In which Stan Muller subs for John Green and teaches you about energy and humanity. Today we discuss the ideas put forth by Alfred Crosby in his book, Children of the Sun. Historically, almost all of the energy that humans use has been...

Have you ever wondered if there is anyone (or anything) else out there in the universe? Well, you're not alone. But what would alien life look like? And what would their food chains and food webs look like? In this episode of Crash...

Squeaks is heading on a trip around the world! He's going to see so much, and wants Jessi to experience those sights, too. In this episode, he learns about how humans (and a couple of other animal guests) see.

What if the worst ideas turned out to be the most interesting? Mischief-making artist Gabe Whaley shares how he built a collective of artists whose seemingly bad ideas — like selling 5,000 keys to the same car — often go viral and sell...

It’s not enough to do important work — we need to know it truly matters, says journalist Jennifer Wallace. Drawing on her research into firefighters, caregivers and more, she shows how simple acts of acknowledgment and connection can...

Struggling communities don’t need handouts — they need bold new ways to root wealth. Meet Molly Hemstreet — a TED Fellow, Southern Appalachia native and cofounder of worker support network the Industrial Commons — who’s flipping the...

Your immune system keeps a record of everything it’s ever fought, from the common cold to chronic disease. Neuroscientist and TED Fellow Beck Brachman explains how, by decoding this archive, scientists may be able to identify the root...

In a moment that stunned the world in 2019, the famed Notre-Dame in Paris went up in flames, threatening the future of the centuries-old Gothic treasure. Philippe Villeneuve, the chief architect of the cathedral’s restoration, recounts...

On this Crash Course in World Mythology, Mike Rugnetta is teaching you about floods and deluges, specifically in China. In Chinese myth, flood stories pretty much all revolve around a guy named Yu the Great, or Yu the Engineer. In the...

Camouflage is nature’s ultimate game of hide-and-seek, and the secret to winning this game is all in the brain. By studying the masters of disguise, we can see how they trick the brain to make themselves invisible — and what this can...

Silfra Fissue in Iceland is a remarkable place where the Earth is tearing itself apart. Here, intrepid divers can reach out and touch two continents at once. But... should they?<b<br/>r/>

Hosted by: Reid Reimers (he/him)

The Voynich manuscript is a subject of fascination with its mysterious drawings of plants, people, and stars, as well as its indecipherable text. But rather than hiding ancient secrets, this book might be a medieval fraud, created by...

You may think of particle accelerators as massive underground tunnels like the Large Hadron Collider. But a new generation of accelerators are small enough to fit on a coin. Now the challenge is making them useful.
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It's not just fictional sitcom characters who struggle with navigating an oversized sofa around a tight corner. Mathematicians have their own version of the problem, and have spent the last six decades trying to not just find the...

The conditions in many medicine cabinets turn out to be detrimental for medicines—some worse than others. <b<br/>r/>

Hosted by: Hank Green (he/him)

The Ig Nobel Prize may not come with the prestige of a Nobel, but it celebrates some weird and wonderful science. Here are the most fascinating Ig Nobel Prize-winning studies about people. <b<br/>r/>

Hosted by: Tom Lum (he/him)

Whether you’re trying to play Dungeons and Dragons or one of the many other TTRPGs out there, there’s a good chance your last campaign failed because there were simply too many adventurers in the party. And by "too many" I mean,...

ME/CFS, or myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, is way more than being tired at the end of the day. And, contrary to situations like that, exercise is the last thing you'd want to do.



Thanks to Jaime...

Burnout shouldn’t be the price of success, but setting boundaries at work is easier said than done. Tarveen Forrester, who oversees workplace culture at Kickstarter, shares practical strategies for protecting your time and cultivating...

What if doing your chores were as easy as flipping a switch? In this talk and live demo, roboticist and founder of 1X Bernt Børnich introduces NEO, a humanoid robot designed to help you out around the house. Watch as NEO shows off its...

There's an invisible super-pollutant heating up the planet — but it's surprisingly easy to reduce, if we try. Revealing how methane contributes (way) more in the short term to global warming than carbon dioxide, chemical engineer Daniel...

In business today, the need for innovation and rapid decision-making trumps yesterday's drive for efficiency. How does this influence what it means to be an effective leader? Charlene Li explains that it's less about control and more...

Artificial intelligence could cost many of us our careers — but that doesn’t mean we should stop its development, says journalist Megan J. McArdle. As she watches AI encroach on her own craft, she shares a fresh take on the 19th-century...

Kickstarter cofounder Yancey Strickler unveils a radical new economic model that could transform how creative people build sustainable careers, amass collective wealth and escape the burnout of hustle culture. Hear his vision for how...