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PBS SpaceTime

pbsspacetime.com

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Re: PBS SpaceTime

#141

Post by tzs »

digisign wrote: post #125
tzs wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never seen it on my local PBS station. Is it actually aired anywhere? It is streamable on the PBS website, and via the PBS apps on iOS, Android, Roku, Samsung TVs, Amazon Fire TV and others, but YouTube is still better. As far as I've seen the PBS streams just include the episode itself, compared to the YouTube version which included the episode itself plus replies to points raised in the comments to the previou…

Hmm, have rarely found youtube comments to be worthwhile, and on average terrible. However use of yt-dl or similar might be the best of both worlds. Newpipe can make that easier.

Just to be clear I'm not saying that an advantage of watching on YouTube is that you can read the YouTube comments.

The Space Time staff read the YouTube comments, pick a few of the best, and then at the end of a later video (usually the next one or the one after that) they present those comments and respond. These comment responses often answer questions that I had when watching the earlier episode.

The videos on the PBS website or in the PBS apps just have the episode.

Re: PBS SpaceTime

#142

Post by wrycoder »

PartiallyTyped wrote: post #127
TechSquidTV wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I watch an _absurd_ amount of PBS content on YouTube and other science channels. Not as many math channels but certainly a few. I am so angry this was never recommended to me earlier, and full of joy that my weekend is set!

It is astounding that so many people (me included) have this complain. I also watch numberphile, computerphile, 3B1B and the likes and yet I had never heard of the channel before.

Same for me.

I find the YouTube algorithm pretty useless. I have lots of subscriptions, but it only links narrowly to channels I’ve recently watched. It also keeps stupidly linking to particular vids I’ve already watched.

Re: PBS SpaceTime

#143

Post by snapetom »

djmips wrote: post #103
snapetom wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah. I agree, but I'll add that his style is more like it's easy to follow for a while, then suddenly the car drives off a cliff and you need upper division college physics to understand. I really love Anton. He has a way to ELI5 that's really effective and really genuine.

Hello wonderful person. Are you referring to Anton Petrov? I also really enjoy his channel.

There's no other Anton, wonderful person!

Re: PBS SpaceTime

#144

Post by dotnet00 »

formerly_proven wrote: post #8

Spacetime is nice because they / Matt often acknowledge uncertainty (indeed, gaps being found or closed in current understanding are probably one of the most common themes of the show), unlike many others which tend to present theories as facts (e.g. kurzgesagt often does this). Likewise, they don't shy away from making relatively complex explanations instead of leaning all to heavily into bogus analogies. They made…

The way a lot of so-called science channels make the mistake of presenting theories as facts is why I've dropped most of them. Spacetime has been the only show I've never had that complaint with. Kurzegesagt was an especially big offender in that manner.

Re: PBS SpaceTime

#145

Post by scollet »

I really enjoyed PBS Idea Channel when I was younger. I'm not sure about its vanguard today, but it was like VSauce but without the VSauce aspect.

Re: PBS SpaceTime

#146

Post by kkukshtel »

Weird to see this on HN! I'm late to the party but was browsing older HN posts and just saw it — I was the director of the first "season" of this show (with Gabe) and directed about ~10 episodes with Matt before leaving the production company that makes it. Happy to answer any questions about the show/how it happened/etc. I'll also browse comments here to see if I can answer anything.

Re: PBS SpaceTime

#147

Post by kkukshtel »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #47
shrikrishna wrote: post #20

A channel worth subscribing. Matt (and team?) manages successfully to walk the fine line between managing the complexity of the topics they discuss (which are sometimes extremely dense), making it consumable for the population that's interested in science and physics, but doesn't pursue it on a daily basis. At the same time, they don't fall for the trap of dumbing it down to the point where the audience develops misc…

>making it consumable for the population that's interested in science and physics, but doesn't pursue it on a daily basis. While I love the channel, it seems like they're more targeted to someone with a lot of physics education, more so than lay people. This is the only channel I've ever watched and genuinely felt dumb on a regular basis.

When we first started the show we were doing way dumber more youtube-y content (largely due to the interests of the producers, not PBS — look up the Majora's mask or farting in space episode). We got a ton of initial feedback early on that people wanted more actual science stuff, and it seemed like there was effectively no upper bound for what people would "tolerate" in terms of actual science vs. IFLS-core content. I think people honestly just like the challenge of understanding the show.

Re: PBS SpaceTime

#148

Post by danicriss »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #47
shrikrishna wrote: post #20

A channel worth subscribing. Matt (and team?) manages successfully to walk the fine line between managing the complexity of the topics they discuss (which are sometimes extremely dense), making it consumable for the population that's interested in science and physics, but doesn't pursue it on a daily basis. At the same time, they don't fall for the trap of dumbing it down to the point where the audience develops misc…

>making it consumable for the population that's interested in science and physics, but doesn't pursue it on a daily basis. While I love the channel, it seems like they're more targeted to someone with a lot of physics education, more so than lay people. This is the only channel I've ever watched and genuinely felt dumb on a regular basis.

I've watched random videos from it until I decided to watch them all chronologically. I must say, they do build on previous episodes, even more heavily as time goes on

Re: PBS SpaceTime

#149

Post by tambeb »

I was a Patreon supporter for about 2 years, at the 2nd biggest pledge level of $250/month. I only stopped because of my own, um, cash flow issues... :)

I'm saying this not to show off or signal my virtue. I'm saying it to let everyone know it's a fantastic channel that is well worth your time and/or support. They have never ventured into click-bait land, nor do I think they ever will.

If you like science, and physics specifically, give 'em a look.

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