Vsauce () is a

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

brand created by educator Michael Stevens. The channels feature videos on scientific, psychological, mathematical, and philosophical topics, as well as gaming, technology, popular culture, and other general interest subjects.

History

On April 17, 2010, Michael Stevens launched the main Vsauce channel.Vsauce is 11 years old today!!
Apr 16, 2021 According to episode #18 of ''LÜT'' on the original Vsauce channel, the name "Vsauce" was generated using the fake website generator portion of a site called Fake Name Generator."Make Your Cat a DJ – and more! LÜT #18". ''Vsauce. YouTube. ''Retrieved July 24, 2013 After Stevens generated the fake website Vsauce.com, he registered it and began uploading videos. Initially, the channel's programming focused on video games and featured a number of hosts. However, certain segments such as ''IMG!'' slowly took over, and Stevens became the sole host. The channel then became a mix of information and online activities, and solely educational segments popped up. The educational segments became more popular, and since September 9, 2012, only the educational segment (known as ''DOT.'') has been presented. In December 2010, the Vsauce2 (on December 7) and Vsauce3 (on December 24) channels were created. On July 25, 2012, the WeSauce channel was created. Vsauce was one of the fastest growing channels during September 2012. During that month, the main Vsauce channel reached 1 million subscribers. Stevens, in the video "A Defense of Comic Sans", notes that the text font Alsina was used by the Vsauce channels because of its close resemblance to the handwriting of Nik Guinta, the creator of the original Vsauce logo. A new branding scheme designed by Natasha Jen was adopted in December 2014 to bring a "grown-up" feel to the channels. It utilizes the DIN Next Rounded font and fluid designs to convey the idea of sauce that the name "Vsauce" implies.

Channels

Vsauce

The Vsauce channel, also known as Vsauce1 to distinguish it from the brand as a whole and the other channels, is presented by the founder, Michael Stevens, and features videos about science, mathematics, anthropology, and philosophy. The primary series features Stevens discussing a topic or question in a tangential manner, including various interpretations of the question and related facts and observations. In 2013, Stevens stated that he researches on Wikipedia and academic papers to find information for his videos. Stevens collaborated with educator and television personality

Adam Savage Adam Whitney Savage (born July 15, 1967) is an American special effects designer and fabricator, actor, educator, and television personality and producer, best known as the former co-host (with Jamie Hyneman) of the Discovery Channel televisi ...

in 2017 for a show titled ''Brain Candy Live''. Videos by Vsauce have been featured on online news publications, such as ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

'', CBS, and

Gizmodo ''Gizmodo'' ( ) is a design, technology, science and science fiction website. It was originally launched as part of the Gawker Media network run by Nick Denton, and runs on the Kinja platform. ''Gizmodo'' also includes the subsite '' io9'', ...

''Mind Field''

''Mind Field'' (a

word play Word play or wordplay (also: play-on-words) is a literary technique and a form of wit in which words used become the main subject of the work, primarily for the purpose of intended effect or amusement. Examples of word play include puns, pho ...

minefield A land mine is an explosive device concealed under or on the ground and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets, ranging from combatants to vehicles and tanks, as they pass over or near it. Such a device is typically detonated automati ...

and

mind The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for various m ...

) is an American

web television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air ae ...

series produced exclusively for

YouTube Premium YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service offered by the video platform YouTube. The service provides ad-free access to content across the service, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals programming ...

(formerly YouTube Red), created and presented by Michael Stevens. Three seasons of ''Mind Field'' have been released on Vsauce, each one with eight episodes. On October 1, 2019, all episodes became viewable, with ads, for free for those without YouTube Premium.

Vsauce2

Vsauce2, hosted by Kevin Lieber, has covered topics concerning unusual knowledge, gadgets, and people. Since 2019, Vsauce2 has largely produced videos regarding probability, paradoxes, and dilemmas, most of which are mathematical or economic in nature and visualized through real-world situations. Before 2019, videos were released under recurring segments, such as ''MindBlow, BiDiPi, 54321'', and ''BOAT''.

The Create Unknown

In November 2018, Lieber and channel producer Matt Tabor launched ''The Create Unknown''

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

, which interviews digital creators. The podcast has featured interviews with

Casey Neistat Casey Owen Neistat (; born March 25, 1981) is an American YouTube personality, filmmaker, vlogger and co-founder of the multimedia company Beme, which was later acquired by CNN. In 2018, he founded ''368'', a creative space for creators to c ...

Derek Muller Derek Alexander Muller (born 9 November 1982) is an Australian-Canadian science communicator, filmmaker, and television personality, who is best known for his YouTube channel Veritasium. Muller has also appeared as a correspondent on the Ne ...

from ''Veritasium'',

Destin Sandlin Destin Wilson Sandlin (born September 17, 1981) is an American engineer and science communicator who produces the video series ''Smarter Every Day'' on his YouTube channel of the same name, which was launched in 2007. Sandlin also runs the YouT ...

from Smarter Every Day, Dolan Dark,

iDubbbz Ian W. (born July 27, 1990), more commonly known as iDubbbz or Ian Carter, is an American YouTube personality. Creator of YouTube channels iDubbbzTV, iDubbbzTV2, and iDubbbzgames, he is best known for his comedy video series, including ''Conten ...

