Yes, Parents: Mark Rober Really Is The Nicest Guy On YouTube

If your kid has ever begged you to watch "just one more" glitter bomb video, or made you sit through a squirrel obstacle course explanation for the third time this week, you already know the name we are about to drop: Mark Rober. What you might not know is what this guy is actually like when the cameras (mostly) stop rolling. Scary Mommy got to find out firsthand, and we’re so happy to report: he's exactly who your kid thinks he is.

Via Zoom, Scary Mommy chatted with Rober, a former NASA engineer, current YouTube science giant, and apparently the reason my house has strong opinions about squirrels named Frank and Phat Gus, to talk about his new toy line, what really keeps kids curious, and what it's like being "God tier" to a seven-year-old who is, in fact, my daughter.

The occasion for our chat was the new CrunchLabs toys, a line of hands-on STEM toys (think the Halo Ring Blaster, the Crunchinator, and the Elephant Toothpaste Blast kit) now on shelves and online, each one paired with an exclusive Rober video, breaking down the engineering behind it.

A big chunk of Rober's whole philosophy comes down to one thing: he refuses to dumb it down. The goal isn't to hide how something works and just let kids mindlessly play; it's to really give kids a look inside the mechanics of these toys.

"We never talk down to kids," he tells Scary Mommy. "We kind of try and make it so we can smooth that transition into sort of those teenage and then adult years even, like we try to make content that is like a Pixar movie; it just works for all ages."

That instinct traces straight back to his NASA days, actually. We asked Rober if any skill he curated at NASA ended up surprisingly useful for building toys, and his answer was basically a masterclass in first-principles thinking: break any big, intimidating problem down into small steps, and none of the individual steps are actually that hard.

"That's very similar whether you're putting rovers on Mars or you're putting can crushers in [my daughter’s] kitchen," he said.

Any parent of a naturally curious kid knows the low-grade dread of watching that spark potentially dim with age. When I asked Rober point blank if he had advice for keeping it alive into the tween and teen years, his answer wasn't some vague inspirational quote, it was genuinely useful: capitalize on the curiosity while it's naturally there, so the momentum carries them through later.

"To the degree that you can keep them off social media, I think that helps," he said. "But I think a bigger thing is you just have to create enough positive experiences in the age where they are naturally curious."

He wants kids walking away able to say, "I like science. I like building. I like being curious. And it's okay to fail. And that's part of the process."

At this point in my interview with Rober, my daughter and aspiring CrunchLabs engineer came into the office and crashed the interview. Thankfully, Rober didn’t bat an eye and turned into a completely different kind of delightful.

My seven-year-old and Rober took off on their own separate conversation, chatting about the Elephant Toothpaste Blast toy kit, and Rober explained that when he was dreaming up the concept, he actually had moms in mind.

The original formula for the toothpaste would've been red, and he worried about stained ceilings.

"In fact, if you had a two-story house, it'd hit the ceiling in the second story."

Then, his team specifically reformulated it to be white so it wouldn't ruin anyone's home. "That's me looking out for the moms out there," he said.

She also asked about his favorite video, and he lit up talking about the squirrel series, describing himself getting up at 6 a.m. with a long lens like "a wildlife photographer" to outsmart Phat Gus, Frank, and Marty.

After a quick photo opp, we wondered aloud to Rober about what he was like as a kid, and what he'd say to him now.

"I remember my childhood very well," he said. "Which makes it really easy for me to tap into what [kids] would think is really cool. Because honestly, it's sort of what I think is really cool, right?"

He talked about still being the guy who taps a stranger on the far shoulder and walks around the other way, just to get a laugh. "That's not a funny prank. That's not cool. But I cannot help it."

Keeping that kid-like sense of wonder while also running an actual business is clearly the whole engine behind CrunchLabs. And as he put it, that's also just good parenting advice.

This interview has been edited lightly for length and clarity.