[HN Gopher] PBS SpaceTime
___________________________________________________________________
 
PBS SpaceTime
 
Author : andrewstuart
Score  : 462 points
Date   : 2022-05-20 08:00 UTC (15 hours ago)
 
web link (www.pbsspacetime.com)
w3m dump (www.pbsspacetime.com)
 
| can16358p wrote:
| One of my favorite channels on YT. There are many channels who
| try to explain similar topics, but PBS Spacetime is among the top
| 3 in how it engages the viewer and keeps them interested while
| explaining in (relatively (no pun intended)) simple terms.
 
| marceldegraaf wrote:
| PBS Space Time is great, and it always amazes me that we're able
| to watch such high quality content for free.
| 
| If you're into paleontology, PBS Eons is equally interesting and
| has a similarly high production quality:
| https://www.youtube.com/c/eons
 
| shrikrishna wrote:
| A channel worth subscribing. Matt (and team?) manages
| successfully to walk the fine line between managing the
| complexity of the topics they discuss (which are sometimes
| extremely dense), making it consumable for the population that's
| interested in science and physics, but doesn't pursue it on a
| daily basis. At the same time, they don't fall for the trap of
| dumbing it down to the point where the audience develops
| misconceptions and starts believing in pseudo scientific claims.
| 
| There are some series they sometimes do, which are entertaining
| to follow. I also enjoy things like Journal club, where they pick
| a paper and deep dive into it. The audience also participates, in
| a way, where they pick the questions/comments from the previous
| video and answer them.
| 
| However, it's not all academic either. There are some running
| jokes etc, which keep the content entertaining, while being
| informative, a format that I see common in some of the best
| Youtube channels.
 
  | wing-_-nuts wrote:
  | >making it consumable for the population that's interested in
  | science and physics, but doesn't pursue it on a daily basis.
  | 
  | While I love the channel, it seems like they're more targeted
  | to someone with a _lot_ of physics education, more so than lay
  | people. This is the only channel I 've ever watched and
  | genuinely felt dumb on a regular basis.
 
    | lc9er wrote:
    | There's definitely a lot of material that, I have to accept
    | that "I don't have the math for it"[0].
    | 
    | But Matt does a pretty good job of breaking things down
    | conceptually, so that even though you don't know the
    | specifics, the broader picture is at least vaguely
    | understandable. Even if it means you need to watch previous
    | episodes to get the gist of other discussed concepts.
    | 
    | [0] Harry Wilson, from John Scalzi's "Old Man's War"
 
    | davidjytang wrote:
    | Yeup, I took several 100 level physics in college, 400 level
    | physical chemistry which involved quantum mechanics and got
    | good grades on them. I can't understand the show.
 
    | edem wrote:
    | Im a total layperson and i can still understand everything,
    | although i sometimes have to watch a video multiple times.
 
    | NineStarPoint wrote:
    | As someone with zero formal education in physics, I've always
    | felt like they do a pretty good job. While there might be
    | some parts that I have to dig into to understand or just
    | accept going over my head, for the most part I come away from
    | each video feeling like I understand both what they were
    | talking about and what parts of what they were talking about
    | were just surface level explanations.
 
    | snapetom wrote:
    | Hah. I agree, but I'll add that his style is more like it's
    | easy to follow for a while, then suddenly the car drives off
    | a cliff and you need upper division college physics to
    | understand.
    | 
    | I really love Anton. He has a way to ELI5 that's really
    | effective and really genuine.
 
      | djmips wrote:
      | Hello wonderful person. Are you referring to Anton Petrov?
      | I also really enjoy his channel.
 
    | ravi-delia wrote:
    | I think that's the key. Without a _somewhat_ rigorous
    | treatment, most interesting physics just doesn 't work. The
    | magic is that a well made resource is still consumable
    | without quite understanding the complicated stuff. Then, if
    | you come across something else later, maybe the commonalities
    | make something click.
 
    | idonotknowwhy wrote:
    | Same here, I stopped watching because I tend to get lost
    | after a while.
    | 
    | History Of The Universe is more consumable at my level
 
    | plandis wrote:
    | Yeah definitely true.
    | 
    | I have an undergraduate degree in physics and sometimes I
    | don't understand the things they are talking about.
    | 
    | I still find it interesting and valuable though.
 
