Seth Myers “A Closer Look” segments. I don’t stay up late enough to watch the show, and that’s usually all I’m interested in seeing. It also seems to appear on YouTube several hours before it airs on NBC, which is odd.
Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives. Even though I’m the world’s pickiest eater, and wouldn’t actually be able to stomach most of what gets prepared for the cameras, I kinda want to try all of it.
Doctor Pimple Popper. Yeah, I know. It’s kinda frustrating though, as depending on the YT channel, some clips have turned the surgery black and white, and some have excised it (um…) altogether.
Lots of travel videos. I like the ones where the British dude tries every airline in the world (“Here I am on the official state airline of Myanmar…”), but I also watch a lot of informative ones before I travel, like “how to get from Munich airport to the Hauptbahnhof” and those have served me well on my travels.
Old music videos. Honestly, how else am I going to ever see them again?
On another music front, I’ve been an avid follower of the TG Lurgan channel for years. It’s this Irish organization that creates Gaeilge-language cover versions of English-language pop/rock songs with young people from the gaeltacht. Some of them are as good as the original. I’m particularly fond of Mandinka and Can’t Stop The Feeling.
Lets see,
How to drink
Whisky tribe
Scishow
Kyle hill
Pbs spacetime/eons/ they have several different channels
Anton at what da math
The try channel
Trybals
Answers with Joe
Be Smart
Smarter every day
Technology connections
Alpha phoenix
Star talk
There are others but I can’t think of them right now. Not really a subscriber though, that just ain’t my style
I think this is the guy who took a Greyhound “nonstop” from NYC to LA and it was pretty much as horrible as you would expect. At least once he had to stay a couple of nights – or a night a half, I guess – in a hotel because the connecting bus simply didn’t show up for like 36 hours. Another time the bus stopped for lunch and then left like 5 minutes later while everyone was waiting in line at McDonalds.
Yes! I watch her too, and I’ve learned a lot. Glad to see another fan.
In addition, I watch:
Curiosity Incorporated
Tabieats
Shinichi’s World
I Will Always Travel For Food
Just A Few Acres Farm
Chef Michel Dumas
scottbrothersduo
France - Table & Voyage
Country Life Vlog
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Gierok Farms
Hmm, a lot of cooking, farming, and travel videos.
I like Simon Whistler’s channels, primarily Side Projects and Decoding the Unknown. They are not particularly deep, but I find him amusing for his frequent digressions and his lack of tolerance for woo.
I like little variety, something different one week to the next. War birds (Dark Skieshas been mentioned.) The Lock Picking Lawyer is fun and some similar videos. Dash cams are another favorite as are music videos( From Clasical to Rock to Country). I’m into Laser engraving so I watch a lot of laser videos from different creators like The Lousiana Hobby Guy, The Clack Shack and others. I can easily spend a day jumping from one unrelated video to another.
Stefan Milo makes excellent human evolution/anthropology videos.
Rare Earth is a really fun channel; Evan Hadfield (the astronaut’s son) travels the world and makes videos about all sorts of different things he comes across.
Youtube is my primary entertainment viewing. The 12.00 a month I spend for Premium with ad-free, playlist feature and downloads is the best media money I spend.
I watch a lot of hobby channels for my hobbies and ASMR for sleep.
I also watch channels like-
The History Guy
How to Cook That
Alternative History Hub
Todd in the Shadows
Dominic Noble
Jenny Nicholson
Steve Marsh. An ordinary Scottish guy, but he does travelogues all over Scotland and Northern Europe. There’s probably nothing special about where he goes, but he (and his girlfriend Alicja, who occasionally pops up in his videos), are genuinely nice people, who always find something positive about anywhere they go. Watching his videos is like taking a trip with a genial, kind-hearted friend.
Si Finds. Simon Bourne is a licensed Thames mudlark, who pokes around the shore of the Thames, as well as drained canals, old pubyards, and early modern rubbish dumps, finding all kinds of historic trash. Finding a Victorian bottle or 17th c. clay pipe bowl is almost an everyday occurrence for him, and he not infrequently finds Roman artefacts (which he duly donates to the Museum of London). It’s fascinating that anyone can wander out onto the Thames foreshore and casually find, say, a George V ha’pence or a Victorian ginger beer bottle. Again, part of the charm is that he is an engaging, fun person.
