How to research & assess scholarly literature

By the time someone is in college, they should have already been taught basic information literacy to the extent that they can write a properly researched essay using reliable formal sources. This video explains how to research & assess scholarly literature. Amrhein, Valentin, David Trafimow, and Sander Greenland. “Inferential Statistics as Descriptive Statistics: There Is …

Havana Syndrome is a mythical medical condition | the facts

Havana Syndrome is the name given to a collection of apparent physiological symptoms reportedly experienced by US and Canadian government staff while in Cuba. Although it has been attributed to a range of causes, most commonly some kind of attack by Cuban government agents, this video explains that the majority of medical evidence indicates Havana …

How to understand historical sources | primary, secondary, & tertiary

If you study or read history long enough, especially at an academic level, you’ll soon come across references to sources, in particular what are referred to as primary, secondary, and tertiary historical sources. This video explains how to understand historical sources and where to find them. In the list of references below you can find …

When did the n-word become unacceptable?

When was the n-word first recognized as a slur? When did the n-word become unacceptable in broader society? When did the black community start reclaiming the term? This video not only answers these questions, but also presents evidence that controversy over white allies’ use of the term started as far back as the nineteenth century. …

Can you learn good history from Reddit?

Reddit is an online discussion community with an extremely bad reputation, mainly due to the broad range of opinions it has historically permitted. But the American Historical Association recommends the subreddit r/AskHistorians as a good source for history. Why is this? Can you learn good history from Reddit? This video explains you can, and explains …

Is this the most incompetent Afrocentrist on Twitter?

Twitter user Great House is arguably the most incompetent Afrocentrist on Twitter. This video shows how he cites sources he hasn’t validated, doesn’t know how to assess sources for accuracy, doesn’t understand how to read sources, doesn’t know how to do proper research, and even cites sources which clearly don’t support any of his own …

TIK History is wrong about Gnosticism

TIKHistory is a military history Youtuber well known for citing sources explicitly in his videos. He’s often ok with military history, but when he steps outside that area he often makes mistakes. These videos show how TIK is wrong about Gnosticism. Backus, Irena. Reformation Readings of the Apocalypse: Geneva, Zurich, and Wittenberg. Oxford University Press, …

Albert Einstein: socialist critic of the Soviet Union

Despite never aligning himself to any specific party, Einstein was a dedicated and outspoken socialist, even at the most dangerous of times, risking both political censure and government persecution. However, as this video explains, he was also a socialist critic of the Soviet Union, despite having strong sympathy for the Russian socialist cause and aims. …

History Youtube’s James Somerton problem

As I’m writing this, it’s 10 December 2023, just seven days after Hbomberguy, a Youtuber with 1.47 million subscribers, uploaded a nearly four hour video exposing a number of well known Youtubers as serial plagiarists, spending nearly half of the video’s time on James Somerton, a particularly egregious offender. The fallout has been extensive, and …

Edward Dutton’s pseudo-academia: racism & fake credentials

There’s a Youtube channel called “Prof. Edward Dutton: The Jolly Heretic”. If you look at the video titles you’ll find they’re fixated on IQ, fertility, genetics, and something he calls “spiteful mutants”. He cites numerous scholarly papers, including many of his own publications. However, he is a fraud. This video explains Dutton is not a …