Inside a cartoonist’s world sparked an interesting conversation between TED-Ed Animator Jeremiah Dickey and New Yorker cartoonist  Liza Donnelly.

Watch the intriguing and thoughtful conversation that ensued when the two sat down to discuss the similarities and differences in their work…

Today’s Lesson features a creative animation by three of TED-Ed’s own animators, Biljana Labovic, Lisa Labracio, and Celeste Lai. To show cell division and how chemotherapy attacks cancer during cell division, Biljana, Lisa, and Celeste worked on a variety of animation styles, including stop-motion. To achieve the various textures and movement they wanted, they used a large range of products you might find around the house – mostly in your kitchen. We talked to Biljana and Lisa about the ideas behind the piece and how they went about creating it.

Here at TED-Ed, we have been incredibly fortunate to work with talented and innovative animators from all over the world. But the TED-Ed lesson by materials scientist, Ainissa Ramirez, marks a first for TED-Ed. The animation uses bologna – yes, the meat found in your sandwiches – doubling as atoms in a TED-Ed animation. The creative animator behind the lesson, Andy London, is a Brooklyn-based animator. He and his wife, Carolyn, are known for their 2004 short film “Backbrace,” that won Best Animation at the New York Television Festival and honorable mentions at the Ottawa International Animation Festival and the Woodstock Film Festival. 

So how did you land on using bologna as atoms in your TED-Ed lesson? 

Well I went to a family dollar store and obsessively looked through candy–Reese’s, Smarties, Skittles, etc. Everything was too small or just didn’t work as atoms. So we went to the frozen food section of the family dollar store and found bologna. It was big enough and plain enough!

And I actually ate the bologna afterwards. Everybody got mad at me because everyone thought I’d get sick from it since it was from the dollar store…