His videos are used in classrooms and watched by millions – yet few Slovaks know his name

A selection of short feel-good stories from Slovakia.

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Every week The Slovak Spectator brings you a selection of three short stories from across Slovakia from which pessimism and negativity are absent.

While many Slovaks dream of making it big on YouTube, one creator has already achieved this — and chances are you have never heard of him. František Czanner, an illustrator and animator from Bratislava, is the mind behind Angry Earth, an English-language YouTube channel with nearly 2 million subscribers and over 1.5 billion views. His bite-sized animated videos reveal the hidden realities behind issues like shark finning, dancing bears, captive orcas, and fast fashion, reaching audiences in around 170 countries.

It all began as a series of viral illustrations shared on social media and has developed into the largest English-language YouTube channel created in Slovakia, with approximately 3 million followers across all platforms in 170 countries. Teachers incorporate his videos into classrooms, and his work has even been included in Greek school textbooks. Despite this global success, Czanner still regards Angry Earth as a passion project rather than a business, he admits in his interview with Forbes.