  | kosh2 wrote:
  | Yes! If you watch more than 5 physics docs that run on TV, you
  | quickly get tired of hearing "Black holes are so massive that
  | not even light can escape it!".
 
| lvncelot wrote:
| A similar channel I've found recently that tackles the same kind
| of content is ScienceClic [1]. The visualizations are some of the
| best and most intuitive I've yet seen.
| 
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceClicEN/videos
 
| Jerrrry wrote:
| I'm just here to shill Isaac Arthur's Youtube channel[1]
| 
| Few people try to take our progress as a species to the next
| evolutionary step while making the content accessible.
| 
| If you want to know how we as a species will reverse entropy and
| shrink into the fabric of space-time as the universe reaches
| thermodynamic conformity, this guy has ya covered.
| 
| https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZFipeZtQM5CKUjx6grh54g
 
  | devnulll wrote:
  | Isaac is pretty amazing. His topic selection is like a peek
  | into my brain.
  | 
  | I wish he had a team of content producers working with him,
  | rather than having to do so much re-using stock footage.
 
| setuid9001 wrote:
| Matt and his team are doing such a great job.The visuals are
| great and the music is alway on point! Also, when I'm stressed
| out, I can watch an episode and my mind calms down again. Thank
| you guys!
 
  | kikokikokiko wrote:
  | The visual effects team that does the cgi for Spacetime is
  | amazing, and being a fellow brazilian those guys make me really
  | proud.
 
| colechristensen wrote:
| The best thing about SpaceTime is the balance of how much content
| is slightly out of reach for an average viewer. Pushing that
| boundary is an important thing to do with educational content
| especially in a world where so many things are dumbed down.
 
| thejackgoode wrote:
| I have enjoyed them for years, I can recommend their merch and
| also give a slightly embarassing advice for insomniacs.
| 
| If you have insomnia, find a subject that you are genuinely
| interested in (but not too much) and watch videos on it while in
| bed. After a while, your brain slowly drifts off. After even more
| awhile, you learn to do this without a video.
| 
| PBS Spacetime, Sabine Hossenfelder, Isaac Arthur cured my
| insomnia, for which I am infinitely grateful.
 
  | kosh2 wrote:
  | I got the best stuff ever for you: In depth chess videos. I
  | once had bought a chess game (not sure if it was the chess
  | master series) and it contained a whole bunch of annotated
  | games by a GM.
  | 
  | It was interesting but also tired my brain so quickly, that it
  | was the best sleep tool ever.
 
  | ricardo81 wrote:
  | I'm not an insomniac but as a layman, the drifting certainly
  | happened. Found their content a little too deep for my general
  | curiosity.
 
  | Ygg2 wrote:
  | Doesn't work for me since I am interested in physics. Can
  | recommend Elden Ring lore channels, for very smooth tone of
  | voice and little variations, really put me to sleep.
  | 
  | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYDs_Inzkz4
  | 
  | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXN1oi4BmxQ
 
    | the_only_law wrote:
    | Used to listen to AoE2 game commentary to fall asleep.
    | 
    | Ironically the guy running the channel used to joke about how
    | many people used his videos to fall asleep to.
 
      | instakill wrote:
      | problem with t90 is he sometimes gets too excited and wakes
      | you up with his outbursts
 
  | taude wrote:
  | Another YouTube channel I watch on this type of stuff is SEA
  | [1], and the channel even has a curated list of their videos to
  | help sleeping [2].
  | 
  | [1] https://www.youtube.com/c/SEAmedia
  | 
  | [2] Space Sleep playlist:
  | https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkoaIad9k4NIlsG6g-alm...
 
  | maaaaattttt wrote:
  | I was wondering if I was the only one and glad to find out I'm
  | not. I was a bit embarrassed because I absolutely love the
  | videos (and have done so for years) but if I watch them in bed
  | they put me to sleep in < 10 minutes.
  | 
  | Great quality and content. I recommend this channel for anyone
  | interested in space and physics in general.
 
| willis936 wrote:
| I never miss a week. It's great. I wish they would sell a Penrose
| diagram shirt.
 
  | npace12 wrote:
  | this! also, i used to basically only wear spacetime tshirts for
  | a couple of summers but their quality went down quite a bit
 
| spacemanmatt wrote:
| PBS SpaceTime is easily one of my favorite channels on any
| platform.
 
