hello and welcome to top X where we
countdown the very best that YouTube has
to offer
I’m your host Dan and today we’ll be
expanding our minds with the top 10 make
you smarter channels
for this list we’re looking at channels
that focus on everything from scientific
trivia to full-on educational courses we
ranked our picks based on a mix of
subscriber numbers views personal
preference votes from our users and of
course general impact on the YouTube
community
number 10 Mental Floss starting off our
list is actually a pretty big brand name
Mental Floss is also a print magazine of
the same name but we all know the state
of print media so it makes sense they
would branch out to this sexy new medium
we call the Internet’s all the cool kids
are doing it hi I’m John Green welcome
to my salon who a mustachioed me this is
Mental Floss on YouTube and according to
the internet if I put my iPhone inside
of this toilet paper roll thing it’ll
turn into a speaker let’s see how it
works
here you may recognize the host John
Green who’s appeared on our blog
channels episode and is generally all
over YouTube Mental Floss focuses on
debunking and answering common questions
or misconceptions about everyday life
things like why do our teeth chatter
when we’re cooled or common
misconceptions about exercise Plus
according to a 2013 study published in
the Journal of strength and conditioning
research people who stretched before
weightlifting actually felt weaker on
top of those questions and
misconceptions that they’re debunking
Mental Floss also features countdowns of
trivia this rapid-fire barrage of
interesting facts is really addictive to
watch and is definitely their most
popular segment ok so we roll this down
we pinch off with the thumbs about an
inch there unroll and re-roll what
number 9 Matthew Santoro man countdown
say if you’re not doing Taylor Swift
covers playing Minecraft or pranking
your girlfriend chances are you’re doing
a countdown continuing in this fine
youtube tradition is our number 9 pick
Matthew Santoro who may or may not be
the guy from you don’t know jack
Facebook tracks and records your IP
address as well as the URL of every
website that you visit that uses any of
its social plugins such as the like
button no need to be logged in or even
have an account here on top X we often
mention channels that update on a
consistent basis making them reliable
sources for a weekly or even daily fix
Matthew Santoro Channel is one of those
he uploads a 50 amazing facts to blow
your mind countdown every week
and in between these releases countdowns
of 10 on more specific topics when the
elephant whisperer Laurence Anthony died
in March of 2012 an entire herd of
elephants arrived at his home to mourn
him like Mental Floss these are less
about having to learn a specific topic
and more service a cascade of
interesting trivia to satisfy your
conversational party needs Nemo makes an
appearance in the movie monsters Inc as
a toy that boo gives to Sully a full two
years before Finding Nemo was released
in fact Pixar movies are infamous for
being full of Easter eggs like this
number eight minute physics moving away
from light-hearted trivia and delving
into slightly more advanced topics we
have minute physics coming in at number
eight does the universe have a purpose
I’m not sure but anyone who expresses a
more definitive response to the question
is claiming access to knowledge not
based in empirical foundations minute
physics is easily recognizable by their
hand-drawn stop-motion style I say
hand-drawn and I mean that literally
because you actually see a hand come in
and draw the illustration in question
even light itself is an unstoppable
force every photon that hits your body
changes your momentum a tiny little bit
and there’s nothing you can do about it
other than avoid light altogether or
become transparent the art style goes
for bare-bones simplicity and uses a
stick figure style that will be very
familiar to anyone who reads xkcd while
the topics on mitad physics vary in
complexity they really excel at
explaining common yet complex concepts
things like equals MC square or
Schrodinger’s cat so if you’re too
embarrassed to ask what C level means
they’ll help you out for example when we
say that Mount Everest is eight thousand
eight hundred and fifty meters above sea
level how do we know what sea level
would be beneath Mount Everest since
there’s no sea for hundreds of
kilometers number seven scishow those
damn green brothers are at it again and
number seven we have scishow which is
hosted by Hank green brother to John
Green who we saw earlier just like birds
bats and bees all have wings but are
found in very different places on the
Tree of Life so too are our venomous
friends a good example of convergent
evolution where diverse animals evolved
similar features separately at different
points in time much like his brothers
show Hanks scishow really focuses on