VASAviation. Publishes air traffic control chatter, usually dealing with emergencies or funny situations. He adds animations to show the planes, or includes the radar track. Good if you’re an aviation nerd. (Incidentally, those of you who watch Mentour Pilot, you might also enjoy Pilot Debrief, hosted by an ex-Air Force F-15 pilot who breaks down crashes to explain what went wrong.)
Last year I somehow stumbled across VivaLaDirtLeague, which someone else referenced above. New Zealand comedy troupe that makes parody videos about video game tropes. I’m not even a gamer, but they’re really funny. (Hey, @colinfred, did you know Rowan was in Avatar? )
Mike Rich. This one I can’t really explain. Mike Richardson is a truck driver in Atlanta, who is one of YouTube’s biggest shoetubers. I’m not even a sneakerhead, but I watch all his videos. Again, just because he seems like a really good guy. And he visits malls and stores on the east side of Atlanta, that I’m very familar with. Learned enough about kicks to occasionally surprise the young guys I work with, who don’t expect an old fat white guy to recognize their Shattered Backboard 1s or Black Cat 13s.
There are a handful of other channels I watch every now and again: Taskmaster, to see the latest episodes of the show; Bernadette Banner, a costume historian who makes her own historically accurate reproductions; The Running Channel, for tips on training and the occasional funny video.
Lastly, and this I really can’t explain, I periodically watch a video from a young guy named Saymonte, which shows him unboxing and looking at a beater box of used sneakers. I originally found it when I was looking for examples of AAVE on YouTube - he speaks very good AAVE - but then I discovered that this particular video has the ability to soothe me to sleep; I’m almost always fighting to keep my eyes open by the end of it. I’ve watched it so many times, I can quote large chunks of it. Yes, I know it’s weird, but what can I say?
Sailing vlogs, SV Delos, Holly of Wind hippie sailing just left the Solomon Islands on her way to Australia. In lagtime six months behind iirc. ( solo woman sailor on a 27ft Grinde, no water maker no refrigerator she’s badass but so congenial and self deprecating) Matt and Amy on SV Florence but she’s in a refit now for northern latitude sailing.
Keezy walks, I like his ramblings thru India. Watching it I’m almost in shock at the amount of people everywhere and the congestion omg. He just walks along with his GoPro showing us the street life in New Delhi Mumbai or Kolkata. Chaotic for sure and all go with the flow
Can’t believe the thread has hit a few dozen replies without a mention of our very own Mangetout’s Atomic Shrimp channel! [ETA: Whoops, just noticed that Kron namechecked him back in post #7, never mind! Well worth another hat tip, though.]
Lemme help curate that quality-historical-textilecraft list with shoutouts to:
Nicole Rudolph, a garment/fashion historian who makes historical reproduction shoes and costumes (she’s an exceptionally accomplished amateur cordwainer);
Morgan Donner, historical/DIY sewing and crafting in general (including some carpentry and metalworking) with a somewhat more “goofy” just-having-fun vibe but also serious knowledge and skills (check out her “500 Years of Hairstyles” vid for an information-packed crash course in historically informed hairdressing);
any other YouTuber recommended by Bernadette, Nicole or Morgan is probably going to be worth checking out for historically informed sewing and other crafting presentations. There’s also:
Micarah Tewers, with the goofy-and-eccentric aspect turned up to 11, but again, admirable craftsmanship and creativity underpinning it all. These are more like typical “influencer adventure” videos, though, they’re not gonna teach you anything systematic.
Tasting History With Max Miller
Useful Charts
Casual Geographic
The Chunks
DIY Prepper
The Dodo (This one is about animal rescues, always a happy ending)
Game Grumps: A couple of aging millennials who do let’s plays, and one of them is the singer/songwriter of comedy rock band Ninja Sex Party.
Sir Sic: A sarcastic British atheist and recovered former “anti-SJW” guy with a crusader avatar who takes the piss out of flat-earthers and Biblical literalists.
Adam Something: Hungarian urban-planning enthusiast who makes short video essays about the flaws of modern urban planning, with a particular emphasis on pie-in-the-sky ideas like planned cities in authoritarian regimes and whatever cockamamie idea Elon Musk has this week.
