Reason: Excessive amount of red links, of which lead to merged pages.
| “ | Hello, I'm Simon Whistler, you're watching the Today I Found Out YouTube channel. | ” |
―Whistler's former catchphrase | ||
Simon Whistler (born: May 15, 1987) is an English YouTube personality who currently resides in Prague in the Czech Republic. Simon has gained a reputation for hosting a multitude of educational YouTube channels, for example Top Tenz or Biographics, along with hosting several podcasts and having websites relating to his channels.
Youtube Career[]
Simon Whistler's first channel was TopTenz (AKA 'TopTenzNet') a channel in which he presents 'top 10' lists on a variety of topics, created on February 3, 2010, which has amassed 1.8M subscribers as of December 2020. Following on from this, on October 13, 2011, Simon created his second informational channel, Today I Found Out, a more laidback approach tackling individual topics in greater detail than his previous 'top 10s' videos. At 2.52M subscribers as of December 2020, Today I Found Out is Whistler's largest channel.
On January 22, 2017, Whistler was invited to be the host of VisualPolitik EN, a channel dedicated to discussing various political and economic events occurring globally, which currently has 1.03M subscribers. It is the English-language version of VisualPolitik, a Spanish language channel centered on politics from a neoliberal point of view, based in Spain. On May 12, 2017, Whistler created two new channels: Biographics; originally co-founded by Simon Whistler and Shell Harris, in conjunction with TopTenzNet; a channel taglined "history, one life at a time" which investigates the lives of various people of import throughout history, and its sister channel Geographics, taglined "history, one place at a time", which investigates various locations of interest throughout history and the events that transpired there.
As of December 2020, Biographics has 1.55M subscribers and Geographics has 573K subscribers. Whistler's sixth channel, Highlight History, in which interesting historical events are discussed, was created on September 18, 2018, and at 98.9K subscribers, appears to be his least popular (though still undeniably successful) channel. On May 31, 2019, Whistler added Business Blaze, later named Brain Blaze, to his repertoire of channels, wherein Whistler presents a script written by Danny Salter in a very laidback and comedic style. The channel is allegedly about "fun business facts from history and the present" but also features alternative topics such as 'Fake Facts that Everyone Thinks are True', 'Most Incredible Art Heists' and 'Criminal Darwin Awards', as well as one video about communism.
Each video is delightfully peppered with references to past videos on the channel, as well as memes provided by video editor and "resident memeologist" Samuel Ávila. With 230K subscribers, it is proving to be a popular channel, and was later renamed Brain Blaze, to reflect that the channel is not really about Business. On March 25, 2020, Whistler created Megaprojects to discuss topics that were perhaps not quite suitable for his Geographics channel, summarized as "humanity's greatest achievements", including buildings, aircrafts, ships and nuclear reactors. Following on from this, in August of the same year, Sideprojects was created to present various feats not quite impactful enough to fit his Megaprojects channel. The channels' subscriber counts sit currently at 417K subscribers and 103K subscribers respectively.
Other Channels[]
The Simon Whistler Show[]
The Simon Whistler Show was a short lived Simon Whistler YouTube channel where he hosted a laid back podcast with his friend, Sam Meyers. The pair would banter about stories in the news and personal anecdotes, with a radically laid back and casual tone than what Simon usually did at the time.
It is a clear pre-cursor to Simon's later laid back casual podcast and channel presentation style on Brain Blaze, The Casual Criminalist, and Decoding the Unknown, but lacked clear focus and direction, not really having a specific topic or format. While it gained a modest following, it didn't compare to the numbers that Simon could easily pull on a different channel, and was eventually abandoned for greener pastures.
The channel remains available to view, and ran for eighteen episodes before Simon eventually pulled the plug. He also had a second channel for highlight videos, which met a similar fate. Unlike Simon's many other channels, this is a direct part of this channel's concept, rather than a different channel concept with the same host.
Additionally, Simon has another channel called The Simon Whistler Show - Highlights for highlights from the channel to be uploaded there.
