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Youtube channel recommendations 2026
Previously Tildes have had a few discussions on good quality Youtube channels one, two, but I couldn’t find a recent discussion.
I would be interested in peoples recommendations!
Personally I would like to get recommendations for intermediate/harder science or engineering videos. Most are too basic, or very dry lecture based. I know a few good ones like:
- 3blue1brown
- Smarter every day
- Looking Glass Universe
But I would like to know other people’s favourites (including non science ones)!
Technology Connections is a must!
Oh I watch’s one of these videos once and couldn’t remember it! I watched one on freeze dryers.
Thanks for the reminder!
Angela Collier https://m.youtube.com/@acollierastro
A grumpy physicist lady who makes great long form videos about physics, physics history, books, dumb things billionaires believe, knitting, etc... She has just been so great at voicing a lot of the ways this stupid world has been making me feel over the last year. And she does it with the perfect amount of cynicism.
She has a nearly 4-hour video on Star Trek (largely on TNG)! Thank you so much.
Gamers Nexus was, for a long time, just about PC hardware news and testing. Recently it has become an independent news outlet, funded by Patreon (and thus not beholden to anyone but their viewers), of the highest caliber. I seriously cannot overstate this. About half a year ago they produced the three and a half hour long documentary 'THE NVIDIA AI GPU BLACK MARKET in which they traveled to China and did quality, on-the-ground investigative journalism about the GPU bans and how they were largely ineffective at keeping GPUs out of China. They also have recently created a second channel: GNCA - GamersNexus Consumer Advocacy which is what it sounds like but also more, also with a a focus on quality.
Perun is an Australian Defense Economics Analyst who posts hour-long powerpoints on that subject - you may have noticed me posting those here weekly, usually on Sundays. Excellent focus on quality and accuracy.
Adam Savage's Tested has already been mentioned in this thread. Seconded, he is a wonderful human being and shares his joy with us regarding everything he does in his shop.
Next up is a channel I like but this IS also a plug for a political candidate. I want to be very upfront about that. Kat Abughazaleh is a Palestinian-American journalist who is running for Congress in Illinois (district 9) and I mention her in part because she has ignored the normal fundraising approach and is raising the money for her campaign... by streaming on YouTube. And it's working. In my view, way better than making yourself beholden to a bunch of rich people while trying to get elected. Edit: looks like she's streaming now (currently T:2135 GMT-5) raising money for the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild to help with the situation there.
Ezra Klein is one of the better journalists I have found. He does long-form videos and they are of substance and quality.
Marco Reps is a fellow electronics YouTuber who does repairs and projects and has the best dry humor for electronics nerds. You can know nothing about electronics and STILL be entertained by his videos.
What's Going on With Shipping? is a very subject-specific quality information outlet about... you guessed it, shipping!
Knitting Cult Lady - Daniella is former US Army, masters degree in organizational psychology from Harvard, and grew up in the cult 'children of God'. She is a scholar of cults, extremist groups and bad leadership.
David Malawey is a (former I think?) Toyota Engineer, has a masters of Science and seeks to provide high quality informational videos about Mechatronics (the combination of Electronics and Mechanical Engineering - Robotics basically), working spaces, sourcing useful materials that are BOTH cheap and quality and much more. I've learned a lot from him that has been useful.
Dr. Glaucomflecken - want to hear about the evils of United Healthcare and laugh your ass of in the process? Here you go. Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuunited Healthcare, why did you bother calling?
Dungeon Soup - Do you like DND? Do you need some laughs right now? Here you go.
Project Farm - Todd is funded by Patreon and does extremely high-effort, time-consuming product research while adhering to the scientific method and showing his work. Great consumer advocacy. If you're thinking of buying something, check to see if he's reviewed it.
James Hoffmann - do you like Coffee? Do you want to know everything you can possibly learn about it from a soothing-voiced polite Englishman? Yes, you do.
I can't get into Adam Savage since his sister claimed he raped her for years as a child. I'll admit he seems like a decent person in the spotlight, but...