Babish Culinary Universe: A cooking channel that replicates recipes from TV shows, movies, and anime.
Some Ordinary Gamers: An Indian-Canadian Muslim gamer who vlogs about tech news, games, viruses and hacks, and related news.
Chubbyemu: A toxicologist who tells true stories about unusual ways people have put themselves in the emergency room by consuming things they shouldn’t have.
Danhausen: An AEW wrestler whose gimmick is sort of a take on classic TV horror hosts like Svengoolie or the Cryptkeeper and documents himself living his life in character.
Danny Gonzalez: A Gen-Z guy who does videos on various subjects, including controversial Youtubers, too-good-to-be-true products advertised online, and weird or cringeworthy YA movies.
Dominic Noble: A British guy who reviews movie/TV adaptations of books and the ways they’re either faithful or not faithful to the source material.
Fire Department Chronicles: A firefighter/EMT who makes shorts about unusual calls he’s gotten.
James Stephanie Sterling: A non-binary British gamer and indy pro wrestler who covers unethical and bad behavior by the game industry.
Kyle Hates Hiking: An outdoorsman and thru-hiking enthusiast who tells true stories about wilderness hikers who ran into misfortune on the trail.
Life of Boris: An Estonian gamer who does travelogues and recipes for Soviet-era poverty foods.
MrBallen: A former Navy SEAL who tells “strange, dark, and mysterious” stories about true crime, close calls with death, and the unexplainable.
Nash Bozard: Tech guy and gamer who does a weekly livestream where he plays music video requests and covers weird news stories.
OzMedia: A Vtuber who does comedic readings of Reddit posts.
P.M. Seymour: Pretty much the same thing, but with Tumblr.
Simon Whistler: British guy who has a lot of channels where he does video essays about biography, geography, science, true crime, and other topics.
Tasting History: A home cook who reproduces recipes from historical sources, everything from the '50s back to ancient Babylon.
Todd In the Shadows: Former TGWTG guy who’s been reviewing pop music since 2008. Always appears in silhouette in a dark room and never shows his face, thus the name.
The Report of the Week, a.k.a. ReviewBrah: A Gen-Z Floridian who dresses like he just stepped out of a time portal from the 1920s and reviews new fast food products in a very dry, sarcastic style.
Viva la Dirt League: A New Zealand comedy troupe who do short sketches about MMOs and D&D.
Wizards With Guns: Same deal as the above, but American.
Justin Whang: A heavy metal guitarist who documents famous or infamous internet legends.
Chubbyemu is the only person on the planet allowed to use the two-sentence style of title (“A woman forgot to clean her cat’s litterbox for two weeks. This is what happened to her cerebral cortex.”). Everyone else is banned for life.
Which is to say, they can try it, but they’ll probably wind up (gestures with right index finger) presenting to the emergency room unconscious.
I stumbled onto his channel by accident when I saw a video called “A chef tried gas station nachos. This is what happened to his stomach” or something like that. I thought it was gonna be a cooking video where the chef tried to make his own fancy-pants version of gas station nachos, but it turned out to be about how he got botulism from the nacho cheese.
Well, this turned out better than I thought it would! I’ve got lots of new cool stuff to check out now, thanks!
I heartily agree. I’m not a movie person and not into serial tv dramas, and interesting (to me) content on regular network channels seems to be pretty scarce, so YT and occasionally Netflix are my thing.
Yep, I refused to watch any of his videos because of the clickbaity titles, and couldn’t understand why they kept being recommended to me. Finally watched one, and it wasn’t bad, but I sure do despise the naming structure…
I’m not going to name any channels, just general areas I watch:
Fountain pen and ink videos
DIY carpenter type videos, including tool and shop tips and tricks
Furniture restoration: one channel I will name is Thomas Johnson Furniture Restoration
British comedy/quiz panel shows, although good new stuff is getting thin on the ground
British chat shows
Occasional news snips from CNN, usually the first 3 minutes out of a 10-minute video is all I need to watch to get the gist.
Bookbinding and related topics
Cooking shows
And there are YouTubes that I listen to, because there is nothing to watch. Those include BBC dramas, mysteries and thrillers from the past.