Kiun B’s YouTube videos are mini documentaries about her life and the lives of the 800 people who live in her hometown of Yakutia, Siberia, aka the coldest town on Earth. The creator, who narrates the videos, says she and her community are native to the region. The enchanting mini docs showcase their customs, culture, and day-to-day life — which looks quite different when it’s 95 degrees Fahrenheit below zero outside.
This installment follows a family through their day, including waking up before the sun to feed the furnace fire and melt ice for drinking water. They don layers and layers of insulated clothing just to walk short distances outside — or long distances, in the case of the schoolkids who bundle up each day to commute to class. The stories are humbling, especially as you sit in your cozy home and watch the Yakutians do such hard, backbreaking work just to keep their homes running through the winter. (Don’t worry, it gets warm in the summer — and there’s a video about that, too!)
This documentary has that easy, informative Nat Geo vibe that makes it an unchallenging watch with family over the holidays, for instance. But the creator and narrator being from Yakutia herself gives it a more grounded tone and, of course, better insight about life in the town.
While it’s never a good idea to chalk an entire culture up to one YouTube channel, I didn’t know anything about Yakutia or the contemporary lives of the Indigenous people of Siberia before watching these videos, and they exposed me to something I might’ve never learned about otherwise. And who hasn’t wondered how the people who live in the harsh climate of Siberia make it all work? To have that question answered — and to learn how those people thrive in a cold I can’t even conceive of — is a great way to spend 20 minutes.
