We like to think that much separates us from the animals. But is that really the case? This video highlights six different animals that have oddly human behaviors. Cows, for example, are social animals. They need friends, and without their friends they get bored. If you think holding grudges is a human trait, then think again: crows are just as vindictive as humans. They hold grudges, too. And wait for it, there’s one more: African wild dogs are democratic. They vote. 

You have probably never heard of Bir Tawil, but it holds a strange distinction: it is the only piece of land on the planet that countries actually try to disavow. Why does no one want this piece of land? It’s a matter of border disputes. Basically, there are two borders between Egypt and the Sudan, both drawn by the British. One border gives Egypt more coastal land, the other gives Sudan more coastal land. The other difference between those two borders is Bir Tawil. If you get Bir Tawil, you lose the coastal land. So no one wants it.

We have been taught to accept ourselves no matter what––we need to accept our flaws and love ourselves. But in this video, psychologist and professor Jordan Peterson explains that “just accepting yourself” is nihilistic and, in the end, harmful to yourself. That’s because humans need to focus on something outside ourselves, something better than ourselves. Without that, we stagnate in our own misery––and life is misery. The path to improvement, according to Peterson, is to focus on something greater than yourself and that gives you redemption from your misery.

Watching Django Unchained, it was sometimes easy to forget that the movie was about slavery, America’s greatest sin. The movie was part spaghetti western, part comedy, part over-the-top shoot-’em-up. That raises an interesting question for both audiences and filmmakers: how should slavery be treated in films? Recent films have treated it with reverence, but Django alternated between sobriety and other moods. This video digs into that question, suggesting that comedy is part of the healing process.

When you think of modern satire (heck, even historical satire, what with Puck magazine), you probably think of cartoons. Rick and Morty, The Simpsons, South Park, and Beavis and Butt-Head all satirize society in different ways. So why does animation lend itself to satire so well? This video suggests that satire requires exaggeration, irony, caricature, shock, and more. All of those things are easiest with animation because animations are not bound by the laws of physics. 

In some ways, procrastination is our greatest enemy, both as individuals and as a society. We all have such potential––and we know it!––but we fail to reach it because we put off our own success. We wait say, “we’ll do it tomorrow.” For most of us, that tomorrow never comes. If you want to stop procrastinating, take a look at this snippet from a Jordan Peterson lecture. He describes what kind of goals you should not set for yourself (vague goals that you know you can’t fail at because they’re too ambiguous) and what kind of goals you should set (goals with lots of micro-goals built in, things you can easily accomplish).

Fifty years ago, going to space was everyone’s goal. In the intervening years, we’ve sent ships and stations and satellites to the stars, but soon we may not be able to visit space much anymore. This video explains the Kessler Syndrome. In a nutshell, the Kessler Syndrome describes the cost of sending so much stuff to space: pollution. Soon, we may not be able to go to space because there is too much pollution in the way.

Humans are social creatures; we all need relationships to survive. Isolate someone and you doom them to madness. But there is such a thing as getting too deeply involved in a relationship, and that’s loosely known as codependency. This video digs into the history of the idea of codependency and then explains some of the nuances of these kinds of relationships. It also offers some tips of how to deal with a codependent relationship. 

We’ve all had this experience. We’re waiting in line at the grocery store, and we see a candy bar for sale. It’s just a buck, we tell ourselves, so we buy it. And the same thing gets repeated on much larger scales––we see a TV marked down to $600 from $1000 so we think, “I can’t afford not to buy it!” What causes us to make these impulse purchases? This video digs into the psychology of impulse buying. 

The London Underground is one of the most famous metro systems in the world. “Mind the Gap” has become a meme, for goodness sake. But the London Underground is even more important than you might think. This video explains how the London Underground forever changed the way people lived in the city, and then the way the city was designed (which in turned affected how people liv, creating a kind of feedback loop). 

Old wives’ tales walk that fine line between folkloric wisdom and mistaken beliefs. One such tale told by old wives is that we get colds when the weather turns cold. But that can’t be true, right? The cold is caused by a virus, not cold weather. But we should hear out those old wives, because they never said the cold will make you sick but rather if you go out in the cold you’ll get sick. And as this video suggests, that might actually be true!

Chili Klaus always overindulges on hot peppers. Sometimes he even forces hot peppers on little children, making them suffer with as much joy as he does. In this Hot Ones interview, however, even the famous Chili Klaus overdoes it in the final rounds; and even the host has to get up and leave the studio because it’s just too much. So learn more about this famous chili-head and watch him finally meet his match in this video.