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[ Creativity ]
The Unexpected Place You’ll Find Your Best Creative Impulses
By Sam Burns
What’s the key to getting our best creative impulses to surface? Well, Tim Harford believes that it’s waiting for us in the “messes”; the very things that seem like obstacles in the heat of the moment. Here are some ideas on how our frustrations and the unexpected can be exactly what we need to create our best work. Take a look!
9 minutes
[ Creativity ]
When Everything Seems Dark, Here’s How to Find Some Light
By Sam Burns
The next time you or someone you love faces a heartbreaking turn of events, there is a recipe for the resilience it takes to come out the other side of a loss with a remarkable sense of progress. Here’s a story that gives us all the keys to unimagined possibilities!
9 minutes
[ Innovation ]
Turning Plastic Bags into Speakers!
By Sam Burns
Some of the most important innovators of our time are finding ingenious ways to look at waste as a resource. Here’s a clever group that has found an artistic and functional way to use single-use plastic bags!
10 minutes
[ Nature ]
Hunting for a Solution to the Damage from Wild Pigs
By Sam Burns
Wild pigs are one of the most destructive invasive species in the United States. They’re devastating ecosystems, destroying agriculture, killing other animals, and costing billions of dollars in damage. But there’s something that we can do, and it all ties back to who our species is at our roots.
7 minutes
[ Nature ]
Mushrooms are Saving Honeybee Colonies!
By Sam Burns
Mushrooms are saving the day for us yet again! Did you know that 70% of the fruits and vegetables we eat count on bees for pollination, and yet bee populations are plummeting? But the good news here is that some mushrooms have been found to have an ingenious property that allows them to defend the beehives!
10 minutes
[ Thought Leaders ]
Alaffia: Proof that Traditions are a Global Resource We Can All Enjoy!
By Sam Burns
Does economic prosperity always have to come at the cost of tradition? Or can tradition help us create an even better business model? Let us introduce you to Alaffia, a company that has found a way to harness centuries of knowledge to empower a new generation of skilled craftswomen.
15 minutes
[ Nature ]
Use Your Love for Eating to Save the Coral Reef!
By Sam Burns
Love food? This is one way you can use that love for good. Lionfish populations have gone out of control in areas that these fish were never meant to be and they’re endangering coral reefs. But we can use our stomachs to help!
20 minutes
[ Culture ]
The Mother of all Articles!
By Sam Burns
They’re tasked with one of the most important jobs in life: raising the rest of us. So here’s an ode to all of the mothers out there working to make this world a better place for someone! Send this along to a mother in your life!
15 minutes
[ Culture ]
Tradition on the Track
By Sam Burns
Since the invention of the wheel, racing has been a part of life… but why do millions of people come together around car racing? Its appeal, like so many other sports, begins with something simple: community.
35 minutes
[ Thought Leaders ]
The Unexpected Ways Surfing is Helping Youth Heal
By Sam Burns
Life is tough, but it’s a whole lot easier when we’re around people who share similar experiences in a no pressure environment. Waves for Change is one of the organizations out there harnessing the power of sport and play to create environments where children are able to open up and heal!
7 minutes
[ Creativity ]
Alys Beach, the Town Transformed by Color After Dark
By Sam Burns
For one weekend every year, the entire town of Alys Beach transforms. As the sun dips below the horizon, the walls of their houses are doused in art from around the world. Check out how this unique town is embracing what they have, and giving the world a new way to experience art.
8 minutes
[ Creativity ]
Capturing the Scents of Our Loved Ones
By Sam Burns
Could we forever find comfort in our loved one’s smells? Artist and scientist Ani Liu is capturing their scents and creating perfumes (or small time capsules) out of them! See the impact this could have as she brings us through her lab!
18 minutes
[ Culture ]
Travel to the Land Where Real Wasabi Grows!
By Sam Burns
Yes, it’s true, the “wasabi” you know is most likely not actually wasabi! We’re traveling into Japan to meet one of the people growing the real deal to learn more about the cultural impact of this product and why it’s so precious and pricey. It may remind us of a few of our own treasured treats!
20 minutes
[ Culture ]
How Saving Languages Can Save the World!
By Sam Burns
Have you ever thought about the relationship between language and knowledge? Each of the 7000 languages spoken around the world is a powerful encyclopedia of generational wisdom. Half of these records of human history may be going extinct in the next decade, but there are amazing people out there working to save this knowledge!
7 minutes
[ Culture ]
How A Game of Chess is Changing Lives
By Sam Burns
The most impactful innovations in the world often combine two things no one ever thought to bring together. Here’s what we get when we let young girls loose on the game of chess! It challenges many notions all at once.
