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YouTube Educators Who are Better than Hollywood Movies
July 17, 2023 15:58
Unless you’re so far under a rock that you’re not even reading this blog in the first place, you’ve heard that a double strike of writers and actors has resulted in the effective shutdown of the movie and TV industry in the United States. This of course affects more than just writers and actors, as well as more than just US citizens; lots of people other than actors and writers work in these industries, and a staggering number of people will be indirectly affected by the lack of production in the meantime. (For an idea of how interconnected everything is, I suggest reading the famous essay, “I, Pencil.”)
But part of the reason for these strikes is how different everything is today compared to just a decade ago, much less last century. Sales are declining. Fewer movies and TV shows truly excite people. Sometimes it’s because the market has grown so much, and so many more options are available; but those available options really show that the biggest-budget new releases are increasingly unassociated with the greatest returns.
In fact, this blog post got inspired by this tweet:
There are very few films this year that I’ve been interested in, and only two I’m planning to see in the theater (one because my wife wants to see it and opening night is our wedding anniversary, so date night’s easy to plan), and I know I’m not alone. For TV, we were watching Will Trent, but it was so-so; and we’re both eagerly anticipating a new season of Almost Paradise (a procedural starring Christian Kane and a host of talented Filipino actors you should all check out); and . . . that’s about it.
Everything else we are watching in my house are DVDs, re-streams, original content on YouTube, and video games. Munchkin and Rascal really like it when Mommy plays Final Fantasy, though Munchkin has been asking when I can play “the new Jedi game.” (Sorry, kid, I can’t start Jedi: Survivor until after my trip next month. Work comes first.)
But as I kept thinking about it, I thought it might be useful to make a list of some handy original-content shows that might be useful for writers, especially the SF&F writers who usually frequent this blog. This isn’t an exhaustive list of even just the shows I’ve regularly watched and enjoyed, just what comes to mind after a quick scan of my recent watching and listening history from YouTube and Spotify. I’m sure I’ve forgotten a bunch, and I’ve been listening to and watching so much this year that my Audible stats are severely down for the first time in years.
It’s important to note as well that none of these channels should be treated as absolute sources. Some of them have PhDs, but that doesn’t mean they’re completely accurate. Everyone has a bias, everyone has a blindspot, and no one is an expert in everything. But I’m presenting this list as a source of information for SF&F writers . . . and by definition, we’re not interested in 100% accuracy. We’re interested in plausibility.
So here are seventeen YouTube channels I recommend for SF&F research and inspiration:
- Absolute History: This channel has a lot of details about ordinary life in historical periods, as well as some very good macro-history surveys like “how did Vienna become so important” or the history of black/African Christianity in Canada. I recommend this channel for authors writing about historical time periods, as well as for worldbuilding fantasy cultures by borrowing elements of our own history.
- Answers with Joe: A channel that primarily focuses on science but also takes a few details into the entertaining-but-bizarre (such as mysterious disappearances, legendary figures, and debunking the occasional conspiracy theory). This would be good to look at for just about any SF&F author, though it’ll have more benefit for near-future sci-fi.
- AsteronX: Focused on space technology, both near-future and theoretical technology, and a good resource for sci-fi authors who want to add some details about space travel.
- Cool Worlds: A channel based around a real-world team of astronomers at Columbia University, and focused on astronomy, space engineering, the possibilities of alien life, and exoplanets. I recommend it for sci-fi authors who want details about different star systems and galactic structure.
- CGP Grey: If you’re not new to the Internet, then chances are you already know about this channel. If for some reason you haven’t come across it, this is a channel that breaks down complicated and obscure topics in an entertaining and accessible way, such as Daylight Saving/Summer Time, the numbering on runways, and the history of the name Tiffany. He is by no means an unassailable source, and in fact I wouldn’t at all encourage you to treat him as such because his videos are often summaries on the level of a Wikipedia article; but this is a list for writers, and it can be very helpful to browse through his videos to find topics you might not have been aware of in the first place.
- Dr. Becky: The personal channel of Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astronomer at Oxford who primarily studies supermassive black holes — and you can tell she loves her job. I recommend this channel for SF authors who want to put more astrophysics into their books, especially if they’re describing how gravity works.
- Legend Fiction: This is a small channel focused on writing and promoting SF&F books and concepts from a Catholic and Orthodox perspective. This perspective may not be of interest to everyone, but if you’re a Christian of any sort you’ll likely find it interesting. For those of you who are interested in hearing from me in particular, this channel is hosted by a former college roommate of mine, Dominic de Souza, and he’s asked me to come on for multiple videos when I can free up time on my schedule; and I’ll be running several writing classes through his associated writer-support organization, also called Legend Fiction. I’ll post about both of those when they happen.
- Mark Rober: Rober is a former NASA engineer who now makes wacky YouTube videos once a month. Most of those are mainly for pure entertainment, but there are some fascinating educational elements in most of them, and some are primarily about education. This is useful to most SF&F writers, but don’t think that just because he talks a lot of engineering that it’s primarily for SF inspiration. Some of his wacky devices would make for great fantasy material, especially if you’re going with the “insane genius gnome” trope, and his video on medical drone delivery in Africa is absolutely wonderful inspiration not just for science fiction worldbuilding but also what a fantasy world could do with trained magical beasts or crossing golems with flying carpets and brooms. (Yes, this is the kind of thing I think about every day.)
- Real Life Lore: In recent years, this channel has become a wealth of video essays about the modern world and the history that has caused current situations. If you’re doing anything in recent history, modern day, or near-future, you’ll want to look at this channel. As well, if you’re doing military SF&F, this is an excellent place to go to for inspiration, as RLL tends to focus on armed conflicts, though by no means exclusively.
