PBS
Is Doctor Who a Religion?
Dr. Who is one of the longest running TV shows on the BBC, and it's got a huge fandom surrounding it, called Whovians. And while it might not seem like, Whovianism, might just be religion! Whovians, like other passionate fan cultures,...
PBS
How a Supervolcano Made the Cenozoic's Coolest Fossils
One of the most dynamic, transformative, and potentially dangerous features in North America is also responsible for some of the continent's most amazing fossil deposits. It's a supervolcano we now call Yellowstone.
TED Talks
LaToya Ruby Frazier: A visual history of inequality in industrial America
For the last 12 years, LaToya Ruby Frazier has photographed friends, neighbors and family in Braddock, Pennsylvania. But though the steel town has lately been hailed as a posterchild of "rustbelt revitalization," Frazier's pictures tell...
Crash Course
Defense Against the Dark Arts of Influence: Crash Course Business Soft Skills
How do con artists manage to scam millions? Why do people choose to follow great leaders, or horrible ones? How do CEOs get better deals in the boardroom? Influence. In this episode of Crash Course Business, Evelyn chats to us about what...
TED Talks
Andrew Fitzgerald: Adventures in Twitter fiction
In the 1930s, broadcast radio introduced an entirely new form of storytelling; today, micro-blogging platforms like Twitter are changing the scene again. Andrew Fitzgerald takes a look at the (aptly) short but fascinating history of new...
TED Talks
TED: The legacy of racial injustice in the US criminal legal system | Nick Turner and Whitney Pennington Rodgers
In an engaging, insightful conversation, criminal justice reformer Nick Turner breaks down the ways the US criminal legal system perpetuates centuries-old racial and economic inequality. He joins TED current affairs curator Whitney...
Crash Course
Metaethics: Crash Course Philosophy
We begin our unit on ethics with a look at metaethics. Hank explains three forms of moral realism – moral absolutism, and cultural relativism, including the difference between descriptive and normative cultural relativism – and moral...
Crash Course
Theory & Deviance: Crash Course Sociology
Last week we introduced deviance as a concept, but today we’re going return to our major paradigms in sociology and how each approaches deviance. We’ll explore how structural functionalism sees deviance fulfilling a function in society;...
Curated Video
The Amazing Life and Strange Death of Captain Cook: Crash Course World History
In which John Green teaches you about the life and death of one of history's great explorers, Captain James Cook of the British Navy. He charted large swaths of the Pacific ocean, laid claim to Australia and New Zealand, and died a...
Crash Course
Fate, Family, and Oedipus Rex: Crash Course Literature 202
In which John Green teaches you about one of the least family-friendly family dramas in the history of family dramas, Oedipus Rex. Sophocles' most famous play sees it's main character, who seems like he's got it all together, find out...
3Blue1Brown
Who (else) cares about topology? Stolen necklaces and Borsuk-Ulam: Topology - Part 2 of 3
How a famous theorem in topology, the Borsuk-Ulam theorem, can be used to solve a counting puzzle that seems completely distinct from topology.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: The Earth's age in measurements you can understand - Joshua M. Sneideman
The Earth is 4.6 billion years old -- but how can humans relate to a number so colossal, and where do we fit on the geologic timeline? Comparing the Earth's lifetime to one calendar year, events like the extinction of dinosaurs and...
SciShow
What Causes Near-Death Experiences?
The light at the end of the tunnel, the peacefulness, your life flashing before your eyes,it's all been documented thoroughly in pop culture. What usually gets left out, though, are the potential scientific explanations for what happens...
TED Talks
Kwame Anthony Appiah: Is religion good or bad? (This is a trick question)
Plenty of good things are done in the name of religion, and plenty of bad things too. But what is religion, exactly — is it good or bad, in and of itself? Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah offers a generous, surprising view.
TED-Ed
TED-Ed: Questions no one knows the answers to - Chris Anderson
In the first of a new TED-Ed series designed to catalyze curiosity, TED Curator Chris Anderson shares his boyhood obsession with quirky questions that seem to have no answers.
Be Smart
Why Do We Have to Sleep
Why do we sleep? We spend a third of our lives in slumber, but science has yet to determine exactly why we have do it. Here's a look at how sleep works, why we're not getting enough sleep, what happens if you DON'T sleep, and an idea...
TED Talks
TED: A provocative way to finance the fight against climate change | Michael Metcalfe
Will we do whatever it takes to fight climate change? Back in 2008, following the global financial crisis, governments across the world adopted a "whatever it takes" commitment to monetary recovery, issuing $250 billion worth of...
Crash Course
Ophelia, Gertrude, and Regicide - Hamlet II: Crash Course Literature 204
In which John Green teaches you MORE about Bill Shakespeare's Hamlet. John talks about gender roles in Hamlet, and what kind of power and agency Ophelia and Gertrude had, if they had any at all (spoiler alert: we think they did). You'll...
TED Talks
TED: To fight climate change, listen to young people | Nkosilathi Nyathi
The climate crisis has been largely caused by irresponsible adults in developed countries, but it's the children of developing nations -- like Zimbabwean environmental activist Nkosilathi Nyathi -- that suffer from the most disastrous...
TED Talks
TED: The science of extreme weather -- and how to reduce the harm | Al Roker, Al Gore, David Biello and Latif Nasser
Floods, droughts, heat waves and cold blasts -- why is the weather becoming more extreme? Environmentalist and "America's weatherman" Al Roker discusses the link between climate change and disruptions to weather patterns worldwide,...
Crash Course
Pre-Columbian Theater, Spanish Empire, and Sor Juana: Crash Course Theater #22
This week, we're headed to the Americas to learn about the theater that existed there prior to the arrival of Europeans, how the theater of the Spanish influenced it, and the impact of Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz, playwrighting Spanish nun...
PBS
The Time Terror Birds Invaded
About 5 million years ago, a new predator made its way from the south and onto the coastal plains of North America. It was a giant, flightless, carnivorous bird and came to be known by one of the coolest and most richly earned nicknames...
TED Talks
Greening the ghetto - Majora Carter
* Viewer discretion advised. This video includes discussion of mature topics and may be inappropriate for some audiences. In an emotionally charged talk, MacArthur-winning activist Majora Carter details her fight for environmental...
SciShow
Why Does Nature Make You Feel Better?
It’s not a huge surprise that nature is beneficial to our mental health. But why?