Who are your favourite content creators, and what do they do?
So I've been watching a lot of Youtubers the past year or so, and I'm about to run out of content! So I'm curious what you all are enjoying? I'll start of course - some channels I really like:
Contrapoints - rarely uploads nowadays but makes great videos about social issues, especially trans and queer issues as she is herself lesbian and transgender.
Perun - weekly 1-hour videos consisting of analysis of military economics, primarily about the Ukraine conflict. He also branches out though, and has done great videos on China's military's modernisation, and the German military's procurement processes, to give some examples.
World War Two - you may remember him from The Great War, this is Indy Neidell and co. who goes through the Second World War in chronological order. It is very in depth as they do it week by week, so this is the most thorough documentary on the war available.
Skip Intro - analysis of TV shows, particularly his Copaganda series is very interesting, in which he goes on deep dives of different TV shows' portrayal of police and how, most of the time, this portrayal is very dishonest.
Climate Town - very informative and funny content about the climate crisis. Lots of things impacting the climate that you wouldn't have ever thought of before.
Jenny Nicholson - makes videos about her own interests, fandoms, nerd culture etc. Very funny but rarely uploads.
Edit: Thanks everyone for the recommendations and discussion! Lots of stuff to sift through now, thank you!
Video
+1 on Skip Intro.
Exceptional quality
If you like Skip Intro, I also recommend Every Frame a Painting, a now-dead channel which you can treat as simply a TV series on cinematography. Every single video is of exceptional quality: Watch it all.
CGPGrey - I don't really need to introduce him, this is just out there. Top videos: Humans Need Not Apply, The Rules for Rulers,
Ahoy - Documentaries, mostly on video games. S-tier videos: Polybius, The First Video Game, Nuclear Fruit, and just any of his videos from the last...oh god, 8 years.
Not Just Bikes - You'll never look at urban infrastructure the same. Take the orange pill. Start here.
High quality
PBS Space Time - Explainer - Physics / Astrophysics. Current favourite. A lot of the content is very approachable
Steve Mould - Fun science videos. Great prototypes.
Wendover - Explainer - Logistics / Misc. Dives into just a bunch of super interesting topics, shows complexity where many assume simplicity.
Practical Engineering - Mostly civil engineering. Very cool explainer videos. Lots of scale prototypes to showcase various phenomena. (Also of note: The Engineer Guy - Same spirit, but mostly mechanical and industrial engineering)
Economics Explained - Explainer - Economics. Quality varies, but as far as economics go, this is very solid and approachable.
Medlife Crisis - Essays - Medicine. Talks a lot about Covid.
Not video
NorthernLion If you need good 'throwaway' content, he is the absolute king, and he has literally 15+ years of content backlog if you enjoy his style (Which mostly consists of inane anecdotes, but told so wittily that you can't help but listen. And unhinged ranting about entirely sane and reasonable opinions.) He mostly streams on Twitch now but he cuts all his twitch content into chunks and puts them on youtube, I watch them when going to sleep.
Ilia Bondarev This guy hops trains all over the world and goes places he isn't supposed to go, I envy his free spiritedness.
Malcolm P.L. A native dude who makes mostly shortish videos about different aspects of and misconceptions about pre-columbian culture and technology, as well as native anthropology
Craig Perko A game dev who makes tutorials in Unity/Unreal and also videos breaking down game design in existing games, talking about how different games use different concepts and how future games could improve on them. His videos barely get any views but he knows his stuff and his opinions on game design are extremely well thought out. He does playthroughs of certain games where he breaks down their design as he plays them and I find them very thought provoking.
Marco Reps Perhaps the only funny German alive, electronics hardware reviewer/restorer/DIY Metrologist (aka hopeless precision chaser)
Eastory Very well made breakdowns of different military engagements in eastern european history. If you enjoy Perun you may also like this
RedMeansRecording Super dope modular synth tutorials/production, I don't even make music but the videos are just so fun to watch and listen to.
FinkFishCity Weird surrealist MS Paint cartoon made by some dude, and I LOVE IT. Lots of weirdly philosophical and self aware humor sprinkled into a completely absurd setting.
Asianometry Tiawanese guy who makes video essays about Asian economics, history, technology, a whole bunch of stuff. His videos are basically the non-military version of Perun's powerpoints. Could be really inane shit but it's presented in an extremely engaging way.
