Curated Video
Towards a Civilized Discussion
Primatologist Frans de Waal (Emory) relates his frustration with both fundamentalists and so-called neo-atheists, both of whom he believes inhibit an open discussion on morality.
Curated Video
Thinking With Your Liver
Linguist Carol Padden (UC San Diego), describes how different cultural reference points sometimes make it particularly difficult for us to learn foreign languages.
Curated Video
What Is Trade?
What Is Trade? defines the term trade and explains some advantages and disadvantages of trading.
Curated Video
Contemporary Chinese Literature
Chinese scholar and literary translator Michael Berry (UCLA) gives us some recommendations for stimulating contemporary Chinese literature.
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Community Concern
Primatologist and bestselling author Frans de Waal (Emory) distinguishes between the community concern of humans and of animals.
Curated Video
Civil Rights and Religious Differences
Historian David Hollinger (UC Berkeley) describes how the American Civil Rights movement provides a clear example of different reactions by Ecumenical and Evangelical Protestants.
Curated Video
Chomsky From a Non-Chomskyan
David Bellos, Director of the Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication at Princeton University, a "non-Chomskyan", pays allegiance to Noam Chomsky’s profound contributions to linguistics.
Curated Video
Chinese Cultural Diversity
Chinese scholar and literary translator Michael Berry (UCLA) describes how historical circumstances have affected different Chinese-speaking regions.
Curated Video
Chinese Censorship
Chinese scholar and literary translator Michael Berry (UCLA) discusses censorship and self-censorship in the contemporary Chinese cultural industry.
Curated Video
Changing Cultural Values
Andrew Hoffman, Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan, discusses how to get people to start being more environmentally sensitive.
Curated Video
Building Better Models
Philosopher Brian Epstein (Tufts University) describes how we can use philosophical understanding to help build better, more rigorous models in social science.
Curated Video
Biology and Criminality
Nita Farahany, Professor of Law & Philosophy at Duke University, discusses the future of criminality in light of the evolving science of human behaviour.
Curated Video
Beyond Theories of Practice
Philosopher Brian Epstein (Tufts University) discusses how many sociologists and anthropologists need to move more beyond anthropocentrism to make better models of the social world.
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Behaviour and Values
University of Michigan business school professor Andrew Hoffman describes the approaches we need to take - and not take - in order to generally increase awareness of the environment throughout society.
Curated Video
Begging the Question
Political scientist Mark Bevir (UC Berkeley) describes how, in politics, the explanation of a crisis often points to a solution.
Curated Video
Aristotelian Capacities and Flourishing
Classicist and political theorist Josiah Ober (Stanford) describes the standard Aristotelian argument of capacities and flourishing.
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Appreciating Translators
David Bellos, Director of the Program in Translation and Intercultural Communication at Princeton University, urges us to recognize the enormous societal value that translators provide in our daily lives.
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Anti-Science?
Award-winning violinmaker and acoustician Joseph Curtin describes the anti-scientific attitude that some music experts hold.
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Against Smoothness
Intellectual historian Stefan Collini, University of Cambridge, describes how, to a certain extent, one can say that the famous literary critic F.R. Leavis wrote in a deliberately difficult way, in an effort to make his readers think and...
Curated Video
A Teacher's Impact
Chinese scholar and literary translator Michael Berry (UCLA) details how his life was profoundly affected by Mr. Jensen, his high school English teacher.
Curated Video
A Sense of the Numinous
Rabbi Emeritus David J. Goldberg relates the irrational side of the human condition, how he has more in common with moderates of other religions than he does with extremists of his own, and the constant tensions between particularism and...
Curated Video
A Matter of Character
Chinese scholar and literary translator Michael Berry (UCLA) describes differences between simplified and traditional Chinese characters and the politics associated with both.
Curated Video
Human Rights Awareness
Legal scholar Emilie Hafner-Burton (UCSD) discusses the lack of general awareness surrounding much of the international human rights system.
Curated Video
Flawed Models
Philosopher Brian Epstein (Tufts University) relates his concern that many agent-based models are based on a flawed assumption of what the social world actually consists of.