Kurzgesagt. Gesundheit!

For months now, Son #2 has been telling me interesting things he's learned by watching Kurzgesagt videos on YouTube. He loves science and general knowledge about the intricacies of the world, so I trust his recommendations. (Probably not all of them, but the ones he deems okay for his mom.)

Kurzgesagt, which loosely translated means "in a nutshell" is a German animation studio that produces "minimalist animated educational content discussing scientific, technological, political, philosophical, and psychological subjects." Whew. That's a mouthful, and so is the name.

The funny thing is, I didn't read that description beforehand, and I had no idea the videos were animated. When I found the YouTube channel, which has 9.1 million subscribers, I wondered if I might be in the wrong place. Like maybe Kurzgesagt for Kids or something. But no, that's the way they're done.

Off the bat, I disagreed with the description of the animation as minimalist. Here is my idea of minimalist:

And here is Kurzgesagt's minimalist:

There's kind of a lot going on there, right? Add in motion, and a British narrator who sounds a bit like John Oliver explaining black hole science at a rapid pace, and my brain melted a little that first time. I didn't give up--I had six more days to go, after all--and it got better. My brain didn't feel quite as melty, but I really had to make sure to concentrate on what was being said so I didn't get distracted by the visual input.

As far as Take It or Leave It...I'm not exactly sure yet. I think I'll give Kurzgesagt a continued trial, but I suspect I'll be better off with TED Talks in the long run.

No-Buy July update:
Today is the last day of July! And I did really well this month cutting down on my unnecessary purchases. I'm not sure how much time and money I saved, but I think it was significant on both counts. I'm glad I made a conscious effort, and I don't plan on going nuts come August. But we'll see :-)