The Youtube channels I would recommend are the following:
Tech/Science
S3 - The stories of people working to change the world.
Modern Day Eratosthenes - A great STEM communicator who provides a moderate level breakdown of STEM topics. Videos are less than 12 minutes long.
Ziroth - This channel focuses on highlighting new science and engineering projects that are helping the world transition to a zero carbon future!
Speculative Science
Isaac Arthur - This channel focuses on exploring concepts in science with an emphasis on futurism and space exploration, along with a healthy dose of science fiction. While we explore many concepts and technologies that are far beyond us now, we try to keep everything inside the bounds of known science or major theories.
Analytical Tech News/Stories
TechAltar - Analytical videos about tech companies [and their products or services].
Tech Business/Economics/History Video Essays
Asianometry - One of my favorite YT channels. He does a great job producing high quality videos about tech history, tech related economics, and sometimes dives into what that latest tech is and how it might play a part in our future.
Humorous Business Journalism
Good Work - “Edge-cutting” business journalism, with a healthy dose of humor mixed in. Actually covers things that you might want to know more about in the realm of business, trading, and why the American economy is so freaking weird.
The Making of a Movie/TV Show
It Was A Sh*t Show - Making stuff is hard, especially in the entertainment world when there are millions of dollars on the line. And we are going to talk about these disastrous, never ending, and sometimes dangerous productions. With video documentaries and a companion conversational podcast, It Was A Sh*t Show is an entertaining look at some of your favorite films and tv shows, and why they were such a nightmare to make.
Frame Voyager - Mini-documentaries on films without the clickbait negativity.
Mini/Full Documentary Makers
Peter Dibble - Obscure history from the Pacific Northwest and beyond. I recommend checking out America’s First Cross-Country Auto Race.
Kirby Ferguson - He’s best known for his documentary series called, Everything is a Remix. He made an updated and extended version of it. I recommend it.
danooct1 - A guy who demonstrates computer viruses on OSes like Windows and DOS.
WrestlingWithWregret (For wrestling fans) - This guy does various wrestling content but some of his best is PPV Classic reviews. Charming personality.
Bobby Fingers. I promise it’s worth the time and wait between videos.
Engels Coach Shop. Dude rebuilds wagons and other horse pulled things from piles of rubble. Really nice calm guy out in Wyoming.
Pat Finnerty breaks down bad songs in hilarious fashion.
Alpha Phoenix is a good science channel
Kari, she’s a retro gaming nerd, really young but absolutely knows her shit
Look Mum No Computer. An extremely talented musician who does videos around analog electronic music gear.
Mbmmllc. They do mining videos. The Kenya video is unbelievable and I learned so so much about the world from it.
Periscope Films. Stock footage that varies wildly
These are my picks.
Lost in the Movies - fewer than 10k subscribers, but he deserves so many more.
His work is generally on movies and TV, usually with a more art house feel.
His major piece of work though is his 30-40 part video series (and also podcast/blog) on Twin Peaks.
None of your, “Here’s the explanation of EVERYTHING,” nonsense here though.
Instead he looks at the show, its characters and its arcs with a contemplative eye, picking out interesting visual and narrative parallels, examining the show and film as a piece of art rather than as a puzzle to be ‘solved’.
It’s exceptional and it mystifies me that it’s not more well known. He’s been doing it for about ten years now I think. If you’re a Peaks fan, it’s an absolute must IMO.
Here’s my list, included snippets of their own youtube descriptions.
Angela Collier theoretical physicist.
Andrew Millison is a permaculture teacher and practitioner.
Climate Town Rollie Williams and a ragtag team of climate communicators, creatives and comedians are here to examine climate change in a way that doesn’t make you want to eat a cyanide pill. Get informed about the climate crisis before the weather does it for you.
Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t A Low-Brow, Crass Approach to Plant Ecology & Evolution as muttered by a Misanthropic Chicago Italian. We study plants through the lens of ecology and evolution, rather than what supposed anthropocentric uses they can provide (as if holding up the biosphere wasn’t enough).
Dr Fatima i went to grad school and all i got was this lousy understanding of systemic problems in science.
Meditations for the anxious mind
Noah Daniel interior & spatial design
Stewart Hicks Takes on Buildings and Cities.
I like your taste in youtubers!
For music fans, I highly recommend Trash Theory. Very thorough deep dives into songs and bands that leave you with a much better understanding of music history.
For commentary on modern popular music I recommend Todd in the Shadows and Mic the Snare.
GothicLordUK a gaming YouTuber who plays a variety of rouge like and puzzle games.
Terrasteel a YouTuber who explains quirks and fun facts about Terraria.
Lance Hedrick makes really cool data driven videos about coffee.
Etchy makes videos about generation 4 of Pokémon
The Tim traveller : https://www.youtube.com/@TheTimTraveller/videos
The US Chemical Safety Board- does indepth non-politcal analysis of industrial accidents.
