YouTubers Wanted

As some of you may already know, I was recently awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship. This is a well-funded project, which is why I can afford hiring postdocs and (once the pandemic is over) organise events and travel.

When I was writing the proposal I was talking to one of the good people at the university about set theory. She had a Ph.D. in biology, so she had some vague idea what is a set, but not really a proper idea what it is that I do. So I explained the very basics of set theory and cardinals, ordinals, and the axiom of choice.

That made me think about helping produce content on YouTube. I don't want to record lectures, or start a channel. That's not my goal. My goal is to work with YouTube channels and help them make videos about set theory. This can be all the way from a Numberphile kind of videos, all the way to videos like that of Tibees (or the now defunct Infinite Series), or things more playful like Vsauce2, or even more of a philosophical twist like Vsauce (which is doing an incredible job presenting mathematical content, as I previously wrote).

There is a clear lack of good videos addressing set theoretic ideas, which I honestly believe that I can make at least somewhat accessible. And hopefully this will make set theory more accessible to the public, or at the very least, to other people interested in mathematics.

So, I've put this in my proposal, and now I have a bunch of money that is meant for producing videos, on several channels, perhaps spread over the course of the next couple of years. And I couldn't get a reply on any of the emails that I sent out to people.

Instead, I figured, it's probably a good idea to write about this here. There are a lot more channels than those that I know of, and maybe the few people who follow my blog can bring this post to the attention to their favourite content creators via social media (on which I have active no presence).

What to do if you're a YouTube content creator and you want to collaborate with me?

At the moment I've set up an email address, youtube2020@akaragila.org, where you can email me. Let me know about your channel, what kind of content you want to make, etc. I cannot make any promises about money, but I'm always happy to advise with regards to content, should the need ever arise.

(I apologise in advance to the future readers. This email address is not planned to be there long term, but it will be active until 2021.)

What to do if you're not a YouTuber, but you want to help?

Go on your favourite social media platform, and write your favourite YouTube math channel. Tell them you want to see some set theory content, and tell them that I am willing to help. Link to this post, for example.