My Recent Favorite Youtube Stream. ゆる言語学ラジオ [Japanese pronunciation: Yuru Gengogaku Rajio ]

Its theme, hosts, and statistics

     I want to introduce you my recent favorite Youtube channel, ゆる言語学ラジオ[yuru gengogaku rajio]. The Japanese word ゆる means loose, not serious, and lighthearted, 言語学 linguistics, and ラジオ radio, so the show’s title ゆる言語学ラジオ means ‘The lighthearted linguistic talks radio’ by my translation. The two male hosts in their 20s’, Mr. Mizuno is an editor of publishing and an amateur linguist and Mr. Horimoto is a web writer and a computer engineer, lightheartedly talk about languages. Basically, Mr. Mizuno reads some books of a certain theme and he writes rough scripts of the shows. Mr. Horimoto edits the videos. Interactions of the two are so interesting and funny but sometimes make the audience realize important things. 
They started it about one year ago ( March 10th, 2021, Youtube and Podcast). They upload a new stream every four or five days and they have about 120 videos on the channel. They have about 130k subscribers and a total of 13 million views on their Youtube channel now. 

Some examples of their content

They put a wide range of the content and topics: literature, Japanese grammar, animal communication, various differences between languages and dialects, the language acquisition of human babies, foreign language acquisition and so on. Every video is enjoyable and gives me a new viewpoint. 
 Example 1. Mr Mizuno asks to Mr Horimoto: In the Japanese sentence 象は鼻が長い[zo wa hana ga nagai], which is the subject, 象 or 鼻? How do you explain the sentence structure? This grammatical issue has been argued between the linguists and unsolved for a long time in Japan. 
Example 2. They invite a professor of the applied linguistics and tell about the cognitive and perspective gaps between the native language and foreign languages. ’Mike swam under the bridge.’  This sentence can be comprehended locationally and directionally. They explain the difference of verbs to describe mobility and manner between Japanese and English: English tends to put both mobility and manner into one verb but Japanese doesn’t. Japanese verbs express either mobility or manner in general. That’s why when you translate the sentence ‘I walked to the store.’ into a natural Japanese, you need two verbs like 歩いて行った.

The hosts’ personalities are key

I think that the hosts’ mild personalities are other secrets of the show’s popularity. They are interested in anything about words and languages. They are inspired by reading books. They also have a great inquiring spirit. They rather enjoy the process of discussion than just tell what they know. They look really happy when they reach an ‘aha’ moment. They seem to be playing with their curiosity and discovery. Such an intellectual and playful atmosphere of the show inspires the viewers. Sending interesting comments and requests, the viewers join and participate in the show, too.  
The two sometimes call themselves as 蘊蓄おじさん[unchiku ojisan], guys who display their knowledge to others. However, they are such nice hosts that nothing they say comes across as unpleasant. 

Expectation and potential of the show

I was surprised at the fact that there are so many people who are caught by such a small linguistic phenomenon, think about it deeply and enjoy it. I hope the linguistic nerds community will be more confident and expanded.
I also expect that they will collaborate with someone new and provide unexpected content.