PickVidsBest Social issues & culture Videos
The 168 Social issues & culture videos here were recommended by different people across different months. Choose by who it is for: 1 introductory, 3 intermediate, 164 for a general viewer, and 0 for someone who wants the harder derivation. Most of them are a commentary. What they share is that something that already happened gets one reading. Channels you will keep seeing include TED, Innuendo Studios, TEDx Talks.
How one tweet can ruin your life | Jon Ronson
Jon Ronson's TED talk on public shaming on Twitter, centered on Justine Sacco and others whose lives were upended by online mobs.
The Houses that Can't be Built in America - The Missing Middle
Not Just Bikes explains missing middle housing, such as duplexes, townhouses and small apartment buildings.
The Alt-Right Playbook: How to Radicalize a Normie
A video essay from the Alt-Right Playbook series that explains how extremist movements draw ordinary people in, using deniable rhetoric, bad-faith games, and gradual escalation.
Overpopulation – The Human Explosion Explained
A Kurzgesagt explainer on why the human population exploded and why growth is slowing, drawing on Our World in Data.
Religions and babies | Hans Rosling
Hans Rosling's TEDxSummit talk asks whether some religions have higher birth rates and how that affects population growth.
The US Has More Tribes Than the World Has Countries
CGP Grey explains why "Indian" is often preferred over "Native American" in the United States, especially near reservations, and how many tribes exist in the US.
Germany: Low Crime, Clean Prisons, Lessons for America | Jeff Rosen | TEDxMountainViewHighSchool
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen explains in a TEDx talk why Germany has lower crime and far fewer prisoners than the US, and what American criminal justice could learn from German prisons.
Why the world population won’t exceed 11 billion | Hans Rosling | TGS.ORG
Hans Rosling uses population statistics to explain why the world population will level off rather than grow without limit.
James Baldwin vs William F Buckley: A legendary debate from 1965
The 1965 Cambridge Union debate between James Baldwin and William F.
Homeless man talks openly about being addicted to heroin. We have an opioid crisis in America.
A short street interview from Invisible People with Keith, a homeless man in Los Angeles who lost his housing-industry job in the crash and moved from painkillers to heroin because it was cheaper.
Andres Duany Lecture. Suburban Sprawl.
A recording of Andres Duany's 1991 'San Antonio By Design' seminar on suburban sprawl.
The Part of History You've Always Skipped | Neoslavery
A long documentary-style video arguing that slavery in the US effectively continued through convict leasing and the prison system until around 1942.
Don't Be a Sucker
A 1945 US Army educational film that dramatizes how demagogues use prejudice and scapegoating to divide people.
Can We Pull Back From The Brink? (Episode #207)
A Sam Harris podcast episode from June 2020 on the protests and unrest after George Floyd's death, discussing racism and police violence in America in light of the available data.
MEETING THE ENEMY A feminist comes to terms with the Men's Rights movement | Cassie Jaye | TEDxMarin
Documentary filmmaker Cassie Jaye explains how making The Red Pill led her, a feminist, to reevaluate her assumptions about the Men's Rights movement.
J.K. Rowling | ContraPoints
A roughly 90-minute video essay by ContraPoints on J.K.
The Suburbs Are Bleeding America Dry | Climate Town (feat. @NotJustBikes)
A snarky, comedic video essay from Climate Town, with a guest appearance by Not Just Bikes, arguing that American suburban sprawl and single-family zoning are financially and environmentally unsustainable.
How We Bought Our Abandoned House in Japan | Process, Costs, Risks, Finance, How to Find One
The Tokyo Llama channel details how the creators found and bought an abandoned akiya minka house in Japan.
Have the Boomers Pinched Their Children’s Futures? - with Lord David Willetts
Lord David Willetts argues at the Royal Institution that the post-war baby boomers gained wealth and security at the expense of younger generations.
The Alt-Right Playbook: Always a Bigger Fish
Innuendo Studios' Alt-Right Playbook episode, drawing on Corey Robin's The Reactionary Mind, argues that conservatism defends hierarchy and a shrinking in-group.
The Internet is Worse Than Ever – Now What?
A Kurzgesagt video arguing that social media's problem is information flooding and tribal polarization.
RSA ANIMATE: First as Tragedy, Then as Farce
An RSA Animate adaptation of a Slavoj Zizek talk on charitable giving and ethical consumerism.
RSA ANIMATE: Smile or Die
An RSA Animate drawing of Barbara Ehrenreich's talk on the darker side of positive thinking.
WOKE BRANDS
hbomberguy examines whether a product can be truly progressive, looking at brands that adopt social causes in their marketing, with the Gillette ad as a prompt.