TED-Ed
Download on the App Store

TED-Ed episodes

  • The rise and fall of the Lakota Empire - Pekka Hämäläinen

    Trace the rise and fall of the Lakota Empire which, at their height, were the most dominant power in the American West.

    Uploaded 07-09-21

    --

    In 1776, a powerful empire was born in North America. The Lakotas had reached the Black Hills, the most sacred place and most coveted buffalo hunting grounds in the western plains. Located in what is now South Dakota, control of the Black Hills, or Paha Sapa, marked the tribe as the dominant power in the American West. Pekka Hämäläinen explores the rise and fall of the Lakota Empire.

    Lesson by Pekka Hämäläinen, directed by Mohammad Babakoohi and Yijia Cao.

    Support Our Non-Profit Mission
    ----------------------------------------------
    Support us on Patreon: http://bit.ly/TEDEdPatreon
    Check out our merch: http://bit.ly/TEDEDShop
    ----------------------------------------------

    Connect With Us
    ----------------------------------------------
    Sign up for our newsletter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletter
    Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/TEDEdFacebook
    Find us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdTwitter
    Peep us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/TEDEdInstagram
    ----------------------------------------------

    Keep Learning
    ----------------------------------------------
    View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-lakota-empire-pekka-hamalainen
    Dig deeper with additional resources: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-lakota-empire-pekka-hamalainen#digdeeper
    ----------------------------------------------

    Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Jay M, Constantino Victor Delgado, Andrea Galvagni, Andrew Tweddle, Laurel-Ann Rice, Fernando A. Endo, Courtney Marcott, Anna-Alicia Brooks, Mustafa, Helen Lee, pam morgan, sarim haq, Juan Pablo Rodriguez Morales, ANNE FINE, Gerardo Castro, Siddharth Toshniwal, Justice Boehmer, Michel-Ange Hortegat, Enes Kirimi, Amaury BISIAUX BISIAUX, Aravind C V, ND, Samyogita Hardikar, Vanessa Graulich, Vandana Gunwani, LvL042, Abdulmohsin Almadi, Andrew Brodski, John van den Berg, Anandha Krishnan, Geoffrey Bultitude, Mi Mi, Thomas Rothert, Christopher McVay, Izhari Ishak Aksa, Declan Manning, Javier Aldavaz, Ivan Yeung, Jaime Camacho, Irene Au, Роман Валесюк, LunarQueen, Iza, Brian Elieson, Paul, Grayson Garbarino, Oge O, Weronika Falkowska, Stefano Esposito and Nevin Spoljaric.



    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    8 min
  • The contrast between classical and operant conditioning - Peggy Andover

    View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-difference-between-classical-and-operant-conditioning-peggy-andover

    Why is it that humans react to stimuli with certain behaviors? Can behaviors change in response to consequences? Peggy Andover explains how the brain can associate unrelated stimuli and responses, proved by Ivan Pavlov's famous 1890 experiments, and how reinforcement and punishment can result in changed behavior.

    Lesson by Peggy Andover, animation by Alan Foreman.

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    6 min
  • How state budgets are damaging US schools - Bill Gates

    View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-state-budgets-are-breaking-us-schools-bill-gates

    America's school systems are funded by the 50 states. In this fiery talk, Bill Gates says that state budgets are riddled with accounting tricks that disguise the true cost of health care and pensions and weighted with worsening deficits -- with the financing of education at the losing end.

    Talk by Bill Gates.

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    16 min
  • Can you solve the giant iron riddle? - Alex Gendler

    Practice more problem-solving at https://brilliant.org/TedEd/
    Solution to bonus riddle: https://brilliant.org/TedEdGiantIron/

    Uploaded 27-11-18

    The family of giants you work for is throwing a fancy dinner party, but there’s a problem — the elder giant’s favorite shirt is wrinkled! To fix it, you’ll need to power up the giant iron. It needs two batteries to work, but the baby giant mixed the working battery pile with the dead pile. Can you test the batteries so that you get a working pair in seven tries or less? Alex Gendler shows how.

    Lesson by Alex Gendler, directed by Artrake Studio.

    Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Merit Gamertsfelder, Bev Millar, Rishi Pasham, Jhuval, SookKwan Loong, Daniel Day, Nick Johnson, Bruno Pinho, Javier Aldavaz, Marc Veale, Boytsov Ilya, maxi kobi einy, Misaki Sato, Andrew Bosco, Nik Maier, Mark Morris, Tamás Drávai, Adi V, Peter Liu, Leora Allen, Hiroshi Uchiyama, Julie Cummings-Debrot, Gilly, Ka-Hei Law, Maya Toll, Aleksandar Srbinovski, Ricardo Rendon Cepeda, Renhe Ji, Andrés Melo Gámez, Tim Leistikow, Chris, Megan Douglas, Barbara Smalley, Filip Dabrowski, Clair Chen, Vik Nagjee, Karen Goepen-Wee, Della Palacios, Bah Becerra, Marc Bilodeau, Ruby Solorzano, Ivan Tsenov, Claudia Mayfield, Yankai Liu, Duo Xu, Joy Love Om, Gi Nam Lee, Shawn Quichocho, Anika Westburg and Barun Padhy.



    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    6 min
  • Can you solve the dark matter fuel riddle? - Dan Finkel

    An ancient, abandoned alien space station has been discovered. Can you beat everyone in the galaxy and reach it first?

    Uploaded 16-07-19

    --

    It’s an incredible discovery: an abandoned alien space station filled with precursor technology. Now every species in the galaxy is in a mad dash to get there first, but you’ve got a problem. Your ship can’t hold enough fuel to get you there unless you vent caches of it into space at precise points and then come back for the fuel later. Can you reach the alien space station? Dan Finkel shows how.

    Lesson by Daniel Finkel, directed by Artrake Studio.

    Sign up for our newsletter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletter
    Support us on Patreon: http://bit.ly/TEDEdPatreon
    Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/TEDEdFacebook
    Find us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdTwitter
    Peep us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/TEDEdInstagram
    View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/can-you-solve-the-dark-matter-fuel-riddle-daniel-finkel

    Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Francisco Amaya, Daisuke Goto, Matt Switzler, Chhunheng Veng, Leonardo Monrroy, Sumedh Ghaisas, Guhten, Amer Harb, Dowey Baothman, Norbert Orgován, Shafeeq Ansari, Gabriel Balsa, Maryam Sultan, Bethany Connor, Jeremy Shimanek, Adam Foreman, Sebastiaan Vleugels, Lâm Nguyễn, Mark Byers, Bradley Heinold, Monkeypatcher, Laurence McMillan, Connor Roberts, Dmitry Neverov, Tonya Ratliff-Garrison, Avinash Amarnath, Eric McDaniel, Cristian Cristian, France Lipužič, EdoKun , Rare Media, Rayo, Faizan , Elizabeth Gu, Nazmul Idris, Po Foon Kwong, Siobhan O'Connor Gwozdz, NinjaBoffin, Jesse Jurman, Josue Perez Miranda, Jan-Erik, Scott Markley, Kaitlyn holland, Elija Peterson, Michele Lynn Rose, Jai Prasanth, Vack91, David Lucsanyi, Xavier dupont and Marisa Miller.



    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    7 min
  • The world’s largest organism - Alex Rosenthal

    Discover the world’s largest organism: Pando, an enormous and ancient quaking aspen, and find out how it became so huge.

    Uploaded 07-12-20

    --

    The largest animal in the world is the blue whale, which weighs a massive 150 metric tons. Even so, it’s not remotely close to being the largest organism by weight. That title goes to an organism so huge that it’s estimated to weigh the equivalent of 40 blue whales. So what is this behemoth? And… where is it? Alex Rosenthal shares the story of the enormous and ancient Pando.

    Lesson by Alex Rosenthal, directed by Lisa LaBracio.

    Support Our Non-Profit Mission
    ----------------------------------------------
    Support us on Patreon: http://bit.ly/TEDEdPatreon
    Check out our merch: http://bit.ly/TEDEDShop
    ----------------------------------------------

    Connect With Us
    ----------------------------------------------
    Sign up for our newsletter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletter
    Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/TEDEdFacebook
    Find us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdTwitter
    Peep us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/TEDEdInstagram
    ----------------------------------------------

    Keep Learning
    ----------------------------------------------
    View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-world-s-largest-organism-alex-rosenthal
    Dig deeper with additional resources: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-world-s-largest-organism-alex-rosenthal#digdeeper

    Composer: http://aimcreativestudios.com/
    ----------------------------------------------

    Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Nathan Giusti, Helen Lee, Anthony Benedict, Karthik Balsubramanian, John Hong, Annastasshia Ames, Sebastiaan Hols, Aries SW, Amy Lopez, Liz Candee, Kathryn Vacha, Anthony Arcis, Jeffrey Segrest, Karmi Nguyen, Yelena Baykova, Harshita Jagdish Sahijwani, Nick Johnson, Carlos H. Costa, Mohamed Elsayed, Les Howard, Jennifer Kurkoski, Ryan B Harvey, Abhishek Bansal, Jose Arcadio Valdes Franco, Karl Laius, JY Kang, Charles A Hershberger, Robert Seik, Heidi Stolt, Alexis Hevia, Brady Jones, Christina Salvatore, Karlee Finch, Michael Goldberg, Mario Mejia, Nicolas Silva, Kurt Almendras, Denise A Pitts, Doug Henry, Kristiyan Bonev, Keven Webb, Mihai Sandu, Deepak Iyer, Javid Gozalov, Jaime Arriola, Rebecca Reineke, William Biersdorf, Patricia Alves Panagides, Valeria Sloan Vasquez and Yvette Mocete.