Without a criminal case we'll probably never know if he's a rapist or if she's seeking attention.
I'd never heard about this accusation before, but after looking into it, given that their own mother sided with Adam and said this of her daughter:
I get the distinct impression that Adam was telling the truth when he said this was really just about her trying getting money out of him and the rest of their family, which she succeeded at thanks to an out-of-court settlement. cc: @datavoid
Thank you for sharing that cfabbro.
I would consider:
And as was already said, Technology connections is a must!
How is veritasium these days? Several years ago, he made a video explaining that he was going to make clickbaity lower-quality videos to sustain the channel. While I appreciate the challenges of YouTubing as a business, I did notice a significant drop in quality and unsubscribed. Has he turned it around in the time since?
His channel was acquired by a private equity firm. The quality has gone down dramatically since and has not recovered.
"Gone down dramatically" is an hyperbole. He's had many very interesting videos lately that are very high quality, especially the one about the chip-making-machine.
I’d say his channel is an example of private equity not ruining something. The style has changed a bit, maybe in a way that people won’t like, but the content is still good.
I get these all mixed up, but I believe he's the one I dropped (not that I watched him a ton) after he had a glowing review of tesla's self drive beta when just about everyone sane was putting out unedited footage of it dipping into oncoming lanes.
I don't think about it that much. I consider the videos the same - Derek comes up with some thought that I wouldn't consider even having and then goes down the rabbit hole. Maybe the titles are.clickbaity, but the video itself is as deep as it ever was, in my opinion. I also watch on Odysee where only the first title and thumbnail shows up and I know he changes both throughout the first days of video on Youtube.
What is more important for you probably - he has, say, apprentices or helpers or new hosts in the videos and it seems (and I believe he said something like that in recent video) that he will be stepping a bit back, it won't be just Derek in every single video. The quality is still though here in my opinion. You won't probably find another channel like this one where they wpuld question something you have been certain about for your whole life... and disintegrate that certainty.
Probably the best part about Tested is just watching Adam use his knowledge and experience prop making to remake famous props for his personal collection. I also learned from this channel the importance of creating a nice case/box for objects.
I'm not unto replicas, but it's great to see him working on anything. Don't get me wrong, even the "talking" videos are great, but the technical ones are top notch.
EEVBlog is in my view THE original Electronics YouTube Channel. Dave also hosts the largest and most visited Electronics forum in the world.
I intentionally avoid anything science or technology related on YouTube, because I live that all day at work, so my recommendations will be around music production.
Doctor Mix: an extremely enthusiastic Italian guy talking about analog synthesizers and doing meticulous reconstructions of classic synth songs.
Captain Pikant: Analysis and recreation of drum machine patterns.
Bad Gear: This channel has kind of a satirical angle. It's presented in the form of reviews of hardware synthesizers, but it's kind of roasting them in an unserious way.
12 Tone: Music theory videos analyzing popular songs, in the form of the presenter doodling on staff paper while he talks, and also using it as a visual aid where applicable.
Bthelick: An industry professional giving advice on dance music and audio engineering. All streams are just a recording of Ableton with narration over it, in a format that's more conversational than your typical YouTube tutorial type thing. He does monthly Q&A streams, where he'll field live questions from the chat.
Two of mine on there. Though Doctor Mix is a bit too effervescent for me a lot of the time. I like his recreations though. Bad Gear is always a fun watch
Have a look at Synthet. He's a master at delivering some music theory within a well packaged, easy to parse video.
If you want some good, in depth science content, I highly recommend The Brain Scoop by Emily Grasslie. She started the channel while working at the Field Museum in Chicago and has kept it going after she left. Lots of lighthearted, fun science content.
I am now watching her video on extracting Bullet Ant venom. Interesting stuff, thank you!
