I mostly know YouTube options. I actually think that YouTube can be a pretty healthy place for this content, since lots of people have an appetite for it. Some of these creators are also on...
Exemplary
I mostly know YouTube options. I actually think that YouTube can be a pretty healthy place for this content, since lots of people have an appetite for it. Some of these creators are also on Nebula/Patreon/Curiosity Stream if you want to watch without ads or algorithms.
Smarter Every Day
In my mind this is one of the original science YouTube channels. He uses slow motion cameras to learn how things work or to capture cool experiments. You’ve probably seen some of his footage already as they often get recirculated online.
Veritasium
He is one of the other original channels in my mind. He started out by doing physics misconceptions videos for his PHD which I think is in physics/science education. Now his videos are more like small TV shows that do an excellent job introducing and explaining entire topics.
Breaking Taps
A newer channel that focuses on nano fabrication and machining. Right now, he is working on some DIY semiconductor projects.
SciShow
Well produced and researched videos covering a range of topics. They mostly focus on presenting and explaining findings in peer-review studies rather than doing their own experiments or investigations. However, for this type of video they are excellent.
NileRed
Chemistry videos. I don’t watch him very much, but he is quite popular. A lot of his videos seem to be complicated experiments to morph one material into something completely different. Like make cotton candy from paper or something like that (made up example).
Up and Atom
I don’t know her as well either, but she does make some really high quality math and physics videos. Her style is a bit more focused on theory than experiments.
Medlife Crisis
This guy is a practicing cardiologist who is a bit snarky and satirical (in a great way)! His videos are very well researched, and he seems like a credible source, if you want to learn more about medicine and have some myths debunked.
Steve Mould
Very good science demonstration videos. His style is usually to show some sort of science demo and then talk about how it works.
Practical Engineering
This guy is a civil engineer who does a great job explaining how infrastructure work and the engineering considerations that went into designing them.
Stuff Made Here
This is more of a project build channel. He makes some ambitious robots that are and things that are over engineered. I’m including him here since he does a good job of brining viewers into his process and explaining how the projects work.
Tom Scott
He has stopped producing videos for now, and he was never strictly science focused. However, he seemed to have real journalistic integrity and some of his videos do cover some math/science topics.
That’s what I’ve got off the top of my head for now. I’m sure there are a ton I’ve missed or don’t know about yet. Hopefully others can fill in the gaps!
All that and no mention for any of the PBS channels?! PBS Spacetime - Astrophysics, cosmology and quantum physics. Stars. Supernovae. Black Holes. The Big Bang. Ya know, the good stuff. PBS Eons -...
All that and no mention for any of the PBS channels?!
PBS Spacetime - Astrophysics, cosmology and quantum physics. Stars. Supernovae. Black Holes. The Big Bang. Ya know, the good stuff.
PBS Eons - History of the biology on our planet.
PBS Terra - ecology and earth sciences. Climate change (prevention of that change), etc
Tack on Dr. Becky for the finger on the pulse of anything happening in the astrophysics community and you've got a stew goin'!
Haha, for whatever reason I haven’t followed those channels quite as much. I’ve watched them before, but they never became something I really followed. I think in putting my list together I...
Haha, for whatever reason I haven’t followed those channels quite as much. I’ve watched them before, but they never became something I really followed.
I think in putting my list together I realized that I tend a little more towards engineering-adjacent stuff.
Came here to second Steve Mould. His videos are always really well put together and interesting. Most of them are stuff I didn't know I wanted to know until after watching.
Came here to second Steve Mould. His videos are always really well put together and interesting. Most of them are stuff I didn't know I wanted to know until after watching.
This is an excellent list! I’m subscribed to quite a few of them, so I’ll be interested to check out the ones I don’t know. I’d highlight Stuff Made Here and Smarter Every Day in particular: both...
This is an excellent list! I’m subscribed to quite a few of them, so I’ll be interested to check out the ones I don’t know.
I’d highlight Stuff Made Here and Smarter Every Day in particular: both are very clearly true standouts within their fields of engineering as well as being humble, engaging, and good storytellers in different ways. I’d also add Kurzgesagt to that bucket, if you’re looking for something a bit more “science” than “engineering”.
Styropyro is one more I’ll throw in to the ring. He adopts a bit more of a specific persona for his videos - his content isn’t as earnest as the three above, and I think some people find him a bit grating - but he’s also got that very Mythbusters “let’s just try this seemingly dangerous and absurd idea and see what happens” approach to things.
I'd recommend Grayjay as an alternative YouTube client, no ads. Just subscribe to channels you want. It's from the same company that Louis Rossmann is part of (FUTO) and the (optional) payment is...