debunking common Mis
conceptions about everyday life scishow
definitely goes into topics that are a
bit more outlandish though certainly
ones that come up with less frequency
than on other channels these topics
range from what our blood types to why
do your joints crack when you crack your
knuckles so that pop you hear is
actually the sound of a bubble forming
inside your synovial fluid what’s really
cool is if you take an x-ray of a joint
right after cracking it you can actually
see the bubble it increases the size of
the joint cavity by about 15% it’s this
variety that helps differentiate scishow
from its contemporaries the topic C
covers range from biology and Tamala G
zoology the list goes on and with two or
three videos published every week
there’s tons to sink your teeth into new
studies are looking at snake venom to
treat arthritis scorpion venom to fight
brain cancer and the golden dart frogs
alkaloid toxins for use as a pain
reliever stronger than morphine number
six ASAP science coming up next is ASAP
science hosted by Gregory Brown and
Michael Moffat who you can see
serenading potential subscribers on
their channel page I’ll be the spark if
y’all will be the flame start a reaction
that can’t be contained balance your pH
by sharing my base I’ll be your star if
you’ll be my space ASAP science uses a
sort of stop-motion whiteboard kind of
style that’s actually very similar to
minutephysics
however they just seem to sort of do it
a bit better rarely do they ever have to
use an outside picture while they’re
still always clearly illustrating the
concept that they’re explaining the
chicken or the chicken egg focuses more
on the cyclical cause and consequence
that is if a chicken is born from an egg
where did the egg come from another
chicken presumably which two must have
come from an egg the guys at ASAP
science have clearly put a lot of effort
into making their videos as accessible
as possible everything from the
animation style to the cadence and
vocabulary all the way to the titles
they choose for their videos lets you
know that ASAP science has positioned
themselves as something that would be as
fun and interesting for kids as it would
be for adults the testicles are attached
to many nerves in the stomach as well as
the vagus nerve which is directly
connected to the brains vomit Center and
this is why when hit the pain spreads
throughout the abdomen number 5 crash
course or just past the halfway point
and here we have another channel hosted
by the green brook really the green
brothers
you’re kidding me hi I’m John Green
welcome to crash course this is a
YouTube channel it’s a place you know
we’re like YouTube videos go
apparently not content with our other
428 channels here the green brothers
offer crash courses in a variety of
topics whereas there are other channels
seek to answer or debunk certain
questions here the green brothers help
you be a quasi expert in a certain topic
in 15 minutes or less cellular
respiration is how we derive energy from
the food that we eat pacifically from
glucose since most of what we eat ends
up as glucose as you might expect here
the green brothers actually have to go
into a certain amount of depth that you
won’t get on other channels that’s not
to say their videos are dry or boring
though a mix of the quirky green
brothers flashy animations and a lot of
supporting V roll makes the videos very
watchable I promise you a lot better
than school whether you’re here because
you need to pass a test because you need
to help your students pass a test or
best of all just because you want to
learn stuff we hope you’ll find our
content helpful and rewarding number
four smarter every day smarter every day
follows the scientific adventures of
Destin Sandlin now I say adventures
because instead of setting up in a home
studio Destin goes out into the world
and goes on scientific adventures
filming on location these adventures
often explore the science of everyday
things things like the science of a slap
shot or a tattoo gun rotary machines are
pretty easy to understand
here this motor has rotational motion
and it’s translated to linear motion
here at the needle bar that’s pretty
simple right although he clearly has
access to high-speed cameras and pretty
advanced animation Destin always films
himself during these adventures with his
own handheld camera kind of selfie style
these give the videos a kind of feeling
like you’re there with him on the
adventure I have decided that I want to
feel what this needle feels like because
it’s actually going in the skin and
pulling it up and you said you can do
this without actually tattooing me yeah
I’m not going to use it I’m just going
to use a needle aside from the eccentric
host and the overall style what smarter
every day really has going for it is
ultra slow motion footage his most
popular videos are stuff like an ache a
firing underwater and super slo-mo or a
