(Advanced Documentary SPIN) Scent From Heaven

We trace one of the world's rarest and most expensive commodities from its end users in the Middle East to its source in the forests of Southeast Asia.

Watch:

Scent From Heaven

(Advanced) Kintsugi

‘Kintsugi’ is the remarkable Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with elegance and grace - a tradition with a lot to teach us more generally about how to handle the broken bits of ourselves.

Watch:

Kintsugi

(Upper-Intermediate TED) Network theory

From social media to massive financial institutions, we live within a web of networks. But how do they work? How does Googling a single word provide millions of results? Marc Samet investigates how these networks keep us connected and how they remain "alive."

Go to Ted Lesson:

Network theory

Why do we wear clothes?

Watch:

Why do we wear clothes?

(Intermediate-Advanced) ESL-Bits Listening Practice

I said I would post a link to this site, so here it is.

I have a theory that the best way to improve your listening skills in English is to, well, listen. To all sorts of stuff - interviews, discussions, news stories, short stories.... I mean, if you are learning and discovering things through listening, you are enlarging both your view of the world and obviously the language you're using to do that.

On this site you can chose easier or harder material. You can follow the transcript while you listen or check it afterwards. If they're speaking a bit fast for you, you can click on the slowed down option.

Go to site:

ESL Bits

(Advanced) Ghosts of the Tsunami

The religion of the ancestors in Japan means the dead are present for them in ways alien to the West. Since the devastating Tsunami of 2011, ghosts have been haunting survivors.

Listen to the podcast:

Ghosts of the tsunami

(Intermediate) Manners around the world - Infographic

Being polite might seem easy: Someone does something nice, you say “thank you,” right? As it turns out, that all depends on your location. Manners are different all over the world. So doing business—especially providing customer service—in a world brought closer together by technology can be a daunting task.

Go to Infographic:

Manners around the world