Lost in YouTube Land

Hi, I'm Cat and I'm a YouTube addict.

They say the first step is admitting that you have a problem. Well I have a problem. For years I followed webcomics, collecting comics like they were postage stamps. I'd read the entire archive and then add them to my list of daily or weekly reading. Then I did the same with blogs. I still follow over 120 blogs and 30 webcomics and that's pared down from two years ago.

YouTube has been just as addicting, if not more so. At least when I finish one webcomic it doesn't instantly direct me to 30 or 40 more just like it. I can lose hours just clicking from one video to the next. Mostly I start with the channels I love (which I'll link to below) but then it just branches from there. And suddenly I've spent four hours watching 3 to 7 minute videos.

I blame Jeff. He got me started with a YouTube channel called Smarter Every Day. Destin Sandlin makes educational videos of the stuff he finds fascinating. Fortunately for us, it's really fascinating stuff. He tries experiments, he shows examples, and he makes videos with so much enthusiasm that you can't help but be intrigued by his subjects. Just watch a few of his experiments and I know you'll be hooked. It's incredible stuff. I learn something new with each video. But once I started watching Smarter Every Day, it opened up the doors to all the other educational videos out there.

Periodic Videos, created by Brady Haran, is a channel that focuses on chemistry. They started out by going through each of the elements in the periodic table. It is a mixture of narrative, experiments, and some of the wildest hair you'll ever see. I'm only halfway through their archive of 500 videos but I never get tired of watching their work.

CGP Grey creates very professional looking animated videos to discuss politics, geography, and sociology, among other topics. Each episode is meticulously researched. It's a great mixture of entertainment and education. Grey's wonderful sense of humor and personality keeps me riveted to subjects that would normally leave me cold.

MinutePhysics by Henry Reich uses drawings to explain incredibly complicated physics topics in a video that's only a couple minutes long. Henry manages to make the topics seem simple and understandable with his drawings and his easy explanation. I've learned more watching that channel then I ever did in my high school physics class.

Veritasium by Derek Muller also explains physics and science topics. Derek normally starts each video by presenting some of the misconceptions about that topic and then uses experiments to show the correct reason why things work the way they do. I find it both interesting and humbling to realize that I often have the incorrect assumption about how things work. All of his videos make me want to learn more about the topic at hand and even more importantly, make me want to try experiments of my own.

The Brain Scoop with Emily Graslie was one I wasn't sure how much I'd like at first. Emily started out presenting videos of her work in U of Montana's Biology Department. She dissected a wolf, taught us about pangolins (one of the coolest animals ever), and showed us the fascinating animals in the school's collection. She's since moved over to the Field Museum and her videos now cover that amazing museum, which is my favorite place in the world when we go to Chicago.

Recently I've started getting into Numberphile, also created by Brady Haran. Jeff started watching this mathematics video series a year ago or so, but I struggled with it at first. I've never considered myself very good at math but these videos are making me see that it's just a matter of looking at things in the proper light. Some of it may still go over my head but I'm started to see patterns, and deciphering the language that is math.

But it's not all educational. I listen to most of my music on YouTube. Even after I've bought the songs and they are on my iPod, I find myself pulling up the videos. YouTube allows me to jump from song to song, using the suggestions on the right side. I've found some great new music that way.

My current fascination is John and Hank Green, collectively known as the Vlogbrothers. I'm a little late to the party since they did their well known Brotherhood 2.0 years ago. But the video correspondence between the two brothers makes for both entertaining and educational watching. I had originally found John Green through his work with Mental Floss (even before I found out he was an author) and Hank as the creator of The Brain Scoop. But since discovering their year of video correspondence and other videos, I think I might become a full fledged Nerdfighter.

I know that I've barely skimmed the surface of what's available on YouTube. There's plenty of material that I try to stay away from. I'm not looking for stupid human tricks. And I only occasionally watch funny cat videos. But I know that there are plenty of other videos out there that will both entertain and educate me. There are creators making some of the most unique and fascinating material being produced right now. YouTube has become a classroom. And I'm so glad I've found so many ways to learn.

C is for....

Cookie, of course. We all know the song.

