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Your favourite creators who cover non-Anglo countries/cultures in English?
(That title is kind of awkward, feel free to suggest a better one.)
I came across aini's channel on Youtube a while back. She does videos on different topics focused on East Asia. Her most recent video being "Why Chinese People Will Choose $5 Over $10".
I'm especially interested in native creators; those who can present a personal view from the inside. Even more so for countries that are not as well-covered for whatever reason—like places with less technological access or government limitation.
My own preference is for a more analytical presentation. I.e. looking through an academic lens incorporating sociology, psychology, etc, rather than "footage of daily life". That style is still welcome, of course!
I enjoyed a couple of videos from Premodernist, an American historian whose research field is 16th century Persia. He does videos on a variety of topics (both Anglo and non-Anglo) but I'd like to recommend Medieval Arabic names had 5 parts, but no surname and Happy Genghis Khan Day! (Why is Genghis Khan Day?) from which I learnt a lot on the Arabic language and Mongolia respectively.
I found his channel through his excellent video on how to be a tourist in medieval Europe, and I highly recommend the rest of his content as well. It's super high-calibre.
I started following NFKRZ, among many, when trying to learn what's going on in Russia almost a decade ago. He's one of the few who spoke up about Russia's lack of freedom of expression and for a gen z guy, he has pretty reasonable and nuanced takes. I don't mean to generalize a generation, more comparing young people because when I was young, I wasn't so reasonable. He went from making typical gaming meme-type videos as a teenager, which I didn't follow then as it's not my kind of content, to getting more political as he got older, from one end of the spectrum to the other.
He seems to have modeled his youtube personality after popular gaming channels of the late 00s and there's a bit of that still lingering but if you can bear it, he provides some interesting insight and a perspective of Russia at the ground level of someone not afraid to criticize the establishment. It's costed him though and he lives with a lot of anxiety, even aftermoving to Georgia. After many years of struggle, he finally got a European passport recently and soon to eventually move. The few other Russia youtubers I've followed over the years have learned to keep quiet but I could usually rely on him to give his honest opinion and why I still follow him.
Thanks for this. Russia, at least, at present feels like a blackbox. It's isolated and whatever comes out has some hidden agenda with it.
I am on a podcast diet, so I haven't been listening to anything lately, but I enjoyed and supported American Prestige
Danny Bessner is an International Relations historian and Derek Davison is a foreign policy guy. The viewpoint is very leftist and "America as waning empire". They do weekly news updates where they talk about current events, but when they do "specials" on different topics, they will bring in historians from around the world who are specialists in different countries or areas of the world. They will also bring in specialists who can speak to current events, such as the elections in Brazil or Italy. The guest is not always a native person, but as they have gained visibility, this has improved. I have enjoyed pretty much every series I listened to before I took my break and learned a ton: Afghanistan, Vietnam, Israel and Gaza, the Kurds are few that come to mind.
Life Where I'm From might fit the bill? They're kinda like Aini, but they use documentary-style videos (often shot on location, with interviews of relevant parties) to focus on Japan.
Geography Now has been working their way through every country on Earth in alphabetical order. They are currently on Vanuatu.
Great thread, I'm curious to see what comes up. Here are some channels that came to mind, the first two are more analytical:
Living Ironically in Europe is a Serbian with Hungarian ancestry living in Romania, who produces content about historical & cultural topics in Central-Eastern Europe & the Balkans. If you click with his sense of humor his videos are pretty insightful for people unfamiliar with the region. He has also created videos with NFKRZ already recommended in this thread.
serpentza is a South African who lived in China for a decade or so before he was forced to leave (iirc) and has led quite an interesting life there. He talks mainly about his time there and how the country has changed, but also offers some opinions about the situation in South Africa.
A couple of travel vlogs I like that are about daily life and local culture. I know it's not exactly what you asked but I'm curious if someone has some suggestions for similar type of content, a lot of travel vlogs are very superficial and you don't really get to see how people elsewhere think.
Small Brained American is a vlogger who has a lot of content where he interacts with the local populace, I was able to learn quite a bit about various cultures through these videos. A good example is his talk with an Iraqi local in Baghdad.
Katherine's Journey to the East is about rural China, where she lives and speak the language. She also interacts a lot with the locals and I think you can get some insight into the way the people there tick.
Not academic but I just watched Samsung Princess Married Her Bodyguard - Only For Him To Cheat, Abuse, and Sue Her For $1 Billion and it was super juicy! I used to think that manhwas and kdramas were so unrealistic and overdramatic but after hearing this story I was like... wow, those tropes actually happen IRL.