General Knowledge

The generalists — sources whose whole appeal is that you can’t predict what the next one will be about.

Videos

• CGP Grey (Channel) — 195 videos for 7 million subscribers, on the arbitrary systems humans lay over the world: flags, borders, postal codes, voting methods, coins. He ranked the US state flags and called Minnesota’s the worst; Minnesota redesigned it, and he covered the replacement. Also why runways get repainted, and why a 5¢ nickel costs 14¢ to make.
• Johnny Harris (Channel) — an independent filmmaker, 537 videos for nearly 8 million subscribers, each one explaining some part of how the world works: how money works, the American war machine, the most extreme places on Earth. The approach is to ask the plain question out loud (his recent one is titled “I don’t get democracy”) and then work through maps and archive footage until it’s answered.