I'd recommend Grayjay as an alternative YouTube client, no ads. Just subscribe to channels you want. It's from the same company that Louis Rossmann is part of (FUTO) and the (optional) payment is perpetual
In addition to the YouTube channels mentioned above, I'd also recommend Sixty Symbols (physics), Numberphile (mathematics) and Periodic Videos (chemistry). All made by the same journalist, Brady Haran, he interviews university professors about what they're working on or interesting happenings in their field.
Are you interested in science talks/lectures at all? I find content like that to be really hard to come by and am always excited when I do find it. The Royal Tyrrell Museum has a lot of...
Are you interested in science talks/lectures at all? I find content like that to be really hard to come by and am always excited when I do find it.
Nick Zentner is a geologist with a lot of content on his channel. Currently I'm working my way through his Geology 101 class lectures. https://www.youtube.com/@GeologyNick
Thomas Holtz is a paleontologist with a youtube channel that has some class lectures on it, too, but I haven't really dug into his videos yet.
Other than that, these are the education channels I have in my subscriptions.
Speaking of Stefan Milo, I found his channel via the following video by an archaeologist, Flint Dibble, and the timestamp I'm linking has a bunch of other archaeology youtube channel recommendations: https://youtu.be/--StG8FIrE8?t=1279
If you haven't already watched all of Sir David Attenborough's Life series, maybe start there. Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough (2024) is new and the trailer looks fantastic. He's 98...
If you haven't already watched all of Sir David Attenborough's Life series, maybe start there. Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough (2024) is new and the trailer looks fantastic. He's 98 years old and still educating. What a gem.
I would avoid YouTube altogether and head to the library for honest to goodness documentaries. Netflix has a bunch but sometimes they're ad-adjacent garbage like that Fungi one aimed at pushing magic mushrooms as a viable mega business after weed.
The Oscars have a best documentary category, most of it is about humans or history or war, but sometimes they have My Octopus Teacher and Fire of Love (volcanoes) and All That Breathes (Kite, birds).
But, it's easier to go on YouTube, it's true.
Smarter Every Day
YouTube channel I can actually wholeheartedly recommend. Destin makes quality videos and really doesn't chase algorithms. It's a lot of physics and mechanical engineering because he is (was?) a missile flight test engineer.
Randall Munroe of XKCD has a series of What If YouTube videos animated to explain the math and physics behind highly improbable hypotheticals like, what if the earth suddenly stopped spinning. Most of the time the short answer is all the humans die, and then the topic is elaborated further.
Explains everyday household items and science behind them so even complete laymen can understand. Really watchable and answers a lot of daily musing type questions on items such as lava lamps, dishwashers, microwaves, smoke detectors etc.
Microorganisms and tiny critters! Beautifully shot footages of a world just under our detection. Narrated sometimes by Hank Green. Actually a lot of the Green brothers content are good stuff, like their Crash Course or Bizzare Beasts
Honourable mention: Story Bots if you have little kids. Fun guest appearances for millenial parents.
Non-YouTube: Cosmos, both the original 80s version and the 2014 remake. Planet Earth 1-3. Some engineering and space related docuseries on CuriosityStream. YouTube (if you can stomach it):...
Non-YouTube: Cosmos, both the original 80s version and the 2014 remake. Planet Earth 1-3. Some engineering and space related docuseries on CuriosityStream.
YouTube (if you can stomach it): Veritasium, SmarterEveryDay, RealEngineering, and many many others.
I was in a similar place to you a few years ago and now I'm really happy with my set up. I've mentioned this in other threads but the way I use Youtube is that I only watch creators I'm subscribed...
I was in a similar place to you a few years ago and now I'm really happy with my set up. I've mentioned this in other threads but the way I use Youtube is that I only watch creators I'm subscribed to, I don't worry about the algorithm at all. My set up is that once a day, videos from my subscriptions get downloaded using yt-dlp and I usually watch them on my TV before going to bed. It's amazing because it's pretty much non stop daily science, and if you haven't watched any of them they have pretty awesome back catalogues so you'll at least be sorted for a few years.
As for channel recommendations, both /u/gaufde's and /u/bitwaba's are pretty solid, I watch a bunch of those, but you may also want to watch these:
For YouTube, I would check out SciShow and other channels from Complexly. I stay away from the home page and algorithms by only subscribing to channels I want to watch and then using the subscribe...
For YouTube, I would check out SciShow and other channels from Complexly. I stay away from the home page and algorithms by only subscribing to channels I want to watch and then using the subscribe page. For kids, PBS does the best at actually making science show.