    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    9 min
  • The most fascinating stuff animals can do with their tongues - Cella Wright

    Explore the incredible variety of tongues in the animal kingdom, and find out how different species utilize the appendage to survive.

    --

    An alligator snapping turtle lures its prey using a blood-engorged tongue that resembles a wriggling worm. And it’s far from the only animal doing tongue trickery. Tongues in the animal kingdom vary widely — from texture and length, to shape and dexterity. So, what's the point of having so many different kinds of tongues? Cella Wright explores how different species use the appendage to survive.

    Lesson by Cella Wright, directed by Igor Ćorić, Artrake Studio.

    Support Our Non-Profit Mission
    ----------------------------------------------
    Support us on Patreon: http://bit.ly/TEDEdPatreon
    Check out our merch: http://bit.ly/TEDEDShop
    ----------------------------------------------

    Connect With Us
    ----------------------------------------------
    Sign up for our newsletter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletter
    Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/TEDEdFacebook
    Find us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdTwitter
    Peep us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/TEDEdInstagram
    ----------------------------------------------

    Keep Learning
    ----------------------------------------------
    View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-do-snakes-have-forked-tongues-cella-wright
    Dig deeper with additional resources: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-do-snakes-have-forked-tongues-cella-wright/digdeeper

    Animator's website: https://www.artrake.com
    Music: https://www.workplaywork.com
    ----------------------------------------------

    Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Kyanta Yap, Rebecca Reineke, William Biersdorf, Patricia Alves Panagides, Yvette Mocete, Cyrus Garay, Samuel Barbas, LadyGeek, Marin Kovachev, Penelope Misquitta, Hans Peng, Gaurav Mathur, Erik Biemans, Tony, Michelle, Katie and Josh Pedretti, Hoai Nam Tran, Kack-Kyun Kim, Michael Braun-Boghos, zjweele13, Anna-Pitschna Kunz, Edla Paniguel, Thomas Mungavan, Jaron Blackburn, Venkat Venkatakrishnan, ReuniteKorea, Aaron Henson, Rohan Gupta, Begum Tutuncu, Brian Richards, Jørgen Østerpart, Tyron Jung, Carsten Tobehn, Katie Dean, Ezgi Yersu, Gerald Onyango, alessandra tasso, Doreen Reynolds-Consolati, Manognya Chakrapani, Ayala Ron, Eunsun Kim, Phyllis Dubrow, Ophelia Gibson Best, Paul Schneider, Joichiro Yamada, Henrique Cassús, Karthik Cherala, Clarence E. Harper Jr., Vignan Velivela, Ana Maria, Exal Enrique Cisneros Tuch and Tejas Dc.

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    8 min
  • Visualize a perfect society. What does it resemble? - Joseph Lacey

    Dig into political philosopher John Rawls’ classic thought experiment about what principles we need to design a fair society.

    --

    A group of strangers have gathered to design a just society. To ensure none of them rig the system, they’ve been placed under a veil of ignorance. Under this veil, they’re blind to information about age, sex, profession, wealth, religion, and so on. Can they build a fair society where everyone has the resources they need? Joseph Lacey details John Rawls' classic thought experiment.

    Lesson by Joseph Lacey, directed by Eoin Duffy.

    Support Our Non-Profit Mission
    ----------------------------------------------
    Support us on Patreon: http://bit.ly/TEDEdPatreon
    Check out our merch: http://bit.ly/TEDEDShop
    ----------------------------------------------

    Connect With Us
    ----------------------------------------------
    Sign up for our newsletter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletter
    Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/TEDEdFacebook
    Find us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdTwitter
    Peep us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/TEDEdInstagram
    ----------------------------------------------

    Keep Learning
    ----------------------------------------------
    View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/3-easy-steps-to-build-a-real-utopia-joseph-lacey
    Dig deeper with additional resources: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/3-easy-steps-to-build-a-real-utopia-joseph-lacey/think

    Animator's website: https://eoinduffy.me
    ----------------------------------------------

    Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Katie McDowell, Allen, Mahina Knuckles, Charmaine Hanson, Thawsitt, Jezabel, Abdullah Abdulaziz, Xiao Yu, Melissa Suarez, Brian A. Dunn, Francisco Amaya, Daisuke Goto, Matt Switzler, Peng, Tzu-Hsiang, Bethany Connor, Jeremy Shimanek, Mark Byers, Avinash Amarnath, Xuebicoco, Rayo, Po Foon Kwong, Boffin, Jesse Jurman, Scott Markley, Elija Peterson, Ovidiu Mrd, paul g mohney, Steven Razey, Nathan Giusti, Helen Lee, Anthony Benedict, Karthik Balsubramanian, Annastasshia Ames, Amy Lopez, Vinh-Thuy Nguyen, Liz Candee, Ugur Doga Sezgin, Karmi Nguyen, John C. Vesey, Yelena Baykova, Nick Johnson, Carlos H. Costa, Jennifer Kurkoski, Ryan B Harvey, Akinola Emmanuel, Jose Arcadio Valdes Franco, Sebastiaan Vleugels, Karl Laius, JY Kang and Abhishek Goel.

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    8 min
  • How cosmic rays help us understand the universe - Veronica Bindi

    View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-cosmic-rays-help-us-understand-the-universe-veronica-bindi

    Uploaded 23-09-14

    We only know 4% of what the universe is made up of. Can we also know what lies beyond our galaxy ... and if there are undiscovered forms of matter? Luckily, we have space messengers — cosmic rays — that bring us physical data from parts of the cosmos beyond our reach. Veronica Bindi explains what cosmic rays are, and how they transmit information about our universe from the great beyond.

    Lesson by Veronica Bindi, animation by TED-Ed.



    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    7 min
  • What triggers addiction, and why is it so difficult to treat? - Judy Grisel

    Take a look at the science of how addictive drugs affect your body and why substance addiction can be so difficult to treat.

    --

    As of 2021, more than 36 million people were estimated to be experiencing substance use disorder. This condition spans a spectrum of patterned drug use that causes issues in a person’s life, with substance addiction at the more severe end. Why are some people more susceptible to addiction, and why can it be so difficult to treat? Judy Grisel takes a look at how addictive drugs affect the body.

    Lesson by Judy Grisel, directed by Gabriella Marsh.

    Support Our Non-Profit Mission
    ----------------------------------------------
    Support us on Patreon: http://bit.ly/TEDEdPatreon
    Check out our merch: http://bit.ly/TEDEDShop
    ----------------------------------------------

    Connect With Us
    ----------------------------------------------
    Sign up for our newsletter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletter
    Follow us on Facebook: http://bit.ly/TEDEdFacebook
    Find us on Twitter: http://bit.ly/TEDEdTwitter
    Peep us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/TEDEdInstagram
    ----------------------------------------------

    Keep Learning
    ----------------------------------------------
    View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-causes-addiction-and-why-is-it-so-hard-to-treat-judy-grisel
    Dig deeper with additional resources: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-causes-addiction-and-why-is-it-so-hard-to-treat-judy-grisel/digdeeper

    Animator's website: https://gabriella-marsh.com
    Music: https://soundcloud.com/aim-music
    ----------------------------------------------

    Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Barbara Smalley, Megan Douglas, Tim Leistikow, Ka-Hei Law, Hiroshi Uchiyama, Mark Morris, Misaki Sato, EdoKun, SookKwan Loong, Bev Millar, Lex Azevedo, Michael Aquilina, Jason A Saslow, Yansong Li, Cristóbal Moenne, Dawn Jordan, Prasanth Mathialagan, Samuel Doerle, David Rosario, Dominik Kugelmann - they-them, Siamak Hajizadeh, Ryohky Araya, Mayank Kaul, Christophe Dessalles, Heather Slater, Sandra Tersluisen, Zhexi Shan, Bárbara Nazaré, Andrea Feliz, Victor E Karhel, Sydney Evans, Latora, Noel Situ, emily lam, Sid, Niccolò Frassetto, Mana, I'm here because of Knowledge Fight Facebook group., Linda Freedman, Edgardo Cuellar, Jaspar Carmichael-Jack, Michael Burton, VIVIANA A GARCIA BESNE, The Vernon's, Olha Bahatiuk, Jesús Bíquez Talayero, Chels Raknrl, Sai Pranavi Jonnalagadda, Stuart Rice and Jing Chen.

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    8 min

About TED-Ed

From the publisher's feed

TED-Ed’s mission is to create lessons worth sharing. Feed and expand your curiosity with our award-winning animated shorts - published on YouTube and available with supplemental learning materials on ed.ted.com.