TED Talks
TED: 3 things men can do to promote gender equity | Jimmie Briggs
It is time for a gender reckoning, beginning with men authentically confronting our internal selves and each other, says essayist and intersectional justice advocate Jimmie Briggs. In this call to action for gender equity, he unpacks how...
TED Talks
TED: 12 truths I learned from life and writing | Anne Lamott
A few days before she turned 61, writer Anne Lamott decided to write down everything she knew for sure. She dives into the nuances of being a human who lives in a confusing, beautiful, emotional world, offering her characteristic...
SciShow
The Science of Lying
Hank gets into the dirty details behind our lying ways - how such behavior evolved, how pathological liars are different from the rest of us, and how scientists are getting better at spotting lies in many situations.
TED Talks
TED: The power of citizen video to create undeniable truths | Yvette Alberdingk Thijm
Could smartphones and cameras be our most powerful weapons for social justice? Through her organization Witness, Yvette Alberdingk Thijm is developing strategies and technologies to help activists use video to protect and defend human...
Crash Course
100 Years of Solitude Part 2: Crash Course Literature 307
In which we continue our exhaustive look at One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Everything changed when the fire crystal got stolen - Alex Gendler
Someone has tripped the magical alarms in the Element Temple. When you and the other monks arrive on the scene, you know you have a disaster on your hands. Four young apprentices broke into the temple’s inner chamber to steal the sacred...
SciShow
Why is Indigo in the Rainbow?
Indigo may be a very vague and unnecessary color, but it has an interesting history that involves some plants, turmoil, and Isaac Newton's interest in the number seven.
Crash Course
Kant & Categorical Imperatives: Crash Course Philosophy
Our next stop on our tour of ethics is Kant’s ethics. Today Hank explains hypothetical and categorical imperatives, the universalizability principle, autonomy, and what it means to treat people as ends-in-themselves, rather than as mere...
Crash Course
Locke, Berkeley, & Empiricism: Crash Course Philosophy
This week we answer skeptics like Descartes with empiricism. Hank explains John Locke’s primary and secondary qualities and why George Berkeley doesn’t think that distinction works -- leaving us with literally nothing but our minds,...
TED-Ed
How do you know what's true? | Sheila Marie Orfano
A samurai is found dead in a quiet bamboo grove. One by one, the crime's only known witnesses recount their version of the events. But as they each tell their tale, it becomes clear that every testimony is plausible yet different. And...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How to choose your news - Damon Brown
With the advent of the Internet and social media, news is distributed at an incredible rate by an unprecedented number of different media outlets. How do we choose which news to consume? Damon Brown gives the inside scoop on how the...
Crash Course
The Meaning of Knowledge: Crash Course Philosophy
On today’s episode...CATS. Also: Hank talks about some philosophy stuff, like a few of the key concepts philosophers use when discussing belief and knowledge, such as what defines an assertion and a proposition, and that belief is a kind...
Crash Course
Anselm & the Argument for God: Crash Course Philosophy
Today we are introducing a new area of philosophy – philosophy of religion. We are starting this unit off with Anselm’s argument for God’s existence, while also considering objections to that argument.
TED Talks
Katie Hood: The difference between healthy and unhealthy love
In a talk about understanding and practicing the art of healthy relationships, Katie Hood reveals the five signs you might be in an unhealthy relationship -- with a romantic partner, a friend, a family member -- and shares the things you...
Crash Course
Theories of Myth: Crash Course World Mythology
This week, we're talking about theories of Myth. We'll look at the different ways mythology has been studied in the last couple of millenia, and talk about the diffeent ways people have interpreted myth, academically.
TED Talks
TED: How to see past your own perspective and find truth | Michael Patrick Lynch
The more we read and watch online, the harder it becomes to tell the difference between what's real and what's fake. It's as if we know more but understand less, says philosopher Michael Patrick Lynch. In this talk, he dares us to take...
Crash Course
Future Literacies: Crash Course Media Literacy
We’ve seen and discussed the ways in which the rapid pace of technological change has affected the media literacy landscape, and it’s clear that change isn’t slowing down. How will those changes affect the future of media literacy? How...
TED Talks
Judith Jamison and members of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Revelations from a lifetime of dance
"Dance can elevate our human experience beyond words," says Judith Jamison, artistic director emerita of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. In between performances of excerpts from Alvin Ailey's classic works "Revelations" and...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: How false news can spread - Noah Tavlin
In previous decades, most news with global reach came from several major newspapers and networks with the resources to gather information directly. The speed with which information spreads now, however, has created the ideal conditions...
Crash Course
How to Argue - Induction & Abduction: Crash Course Philosophy
We continue our look at philosophical reasoning by introducing two more types: induction and abduction. Hank explains their strengths and weaknesses, as well as counterarguments and the Socratic method.
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The Egyptian Book of the Dead: A guidebook for the underworld - Tejal Gala
Ancient Egyptians believed that in order to become immortal after death, a spirit must first pass through the underworld - a realm of vast caverns, lakes of fire, and magical gates. Needless to say, one needed to come prepared. But how?...
PBS
Does Math Really Exist?
Math is invisible. Unlike physics, chemistry, and biology we can't see it, smell it, or even directly observe it in the universe. And so that has made a lot of really smart people ask, does it actually even EXIST?!?!
Crash Course
History of Media Literacy, Part 1: Crash Course Media Literacy
In order to understand the history of media literacy we have to go all the way back to straight up literacy. In the first half of our look at the history of media literacy, Jay takes us all the way back to Ancient Greece and forward...
PBS
Is Community a Postmodern Masterpiece?
Though the TV show Community has never achieved huge ratings, it has a passionate cult following, including us here at Idea Channel. The show plays with genre and narrative in such a creative way that it brings to mind the cultural and...