The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793: Crash Course Black American History #10

One of the ways that the US Constitution baked the institution of slavery into the very core of the new United States was through the fugitive slave clause. The clause required that people who escaped slavery be returned to their enslavers. In parts of the US that didn't want slavery, the clause sometimes went unenforced. Today we'll learn about how...

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Carboxylic Acid Derivatives: Crash Course Organic Chemistry #32

We get it, learning so many different organic reactions is probably giving you a headache, but hopefully this episode can help! We’re getting even deeper into carboxylic acid derivatives, some of which are used in common headache relieving painkillers. In this episode of Crash Course Organic Chemistry, we’ll learn how to convert more reactive carboxylic...

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How Does the Earth Create Different Landforms? Crash Course Geography #20

Cliffs and canyons, beaches and dunes, floodplains and river valleys, plateaus and mountains — these are all products of a restless Earth. In today’s episode we’re going to take a closer look at how landforms greatly influence how people live and derive meaning and a sense of place. From the hills and ponds we see everyday to impressive landscapes like...

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Frontiers in Zoology: Crash Course Zoology #14

In this final episode of Crash Course Zoology, we review everything we've learned and even look at advances in the field that took place just in the 14 weeks of this course! Rae also shares various ways YOU can get involved in the zoology field! Special thanks to Angela Chuang, Jason Dinh, Annika May Carlson, Meghan Yap-Chiongco, Trinity Walls, Sydney...

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The Plate Tectonics Revolution: Crash Course Geography #19

Today we're going to tell the story of a quiet revolution in the 1960s that shifted our entire understanding of how the Earth works. We currently believe that the Earth's broken outer shell rises from the mantle and folds back in - kind of like a dance of creative destruction and reconstruction - giving us our continents and oceans, mountains and valleys,...

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The US Constitution, 3/5, and the Slave Trade Clause: Crash Course Black American History #9

The drafting and adoption of the United States Constitution recalled many of the high ideals of liberty and freedom that were espoused during the Revolutionary War. But the compromises that were made to get all of the new states on board to ratify the Constitution undermined those ideals in a lot of ways. Today we'll learn about the 3/5 Clause and the...

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What is a Species? Crash Course Zoology #13

Today, in the penultimate episode of Crash Course Zoology, we're going to use everything we've learned so far to try and figure out what a "species" even is anyway! As you'll see, the incredible diversity of animals makes it really difficult to fit animals into neat categories so scientists have employed a variety of approaches to categorizing animals....

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Carboxylic Acid Derivatives & Hydrolysis Reactions: Crash Course Organic Chemistry #31

Esters have a wide range of uses, from giving perfumes and colognes their fragrances, to preventing diseases like scurvy. Vitamin C, that scurvy preventing antioxidant, is derived from carboxylic acids, a class of organic compounds we’ve already learned a lot about! In this episode of Crash Course Organic Chemistry, we’ll look at four different carboxylic...

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The American Revolution: Crash Course Black American History #8

When we talk about the American Revolution and Revolutionary War, the discussion often involves lofty ideals like liberty, and freedom, and justice. The Declaration of Independence even opens with the idea that "all men are created equal." But it turns out, the war wasn't being fought on behalf of "all men." The war was mainly about freedom for white...

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Phylogenetic Mysteries: Crash Course Zoology #12

In today’s episode of Crash Course Zoology we’re going to solve some phylogenetic mysteries! There are so many more questions we have yet to answer in Zoology so grab some fossils, fire up the DNA sequences, and bring your best hypothesis as we try to figure out where all the baby eels are, explain why spiders seem so lonely, and decide once and for...

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