Today we're going to take a look at mineral extraction -- or the removal of rocks and minerals from the Earths' crust -- and examine how this human activity impacts all aspects of Geography. We'll focus on the Democratic Republic of the Congo and take a look at how the mining of minerals such as cobalt, has significantly impacted life in this region.

Today we're going to tell the story of a quiet revolution in the 1960s that shifted our entire understanding of how the Earth works. We currently believe that the Earth's broken outer shell rises from the mantle and folds back in - kind of like a dance of creative destruction and reconstruction - giving us our continents and oceans, mountains and valleys, volcanoes, and earthquakes. And it would take a group of scientists all over the world to get us this grand unifying theory of plate tectonics.

Today we’re going to talk about the link between population and food energy. As the world's population keeps growing, finding ways to provide enough food and water for everyone while supporting a sustainable environment can be tricky! We'll take a closer look at food chains and how energy is transferred between different trophic levels, follow the trends in human consumption as incomes rise, and talk about the two types of overpopulation as they're related to the planet's carrying capacity.

Sometimes culture can seem invisible like when we're surrounded by signals that tell us we're with others who are like us, but if we live or travel somewhere where the traits that define social norms are not our traits, culture can suddenly seem everywhere. In the next few episodes, we're going to start exploring the fundamental aspects of culture and how those with and without power are affected by culture, from cultural mixing to cultural violence. We'll also discuss the differences between race, ethnicity, and culture, and help you can spot the warning signs that often lead to xenophobia, racism, and genocide.

Today we’re going to talk about borders. Borders can bring people together, evoke passion and war, divide, conquer, and solidify power. We’re going to focus on the tyranny of the map which is what happens when those in power draw boundaries in ways that conflict with how people in that place want to be grouped. We’ll look at the repercussions of the Berlin Conference of 1884 on boundaries within Africa, take a closer look at continued political unrest in Mali, and look at how this can even happen at a local level like when gerrymandering occurs within a US state.

Today we're going to take a closer look at ecosystems -- which are communities of living organisms in an area interacting with their environment -- and how this relationship between the amount of energy a place receives and the movement of nutrients is what makes the incredible diversity of life possible. We'll also take a look at the patterns we see in the main global biomes, show you why some biomes (like tropical rainforests) are so productive, and discuss an agricultural practice some farmers have employed to help preserve their local ecosystems.

From towering mountains to pebbles along a river, the Earth is made of a huge variety of rocks. In today's episode, we're going to follow the rock cycle of a piece of granite in the Himalayan mountains, and as you'll see, every rock has a far-reaching story to tell often millions of years in the making.

Today we’re going to take a closer look at these beautiful but dangerous landforms as we explore the different types of volcanoes and trace the patterns of volcanic activity around the world. From the explosive power of a stratovolcano like Mount St. Helens in Washington to the quiet but consistent eruptions of a shield volcano like Kīlauea in Hawaiʻi, volcanoes are like windows into the center of the Earth helping us understand more about how it all works.

Today we’re going to talk about two types of cyclones: mid-latitude cyclones and tropical cyclones. Mid-latitude cyclones are huge weather systems that bring day-to-day weather in the mid-latitudes. They're the reason the weather is often unpredictable. We'll focus on the Northern Hemisphere and how these cyclones form along the polar front. Then, we'll shift to tropical cyclones also called hurricanes or typhoons - those smaller spinning vortices of air usually originating in the tropics that can cause widespread damage to coastal communities. We'll talk about the Bhola cyclone, which as of 2021 is the deadliest tropical cyclone in history, and we'll take a closer look at the Sundarbans in the low-lying coastal areas of Bangladesh and India to see how mangroves play a crucial role as a natural ecological barrier to these storms.

Today we’re going to talk about the forces that affect a country’s stability. We’ll take a closer look at Costa Rica, Venezuela, Cuba, and Brazil and examine how the cohesiveness of these Latin American countries varies dramatically even though they are in a region with similar characteristics. As you’ll see, a country is like a figure skater, and maintaining peace and stability is much like a pair performing a “death spiral” balancing the forces attempting to pull a country apart and keep it together.

Today, we’re going to take a closer look at borders and the stories they tell. When we look at a map, the shapes we’re seeing can seem so permanent, but a map is just a snapshot of the Earth at a particular time, and by looking a countries shape (and how it has changed across time) we can learn so much about how power moves and the ebb and flow of conflict. We’ll talk about the different types of borders, and power dynamics at play in Armenia and Azerbaijan and even look to the oceans as we explore conflict in the South China Sea.

So, what is geography? In our first episode of Crash Course Geography, we will endeavor to answer this seemingly simple question with the help of a similarly simple factoid: that the US imports more than 3 billion pounds of bananas from Guatemala each year. But as it turns out, beneath the kinds of factoids we usually associate with Geography are much grander stories that really are Geography. So let's go a little bananas as we explore the sordid history of the Chiquita banana.

For the next half of this series, we will be discussing Human Geography — so we’ll still be looking at the Earth, but specifically, how human activity affects and is influenced by the Earth. Naturally, we thought the best place to start was to discuss how we name things in the first place! As it turns out, a name carries so much history of a place but also represents the political power and evolving perception of that space. So today, we’re going to tell the story of the highest point in North America - a mountain known by many names including Mount McKinley and Denali.

Traditionally, geography is studied as two interconnected parts: physical geography and human geography. For the first half of this series, we will be focusing on physical geography, which is all about recognizing the characteristics of the environment and the processes that create, modify, and destroy those environments. But remember, human-environment interactions are fundamental to studying geography so we won't be ignoring human impact, it just won't be the primary lens we're using to view the world. Today, we'll explore erosional gullies in Madagascar as we discuss the world's dynamic landscape, the Great Barrier Reef as we introduce the four major earth system (the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere), and we'll finish with a deep dive into Iceland as we introduce the major realms of physical geography. (These are geographer specializations that you may have heard about like topography, geomorphology, pedology, hydrology, climatology, oceanography, meteorology, and biogeography.)

Soil brings together all four spheres of physical geography, and understanding soil composition is kind of like baking! So in today's episode, we're going to show you how to create the perfect soil cake, examine its different soil horizons, and then take you on a trip along the 20th meridian from the Congo to northern Europe to show you how the composition of soil varies dramatically with the environment. Soils are the foundation of life on Earth, from the local ecosystems of plants and animals to the crops we grow and food we eat, so it is up to us to care for it as we decide how to manage our land and resources.

Today we’re going to talk about urban planning — which is the design and regulation of space within urban areas. Urban planning helps weave together economic, social, and environmental goals within a region from work, to play, and living, and unsurprisingly, has a tremendous influence on people’s lives! So today, we’re going to discuss some models we’ve used to describe existing cities such as the Latin American Model, take a look at a planned city and the capital of Brazil, Brasília, and look at the impacts of the US highway system and redlining on minority Americans starting in the 1960s.

Weathering breaks down rocks and creates sediments which become the raw materials for other rocks and the formation of our soils. And we call the process of moving that sediment erosion. In today's episode, we're just going to focus on the weathering part. We'll discuss mechanical, chemical, and biological weathering and take you on a tour of some of the landscapes they help shape from landslides and sinkholes to caves!

In addition to just being beautiful one-of-a-kind panoramas in the sky, clouds can tell us so much about how energy and weather patterns flow around the globe. Today, we'll talk about how clouds form, the three main types (cirrus, status, and cumulus), explain how and why we get rain, and end with a discussion on humidity and how high humidity can feel hot and sticky on a warm day but comfortable on a cold day. So join us and countless people throughout history and look up -- at the clouds!

Today we’re going to discuss what it means for a place to be “developed”. Development is often associated with economic success — that is countries with higher standards of living and material wealth like those found in Europe and North America. But as we’ll see, this perspective is only one way to compare countries on the global stage, has strong ties to colonialist histories, and doesn’t necessarily capture a place’s environmental and socioeconomic sustainability or even the population’s general happiness. We’ll focus on the region in the Middle East and North Africa, called MENA, and examine how the histories of the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon have resulted in drastically different development scores.

From navigating a cross-country road trip (or just finding the nearest coffee shop), to analyzing election results, maps play a huge role in how we interpret the world! Today, we're going to talk about the differences between reference maps and thematic maps, take a closer look at how projections play a part in how we perceive maps, and discuss the role of the cartographer (or map maker) in all of this. Maps are incredibly powerful tools and play a crucial role in how we understand the world, but they are also made by people, so it is our job to think critically about how these stories are being presented to us.