Destin Sandlin

Destin Sandlin

Photo of Destin Sandlin taken by his wife, January 2014
Born Destin Wilson Sandlin[1]
Residence Huntsville, Alabama
Nationality American
Alma mater University of Alabama
University of Alabama, Huntsville[1]
Occupation Rocket Engineer
YouTube Personality
Known for Educational YouTube videos[2]
Spouse(s) Tara Sandlin
Children 4

Destin Sandlin, born in 1981, is an American engineer best known for his educational video series, Smarter Every Day (SED),[3][4] which is hosted on a YouTube channel of the same name launched in 2007.

Sandlin's YouTube channel boasts over four million subscribers, and over 300 million views. In early 2016, Sandlin was one of four YouTube personalities chosen to conduct a one-on-one interview with President Obama[5] after his final State of the Union address.[6] The interviews were sponsored by Google and were part of a White House initiative to reach millennial audiences.

On April 28, 2016 Sandlin started a second YouTube channel called The Sound Traveler, in which he employs 3-D audio and Go-Pro footage to capture and convey the experience of visiting the world's most interesting places.

Background

Sandlin received his Bachelors of Science from the University of Alabama, where he studied mechanical engineering. Later he obtained a graduate degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville.[1][7] While an undergraduate, he was awarded the University of Alabama's Outstanding Senior Award.[1] He is a full-time Missile Flight Test Engineer at Redstone Arsenal.[8][9]

A resident of Huntsville, Alabama,[10] Destin is married with four children (two daughters and two sons);[11] is a practicing Christian[12] and credits his grandfather for having shaped his world view and for encouraging his love of science. Since 2012 Sandlin has supported and partnered with 'Not Forgotten', a charity that cares for orphaned boys in Peru.

He credits his fascination with the scientific method and his job as a rocket engineer as inspiration for making educational videos.

Smarter Every Day

Sandlin at Skepticon in November 2015.

Sandlin began posting educational videos in 2007, and his first video to reach one million views cleared that milestone on July 10, 2009.[13] The video was about chicken head tracking using chickens that Destin bought for his father as a demonstration. Because of its popularity that video retroactively had the Smarter Every Day label added to it. Mercedes-Benz capitalized on the popularity of this video with their "MAGIC BODY CONTROL TV commercial Chicken".[14]

Sandlin formally launched Smarter Every Day (SED) On Apr 24, 2011 with a video titled "Detonation vs Deflagration - Smarter Every Day 1,"[15] which became the title for subsequent videos and the sole focus of his YouTube channel.

Episodes of Smarter Every Day revolve around scientific exploration and discovery and feature Sandlin as host and narrator. Sandlin is fascinated by flight and space, and his Smarter Every Day video library reflects that. But his videos explore a wide array of other topics including the effects of hypoxia on the human brain, the curiously sturdy Prince Rupert's drop, the physics of potato guns, and a nearly-impossible to ride bicycle that turns the opposite direction of its handle bars.[16]

As of August 2016, the channel has over four million subscribers and 300 million views.[17]

Destin closes each episode of Smarter Every Day with a reference to a Bible verse. These verses are usually reflective of the subject matter of the video to which they're attached. One such verse is Psalm 111:2, which adorns the doors of the Cavendish Laboratory at the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge.[12][18]

Channel Statistics

Channel Subscribers 4 200 000+
Total Channel Views 300 000 000+
# of videos with >1M views 56
# of videos with <1M and >500K views 30
Total # of videos 242

[19][20]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 http://eng.ua.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/capstone_engineer_fall2003.pdf
  2. ↑ "SmarterEveryDay". YouTube.
  3. ↑ "Huntsville engineer's YouTube channel, 'Smarter Every Day,' in running for best entertaining, educational videos". AL.com.
  4. ↑ ""Smarter Every Day" teaches science lesson by blowing things up". cbsnews.com. 25 April 2011.
  5. ↑ Martin, Rachel (January 17, 2016). "YouTube Star Talks Space With President Obama". NPR.
  6. ↑ P. Claire Dodson (January 12, 2016). "Meet The YouTubers Interviewing President Obama After The State Of The Union Address". Fast Company.
  7. ↑ "UAH - News". uah.edu.
  8. ↑ "Huntsville missile engineer in YouTube spotlight for Smarter Every Day channel". AL.com.
  9. ↑ "Test engineer making people Smarter Every Day". The Redstone Rocket.
  10. ↑ 'Smarter Every Day' host Destin Sandlin to interview President Obama | Tech Alabama | waaytv.com Retrieved 2016-11-19.
  11. ↑ Sandlin, Destin. "WE HAD A BABY!! - Smarter Every Day 132". YouTube. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  12. 1 2 Belew, Duncan. "Interview with a Rocket Scientist and YouTube Science Educator". Where were you when you were twenty-four?. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  13. ↑ Sandlin, Destin. "Chicken Head Tracking - Smarter Every Day". YouTube. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
  14. ↑ "Mercedes Benz TV MAGIC BODY CONTROL TV commercial Chicken". YouTube. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
  15. ↑ Sandlin, Destin. "Detonation vs Deflagration - Smarter Every Day 1". YouTube. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
  16. ↑ Storbeck, Devon. "Introducing Smarter Every Day, your July On The Rise winner". YouTube: Official Blog. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
  17. ↑ "SmarterEveryDay". YouTube.
  18. ↑ Rigden, John S.; Stuewer, Roger H (29 May 2009). The Physical Tourist: A Science Guide for the Traveler. Springer Science & Business Media. p. 1. ISBN 9783764389338. Retrieved 1 October 2014.
  19. ↑ "About". SocialBlade. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
  20. ↑ "Videos". YouTube. Retrieved 15 March 2016.

External links

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