If anyone else is interested in the more technical details and history around motorsports and specific racing cars, a newish channel I'd recommend is Sam's the Pits. Hosted by Sam Collins, you've probably seen him in some F1 broadcasts before the race where he'll give some technical and strategic insights. He's now started his own channel and covers a wide variety of motorsports from F1, Indycar, Le Man's, Super GT, and many many more. He's got a really nice voice too so at times it feels like you're listening to a well-narrated audio book.
saveitforparts has been putting out some pretty niche radio videos, if you are tech inclined you might like that channel.
I've watched some of his stuff on satellite comms! Fun channel.
Alex Hibbert Originals - Engineering, Adventure, Arctic Survival
A lovely British dude taking on huge vehicle-engineering projects with the hope of taking them to the frigid north for adventure and science. He's currently working on an amphibious survey vehicle big enough for a team to ride inside. If you know anything about composite materials, electric drive-trains, or extreme ice-ready wheels, please watch some of the newer videos and chime in. He reads and replies to nearly all feedback. If you don't know anything about those topics, come watch to see how the build goes along. It's quite the ride!
Marco Reps - Electrical Engineering, Accidental ASMR?, Reviews & Teardowns
Soft talking German engineer with very dry humor, taking apart crazy equipment from CERN, trying out the newest laser manufacturing hubs, creating over-engineered DIY solar arrays, etc. It's nice sleepy-time TV for nerds.
Old Forge Creations - Craft, Pottery, Ceramics, Instructional
Self-taught ceramicist from the UK, shows off loads of really clever techniques and methods for making pottery and custom glazes at scale. One of the few potters on yt that doesn't come off as an ascetic or a zany magpie (both are fine for entertainment/relaxation but I've learned more practical "that's so clever!" things from this channel than all the others combined).
Jonathan Zaragoza - Food, Cooking, Oaxacan/Mexican Cuisine
Found this guy when I was gearing up for making Oaxacan Black Mole. He's funny, approachable, and makes some really solid stuff. His pork tinga poblana, "salsa falsa", and frijoles charros have been welcome additions to the recipe rotation last year.
Bonus points for the pep talk (actually needed) and the reoccurring bit about the cinnamon roll in his mole video.
Seconding Marco Reps! Awesome channel for those of us in Electronics.
Cutting Edge Engineering - high quality videos about the repair and refurbishment of industrial equipment with excellent dog tax interleaved in each video. Lots of welding, milling, and lathe work. Everything is explained and accessible.
Jokes with Jesse - dad jokes / puns with excellent delivery
Natural Habitat Shorts - take an obscure animal fact and make a funny video out of it. The link is one of my favorites, "Hamsters have a biological instinct to travel distances. A safe wheel lets them mimic that behavior."
Will try to recommend things I haven't seen others mention yet (though I second a lot of the recs I've seen here):
Mend It Mark - In-depth electronics repair (often older/vintage models)
Aging Wheels - Cars (especially EVs, vintage or otherwise unique cars, unique/unknown older EVs), EV-related experiences, car projects, humor
Lance Hedrick - All sorts of coffee and espresso content. Sometimes deep dives into geeky stuff
Morgan Eckroth - More fun coffee stuff, but with her own angle, often involving making coffee drinks or different brew methods
James Channel - Checking out retro / off-brand / jank video game hardware and electronics, or repair, or making extremely hacked-together janky projects.
What a great thread! In no particular order,
Alexander the ok: An engineer who produces video essays on engineering projects ranging from Oceangate to spaceplanes to the birth of satellite navigation. The focus is on governmental and frequently military-related programs with thorough research and an investment in production value. Patreon uploads include supporting content and bonus material.
Premodernist: Known for his video giving advice for time-travelers, this academic instructor makes easy to digest videos covering events dating back at least 250 years. I highly recommend checking out his Patreon as well for the trove of exclusive videos he's published there.
Dequitem: The leading producer of non-choreographed armored combat displays online imho. Knights, legionnaires, footsoldiers, gladiators, samurais, and duelists all have their fighting styles depicted in these cinematic and oftentimes jaw-dropping displays of technique.
