He does explain it at around the 5:30 minute mark by saying that it is the aligned spin of the atoms within magnets that give them their peculiar strength. I t

He does explain it at around the 5:30 minute mark by saying that it is the aligned spin of the atoms within magnets that give them their peculiar strength. I think that his leadup is an attempt to get a couple points across: 1) That we typically can explain things in terms of more basic or more 'fundamental' concepts. This does not work with magnetism since magnetism itself is a fundamental force. Attempts to explain via analogy should be avoided. 2) Even the spin explanation probably does more harm than good. A non-physicist will think of atoms spinning like a top, which is wrong and misleading.