The End of Oil • 2021 Explained

Category: Environment | Subtitle:

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?

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Explained • 2018 - 2021 • 41 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

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

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

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

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

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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Anthropocene - The Human Epoch

Filmmakers travel to six continents and 20 countries to document the impact humans have made on the planet.

2018 • Environment

Shattered Ground

As Shattered Ground reveals, some see fracking as a great opportunity for money and jobs, and one that provides cheap, clean fuel. But, for others, the possible human health costs of this new drilling technology have motivated a large and vociferous anti-fracking movement. The debate over fracking has been echoed in the Oscar-nominated documentary Gasland and in Promised Land, the new Gus van Sant's feature film starring Matt Damon. Fracking's critics consider the industry a potential environmental disaster, citing chemical contamination of air and water. With pipelines proposed, terminals for liquefied natural gas (LNG) requiring billions of dollars of investment, and huge shale beds lying underneath highly-populated areas of the Canada and the US (including southern Ontario and the GTA), fracking is an issue that could affect every one of us.

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Mega Tsunamis

By investigating the tell-tale signs of earthquakes and tsunamis written into the landscape over the last thousand years, Japanese scientists are rewriting the rule books for disaster prevention in the Pacific.

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Nuclear Armageddon: How Close are We?

With the Doomsday Clock the closest it's ever been to midnight, Jane Corbin investigates the proliferation of nuclear weapons across the globe. She visits Los Alamos, home to the United States’ nuclear weapons development facility and the historic home of Oppenheimer’s Manhattan Project. In Scotland, she reveals the strategy behind Britain’s nuclear deterrent, and speaks to campaigners in Suffolk fighting against US weapons they fear will be based on UK soil. Jane also discovers how many of the global agreements and safeguards that have constrained the spread of nuclear weapons since the 1970s are breaking down. This is a story told by the scientists, investigators and diplomats who set the clock and have fought to ensure that the ultimate deterrent has not been used in over 70 years.

2024 • Environment

Arctic Meltdown: Changing World

In Episode 1: A Changing World, we see the changes that are upsetting the scientific predictions of the impact of climate change on the Arctic. Now, one sobering forecast is that the Arctic Ocean will be seasonally ice free by the summer of 2013. This possibility is what drives environmentalists to identify ways to minimize the changes affecting this snowy land. But for prospectors like Gordon McCreary, climate change brings new opportunities. He is part of the rush to claim the riches beneath the Arctic's ice: deposits of metals, gold, diamonds, and oil and gas.

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Nature's Big Year

When humanity hits pause, nature reboots; scientists discover the surprising ways pandemic lock downs affected our planet.

S61E2The Nature of Things • 2021 • Environment