# Crash Course
**Crash Course** is an educational YouTube channel that presents complete school and introductory-college subjects as series of short, fast-paced video episodes, offered free of charge. It was created by the authors [John Green](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-green) and [Hank Green](https://www.edgepedia.org/hank-green) with Stan Muller and Nick Jenkins on the belief that high quality educational content should be available to everyone for free.[1](https://www.johngreenbooks.com/youtube) The channel launched in late 2011 with funding from YouTube's original channel initiative,[2](https://johngreenbooks.squarespace.com/bio) and its first two courses, John Green's World History and Hank Green's Biology, began in January 2012.[3](https://everyhomeschool.com/directory/publishers/crash-course) It is produced by the Green brothers' educational media company Complexly.[3](https://everyhomeschool.com/directory/publishers/crash-course)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Creators | John Green and Hank Green, with Stan Muller and Nick Jenkins[1](https://www.johngreenbooks.com/youtube) |
| Launch | Late 2011, funded by YouTube's original channel initiative; World History and Biology premiered January 2012[2](https://johngreenbooks.squarespace.com/bio) • [3](https://everyhomeschool.com/directory/publishers/crash-course) |
| Format | Series of 10 to 50 episodes per subject, mostly ten-to-fifteen-minute episodes written around AP and introductory-college courses[3](https://everyhomeschool.com/directory/publishers/crash-course) • [4](https://playlistduration.com/best/crash-course) |
| Scale | Over 2 billion views on the channel[5](https://thecrashcourse.com/about/); more than forty-five subject series as of April 2026[3](https://everyhomeschool.com/directory/publishers/crash-course) |
| Channel size (October 2026) | 17.2 million subscribers; 2,310,599,302 total views; 1,720 videos[6](https://www.trari.com/en/c/crashcourse/) |
| Producer | Complexly, which became a nonprofit in February 2026[3](https://everyhomeschool.com/directory/publishers/crash-course) • [7](https://apnews.com/article/22dc695172444cb5ce855df5ca782058) |
| Media literacy series | Navigating Digital Information, ten episodes hosted by John Green, developed with MediaWise and the Stanford History Education Group[8](https://sites.google.com/students.kusd.edu/reutherharborsidelibrary/staff-resources/evaluating-sources-staff) |
## Origins and founding
The channel grew out of the Green brothers' video-blogging collaboration. In late 2011 they launched Crash Course with funding from YouTube's original channel initiative,[2](https://johngreenbooks.squarespace.com/bio) a program under which the platform financed original channels. The first two courses, World History hosted by John Green and Biology hosted by Hank Green, both launched in January 2012.[3](https://everyhomeschool.com/directory/publishers/crash-course)
Production responsibilities have always been divided. According to a study of social studies teachers' use of the channel, YouTube approached the brothers to begin making the Crash Course series in 2011, with John Green hosting the history series, which is written primarily by his high school history teacher Raoul Meyer.[9](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23522798241238666)
In November 2014, PBS Digital Studios announced a partnership with Hank and John Green to expand the series, which at that point featured eight courses on world history, U.S. history, chemistry, psychology, literature, and other subjects.[10](https://www.pbs.org/about/about-pbs/blogs/news/pbs-digital-studios-and-hank-and-john-green-announce-new-partnership-to-expand-popular-crash-course-youtube-series/)
## Format and series
Each Crash Course series turns a whole subject into a run of ten-to-fifteen-minute episodes, and many series are written around AP and introductory-college courses, so a series works as a short course with a known shape.[4](https://playlistduration.com/best/crash-course) The homeschool directory describes the episodes as covering a single subject at a high-school to introductory-college level, with hosts varying by topic expertise, in series of 10 to 50 episodes; subject areas include World History, U.S. History, Biology, Chemistry, Literature, Economics, Philosophy, Computer Science, and Film History, and the content is secular.[3](https://everyhomeschool.com/directory/publishers/crash-course)