| plandis wrote:
| PBS Eons [1] (history of earth related science) and and Be Smart
| [2] (general science topics) are also pretty good. Both are
| definitely more targeted for lay people than SpaceTime however.
| 
| [1] https://youtube.com/c/eons
| 
| [2] https://youtube.com/c/itsokaytobesmart
 
| dylan604 wrote:
| For those of us of a certain age, does anyone else recall a
| series on PBS from the early 90s (maybe earlier) on physics and
| calculus? I remember whatching these programs well before I took
| those classes so that I didn't understand all of it, but when I
| finally got to them in school, the concepts in the videos made
| much more sense and the videos helped make sense of some of the
| textbook learning too.
 
  | bgm1975 wrote:
  | Was it The Mechanical Universe (https://youtube.com/playlist?li
  | st=PL8_xPU5epJddRABXqJ5h5G0dk...) from Caltech? I loved that
  | series back in the day.
 
    | dylan604 wrote:
    | This might have been it. There are way more episodes than I
    | was familiar. If it's not it, then all I've been reminded
    | today is how much amazing content has been provided by PBS.
 
  | jinushaun wrote:
  | Newton's Apple? I loved that show.
  | 
  | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%27s_Apple
 
    | dylan604 wrote:
    | Oh wow, I had forgotten about that show. I had no idea that
    | the theme was done by part of Kraftwerk.
    | 
    | Unfortunately, this is not the same show as I was originally
    | thinking. The one I was thinking was more like a video class
    | on physics subjects. More like teacher suplemental type
    | stuff. It was the first example of video based teacher
    | reinforcement stuff that clicked with me, and helped me
    | actually like the subject matter.
 
| vladkovalev wrote:
| Great show
 
| edem wrote:
| This is the only Youtube channel where I watched __all videos__.
| In fact I watched many more than once! Ever since Gabe left and
| Matt took over the quality also increased tremendously. I've
| learned more about how the universe works from this source than
| any other source combined. this channel is a must for everybody
| interested in the topic!
 
| zekica wrote:
| I like them, Matt doesn't like to make everything sound like a
| mystery, but instead explain it to the point and not dumb it down
| too much. I also like watching Sabine Hossenfelder for physics
| topics.
 
| Slackwise wrote:
| If you like PBS Space Time, you'll likely also enjoy "Science
| Asylum":
| 
| https://www.youtube.com/c/Scienceasylum
| 
| This channel covers the same subjects of physics and space, but
| does so with some _incredible_ insight that I 've seen no other
| channels dig into, and thoughtful animated diagrams that really
| help in comprehending the subject.
| 
| Here are some great episodes:
| 
| "What is Quantum Spin?":
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB1EPGmpzyg
| 
| "Quantum Superposition, Explained Without Woo Woo":
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUipVyVOm-Y
| 
| "Capacitors Are Gaps! How Does That Work?!":
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYRx6Zub3cA
 
  | ravi-delia wrote:
  | I love Science Asylum! It has the tone and vibe of a children's
  | pop-sci "educational" resource, with incongruously rigorous
  | content. The tensor video is very good, but I always laugh
  | while watching because even with an admirable attempt to dumb
  | it down it's so clear that there's a lot of iceberg beneath the
  | surface. Reminds me of my favorite undergrad math profs, it's
  | clear they're simultaneously doing their best to dumb the
  | content down for us neophytes and not doing nearly enough.
 
  | notRobot wrote:
  | Another cool channel in the same vein is SciShow:
  | https://www.youtube.com/c/SciShow
 
  | TechSquidTV wrote:
  | One of the best and most underrated science channels on
  | YouTube. I hope he gets his deserved rise in popularity, though
  | his channel is growing faster now.
 
  | nsv wrote:
  | PBS Digital Studios has produced some real gems - I really
  | liked PBS Idea Channel, a content which discussed philosophical
  | concepts related to media and technology.
 