If you haven't been bombarded with Sesame Street stuff enough recently, here is just one more tribute to the program that most of us grew up loving. Sesame Street turns 40 next week and the tributes have been popping up everywhere. Google's most recent doodles have included Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and today's Ernie and Bert. I've seen news articles everywhere about the impact of the show on my generation and beyond. Even the BBC got in on the act today and did an article and a video about the series.

I grew up with Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers and loved both of the shows as a child. My mother would teach us time based on the shows. When we asked how long something was she would tell us "one Sesame Street" which was an hour or "one Mr. Rogers" which was a half an hour. It was not a perfect system but we quickly figured out about how long things were from that. We didn't watch a ton of TV as kids but we never missed Sesame Street. And time wasn't the only thing we learned from the great show. I learned how to count and spell and add from the show. And I learned without realizing it. The beauty of the show is that it made it so much fun to learn. From the puppets to the animated segments or the live-action films, we were subtly taught basic skills.

I haven't really watched the show in many years so I don't know if or how things have changed. I know that some of the new popular characters like Elmo have gained quite a following. But back in my day (wow I sound old saying that) Big Bird and Snuffleupagus were celebrities for my generation. I'm glad that this educational program has received all the acclaim that it has. The geniuses who invented it molded a generation who had grown up with television as a medium. We learned and we loved it. And for that I'm incredibly grateful. It may not have been edgy but it was the best hour on television.

For added fun check out Matthew Stadlen's 5 Minutes With Sesame Street. I'm a huge fan of the whole 5 Minutes With... series but this one was extra fun.

A Picture is Worth....

The first real graphic novel I ever read was Maus by Art Speigelman. For those who tell me that graphic novels are kids stuff, I point to these books. Maus handles the holocaust in ways that are hard to describe. Even though the characters are animals there is no mistaking what is going on. The images are disturbing and sometimes truly gut-wrenching. It would be a hard hearted person who read these and didn't swept up in the emotions of the story. And I still claim that this story needed to be told in this format. Somehow the visual portrayal of these actions are so much worse then they would be through words alone. They are powerful stories.

But starting with Maus was interesting because when people would tell me that graphic novels are just oversized comic books (which I've read my share of) I couldn't believe them. Comic books have their own purpose but the beauty of a graphic novel is the depth it can take people. And since that time I have sought out graphic novels that educate just as much as I have the ones that entertain. There is far more to graphic novels than superheros. (although those are fun too.)

A friend of mine recently lent me Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. This starkly black and white graphic novel tells the true story of a young girl growing up in a very turbulant Iran. She lives through a dictatorship, a quick democracy, and the Islamic Revolution, until she is finally forced to leave the country. The story is brutal in parts and sweet in others. This is story of childhood told from the safer viewpoint of adulthood. The author mixes tales of relatives going to prisons, families fleeing, and the constant fear of discovery (her parents are revolutionaries). There are silly parts in the book but it left a vivid impression of darkness for me. The book has recently been turned into a film. A powerful story.

But I promise you, not all my reading selection is that dark. As I have mentioned in the blog before, The Arrival is a wonderful story of immigration, told entirely through pictures. The setting is strange enough to not be an identified place, but the emotions are very real. We follow one man as he leaves his family to travel to a foreign land. The reader gets to try to figure out the new society along with the protagonist. Until eventually he is able to welcome his family to the country and show them how to navigate. This is a wonderful story with a much happier ending then either of the previous two. If nothing else check the book out for Shaun Tan's amazing illustrations.

And for sheer humor (but also education) I'm reading Larry Gonick's The Cartoon History of the Universe, parts 1-7. This light and often silly graphic story starts at the big bang and looks at human history from early fish life through the Ancient Greek civilization. There is a long section on the Egyptians that was just fascinating and the stories of early Canaan and Persia are wonderful. For the first time I was able to keep track of at least some of the ancient rulers. Gonick mixes just enough silliness with just enough facts to make for a very entertaining and informative read. Jeff had recommended the book and I have to say I've learned a ton about ancient history and laughed out loud a couple times in the process. There are more books following that bring history up to the modern time.