tattoo gun tattooing skin in super
slo-mo
number three Khan Academy continuing in
the trend of channels that help me learn
a specific topic in depth here we have
Khan Academy a channel founded by Salman
Khan hi my name is Sal Khan I’m the
founder and faculty of the Khan Academy
and we’re trying to educate the world
more of an intellectual institution than
an entertaining video channel Khan
Academy is no joke their motto is to
provide a world-class education for
anyone anywhere because the most
beautiful complex concepts in the whole
universe are built on basic ideas that
anyone anywhere can understand taking a
quick look at one of their videos or
even a list of their stills you’d be
forgiven if you thought that Khan
Academy was a similar channel
stylistically at least two minute
physics or ASAP science but you’d be
very wrong while those channels go to
great lengths to make their videos very
accessible and user-friendly Khan
Academy just focuses on making their
videos thorough the reason why we care
is that these are the inputs into the
electron transport chain these get
oxidized or they lose their hydrogens
the electron transport chain and that’s
where the bulk of the ATP is actually
produced while it’s certainly not
light-hearted fare if you’re looking for
something to replace that fancy
education you couldn’t afford or didn’t
pay attention to Khan Academy might be
just what you need
number two veritasium somewhat similar
to smarter every day
veritasium is another channel that’s
host driven and filmed on location
sometimes the simplest questions have
the most amazing answers like is there a
speed limit in the universe where does
the Sun get that energy from where do
they get the matter to make the tree
like pretty much every other channel on
this list that isn’t a course channel
veritasium focuses on answering everyday
questions and debunking common
misconceptions however he’s climbed a
bit higher on this list because of the
production value and polish of his
videos there’s better camerawork
underlying music and an all-round
professionalism to his clips that really
helps him stand out doesn’t this violate
Einstein’s special theory of relativity
that says nothing should be able to move
faster than light
actually no relativity says nothing can
move through space faster than light but
that doesn’t stop space itself from
expanding however it likes what’s ironic
about this high production value that I
point out is that he actually has a
second channel called to veritasium
where he likes to post things that are
unedited because and I swear this is
true editing and all that polish is a
lot of work we showed that if you light
a teabag on fire from the top it will
actually take off into the air that
happens because as the teabag is burning
all the air inside it heats up and so it
expands so it gets less dense and it’s
pushed up by all the cooler air around
it before we get to our top pick here
are a few honorable mentions
number one
Vsauce one rounding out our list is one
last channel devoted to mind-blowing
facts now that’s a direct quote from
their about page so you know that trivia
is going to play a huge role in this our
number one pick hey Vsauce Michael here
action and danger is exciting but this
is a fake gun and the process of
enlarging a hole like the barrel of a
gun is called boring so I know I’ve
repeated this a couple of times today
but this is another channel that really
likes to focus on debunking I’m talking
about common scientific questions they
differentiate themselves from their
contemporaries however by throwing in a
decent amount of philosophical
psychological and existential questions
into the mix so along with stuff like
what happens to guns in space or whether
or not the five-second rule is accurate
you have things like why do we get bored
or what makes things cute small body
size with a disproportionately large
head large eyes and round and soft body
features funnily enough vsauce is at the
top of list because they asked a lot of
questions that you probably don’t ask
yourself a lot things like how much does
the internet weigh or what if everyone
on earth jumped at the same time okay so
then we jump what happens unfortunately
not much it’s this interesting mix of
hard science answering really quirky
questions that makes me saw such a great
channel to watch and why it’s our number
one every single video across the entire
web every single image every single
website every email you’ve sent every
love letter you’ve written every photo
of your grandkids you’ve received is
collectively hell
within an amount of mass about the size
of the smallest possible grain of sand
that’s it for our countdown chances are
you’re smarter already be sure to vote
on our upcoming lists on our suggest
page online follow us on Twitter and
Instagram and for more great top 10s
published every day be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com
