In our final episode of Crash Course Engineering we are going to take all the tools and ideas we’ve discussed throughout this series and try to imagine where we’re headed. We’re going to explore some of the biggest problems that today’s...

Vaccine-autism claims, "Frankenfood" bans, the herbal cure craze: All point to the public's growing fear (and, often, outright denial) of science and reason, says Michael Specter. He warns the trend spells disaster for human progress.

Laurie Santos looks for the roots of human irrationality by watching the way our primate relatives make decisions. A clever series of experiments in "monkeynomics" shows that some of the silly choices we make, monkeys make too.

You’ve probably heard a lot about how climate change is affecting our planet, but did you know a warming climate also affects objects in space?

Throughout the history of Islam, says journalist Bobby Ghosh, there have been two sides to jihad: one, internal, a personal struggle to be better, the other external. A small minority has appropriated the second meaning, using it as an...

What's six miles wide and can end civilization in an instant? An asteroid -- and there are lots of them out there. With humor and great visuals, Phil Plait shows us all the ways asteroids can kill us (yipes), and what we must do to avoid...

Our food systems have not been designed to adapt to major disruptions like climate change, says environmental journalist Amanda Little. In this eye-opening talk, she shows how the climate crisis could devastate our food supply -- and...

It's been a tough week for space missions, from a failed Soyuz launch to two emergency shutdowns of space-based telescopes.

Maybe you'd like to just hear about one topic for a while. We understand. So today, let's just watch some videos about how we get energy. And how one animal gets energy from another animal, or a plant. It's all about food chains and food...

Hank interviews Administrator Gina McCarthy of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. They discuss getting people to care about climate change, the EPA's goals going into the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and the...

Millennials and Gen Z will inherit 30 trillion dollars of wealth in the coming decades, and what they do with their money will have an incredible impact on the future of the planet, says impact investor Miguel Goncalves. He makes a case...

Women have made enormous progress over the last century -- challenging the status quo, busting old taboos and changing business from the inside out. But when it comes to political representation, there's still a long way to go, says...

City agencies have access to a wealth of data and statistics reflecting every part of urban life. But as data analyst Ben Wellington suggests in this entertaining talk, sometimes they just don't know what to do with it. He shows how a...

Everybody knows that most women go a little crazy right before they get their period, that their reproductive hormones cause their emotions to fluctuate wildly. Except: There's very little scientific consensus about premenstrual...

We are living in a world that is tantalizingly close to ensuring that no one need die of hunger or malaria or diarrhea, says economist Michael Green. To help spur progress, back in 2015 the United Nations drew up a set of 17 goals around...

In this brand-new slideshow (premiering on TED.com), Al Gore presents evidence that the pace of climate change may be even worse than scientists recently predicted. He challenges us to act.

Climate change is unfair. While rich countries can fight against rising oceans and dying farm fields, poor people around the world are already having their lives upended -- and their human rights threatened -- by killer storms,...

Historian and diplomat Joseph Nye gives us the 30,000-foot view of the shifts in power between China and the US, and the global implications as economic, political and "soft" power shifts and moves around the globe.

As a world-renowned treasure hunter, you have been searching for the legendary dungeon containing the stash of ancient Stygian coins. The wizard who owns the castle has even allowed you to have them, on one condition-you must solve his...

If you're ever put in charge of a national economy, there are a few things you should try to avoid. Before you laugh, just remember, you COULD be in charge of an economy someday. Someone has to do it, and anyway, if it could happen to...

Save the rainforest is an environmental slogan as old as time — but Tasso Azevedo catches us up on how the fight is actually going these days. Spurred by the jaw-dropping losses of the 1990s, new laws (and transparent data) are helping...

From nourishing our foods to storing massive amounts of carbon, soil is teeming with diverse microbial life that could slow global warming. Climate change scientist Jane Zelikova calls for agricultural practices that protect Earth's soil...

CRISPR gene drives allow scientists to change sequences of DNA and guarantee that the resulting edited genetic trait is inherited by future generations, opening up the possibility of altering entire species forever. More than anything,...

It’s easy to assume that people who join cults have something wrong with them, but usually the people who join cults are just like the rest of us. So, how does it happen?