposed rich and powerful people hiding vast amounts of money in offshore accounts. But what does it all mean? We called Robert Palmer of Global Witness to find...
SciShow
There's Clean (Frozen) Water on Mars!
According to two new papers, Mars may have gigantic drinkable glaciers and we might have found the reason that galaxies glow.
TED Talks
TED: What does the future hold? 11 characters offer quirky answers | Sarah Jones
Sarah Jones changes personas with the simplest of wardrobe swaps. In a laugh-out-loud improvisation, she invites 11 "friends" from the future on stage—from a fast-talking Latina to an outspoken police officer—to ask them questions...
SciShow
Why Do We Blush?
Aw, don't be embarrassed everyone does it! Quick Questions explains what causes blushing, which Darwin called "the most peculiar and most human of all expressions."
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: What's the definition of comedy? Banana. - Addison Anderson
What makes us giggle and guffaw? The inability to define comedy is its very appeal; it is defined by its defiance of definition. Addison Anderson riffs on the philosophy of Henri Bergson and Aristotle to elucidate how a definition draws...
SciShow
The Secret to Unbelievably Fast Internet: Twisting Light
You might finally be able to watch that 4k video without buffering, thanks to quantum mechanics and orbital angular momentum.
TED Talks
Robert Thurman: We can be Buddhas
In our hyperlinked world, we can know anything, anytime. And this mass enlightenment, says Buddhist scholar Bob Thurman, is our first step toward Buddha nature.
TED Talks
Luke Syson: How I learned to stop worrying and love "useless" art
Luke Syson was a curator of Renaissance art, of transcendent paintings of saints and solemn Italian ladies -- Very Serious Art. And then he changed jobs, and inherited the Met's collection of ceramics -- pretty, frilly, "useless"...
PBS
Is a Tagged Instagram More Than Just a Photo?
The hashtag, so simple and ubiquitous, raises the image from mere photo to a new complex entity.
SciShow
Pumas and Slither the Gopher Snake: SciShow Talk Show #12
Hank and Katherine talk about the wild cat known variously as a puma, mountain lion, cougar, panther and catamount and then Jessi from Animal Wonders brings a special animal guest to visit.
TED Talks
Nathaniel Kahn: Scenes from "My Architect"
Nathaniel Kahn shares clips from his documentary "My Architect," about his quest to understand his father, the legendary architect Louis Kahn. It's a film with meaning to anyone who seeks to understand the relationship between art and love.
TED Talks
Aparna Rao: Art that craves your attention
In this charming talk, artist Aparna Rao shows us her latest work: cool, cartoony sculptures (with neat robotic tricks underneath them) that play with your perception -- and crave your attention. Take a few minutes to simply be delighted.
SciShow
How Can a Saw Know What It’s Cutting?
Table saws, while quite useful for woodworking, are also dangerous machines, which is why some incredible safety mechanisms have been invented to help you remain one with your body parts.
TED Talks
Jennifer 8. Lee: Why 1.5 billion people eat with chopsticks
Author Jennifer 8. Lee explains how the chopstick spread from the East to the West -- and was designed to give you the perfect bite.
TED Talks
Paul MacCready: A flight on solar wings
Paul MacCready -- aircraft designer, environmentalist, and lifelong lover of flight -- talks about his long career.
TED Talks
Steven Strogatz: The science of sync
Mathematician Steven Strogatz shows how flocks of creatures (like birds, fireflies and fish) manage to synchronize and act as a unit -- when no one's giving orders. The powerful tendency extends into the realm of objects, too.