Veritasium
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 48 YouTube channels by recommenders
Recommended for well-researched, polished science videos that tell compelling stories about discoveries; the most common caveat is clickbait titles and misleading content.
Recommended for well-researched, polished science videos that tell compelling stories about discoveries; the most common caveat is clickbait titles and misleading content.
56 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 44
- criticize it
- 12
- approval share
- 79%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 44 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Well-researched, accurate science content
“it offers access to physics in a consumable form for many lay people while trying to maintain rigor better than most”
Comment from 24 Dec 2025 in “The Future of Veritasium [video]” “This Veritasium video does a great job at explaining how such skewed priors can easily appear”
Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “I don't think Lindley's paradox supports p-circling” “I haven't watched that many, but for the few I did the physics was surprisingly good.”
Comment from 24 Dec 2025 in “The Future of Veritasium [video]” - Comment from 16 Apr 2026 in “CRISPR takes a bold leap toward silencing Down syndrome's extra chromosome”
Compelling stories about discoveries
“Veritasium is story telling and the stories of the people you do these discoveries that follow the hero's arc are very compelling.”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “The Ridiculous Engineering of the Most Important Machine: Veritasium [video]” “the stories of the people you do these discoveries that follow the hero's arc are very compelling”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “The Ridiculous Engineering of the Most Important Machine: Veritasium [video]” “I watched that Veritasium video a while back and was glued to it.”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “The World's Most Complex Machine” Rigorous, not dumbed down
“the information density he delivers versus Veritasium or Smarter Every Day on a similar length video is much lower”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “What is going on with ceiling fans” “she was really impressed that it didnt dumb anything down like normal documentaries do”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “Story of XZ Backdoor [video]” “its full of horrible truths and real information and not dramatised”
Comment from 5 Sep 2026 in “How the Disaster of "Forever Chemicals" Was Kept Secret” High production quality
“They have all made extremely high quality, and often profound videos.”
Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “Paperbacks and TikTok” “The production value is just second to none.”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Stewart Cheifet, creator of The Computer Chronicles, dead at 87”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Clickbait titles and misleading videos
“it often seems like their clickbait titles are complete fabrications and don't even match the video content”
Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “The Future of Veritasium [video]” “Clickbait from yet another corporate owned YouTube channel.”
Comment from 25 Dec 2025 in “The Future of Veritasium” “The Veratasium video comes across as pretty clickbait-y.”
Comment from 4 May 2026 in “Can a quantum sensor detect your heartbeat from 60 km away? [video]” - Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Sugars, Gum, Stardust Found in NASA's Asteroid Bennu Samples”
Quality decline after private equity buyout
“Legendary channel and dude, but everything must succumb to the Law of Enshittification eventually.”
Comment from 24 Dec 2025 in “The Future of Veritasium [video]” “I've stopped watching Veritasium after the PE buyout. All of a sudden I'm deeply suspicous of their content”
Comment from 20 Jun 2026 in “Satellite reveals immense scale of GPS signal tampering” “it's rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way with the changes by the new management”
Comment from 4 May 2026 in “Can a quantum sensor detect your heartbeat from 60 km away? [video]” - Comment from 6 Jun 2026 in “Something is jamming GPS over Europe. Here's what we found (Veritasium) [video]”
Errors and technically-correct explanations
“I was an avid viewer until he stepped in my area of expertise and leveraged technicalities, half-truths, and misrepresentation”
Comment from 14 Dec 2025 in “Science Communications on YouTube” “Seems like every other week or so I see someone detail patiently why they have incorrectly explained something.”
Comment from 24 Dec 2025 in “The Future of Veritasium [video]” “Veritasium prefers "technically correct" over factually correct.”
Comment from 24 Feb 2026 in “ASML unveils EUV light source advance that could yield 50% more chips by 2030”
Other YouTube channels people recommend
The four most recommended other YouTube channels, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3Blue1Brown | 96 | 4 | 96% | 12 | — | Approved |
| VeritasiumThis page | 44 | 12 | 79% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Technology Connections YouTube channel | 40 | 3 | 93% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Asianometry | 24 | 1 | 96% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Gamers Nexus | 22 | 10 | 69% | 9 | — | Approved |
What people said
40 of the 60 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the information density he delivers versus Veritasium or Smarter Every Day on a similar length video is much lower”
“its full of horrible truths and real information and not dramatised”
“Veritasium put out a very nice video[1] about knowing which sort of game we're playing.”
“You can learn a lot of interesting things from 3BlueOneBrown and Veritasium”
“I think it's one of the best veritasium Dereck has ever produced.”
“I've stopped watching Veritasium after the PE buyout. All of a sudden I'm deeply suspicous of their content”
“Veritasium is private equity slop”
“The video that I linked to is over an hour on why new technologies never transform education.”
“He has a number of videos that critique what capitalism has lead big industries to.”
“I guess we now have Veritasium, Jonny Harris, and the art of the problem instead.”
“The Veratasium video comes across as pretty clickbait-y.”
“it's rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way with the changes by the new management”
“I watched that Veritasium video a while back and was glued to it.”
“I still like Veritasium's style more but it's just personal preference ofc”
“Veritasium videos are usually well-researched and more accurate than "random" videos.”
“various videos from channels I'm subscribed to such as Kurzgesagt, Chubbyemu, ElectroBOOM, LockPickingLawyer, Engineering Explained, Veritasium”
“curating shows like those and channels say veritasium or some Vsauce videos”
“Maybe the Veritasium style of presenting science topics would be better”
“For learning about actual discoveries, YouTube is much better”
“she was really impressed that it didnt dumb anything down like normal documentaries do”
“Veritasium prefers "technically correct" over factually correct.”
“Here's a direct link to the latest Veritasium. You're welcome!”
“has well researched content, but they are broad in terms of their topic selection”
“the way I'd get excited for a new 3Blue1Brown or Veritasium video”
“Veritasium recently made a good video on the ASML machine design”
“the stories of the people you do these discoveries that follow the hero's arc are very compelling”
“Veritasium is story telling and the stories of the people you do these discoveries that follow the hero's arc are very compelling.”
“The production value is just second to none.”
“it often seems like their clickbait titles are complete fabrications and don't even match the video content”
“They have all made extremely high quality, and often profound videos.”
“Clickbait from yet another corporate owned YouTube channel.”
“I haven't watched that many, but for the few I did the physics was surprisingly good.”
“it offers access to physics in a consumable form for many lay people while trying to maintain rigor better than most”
“Legendary channel and dude, but everything must succumb to the Law of Enshittification eventually.”
“Seems like every other week or so I see someone detail patiently why they have incorrectly explained something.”
“This Veritasium video does a great job at explaining how such skewed priors can easily appear”
“I was an avid viewer until he stepped in my area of expertise and leveraged technicalities, half-truths, and misrepresentation”
“I hate to think of the young geeks banned from YouTube”
“Veritasium videos are often extremely misleading.”
“The other ideas discussed are really interesting; well worth watching.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.