The Nominees - 134 YouTube channels that will make you smarter
The 60 YouTube channels that will make you smarter were selected from this master list. In here you can find many captivating channels that for some reason or other didn’t quite reach the shortlist. That shouldn’t take away from their standalone awesomeness though!
In addition, you’ll find some totally new categories of channels for your enjoyment. So go and get smarter!
Spark your curiosity
Vsauce — Amazing answers to questions about our world
In a Nutshell — Animations that makes learning beautiful
C. G. P. Grey — Entertaining explanations of politics, geography and culture
Crash Course — Bite-sized science and learning in many subjects
Scishow — Indispensable science news, history and concepts
HowStuffWorks — Your daily curiosity dose that explains the world
Brit Lab — Smart-ass ammunition that’s guaranteed to impress
Mental Floss — Where knowledge junkies go to get their weekly fix of trivia
THNKR — People, stories, ideas that will change your perspective
The Good Stuff — Great all around inspiration from PBS
Hello Internet — A podcast. We wish they would animate them one day
Experiment with the sciences
MinutePhysics — Simple explanations of physics and other sciences
Minute Earth — Science and stories about our awesome planet
Veritasium — Science and engineering videos by Derek Muller
Numberphile — Maths Mecca that sums up all things numerical
SmarterEveryDay — Exploring the world of science with Destin Sandlin
Applied Science — Interesting applications of science and technology
Periodic Videos — Videos of each element and other chemistry stuff
Sixty Symbols — A physics and astronomy cornucopia of cool
Scishow Space — Explores astronomy and cosmology in small chunks
AsapSCIENCE — A weekly dose of fun and intriguing science clips
It’s Okay To Be Smart — We agree!
PatrickJMT — Straight-to-the-point maths know-how
Bozeman Science — Paul Andersen teaches science
Tyler DeWitt — All the chemistry back-up you could ever ask for
SciFri — Science, technology, and other cool stuff. Fun for curious people
Nature — The video channel for Nature and other leading science journals
New Scientist — The world’s number one science and technology magazine
Science Channel — Science videos & news
Engineering Explained - How do cars work? After this you will know!
Brian Swarthout — Teaching chemistry, physics and maths from Germany
Mr Why U — Algebra and animation successfully combined
Untamed Science — Helping to educate the every-growing digital world
Connect with technology
Computerphile — A vast array of computing and tech videos
The Game Theorists — Over-analysing video games
Extra Credits — Video game design to start your developer career
Google Tech Talks — A grass-roots programme at Google sharing talks
Computer History — Quality lectures, events and vintage footage
LearnCode.academy — Web development, web site design and more
DevTips — Weekly videos on web design and development
The New Boston — Tons of great web development tutorials
CodeCourse — Helping you learn to code for free
Adam Khoury — Learn JavaScript, PHP, SQL, HTML, CSS and ActionScript
O’Reilly — Spreading the knowledge of technology experts
Google Developers — Offers lessons, talks, latest news and best practices
Professor Messer — Comprehensive choice for IT certifications
Expand your mind
The School of Life — Ideas for life through many lenses
BrainCraft — Weekly videos on psychology and neuroscience
Wisecrack — Learn your ass off with witty sketches
PBS Idea Channel — A cultural critique of pop, technology and art
Macat Education — Analyses of the most important books and ideas
Big History Project — Understand people and the world
It’s History — A great ride through history
The Great War — Everything you will ever need to know about 1914–1918
Philosophy Tube — Oliver Lennard “gives away a philosophy degree”
Shots of Awe — Thoughts on society, technology and human existence
Learn Liberty — A “liberated” resource for exploring ideas
Soul Pancake — A pep talk about stuff that matters
Gregory Sadler — Philosophy put into practice to make ideas accessible
Inspire your creativity
Mark Crilley — How-to-draw videos on almost every topic you can imagine
Draw With Jazza — Tutorials on all forms of visual expression
JustinGuitar — Guitar courses for various styles, techniques and abilities
HDpiano — Learn to play piano with easy to follow tutorials
Every Frame a Painting — Top-notch and truly fascinating analysis of film
Photo Exposed — Photography tips, techniques and tutorials
Adorama — Exclusive photography tutorials and workshops for all levels
The Art of Photography — A 360 degree look at making images
The Art Assignment — Artist talks and challenging assignments for yourself
Smithsonian Art Museum — An unparalleled source of American art
Tate — Features the best in international modern and contemporary art
Sycra — Inspirational art videos that entertain and instruct
Shanks FX — Teaching Hollywood effects with household products
FZD — Free education in entertainment design
Food Wishes — Foodies guaranteed to enhance your culinary skills
Sorted Food — Everything from the basics of cooking to aspirational recipes
Become a media marvel
BBC Journalism — Everything you need about how BBC journalists work
Film Riot — Film Riot is a how-to trip through all aspects of film making
BBC Production — All aspects of working in television, radio and online
Vox — Behind-the-scenes perspective on the daily news stream
Blank on Blank — Journalists’ unheard interviews with cultural icons
The Moth — Dedicated to the art of storytelling
Avoid burning your house down
Grant Thompson — Caution advised with these experiments and life hacks
Crazy Russian Hacker — The daddy of all science experiment channels
Green Power Science — A DIY channel dedicated to juicy solar power
Sick Science - Steve Spangler is a teacher, science toy designer and author
Get closer to nature
Earth Unplugged —BBC-produced channel about the natural world
BBC Earth — Jump in and meet your planet.