Biographics[]
Biographics is an English YouTube channel formerly hosted by Simon Whistler and created in 2017 where he analyses in depth the life and legacy of various real life people form history such as political leaders, criminals, and athletes. He will also occasionally discuss famous animals, viruses and fictional characters; such as King Arthur and Sherlock Holmes. The videos are a biography of the life and legacy of the subject, a general overview for better or worse. The channel regularly covers the course of a deadly pandemic, such as Spanish Flu, like it would the life of a person, almost humanising it's actions to better relate the events to the audience.
As of August 17th, 2023, Simon Whistler left the channel and was replaced with Karl Smallwood.
The Casual Criminalist[]
The Casual Criminalist is a YouTube channel which was opened in 2020, but didn't become active until 2021. It focuses on educational true crime podcast content. The channel is hosted by presenter Simon Whistler, in his "casual" presentation style, where a writer will pen a video script, which Simon cold reads, injecting his own commentary and jokes.
The topics covered are true crime stories, usually a serial killer or famous murder case. Occasionally, the podcast will also cover heists, spree killers, or other serious crimes which don't fall into the traditional serial killer category. Simon tries to focus more on accurate reporting, and not glorifying or revelling in the gore of the story, and even myth-busting the reputation of certain criminals who have spun themselves a larger-than-life legacy.
The channel also touches upon unsolved crime, but that is more often instead covered by the sister channel, Decoding the Unknown, where Simon applies the same video format to mysteries instead of crimes.
Brain Blaze[]
Brain Blaze, formerly Business Blaze, is an English YouTube channel which discusses epic fails, and crazy facts, initially about businesses but later a wide variety of topics; from both the present day and throughout history. It's hosted by Simon Whistler, who also hosts several other YouTube channels; most notably TopTenz and Today I Found Out.
The scripts are primarily written by Danny Salter, often referred to by Simon in the videos only by "Danny", however guest authors and semi-regular writers also feature. The videos are edited by another person called Sam Ávila, who Simon also addresses by his first name in the videos. Simon comments on the scripts while reading them aloud (usually for the first time, a 'cold read') and reacts to the scripts in addition to just reading them.
Simon critiques and jokes throughout the videos and doesn't take himself as seriously as he does on his purely educational channels, and often speaks like Danny and Sam are in the studio with him, or jokes about them being locked in his basement, when in reality, he has met neither of them face-to-face. Brain Blaze is a serious departure from the professionalism of Simon's other channels, and marks a more casual, personality-driven approach to content that is closer to the style of the Casual Criminalist, and Simon's other Podcasts.
Memes from the Channel[]
- Script Slap
- Script Tap
- BADA-BOOM-BOOM-TSHHH!
- DAMMIT DANNY!
- ALLEGEDLY!
- Obligatory Donald Trump Joke
- RAID SHADOW LEGENDS!
- Trouble Talking
- Flashes of Yoko Ono
- Flashes of a South Korean Person
- Flashes of Gordon Ramsay
- Flashes of He-Man
- Danny (and sometimes Sam) prisoners in the basement
- AM I RIGHT PETER?
- ETA
- Hashtag: cancelsimon
- Smash that dislike button!
- references to cocaine
Decoding the Unknown[]
Decoding the Unknown is one of Simon's longform podcasts, and a sister channel to The Casual Criminalist. While the show is also available via audio-only podcast channels, youtube is its primary home, and comes with edited video.
Simon uses the channel to talk about mysterious happenings, from unexplained disappearances, to internet mysteries, to cryptids. Simon presents the videos as a die-hard sceptic, often ridiculing the paranormal explanations offered up as the solutions to the mysteries, and presenting the most rational alternative he can come up with. The videos are presented in Simon's "casual" presentation style, where rather than a formal educational video, he reads a script written for him, while interjecting his own jokes and commentary as he goes, often bantering with the author of the script.
The channel fills the niche of unsolvable crimes that didn't fit into the Casual Criminalist brief, as well as giving Simon the chance to explore and learn about other prominent mysteries like the Bermuda Triangle or the Mothman.
