Kind of tired watching trash from YT.
Edit: Thanks for all the replies. It’s good to see that there are still gems in YouTube.
“The Infographics Show” kind of my favorite.
Also recently seen video “Tourism in Afganistan” recorded less than year ago. Interesting content I would say.
Internet Comment Etiquette with Erik https://www.youtube.com/@commentiquette
Incognito Mode https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Q7XEy86Q7T-3kNpNjYgwA
UpIsNotJump https://www.youtube.com/@UpIsNotJump
If someone had to watch just one Incognito Mode video, I would recommend "future, followed by the second part in JonTron’s channel.
removed by mod
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/channel/UC8Q7XEy86Q7T-3kNpNjYgwA
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
Technology Connections is a fun one, Alec explains all sorts of everyday gadgets, and sometimes some old gadgets.
Watch Wes Work follows an auto/truck/tractor mechanic up north, he does a great job of explaining the why and how of his diagnostics.
The History Guy is another one of my favorites, especially his episode on transistors.
DankPods
He recently announced that he’ll be taking a break from content creation, so this is the perfect time for you to binge watch everything he has made in the past 3 years.
Aw hell yeah mate the Frank guy
I’ve really enjoyed Strange Parts (Also Stranger Parts for longer format) over the years. He’s been through a lot and the videos show some of that. But I think he’s doing alright again now and has interesting things frequently.
I also really enjoy Simone Giertz, she’s an excellent follow, also has gone through a lot (brain tumor for one) over the years but is still enjoyable.
Adam Savage Tested - It’s Adam Savage from mythbusters etc, but doing his own thing and being a geek about it. I really enjoy his personal content. I greatly dislike Mythbusters and most forms of TV media.
ProjectFarm - Independent testing of all kinds of things. If you need to know how tools compare to each other without worrying about sponsor money, Todd is excellent. His methods aren’t perfect, but they are good enough for what he is trying to do and for understanding somewhat practically how the various things compare.
If you are ok with a little more spasticity, Colin Furze is always up to a cheeky bit of fun.
Zach Freedman - Prototyping and 3d printing but make it fun and full of puns and sarcasm and a dash of nonsense
Mr Carlson’s Lab - If you like electronics and very long format, chat while working style content. This is a great one.
DownieLive - Has good travel videos, especially liked his Alaska series, the canal series was neat and he has multiple unique train ones that are interesting.
I’ve started to check out Alice Cappelle after watching a good video on the counter points to the 15-minute city.
Music
Lauren Babic - Metal singer, does lots of covers, has her own stuff too, but I enjoy her stuff a lot. She’s my favorite singer along with Courtney LaPlante.
Ichika Nito - Lots of really chill, intricate, technical guitar, I wish he’d do more long format stuff but he’s fun to listen to. Similar playing to Covet and Polyphia but generally solo and easier going.
Technology Connections
Love this guy. He’s such a nerd! My kind of people
The only thing I would like to be improved is his rambling. But other than that: great content and I especially like his humour and acting.
I actually kind of like that about him, usually (I’m not gonna watch an hour long video about electric car chargers ffs).
To me, it makes the videos seem a bit less scripted and more like just a guy talking about things he’s passionate about.
Informative ones I subscribe to:
- Technology Connections
- Rebecca Watson
- Steve Mould
- Dr Becky
- Naomi Wi
- Climate Town
- History Matters
- Nino’s Home - Easy desserts and snacks recipes
- Historical Italian Cooking - self-explanatory
- Tasting History with Max Miller - historical recipes recreated
- toldinstone - Historian explains common Ancient Roman questions
- JustOneCookBook - Japanese recipes
- Kommander Karl - NPC skits
Depends on the genre you prefer, but I’ll try to cover a lot of bases for anyone who might be interested. I’ll break it up into 2 comments cause it’s not letting me post so I might have hit the character limit lol.
Part 1
If you like let’s plays, I think Letsgameitout is one of the most consistently entertaining channels. His videos are a good length, not so long that they drag out, but not so short that they feel like they’re done too soon, and he uploads frequently enough to not feel like it takes ages for a new video to come out, but not so frequently that it feels like he sacrifices quality.
If you like games but not the format of most let’s plays, or just like general humour and don’t mind most videos being game related, then DougDoug is hilarious. He streams on twitch but edits the streams down for YouTube. Seeing him interact with his twitch chat is really entertaining, and his shenanigans involving AI are also great as well. A good entry video for his content is probably the pajama Sam video he made recently where he tries to get chatgpt to beat pajama Sam, and the ai gets more and more unhinged as the video goes on. But it is one of his longer videos so you can also try any of his other videos. Another good one would be the one where he gets two halves of his twitch chat to compete against each other in GTAV using chat controls a la twitch plays pokemon. There’s also GameChamp3000, who does a lot of gaming challenges, but she doesn’t upload as often sadly. But her videos are very high quality and the lengths she goes to in order to get around a road block can be pretty crazy.