The Brain Scoop — A private tour of The Field Museum in Chicago
National Geographic Wild - All about animals - every story an adventure
Roll with the big boys
MIT OpenCourseWare — Intellectual stimulation by the prestigious MIT
ouLearn — The Open University’s rich and engaging learning channel
The RSA — The Royal Society of Arts has set new standards in its field
Gresham College — Liberally delivering knowledge through top lectures
TED Talks — No list would be complete without TED’s main collection
TEDx Talks — 360,000 talks on all subjects under the sun. Choose wisely
TED-Ed — Carefully curated and crafted educational videos and animations
Smithsonian — The mighty institution explores the grand questions
UC Berkeley — Huge collections of lectures in many subjects
Stanford — Large amounts of lectures and published content
Big Think — Exploring big ideas that define knowledge in the 21st century
The Royal Institution — Films and lectures about the natural world
Lynda — Helps anyone learn software, creative and business skills
Talks at Google — All sorts of people invited by Google - free super-juice
Khan Academy — Has helped so many and will go on to help many more
The Economist — A large amount of inspiration well beyond just analysis
IQ Squared —The world’s premier forum for debate
Library of Congress — Timeless treasures and contemporary content
Access the archives
British Pathé — Famous newsreels shown within carefully chosen topics
ITN Source — One of the largest historic collections of news footage
AP Archive — The Associated Press, the world’s largest and oldest agency
Objectivity — Great videos from archives and seldom opened vaults
British Movietone — The famous newsreel archive, spanning 1895 - 1986
Nurture the youngsters
Crash Course Kids — For 5th grade scientists, engineers and astronomers
SciShow Kids — Experiments, experts and answers for kids aged 8 to 88
HooplaKidz —Arts and crafts for little ’uns
Captain Discovery — Learning through nursery rhymes
WhizKidScience — Easy, do-at-home science experiments by clever kids
Make Me Genius — Science videos for kids
Dose up on medicine
Sexplanations — Honest answers about sexuality by Lindsey Doe
Laci Green — A sex education activist
Healthcare Triage — Answering questions about medicine and healthcare
Kenhub — An engaging and different way to learn human anatomy
Anatomy Zone — Great 3D anatomy videos
Radiology Channel — Your dedicated radiology resource
Learn a new language
BBC Learn English —New videos every day to help you with English
engVid — Learn English with 11 top teachers and over 900 lessons
French From beginners to advanced — The only source needed for French
Senor Jordan — Learn Spanish grammar
Butterfly Spanish — Spanish vocabulary, phrases and pronunciation
Yangyang Cheng — Learn Chinese with short and fun video lessons
Fiona Tian — New videos each week, helping you learn Mandarin Chinese
LearnArabicwithMaha — Arabic with a flavour of Hebrew and Italian
Enjoy the unusual
Vi Hart — A “recreational mathemusician” like no other
ElectroBOOM — Successfully discovering the craziness in engineering
Brusspup — Incredible illusions with a flavour of science
Closing words
These channels have been chosen from almost 800 candidates. In many categories, great channels and incredible niches had to be left out, but such is the burden of any editor. See a refined list of 60 channels here.
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This list was compiled by Bibblio, a content recommendation service that helps publishers deliver more relevant and engaging content experiences to their users. Visit us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
