Fora.TV Goes Mobile

≡ Category: Video - Arts & Culture, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

Yesterday, YouTube EDU went international, and FORA.TV went mobile. FORA is an excellent resource for smart video (you’ll find it in our collection of Top Intelligent Video Sites), and now it has launched its new mobile web site. Just point your mobile browser to m.fora.tv, and you can start watching smart video on the move. The [...]

For MLK on His Birthday

≡ Category: Current Affairs, History, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

The full “I Have a Dream” speech. The place: The Lincoln Memorial. The Date:  August 28, 1963. The Why: To bring about many small changes in American society, which eventually and collectively bring us to Tuesday. Take it away Martin:

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The Clash of Civilizations (and the Passing of its Author)

≡ Category: Current Affairs, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

When the twin towers were taken down in September 2001, America looked to make sense of what happened. And it wasn’t long before many started turning to The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, a book written by Samuel Huntington, the Harvard poli sci professor who passed on last week.
The book itself was [...]

We Didn’t Start the Fire, or The World From 1949 to 1989

≡ Category: History, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

If you could sync up a photo with every name and event mentioned in Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” you’d have a montage that offers a pretty good glimpse into the second half of the twentieth century. That’s what a University of Chicago grad student figured out when he put this viral video [...]

Woody Allen and the Reverend Billy Graham In Conversation

≡ Category: Comedy, Religion, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

Here we have the odd couple. The agnostic filmmaker and one of America’s most influential religious figures engaged in a lively conversation. It’s actually a rather gentlemanly exchange from the late 1960s, and it’s added to our YouTube playlist. Part 1 appears below, and you can get Part 2 here.

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Electing a US President in Plain English

≡ Category: Current Affairs, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

We’re less than two weeks away (finally, at long last) from the next US presidential election, and that means that it’s a good time to decipher America’s convoluted electoral system. So here’s a piece from The Common Craft Show, which does it in a fairly creative way:

 
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Noam Chomsky vs. William F. Buckley, 1969

≡ Category: History, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

Is there such a thing as the benign use of international force? It’s a question that Noam Chomsky and William F. Buckley, leading thinkers from the left and right, took up in 1969. And, of course, the whole question of Vietnam loomed in the background. As you’ll see below (and in Part 2 here) the debate is [...]

A Brief History of the 1929 Crash

≡ Category: Current Affairs, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

With the gyrations of the world markets, 1929 was suddenly very present last week. All too present. What really went down in ‘29? Below we present “The Crash of 1929,” a documentary that aired as part of PBS’ The American Experience Series. Part 1 appears below. You can get the remaining parts here: Part 2, [...]

The 2nd Presidential Debate in Ten Easy Minutes

≡ Category: Current Affairs, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

In case you missed it, here’s a paired down version of last night’s second presidential debate in all of its uninspiring glory:

via Talking Points Memo

A Brief History of Disbelief

≡ Category: History, Religion, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

Jonathan Miller’s Brief History of Disbelief is a BBC production (2005) that offers television’s first sustained look at the hidden history of atheism. The three-part documentary takes you from unbelievers within Ancient Greece, to the re-emergence of disbelief in 15th and 16th century Europe, through to the French Enlightenment, Revolutionary America and the rise of [...]

Tina Fey Does Sarah Palin Round #3

≡ Category: Current Affairs, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

Here’s SNL’s satire of last week’s widely viewed vice presidential debate. Thanks to Tina Fey’s impression of Palin, SNL’s rating are up 40% over last year. Quite a boon for NBC.
You can get Rounds 1 and 2 here and here.

 
 
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The Global Challenges Facing The Next U.S. President

≡ Category: Current Affairs, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

CNN recently hosted a conversation with several recent Secretaries of State, and they all discussed the major challenges that Barack Obama or John McCain will be facing next year. This is no ordinary time, and it’s rare to find Henry Kissinger, Madeleine Albright, Warren Christopher, Colin Powell, and James Baker all sitting on the same [...]

The Life of “W” According to Oliver Stone

≡ Category: Film, Video - Arts & Culture, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

Rather slick trailer. (And got to wonder how filming the pretzel scene didn’t hurt.) “W,” Oliver Stone’s new biopic, hits the theaters this fall.

Free Presidential Biographies on iTunes: FDR and Beyond

≡ Category: History, Politics, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

Thanks to PBS, you can now download from iTunes a four-hour definitive biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR guided the US through the Great Depression, then World War II, serving as president for an unprecedented four terms. The video podcast run a good four hours, and it’s part of a series called American Experience: The [...]

Tina Fey Has Sarah Palin Down

≡ Category: Comedy, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

File this under comedy/satire, Tina Fey has her Sarah Palin impression nailed. If the video below ceases to work, you can always watch the clip (in better resolution, I might add) right here.

Download Michael Moore’s New Film For Free

≡ Category: Current Affairs, Film, Politics, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

Michael Moore is getting wise to the virtues of free/open culture. Starting September 23, you can download his new film – Slacker Uprising – via the web for free. The unfortunate rub is that this download will only be available to US and Canadian residents, and it will remain free via the web for three [...]