GeoGraphics[]
Geographics is an English/Czech YouTube educational channel also hosted by Simon Whistler which goes in depth on geography. The brief includes famous buildings, cities, islands, regions, countries, even including moons and planets. Geogrpahic events, such as Permian-Triassic extinction event have also been discussed. Anything from the formation of Jupiter to the history of a single hotel could be adressed, as long as it can be justified as a location or naturally occurring geographic event. Example topics of some videos include the Planet Mercury, and the city of Troy. The channel was created in 2017, but didn't start uploading content until 2019.
Geopraphics is one of many educational channels hosted by presenter Simon Whistler, and a sister channel of Biographics, which covers notable people and viruses, and Warographics, which biographs notable conflicts.
Highlight History[]
Highlight History is an English YouTube channel which highlights important or interesting events or people throughout history. It is hosted by Simon. The channel's gimmick is that the videos would be uploaded on the same day as the historical event they cover, meaning that the channel would highlight the relevant history to you as time progressed, almost like a historical diary, and a campanion to your year. While a strong concept, this can cause uploads to be sporadically timed, and topics to be limited to anniversaries coming up in the near future.
Into the Shadows[]
Into the Shadows is a channel that covers the space that Biographics' coverage of viruses can't fill, the crimes that are too broad to fit into the Casual Criminalist, and that generally aren't quite the brief of his other channels, and going for a darker niche.
On Into the Shadows, he discusses the darker side of everything, including human tragedy, savage nature, and the ravages of drug addiction. Some examples includes The Final Five: How Chinese Famines Reached their 20th Century Peak, Cobalt Bombs: The Bombs to End the World, The Century that Devastated Mexico, and The Ratlines: How the Nazis Escaped Europe, among others.
Megaprojects[]
Megaprojects is a YouTube channel which goes into detail on the history about all of humanities greatest achievements and structures. It was created in March of 2020, and since then has already amassed more than 125,000 subscribers, and more than 3 million combined video views. The tone of the channel is more comedic and loose than most of his channels, but not as much as Brain Blaze.
Science Unbound[]
Science Unbound (Previously Titled: The Science of Science Fiction) is a channel that focuses on breaking down the real scientific concepts behind popular science fiction shows, movies, and books, to see how accurate and possible those concepts are.
The concept allows Simon to dissect a specific concept presented in a show (such as a Star Trek Teleporter, or the entire plot of Moonfall), or more generic sci-fi tropes, such as space elevators and flying cars. Simon then assesses the viability of such concepts against actual science, with the answer usually being "entirely against the laws of physics" or "kind of possible in the future, but so expensive and far off that it's pointless thinking about". This channel is decidedly more pop-culture among Simon Whistler's portfolio, making it stand out next to tightly themed educational channels, or the collection of casually presented podcasts.
Simon's presentation style in the videos is professional, similar to a Top Tenz video, rather than casual, as he would be in a Brain Blaze video.
Sideprojects[]
Sideprojects is the ninth YouTube channel also created by Simon Whistler. The channel was created on August 21, 2020. The channel is somewhat of a 'spinoff' or offshoot of the Megaprojects Youtube channel, but is more off-topic in it's nature, talking about smaller scale projects. While Megaprojects covers gigantic undertakings such as a Dyson Sphere, Sideprojects will focus more on A specific model of tank or plane. Something which is not one, specific mega-project, but something which collectively contributed about as much.
The title of the channel also works in two ways, firstly reading as a sister channel for Megaprojects, but also being a play on words, as the channel serves as a repository for all of Simon's side projects. When a script for a video doesn't neatly fit onto one of the other channels, it goes here. If it's not a war, a place or a person, not a fun fact, a top 10 list, a murderer, a mystery, a history, or a mega-project, then it fits neatly into the catch-all sideprojects channel.
Today I Found Out[]
Today I Found Out is an English YouTube channel hosted by Simon Whistler dedicated to making educational and entertainment videos on various topics.
From food, to science, to religion, to military, to geography, to individual people, to entertainment, to history, among many others. This channel, created in 2011, is Simon's second channel. His first, TopTenz, was created in 2010, and focuses on him making top 10 lists on various topics, where as Today I Found Out focuses going in depth with one particular topic. This channel is a lot more general trivia than most of Simon's channels, which usually follow a specific theme, but it manages to maintain significant popularity and viewing figures.