countdown the very best that YouTube has
to offer
I’m your host Dan and today we’ll be
expanding our minds with the top 10 make
you smarter channels
for this list we’re looking at channels
that focus on everything from scientific
trivia to full-on educational courses we
ranked our picks based on a mix of
subscriber numbers views personal
preference votes from our users and of
course general impact on the YouTube
community
number 10 Mental Floss starting off our
list is actually a pretty big brand name
Mental Floss is also a print magazine of
the same name but we all know the state
of print media so it makes sense they
would branch out to this sexy new medium
we call the Internet’s all the cool kids
are doing it hi I’m John Green welcome
to my salon who a mustachioed me this is
Mental Floss on YouTube and according to
the internet if I put my iPhone inside
of this toilet paper roll thing it’ll
turn into a speaker let’s see how it
works
here you may recognize the host John
Green who’s appeared on our blog
channels episode and is generally all
over YouTube Mental Floss focuses on
debunking and answering common questions
or misconceptions about everyday life
things like why do our teeth chatter
when we’re cooled or common
misconceptions about exercise Plus
according to a 2013 study published in
the Journal of strength and conditioning
research people who stretched before
weightlifting actually felt weaker on
top of those questions and
misconceptions that they’re debunking
Mental Floss also features countdowns of
trivia this rapid-fire barrage of
interesting facts is really addictive to
watch and is definitely their most
popular segment ok so we roll this down
we pinch off with the thumbs about an
inch there unroll and re-roll what
number 9 Matthew Santoro man countdown
say if you’re not doing Taylor Swift
covers playing Minecraft or pranking
your girlfriend chances are you’re doing
a countdown continuing in this fine
youtube tradition is our number 9 pick
Matthew Santoro who may or may not be
the guy from you don’t know jack
Facebook tracks and records your IP
address as well as the URL of every
website that you visit that uses any of
its social plugins such as the like
button no need to be logged in or even
have an account here on top X we often
mention channels that update on a
consistent basis making them reliable
sources for a weekly or even daily fix
Matthew Santoro Channel is one of those
he uploads a 50 amazing facts to blow
your mind countdown every week
and in between these releases countdowns
of 10 on more specific topics when the
elephant whisperer Laurence Anthony died
in March of 2012 an entire herd of
elephants arrived at his home to mourn
him like Mental Floss these are less
about having to learn a specific topic
and more service a cascade of
interesting trivia to satisfy your
conversational party needs Nemo makes an
appearance in the movie monsters Inc as
a toy that boo gives to Sully a full two
years before Finding Nemo was released
in fact Pixar movies are infamous for
being full of Easter eggs like this
number eight minute physics moving away
from light-hearted trivia and delving
into slightly more advanced topics we
have minute physics coming in at number
eight does the universe have a purpose
I’m not sure but anyone who expresses a
more definitive response to the question
is claiming access to knowledge not
based in empirical foundations minute
physics is easily recognizable by their
hand-drawn stop-motion style I say
hand-drawn and I mean that literally
because you actually see a hand come in
and draw the illustration in question
even light itself is an unstoppable
force every photon that hits your body
changes your momentum a tiny little bit
and there’s nothing you can do about it
other than avoid light altogether or
become transparent the art style goes
for bare-bones simplicity and uses a
stick figure style that will be very
familiar to anyone who reads xkcd while
the topics on mitad physics vary in
complexity they really excel at
explaining common yet complex concepts
things like equals MC square or
Schrodinger’s cat so if you’re too
embarrassed to ask what C level means
they’ll help you out for example when we
say that Mount Everest is eight thousand
eight hundred and fifty meters above sea
level how do we know what sea level
would be beneath Mount Everest since
there’s no sea for hundreds of
kilometers number seven scishow those
damn green brothers are at it again and
number seven we have scishow which is
hosted by Hank green brother to John
Green who we saw earlier just like birds
bats and bees all have wings but are
found in very different places on the
Tree of Life so too are our venomous
friends a good example of convergent
evolution where diverse animals evolved
similar features separately at different
points in time much like his brothers
show Hanks scishow really focuses on
debunking common Mis
