Stumbling on an Odd Animal Specimens video on TikTok feels like finding an oasis in the chaotic desert of social media. The channel, which has amassed 3 million followers and more than 50 million likes on the platform, is the brainchild of Ann Arbor, Michigan-based writer, host, content creator and Emmy Award winner, Charlie Engelman.
When you land on one of his videos, you’re confronted by a stunning creature – a wasp, a tapeworm or maybe a hammerhead shark – delicately posed for the camera. Engelman’s voice guides you through its many features, down to the most intricate details. The pacing is slow, and methodical.
Credit: Nat Geo.
“It grabs people’s attention because it’s not loud, it’s not like everything else [on TikTok],” says Engelman. “The pace itself can be a hook.”
Engelman’s journey as a science communicator began with National Geographic, where he created two TV shows: Nature Boom Time and Weird But True (that’s where his Emmy comes in). But the genesis of his excitement and interest in the natural world started much earlier, with his father. “My dad was kind of like a nature nerd – an academic, educational nature nerd, who liked identifying trees and birds,” says Engelman. “He did it in a way that got me and my three sisters excited about it.”
It grabs people’s attention because it’s not loud, it’s not like everything else.
Weird But True was cancelled during the COVID pandemic, in 2020, and Engelman thought about what’s next. Having worked in the Natural History Museum in Michigan during his college years, he saw an opportunity. He knew that for many museums, only fraction of their collection is actually on display, which meant they offered untapped potential for educational films. Why not show the public what’s hidden behind the scenes?
Engelman kickstarted a research project; an experiment on how best to showcase the fabulous creatures that are locked away in museum drawers and cabinets. He reached out to former colleagues at the Natural History Museum and made contact with staff at the Chicago Academy of Sciences and pitched his idea. They were a little reticent at first, says Engelman, but were open to his idea. Their collaboration would go on to provide so many opportunities to inspire curiosity and, as his project grew, it led him to his current position as an academic affiliate at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, where he spends his day filming specimens, exploring the collections, and collaborating with museum staff on videos.
Oddly, extraordinarily intentional
How do you capture someone’s attention in the doomscroll-wasteland of social media? And how do you keep it? This is something that Engelman works meticulously to achieve with each video. “Every detail that comes together to create Odd Animal Specimens is extraordinarily intentional,” he says.
He begins with a question, so that he can provide answers or correct misconceptions. But he has to be strategic about it. “You can’t answer the question until the very last moment, so people are encouraged to watch the whole thing,” says Engelman.
It would be selling Engelman short to say that’s all there is to it. He says he is deliberate and tight with his scripting and never wavers from moving towards an answer. One thing you notice if you watch a lot of Engelman’s TikToks is that he is often guiding the viewer with directive dialog such as “look at this” or “notice this”. That’s deliberate, too. But the soft tone and inquisitive delivery is something that came a little more naturally.
If you can keep your messaging pretty simple, it’ll work for everyone
When asked whether he’s emulating how his father used to describe the natural world to him and his sisters, he says he hasn’t thought about it before, but that’s probably the case. “The way my dad talks about things… it isn’t like a professor talking to a student,” Engelman says. “It’s more like he’s next to you, and you’re both looking at something and trying to figure it out together.” He says his dad would also describe things softly and carefully, pointing out details as he went, as if in awe of the creature he was looking at.
Simplicity can be extraordinary
This ‘big dad energy’ is strong in every Odd Animal Specimens video, but there’s another element that makes them unique: the use of jangly piano sounds and bouncy, curious twinkles. For that, Engelman thanks his brother-in-law, John Etsell, a pianist in the Detroit Opera. The musical maestro crafts beats and sounds that tickle the viewer, and help to guide them through important moments in each video, says Engelman.
Though a standard Odd Animal Specimens clip only runs for about 30 seconds, Engelman uploads longer videos to YouTube, under the same name. He says the process of building out his clips usually takes about four days.
Engelman spends a lot of time ideating, trying to come up with the next idea and usually finds inspiration from conversations with museum staff and “gut checks” with family and friends. For instance, he recently asked some friends if they knew the difference between a chrysalis and a cocoon, and they responded, “They’re not the same thing?”
Though it might seem strange – especially given he won an Emmy for Outstanding Education or Informational Series – Engelman says his primary goal isn’t necessarily to educate. Instead, he wants to cultivate enthusiasm and interest in a subject. “My goal is to make something that’s interesting, that really grips you and pulls you in, that might light a fire in your brain, so that afterwards you’re interested in it or you care about it.”
My goal is to make something that’s interesting, that really grips you and pulls you in.
Engelman’s work in children’s TV might also be a little misleading. He says that he never specifically tries to target a specific audience with his work. Though his shows with National Geographic were a little goofy, they’re not just for kids. Engelman wrote his scripts in such a way that the average person would be able to understand and enjoy them.
The production, the odd-but-extraordinary animal specimens, the curious tone – it might all be intentional. But the underlying concept is elementary. “If you can keep your messaging pretty simple, it’ll work for everyone,” says Engelman.
Story by Jackson Ryan