The Story of Stuff in 20 Animated Minutes

≡ Category: Current Affairs, Film, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

Here’s another good submission (many thanks) that came out of last week’s book giveaway…
It’s an animated film called The Story of Stuff, which offers “a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and [...]

Animated Version of Howard Zinn’s History of the American Empire

≡ Category: History, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

Howard Zinn, a historian from Boston University, best known for his book People’s History of the United States: 1492 to Present, has been brought to YouTube. This video presents an animated version of Zinn’s essay, Empire or Humanity? What the Classroom Didn’t Teach Me about the American Empire. Zinn cartoon-style, here it goes (and you [...]

70 Signs of Intelligent Life at YouTube

≡ Category: Google, Most Popular, Video - Arts & Culture, Video - Politics/Society, Video - Science, YouTube | ≅ Comments

Smart video collections keep appearing on YouTube. But rather antithetical to the ethos of its parent company (Google), YouTube unfortunately makes these collections difficult to find. So we’ve decided to do the job for them. These enriching/educational videos come from media outlets, cultural institutions, universities and non-profits. There are about 70 collections in total, and [...]

Top 10 TEDTalks (and Do Schools Today Kill Creativity?)

≡ Category: Media, Video - Arts & Culture, Video - Politics/Society, Video - Science | ≅ Comments

Late in the week, TEDTalks named its top ten videos. Whether this is a quantitative or qualitative judgment, I am not sure.  On the list, you’ll find Al Gore talking about how to avert a climate crisis, David Gallo showing amazing underwater creatures, and Ken Robinson describing why schools kill creativity (we’ve posted that one [...]

Intelligent YouTube Video Collections

≡ Category: Video - Arts & Culture, Video - Politics/Society, Video - Science, YouTube | ≅ Comments

Below, we have gathered together some of the most intelligent video collections on YouTube. A great place to find culturally enriching video…
General

@GoogleTalks

Google has lots of famous visitors speaking at its headquarters, and they’re all recorded and neatly presented here.

Al Jazeera English

The Middle Eastern news service, which has generated its share of controversy, now airs broadcasts [...]

Not Always a Nation of Dunces

≡ Category: Current Affairs, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

Here’s a nice counterpoint to our post last week covering Susan Jacoby’s new book The Age of American Unreason and her lament that America has declined into a morass of anti-intellectualism and low expectations.
Let’s set the scene: A reporter selects a young Barack Obama supporter at a rally and starts peppering him with questions about [...]

Lawrence Lessig’s Last Speech on Free Culture (Watch it)

≡ Category: Current Affairs, Law, Stanford, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

Below we have posted the last lecture that Lawrence Lessig will ever present on Free Culture. It’s an area where he has spent the past decade working, and this talk offers an excellent introduction to Lessig’s thought and work on this issue. Given at Stanford on January 31, the presentation is one that Steve Jobs [...]

The Secret History of Silicon Valley

≡ Category: History, Video - Politics/Society, Video - Science | ≅ Comments

What set the stage for Silicon Valley to change the entire landscape of technology? What made companies like Google, Yahoo and Hewlett Packard possible? According to this talk presented at Google by Steve Blank, it all goes back to the aftermath of World War II. It starts when Stanford University and its engineering/electronics department began [...]

Don’t Forget to Vote

≡ Category: Politics, Video - Politics/Society, YouTube | ≅ Comments

If you’re a resident of a Super Tuesday state, we hope you can find some time to pull the lever tomorrow. Also, we hope you’ll forgive (at least) one more political post before Super Tuesday. Whatever your political affiliations, the video below is a compelling example of new media at work. According to the New [...]

The Second Amendment: Does It Really Let You Bear Arms?

≡ Category: Law, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

What does the Second Amendment mean? It’s something that the Supreme Court has never really said. In this hour long video, Cass Sunstein, a very well known law professor from the University of Chicago, takes a crack at interpreting this amendment and seeing whether its original meaning actually confers the right to bear arms. Originalists/conservatives [...]

Malcolm X at Oxford University 1964

≡ Category: History, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

We love finding these vintage media gems. Below, we have Malcolm X speaking at Oxford University in 1964. In this classic speech, you get a good feel for Malcolm X’s presence and message and also the social issues that were alive during the day. You’ll hear X’s famous claim that liberty can be attained by [...]

A Conversation with Benazir Bhutto

≡ Category: Current Affairs, Politics, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

Again, no commentary needed. Informative in many ways, Bhutto’s talk was taped at the Council on Foreign Relations in August. More info here.

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Nobel Prize Winners on YouTube

≡ Category: Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

YouTube gets smarter one painfully small step at a time. First courses from Berkeley; next videos of Nobel Prize winners.  More coming?
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JFK in 1960, Romney in 2007 – Religion in America

≡ Category: Religion, Video - Politics/Society | ≅ Comments

Mitt Romney, a Mormon, looked yesterday to set aside lingering concerns about his religion in a highly publicized speech. Immediately, the speech revived memories of John F. Kennedy’s attempt, during the 1960 campaign, to ease concerns about his Catholicism. We’ve posted both speeches below. The similarities are there. But the differences are more profound. I’ll [...]