Complete series have substantial run times. The longest ranked series, Crash Course US History hosted by John Green, covers colonial America through the Clinton years with the Obama era as an epilogue and totals 10 hours 35 minutes; Crash Course Economics, hosted by Adriene Hill and Jacob Clifford, runs 36 videos totaling 6 hours 11 minutes.[4](https://playlistduration.com/best/crash-course) A chemical-education analysis of YouTube chemistry content found CrashCourse chemistry videos average 10 minutes 10 seconds.[11](https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jchemed.5c01225)
**Beyond the core subjects.** The library has extended into skills and study content. Crash Course Study Skills is a ten-episode series hosted by Thomas Frank, based on introductory college-level material and scientific studies of learning.[12](https://aatlased.org/remote-ed-by-subject/) Crash Course Statistics covered topics such as z-scores, chi-square tests, and p-hacking in a 2018 season.[13](https://thetvdb.com/series/crash-course-statistics/allseasons/official) In April 2023 the channel began uploading Crash Course Art History, hosted by curator [Sarah Urist Green](https://www.edgepedia.org/sarah-urist-green), and launched its first podcast series, hosted by John Green and astrophysicist Katie Mack; the same year it started a TikTok channel.[14](https://crashcoursecoin.com/blogs/news/what-we-did-in-the-past-year-nbsp)
## Navigating Digital Information
One of the channel's most widely adopted series in schools is *Crash Course: Navigating Digital Information*, a ten-episode course on evaluating online information hosted by author John Green.[8](https://sites.google.com/students.kusd.edu/reutherharborsidelibrary/staff-resources/evaluating-sources-staff) • [15](https://www.cde.state.co.us/medialiteracy/crashcourse) The channel partnered with MediaWise and the Stanford History Education Group to develop the video content.[8](https://sites.google.com/students.kusd.edu/reutherharborsidelibrary/staff-resources/evaluating-sources-staff) The episodes cover topics including fact checking, lateral reading (evaluating a site by checking what other sources say about it), using [Wikipedia](https://www.edgepedia.org/wikipedia) effectively, and evaluating evidence, photos, and videos.[16](https://libguides.octech.edu/c.php?g=514225&p=9904334) • [17](https://www.helixlibrary.org/teacher-resources) Library and teacher-resource guides commonly assign the series alongside the Stanford-derived Civic Online Reasoning curriculum for teaching source evaluation.[17](https://www.helixlibrary.org/teacher-resources)
## Audience and classroom use
Crash Course reports over two billion views on its YouTube channel and describes a worldwide audience in and out of classrooms.[5](https://thecrashcourse.com/about/) In October 2026 the channel counted 17.2 million subscribers, about 2.31 billion total views, 1,720 videos, and a current pace of roughly 514,000 views per day; it ranked third by subscribers in its category, behind TED (27.9 million) and TED-Ed (23 million).[6](https://www.trari.com/en/c/crashcourse/)
Research on classroom use has examined how and why social studies teachers assign the videos,[9](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23522798241238666) and an engineering-education study examined the use of Crash Course Engineering videos for formal and informal learning, noting that Crash Course's direct involvement beyond creating the videos depends on each series' production team.[18](https://peer.asee.org/work-in-progress-the-development-and-applied-use-of-crash-course-engineering-videos-for-formal-and-informal-learning.pdf)
## Funding and the nonprofit transition
Crash Course's videos end with a donation appeal to keep the show "free for everyone forever."[7](https://apnews.com/article/22dc695172444cb5ce855df5ca782058) In February 2026, Complexly, the Montana-headquartered company producing Crash Course and over a dozen other educational channels including [SciShow](https://www.edgepedia.org/scishow), PBS Eons, Healthcare Triage, and The Art Assignment,[19](https://hankandjohn.com/who-we-are) became a nonprofit. Hank and John Green gave up any equity they held; John became "founder emeritus," Hank joined the board of directors, and CEO Julie Walsh Smith said the studio would maintain its staff of roughly 80 employees.[7](https://apnews.com/article/22dc695172444cb5ce855df5ca782058)
