Introverts have a lot of advantages. We’re more thoughtful (true, don’t argue), we enjoy being alone, and we have deeper conversations with people. But we have one huge chunk of kryptonite––we cannot make small talk to save our lives. This video analyzes talk show interviews to demonstrate the best ways to make small talk even when you’re really bad at it. For example, sometimes you shouldn’t answer the questions the you’re asked. Instead, answer a more interesting question related to the one you were asked.

The history of advertising may seem like a boring business school class, but this video demonstrates how fascinating the subject can actually be––and its importance in U.S. history writ large. By comparing Pepsi and Coke ads, these experts put a finger on the pulse of U.S. popular culture. For example, the famous “buy the world a coke” ad tapped into the hippie, communal movement of the late 1960s. By comparison, competing Pepsi ads focused on rugged individualism. 

We don’t need much more evidence that our health care system is messed up, but unfortunately that evidence keeps piling up. A popular Austin, TX history teacher and swim coach Drew Calver suffered a heart attack that required surgery. Five months earlier, Calver competed in a triathlon, so it’s not like the guy was a layabout. As though the heart attack weren’t bad enough, he got charged a whopping $109,000. The article explains the nuances of the loopholes hospitals use to gouge patients like this. Calver’s story ends well.

There are lots of seminars, books, YouTube videos, and online courses about how to get popular on the internet, how to go viral, and how to create a successful social media campaign. To put it bluntly, most of those resources are junk. If you want to take advice from someone, you should take advice from Tom Scott. He’s extremely popular. He’s a nerd. He didn’t do things right the first time. Oh, and it’s all free. 

With a name like Dawn to Dusk Christian Childcare and Learning Center, you’d imagine that people who worked there would be patient, loving, and, you know, Christian. But maybe there’s a part of the New Testament that we’ve all missed. Right after Jesus said, “suffer the little children to come to me,” perhaps he added, “so I can threaten to chop off those little a**holes’ fingers.” 

We’re going to quote the article here, because you’re not going to believe this. The woman in question “put a steak knife into their hands and told them she would cut their fingers off and throw them in the trash if they kept misbehaving.” She was immediately fired, she will never work in child care again, and she will face probation.

House, M.D. seems like it is chock-full of medical knowledge. With all of those big medical words––honestly, does House think everyone has amyloidosis? It’s pretty rare, after all––it has to be accurate, right? Well, yes and know. In this second installment of the “doctor reacts to House” thing, you’ll see a doctor dig into the episode of House in which you learn how House got a bum leg. It’s especially interesting because House is teaching a group of medical students, so the real doctor comments on his teaching method. 

Since 2011, AT&T has closed down forty-four call centers and laid off 16,000 employees. From the article, “Though AT&T is earning record profits, spending billions on stock buybacks and is expecting an estimated windfall of $20bn in savings from Donald Trump’s tax reforms, it has continued to lay off workers and outsource jobs.” So much for Trump’s plan to bring business back to America––his tax reforms has just meant more money for business without any benefit to employees. In fact, the reforms seemed to have increased company greed. 

Breaking Bad was a masterpiece of character development. Most of the focus of critical analysis is on Walter White’s descent into evil, but this video focuses on Walter’s brother-in-law Hank Schrader. Hank, the video points out, is a hero in an anti-hero’s world. The show tricks us into rooting for Walt, even though he’s definitely the villain. Hank thus escapes our attention, but his development is every bit as interesting as Walt’s development.

If you’re part of a fan culture––even peripherally, you don’t have to write fan fictions to be part of fan cultures, you know?––you have probably seen posts or tweets about plot holes. Heck, there are even entire websites devoted to movie plot holes. Plot holes were once the domain of dweebs only. But now, everyone is pointing out so-called plot holes. This video first argues that most alleged plot holes are not actually plot holes, but just things people don’t like about movies. Next, it argues that worrying so much about plot holes actually ruins the experience of the movie. 

The #MeToo movement has been a wild ride since it began in October of 2017. In the beginning, the movement brought down Harvey Weinstein, who by all accounts was a sexual predator of the most despicable variety. Weinstein used his power and influence to force younger actresses to engage in sexual behaviors. Kevin Spacey was next to fall––and how mighty his fall was. His last movie made a laughable $126. Then Louis C.K. Dan Harmon, co-creator of Rick and Morty, openly apologized for his behavior towards a writerwas inspired by the movement and , who called his  apology a “master class in How to Apologize.”  Change was in the air––unrepentant harassers were falling, repentant ones were admitting their transgressions.

In 2016, California allowed adults to use marijuana legally. Doing so negated a number of crimes, under which hundreds of thousands of people have been convicted of felonies or misdemeanors. From the article, “The state DOJ estimates that almost 220,000 cases are eligible for erasure or reduction. The DOJ has until July 1, 2019, to compile the list of eligible cases and forward it to the appropriate district attorney’s office.” Besides having sentences reduced, this will allow convicted felons to get their gun-rights back.

Trump campaigned on his ability to “deal.” He wrote a book called The Art of the Deal. He swore that he would undo all the ways that America got screwed on bad deals. And then he got elected and promptly screwed the pooch by starting a trade war, sacrificing hundreds of thousands of jobs for the sake of a few thousand jobs and some nationalist pride. This video explains the various ways that Trump apparently misunderstood trade, leading to this disaster.