    | runarberg wrote:
    | PBS eons is my favorite
 
  | knubie wrote:
  | I'll throw in ScienceClic as another great channel in the same
  | vein.
  | 
  | https://m.youtube.com/c/ScienceClicEN
 
  | nemothekid wrote:
  | Science Asylum is great, but I dislike the 90s educational show
  | presentation format. An absolute gem I've stumbled across is
  | ScienceClic:
  | 
  | https://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceClicEN
  | 
  | They have amazing presentations on Relativity, my favorite
  | being:
  | 
  | "A new way to visualize General Relativity" -
  | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrwgIjBUYVc
  | 
  | "Hawking Radiation" -
  | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isezfMo8kW
  | 
  | Another, while heavier and less accessible channel is Physics
  | Explained:
  | 
  | https://www.youtube.com/c/PhysicsExplainedVideos
  | 
  | These are closer like lectures, but I enjoy them because they
  | go into the histories of some of these experiments; and what
  | the prevailing wisdom was around the time the experiments were
  | performed:
  | 
  | "What is the Ultraviolet Catastrophe?" -
  | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCfPQLVzus4
 
    | 8note wrote:
    | As far as lecture-y YouTube series go, Sean Carrol put
    | together "the biggest ideas in the universe" in early covid: 
    | https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrxfgDEc2NxZJcWcrxH3j.
    | ..
 
  | kosh2 wrote:
  | Also Sabine Hossenfelder. She sometimes does non-physics topics
  | but it's mostly physics
  | 
  | https://www.youtube.com/c/SabineHossenfelder/videos
 
  | czbond wrote:
  | I love SpaceTime, thanks for the suggestion. As a non-physicist
  | - I realized the details are a bit too much and I care more
  | about the higher level.
 
| LUmBULtERA wrote:
| Love this channel!
 
| zachruss92 wrote:
| I became obsessed with PBS space time over the pandemic. I love
| the depth of content that Matt goes into. It's clearly a ton of
| work and I pays off. I'm definitely super interested in
| Astrophysics now.
 
| [deleted]
 
| platz wrote:
| the quality has definitely gone downhill lately.
| 
| Compared to a couple years ago, they only lightly touch on topics
| rather than they deep dives they used to do.
| 
| Not sure if they are struggling for content or just a shift in
| priorities.
 
  | desmosxxx wrote:
  | Their series on the holographic universe was peak physics
  | youtube.
  | 
  | https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKjJE86mQRtt-kzviEIwzEYOz...
  | 
  | Such an amazing channel & still one of my favorites, but I do
  | wish they'd do more deep dives. Has seem scattered lately.
 
  | instakill wrote:
  | hard disagree. earlier content had more surface area to cover -
  | as they get into more specific content in these latter years,
  | of course topic delivery will get leaner
 
  | conz wrote:
  | > the quality has definitely gone downhill lately.
  | 
  | I can't agree.
  | 
  | This video from a few weeks ago about the W Boson mass
  | discrepancy is about as deep as a lay audience can hope to
  | surmount:
  | 
  | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0Q4UAiKacw
 
| arturventura wrote:
| I love watching SpaceTime on youtube! If you watch it, it will
| give you a surprisingly deep understanding of the state of the
| art on physics, but is the kind of show that if you don't have a
| massive background in physics, you either need to be extremely
| focused to understand it, or blazed out of your mind.
 
  | nickthegreek wrote:
  | repeat viewings also help.
 
| woojoo666 wrote:
| It's really sad that PBS ended their sister series on math,
| Infinite Series[1]. Those videos were just as deep, informative,
| and accessible as PBS Spacetime. Some of my favorites are the one
| on the mathematical "hydra"[2] and the ones on voting systems
| [3][4]
| 
| [1]: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs4aHmggTfFrpkPcWSaBN9g
| 
| [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWwUpEY4c8o
| 
| [3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoAnYQZrNrQ
| 
| [4]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhVR7gFMKNg
 
  | TechSquidTV wrote:
  | I watch an _absurd_ amount of PBS content on YouTube and other
  | science channels. Not as many math channels but certainly a
  | few. I am so angry this was never recommended to me earlier,
  | and full of joy that my weekend is set!
 
    | PartiallyTyped wrote:
    | It is astounding that so many people (me included) have this
    | complain. I also watch numberphile, computerphile, 3B1B and
    | the likes and yet I had never heard of the channel before.
 
  | dskloet wrote:
  | It was good with Kelsey, but after she had to leave and was
  | replaced, it somehow became really bad.
 