**Funding mix.** The studio already received sizable philanthropic funding, including $4.8 million in the year before the transition, from supporters led by YouTube, PBS, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, with [Arizona State University](https://www.edgepedia.org/arizona-state-university) and the [Howard Hughes Medical Institute](https://www.edgepedia.org/howard-hughes-medical-institute) underwriting a number of Crash Course projects. About one-tenth of revenue came from a YouTube advertising-share program and about one-tenth from Patreon, where monthly subscribers typically give $5 or $10; the studio also sells minted silver Crash Course coins each year, some costing thousands of dollars.[7](https://apnews.com/article/22dc695172444cb5ce855df5ca782058) Complexly stated that the change was meant to keep fact-based content free of advertisers' interests and committed $8.5 million to new content, and its site reports donations going to free educational content for an audience of 32 million on YouTube.[7](https://apnews.com/article/22dc695172444cb5ce855df5ca782058) • [20](https://old.complexly.org/)
The brothers' crowdfunding experience predates the channel: they founded the crowdfunding platform Subbable in 2013 to help creators raise money for specific projects,[7](https://apnews.com/article/22dc695172444cb5ce855df5ca782058) and in a 2018 channel video, "A History of Crash Course," producer Nick Jenkins described Patreon as giving the team immediate contact with the audience that supports the work.[21](https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/991696/1/Matichard_MA_S2023.pdf)
## References
1. [Crash Course — YouTube, John Green's official site](https://www.johngreenbooks.com/youtube)
2. [Bio — John Green](https://johngreenbooks.squarespace.com/bio)
3. [Crash Course — Homeschool Curriculum Publisher Profile, Every Homeschool](https://everyhomeschool.com/directory/publishers/crash-course)
4. [Every Crash Course series on YouTube, ranked by total hours, Playlist Duration](https://playlistduration.com/best/crash-course)
5. [About — Crash Course](https://thecrashcourse.com/about/)
6. [CrashCourse: subscribers, views and new videos, Trari](https://www.trari.com/en/c/crashcourse/)
7. [Hank and John Green's studio becomes a nonprofit as they aim to make 'trustworthy content' online, Associated Press](https://apnews.com/article/22dc695172444cb5ce855df5ca782058)
8. [Evaluating Sources — Staff, Reuther Harborside Library](https://sites.google.com/students.kusd.edu/reutherharborsidelibrary/staff-resources/evaluating-sources-staff)
9. [Crash Course in the Classroom: Exploring How and Why Social Studies Teachers Use YouTube Videos, Miles, Compton, and Herold](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23522798241238666)
10. [PBS Digital Studios and Hank and John Green Announce New Partnership to Expand Popular "Crash Course" YouTube Series, PBS](https://www.pbs.org/about/about-pbs/blogs/news/pbs-digital-studios-and-hank-and-john-green-announce-new-partnership-to-expand-popular-crash-course-youtube-series/)
11. [Examining Generative, Extraneous, and Essential Features in Chemistry YouTube Videos, Journal of Chemical Education](https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jchemed.5c01225)
12. [Resources by Subject, AATLASED](https://aatlased.org/remote-ed-by-subject/)
13. [Crash Course Statistics — Aired Order, TheTVDB](https://thetvdb.com/series/crash-course-statistics/allseasons/official)
14. [What We Did in 2023 — Crash Course Coin](https://crashcoursecoin.com/blogs/news/what-we-did-in-the-past-year-nbsp)
15. [Crash Course: Navigating Digital Information, Colorado Department of Education](https://www.cde.state.co.us/medialiteracy/crashcourse)
16. [Evaluating Sources — English 102, Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College LibGuides](https://libguides.octech.edu/c.php?g=514225&p=9904334)
17. [Teacher Resources, Helix Library](https://www.helixlibrary.org/teacher-resources)
18. [Work in Progress: The Development and Applied Use of Crash Course Engineering Videos, ASEE](https://peer.asee.org/work-in-progress-the-development-and-applied-use-of-crash-course-engineering-videos-for-formal-and-informal-learning.pdf)
19. [Who We Are — Hank and John](https://hankandjohn.com/who-we-are)
20. [Complexly.org — New structure. Same mission. Bigger impact.](https://old.complexly.org/)
21. [MA thesis citing "A History of Crash Course" (2018), Concordia University Spectrum](https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/991696/1/Matichard_MA_S2023.pdf)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Web-native and streaming-original series › Early English-language web series (1997–mid 2010s)*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license