- SFIA: The show is called Science and Futurism with Isaac Arthur, but could easily have been called Science Fiction Ideas for Authors (and no, I didn’t come up with that joke). I’ve been binging a ton of these episodes for months now, and as he puts out at least five a month and they average around a half an hour each, that’s a lot of back information; but this channel does a lot to lay out complex physics, engineering, and medical concepts related to staple SF tropes, and so it’s an absolute must-see for any SF author (or, occasionally, hard-magic fantasy authors). The most important thing any SF author can gain from this channel is a concept of scale; space is big, and the future Isaac Arthur paints for humanity is equally enormous. (Please note he has a speech impediment; if you have trouble with it, all his videos except for the very earliest few are captioned.)
- Spacedock: This channel is primarily focused on examining existing sci-fi content, but it’s increasingly becoming an excellent source for SF author inspiration. It also had a recent poll where watchers were asked if they wanted to see more current-day military information, which I assume was because of how many people wanted to have worldbuilding ideas; the poll overwhelmingly said yes. So if you want to write military SF, this is the place you’ll want to start. In particular, their Realistic Sci-Fi Design series is going to be of great interest to you.
- The Space Race: This channel focuses on near-future space exploration, and summarizes a lot of news about commercial and government plans for space exploitation and discovery. As it was set up by the same people behind The Tesla Space, it obviously has a pro-SpaceX, pro-Elon Musk bias, but I gather the point of creating the channel was to try to focus on the wider topic in the first place. Either way, it’s an excellent spot for any near-future space engineering concepts.
- Tasting History: At first glance, a channel focused on trying out historical recipes might not seem like great inspiration for SF&F authors; but food is an extremely important part of any culture, and this channel will be of great interest to any fantasy author that wants to explore an often-neglected aspect of fantasy worldbuilding. (Plus, you can avoid unnecessary repetition, like how George R. R. Martin’s characters are eating capon every other meal, because apparently he read that word in a book once and wanted to use it as often as possible.) Just the videos on historical alcohol are going to be useful, and in particular I want to see someone describe a character drinking something based on Babylonian beer sometime. But in addition to the recipes, this channel is full of real history as well, and can be a great source of non-culinary worldbuilding as well.
- The Townsends: This channel is focused primarily on 18th century American frontier life, a period often neglected in both fantasy and SF because of how modern and familiar it can seem. At the same time, though, if you’re looking for inspiration for space westerns or the wider world of steampunk, this is an invaluable channel for you. Even if you’re doing pure fantasy, it can still be of great interest because of the details of ordinary life; a lot of 18th century home life is very similar to the 8th century, from building an oven to sewing clothing to scrambling eggs with a whisk made of twigs, and so you’ll find a lot of information applicable to classic medieval fantasy settings.
- The Why Files: This channel started out as a science and math show that found a niche examining conspiracy stories. The videos are very entertaining, and normally present a conspiracy narrative as completely true, followed by a rebuttal using the same research he used to make the video in the first place. Some of the videos don’t have rebuttals (like his coverage of the idea that the Great Pyramid was actually a power generator), despite the ease of finding facts to rebut all of the claims, but they are all entertaining and great sources of inspiration for both fantasy and science fiction. In addition, the commentary provided by his cohost, the talking goldfish Hecklefish, turns the presentation into a study in how straightman comedy can be used in education; and, recently, their in-video sponsor ads have become the most entertaining on YouTube.
- World of Antiquity: This channel is run by Dr. David Miano, an ancient historian who specializes in ancient Near Eastern, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Indian, and Chinese history. His style is either straight educational or, in some very hilarious shorts, parodying conspiracy theorists. His videos either debunk bad takes on history in video fisks (if you don’t know that term, it’s a point-by-point rebuttal, often with extra points for snark), or they deliver straight factual information with little fanfare. Don’t think the latter is not entertaining, but it will be significantly more entertaining for those who are already interested in the topic. This channel will be primarily interesting to authors looking to do Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron Age fantasy, those who want to do deep worldbuilding, or ancient alien SF done right (since he’ll make it obvious which versions of the latter are patently ridiculous).
- The WriterDojo: This one is a bit of an exception, as it’s an audio-only show. I mainly listen to it on Spotify myself, but they mirror the episodes over to YouTube so I’m sticking it here. This is a writing podcast presented by authors Steve Diamond and Larry Correia (both of whom have been mentioned on this blog before), and is full of great advice about writing from a business perspective.
As I said, this is by no means an exhaustive list, so I might update it if I remember a name or two and edit this paragraph to let you all know I did. If you have any suggestions of your own, make sure to let me know and I’ll check them out!
PS: If you’re in a click-to-subscribe mood by the time you get to this paragraph, check out Fishing Night’n Day. It’s not a writing channel by any stretch of the imagination, unless you happen to be a writer who likes fishing. It is, however, my older brother Michael’s channel; so if you do happen to like fishing, take a look.
Posted by Matthew Bowman
Categories: History, Research, Science, Tools and Techniques
Tags: Hollywood, Podcast, The WriterDojo
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Thank you for these great links. I am VERY excited about Legend Fiction. I just looked at their website. Super slick and obviously well resourced.
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By Dana Onifer on July 19, 2023 at 14:07
They have an online conference coming up, and I’ll be presenting something for that via their YouTube channel. I’m also in their forum as a mentor and will be doing a regular ongoing workshop with them that will be purchasable on a per-class basis for a low price for members. I don’t have a set price yet, but it’ll be affordable for non-members and cheaper for members.
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By Matthew Bowman on July 25, 2023 at 11:12