Smarter Every Day: From Missile Engineer to 11.9M

Channel: smartereveryday   Who: Destin Sandlin, American engineer and science educator   Subscribers: 11.9M (as of 7 November 2026)   Niche: Science education, engineering and high-speed camera experiments

Destin Sandlin started posting educational videos in 2007 while working as a missile flight-test engineer at Redstone Arsenal. He formally launched the Smarter Every Day series on 24 April 2011. As of 7 November 2026 the channel has 11.9 million subscribers, 398 videos and about 1.29 billion views.

Missile engineer by day

According to Wikipedia, Destin Wilson Sandlin was born on 17 September 1981 in Huntsville, Alabama, raised in Morgan County, and went to Hartselle High School. He earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Alabama — with an Outstanding Senior Award and a business administration minor — and a master's in aerospace engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Until late 2018 he was a full-time missile flight-test engineer at Redstone Arsenal / Redstone Test Center, and he has been a PhD candidate at UAH.

Science Friday, on 24 April 2015, described the split: missile flight-test engineer by day, high-speed camera science videos by night. UAH and Redstone reporting notes that for years his real income was the day job; YouTube had sponsors such as Audible, and ads, but was not his sole living.

A name for the voyage

An early viral video, often credited as "How to Light a Bonfire with Rockets" (2007), started small. UAH and Redstone reporting quote him saying, "I just made it because I wanted to," and that he first shared it with about a dozen friends. Wikipedia says he began posting educational videos in 2007 and that his first video reached a million views on 10 July 2009. He realized the difference between hobby videos and a brand was a name, and chose "Smarter Every Day". The series formally launched on 24 April 2011 with "Detonation vs Deflagration - Smarter Every Day 1".

He has framed the work as a voyage of discovery, not a lecture from someone who already knows. UAH reporting quotes him: "People think I make videos about things that I already understand because I'm so smart, but they're wrong because I'm not smart!" That same reporting describes his father's "Do you know?" game — asking questions such as why leaves are green — and Destin's goals: become smarter every day, help his children become smarter every day, and bring others along; a side benefit was funding his children's education.

The backwards bicycle

Smarter Every Day episode 133 is the backwards-steering bicycle. A welder friend built a bike where a left turn steers right. Destin practiced about five minutes a day for about eight months to learn to ride it, and used the experiment as a metaphor that knowledge is not the same as understanding. Wikipedia lists other notable topics including the USS Toledo submarine, hypoxia, Prince Rupert's drop, potato cannons and snatch blocks.

He also runs The Sound Traveler and Smarter Every Day 2, and from 2017 the podcast No Dumb Questions with Matt Whitman. Wikipedia notes that he has supported the Not Forgotten orphanage charity in Peru since 2012.

Three YouTubers in the East Room

In early 2016 Destin was one of three YouTubers chosen to interview President Obama after the final State of the Union. NPR reported on 17 January 2016 that Google had selected the YouTube stars to meet and interview the president, and that the Smarter Every Day channel then had more than three million followers. A White House blog post on 15 January 2016 described the East Room interview with Ingrid Nilsen, Destin Sandlin (Smarter Every Day) and sWooZie.

What other creators can take from it

Destin filmed the science he was still learning, kept the engineering day job for years, gave the series a name, and treated curiosity as the point. Science educators who already publish experiments can give the people who want more — extra cuts, membership notes, Q&As — a place to pay for it directly.

You do not need 11.9 million subscribers for that shape of relationship with fans. If you teach science or film experiments, the people who love the finished video often want the extras too. On Yaff you can post membership extras for science educators, sell guides, take tips, and talk to supporters in group chats and DMs — without claiming any particular creator is already on the platform. Starter is free with a 5% platform fee; optional Creator ($19/mo) and Pro ($99/mo) plans drop the platform fee to 0%; payouts go to your bank daily via Stripe. Start your free Yaff page and publish your first post, see pricing, or read how to fund your expedition with memberships and add Yaff to your YouTube channel.

More origin stories: From NASA to 84M Subscribers: The Mark Rober Story, From Useless Robots to 2.9M Subscribers: Simone Giertz and From Broken Bones to 6.4M Subscribers: Devin Supertramp.

Watch Smarter Every Day on YouTube