10 minutes
[ Science ]
The Bread as Unique as the Place You Make It
By Sam Burns
There is a revival happening. And it’s coming in the form of something we all love: bread! Sourdough has been a connection to the bread ovens of our ancestors for more than 5000 years, and now you can travel the kitchens of the world from a unique library in Belgium!
20 minutes
[ Thought Leaders ]
The Haitian Project: A Blueprint for Solving Big Problems
By Dr. Lynda
What if the concept that could change the way we all look at solving the world’s most vexing problems is coming out of a nation facing the large brunt of them? It looks like the solution is thinking differently about how we decide to start attacking a problem. And this school in Haiti gives us just a glimpse of all of the possibility and hope that can come!
25 minutes
[ Innovation ]
What if You Could Record All of Your Memories?
By Sam Burns
Want more control over your life? This piece of wearable technology may help us all do just that by recording our experiences. The creator of this innovation tells us all about the ways this can be utilized, from understanding ourselves better, to making better decisions, to assisting Alzheimer’s patients. Check this out!
25 minutes
[ Thought Leaders ]
How to Handle Everyone’s Favorite Person: The Critic
By Sam Burns
Whenever we decide to put ourselves and our work out into the world, there’s one guarantee: there will be critics. But there is a very solid way we can alter how much of an impact they have on us. In her brilliant and motivating talk, BrenΓ© Brown gives us a few tools to do just that!
[ Creativity ]
Meet the Dancer Combining Sign Language & Hip Hop
Shaheem Sanchez lost his hearing as a child, but now as a professional dancer, teacher, and advocate he is on a mission to make ASL dance a movement. His work points to possibilities all around us, probably hiding in plain sight, if we can just eliminate our assumptions.
15 minutes
[ Innovation ]
Walk Through the City You Didn’t Know You Were Smelling Everyday!
By Sam Burns
Perfume has influenced our lives for more than 4000 years! But did you know many of the perfumes we know best today have their origins in the fields and flowers of one city in France? Let’s travel to this city behind some of the most iconic smells in history to learn how perfume has shaped our cultures.
9 minutes
[ Happiness & Hope ]
Saving Precious Lives in the First Sea Turtle Hospital!
By Sam Burns
We’ve all been hearing that sea turtles need help… so, who’s been helping them? Some really inspiring people you’ll want to meet yourself! This fantastic video brings us into a sea turtle clinic to give us a look at what’s being done to save these ancient creatures from the injuries and diseases they’ve picked up as they go about. It’s a truly amazing place.
8 minutes
[ Culture ]
Without Cheese, We Might Not Be Here!
By Sam Burns
Throughout human history, cheese has given us a huge survival advantage and changed civilization. If that isn’t friendship, we don’t know what is. So let’s spend a little quality time with one of our oldest pals, and remind ourselves of all that we’ve been through together.
7 minutes
The Artist Who Brought the World Joy One Egg at a Time
How can we spread joy with our work? Certainly, the answer is unique to each of us, but sometimes we need a little inspiration to get ourselves started. So let us introduce you to one of those sources of inspiration, Shari Kadar.
20 minutes
[ Science ]
Combing Caves for a Cure to Deadly Bacterial Infections
By Sam Burns
We’ve been able to protect ourselves from most bacterial infections for decades now, but that’s changing. Deadly bacteria are catching onto our tactics and antibiotic resistance is on the rise. Here’s how some scientists are working to stay one step ahead of this problem by exploring the depths of caves and the bacteria that call them home!
6 minutes
[ Culture ]
The Fascinating Story Behind Why We Dance!
By Sam Burns
We seem to be born to do it and it may even be a key to our success as a species! So why was it that dancing became engrained in the fabric of being human? This video clues us in on how dance has shaped human life throughout our evolution. And we can’t help but ask: could dance actually help us through difficult times now?
11 minutes
[ Nature ]
The Planet’s Unsung Hero, the Dung Beetle
There’s a remarkable reason why there is not dung everywhere in our world. Think about it: the multitudes of creatures on this planet produce a lot of waste! So, what happens to all of it? Well, let us introduce you to one of the planet’s greatest unsung heroes, the dung beetle! Get ready to be astonished.
9 minutes
Save the World One Paper Towel at a Time
Want to be a part of making the world a little better place? Here’s a profoundly simple but impactful way to start! The U.S. uses 13 billion pounds of paper towels a year! And youβyes youβcan begin to make a dent in that after you learn to shake and fold.
20 minutes
[ Innovation ]
How an Engineer Created a Band that Broke the Charts
By Sam Burns
Is what you’re doing in life what you always thought you would be doing? Could you take what you know and create something new that could never have existed without you? Here’s the story of an engineer turned rock star, whose story is one we can all relate to!