Do we like Tom Scott?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Nothing harmful or dodgy found across a decade of public work, but the record is quiet on causes, so we stop short of the top end.
Tom Scott is the bloke behind a decade of quick, curious explainers. His weekly run started on 1 January 2014 with an 83-second video about special crossings for horses in Britain, and he didn't miss a week for about ten years. He says he'd been throwing stuff at the internet since 1999, long before anyone noticed.
The big moment in his story was walking away. In January 2024 he told viewers it was time to stop, saying his work kept getting bigger and more complicated and that there was “nothing in my life right now except work.” His own site later called it an extended sabbatical, and his goodbye video reportedly pulled 5 million views in its first day.
On the harm test, we came up empty in the best way. We searched his name against LGBTQ+ issues, women, climate, vaccines and politics and found no harmful statements, no campaigns and no culture-war grievance. His collaborators are the comedy group The Technical Difficulties and the Lateral podcast crew, which is hardly a worrying lineup. A caveat: he rarely talks politics, so we can't say much about what he stands for, only that he hasn't pushed harm.
On the good-person side the record is equally clean. We found no lawsuits, no allegations from staff or co-stars, and no scandals. He has also asked not to be called a YouTuber or an influencer, preferring presenter or broadcaster, which is a little precious but harmless.
The recent news is a comeback. Tom Scott: England is a long-form, weekly series filmed across every historic county, with episodes of roughly 15 to 30 minutes. His newsletter said that if all goes well, there'd be weekly episodes for the rest of the year. Nothing controversial has come with it.
The good stuff is mostly craft rather than causes. He won the Streamy Award for Learning and Education in 2022, and he has spent years making people feel curious without making anyone feel small. We found no big charity work, so we won't invent any.