Noah Caldwell-Gervais This guy alternates between making multi-hour-long video game review essays that completely analytically deconstruct entire series like dark souls, resident evil, etc. And then releasing multi-hour-long video essays about his travels around backwater America in his antique Hippy van where he waxes poetic for hours on end talking at length about the history and culture of the areas he drives through on his road trips. Both sides of his content are insanely well written, if a bit long winded at times. (not that I'm one to talk :P)
Primitive Technology You probably know him, or one of his many viral imitators, but he is still the king of the 'man returning to monke' video format. And now he's getting close to serious iron production. Been following him for years so it's exciting to see his progress.
Applied Science This man is literally just a lazily written genius scientist who managed to escape from a hollywood movie and into the real world. He does literally PHD-level, groundbreaking science in his garage/home shop, acts like it's nothing, and posts all his results for free on his channel for all to learn from. Absolutely wild stuff, he never disappoints.
Stefan Milo This guy makes hands down the best content about early human evolution and archeology out there. He's extremely careful about sourcing and not making unfounded claims or reaches, but he still manages to talk about some extremely interesting theories and topics.
Popular Front Grassroots, crowdfunded, on the ground conflict reporting. These guys have balls of steel and are heroes for showing the world exactly what is truly happening in some of the most dangerous places on earth.
Northernlion is the best. I have been watching him for like 10 years now. Which is a bit insane :D.
Heh, Northernlion…
Several few years ago I went through a phase of watching a mix of Factorio, Don't Starve and Oxygen Not Included videos. I started watching Volx and I believe he and Northernlion played together / were friends.
It's not quality content in any way but, like you said, kind of… throwaway. When you have so much Lets Play content over even single games, it becomes fascinating to go through and evolve with the character.
I don't know what happened to the guy. He used to upload videos twice a day, stream on Twitch, post on Twitter… all disappeared from the internet a year ago completely. His steam profile shows that he still plays Fable every few days so he didn't die, but I guess he figured out that churning dozens of hours of gameplay videos every week for low 4-5 digit numbers of views is not viable as a life. Kind of sad watching burnout play out like that.
How is Reps so amazingly entertaining? I mean sure, he is a funny guy. But so many of his videos are highly detailed electronics stuff that I can barely even follow. Yet I've watched and enjoyed all his content. Plenty of funny Germans though, it's just often a very dry sense of humour.
I assume you meant youtube content creators specifically.
Just remember, u/smoontjes, you brought this upon yourself. :P
The sad thing is that this isn't even nearly exhaustive.
Technical Stuff
Mark Rober
I think every single one of his videos gets posted here, so I guess you're subscribed wether you like it or not.
MirageC
The creator of the HevORT 3D printer. He's constantly making innovations and experimenting with things.
Thomas Sanlanderer
Mostly videos about 3D printing, but he does his own share of innovating from time to time. He's pretty good at explaining the practical considerations of 3D printing, so I'd recommend his channel if you are looking to get into them.
Tom Stanton
Various experiments with locomotion, including various remote controlled flying crafts and some of the most insane bicycle mods you'll ever see.
Dr. D-Flo
Home fabrication gone completely mad. He has an absolutely insane large-format 3D printer he designed and built himself that he documented the build in a series of videos. And the "Dr." in his name is no joke - he's actually got a doctorate.
Video Essayists
Action Button
You can criticize people for making videos that are too long, or not releasing frequently enough, but all they need to defend themselves is to say "At least I'm not Action Button Reviews".
Video game reviewers could be their own category, but I'm putting this one in with the video essayists because that would be too restrictive of a category. His releases are multiple hours long and are not actually meant to be viewed all at once, and his reviews are quite literally inclusive about life, the universe, and everything.
Lindsay Ellis
No introduction needed.
Contrapoints
Ditto.
Matt Baume
Originally subscribed for his overviews about the fight for marriage equality in the United States. But now he's making videos about historical gay representation in media - TV specifically.
James Somerton
Kind of a mix between Matt Baume, Folding Ideas, and Lindsay Ellis. He basically talks about movies from a critical point of view and with an eye towards queer representation, but he gets a lot more political than most review channels ever will, and also sometimes covers current events. For example, he was one of the people criticising Disney for their initial silence on Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bill.
Folding Ideas
I don't know how I almost missed him. But his videos have been posted here enough I don't think I need to explain his shtick.
Answer in Progress
A bunch of college kids decide to band together to create a youtube channel that explores and seeks to answer various kinds of questions. I appreciate that most of their videos cover the research that they do, rather than just providing an answer. I especially like that they don't always have a conclusive answer.
Also I'm pretty sure they've all graduated by now.
