TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The conspiracy to take down the Inca empire | Gabriel Prieto
It's daybreak in the city of Chan Chan, and former soldier Maxo has been up all night fretting. Last night, a friend stopped by and instructed him to go to the plaza at noon to receive an important message. But with the recent defeat of...
SciShow
Why You Can't Hear Volcanoes Erupt
Even if a volcano is just a few miles away, you might not hear it erupt. How is that possible? It has to do with a phenomenon known as sound shadows! Hank will tell you all about it in this new episode of SciShow! Join us!
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The rise and fall of the Mughal Empire | Stephanie Honchell Smith
Though he was descended from some of the world's most successful conquerors, Babur struggled to gain a foothold among the many other ambitious princes in Central Asia. So he turned his attention to India, where his descendants stayed and...
Crash Course
Mythical Horses: Crash Course World Mythology #37
Horses have been human companions for thousands of years, and have been essential companions and tools for the development of human culture. So, it makes sense that horses would make their way into our most important stories. Today,...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The bizarre world of parasitic wasps | Miles Zhang
A cockroach and jewel wasp are locked in battle. The wasp latches onto the cockroach and inserts her stinger into the cockroach's brain, where her venom blocks its fight-or-flight response. Now, the cockroach is essentially a zombie, and...
Curated Video
WRAP Adds Kerry response to Bush radio address
1. Graphic of US President George W. Bush overlaid with narration
2. SOUNDBITE: (English) George W. Bush, US President:
"This week, our nation was sickened by the murder of an American civilian, Nicholas Berg. The savage execution of...
PBS
This Ancient Whistling Language Is In Grave Danger Of Dying Out
In the Greek island village of Antio, home to the world's most endangered
language, aging residents communicate across hillsides through whistles, a
specific system of communication believed to date back to Ancient Greece.
Special...
TED Talks
My wish: Let my photographs bear witness - James Nachtwey
* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. Accepting his 2007 TED Prize, war photographer James Nachtwey shows his life's work and asks TED to help him...
Crash Course
Archetypes and Male Divinities: Crash Course World Mythology
This week on Crash Course Mythology, Mike is teaching you about the archetypes that are often associated with male divinities. We're going to talk about Fathers & Sons, Kings & Judges, Saviors & Sages, Shamans, Tricksters, and Lords of...
Crash Course
The Pok_mon Phenomenon: Crash Course Games
Today we're going to do something a little bit different and take everything we've learned so far and apply it to a case study on (arguably) the biggest game franchise in the world: Pok_mon. Now Pok_mon, like a select few other games...
SciShow
The Strange Blue Glow That Saved Lives
Back in 1862, soldiers fighting in the American Civil War noticed a strange blue glow on their wounds. It took a couple of High School students to figure out what it was.
TED Talks
Maurizio Seracini: The secret lives of paintings
Art history is far from set in stone. Engineer Maurizio Seracini spent 30 years searching for Leonardo da Vinci's lost fresco "The Battle of Anghiari," and in the process discovered that many paintings have layers of history hidden...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The wars that inspired Game of Thrones - Alex Gendler
Beginning around 1377, medieval England was shaken by a power struggle between two noble families, which spanned generations and involved a massive cast of characters, complex motives and shifting loyalties. Sound familiar? Alex Gendler...
TED Talks
TED: Pirates, nurses and other rebel designers | Alice Rawsthorn
In this ode to design renegades, Alice Rawsthorn highlights the work of unlikely heroes, from Blackbeard to Florence Nightingale. Drawing a line from these bold thinkers to some early modern visionaries like Buckminster Fuller, Rawsthorn...
TED Talks
Aaron Huey: America's native prisoners of war
Aaron Huey's effort to photograph poverty in America led him to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where the struggle of the native Lakota people -- appalling, and largely ignored -- compelled him to refocus. Five years of work later,...
TED-Ed
TED-ED: This is Sparta: Fierce warriors of the ancient world - Craig Zimmer
In ancient Greece, violent internal conflict between border neighbors and war with foreign invaders was a way of life, and Greeks were considered premier warriors. Sparta, specifically, had an army of the most feared warriors in 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...
Be Smart
The Physics of Space Battles
How scientifically accurate is your favorite sci-fi space battle?
TED-Ed
TED-ED: Beware of nominalizations (AKA zombie nouns) - Helen Sword
Few mistakes sour good writing like nominalizations, or, as Helen Sword likes to call them, zombie nouns. Zombie nouns transform simple and straightforward prose into verbose and often confusing writing. Keep your nouns away from...
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Leonora Neville: The princess who rewrote history
Anna Komnene, daughter of Byzantine emperor Alexios, spent the last decade of her life creating a 500-page history of her father's reign called "The Alexiad." As a princess writing about her own family, she had to balance her loyalty to...
TED Talks
Freeman Dyson: Let's look for life in the outer solar system
Physicist Freeman Dyson suggests that we start looking for life on the moons of Jupiter and out past Neptune, in the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud. He talks about what such life would be like -- and how we might find it.
TED Talks
TED: A Saudi woman who dared to drive | Manal al-Sharif
There's no actual law against women driving in Saudi Arabia. But it's forbidden. Two years ago, Manal al-Sharif decided to encourage women to drive by doing so -- and filming herself for YouTube. Hear her story of what happened next.
TED Talks
Malcolm Gladwell: The unheard story of David and Goliath
It's a classic underdog tale: David, a young shepherd armed only with a sling, beats Goliath, the mighty warrior. The story has transcended its biblical origins to become a common shorthand for unlikely victory. But, asks Malcolm...
TED Talks
Feisal Abdul Rauf: Lose your ego, find your compassion
Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf combines the teachings of the Qur'an, the stories of Rumi, and the examples of Muhammad and Jesus, to demonstrate that only one obstacle stands between each of us and absolute compassion -- ourselves.