Royalty • 2021 • episode "S3E2" • Explained

Category: People | Subtitle:

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.

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Explained • 2018 - 2021 • 44 episodes •

The Racial Wealth Gap

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

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

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 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?

Can We Live Forever?

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

2018 • Health

The Female Orgasm

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

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

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 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

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

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 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

Chess

For centuries, chess has captured hearts and minds - and pawns - and it's more popular than ever. What makes this ever-changing board game so special?

2021 • Brain

Your Skin

Don't panic, but our skin plays host to trillions of bacteria, fungi, mites and other microscopic guests. Go beyond skin-deep with our largest organ.

2021 • Health

Apologies

Apologizing is tough, and in this era of public mea culpas, forgiveness isn't guaranteed. What makes for a good apology, and why does it hold such power?

2021 • Lifehack

Hurricanes

As the planet warms, hurricanes could become even more dangerous and destructive. What can be done to survive and minimize the threat of these storms?

2021 • Nature

Plastic Surgery

Plastic Surgery

The Instagram face. A shapely posterior. Cosmetic surgery can make the latest beauty trends a reality. Explore its origins and effects, inside and out.

2021 • Health

Dance Crazes

From the waltz to voguing, dance crazes have connected people throughout history. But when a dance catches on, who gets the credit - and compensation?

2021 • Music

Time

Time flies - sometimes. Its passage can seem to speed up and slow down. Why do we experience time the way we do, and how do we take back some control?

2021 • Physics

Country Music

Dirt roads. Pickup trucks. Hip-hop? As the borders around country music shift, who decides what defines the popular genre, and who gets to be a star?

2021 • Music

Fairy Tales

Fairy tales have survived thousands of years for a reason. Explore their far-flung history and how the stories speak to fundamental human concerns.

2021 • Creativity

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The Era of Empires

The Era of Empires

Drug trafficking was not invented by a mafia but by the European colonial powers in the 19th century. Opium use spread throughout Asia, promoted by colonial powers. Meanwhile, the western pharmaceutical industry was developing some miraculous products, such as morphine, cocaine, and heroin. Addiction became a global scourge, and prohibition gradually became the norm. But outlawing these substances at the beginning of the 20th century gave rise to the first drug-trafficking networks, which often sought to operate under state protection, in Mexico, France and China… These networks underwent unprecedented growth during the Cold War, when secret services used the drug trade as a geopolitical instrument. The United States paid the price for this: In 1970, one third of their troops in Vietnam were addicted to heroin. A year later, in an historic speech, President Richard Nixon launched the war on drugs.

S1E1 • The Story of Drug Trafficking • 2020 • People

I, Pastafari

I, Pastafari is a documentary film about the world's fastest-growing religion: The Church of The Flying Spaghetti Monster. R'Amen.

2019 • People

Buster Keaton - The Art of the Gag

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Before Edgar Wright and Wes Anderson, before Chuck Jones and Jackie Chan, there was Buster Keaton, one of the founding fathers of visual comedy. And nearly 100 years after he first appeared onscreen, we’re still learning from him.

2015 • People

Decoding Desire

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The Birds do it. The bees do it. It seems we all do it. But we like to think we are different from other animals. So are we? Decoding Desire unravels the mysteries of sex and desire and explores how sexual diversity and the experience of pleasure itself may be the key to species survival. Traditionally, the common assumption has been that men are sexually dominant with strong desires, while females are more interested in security and monogamy. But is this really true? Scientists are increasingly looking at animals to reveal more about our own sexual behaviour.

S54E05 • The Nature of Things • 2014 • People

Part 3

After 9/11, Osama goes into hiding. But US Navy Seals are on his tail. In 1997, bin Laden's al-Qaida expanded its operations in Afghanistan. With the United States as his target, he occasionally gives interviews to US networks from his base in the mountains to take his threats straight into the enemy's living room. In 1998, bin Laden followed with his infamous fatwa, in which he declared the killing of civilians and soldiers of the United States and its allies everywhere as the duty of every Muslim. Just months later, the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya are bombed, followed by a missile attack on Bin Laden's training camp and placing him on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List. That doesn't deter him, however: in 2000, the secret services already suspected that "something was up" when al-Qaeda activists attacked a US warship and killed 17 people. In 2001, the first plans for an attack on the twin towers were already five years old. One of bin Laden's closest associates, Abu Hafs, disagrees with the strategy and leaves al-Qaeda before the operation goes ahead. On September 11, when the only TV station authorized by the Taliban broadcast the attack, a revolt broke out among the mujahideen. When George W. Bush declared the war on terror, bin Laden withdrew to the Tora Bora mountains. He never stays in the same place and always stays out of reach of American forces. In 2005, he and his family moved into a large house in Abbottabad, Pakistan. There he lived unnoticed by the public until he was shot dead during an intelligence operation by US Navy SEALs in 2011.

S1E3 • Bin Laden: The Road to 9.11 • 2021 • People

Era of the Drug Lords

Era of the Drug Lords

The first world power goes to war against drugs: the United States strikes hard. But the drug trade never dies. It moves, transforms, adapts. As the war on drugs progresses around the world, a new generation of drug lords emerged at the end of the 1970s, more powerful than ever. These criminals were not only in it for the money; they also wanted power. Pablo Escobar was the most notorious, but there was also Toto Riina in Sicily, Khun Sa in the Golden Triangle, and Felix Gallardo in Mexico, all of whom changed the destinies of their respective territories by taking drug trafficking to a global scale. They defied states and threatened the powers-that-be. It took almost 20 years for states to get organized and come up with strategies to bring down the drug barons.

S1E2 • The Story of Drug Trafficking • 2020 • People