    | jjcon wrote:
    | I'll second that, it died only because the new host couldn't
    | fill her shoes. Conversely Matt on SpaceTime has done a great
    | job taking over from Gabe.
 
  | joadha wrote:
  | I had never even heard of this, and I've watched dozens and
  | dozens of episodes of Spacetime!
  | 
  | I'm shocked YouTube didn't steer me to this sister channel.
  | Thank you!
 
    | joshbaptiste wrote:
    | It's not recommended because it hasn't been updated in
    | years.. the algorithm promotes channels with updated content
    | higher
 
    | dylan604 wrote:
    | Are you suggesting that the YT recommendation algorithm is
    | some how flawed? I hope you're doing that on a throwaway
    | account ;P
 
      | frogpelt wrote:
      | Is it possible that it doesn't serve YTs interests to have
      | a recommendation engine that works best for the end user?
      | 
      | I honestly think they just experiment with it a lot. The
      | variety of videos that are recommended for me don't seem to
      | follow a pattern.
      | 
      | Maybe they know my brain better than I do.
 
        | dylan604 wrote:
        | >Is it possible that it doesn't serve YTs interests to
        | have a recommendation engine that works best for the end
        | user?
        | 
        | 100% absolutely it is similar to Goog's search
        | 
        | >I honestly think they just experiment with it a lot. The
        | variety of videos that are recommended for me don't seem
        | to follow a pattern.
        | 
        | Possibly, but I'd posit that it's not a good system if
        | the experiment is causing a lack of consistency. I'm sure
        | there's a lot of people that would opt-in for a
        | exeperimental reco system if just asked.
        | 
        | > Maybe they know my brain better than I do.
        | 
        | Now you're just being silly.
 
      | bowsamic wrote:
      | Is this a jab at dang?
 
        | shepardrtc wrote:
        | They said YT, not YC.
 
        | dylan604 wrote:
        | This makes even more sense at the confusion.
 
        | dylan604 wrote:
        | dang was not a thought in my mind when I replied, so if
        | there's any inference to dang by you in my comment, it is
        | solely within your reading of the comment.
        | 
        | however, out of curiosity, what in my comment makes you
        | think that?
 
        | bowsamic wrote:
        | You were criticising the moderation of this site
 
        | dylan604 wrote:
        | I see. No, that was more so of the swarming vs staff
        | management, but I can see how it wasn't so out of left
        | field now.
 
  | TheDesolate0 wrote:
  | Numberphile fills the void.
 
    | ugh123 wrote:
    | They did some great vids with Cliff Stoll, including this one
    | about his Klein Bottles
    | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k3mVnRlQLU
 
    | system2 wrote:
    | Gets too mainstream though.
 
      | gorkish wrote:
      | Try Mathologer instead
 
        | lvncelot wrote:
        | 3blue1brown is also excellent
 
      | thawaya3113 wrote:
      | Numberphile lost me with their doubling down on their "sum
      | of natural numbers is -1/12" video.
 
        | dvt wrote:
        | The analytic continuation of the Riemann zeta function
        | that gets you to -1/12 is such nuanced mathematical
        | trickery, I'm not even sure why so many people
        | incessantly argue it one way or another.
 
        | runarberg wrote:
        | Me to, however I forgave them after a great response
        | video by Mathologer.
 
| pokolovsky wrote:
| I love this channel.
 
| okamiueru wrote:
| If nothing else to add a differing voice, I cannot stand PBS
| SpaceTime. I will be completely honest and say that it's probably
| more due to my lack of understanding than fault of theirs. But,
| that said, I'm perfectly fine following other science "bloggers".
| I enjoy them, and I learn from them. PBS however bugs me to no
| end, because I rarely feel I've understood it, or even learned
| anything. I'm likely in the minority.
 
  | jayknight wrote:
  | I always feel like I learn _something_ , but by the end of an
  | episode I'm completely lost. I love it.
 
| mindcrime wrote:
| While we're all advocating for our favorite science related YT
| channels, let me add a plug for "Physics Girl" (aka Dianna
| Cowern). Note that her channel isn't so much cosmology and deep
| theoretical stuff, but has a lot of focus on exploring "real
| world" aspects of science, including lots of field trips to see
| neat places and things, but explored from a physics perspective.
| 
| https://www.youtube.com/c/physicsgirl
| 
| Another great channel is Dr Becky (Becky Smethurst). Dr. Becky is
| an astrophysicist, so her channel is more specifically oriented
| towards astrophysics topics.
| 
| https://www.youtube.com/c/DrBecky
 
  | Zamicol wrote:
  | Dr. Becky is stellar for astrophysics.
 
| epaulson wrote:
| PBS SpaceTime is great. Another physics video series on Youtube
| that is also excellent (and maybe even a little better) are the
| videos by Don Lincoln of Fermilab. They don't break his videos
| out into his own channel, but he's a lot of the Fermilab content:
| https://www.youtube.com/user/fermilab
 
| jmartin2683 wrote:
| I've been watching these guys for years, they're great. Perfectly
| approachable deep dives into things I know very little about... I
| love it.
 
| Zamicol wrote:
| For physics and science history,
| https://www.youtube.com/c/KathyLovesPhysicsHistory
| 
| Many of Kathy's videos, especially those on quantum physics and
| Einstein, I've watched a few times.
| 
| Here's a good one, "Joseph Fraunhofer Biography: The Father of
| Modern Astronomy" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0cjG1UdqKo
 
| sen wrote:
| One of my absolute favourite YouTube channels of all time. Very
| well presented, truly fascinating topics, and explained in a way
| even a pleb like me can understand (at least enough to know that
| I don't understand shit about the universe, but am still
| endlessly fascinated by it all).
 
| parentheses wrote:
| I just subscribed to several PBS channels. Thanks!!
 
| gigatexal wrote:
| I rewatch their videos on YouTube all the time. After maybe 8
| watches each I begin to understand. It's amazing and very well
| done.
 
| hateful wrote:
| I've been a fan of many channels over the years, but one I've
| found recently that was very good is The Science Asylum:
| https://www.youtube.com/c/Scienceasylum/videos
| 
| My favorites are minutephysics and CGP Grey - but they have been
| very lacking in content lately.
 
| formerly_proven wrote:
| Spacetime is nice because they / Matt often acknowledge
| uncertainty (indeed, gaps being found or closed in current
| understanding are probably one of the most common themes of the
| show), unlike many others which tend to present theories as facts
| (e.g. kurzgesagt often does this). Likewise, they don't shy away
| from making relatively complex explanations instead of leaning
| all to heavily into bogus analogies. They made a well-regarded by
| physicists (as far as I can tell) series on relativity, for
| example.
 
  | supercheetah wrote:
  | Kurzgesagt has acknowledged this was a problem with some of
  | their earlier videos, but they're trying to do better with
  | presenting any uncertainty around the topics they cover from
  | now on.
 
    | formerly_proven wrote:
    | Do you remember where they did this / have a link? I'm not
    | "citation needed"-ing you, I'm just curious when they said
    | this.
 
      | Dextro wrote:
      | I believe they did it on this video called "Can You Trust
      | Kurzgesagt?". They also removed a few of their older videos
      | at the time because they had this exact issue of presenting
      | as fact some things that were not at all certain.
      | 
      | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtUAAXe_0VI
 
    | wnevets wrote:
    | I would agree, they have done a much better job presenting
    | the uncertainty.
 
  | nkrisc wrote:
  | I think acknowledging uncertainty is one of the most important
  | jobs of science communicators. It's important that they say,
  | "...but we really don't know for sure" and emphasize when
  | something is theoretical, a best guess, or a rough model. I
  | think Matt and team do this very well.
 
    | formerly_proven wrote:
    | I've come to somewhat randomly expose a few of my major
    | biases and preconceptions in the last couple months, which
    | has been very interesting. This video hits the nail on the
    | head for science communication (the 2nd half is the meta
    | portion, the 1st half addresses a specific issue):
    | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzpIsjgapAk
 
    | colechristensen wrote:
    | I took a philosophy class one where several of the
    | participants were getting upset that there weren't just facts
    | to learn because up to that point they had not been exposed
    | to any kind of uncertainty. These were mostly students in the
    | sciences too.
 
    | dylan604 wrote:
    | Unfortunately, there are people that take that "we really
    | don't know for sure" comment as a negative as "proof" of
    | whatever thing they are pushing instead. The internet is full
    | of them.
 
