Cults • 2019 • episode "S2E1" Explained

Category: People | Subtitle:

How do cults lure people in and exert control? Learn a cult’s telltale signs, and how loneliness and life online makes indoctrination easier than ever.

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Explained • 2018 - 2021 • 35 episodes •

The Racial Wealth Gap

Cory Booker and others discuss how slavery, housing discrimination and centuries of inequality have compounded to create a racial wealth gap.

2018 • Economics

Designer DNA

Scientific feat or terrifying social experiment? Specialists in the field discuss the high stakes and ethical controversies of gene editing.

2018 • Technology

Monogamy

What do biology, human history and the promiscuity of bonobos reveal about monogamy? Experts and everyday couples weigh in on shifting cultural norms.

2018 • People

K-Pop

Elaborate music videos, adoring fans, killer choreography. Learn about the global music phenomenon from South Korea that goes beyond "Gangnam Style".

2018 • Music

Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency has made people billionaires, but is digital cash the next revolution? Learn about this anonymous currency and why it's so coveted.

2018 • Economics

Why Diets Fail

Explained examines why diets are often unsuccessful. It looks at the science that suggests that low carb, low fat, and body type diets as well as supplements and detoxification regimes simple do not work in helping most people lose weight. While the diet industry pushes us to avoid calories the food industry encourage us to eat more of them.

2018 • Health

The Stock Market

Does the stock market accurately reflect the status of the economy? Finance specialists discuss market history, valuations and CEO incentives.

2018 • Economics

eSports

The term eSports is short for "electronic sports". It is introduced to describe competitive video gaming. What's competitive video gaming? It's basically just people playing video games in some form of competition.

2018 • Technology

Extraterrestrial Life

Explained examines the possibility of extraterrestrial life and looks at why we have not yet found evidence for its existence despite efforts to look for it. It considers the Fermi paradox which suggests that given the vastness of the universe that there should be a great deal of extraterrestrial life in our galaxy. It also consider conspiracy theories about U.F.O.

2018 • Astronomy

The Exclamation Point (!)

The story of the exclamation point. How it came to be and are we overusing it today?

2018 • Design

Cricket

Explained looks at the popular English sport of cricket. First developed in the mid-1800s, cricket has grown into one of the most popular sports in the world. It looks at the complicated and confusing rules behind the game and examines how the British Empire exported the game to its colonies including the West Indies and India. It also looks at different forms of the game including test cricket and Twenty20 cricket.

2018 • People

Weed

Marijuana experts discuss the rise of potent "sexually frustrated" cannabis plants, the quest for consistency in weed strains and the history of hemp.

2018 • Nature

Tattoos

They've been used to command respect, punish criminals and mark achievements. Tattooists speak about the origins of tattoo traditions and rituals.

2018 • Design

Astrology

Do zodiac signs prescribe your fate? Or do horoscopes' accuracy lie in the placebo effect? Take a look at the science, history and lure of astrology.

2018 • Science

Can We Live Forever?

Scientists are working to understand and even slow the aging process.

2018 • Health

The Female Orgasm

The female orgasm is more elusive when a man is involved. Discover the reasons why -- and how women are embracing hands-on solutions.

2018 • Health

Political Correctness

Political correctness can sometimes feel like a tug-of-war between inclusivity and free speech. Experts discuss the concepts behind the fraught term.

2018 • People

Why Women Are Paid Less

Hillary Clinton and Anne-Marie Slaughter discuss the cultural norms at the center of the worldwide gender pay gap, including the "motherhood penalty"

2018 • Economics

Music

When does sound become music? Why are humans so uniquely able to master musicality? Researches talk rhythm, octaves, and the magic of song and dance.

2018 • Music

The World's Water Crisis

The global water crisis is at an inflection point. How do we price our most valuable resource, while also ensuring access to it as a human right?

2018 • Environment

Cults

How do cults lure people in and exert control? Learn a cult’s telltale signs, and how loneliness and life online makes indoctrination easier than ever.

2019 • People

Billionaires

There are more billionaires than ever. But how does this vast accumulation of wealth affect the world?

2019 • Economics

Animal Intelligence

What goes on inside an animal's mind? Figuring out how they think and feel might just be the key to understanding our own place in the world.

2019 • Nature

Athleisure

It began with bloomers. Then came spandex. Now we sport leggings and other activewear everywhere. How did comfy, casual clothing go mainstream?

2019 • Lifehack

Coding

Computer code now controls how we live. But how did these programming languages evolve? And how can they be used to build a new and better world?

2019 • Technology

Pirates

In pop culture, pirates are often depicted as booty-looting rogues, but their history is far more complicated. See how they became enemies of humanity.

2019 • History

The Next Pandemic

(This episode is from before the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic) - In this episode from 2019, experts including Bill Gates discuss the history of pandemics, how they spread and what could be done to contain them.

2019 • Health

The Future of Meat

The planet's current rate of meat consumption is unprecedented -- and becoming unsustainable. In the future, will meat alternatives be the answer?

2019 • Health

Beauty

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but what exactly makes things such as art and architecture aesthetically pleasing, and why do we like looking?

2019 • Lifehack

Diamonds

A diamond is forever. But why is that? Dig into how these mined pieces of carbon became both a status symbol and a sparkly sign of everlasting love.

2019 • People

Sugar

Once crucial for survival, sugar now poses a health risk. Is there a way to satisfy our primeval craving for sweetness in a healthy, balanced way?

2021 • Health

Royalty

How do monarchies survive when they no longer wield power? By presenting a royal fairy tale that may not reflect the reality of the past - or present.

2021 • People

Flags

A flag can unite, divide and terrorize. Explore how a piece of cloth transformed into a powerful symbol of both love and hate, freedom and oppression.

2021 • People

Dogs

Who's a good dog? They all are. From puppy-dog eyes to feats of heroism, see how canines evolved into humankind's best friends and sources of pure love.

2021 • Nature

The End of Oil

Oil led to huge advancements - and vast inequities. As the planet warms, why is it so hard to turn away from fossil fuels, and can it be done in time?

2021 • Environment

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2021 • People

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Motherboard meets John Romero, one of the creators behind Wolfenstein 3D, DOOM, and Quake, breakthrough games that all but created the first-person shooter genre.

2015 • People

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A fight on Everest? It seemed incredible. But in 2013 news channels around the world reported an ugly brawl at 6400 m (21,000 ft) as European climbers fled a mob of angry Sherpas. In 1953, New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay had reached the summit in a spirit of co-operation and brave optimism. Now climbers and Sherpas were trading insults - even blows. What had happened to the happy, smiling Sherpas and their dedication in getting foreigners to the top of the mountain they hold so sacred?

2015 • People

Garage People

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Witness the decline into madness of King George III and the rise and fall of his overindulgent son.

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From the protests of Tiananmen Square to the fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989 transformed global politics in profound ways that still resonate today; former Secretary of State James Baker and journalists provide eyewitness accounts.

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