Don’t have any recommendations, but just wanted to say that when the History Channel succumbed to the siren song of reality TV and conspiracy nonsense it left a hole for me, in the form of Modern...
Don’t have any recommendations, but just wanted to say that when the History Channel succumbed to the siren song of reality TV and conspiracy nonsense it left a hole for me, in the form of Modern Marvels.
As a teenager and young adult I immensely enjoyed that show. It’d go into the history of the various technology powering daily life, ranging all the way from snack food packaging and food freezing methods all the way up to megaprojects like dams. It might’ve tended a bit toward the superficial as a result of its generalized nature but no matter what an episode was about it was sure to be interesting and felt worth watching.
Don't think I see anyone mentioning Science Asylum. Some physics videos that I found enjoyable and digestible. They're pretty high-level and don't get too much into the math or anything, but still...
Don't think I see anyone mentioning Science Asylum. Some physics videos that I found enjoyable and digestible. They're pretty high-level and don't get too much into the math or anything, but still good at communicating the concepts.
Adding another comment as I though of this after my previous one. Instead of watching Youtube you could give Nebula a try. I'm not sure whether they have any good science shows, I know there's...
Adding another comment as I though of this after my previous one. Instead of watching Youtube you could give Nebula a try. I'm not sure whether they have any good science shows, I know there's some good history stuff there and some solid creators.
Are there science shows where they do the mathematics behind the topic? It always struck me that the format is mostly wordy explanations and no equations etc. I realise it’s a bit niche and might...
Are there science shows where they do the mathematics behind the topic?
It always struck me that the format is mostly wordy explanations and no equations etc. I realise it’s a bit niche and might be a bit dry, but curious if anyone knows any science or engineering videos that don’t dumb down the explanations by avoiding the maths.
Steve Mould, Matt Parker, and Hannah Fry all take a fairly mathematical spin on their subject matter (or use real-world examples to illustrate their mathematical content, depending which way you...
Steve Mould, Matt Parker, and Hannah Fry all take a fairly mathematical spin on their subject matter (or use real-world examples to illustrate their mathematical content, depending which way you want to look at it!), and there’s a good amount of content from all three of them across YouTube and the BBC.
Much as I dislike the YouTube algorithm in a broader societal sense, I find it is also pretty good at surfacing adjacent videos at the right level of complexity once you’re into a certain bubble, so if that’s a platform that works for you it’ll likely branch out from those three to similar creators and ones they collaborate with.
3blue1brown is a good channel for learning some actual math, and Primer is a good channel that includes the relevant math in the videos (his videos tend to focus on stats and game theory from what...
3blue1brown is a good channel for learning some actual math, and Primer is a good channel that includes the relevant math in the videos (his videos tend to focus on stats and game theory from what I recall). Both are approachable but still show equations, and they're good enough that I'd recommend them to someone taking a class on their subjects (in fact, my math prof in grad school straight-up recommended 3blue1brown to us).
I mostly know YouTube options. I actually think that YouTube can be a pretty healthy place for this content, since lots of people have an appetite for it. Some of these creators are also on Nebula/Patreon/Curiosity Stream if you want to watch without ads or algorithms.
Smarter Every Day
In my mind this is one of the original science YouTube channels. He uses slow motion cameras to learn how things work or to capture cool experiments. You’ve probably seen some of his footage already as they often get recirculated online.
Veritasium
He is one of the other original channels in my mind. He started out by doing physics misconceptions videos for his PHD which I think is in physics/science education. Now his videos are more like small TV shows that do an excellent job introducing and explaining entire topics.
Breaking Taps
A newer channel that focuses on nano fabrication and machining. Right now, he is working on some DIY semiconductor projects.
SciShow
Well produced and researched videos covering a range of topics. They mostly focus on presenting and explaining findings in peer-review studies rather than doing their own experiments or investigations. However, for this type of video they are excellent.
NileRed
Chemistry videos. I don’t watch him very much, but he is quite popular. A lot of his videos seem to be complicated experiments to morph one material into something completely different. Like make cotton candy from paper or something like that (made up example).
Up and Atom
I don’t know her as well either, but she does make some really high quality math and physics videos. Her style is a bit more focused on theory than experiments.
Medlife Crisis
This guy is a practicing cardiologist who is a bit snarky and satirical (in a great way)! His videos are very well researched, and he seems like a credible source, if you want to learn more about medicine and have some myths debunked.
Steve Mould
Very good science demonstration videos. His style is usually to show some sort of science demo and then talk about how it works.