If you like diy or humorous educational stuff, then electroboom is a very entertaining channel and also very informative when it comes to electricity and engineering. He’s the guy who made the diy electric guitar. Basically he’s an electrician who does projects where he tries to make something from scratch, and along the way he shows all the wrong ways you can do something by doing them himself and then getting hurt by it slapstick style. He’s shown how he fakes a lot of the stunts to assure his audience that he’s not putting himself in danger (though he has also confessed to some real near misses like the Jacob’s ladder incident), but he’s good at making it look really convincing which somehow adds to the humour. He’s also good at telling jokes on top of the slapstick. Similar channels like his include William Osman, Michael Reeves, and I did a thing. But of the 4 of them Electroboom and I did a Thing upload the most consistently I think, though shout out to Michael Reeves for being the most insane of the 4 lol.
If you like just regular educational channels, then I’ve heard veritasium is good, and there’s also Mark Rober though he’s not just education, he also does some fun experiments and even dabble in dealing with scammers. There might be some controversy from when he made a video about autism because I heard he was promoting an autism advocacy group that was possibly tied to autism speaks (which is largely hated by the autistic community), but I’m not super informed on that and idk if he addressed it. His video about it was positive towards autistic people since his son is autistic though, so if that’s a sticking point for you then you can always look into it and draw your own conclusions. It’s not usually a topic of his videos though so if it’s not a deal breaker then you can just watch any of his other videos and ignore that one.
If you like drama and video essays then TRO aka The Right Opinion is probably one of my favourite channels for that type of content, because he’s really good at portraying every side fairly without coming across as obnoxiously neutral. He’s also good at covering topics in a way that feels thorough without dragging on for too long.
Part 2
If you like video essays that aren’t specifically about tea, or like social justice topics, then some good channels for that are Contrapoints, Shaun_vids, and SomeMoreNews. Their styles are quite different from each other but they cover a lot of the same or similar topics related to current events. Shaun_vids is the type to do a lot of in depth research about the groups he’s talking about. He’s more clinical, but also very thorough. Contrapoints comes in from a more emotional standpoint, not in the “feelings trump facts” way though, it’s more like Hbomberguy is logically intelligent and tackles topics from that angle, while contrapoints is very emotionally intelligent, and tackles topics from that angle, addressing why different groups might feel a certain way and how they developed that mindset or how it influences their behaviour. Her video on incels is a great example of this, and is a really interesting video about those communities and the mindsets of the people who join them. I also really like her theatrical presentation, and she’s very good at giving the other side of things a fair overview while not compromising her own views or being too gentle/forgiving with assholes or bigots. SomeMoreNews is the most confrontational out of the three. They also do a lot of research on the topics, but their style is very much like John Oliver, but with more of a news anchor theme rather than a talk show theme, and the host has more of a defined character that he plays rather than just playing “himself”, though his personality does come through a lot too.
Come to think of it, John Oliver is another good channel in that genre since I think most episodes of Last Week Tonight have been uploaded on YouTube. He’s very comedy focused but of these 4 his show has the most resources and as a result his show is possibly the most backed up by research on every topic he covers. Not that the others are lacking on that end by any means. But if you want actual on-screen citations from papers and studies, then his probably comes in first, followed by SomeMoreNews in second, and Shaun_vids (also known as just Shaun) in 3rd. Contrapoints comes in last but mostly just because the stuff she generally tries to tackle is the emotional side of things more than the statistical side of things (which can be just as, if not more valuable when tackling these topics. She has a reputation for deradicalizing a lot of alt right people for a reason), but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t cite her sources. She has an academic background and it shows. So it’s not a criticism by any means, more a sliding scale of what each channel focuses on. So depends on where your preferences lie if that style of video appeals to you.
If you don’t want to watch stuff about politics or social justice but still like video essays, then obviously VSauce is a good channel to binge, but if you want a channel that uploads more often and is currently uploading, then I guess it depends on what kind of topics you like. My tastes are really varies in this genre so I’d probably need more specifics if this is what you’re looking for. Music? Movies? Theme parks? A little bit of everything? Debunking videos? Tv shows? Behind the scenes stuff? Archaeology? Space? True crime? Anime? Video games (as in it’s an essay about the games, not a lets play or gaming challenge)? Let me know if you’re interested in any specific recs in this genre or if you’re up for a little bit of everything. The only channel that comes to mind that covers a wider range of topics is Folding Ideas, which is a great channel. But everyone else I tend to watch is usually more niche to some degree.
If you like more casual reaction content with funny people riffing off stuff they see online, then there’s Chad Chad, Danny Gonzales, Drew Gooden, Cody Ko, and people in that general circle. They tend to reference other similar channels a lot so watching them can expose you to others if you like that genre. I only recently discovered Chad Chad who is really funny imo.
If you like less casual reaction content, as in movie/show reviewers, I have a lot, so if you’re specifically interested in that let me know and I’ll make it a separate post.
