PBS SpaceTime has been running for quite some time already. Beyond the obvious space/time and physics aspect, it's also a good example of a fact-based show that shows scientific method and critical thinking in action, without unnecessary drama or exaggerated sensationalist style; it strikes a perfect balance between science and narrative, serious and not-so-serious, in-depth and manageable chunk size. The graphics help to understand some of the material for us non-physicists or math geniuses, and Matt O'Dowd calm voice and wit create an environment suitable both for deep learning and deep relaxation, occasionally battling insomnia.
I've never seen it on my local PBS station. Is it actually aired anywhere?
It is streamable on the PBS website, and via the PBS apps on iOS, Android, Roku, Samsung TVs, Amazon Fire TV and others, but YouTube is still better.
As far as I've seen the PBS streams just include the episode itself, compared to the YouTube version which included the episode itself plus replies to points raised in the comments to the previous episode or two.
Also the PBS apps on some of those devices are buggy or have serious interface annoyances.
If you watch on the web on a platform where your browser can run an ad blocker, YouTube beats the PBS website because of the comment replies.
If you watch on the YouTube apps on a device such as a FireTV where you cannot block ads, I'd say YouTube still beats using the PBS on the device. The PBS apps often have 30 to 60 second promos for other PBS series. These aren't as annoying as YouTube ads, but can get pretty annoying after a while because there is a much more limited set. The Space Time episodes are short enough that most of the time you will only get YouTube ads up front, and those tend to be shorter than the promos in the PBS app, and often let you skip after 5 seconds.
Even if the ads in the YouTube ad are more annoying than the promos in the PBS app, I think for most people they won't be more annoying enough to counter the YouTube app being less buggy and having a better interface and including the comment reply segments.
Hmm, have rarely found youtube comments to be worthwhile, and on average terrible. However use of yt-dl or similar might be the best of both worlds. Newpipe can make that easier.
Just to be clear I'm not saying that an advantage of watching on YouTube is that you can read the YouTube comments.
The Space Time staff read the YouTube comments, pick a few of the best, and then at the end of a later video (usually the next one or the one after that) they present those comments and respond. These comment responses often answer questions that I had when watching the earlier episode.
The videos on the PBS website or in the PBS apps just have the episode.
This is one of the gems of Youtube for sure.