Niche stuff
Basement Brothers
They have two shows they produce. Neo Geo Generation is a review program that is attempting to cover literally every Neo Geo game in order of catalog number. It's really in-depth and has a lot of information about the developers, context about the time it was being made, and so forth. The other program is called either PC-88 Paradise or PC-98 Paradise, depending on exactly what is being covered. As you might have guessed, it's a less-inclusive version of Neo Geo Generation for the PC-88 and PC-98 series of computers. It's fantastic because it goes over all the technical issues with the game including support for advanced sound sources, as well as showing the differences between versions of the game that were released for other platforms. They just covered all of the 2D Legend of Heroes games and it seems like they might just end up reviewing all of the Farland Story games as well.
And yes, they are real brothers. I just used "they" because I honestly can't tell the difference between them most of the time. They're never on camera and they all sound the same!
Hazel
Did your parents often spend time talking about their childhood with warm fondness? Now you can experience the same thing with our generation (assuming you're roughly in your early 30s)! Just like me, she's a weeb through and through, so many of her videos are often about anime or manga or Japanese video games. But she doesn't really do reviews so much as talk about how they make her feel and how they had affected her. That being said, she's openly married to a lady and she has fairly different tastes from me, so she has some very interesting perspectives.
Coffee Cakes
He's friends with Hazel and makes very simelar content. But he's Irish and gay, so he does offer a different perspective. I appreciate the slight tinge of positivity he includes in all of his videos. I'm also somewhat ashamed to admit that I find his complete inability to pronounce anything remotely Japanese correctly.
Amelie Doree
What would happen if you took Basement Brothers and Hazel and smashed them together? Super long, in-depth reviews of Japanese Visual Novel classics. Almost painfully long, honestly. She's also a musician by trade (and her work is pretty great!), and many of her videos go into depth about queer representation, which, as a trans woman, she is well qualified to remark upon. She's also probably one of maybe a dozen people outside of Japan who own a PC-FX.
Bowl of Lentils
In a way they're an easy mode version of Amilee Doree. They make mini-documentaries mainly about the history of Japanese game companies. There's a really good one about the history of Leaf (better known now as AquaPlus), and probably the best video about Falcom you'll see anywhere.
Kenny Lauderdale
He just talks about extremely uncommon or rare Anime. Rarely posts, but every time it's interesting no matter what your thoughts on the medium are.
Insanity (but in a good way)
BrutalMoose
The most tame of these, I swear. He makes videos about... I guess whatever interests him at the moment. I started watching him for his old video game reviews, but he just kept branching out into other things. His food videos are pretty great because it's pretty clear that he does not have a well developed pallet and very minimal cooking skills. His videos are edited like a crazy person, but he's also got such a disarmingly pleasant and laid-back demeanor that you can't help but love the guy.
Micarah Tewers
Hyper-edited almost vlog-style fashion and sewing videos that you might actually learn something from in spite of her best efforts to not actually explain what she's doing. One of the most unapologeticly positive youtubers I've ever seen. The only video she has made that will not make you smile is her recent breakup video.
Thor High Heels.
He's an artist and he makes video games from time to time. I think he might be the guy who made Umurangi Generation, IIRC. He mainly talks about games, but his perspective as an artist is extremely unique and that sometimes leads to him talking about some extremely obscure games. He's also friends with Hazel!
CJ The X
Another musician making video essays about movies and TV shows on the internet. He's got a persona that is almost certain to rub you the wrong way at first, but he has some really sharp observations and interesting opinions. He somewhat infamously made a video essay about Bo Burnham's Inside that was longer than the movie itself. It's glorious.
Patricia Taxon
I found someone who kind of is an amalgamation of all the other people I have talked about. She's a trans musician who sometimes makes video essays about pretty much whatever, and I give her bonus points because she's a furry and she has some fantastic tastes. Most of the uploads are her music and it's very difficult to describe; in a way I think she's so far ahead of everyone else that I don't think anyone listening now can fully appreciate it - I'm honestly not that much of a fan of it. Though she did get CJ the X to work on one of her songs and it's my favorite of hers.
What I like about him is that those are really superb and enjoyable videos that I wanna watch for my own enjoyment and cultural education, and not just because he talks about important issues.
I'm a fan of Contrapoints as well, but her videos became so long and intricate that they're now difficult to follow and sit through, and practically impossible to share (because no one will watch them). She talks pretty fast too. I'd probably enjoy them more if she split them into a series of videos each with their own narrative. Philosophy Tube is a more approachable and equally fabulous alternative.
I have definitely needed to do some double-takes with Contrapoints.
I also follow Philosophy Tube, but I had too many other people to list. Her videos are pretty good but I do prefer Contrapoints’ more conversational tone.
Philosophy Tube is a bit more... philosophical than Contrapoints. She cites more actual philosophers and usually presents her arguments in a way I'd expect to see in an academic setting. I like them both.
Also Abigail has the single goddamn greatest coming out video I've ever seen
My English is pretty good but Contrapoints intricacy and speedy delivery definitely puts it to the test, and my compatriots can't follow the subtitles either :P
But she's on a level above Philosophy Tube, that's for sure.
Beau Miles - The man is a legend. He is an outdoor educator, tinkerer, general weirdo, and optimist. Beau comes up with weird reasons to get outside in weird ways. His content usually leans towards larger messages, usually about consumption, and he does it without being preachy. The video linked is probably my favorite video of his but honestly anything he produces is a pick me up.
Strong Towns - Phenomenal channel if you like urban planning or are interested in making your town more community centric. Really great content and guides. They also have office hours every Wednesday that usually only pulls around 30-40 people.
Pinkbike - Specifically Ben Cathro and his how to videos and his team's run for the world circuit this year. He is funny, upbeat, and endlessly watchable. If you like biking, particularly mountain biking, give his videos a watch.
Global Mountain Bike Network or GMBN - Really fun videos on mountain biking, particularly any videos with Blake Samson.
Map Men - UK centric information on maps, how they are made, and interesting tid-bits on language. Worth a watch.
Alex - Great videos about cooking. He breaks things down in very understandable ways, explains the science behind what is happening, and does it all with classic french flair. I actually started making wine because of him and now make about 40 gallons a year.
Coastal Foraging with Craig Evans - Really fun, relaxing videos on coastal foraging from an older gentleman in Wales.
Proof Bakery - Amazing long form videos on the bread making process. I'm talking 2 hours with no cuts. Very instructional and just enjoyable to watch.
So something I noticed in this list is something I also noticed about my own YouTube content the last month: there is a noticeable lack of comedy in these lists. There are lots of channels here that are funny or entertaining (many of the named channels here I already watch and enjoy greatly) but there aren’t any where making comedy is the primary focus of the content. Like I’m thinking of YouTube long past where you had CollegeHumor (now also known as Dropout and they are still incredibly funny and I would strongly endorse), Whitest Kids You Know, DerrickComedy, etc. I am guessing this is because YouTube now heavily prioritizes long-form content and the type of videos I am thinking of are now the domain of the Vines and TikToks of the world. But vine is dead and I don’t like or use TikTok so I’m SOL.
It is just unfortunate that when I am really in the mood for short-form, gut-busting comedy, I end up rewatching old standup clips or sketches from a long time ago because I have a hard time finding new content to scratch that itch.
Josh Strife Hayes is the reason I came back to MMORPGs and his videos are lessons in game design. I'm pretty sure he never took a class on the subject, but his videos often feel more educational than those made by professionals in the field.
Josh is extremely measured and respectful even when he makes harsh criticism, and can also take constructive criticism himself. He was nothing but cordial, humble, and appreciative when I gave him some negative feedback.
The dude is a class act.
Gaming
Charisma on Command - I cannot speak for the quality of their online course content (behind a $600 paywall), but the analysis videos they pump out on celebrity interactions and how to incorporate their techniques in your life is astounding. You can learn a lot just from the free videos they put out.
Your Favorite Martian - This, and The Upside Downs, are the only good things Ray William Johnson has done with his career. The cartoon band was on a hiatus since 2012 because of a falling-out between Ray and Maker Studios, but was revived last year when Ray managed to buy back the rights to the band from Disney. Their new songs have been a mixed bag: Some are bad, others are brilliant and surpass their early work.
FriendlyJordies - I've been following him ever since this video dropped. His house was firebombed in retaliation to some videos he did covering local politics which really showed how crooked New South Wales is. The whole legal ordeal he had against John Barilaro is one hell of a rabbit-hole.
spatnz - If you want minute-long breakdowns of current internet trends, gaming news and hot takes, few do it better than him. He (along with the Lock Picking Lawyer) are proof that you don't need long videos to appeal to the YouTube algorithm.
Greg Doucette - Of all the bodybuilder and fitness YouTubers I've seen, he seems like the most genuine, no-bullshit content creator I've seen on the scene.
Civvie 11 - Very well-edited YouTube show about a prison inmate doing reviews/full playthroughs of boomer shooters. I may have grossly oversimplified what the channel is about, but Civvie is one of the best gaming content creators currently out there.
Meatcanyon - He does grotesque nightmare-fuel animations. His older stuff was cartoon parodies but they have landed him in trouble (Wabbit Season was hit with a copyright claim by Warner Bros and he spun that into a response video where he argued that his interpretation of Bugs was officially canon because WB had claimed it as their own.) Nowadays he does more topical animations where he lampoons fellow YouTubers or people in the news.
