John Oliver is a national treasure. His Last Week Tonight is genuinely informative as well as hilarious (although if you absolutely can’t abide f-bombs, it’s not for you). And although the show is officially behind an HBO paywall, the “main story” each week is made available free on YouTube.

What I like best about the show is that the main story is a single-topic backgrounder or explainer, something we desperately need more of instead of merely “the news”. Oliver blends these with both topical humor and absurdly off-topic asides. Importantly, the topics include neglected issues as well as those related to current news. Some less predictable recent topics include Bankruptcy, Long-Term Care, Sponsored Content, Ransomware, Misinformation, and (quite seriously) Hair. Representing (perhaps) the nerd demographic, here is my recent favorite:

The show’s YouTube page also features shorter web exclusives which are mostly just silly, including everything you didn’t know you wanted to know about Duck Stamps.

Needless to add, highly recommended.