TED Talks
TED: A vision for the future of Afghanistan | Ashraf Ghani
Offering a vision of Afghanistan that goes beyond what's often depicted in the media, President Ashraf Ghani shares his thoughts on peacemaking, the true cost of war, the nation's COVID-19 response strategy and the sweeping economic and...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: How did Dracula become the world's most famous vampire? - Stanley Stepanic
Over a hundred years after his creator was laid to rest, Dracula lives on as the most famous vampire in history. But this Transylvanian noble _ neither the first fictional vampire, nor the most popular of his time _ may have remained...
TED Talks
TED: How free is our freedom of the press? | Trevor Timm
In the uS, the press has a right to publish secret information the public needs to know, protected by the First Amendment. Government surveillance has made it increasingly more dangerous for whistleblowers, the source of virtually every...
TED Talks
William Kamkwamba: How I built a windmill
When he was just 14 years old, Malawian inventor William Kamkwamba built his family an electricity-generating windmill from spare parts, working from rough plans he found in a library book.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Silvia Moreno-García: Titan of terror: the dark imagination of H.P. Lovecraft
Arcane books of forbidden lore, disturbing secrets in the family bloodline, and terrors so unspeakable the very thought of them might drive you mad. These have become standard elements in modern horror stories. But they were largely...
TED Talks
TED: The simple genius of a good graphic | Tommy McCall
In a talk that's part history lesson, part love letter to graphics, information designer Tommy McCall traces the centuries-long evolution of charts and diagrams -- and shows how complex data can be sculpted into beautiful shapes....
Crash Course
Liberals, Conservatives, and Pride and Prejudice, Part 2: Crash Course Literature 412
This is it! The final episode of CC Literature season 4 is a deeper look at Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Today we'll explore the novel's take on materialism, and we'll talk about whether the novel has a liberal or conservative...
TED Talks
TED: How a "Hi Level" mindset helps you realize your potential | Cordae
What does it take to build a legacy? Hip-hop artist Cordae tells how he went from mixtape-dropping high school kid to Grammy-nominated music star whose "Hi Level" mindset helps him achieve his dreams.
TED Talks
TED: A mother and son united by love and art | Deborah Willis and Hank Willis Thomas
An art school professor once told Deborah Willis that she, as a woman, was taking a place from a good man -- but the storied photographer says she instead made a space for a good man, her son Hank Willis Thomas. In this moving talk, the...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why should you read Tolstoy's "War and Peace"? - Brendan Pelsue
"War and Peace." A tome. A slog. The sort of book you shouldn't read in bed because if you fall asleep it could give you a concussion. Right? Only partly. "War and Peace" is a long book, sure, but it's also a thrilling examination of...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: The world's most mysterious book - Stephen Bax
Deep inside Yale's Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library lies a 240 page tome. Recently carbon dated to around 1420, its pages feature looping handwriting and hand drawn images seemingly stolen from a dream. It is called the Voynich...
TED Talks
Steven Wise: Chimps have feelings and thoughts. They should also have rights
Chimpanzees are people too, you know. Ok, not exactly. But lawyer Steven Wise has spent the last 30 years working to change these animals' status from "things" to "persons." It's not a matter of legal semantics; as he describes in this...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why is Herodotus called The Father of History? - Mark Robinson
About 2500 years ago, the writing of history as we understand it didn't really exist. Then, a man called Herodotus witnessed the Persian invasions of Greece and decided to find out why they happened. Mark Robinson investigates how the...
SciShow Kids
Why Do We Yawn?
We yawn a lot when we're tired or warm, and sometimes we even yawn just because we see other people yawning! But why do we yawn in the first place?
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Why should you read “Dune” by Frank Herbert? - Dan Kwartler
A mother and son trek across an endless desert. Wearing special suits to dissipate heat and recycle moisture, the travelers aren’t worried about dying of thirst. Their fears are much greater. Soon, the sound of the desert is drowned out...
TED Talks
John Maeda: Designing for simplicity
The MIT Media Lab's John Maeda lives at the intersection of technology and art, a place that can get very complicated. Here he talks about paring down to basics.
Crash Course
Candide: Crash Course Literature 405
John Green teaches you about Voltaire's hugely important Enlightenment novel, Candide. Candide tells a pretty wild story, but for the most part, it's about the best of all possible worlds. Which, spoiler alert, doesn't seem to be the...
TED Talks
Brewster Kahle: A free digital library
Brewster Kahle is building a truly huge digital library -- every book ever published, every movie ever released, all the strata of web history ... It's all free to the public -- unless someone else gets to it first.
TED Talks
Chip Kidd: Designing books is no laughing matter. OK, it is.
Chip Kidd doesn't judge books by their cover, he creates covers that embody the book -- and he does it with a wicked sense of humor. In this deeply felt (and deeply hilarious) talk, he shares the art and the philosophy behind his cover...
TED Talks
Jinha Lee: Reach into the computer and grab a pixel
The border between our physical world and the digital information surrounding us has been getting thinner and thinner. Designer and engineer Jinha Lee wants to dissolve it altogether. As he demonstrates in this short, gasp-inducing talk,...
TED Talks
TED: A sci-fi vision of life in 2041 | Chen Qiufan
Sci-fi writer Chen Qiufan doesn't fear a dystopian future. Instead, he believes developments in artificial intelligence will make all of our lives better, healthier and safer. He takes us on a tour of the next 20 years of AI and shares...
TED Talks
TED: A taboo-free way to talk about periods | Aditi Gupta
It's true: talking about menstruation makes many people uncomfortable. And that taboo has consequences: in India, three out of every 10 girls don't even know what menstruation is at the time of their first period, and restrictive customs...
TED Talks
Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution!
In this poignant, funny follow-up to his fabled 2006 talk, Sir Ken Robinson makes the case for a radical shift from standardized schools to personalized learning -- creating conditions where kids' natural talents can flourish.