Is it just me or has Kurtzgesakt gotten really weird over the last couple years? Like, their videos seem like they want to be clickbait, but they’re really bad at it.
You can tell the Gates-bucks have really leaned them in a neo-liberal slant. It kind of sucks.
It’s not simply the Gates money, but the pivot to pursuing grants by chasing clicks to the exclusion of all else.
They’ve been Mr Beast-ified.
Kurzgesagt when its summarizing research papers is alright, but as soon as anything touches on a social or political issue it’s all “vote with your wallet 🙂”
It has been neoliberal biased for ages. For example this is a 2021 article calling out their neoliberal bias. https://aninjusticemag.com/the-inescapable-neoliberal-bias-behind-kurzgesagt-in-a-nutshell-215eb1e9b70f?gi=9574bf28f4a0
But it has undoubtedly gotten a lot worse recently. That south korea video was abymaly blind and baked in unrealistic capitalist assumptions.
They’re doing the thing where they upload a video and then change the thumbnail and title of the video every few days which I’ve only seen done by all the low effort click bait channels. It’s what finally got me to install the dearrow extension which swaps titles and videos of YouTube videos to be more informative and less click bait.
A lot of channels do this, you might’ve just not noticed.
Their early videos were very well researched and put together. At a certain point, they became a lot of “What is the purpose of dust? I guess we’ll never know. Isn’t the universe a mysterious place?”
Ah, yes. Their “We found space whales on Nimbus!” video (about speculative Zoology of alien worlds), which was later titled “What actual aliens might look like” was something I could excuse. I don’t consider claiming the impossible click-bait, but seeing the controversy, it was best they changed it.
However, what I really hated was their ad for a “strange matter” vile/necklace (i forgor), not because they lied about it containing reality destroying elements, but because they did the “buy now because they’ll never come back” trick. I consider manipulative sales tactics to be a greater sin than clickbait.
They seem to be trying to copy xkcd’s video format with the fantasy tier what if questions answered seriously. Seems out of place to me, not sure what Gates Foundation gets out of fluff pieces like figuring out what banana rain would do to the planet while getting the terminal velocity of a banana wrong right off the bat too. What a shit video.
I stopped watching them several years ago. I can’t say it was a specific video or event, but I just started zoning out when trying to watch them. I don’t do that much, I generally only watch, play, listen to and do things I can focus on. I’ve tried to watch some videos since then but I just lose interest after a minute or two. It’s like they refined their style so much that it all became too “samey” and it feels like they’re so scared of offending anyone that they end up saying nothing.
A lot of their political and historical videos are propaganda
Such as?
Not going to give them views, but find any modern history video especially if it’s from a designated enemy nation by the US State Dept
Oh you were talking about oversimplified… I thought you meant kurzegesagt and was very confused. They don’t do any history, well with a focus on it at least.
Dang, I’m surprised to see how many folks are down on Kurtzgesakt in the comments here! Bummer!
They might not be perfect, ya’ll, but at least they encourage open thought and critical thinking! Better than a lot of other media can say these days! 🙂
But they don’t encourage open thought and critical thinking. They basically tell you what to think.
It’s not as good as it used to be, but I still find it comfortable to watch. I like the black hole and space stuff, like what terraforming a planet would look like, but yeah they definitely have some fluff videos. Unfortunately clickbait titles like THE WORLD MAY DIE is just YouTube 101, seems baked into every channel now. Very hard to find a channel that feels organic.
How in the actual hell is technology connections not on that list and also why have I not seen it in any of the comments yet
Through the magic of buying two of them, you have someone who agrees that it should be on the list.
here to rep “through the magic of having a broken one…!”
Through the magic of latent heat we have 4 likes for every unit of person
This list is basically the tippy toppy fresh snow that’s fallen on the iceberg.
Technology connection comes a little lower.
Sam O’Nella was awesome, but his current release schedule leaves much to be desired.
Top tier YouTube channel!!
I learnered about some interesting looking channels from this thread so I’ll pay it forward and share some that I like.