Practical Engineering
This guy is a civil engineer who does a great job explaining how infrastructure work and the engineering considerations that went into designing them.
Stuff Made Here
This is more of a project build channel. He makes some ambitious robots that are and things that are over engineered. I’m including him here since he does a good job of brining viewers into his process and explaining how the projects work.
Tom Scott
He has stopped producing videos for now, and he was never strictly science focused. However, he seemed to have real journalistic integrity and some of his videos do cover some math/science topics.
That’s what I’ve got off the top of my head for now. I’m sure there are a ton I’ve missed or don’t know about yet. Hopefully others can fill in the gaps!
All that and no mention for any of the PBS channels?!
PBS Spacetime - Astrophysics, cosmology and quantum physics. Stars. Supernovae. Black Holes. The Big Bang. Ya know, the good stuff.
PBS Eons - History of the biology on our planet.
PBS Terra - ecology and earth sciences. Climate change (prevention of that change), etc
Tack on Dr. Becky for the finger on the pulse of anything happening in the astrophysics community and you've got a stew goin'!
Haha, for whatever reason I haven’t followed those channels quite as much. I’ve watched them before, but they never became something I really followed.
I think in putting my list together I realized that I tend a little more towards engineering-adjacent stuff.
Don't forget Be Smart (formerly It's Okay To Be Smart) hosted by Joe Hanson that's part of the PBS program.
Came here to second Steve Mould. His videos are always really well put together and interesting. Most of them are stuff I didn't know I wanted to know until after watching.
This is an excellent list! I’m subscribed to quite a few of them, so I’ll be interested to check out the ones I don’t know.
I’d highlight Stuff Made Here and Smarter Every Day in particular: both are very clearly true standouts within their fields of engineering as well as being humble, engaging, and good storytellers in different ways. I’d also add Kurzgesagt to that bucket, if you’re looking for something a bit more “science” than “engineering”.
Styropyro is one more I’ll throw in to the ring. He adopts a bit more of a specific persona for his videos - his content isn’t as earnest as the three above, and I think some people find him a bit grating - but he’s also got that very Mythbusters “let’s just try this seemingly dangerous and absurd idea and see what happens” approach to things.
I'd recommend Grayjay as an alternative YouTube client, no ads. Just subscribe to channels you want. It's from the same company that Louis Rossmann is part of (FUTO) and the (optional) payment is perpetual
In addition to the YouTube channels mentioned above, I'd also recommend Sixty Symbols (physics), Numberphile (mathematics) and Periodic Videos (chemistry). All made by the same journalist, Brady Haran, he interviews university professors about what they're working on or interesting happenings in their field.
Are you interested in science talks/lectures at all? I find content like that to be really hard to come by and am always excited when I do find it.
The Royal Tyrrell Museum has a lot of paleontology talks: https://www.youtube.com/@RoyalTyrrell
Brandon Peecook's Vertebtrate Paleontology course lectures are fascinating: https://www.youtube.com/@vertpaleo/videos
Nick Zentner is a geologist with a lot of content on his channel. Currently I'm working my way through his Geology 101 class lectures. https://www.youtube.com/@GeologyNick
Thomas Holtz is a paleontologist with a youtube channel that has some class lectures on it, too, but I haven't really dug into his videos yet.
Other than that, these are the education channels I have in my subscriptions.
Raptor Chatter: paleontology
Ben G Thomas: paleontology
Stefan Milo: Hominin and early human archaeology
Speaking of Stefan Milo, I found his channel via the following video by an archaeologist, Flint Dibble, and the timestamp I'm linking has a bunch of other archaeology youtube channel recommendations: https://youtu.be/--StG8FIrE8?t=1279
Premodernist: History
Geoff Lindsey: Linguistics
Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't: Botany
Archaeo Plays: Explores archaeology in minecraft (the science, not the game mechanic)
Gneiss Name: Explores geology and color theory in minecraft
The Loosest of Gooses and DingyFried: Talk about a lot of color theory stuff in minecraft
If you haven't already watched all of Sir David Attenborough's Life series, maybe start there. Secret World of Sound with David Attenborough (2024) is new and the trailer looks fantastic. He's 98 years old and still educating. What a gem.
I would avoid YouTube altogether and head to the library for honest to goodness documentaries. Netflix has a bunch but sometimes they're ad-adjacent garbage like that Fungi one aimed at pushing magic mushrooms as a viable mega business after weed.
The Oscars have a best documentary category, most of it is about humans or history or war, but sometimes they have My Octopus Teacher and Fire of Love (volcanoes) and All That Breathes (Kite, birds).