Rationality rules - mostly religion debunking
Applied Science - Varying videos about science phenomenons and use cases
LaurieWired - Cyber Security
Veronica Explains - Mostly Linux.
James Lee - animated videos
Awesome open source - videos and tutorials about self hosting and open source software
fly with Greg - paragliding videos
Mary’s Test Kitchen - awesome vegan and keto food
AlphaPhoenix - Science Videos
the hated one - privacy videos
crackermilk - comedy skits
Theramintrees - psychology videos
Weird fruit explorer - exploring fruits and vegetables from all over the world
Earthling ed - videos about veganism and animal welfare and rights
Ghostcharm. Casual video game analysis
Drue Langlois - animator/filmmaker who makes absurd and fun videos. One of my favorites
Wigglewood - another animator who’s in the process of making their own little shared world of silliness.
Oboeshoesgames - streamer who has a decent sense of humor and is actually pretty creative with coming up with little parody songs for the games he plays. He also knows a SHITTON about Bionicle and will throw in references sometimes, which is always nice to see.
RudeJackArt - artist/animator behind this masterpiece
SplinterChalk - very small YouTuber who does challenge runs in games, similar to MittenSquad (RIP Paul), but mostly focusing on the Batman: Arkham games. He does play others though.
ChadCat - he condenses other long-form YouTube videos (i.e. videos over 10 minutes) down to their most important details, usually taking up to about 20 seconds to a minute each time, calling them the “ADHD Versions.”
Venjent - DJ/producer who makes badass beats using sounds he finds out in the world, such as a squeaky door
2 Guys and A Cooler - family-run cooking channel where they make different cool things. Their video on pemmican got me interested in them.
CharlieBo313 - basically a modern anthropologist who goes to the 'hoods and ghettos of America and talks to the people who live there, and showcases what life is like.
Poe’s Sketchbook - stop-motion animator behind this badass fight
Luka Big Pants - strange guy who makes videos in that weird stuttery FMV game style. It’s all weird and absurd but it’s all really good.
Crazy Korean Cooking - a Korean family eating food, pretty much. They try different foods they never have, like Mexican and Jamaican foods, then they’ll experiment and try mixing the new stuff with their Korean food and it gets pretty fun. The parents are honestly super fun to watch because they just enjoy it all.
BM Cartoons - an animator who just makes silly little cartoons.
Edit: oh there’s more.
Fearnley Fitzroy - the animator behind this absolute masterpiece and other fun souls-like dance videos.
GilGamesHello - gamer who plays a lot of physics-based games like Exanima and Half Sword.
Spine_apples - Saruman the Stupid
TRYBALS - a very cool channel that shows western media and such to tribal villagers from Pakistan.
Bill McClintock - someone who mashes up songs from wildly different genres and somehow makes them sound fuckin awesome. Stuparena (a mashup of The Macarena and Stupefied)
Bushy - another challenge gamer, but he focuses on Elden Ring and other Souls-likes.
Bax Taylor - a musician who makes his own original songs, but also does silly covers of others like Toto doing Apple Bottom Jeans, or Frank Sinatra’s Balls In Yo Jaws.
Media Zealot - he breaks down different civilizations/organizations/other groups from different popular IPs and says why they wouldn’t be able to work in reality. Like “villains too stupid to win” and so on.
Corey Laddo - an SFM animator who makes funny shorts, based around G-man and Gordon interacting and playing out a meme or something.
So…so many.
Politics:
Sociopolitical:
Trans Rights/Philosophy/TV Reviews:
Anarchist Philosophy:
Tech:
Animation Reviews:
Philosophy/Pop Culture:
Niche Product Reviews:
Horror Movie Reviews/Synopsis:
Comedy:
Chemistry/Psychedelics:
Worker’s Rights:
SciFi/Fantasy Book Reviews:
Tabletop RPG Reviews:
Star Trek Analysis:
Privacy:
Musicians:
Country:
Synthwave:
JRock:
outstanding list!
This is a fairly niche answer, but Noah Caldwell-Gervais.
He does very smart critical analysis of video games as a medium, often in multi-hour long retrospectives of entire franchises. They are all split into chapters, so it’s easy to watch in parts. The visuals and editing are not very flashy, pretty much just footage of the game he’s talking about, but they are so well written and thoughtful I find them extremely compelling. There’s also road trip travelogues, but I’m not as into those.
Love me some Noah
My big two are:
Jreg, makes satirical comedy vids, but behind that as a surface level, there are some very personal works that are some of the best art I have every experienced. For me at least. Watch his Centricide series, and go full in on EP 7, there’s lots to it and it means so much to me
The other is DJ Peach Cobbler, used to do video essays on games, and his style is just perfect. Schizo-autist stuff, speaks to me. Lately he has transitioned to doing historical overviews of what groups thought of each other, and I am all for it. “What the Romans thought of carthage” is a fav of mine. My fav vid by him is “Feminist for Clout: The Story of Unbiased Katie”