conceptions about everyday life scishow
definitely goes into topics that are a
bit more outlandish though certainly
ones that come up with less frequency
than on other channels these topics
range from what our blood types to why
do your joints crack when you crack your
knuckles so that pop you hear is
actually the sound of a bubble forming
inside your synovial fluid what’s really
cool is if you take an x-ray of a joint
right after cracking it you can actually
see the bubble it increases the size of
the joint cavity by about 15% it’s this
variety that helps differentiate scishow
from its contemporaries the topic C
covers range from biology and Tamala G
zoology the list goes on and with two or
three videos published every week
there’s tons to sink your teeth into new
studies are looking at snake venom to
treat arthritis scorpion venom to fight
brain cancer and the golden dart frogs
alkaloid toxins for use as a pain
reliever stronger than morphine number
six ASAP science coming up next is ASAP
science hosted by Gregory Brown and
Michael Moffat who you can see
serenading potential subscribers on
their channel page I’ll be the spark if
y’all will be the flame start a reaction
that can’t be contained balance your pH
by sharing my base I’ll be your star if
you’ll be my space ASAP science uses a
sort of stop-motion whiteboard kind of
style that’s actually very similar to
minutephysics
however they just seem to sort of do it
a bit better rarely do they ever have to
use an outside picture while they’re
still always clearly illustrating the
concept that they’re explaining the
chicken or the chicken egg focuses more
on the cyclical cause and consequence
that is if a chicken is born from an egg
where did the egg come from another
chicken presumably which two must have
come from an egg the guys at ASAP
science have clearly put a lot of effort
into making their videos as accessible
as possible everything from the
animation style to the cadence and
vocabulary all the way to the titles
they choose for their videos lets you
know that ASAP science has positioned
themselves as something that would be as
fun and interesting for kids as it would
be for adults the testicles are attached
to many nerves in the stomach as well as
the vagus nerve which is directly
connected to the brains vomit Center and
this is why when hit the pain spreads
throughout the abdomen number 5 crash
course or just past the halfway point
and here we have another channel hosted
by the green brook really the green
brothers
you’re kidding me hi I’m John Green
welcome to crash course this is a
YouTube channel it’s a place you know
we’re like YouTube videos go
apparently not content with our other
428 channels here the green brothers
offer crash courses in a variety of
topics whereas there are other channels
seek to answer or debunk certain
questions here the green brothers help
you be a quasi expert in a certain topic
in 15 minutes or less cellular
respiration is how we derive energy from
the food that we eat pacifically from
glucose since most of what we eat ends
up as glucose as you might expect here
the green brothers actually have to go
into a certain amount of depth that you
won’t get on other channels that’s not
to say their videos are dry or boring
though a mix of the quirky green
brothers flashy animations and a lot of
supporting V roll makes the videos very
watchable I promise you a lot better
than school whether you’re here because
you need to pass a test because you need
to help your students pass a test or
best of all just because you want to
learn stuff we hope you’ll find our
content helpful and rewarding number
four smarter every day smarter every day
follows the scientific adventures of
Destin Sandlin now I say adventures
because instead of setting up in a home
studio Destin goes out into the world
and goes on scientific adventures
filming on location these adventures
often explore the science of everyday
things things like the science of a slap
shot or a tattoo gun rotary machines are
pretty easy to understand
here this motor has rotational motion
and it’s translated to linear motion
here at the needle bar that’s pretty
simple right although he clearly has
access to high-speed cameras and pretty
advanced animation Destin always films
himself during these adventures with his
own handheld camera kind of selfie style
these give the videos a kind of feeling
like you’re there with him on the
adventure I have decided that I want to
feel what this needle feels like because
it’s actually going in the skin and
pulling it up and you said you can do
this without actually tattooing me yeah
I’m not going to use it I’m just going
to use a needle aside from the eccentric
host and the overall style what smarter
every day really has going for it is
ultra slow motion footage his most
popular videos are stuff like an ache a
firing underwater and super slo-mo or a
