How to become smarter with YouTube?

A selection of the best educational channels from which you can learn a lot of new

Many people worry that they can proclaim for hours to watch videos in YouTube. At the request of Medusa, the Internet video producer Vasily Sonkin compiled a selection of channels that will allow you to cope with guilt, acquire new knowledge, skills and just think about something important. The vast majority of channels in this collection are English -speaking, but even if you do not know English very well, do not be upset: quite often the video crew helps to understand the host.

Around the school curriculum

A good example of a high -quality educational channel is Crash Course from YouTube veterans brothers Green. Usually they explain topics from the school program and do it briefly, capacious and cheerful. Often they choose not the most typical angle of view. For example, a lesson about the Second World War is built around the struggle for resources - with an analysis of rations in the armies of different countries . The most successful courses are about history , philosophy and completely magical about astronomy . There is also a cycle about the history of the universe, which allows you to deeply feel its own insignificance.

The topics are more complicated

For 10 years, there has been a channel about the Extra Credits gamedes. Usually there, some game mechanics are sorted out in the format of a very simple cartoon-syludshow or explain how the production of video games is arranged-but at some point the founders became interested in history and began to make the Extra History series. This channel earns, like many others on YouTube, crowdfunding on the Patreon site. There you can subscribe to a one -time or monthly donation. The interests of “investors” are more important than clicks and views, so the topics can be chosen not the most hackneyed. For example, there is a series about how humanity went to paper money. And about the Zulu empire , which for some time repulsed the colonialists in Africa, and about the head of the tribe, who invented military tactics, using the head of the bull for inspiration.

Veritasium is a channel where a very charming host explains the most difficult topics. What does quantum mechanics look like ? Which object is the most round on Earth ? And not only tells, but also shows. Look, for example, a great video about the anti -gravity wheel.

There is still a very serious channel about astrophysics. Sometimes an unprepared person may begin to boil the brain, but a series of videos about futurism will be interesting to everyone. I advise you to start from the video about why we should start the colonization of other planets not from Mars, but with Venus, the hottest planet in our system. Or from the video that is wondering what happens in black holes. Rather, it is: whether something happens in black holes (there is no time in them as such, so the answer is completely non-obvious).

And there is also a large Khanacademy project, which aims to make education publicly available. Here, for example, their series of videos on the introduction of programming .

Skills and skills

You can learn everything in YouTube. Or almost everything. It is easier for many people to perceive information through the video than through the text. And some items are objectively easier to show than to explain.

For example, how to build corners and generally work with a tree, says a carpenter Paul Sellers. Want to build a shelf, repair the door, or cut a wooden spoon - you to the floor.

Or there is a channel about chess. Since chess is a hit of the season, it's time to learn tactics (here is a video where they talk about the tactics “Fried Love attack”) or watch the analysis of the greatest games in history ( Kasparov against Topalov , already one and a half million views). There are excellent channels about chess in Russian. For example, “Chess with Olesya” - here you can learn to play from scratch along with the five -year genius Olesya Vlasova under the guidance of a charming coach.

Strange knowledge and ideas

VSAUCE are three different channels, where they are asked intentionally strange or abstract questions, and try to answer them clearly. What will happen if an atomic war happens in the world? Can we accidentally kill a microscopic life on Mars, or maybe it will kill us? What will the extinction of people look like?

In the Alternate History Hub channel, a certain Coody sits in America and comes up with scripts of alternative history. That is, it takes some historical moment, and imagines what would happen if it turned out differently. But what if Stalin would not come to power? But what if aliens attacked the world as in the film "Independence Day"? But what if Africa would not have been colonized? It sounds like a complete nonsense, but Cowdes, apparently, who knows the historian, so it’s interesting to listen to him.

Cowdie still has a second channel, initially about geography, but recently - about everything in the world. For example, about why in the USA in the 1920-1930s a dry law did not work. Or about how its geography influenced the history of Japan.

PBS IDEA Channel is a source of deepest and most honest intellectual reflections on the topic of modern culture, media and the state in which humanity with the advent of the Internet turned out to be. At the same time, the host, Mike Rugent, is constantly experimenting with formats and approaches. Sometimes the release is a playlist with cross-lings, sometimes a game built completely on YouTube mechanics. The topics are raised important, intellectual discussion level is very high. Many links to scientific work on the topic. To begin with, you can see the issue of how the rules of consumption of content are changing recently, or about the origin of the pizza .

By the way, one of the few truly useful channels in Russian, a talented analogue of Idea Channel in Russian - Blitz & Chips. Journalist Grigory Prophetov argues on completely different topics, from the role of personality in art on the example of Raphael to the role of religion in hip-hop on the example of rapper Chens.



Videoev

The video line is a relatively new genre where the leader’s reasoning is supported by a video sector. Most often, the picture in the video clearance is collected from frames of films, chronicles, infographics.

One of the main videosists is Tony Zhou, creator of the EVERY FRAME A PAINTing channel. In fact, he gradually collects an excellent versatile course on filming and directing. There are no bad videos on his channel, but first look at the video about Jackie Chan and his approach to work. It is far from always clear how much work Chan puts it in each of his film.

Or here is an essay about Michael Bay. Tony lays on the shelves why there are a lot of directors who love explosions and chaos on the screen, and Michael Bay is one: this is directly related to how Bay builds a frame.

One of the most popular (and really good) channels from the video entrance is called Nerdwriter. Once Evan Pushchak started a weekly video blog in order to increase the sale of the book that he then wrote. The book came out, but during the writing of Evan discovered another talent.

The main advantage of Nerdwriter is the regularity of issues. The Bowing releases a new video line every Wednesday and turned this process into a full -fledged work with full employment, on which he earns good money. The range of topics is wide, so here is a small selection of his best works:

• Analysis of how Donald Trump answers the question, and thoughts why such a language is close to voters in the United States
• Suddenly, a fascinating explanation why Rihanna’s song “Work” cannot be considered a tropic-house.
• The analysis of one scene of the series “The World of the Wild West” with Anthony Hopkins on what exactly makes the actor great.
• A completely delightful video about intertextuality, the main tool of Hollywood for sucking money from the audience.

Finally, the pioneer of the media video certificate is the American edition of VOX.

• Great video about how rhymes in hip-hop developed is very visual and fascinating.
• The adventure story about how Mona Lisa became the most famous picture in the world.
• A very good explanation of why the technologically advanced Concord aircraft, which could cross the Atlantic Ocean in just 3.5 hours still at a landfill of history.

Vasily Sonkin

Moscow