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Comment by DontGiveTwoFlux | Hacker News Reader

I worried about this too. But I think my attitude has changed after watching lots of the PBS Space Time youtube channel. They do a great job of breaking down these concepts at a level where highly interested non-physicists can get what feel like the real details without dumbing it down too much. They have good videos on many physics topics, and regularly explain new discoveries.

https://youtu.be/QLSIZg0npuA

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The Fermilab channel is also quite good for short-form content. ScienceClic English has absolutely wonderful visualizations. All of them do make some subtle inaccuracies or skip things for the sake of brevity though. I think Sabine Hossenfelder's channel has the most accurate videos in that 10-15 minute range, but they're still only about 15 minutes long.

I don't have a proper education in Physics, but have been trying to self-teach and I think that none of the ~15 minute video channels really cover things to a very detailed degree. You really do need textbooks/lectures/real papers to actually understand it. The channel "Physics Explained" is pretty good for more in depth breakdowns of things, but it is quite dry compared to those other channels and still not really a substitute for a textbook or class.

And I don't even mean learning things well enough to get a job as a particle physicist or anything. Just some things, like say particle spin, just can't be explained in under a few hours and without the math behind them. They don't have a proper intuitive analog to our macro-level world.

PBS Space Time seconded. I recommend taking the rabbit-hole approach with them - i.e., blocking out a considerable more amount of time than the length of the video you're about to watch. They always reference past videos that expand on the building blocks of whatever the topic is in the video you're watching, and it helps to go watch those if it's a new topic to you, before continuing with the current video. I absolutely love that channel.

Thirding PBS Space Time, and seconding taking time to really focus and treat watching them like studying. I became really interested in physics about 2 years ago. Initially the content was really challenging but I forced myself to rewatch many of the vids several times and it was ultimately very rewarding. I have a good enough grasp on the core concepts that I'm able to explain them to friends in-depth and it makes for great conversations, especially when people are in a state of mind to pontificate about the nature of the universe hehe.

Fourthing as well. Think I've watched (heard) every episode at least twice now. They really calm the mind I find, as I frequently drift off to sleep with it in the background, dreaming about Space Time.

I like Sabine's channel even better. She is great at simplifying things, and explaining the raw concepts and what some equations / findings really mean

Sabine Hossenfelder https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1yNl2E66ZzKApQdRuTQ4tw

Not a physicist but I find the Science Asylum also pretty good:

https://youtu.be/Q2OlsMblugo

Seconded. Here's their video specifically about the black hole information paradox:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XkHBmE-N34

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