2 and 20
Angela Collier
Bobby Broccoli
Climate Town
Computerphile
Defunctland
fern
Folding Ideas
JimmyTheGiant
KnowledgeHusk
Lextorias
Not Just Bikes
Odd Compass
Ordinary Things
PBS Space Time
slow start
Suibhne
Thought Slime
Tom Nicholas
Angela Collier…I also have my fair share of physics classes under my belt due to my engineering degree and she makes me think of things in a way that none of my professors did.
She’s brilliant.
The “magnetic forces do no work” thing is maddening.
The guy who is ‘the guy’ for that level of physics textbooks just happens to be determined to prove a non-quantum mechanics based explanation of magnetism so the book is written from that perspective without actually saying it. Of course.
Unlearning economics is pretty good too
Kurgesatz was really good before they started the black mirror season, where every video is about how humanity can get killed by various things.
Never heard of the other ones but I’ll give it a try.
And there’s a PBS video for anything you can think about, sometimes they just don’t surface properly with search.
They’re honest, direct, open, and willing to learn, I love kurzgesagt. The world sucks, but we shouldn’t shy away from understanding why it sucks and how we can improve it
I am big fan of their prepandemic work. But if you can get past their click bait videos, I think they still do good content.
Science pieces spreading awareness about something are their best videos.
This recent video on fentanyl was very good.
The south korea one, the vaping and weed ones. Very good at condensing complicated topic while still retaining pertinent information that’s new and not patronizing.
It was very pro heroin
For real though! What a weird watch 😂
In a way it was a breath of fresh a air to hear the high honestly described in a way that makes it understandable why people would want to do it again, but also how it will never, ever be as good as the first time, and will ruin your life.
Only if you didn’t pay attention.
I just showed their Fentanyl video to my 13yo daughter over the weekend and it was incredibly effective as a parenting tool. We paused many times and discussed. But their presentation didn’t leave all that much for me to say.
Shout out to PBS Space Time
I love watching Spacetime, but also feel like dum-dum-brain after watch. Me no think good enough to watch this show.
Yeah I think it’s a quality channel but apparently there are just SO many people out there smarter than me that they are fine catering only to them. It sucks being left behind by a publicly funded channel :(
I’m actually thankful. It’s good to know a little about the bleeding edge of science, and there presumably are people who really do understand it. The fact that I don’t, means that there are smart, passionate people out there doing the work. Not every show needs to cater to the lowest common denominator.
I feel like the more you watch the more watchable it is cause you get more and more context
They’re definitely building on each other, but they’re definitely ELIApplyingForMyDocotrate degree.
For physics enthusiasts, I’d also suggest “floatheadphysics” for his depictions and sometimes cathartic presentation style. I love how he broke down special relativity in an easily understood way.
Then I’ve also really been enjoying “For The Love of Physics” for his style of showing some of the math. His style is more of a classroom presentation, but in a way that reminds me of my most effective professors that made their lessons as easy to consume as mac and cheese.
I’m inclined to hit some online courses someday, too, but, for now, these have been great for conceptual stuff and my curiosity vs. time balance.
Anyone here like Folding Ideas? He’s done some good stuff about flat earthers, crypto bros, and such.
One of the greats! Also, if you like Folding Ideas, you’ll love Benn Jordan. The style is very similar. Also, Technology Connections.
A bit more esoteric and in-depth than these 4 and much better
I stopped watching kurzgesagt after their copium video on global warming where we all hold hands and sing and magically reverse it.
Here’s an existential threat to humanity, and the various ways that it’s worse than you think. But don’t worry! Capitalism will save the day by inventing solutions to our problems which won’t necessitate any restructuring of our society or economy!
Thanks as always to our billionaire
ownersdonors!I wasn’t gone on their video on the cruelty of the slaughter industrial complex where they bent over backwards to avoid suggesting veganism as the obvious solution.
They are a corporate shill, I forget who talked about. I should go find it
I’d like to submit
SmarterEveryDay (Highly suggest this video of the James Webb Telescope https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu97IiO_yDI )
Honorable mention (because ‘retired’) Tom Scott
And because it’s a good channel Dad How Do I?
