The art of the metaphor – Jane Hirshfield is an incredibly fun look at the magical powers of metaphors and the simpler, yet superhuman, nature of similes. Narrated by Jane Hirshfield and animated by Ben Pearce for TED-Ed, this video is spectacular both in its art style and in the completely delightful ways the animation and the narration play with each other.

If you enjoyed this, you should definitely watch more TED-Ed videos.

Mark Salata: How taking a bath led to Archimedes’ principle is a quick history/science lesson about how Archimedes first stumbled upon the concepts of buoyancy and density. Narrated by Mark Salata and animated by TED-Ed, the fun side-lesson being taught here is that the famous “Eureka!” exclamation comes from a naked man having a bright idea as he spills bathwater all over his floor.

If you enjoyed this, you should definitely watch more TED-Ed videos.

Irritable Bowl Syndrome is a phenomenal explanation about why football is more popular than baseball and how, because the playing field is leveled every season, every football team can become a viable superbowl contender. Directed & animated by Fraser Davidson and written & performed by Bill Maher, this excellently explains why it’s incredibly difficult for a football team to win consecutive championships and highlights America’s cognitive dissonance of rallying against socialism but absolutely loving professional football.

Facundo the Great is the story of how a new student accidentally bucked his school’s policy of anglicizing every Mexican student’s name and became a playground legend. Recorded by StoryCorps and animated by The Rauch Brothers (with art direction by Bill Wray), Ramon “Chunky” Sanchez fondly remembers his classmate Facundo and how he became the wonderful exception to a disastrous rule.

If you like excellent stories, you should definitely watch more StoryCorps animations.

(Thank you StoryCorps for the heads up!)

DON’T WORRY, DRIVE ON: Fossil Fools & Fracking Lies is an absolutely fantastic animation about the complete disaster that is oil fracking and the PR campaign that supports it. Put together by Monstro, it’s a very valid look at why we’re accelerating the destruction of the environment for the sake of maintaining an unsustainable energy source.

If you dig anti-fracking animations, Fracking: Things Find A Way is also pretty spectacular.

(via Explore)

How Pandemics Spread is a look back at some of histories most devastating pandemics and how the panic and hysteria surrounding them can sometimes be worse than the pandemics themselves. Narrated by Mark Honigsbaum and animated by Patrick Blower for TED-Ed, this also seems like pretty handy advice on how to prevent the spread of a zombie apocalypse.

If you enjoyed this, you should definitely watch more TED-Ed videos.

Typography is a kinetic typography version of a Taylor Mali poem about speaking with conviction and avoiding the recent trend of… um… qualifying everything we say. Animated by Ronnie Bruce, if you dig the point Taylor is making, be sure to check out the animated version of his poem Missed Aches.

Language As a Window into Human Nature is an RSA Animate about the three different types of relationships people have with each other and how those relationships impact how people communicate. Taken from a lecture given by Steven Pinker, a psychology professor at Harvard, and animated by Cognitive Media, it’s an excellent visualization of why we say what we say and what that means for everyone else.

GOOD: Jailbirds talks about the U.S. prison system, some causes behind its rapid population growth and the United States’ tendency to focus on incarceration over other potential responses. Put together by GOOD (the incredible minds behind Figures of Progress: How Data is Driving Decisions and GOOD: Drinking Water), it’s a frustrating look at how basic flaws in the U.S. penal system have unnecessarily quadrupled the prison population over the last 20 years.

(via Explore)

John and Joe is absolutely heartbreaking. Recorded by StoryCorps and animated by The Rauch Brothers, it’s the story of John Vigiano Sr., a retired NYC firefighter, and his two sons John Jr., also a NYC firefighter, and Joe, a NYC police detective.

On September 11, 2001, both Vigiano brothers responded to the call from the World Trade Center, and both were killed while saving others. Here, John Sr. remembers his sons and reflects on coping with his tremendous loss.

If you’d like to hear more excellent stories, you should definitely watch more StoryCorps animations.