The Crash Course Team is driven by one goal: to create high-quality educational videos that are free for everyone. Pulling this off takes a village, and when I was approached to host Crash Course AI, I was stoked. It’s really exciting to be able to speak to such a broad audience and share some of the tools and language for understanding this really big thing that affects us all so deeply.
We take a lot of care when we make this thing because we understand how impactful it can be. So an average Crash Course video is worked on by over 20 people. There are subject matter experts who help us figure out what we should teach and in what order. There’s a whole team of writers and editors, there’s also producers and animators and audio engineers, seeing how the consultants, writers, and animators all really worked together to make it something that feels so much more tangible than just like the words, it was really awesome to be able to be a part of that.
But here’s the thing: the Crash Course team is even bigger than that because it includes you. With your support, Crash Course videos have been watched by hundreds of millions of people. But we want to do more. We want to build bigger. We want to reach more people with the highest possible quality educational material, and we have never been able to do that without your help.
So we are releasing our third annual Crash Course Coin, available for the next 11 days only. These coins were minted in Arkansas from a hand-engraved die, and they represent your ability to help us reach 20,000 Learners. To be clear, this is not a small or symbolic contribution - our Patreon and coin campaigns represent the single largest portion of our budget. If you support us in this way, you are quite literally enabling the work of Crash Course to continue.
I’m excited to share that this year’s coin features a design inspired by this photo of the SM ACS-0723 Galaxy cluster taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. These are galaxies that formed in the universe about as early as they could have, so what we’re seeing are galaxies farther away than we’ve ever seen before. When I look at this image, I think of how much we have come to know, but also how much we still yet have to learn. I also see the work and skill and knowledge of each of the literally hundreds of thousands of people who helped make that image a reality.
This isn’t just how space telescopes work - it’s how everything works. There is no person in the history of people who has built knowledge alone, and with every coin purchase, you help us reach more humans. Our 2,000 Learner Coin is minted on a beautiful nickel silver for $100. We’re also minting 500 of our limited edition 10,000 Learner Coins on brass for $500. At this level, your coin will be hand-stamped with a unique number and will come with a signed thank you card from me and my brother John.
And for the first time this year, we are releasing limited edition 20,000 Learner Coins for those who are able to give $1,000. These will be minted on a very cool black iron, and we are only making a hundred of them.
We are so excited for what’s in store for the future and equally excited to invite folks who are able to be a part of our work in this way. Your purchase of the coin at any level will allow us to keep diving deeper into our universe and ourselves and to inspire and educate Learners everywhere.
The 2023 Crash Course Coins are only available until June 9th and we’re only making a limited quantity. Go to crashcoursecoin.com now or check the description for a link and be part of our work. Thank you!