All Videos — March 30, 2011

Why Energy Independence Is So Crucial

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

President Obama announced a plan to cut dependence on foreign oil by one-third by 2021. Retired four-star general Wesley Clark explains just how detrimental our addiction to oil is and posits some strategies to mitigate it.

A weekly newsletter featuring the biggest ideas from the smartest people

Collage of geopolitical symbols, featuring a close-up of a man's bald head, China's flag, a globe highlighting Taiwan, and circuit patterns.

The Present

Why the USSR and China fell behind the US in the Chip Cold War

Both nations made missteps, but China still has a chance to make up lost ground.

An image of a cluster of galaxies, meaning science.

Starts With A Bang

10 thoughtful insights about the great cosmic unknowns

An in-depth interview with astronomer Kelsey Johnson, whose new book, Into the Unknown, explores what remains unknown about the Universe.

A human hand reaches toward a robotic hand, which includes a speech bubble with mathematical code. A pixelated pink background completes the scene.

The Future

AI chatbots may ease the world’s loneliness (if they don’t make it worse)

Man seeking meaningful relationship at the intersection of on-demand empathy and Rule 34.

Silhouettes of three people in red stand on a podium made of white cubes, evoking the spirit of ranked choice voting, with blue circles against a dark grid background.

The Present

Can ranked-choice voting heal our poisoned politics?

The electoral reform also known as instant-runoff voting promises bridge-building and broad appeal instead of culture war and gridlock.

A globe is encircled by golden barbed wire against a gray background, evocative of autocracy and symbolizing restriction or confinement with a sense of luxury.

The Present

Today’s dictators are united — but not by ideology

Modern autocracies operate “not like a bloc but rather like an agglomeration of companies,” says journalist and historian Anne Applebaum.

Up Next

Guest Thinkers

A Good Idea I Hope Will Catch On: The Journalists’ Wall of Shame

With koanic brilliance, Robin Sloan recently summarized the difference between last century’s old command-and-control journalism and today’s. It was, of course, a tweet: “The way to cover big news in […]