It’s week three and homework is due, tests are coming up, and you’re starting to feel really bad about binge watching Game of Thrones for the third time. Have no fear, we have ten Youtube channels that are fun-ducational so you can justify your procrastination with dodgy excuses like: “Well at least I’m learning something.”
1. DNews: Bits of popular science that explain new discoveries and old odd questions. They upload several videos a day and have a large library so you can keep learning odd bits for a long time.
2. Vsauce: Ever have the shower thought: “I wonder what the speed of darkness is?” Well Vsauce answers that and lots of other interesting questions you probably never considered asking but still kind of want to know the answers to. History, philosophy, physics, art: it’s almost impossible to find something Vsauce hasn’t touched on.
3. PBS Idea Channel: Do you have an English major friend who won’t stop talking about the arguments hidden inside author McDead’s work, or a philosophy major friend who’s a little sad that she can’t talk Socrates with everyone, while you just want to talk about Steven Universe and all the feels (ALL OF THEM)? Mick Rugnetta might be able to help you as he links philosophy and metacognition to things like Game of Thrones and Hot Sauce Labels.
4. PBS Space Time: PBS Digital Studios has some top notch channels and this is definitely one of the best. Space Time explains a lot of the confusing and mind bending parts of cutting edge cosmology and quantum physics. I’m not saying it would replace Physics III but…
5. VOX: There’s a lot that goes on behind news and headlines that can be kind of misleading. Vox’s videos are relevant to the daily news cycle, informative on a deeper level than most news programs, and usually have a very high production value. Watching one or two of these can make you look like a very well informed person.
6. Geography Now: Quick, what’s the weather like in the capital of Albania on average? How many friends does the country of Brunei have? This guy is making a video on every country in alphabetical order and it’s more than a little addicting.
7. Rocketjump Film School: Life can’t be all science and deep thinking, so check out Rocketjump Film School. The people on this channel started out as a couple of Visual Effects nerds doing shorts in their garage; now they’re owned by Paramount and have some really interesting videos about lighting, exposition and other parts of the film sausage machine.
8. Tom Scott: Tom’s flagship program, “Things you might not know” is pretty much what it says on the tin: lots of odd facts about science, thought and the British countryside.
9. Extra Credits: What makes something fun? Why are these games better than those games? How do we tell good stories? Extra Credits has been looking at these kinds of questions for many years now. They have had a lot of successful and very fun videos, but recently they’ve started Extra History, a program about the odd, complicated and often ignored bits of history that most classes skip over. It really pushes the channel over the top.
10. Numberphile: Math nerd union! No, it can’t replace Calc II, but it gives you a glimpse into the strange and oddly fascinating world of numbers and maths. Watching some of these videos gives you a sense about why those freaky math majors get super excited about numbers. Go to the math side, they have pi.
