Towles takes inspiration from famous hero’s journeys, including The Iliad, The Odyssey, Hamlet, Huckleberry Finn, and Of Mice and Men.
Last month the team over at the Big History Project asked a Big Question: What does it mean to be human? They invited people to submit videos with their answers, with the winner (selected by a panel of teachers and students) getting $5,000 and a job making more videos for Big History.
The results are in and we have a winner: Abby Lammers, an 18-year-old rising college freshman from St. Louis, Missouri.You can watch Abby’s winning entry below—it really is outstanding—and see a few other impressive entries over on YouTube.
Congratulations, Abby. I’ll be eager to see the other videos you’ll be making. And thanks to everyone who contributed. I hope you had fun thinking about what it means to be human. Finally, if you aren’t a Big Historian already, I encourage you to check out the course. It is one of my all-time favorites, and one I recommend for students and lifelong learners everywhere.