Channel Showcase: It’s Okay To Be Smart

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It’s Okay To Be Smart. That’s the name of the science/educational channel run by Joe Hanson a science educator with a Ph.D in biology. While also being the name and brand of the channel, “It’s Okay To Be Smart” is the message of the channel; being smarter makes you a better person, and this channel will make it easier, and fun as well. Although Joe’s background is in biology, a topic the channel does cover, video topics often range to many other fields than biology, from physics to meteorology.

And It’s Okay To Be Smart‘s videos are always interesting and fascinating as well. Even though he’s a scientists, Joe Hanson is also very good at making videos and explaining science in an understandable and entertaining way. Some YouTube channels feature only animation (e.g., MinutePhysics, AsapScience), while some only the host talking (e.g., Vsauce), but It’s Okay To Be Smart combines the two in an interesting mashup of green screen keying, animation, and pictures. Altogether the style definitely works for making it easier to understand the videos, as you not only can see the narrator, which most of the time is preferable over just hearing them, but also have visual aspect that make educational videos helpful.

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An example of one of It’s Okay To Be Smart’s great videos is the one above, which I picked not only for its entertainment value, but also the topic: is Santa Claus real? In Joe’s scientific analyses, everything from Santa’s route to his sack of presents come under intense scrutiny. Any kid will tell you that of course Santa is real, but It’s Okay To Be Smart checks that assumption with science in this slightly tongue-in-cheek video. Using biology, physics, and even some quantum mechanics at the end, Joe determines that while Santa’s journey seems scientifically impossible, Mr. Claus may have some even more impressive Christmas magic up his sleeve that he uses to make his nightly round every year. You may think that a legitimate scientific explanation of Santa is impossible, and although Joe’s theory is based off of science that isn’t that established, he may very well have come up with a possible solution to the age old problem of how Santa delivers presents to every nice kid in the world.

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If you enjoyed the video above, I can assure you that It’s Okay To Be Smart is the channel for you. All their videos answer an interesting science-related questions, such as Why Do We Have To Sleep?Could Planet Minecraft Actually Exist?Why Are The Bees Dying?and many more. The channel has what any good educational YouTube channel has: good graphics, a good host, interesting and informative content, and an element of fun that makes it entertaining and worth watching. Overall, if you like science, as well as being smarter by watching fun and interesting videos, It’s Okay To Be Smart is the channel for you. 

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