WHY PUBLIC BEHEADINGS GET MILLIONS OF VIEWS | FRANCES LARSON | TED TALKS

In a disturbing — but fascinating — walk through history, Frances Larson examines humanity's strange relationship with public executions … and specifically beheadings. As she shows us, they have always drawn a crowd, first in the public square and now on YouTube. What makes them horrific and compelling in equal measure?

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more. | By TED

Related Podcasts

By Journeyman Pictures

Since the end of apartheid, thousands of white South Africans have been forced into poverty. They blame the government's positive discrimination policies, which favour black employees

Mounir Fatmi's oeuvre has often displayed a fraught relationship to architecture, addressing the dystopic effects of the modernist experiment or arrogant contemporary displays of power and...

Many of us believe that aid to Africa is crucial to lift people out of poverty. But not Dambisa Moyo. In a controversial book, she argues that foreign aid has been a disaster for Africa and must...

HARDtalk speaks to one of Africa's greatest living writers, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o. Tipped to win the Nobel prize for literature, he decided years ago not to write novels in English but in Gikuyu, his...

Pages

Graphic Design by Ishmael Annobil /  Web Development by Ruzanna Hovasapyan