, and Grandayy.

Vsauce3

Vsauce3 is hosted by Jake Roper and is dedicated to fictional worlds and video games. There are currently four recurring segments: ''HeadShot'', ''Game LÜT'', ''9bit'', and ''Fact Surgery''. Vsauce3 has collaborated with YouTubers Joe Hanson from ''

It's Okay to be Smart English auxiliary verbs are a small set of English verbs, which include the English modal verbs and a few others. Although definitions vary, as generally conceived an auxiliary lacks inherent semantic meaning but instead modifies the meaning of an ...

'' and Vanessa Hill from ''

BrainCraft ''BrainCraft'' is an educational video series on YouTube created by Australian science communicator Vanessa Hill. Hill's videos use stop motion and paper craft animation to explain neuroscience, psychology and human behavior. ''BrainCraft'' is pa ...

''. He has also presented videos with celebrity guest appearances from

Bill Nye William Sanford Nye (born November 27, 1955), popularly known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, is an American mechanical engineer, science communicator, and television presenter. He is best known as the host of the science television show '' Bil ...

Jack Black Thomas Jacob Black (born August 28, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is known for his acting roles in the films '' High Fidelity'' (2000), '' Shallow Hal'' (2001), '' Orange County'' (2002), '' School of Rock'' (2003), ' ...

The Muppets The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an absurdist, burlesque, and self-referential style of variety- sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, they are the focus of a media franchise that encompas ...

Paul Rudd Paul Stephen Rudd (born April 6, 1969) is an American actor. He studied theater at the University of Kansas and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, before making his acting debut in 1991. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame i ...

, and

Neil deGrasse Tyson Neil deGrasse Tyson ( or ; born October 5, 1958) is an American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator. Tyson studied at Harvard University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Columbia University. From 1991 to 1994, he was a p ...

. On November 25, 2015, Jake revealed that he has

sarcoma A sarcoma is a malignant tumor, a type of cancer that arises from transformed cells of mesenchymal ( connective tissue) origin. Connective tissue is a broad term that includes bone, cartilage, fat, vascular, or hematopoietic tissues, and sar ...

, a rare form of cancer. On December 19, Jake announced that he had begun treatment and a tumor on his lower leg had been successfully removed by surgery.

WeSauce

WeSauce was a channel that compiled works from fans of the Vsauce channels. The channel featured segments ''Your BiDiPi'', ''JAM'', ''Music LeanBack!'', ''Riddle Challenge'', ''This World of Ours'', and ''ITVS''. WeSauce has remained inactive since October 15, 2015.

D!NG

D!NG, formerly DONG (Do Online Now, Guys), is a spin-off channel by Vsauce that features unusual pages, apps, and games from around the Internet. Some videos also focus on various topics in mathematics and science. ''DONG'' was formerly a segment featured on the main Vsauce channel and then on the Vsauce3 channel before its own channel was launched in 2015, with the first video uploaded on October 29, 2015. The channel was renamed to D!NG on May 12, 2019, seemingly due to the channel being demonetized for having a name that was not considered advertiser-friendly.

Collaborations

Some people or channels Michael Stevens of Vsauce1 has collaborated with include

Good Mythical Morning ''Good Mythical Morning'' (abbreviated as ''GMM'') is an American comedy, talk and variety YouTube series created by Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal. The show first aired on YouTube on January 9, 2012, and continues to be uploaded every weekd ...

, Filthy Frank, and others. The following collaborations were mentioned in publications. Vsauce has collaborated with Henry Reich of

MinutePhysics MinutePhysics is an educational YouTube channel created by Henry Reich in 2011. The channel's videos use whiteboard animation to explain physics-related topics. Early videos on the channel were approximately one minute long. , the channel has ov ...

on two videos: "Guns in Space" and "What if the Earth were Hollow?". In 2014, Jake of Vsauce3 had narrated two episodes of the series ''

Did You Know Gaming? ''Did You Know Gaming?'' (abbreviated ''DYKG'') is a video game–focused blog and web series which launched in May 2012. The site features video content focusing on video game related trivia and facts, with occasional journalistic investigations ...

'' covering the

Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same t ...

. In August 2016, Stevens served as a guest host on the show BattleBots. On March 24, 2018, Stevens was largely involved with a collaboration featured on

HowToBasic HowToBasic, is an Australian YouTube personality who is owner of a channel with over 17 million subscribers. The creator of the videos does not speak or show his face, and remains anonymous. The channel primarily features bizarre and destructi ...

's YouTube channel.

Awards

In 2014, Vsauce won a Webby for People's Voice award for best news and information. In 2014 and 2015, the channel won the

Streamy Award The YouTube Streamy Awards, also known as the Streamy Awards or Streamys, are presented annually by Dick Clark Productions and Tubefilter to recognize excellence in online video, including directing, acting, producing, and writing. The formal ...

for Best Science and Education Channel, Show, or Series. * *

References

External links

*
Vsauce2's channel
on

Vsauce3's channel
on

*Vsauce2's podcast
"The Create Unknown"
on

{{Authority control English-language YouTube channels Streamy Award-winning channels, series or shows YouTube channels launched in 2007 Science-related YouTube channels