TopTenz[]
TopTenz, formally TopTenzNet, is a YouTube channel dedicated to making top ten lists based around topics such as people, history, politics, health, culture, crime, art, entertainment, science, nature, technology, comedy, food, comic books, video games, gamers, among many others. The channel originally started as a website created in 2008 by Shell Harris.
The first video was "Bizarre & Funny Road Signs," uploaded April 17, 2010. Prior to Simon Whistler, there was no dedicated host. Videos were sometimes read by the writer of the article, or were slideshows with background music lacking narration. Simon Whistler's debut on TopTenz as the official host was on February 15, 2014 on the video "Top 10 Amazing Survival Stories." Simon is well-known for his work on other channels such as Today I Found Out, Brain Blazem and Megaprojects, among many others.
Channel Hijacking[]
On April 6th, 2020, the Top Tenz Channel was hijacked by a Bitcoin scammer masquerading as cryptocurrency influencer Brian Armstrong, who changed the name of the channel and ran a live-stream encouraging the viewers to buy bitcoin from a fraudulent site. Simon encouraged fans on twitter to report the video, which was eventually struck down. On the 7th of April 2020, the channel was temporarily suspended by YouTube while they worked to restore Simon as the channel's owner. Simon was soon reinstated as channel operator, and things returned to normal, but not before (according to Simon's twitter) 1000s of dollars of BTC were stolen from fans of the channel.
Warographics[]
Warographics is a YouTube channel which specializes in educational videos about wars, both modern conflict, and historical. The channel is the third of Simon's to fit into to-ographic naming format, and is a sister channel to Biographics and Geographics. With the three channels combined, he's able to cover Historical figures and pandemics, all of the planet and beyond, and now, all of the conflicts to take place involving the first two. The channel hosted by Simon Whistler, a YouTuber who hosts many other channels.
Xplrd[]
xplrd (pronounced Explored) is a YouTube channel, started in October of 2020, hosted by Simon Whistler which is dedicated to exploring the most interesting topics that Simon can possibly muster. Examples of these includes Pulitzer vs. Hearst: The Birth of Yellow Journalism, George H. W. Bush's Brush with Cannibals, COINTELPRO: The FBI's Cold War Program Designed to Crush All Opposition, That Time Winston Churchill Tried to Combine France and Britain into a Single Country, and Post-Truth Politics: Why the Facts Don't Really Matter.
The channel focused on a variety of topics, but didn't really fill any specific educational video niche. That lack of direction, coupled with lower-than-average subscriber numbers for a Simon Whistler channel lead to Xplrd being abandoned. The many niches it once covered would go on to be filled by Into the Shadows, Warographics, or consolidated back into existing channels Biographics and Geographics.
Astrographics[]
Astrographics is a youtube channel focusing on the geography of outer space, filling the niche that lead to a glut of space videos previously finding their way onto sister channel Geographics. This allows a clearer focus on the solar system and beyond, what formed the various planets and stellar phenomenon, and how they behave. The channel had 30,000 subscribers as of January 2024.
Personal Life[]
Simon Whistler was born on May 15, 1987, in England, United Kingdom. He traveled around the world, creating vlogs documenting his experiences and posting them to YouTube. He currently lives in Prague, Czech Republic, with his wife and young daughter. Whistler is very secretive about his personal life, preferring to keep his private life out of the public eye, so not many details of his life outside of YouTube are known.
Other Simon Whistler channels[]
- Biographics
- Brain Blaze
- The Casual Criminalist
- Decoding The Unknown
- Geographics
- Highlight History
- Into the Shadows
- Megaprojects
- Science Unbound
- Sideprojects
- The Simon Whistler Show
- Today I Found Out
- TopTenz
- Xplrd
Subscriber Milestones[]
Simon Whistler[]
- 16,250 Subscribers - October, 2018
- 22,000 Subscribers - October, 2019
- 23,100 Subscribers - December, 2019
- 24,000 Subscribers - February, 2020
- 25,000 Subscribers - April, 2020
- 26,200 Subscribers - June, 2020
- 27,000 Subscribers - August, 2020
- 28,600 Subscribers - November, 2022