But I'd argue he is still popular, though the very nature of what "popularity" means has changed even since he passed, so I don't know honestly how to really even address the comparison to modern "YouTube" stars.
Being alive, generally, is useful for reaching audiences. Not everyone needs to be alive to do this, but it really does help, you know...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Martin_Gardner_Mathema...
One of the most iconic, John Conway's game of life wouldn't be an article today, it'd be swamped by many authors quickly. But many articles still seem unique. Can the hard slogs survive when the icing is gone?
Really I think it's just down to most kids don't get stuck in a library or at home with only SciAm to read anymore.
That sort of information flow is dead. It's pull not push, which Martin Gardner's format doesn't fit. Pull is bit sized.
Equally kids now can read peer review straight from the source and also peoples criticism, SciAm is no longer the gatekeeper, you lose the recreation for better science.
And as a bit of trivia - when Douglas Hofstadter (of Gödel Escher Bach) took over the slot in the early 1980s, he renamed it to the anagrammatic "Metamagical Themas".
Well, go ahead. It's easy to do, by a dozen methods.
HN has too many people who attempt to look wise by doubting things without cause, when the actual wise thing is not to discuss your doubts, but to address them
Unfortunately, the normal behavior is invisible, so people randomly admonishing one another gains the false appearance of being regular
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> Popular compared with when?
The past.
The sentence makes this clear and unambiguous, as does our lack of time travel.
But someone could help promote his work again, by taking his articles and making Youtube videos of them, and give credit to him and urge people to check out his articles and books.
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Colossal-Book-Mathematics-Paradoxes-P...
Recreational mathematics is featured a lot on youtube. Channels like stand up maths. Some of the topics Martin Gardner wrote about are being covered again in this new medium.