      | ff317 wrote:
      | I still think it's important that scientists be factual
      | about the uncertainty, though. The alternative whacko
      | theories also have uncertainty, so if we hold ourselves to
      | that standard, we can also rationally hold them to their
      | even greater degrees of uncertainty. When we try to pretend
      | that a current theory is 100% certain and factual just to
      | win an argument with idiots, it invites obvious and IMHO
      | reasonable criticism of all of science.
      | 
      | Science is not a set of facts caved in stone. Science is a
      | process; a way of thinking critically and exploring the
      | boundaries of reality in a way that makes a best effort at
      | getting closer and closer to the boundaries of the knowable
      | in a rational and reasonably-objective way. It often makes
      | missteps and corrections along the way, and we can
      | acknowledge that openly while also contrasting it to non-
      | science junk that isn't even on the right track.
 
  | sophacles wrote:
  | > because they / Matt often acknowledge uncertainty
  | 
  | Great pun! :D
  | 
  | They also will present the strengths and weaknesses of various
  | 'competing' theories. For ones that have been shown to be
  | incorrect, they still present them accurately and well and
  | explain how those theories led to our current, more correct
  | understanding. For ones that are still being considered they
  | will tell you evidence for and against.
  | 
  | I think this show is what made me realize that physics isn't
  | one unified whole, but rather a lot of different models that
  | are all somehow wrong (but still better than what they were
  | built on!), and that there's conflicting evidence for each of
  | them.
 
| cdubzzz wrote:
| PBS Digital Studios[0] has a couple of cool deep series like
| this. See also Eons[1].
| 
| [0] https://www.pbs.org/franchise/digital-studios/
| 
| [1] https://www.pbs.org/show/eons/
 
| apinnes wrote:
| SpaceTime is an amazing channel, if you enjoy the in depth videos
| then I'd also highly recommend ScienceClic (no K at the end) and
| History of the Universe, both channels similarly go in deep on a
| lot of physics, and have really great visuals.
 
| qrybam wrote:
| If you enjoy Matt @ Spacetime, Sabine Hossenfelder, and
| Kurzgesagt, and are into astrophysics, I would highly recommend
| Anton Petrov's YouTube channel:
| 
| https://m.youtube.com/c/whatdamath
 
  | spacemanmatt wrote:
  | Best contextualized recommendation of the morning. TY.
 
  | willis936 wrote:
  | I started off really liking Kurzgesagt but got tired with how
  | often they started with conclusions and then constructed
  | narratives to justify it, rather than starting with
  | observations. It's just the wrong way to think and present
  | things.
 
    | dghughes wrote:
    | Kurzgesagt seemed out of character for his rant video on
    | dairy, it was odd.
 
    | electrondood wrote:
    | I prefer this "main idea up front" presentation. In Slack
    | messages, emails, articles, etc. Everything but
    | drama/fiction.
 
  | TheMerovingian wrote:
  | +1 Sabine Hossenfelder. I find her way of explaining a bit more
  | towards my tastes.
 
  | ludsan wrote:
  | To pile on with the recommendations, I really enjoy "Launch Pad
  | Astronomy".
  | 
  | https://www.youtube.com/c/ChristianReady
 
  | Trasmatta wrote:
  | I'd also recommend Sean Carroll. His "Biggest Ideas in the
  | Universe" series is really great:
  | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI09kat_GeI&list=PLrxfgDEc2N...
  | 
  | I'd also recommend his podcast, Mindscape.
 
  | otikik wrote:
  | Thanks, will give it a go
 
  | mettamage wrote:
  | Yep, he's awesome. I am kinda surprised that he himself seems
  | to be a data scientist? I'd have suspected he'd be a phycisist.
 
    | mtnygard wrote:
    | Physics degrees were the gateway into data science before
    | there was such a thing as a data science degree. So it's
    | possible that he works as a data scientist but was trained as
    | a physicist.
 
    | [deleted]
 
  | dav_Oz wrote:
  | Second this. For someone enjoying long formats his compilations
  | are also great[0].
  | 
  | [0]https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=anton+petrov+comp
  | ...
 