I watch a lot of the people already mentioned but here are some I didn't think I saw...
Alec Steele - amazing blacksmith, still only 24 or something insane. He's local to me, I met him once and we talked social media strategy. Now he's a millionaire and I am... not that. But still. Lovely guy, makes brilliant stuff and is enthusiastic about explaining it. The reason I own an anvil.
Will Stelter - previous business partner of Alec, above. Also ridiculously young. One of the most amazing knifemakers I know of. Spends a lot of time taking apart and rebuilding power hammers.
Scott Brown Carpentry - Kiwi carpenter/builder. Early videos are just him on various job sites, usually doing renovation work on old (by NZ standards) timber framed houses. Currently renovating his own house in the astonishingly beautiful town of Nelson. I've learned a LOT about building from this guy.
Rhodian Builds - UK-based brickie and the reason my workshop hasn't fallen down. Some great videos about the fundamentals of bricklaying and later a series where he builds his own house from scratch. Hasn't posted in a while, his wife very sadly died earlier this year and he's taking some time off, perhaps permanently. His most recent video is utterly heartbreaking.
Laura Kampf, German "maker" who recently started a series where she bought and renovated a 100 year old timber/brick house. It did not go as expected, but is well worth watching. She's friends with Simone Giertz
Simone Giertz (pronounced 'yetch'), formerly Reddit's "Queen of Shitty Robots" and one-time employee of Mythbusters' Adam Savage, Giertz makes... stuff. Cool stuff, fun stuff. She's smart and funny and also did a series of videos about having a brain tumour and not dying so that's neat. Oh, also owns the world's only Tesla pick-up (here's a hint: she has a very good angle grinder)
Clickspring. Holy shit this guy. Hobbyist watchmaker, did a fantastic series about making a clock from scratch. And I do mean that. He didn't cast his own brass but he did most of everything else, including making a lot of the tools needed. Currently on a multi-year long project to recreate the Antikythera Mechanism, keeps getting distracted by doing original historical research and finding out stuff nobody knew about it. But it's getting there.
Bernadette Banner Broadway constumier turned historical clothing researcher/recreator. Improved my hand stitching no end. Beautiful clothes made mostly by hand, with incredible attention to historical detail.
The British Museum, OK sure they have a lot of looted stuff there but they do good videos on the items they do have. The video where Tom Scott plays the game of Ur with the amazing Irving Finkel is a particular favourite.
Matt Estlea - UK based "sexy wood guy" (as my wife calls him), great camera presence, really clear teaching of basic and advanced techniques and he's funny with it. Currently fitting out a van as a place to live, entertaining and knowledgable chap.
Adam Neely - music theorist and jazz fusion bass player. Mixture of very focussed deep dives which get out of my area of theory knowledge very quickly, and lighter/fun Q&A style posts.
Zero Punctuation - Ben "Yahtzee" Crowshaw is a British games critic and has been for a LONG time. He took the sweary and not-prepared-to-suck-up-to-publishers crown from Charlie Brooker (yes, Black Mirror guy, he used to review video games) a long time ago and still puts out a review a week complete with copious profanity and obvious love for the idea of video games if not the many terrible ones out there. If a game gets a positive review on ZP, it's almost certainly worth buying.
To avoid being too samey I'll try to recommend channels on topics that hasn't been mentioned.
Strip Panel Naked Every Frame a Painting for comics.
GL Cartoon reviews. This video about Morel Orel is pretty good.
NativLang Linguistics. Delivered in a storytelling format instead of the usual explainer styles.
Dialect Very in-depth explanation series of the twin paradox. This one opened my eyes to how much handwaving there exists in a lot of popular explanation videos out there, even those from "prestigious" channels like PBS Spacetime or Minutephysics. Helps me maintain some healthy skepticism when viewing educational contents about topics I don't understand.
Isaac Arthur Hard sci-fi wordbuilding.
Posy Old display technologies with some beautiful visuals. This one about the colors of hot water (yes) is pretty good.
Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows The videos are less explainers and more to deliver an experience. The words being defined are fictional but the emotions the videos provoked are real.
melodysheep Another experiential type channel but for sci-fi awes. This one Timelapse of the future: a journey to the end of time is their magnum opus.
Special Books by Special Kids Interviews with people suffering from various disabilities, dry and empathetic. This interview with a guy with antisocial personality disorder is pretty good.
Friends at the Table
An actual play podcast that has produced some of my favorite science fiction. Seriously, Twilight Mirage is incredible. That said, you may wish there was an abridged version if you attempt to listen to it.
I give a healthy recommendation to those previpsuly mentionned people:
To which I add