Some more random recs that didn’t really fit into any particular category:
Any Austin. He does video game stuff, but not like any other channel, he does stuff like determining the unemployment rate of video game cities, or reviewing all the inns and restaurants in Skyrim, or talking about weird locations in video games that people don’t usually notice or think about. One video series he has is seeing which video game characters in various franchises take the longest to drown. The topics he chooses are often very oddball but his delivery is so entertaining he manages to make the most mundane topics fun to think about. He takes the unemployment videos so seriously to the point of comedy, talking like he’s a legitimate auditor and even printing out the reports and having a presentation at the end like he’s at a meeting. He’s good at making this so absurd that it’s comical, but in a very deadpan kinda way.
DNSL. I’m not really sure how to describe him other than as a very successful troll who messes with people in online games. He doesn’t go too far and most of his targets are assholes, so it doesn’t feel too mean, more absurdist lol.
Sushi Ramen. He’s like if a Japanese game show was a person. His vids are in Japanese, but with subtitles on most of his videos. He’s very funny and has done some wacky things. It’s hard to describe what he does exactly, kinda like Jackass mixed with a prank show mixed with some of the comedic diy style channels.
Scary Interesting. Stories about various disasters and tragedies. There are lots of channels like this, but scary interesting is the only one that I stuck with. I like the variety of stories, they way they’re told, na how there aren’t any bells and whistles, just some imagery put on screen to match whatever’s happening or the setting, or from the event if available, and the guy telling the story. He tells them well without drawing them out too much or being sensational or over dramatic, while still including enough information to understand what’s going on. Does lots of cave diving stories or mountain climbing stories, but also dabble in murders and disappearances and other various topics. Morbid but fascinating, and not all his stories have bad endings so it’s not all depressing.
That’s not all I have by a long shot but I tried to pick out the ones that stood out to me the most without getting bogged down in specifics, but if anyone wants more specific recs then let me know and I can elaborate or add on to what I’ve mentioned already.
Can’t believe nobody’s recommended NileRed/NileBlue yet. His videos are awesome
Philips fast talking makes me anxious lmao, idk why
Sup sup sup sup sup
Family
Climate Town - Does a decent job explaining climate-related topics and still makes them interesting.
Jay Foreman - Very funny map trivia.
JerryRigEverything - A bit too much promotion on some stuff, but really comprehensive tear downs.
MIT OpenCourseWare - learn good.
Pop Culture Detective - Deconstructive pop culture tropes that make you think a lot.
SNES drunk - retrogaming (not just SNES) but well done, 0% additives just prime content.
stacksmashing - electronics trivia and hardcore reverse engineering.
The National Gallery - If you’re into history, this is an excellent channel about art trivia. I’m not much into art and this is always top quality for me.
Tom Scott plus - Tom Scott does British telly stuff like playing board games or chasing people on the streets with an apple tag.
Voices of the Past - This is slow, exhaustive history for nerds. Worth it if you want to let the story wash all over you.
Vox - slightly left leaning great journalism, albeit sometimes too brief to explain complex topics.
Weird History - They get some stuff wrong, but it’s still entertaining.
Project Farm - Wanna buy an angle grinder? Now you do.
Insider - Had a series of “How Real Is It?” videos that let professionals describe stuff seen in movies, and it is both entertaining and a learning experience.
Corridor - Some stuff of dubious quality but if you’re interested in FX, it’s good.
LegalEagle - Law is hard, but is law fun?
brian david gilbert - Existential horror camouflaged as comedy.
PBS Space Time - Good but hard space science.
BurtBot - Orcs with normal voices.
Joel Haver - Neat if you’re into deadpan humor.
Taskmaster - Probably some of the best british television available in YT.Bonus round:
Practical Engineering - How stuff is built but explained well enough that even I can understand it.Plus, use FreeTube, not You Tube. Don’t be a slave of their terrible algorythm and all the recommendations will turn out to be of your taste.
Map men map men map map map men men men.
I love Vox, but I would call it more than slightly left leaning.
The journalists, sure. The company, less so.
The company, less so.
Well, it’s neither a non-profit nor a worker-owned co-op, so that’s to be expected.
Check out this video from Practical Engineering, a channel about teaching us about our constructed world, when it works and when it fails. https://youtu.be/jxNM4DGBRMU
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/jxNM4DGBRMU
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
Viva La Dirt League if you’re looking for short but hillarious videos. I also quite enjoy Foil Arms and Hog, Daniel Thrasher and Chris Hallbeck
Kurzgesagt and CGP Gray for general easy to understand science.
Numberphile, Stand-up Maths and 3Blue1Brown if you are into math facts and stuff and computer science. Also minutephysics for physics.
If you like Minecraft, you must check out all the members of Hermitcraft.
That about sums up my subscription list.
i watched a few of their videos too! good stuff, though a bit more advanced than what I’m used to
For in-depth game analysis: Joseph Anderson; Whitelight
If you’re interested in a dry-humored, game-reviewing owl with an upload schedule just as fucked up as his sleep schedule, try Shammy.
For humorous but interesting, creative and well explained engineering: Stuff Made Here
For interesting gaming challenges: Ymfah is absolutely amazing