| cyri wrote:
| For all the German speakers have a look at https://urknall-
| weltall-leben.de
 
| wvh wrote:
| PBS SpaceTime has been running for quite some time already.
| Beyond the obvious space/time and physics aspect, it's also a
| good example of a fact-based show that shows scientific method
| and critical thinking in action, without unnecessary drama or
| exaggerated sensationalist style; it strikes a perfect balance
| between science and narrative, serious and not-so-serious, in-
| depth and manageable chunk size. The graphics help to understand
| some of the material for us non-physicists or math geniuses, and
| Matt O'Dowd calm voice and wit create an environment suitable
| both for deep learning and deep relaxation, occasionally battling
| insomnia.
| 
| This is one of the gems of Youtube for sure.
 
  | digisign wrote:
  | Why not watch on PBS, rather than subjected to the drawbacks of
  | youtube?
 
    | tzs wrote:
    | I've never seen it on my local PBS station. Is it actually
    | aired anywhere?
    | 
    | It is streamable on the PBS website, and via the PBS apps on
    | iOS, Android, Roku, Samsung TVs, Amazon Fire TV and others,
    | but YouTube is still better.
    | 
    | As far as I've seen the PBS streams just include the episode
    | itself, compared to the YouTube version which included the
    | episode itself plus replies to points raised in the comments
    | to the previous episode or two.
    | 
    | Also the PBS apps on some of those devices are buggy or have
    | serious interface annoyances.
    | 
    | If you watch on the web on a platform where your browser can
    | run an ad blocker, YouTube beats the PBS website because of
    | the comment replies.
    | 
    | If you watch on the YouTube apps on a device such as a FireTV
    | where you cannot block ads, I'd say YouTube still beats using
    | the PBS on the device. The PBS apps often have 30 to 60
    | second promos for other PBS series. These aren't as annoying
    | as YouTube ads, but can get pretty annoying after a while
    | because there is a much more limited set. The Space Time
    | episodes are short enough that most of the time you will only
    | get YouTube ads up front, and those tend to be shorter than
    | the promos in the PBS app, and often let you skip after 5
    | seconds.
    | 
    | Even if the ads in the YouTube ad are more annoying than the
    | promos in the PBS app, I think for most people they won't be
    | more annoying enough to counter the YouTube app being less
    | buggy and having a better interface and including the comment
    | reply segments.
 
      | digisign wrote:
      | Hmm, have rarely found youtube comments to be worthwhile,
      | and on average terrible. However use of yt-dl or similar
      | might be the best of both worlds. Newpipe can make that
      | easier.
 
        | Snowworm wrote:
        | MPV or IINA are good for streaming YouTube videos too.
 
| etoulas wrote:
| The German equivalent is Alpha Centauri by Prof. Dr. Harald
| Lesch.
| 
| He created over 200 of those 15 min clips between 1998-2007.
| 
| https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF86BBCC6E99AF968
| 
| Space Night is another classic that should be mentioned in this
| context.
| 
| https://www.ardmediathek.de/sendung/space-night/Y3JpZDovL2Jy...
 
| gigamike wrote:
| I rarely comment but PBS Spacetime is an amazing channel and Matt
| a great host. Even though they don't (hell, I don't) understand
| it all, I love watching it with my kids and see their eyes get
| huge when they see the excellent graphics and concepts.
 
| osigurdson wrote:
| I love the deep dives into the basics like the "What is energy?"
| and "True nature of matter and mass" episodes.
 
| ziofill wrote:
| I like it because they go one step further than other science
| outreach channels, and they don't renounce on accuracy while
| simplifying obviously complex physics topics.
 
| barredo wrote:
| I love this channel very much.
 
| zabzonk wrote:
| This, together with The History Guy and The Critical Drinker are
| my three favourite channels on YouTube.
 
  | plandis wrote:
  | I've been adding a bunch of new recommendations from this
  | post... If you had to give like a one line pitch for each how
  | would to describe them?
 
| sylware wrote:
| The only way I can pay on the net, is by using a wallet code
| (like with amazon). Namely, I need a monetary account I can fuel
| with wallet codes I will buy at my local monetary outlet. Then
| upon payment at pbs, I would log to this "wallet code" service
| where I would validate (one time code receive via email, sms,
| etc) that payment. All that must be possible with noscript/basic
| (x)html browsers.
 
  | bdhcuidbebe wrote:
  | And your issue is?
 
| Vanit wrote:
| Somewhat related, Kurzgesagt is amazing.
 
  | spacemanmatt wrote:
  | Much agreed, and you may also enjoy Exurb1a
 
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