But, it's easier to go on YouTube, it's true.
Smarter Every Day
YouTube channel I can actually wholeheartedly recommend. Destin makes quality videos and really doesn't chase algorithms. It's a lot of physics and mechanical engineering because he is (was?) a missile flight test engineer.
XKCD: What If
Randall Munroe of XKCD has a series of What If YouTube videos animated to explain the math and physics behind highly improbable hypotheticals like, what if the earth suddenly stopped spinning. Most of the time the short answer is all the humans die, and then the topic is elaborated further.
Edit: formatting
Technology Connections
Explains everyday household items and science behind them so even complete laymen can understand. Really watchable and answers a lot of daily musing type questions on items such as lava lamps, dishwashers, microwaves, smoke detectors etc.
Journey to the Microcosms
Microorganisms and tiny critters! Beautifully shot footages of a world just under our detection. Narrated sometimes by Hank Green. Actually a lot of the Green brothers content are good stuff, like their Crash Course or Bizzare Beasts
Honourable mention: Story Bots if you have little kids. Fun guest appearances for millenial parents.
Unfortulately this channel is coming to an end later this year.
Non-YouTube: Cosmos, both the original 80s version and the 2014 remake. Planet Earth 1-3. Some engineering and space related docuseries on CuriosityStream.
YouTube (if you can stomach it): Veritasium, SmarterEveryDay, RealEngineering, and many many others.
I was in a similar place to you a few years ago and now I'm really happy with my set up. I've mentioned this in other threads but the way I use Youtube is that I only watch creators I'm subscribed to, I don't worry about the algorithm at all. My set up is that once a day, videos from my subscriptions get downloaded using yt-dlp and I usually watch them on my TV before going to bed. It's amazing because it's pretty much non stop daily science, and if you haven't watched any of them they have pretty awesome back catalogues so you'll at least be sorted for a few years.
As for channel recommendations, both /u/gaufde's and /u/bitwaba's are pretty solid, I watch a bunch of those, but you may also want to watch these:
Dont forget sixty symbols sister channel, numberphile!
For YouTube, I would check out SciShow and other channels from Complexly. I stay away from the home page and algorithms by only subscribing to channels I want to watch and then using the subscribe page. For kids, PBS does the best at actually making science show.
PBS' Nova, and Nature are excellent programs.
I also quite enjoy Secrets of the Dead by PBS, but it's a little more extravagant.
Don’t have any recommendations, but just wanted to say that when the History Channel succumbed to the siren song of reality TV and conspiracy nonsense it left a hole for me, in the form of Modern Marvels.
As a teenager and young adult I immensely enjoyed that show. It’d go into the history of the various technology powering daily life, ranging all the way from snack food packaging and food freezing methods all the way up to megaprojects like dams. It might’ve tended a bit toward the superficial as a result of its generalized nature but no matter what an episode was about it was sure to be interesting and felt worth watching.
If you are into biology I highly recommend Clint's Reptiles.
NASA+ is a free streaming service from NASA.
Podcast-wise "Let's Learn everything" is great. https://www.LetsLearnEverythingPod.com
Don't think I see anyone mentioning Science Asylum. Some physics videos that I found enjoyable and digestible. They're pretty high-level and don't get too much into the math or anything, but still good at communicating the concepts.
Adding another comment as I though of this after my previous one. Instead of watching Youtube you could give Nebula a try. I'm not sure whether they have any good science shows, I know there's some good history stuff there and some solid creators.
Are there science shows where they do the mathematics behind the topic?
It always struck me that the format is mostly wordy explanations and no equations etc. I realise it’s a bit niche and might be a bit dry, but curious if anyone knows any science or engineering videos that don’t dumb down the explanations by avoiding the maths.
Steve Mould, Matt Parker, and Hannah Fry all take a fairly mathematical spin on their subject matter (or use real-world examples to illustrate their mathematical content, depending which way you want to look at it!), and there’s a good amount of content from all three of them across YouTube and the BBC.
Much as I dislike the YouTube algorithm in a broader societal sense, I find it is also pretty good at surfacing adjacent videos at the right level of complexity once you’re into a certain bubble, so if that’s a platform that works for you it’ll likely branch out from those three to similar creators and ones they collaborate with.
3blue1brown is a good channel for learning some actual math, and Primer is a good channel that includes the relevant math in the videos (his videos tend to focus on stats and game theory from what I recall). Both are approachable but still show equations, and they're good enough that I'd recommend them to someone taking a class on their subjects (in fact, my math prof in grad school straight-up recommended 3blue1brown to us).