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Been a while I didn’t watch one of his videos, but I remember some US military stuff on there and I thought it was an interesting view from someone I think is smart but clearly doesn’t share my political leanings.
Trying to not be in an echo chamber and all.
Important to note that I don’t live in the US.
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He lives in Huntsville, Alabama. 95% of his neighbors are defense contractors. It isn’t sponsorships, it’s “this guy lives 40 feet away from me and does something interesting for a living”
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Not exactly a new tactic. Same thing for Top Gun and probably a bunch of other movies. Part recruitment, part public relations to improve their image.
But the military does have some neat tech that most people won’t ever see. Like his series in the submarine, there was a lot of really cool.
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Didn’t he also make a video at some point heavily implying he believes in creationism?
I can’t see the parent of this comment (defederated or blocked, idk), but it’s possible SmarterEveryDay believes in creationism as I believe he’s Christian. That said, I watch his channel religiously (har har) and as far as I can remember he hasn’t spread any creationist propaganda.
The worst thing he’s done is make videos supporting the US Coast Guard. They’re still interesting and informative, but it’s still military propaganda in some sense. It’s fairly tame though.
There are probably other edutainment creators to worry about more than him.
The end of ever video includes the name of a bible verse, Destin is not exactly hiding the fact that he’s christian lol
They’re pretty okay for shallow understanding on a subject, but Wendover (not on the list), Economics Explained (not on the list), and CGP gray all get stuff pretty wrong once you get past shallow depth. I know because I’m a huge transit/urbanism nerd. If these channels haven’t wronged you in some minor way, they just haven’t talked about something you’re a subject matter expert in yet. The point here isn’t that they’re bad, just understand that these are shallow explainers, the next step in from like a news article, Wikipedia, or a blog, and take them with a grain of salt.
My personal list is Kurzgesagt, XKCD explained, and The Action Lab.
Do you have examples of CGP Grey getting things pretty wrong aside from his Solution to Traffic video which I indeed think holds up poorly.
The Solution to Traffic video, like you mentioned, springs to mind, but so does the one based on Guns, Germs, and Steel
Right? I’m surprised by this claim as when he found out he made a pretty minor error in his video on an abandoned missile silo, he made a whole other video to address it.
That was actually the one I had in mind
Veritasium?
The Rest is History is always a good listen.
Historia Civilis and others like Kings and Generals etc are often good too.
Don’t like him for the ways he pushes bullshit, even if it technically might be correct under x y z assumptions that are utterly nonsense in real live. Last video I watched was with the interference and “light takes all paths” and the way to actually show it was complete nonsense. Yikes. At 600 nm you are not going to have any measurable amount going 10 cm somewhere else.
Which one are you talking about, Veritasium?
Yes
Oh I love the rest is history, they’re so good at keeping me interested in random history stories. Plus, in my country their ads don’t seem to work.
Nothing like turning on Sam O’Nella for some entertaining educational comedy for the kids only to hear “removed” over and over again
wheres wendover and reallifelore?
What a weird bunch, to me these are 2 titans, 1 serial one-hit-wonder, and 1 guy whose humour is family guy cutaway gags.
Id be interested to hear which are which. My guess are: Family Guy - Oversimplified Hit-Wonder - Grey Titans - Sam and Kurzgesagt
Also:
LockPickingLawyer
How To Cook That
Captain Disillusion
Pilot Debreif
Stand-Up Maths
It’s a mix of interesting and meh to me, but if Stand-up Maths got your interest, you might want to take a look at Numberphile as well.
I actually converted from Numberphile to Stand-Up Maths as it’s a bit lighter on the maths whilst still being Quite Interesting ™. Both good channels though!
Nice! Now that you said that, I actually ran into Stand-Up Maths after a few Numberphile videos, as well, so I totally get it.
I’m more of a Real Engineering and Mustard kinda guy
Replace Real Engineering with Practical Engineering for me
Love me some grady
