— In which John Green teaches you about globalization, a subject so epic, so, um, global, it requires two videos. In this video, John follows the surprisingly complex path of t-shirt as it criss-crosses the world before coming to rest on your doorstep, and eventually in your dresser. (Unless you’re one of those people who…
Ecology – Rules for Living on Earth: Crash Course Biology #40
— Hank introduces us to ecology – the study of the rules of engagement for all of us earthlings – which seeks to explain why the world looks and acts the way it does. The world is crammed with things, both animate and not, that have been interacting with each other all the time, every…
Decolonization and Nationalism Triumphant: Crash Course World History #40
— READ THIS: THERE ARE TWO MORE VIDEOS IN THE WORLD HISTORY SERIES. You should also turn on the captions. You’ll like them. In which John Green teaches you about the post-World War II breakup of most of the European empires. As you’ll remember from previous installments of Crash Course, Europeans spent several centuries sailing…
Fungi: Death Becomes Them – CrashCourse Biology #39
— Death is what fungi are all about. By feasting on the deceased remains of almost all organisms on the planet, converting the organic matter back into soil from which new life will spring, they perform perhaps the most vital function in the global food web. Fungi, which thrive on death, make all life possible.…
USA vs USSR Fight! The Cold War: Crash Course World History #39
— In which John Green teaches you about the Cold War, which was occasionally hot, but on average, it was just cool. In the sense of its temperature. It was by no means cool, man. After World War II, there were basically two big geopolitical powers left to divide up the world. And divide they…
The Plants & The Bees: Plant Reproduction – CrashCourse Biology #38
— Hank gets into the dirty details about vascular plant reproduction: they use the basic alternation of generations developed by nonvascular plants 470 million years ago, but they’ve tricked it out so that it works a whole lot differently compared to the way it did back in the Ordovician swamps where it got its start.…
World War II: Crash Course World History #38
— In which John Green teaches you about World War II, aka The Great Patriotic War, aka The Big One. So how did this war happen? And what does it mean? We’ve all learned the facts about World War II many times over, thanks to repeated classroom coverage, the History channel, and your grandfather (or…
Vascular Plants = Winning! – Crash Course Biology #37
— Hank introduces us to one of the most diverse and important families in the tree of life – the vascular plants. These plants have found tremendous success and the their secret is also their defining trait: conductive tissues that can take food and water from one part of a plant to another part. Though…
Communists, Nationalists, and China’s Revolutions: Crash Course World History #37
— In which John Green teaches you about China’s Revolutions. While the rest of the world was off having a couple of World Wars, China was busily uprooting the dynastic system that had ruled there for millennia. Most revolutions have some degree of tumult associated with them, but China’s 20th century revolutions were REALLY disruptive.…
The Sex Lives of Nonvascular Plants: Alternation of Generations – Crash Course Biology #36
— Hank introduces us to nonvascular plants – liverworts, hornworts & mosses – which have bizarre features, kooky habits, and strange sex lives. Nonvascular plants inherited their reproductive cycle from algae, but have perfected it to the point where it is now used by all plants in one way or another, and has even left…
Archdukes, Cynicism, and World War I: Crash Course World History #36
— In which John Green teaches you about the war that was supposed to end all wars. Instead, it solved nothing and set the stage for the world to be back at war just a couple of decades later. As an added bonus, World War I changed the way people look at the world, and…
Old & Odd: Archaea, Bacteria & Protists – CrashCourse Biology #35
— Hank veers away from human anatomy to teach us about the (mostly) single-celled organisms that make up two of the three taxonomic domains of life, and one of the four kingdoms: Archaea, Bacteria, and Protists. They are by far the most abundant organisms on Earth, and are our oldest, oddest relatives. — — We’ve…
Imperialism: Crash Course World History #35
— In which John Green teaches you about European Imperialism in the 19th century. European powers started to create colonial empires way back in the 16th century, but businesses really took off in the 19th century, especially in Asia and Africa. During the 1800s, European powers carved out spheres of influence in China, India, and…
The Reproductive System: How Gonads Go – CrashCourse Biology #34
— Hank lets us in on the meaning of life, at least from a biological perspective – it’s reproduction, which answers the essential question of all organisms: how do I make more of myself? So, sex, how does it work? — — The number one question on the mind of every organism on earth, if…
Samurai, Daimyo, Matthew Perry, and Nationalism: Crash Course World History #34
– In which John Green teaches you about Nationalism. Nationalism was everywhere in the 19th century, as people all over the world carved new nation-states out of old empires. Nationalist leaders changed the way people thought of themselves and the places they lived by reinventing education, military service, and the relationship between government and governed.…
Great Glands – Your Endocrine System: CrashCourse Biology #33
— Hank fills us in on the endocrine system – the system of glands which produce and secrete different types of hormones directly into the bloodstream to regulate the body’s growth, metabolism, and sexual development & function. — — Hormones! Those things that make teenagers moody and miserable, and they cause growth spurts and acne,…