Time for a Brain Snack — Crash Course and Thought Bubble

I think it’s about time I started being honest with myself. Yes, it’s time to admit it. I have an addiction…to history. There, I said it. Lately, I’ve found a fix that fuels my addiction, and it’s called Crash Course.

Crash Course is a series of videos on YouTube made by the VlogBrothers, who are pretty awesome just on their own. But for Crash Course, they’ve combined their nerdy form of awesome with the not-for-profit graphics team, Thought Bubble, to create an unholy union of amazing and yes. The two brothers, John and Hank, take a subject in history and biology, respectively, and make a 10-to-12-minute video about it each week. As you might expect, these segments happen to be the perfect length to watch over coffee or a snack. It’s a good combination — trust me.

The motivation for sharing these today isn’t just that I feel a need to commiserate with someone over my sad addiction, it’s also because the animation is pretty cool. The history videos have entire animated reenactment segments (I use the term “reenactment” loosely, here) and the biology videos have some awesome visual aids for stuff that frankly, you normally wouldn’t be able to see, ever. Not to mention, I think it’s really awesome to just decide to make these videos and then do it. The internet is a pretty wondrous thing, isn’t it?

Before I babble on for too long, I’ll just link you to the latest history video about Rome, because Rome is pretty rad:

I’ll also link you to the latest biology video about DNA, because the opening sequence is a neat blend of animation and live video.

Other places you can check out: the Crash Course Youtube channel, Hank Green’s Sci Show, the VlogBrothers channel. The graphics team, Thought Bubble, also has their own website. Oh, Thought Bubble. If you were hiring, I would totally work for you.

For those who missed the memo, I’ll still be a bit erratic until I figure out where I’ll be living for the next year. It’s coming up on crunch time, so if I disappear entirely, have faith that I’ll return after the end of April! Again, thanks for sticking with me.