{"id":4332,"date":"2026-01-15T09:39:53","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T16:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/?p=4332"},"modified":"2026-01-15T09:39:53","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T16:39:53","slug":"documentaries-for-january-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/2026\/01\/15\/documentaries-for-january-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Documentaries for January 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/forrest-valkai.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/forrest-valkai.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"535\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/forrest-valkai.jpg 800w, https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/forrest-valkai-300x201.jpg 300w, https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/forrest-valkai-768x514.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I thought I\u2019d change things up for this month. There is a lot of talk about how YouTube is full of garbage and not worth watching. While this can be true, there are still a lot of really cool, educational videos I watch in a way to educate myself on a variety of topics. Here is a selection of some of my favorites, all of which are less than 30 minutes in length. If the videos don&#8217;t show, their titles are also a link to where you can find it on YouTube.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_wLy-vzLi3E\">The Death of an Accent<\/a><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Death of an Accent\" width=\"629\" height=\"354\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_wLy-vzLi3E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Is the New York City accent dying? The video is just over 11 minutes long, but it\u2019s a neat look into how people speak. While I\u2019ve lost most of my accent, I still recognize that classic speech when I hear it.<\/p>\n<p>This video made me think back to this one day at the Star-Herald.<\/p>\n<p>Assistant Editor: Irene, do you know where Chabella is?<\/p>\n<p>Me: She went to get a coffee at Cap n Co.<\/p>\n<p>Assistant Editor (chuckles): Did you just say &#8220;kawfeee.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Me (smiles broadly): Yep, I guess I did.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=s-jMj11w68U\">The Hidden Music of Language<\/a><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Hidden Music of Language\" width=\"629\" height=\"354\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/s-jMj11w68U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There are a lot of different parts that go into speech and this neat little video focuses on how language is actually musical. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cDon&#8217;t talk to me in that tone of voice! It turns out the hidden music in language is a huge part of what makes meaning &#8212; and how we understand what a sentence means.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Dr. Jones says, \u201cIt ain&#8217;t what you say, it&#8217;s the way that you say it. It ain&#8217;t what you watch, it&#8217;s the way that you hear it. Ain&#8217;t what you do, it&#8217;s the way that you do it. It&#8217;s the way you do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Q0yL2GezneU\">Vocal Fry: what it is, who does it, and why people hate it!<\/a><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Vocal Fry: what it is, who does it, and why people hate it!\" width=\"629\" height=\"354\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Q0yL2GezneU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s that annoying creaky voice that makes you cringe. I sure hope I don\u2019t do this because I find it annoying as hell. Anyway, this little video clocks in at 27:17.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=gT_LFKZNeDE\">Menstruation Education<\/a><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Menstruation Education\" width=\"629\" height=\"354\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gT_LFKZNeDE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This is one of my favorite educational videos. Forrest Valkai teaches you about menstruation while using a TENS unit, which has electrodes affixed to his stomach to simulate period cramps. It\u2019s a funny and educational video and it\u2019s less than 10 minutes long.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=nVQplt7Chos\">Sex and Sensibility<\/a><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sex and Sensibility\" width=\"629\" height=\"354\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nVQplt7Chos?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This is another video from Forrest, but I think it\u2019s a worthy choice, especially if you don&#8217;t know or understand sex and gender in a real and meaningful way. This one breaks my 30-minute rule, but you can pause whenever you want and come back to it. I\u2019ve watched it a few times because it\u2019s jam-packed with lots of good information.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll be back next month with another list of documentaries to watch. I hope you enjoy these ones as much as I do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I thought I\u2019d change things up for this month. There is a lot of talk about how YouTube is full of garbage and not worth watching. While this can be true, there are still a lot of really cool, educational videos I watch in a way to educate myself on a variety of topics. Here [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[465,466,257,320,464,441,402],"class_list":["post-4332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-watchingreading","tag-gender","tag-language","tag-new-york","tag-science","tag-sex","tag-video","tag-women"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4334,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4332\/revisions\/4334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/irenenorth.com\/writings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}