In this lovely animated short from Blank on Blank – who have previously given us David Foster Wallace on ambition and perfectionism – beloved children’s author Maurice Sendak, born on June 10, 1928, reflects on being a kid and the lifelong grip of anxiety.
Pair with this beautiful letter to Sendak from his legendary editor, the great Ursula Nordstrom, and his posthumous love letter to the world.
This Periodic Table Song from AsapSCIENCE – who have previously illustrated such mysteries as the science of love and what marijuana does to your brain – is for science-lovers what The Elements of Style Rap was for literary nerds. Enjoy, then wash down with the elements of the periodic table, personified as anime-inspired heroes.
What the Internet is doing to our brains – a charming animation based on Nicholas Carr’s rather reductionist, techno-dystopian book The Shallows. For a more dimensional look at how digital culture is affecting cognition, see this.
Artist Jake Fried makes mesmerizing, psychedelic animated shorts by layering ink, gouache, white-out and coffee.
The history of typography, in a stop-motion animation made of 291 cut-paper letters and 2,454 photographs. Pair with a peek inside the sketchbooks of the world’s best type designers and 10 essential books on typography.
23 celebrated cartoonists, including Art Spiegelman and Roz Chast, unite to demand action against gun violence.
A a time when 33 people are murdered with guns every day in America and homicide rates in the United States exceed those of other high-income nations by 690%, it’s tragic how little progress we’ve made since 1944.
Also see Stephen King on gun control and violence.
Sign the petition to end gun violence here and consider sparing your daily coffee in donating to the cause.
An animated look at what literature’s most famous hero archetypes teach us.
Tender and beautiful stop-motion music video for “Joy” by Iron & Wine, from their fantastic latest album Ghost On Ghost.
How power is divided in the American government – an animated explanation from TED. Also see British vs. American government, explained in vintage infographics.
The human eye is one of the most powerful machines on the planet: It’s like a 5000-megapixel camera that can run in bright light, near-darkness, and even underwater.
And yet our eyes an imperfect: What a camera sees that our eyes don’t. Complement with 100 ideas that changed photography.
“Sometimes, isolation – whether chosen or forced – can be the best thing that happens to people.”
The upside of isolated civilizations, animated.
Famous creators like Ernest Hemingway, Apple co-creator Steve “Woz” Wozniak and painter Agnes Martin have also advocated for the benefits of being alone.
“Take one memory, explore it like a new land.”
How to become a slam poet in 5 steps, wonderfully animated. Complement with how to enjoy poetry.
From planting seeds to the internet – how innovations in farming and growing our own food civilized society. Also see how Thomas Jefferson pioneered urban farming.
The story of the Boston Tea Party – including how the actual “tea” part came to be – animated.
Within a species, each organism has very similar DNA. In human beings, the difference between one person and another is a fraction of a one percent — but it’s what makes us individuals, giving us different facial features, hair color, and height.
Wonderful motion-graphics explainer of DNA for BBC Knowledge and Learning from London-based studio Territory. Complement with the animated history of DNA and everything you’ve ever wondered about genes vs. chromosomes vs. DNA, also animated.