tattoo gun tattooing skin in super
slo-mo
number three Khan Academy continuing in
the trend of channels that help me learn
a specific topic in depth here we have
Khan Academy a channel founded by Salman
Khan hi my name is Sal Khan I’m the
founder and faculty of the Khan Academy
and we’re trying to educate the world
more of an intellectual institution than
an entertaining video channel Khan
Academy is no joke their motto is to
provide a world-class education for
anyone anywhere because the most
beautiful complex concepts in the whole
universe are built on basic ideas that
anyone anywhere can understand taking a
quick look at one of their videos or
even a list of their stills you’d be
forgiven if you thought that Khan
Academy was a similar channel
stylistically at least two minute
physics or ASAP science but you’d be
very wrong while those channels go to
great lengths to make their videos very
accessible and user-friendly Khan
Academy just focuses on making their
videos thorough the reason why we care
is that these are the inputs into the
electron transport chain these get
oxidized or they lose their hydrogens
the electron transport chain and that’s
where the bulk of the ATP is actually
produced while it’s certainly not
light-hearted fare if you’re looking for
something to replace that fancy
education you couldn’t afford or didn’t
pay attention to Khan Academy might be
just what you need
number two veritasium somewhat similar
to smarter every day
veritasium is another channel that’s
host driven and filmed on location
sometimes the simplest questions have
the most amazing answers like is there a
speed limit in the universe where does
the Sun get that energy from where do
they get the matter to make the tree
like pretty much every other channel on
this list that isn’t a course channel
veritasium focuses on answering everyday
questions and debunking common
misconceptions however he’s climbed a
bit higher on this list because of the
production value and polish of his
videos there’s better camerawork
underlying music and an all-round
professionalism to his clips that really
helps him stand out doesn’t this violate
Einstein’s special theory of relativity
that says nothing should be able to move
faster than light
actually no relativity says nothing can
move through space faster than light but
that doesn’t stop space itself from
expanding however it likes what’s ironic
about this high production value that I
point out is that he actually has a
second channel called to veritasium
where he likes to post things that are
unedited because and I swear this is
true editing and all that polish is a
lot of work we showed that if you light
a teabag on fire from the top it will
actually take off into the air that
happens because as the teabag is burning
all the air inside it heats up and so it
expands so it gets less dense and it’s
pushed up by all the cooler air around
it before we get to our top pick here
are a few honorable mentions
number one
Vsauce one rounding out our list is one
last channel devoted to mind-blowing
facts now that’s a direct quote from
their about page so you know that trivia
is going to play a huge role in this our
number one pick hey Vsauce Michael here
action and danger is exciting but this
is a fake gun and the process of
enlarging a hole like the barrel of a
gun is called boring so I know I’ve
repeated this a couple of times today
but this is another channel that really
likes to focus on debunking I’m talking
about common scientific questions they
differentiate themselves from their
contemporaries however by throwing in a
decent amount of philosophical
psychological and existential questions
into the mix so along with stuff like
what happens to guns in space or whether
or not the five-second rule is accurate
you have things like why do we get bored
or what makes things cute small body
size with a disproportionately large
head large eyes and round and soft body
features funnily enough vsauce is at the
top of list because they asked a lot of
questions that you probably don’t ask
yourself a lot things like how much does
the internet weigh or what if everyone
on earth jumped at the same time okay so
then we jump what happens unfortunately
not much it’s this interesting mix of
hard science answering really quirky
questions that makes me saw such a great
channel to watch and why it’s our number
one every single video across the entire
web every single image every single
website every email you’ve sent every
love letter you’ve written every photo
of your grandkids you’ve received is
collectively hell
within an amount of mass about the size
of the smallest possible grain of sand
that’s it for our countdown chances are
you’re smarter already be sure to vote
on our upcoming lists on our suggest
page online follow us on Twitter and
Instagram and for more great top 10s
published every day be sure to subscribe
to watchmojo.com
Please follow and like us: