Actor and activist Jane Fonda discusses her frontline work fighting for climate action, including recent efforts to support climate-minded candidates running for office in the US and to break the fossil fuel industry's stranglehold on...

Youth leader Shreya Joshi diagnoses a key source of political polarization in the US and shows why having "uncomfortable conversations" with people you disagree with is crucial to bridging the divide. "When we are able to recognize what...

Right now, hundreds of thousands of people are "stuck" in the US criminal justice system. They've completed all of their requirements for release, but nobody knows it because the system is run on old databases that don't talk to each...

At the end of the Civil War, though slavery was technically illegal in all states, it still persisted in the last bastions of the Confederacy. This was the case when Union General Gordon Granger marched his troops into Galveston, Texas...

Thomas Jefferson, founding father of the United States and primary author of the Declaration of Independence, was part of America's fight for freedom and equality. But in his personal life, he held over 600 people in slavery. Are his...

Names like Bayard Rustin, Frances Thompson and William Dorsey Swann have been largely erased from US history, but they and other Black queer leaders played central roles in monumental movements like emancipation, civil rights and LGBTQ+...

When the world goes fully electric, what happens to the cars, tools and livelihoods that rely on fossil fuels? Civil engineer and environmental sociologist Emily Grubert visualizes what a clean energy future will look like, outlining the...

In 1998, a school district removed one of American literature's most acclaimed works from its curriculum. Parents pushing for the ban said the book was both "sexually explicit" and "anti-white." The book at the center of this debate was...

In 1830, David Walker sewed a pamphlet into the lining of a coat. The volume was thin enough to be hidden, but its content was far from insubstantial. At the time, many members of the US government considered this pamphlet to be one of...

When we think about the Harlem Renaissance, the arts come immediately to mind. But new political theories were also blossoming during this time. We'v talked about Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, but today we'll get into some...

Today we’re going to step back from hardware and software, and take a closer look at how the backdrop of the cold war and space race and the rise of consumerism and globalization brought us from huge, expensive codebreaking machines in...

In which John Green teaches you about nation building and nationalism in Latin America. Sometimes, the nations of Latin America get compared to the nations of Europe, and are found wanting. This is kind of a silly comparison. The rise of...

In which John Green teaches you about the Progressive Presidents, who are not a super-group of former presidents who create complicated, symphonic, rock soundscapes that transport you into a fantasy fugue state. Although that would be...

We need to have a talk about your future. You're going to die. We all are. And it's probably going to be expensive. This week on CC Econ, Adriene is talking about the economics of death. Some of the expense is tied to the cost of...

If we want to fix our politics, we have to do something about inequality, says social psychologist Keith Payne. Showing how economic inequality changes the way people see and behave towards one another, Payne helps explain the rise of...

When you report an emergency in the US, police, firefighters or paramedics answer the call. What if mental health professionals responded, too? Colorado State Representative Leslie Herod shares a straightforward and research-backed...

When you're getting medical treatment, or taking part in medical testing, privacy is important; strict laws limit what researchers can see and know about you. But what if your medical data could be used -- anonymously -- by anyone...

Hard work, resilience and grit lead to success, right? This narrative pervades the way we think, says economist Darrick Hamilton, but the truth is that our chances at economic security have less to do with what we do and more to do with...

So we ended the last episode nearing the close of the 1980s and Nintendo had become the dominant player in the home console market, but Sega, originally a slot machine game company during World War 2, was looking to get its own console...

Why are we so deadlocked on climate, and what would it take to overcome the seemingly insurmountable barriers to progress? Policy entrepreneur TED Halstead proposes a transformative solution based on the conservative principles of free...

In this episode of Black American History, Clint Smith teaches you about the complicated history of racial tension in South Central Los Angeles. You'll learn about the Watts Rebellion of 1965, a 6-day uprising in response to police...

Skin is one of the most powerful predictors of health, yet nearly half of all new dermatologists admit to feeling uncomfortable identifying health issues on darker skin tones -- resulting in poorer health outcomes for patients of color....

Today, Clint will teach you about the Supreme Court confirmation hearing of Clarence Thomas. During the screening process, Anita Hill came forward alleging that Thomas had sexually harassed her when the two of them worked together at the...

With clarity and insight, economist and author William "Sandy" Darity discusses how the grievous injustice of slavery in the US led to the immense wealth gap that currently exists between Black and white Americans. He explains how...