Home RenoVision DIY: If you have a home improvement project or quick fix you're looking to do, this contractor's page is a good place to start for a step-by-step walkthrough of various renovations. No nonsense and some pretty good jokes keeping videos from feeling too dry.
Malcolm Guite: I found this channel looking for companion material for a LOTR readthrough and had to stick around for the genuine article for someone who's making videos about what they want to, when they want to, and how they want to. Very soothing material I could put on and listen to for hours if I'm in the right mood.
Matthew Gaston: This botanist has a deep voice and an academic knowledge of flora ranging from local scrub to exotic specimens to pokemon plant types. Good for if you're shopping for a new houseplant or just want to hear how the ecological landscape is formed and affected by certain types of plants.
Steevski: Remember the munchkin kitten that went viral on Youtube back in the 2000's? Her name is Munchie and you can watch her live a long and happy life through the periodic uploads on this channel! She's doing very well for her age and was last seen enjoying some cat grass just under a week ago at the time of writing this.
Benn Jordan is a musician whose channel I came across as AI/chatgpt was starting to take off, as he was showcasing adversarial “AI poison” to make it difficult or impossible for AI to harvest your published music without pretty heavy corruption, while making the changes basically imperceptible to humans listening.
He’s since headed further down a number of rabbit holes around technology and how it can be used against either big tech companies or the growing surveillance state in America, eg a breakdown of how poorly protected some Flock cameras software was
(My recommendations are not about tech or science, but these creators are all scientifically informed and/or technically advanced, regardless of the subject matter.)
Baumgartner Restoration shows us the meticulous and often surprising process of art restauration, shot and edited so beautifully that it feels soothing and nourishing - sort of like staring into a campfire. He describes what he's doing as he goes, also going into some technical details that make the work seem even more fascinating. There's a lot of repetition in the videos because many projects make use of the same techniques, but I seem to never get tired of watching. Some of the most interesting cases are when he fixes a painting that has been previously unprofessionally restored.
Heidi Priebe makes amazing self-help videos. The idea is to help people get more of the things we want out of life (and less of what we don't want!). Her material is well researched and she gives clear definitions for the terms she uses, as well as some research background when necessary. Unlike most self-help content out there, many videos offer practical and actionable advice. A lot of her older content is based on attachment theory but the framework doesn't really matter when the results are universally applicable. For example, I consider myself securely attached but I still benefit from her material a great deal. I particularly enjoy her logical style of expression - this could be a downside to some people because it makes for more elaborate sentences, but for logically oriented people, the clarity she can reach on complex topics is outstanding. Examples: How to stop wasting your life in the drama triangle, How to deal with getting projected onto
understitch, makes extremely well researched and well presented videos about the history of different fashion brands, focused on the business and marketing angles. Highly, highly recommended to anyone half interested in the topic.
Florian Gadsby runs a one man pottery studio somewhere in the UK, showing and explaining his process from start to finish. I enjoy his stylistic rigour and attention to detail, and I love just watching skillful hands do their thing.
Lab Muffin Beauty Science is a chemist whose work centers on the science of beauty products and debunking the false marketing claims that this industry is particularly saturated with, thanks to how easy it is to circumnavigate regulation. Products I refuse to use as a chemist
cool worlds
PBS spacetime
Lady Hawk - edited "best of" nest cam shorts with some context in text captions. Example, rangers weight newly hatched 2026 royal albatross baby chick distilled from 24 hours of ....
Royal Albatross Cam - All day, all night, all albatross
Robert E Fuller and his land full of cute wild animals
For when I just want to only watch animals.
Heather Cox Richardson
Heather Cox Richardson is a political historian who uses facts and history to make observations about contemporary American politics. If you want an objective look at what's unfolding in US politics this is a great place to get up to date information.
Moth Light Media, biology/natural history : https://www.youtube.com/@mothlightmedia1936
Miles K. Donahue, philosophy, podcast style but high quality : https://www.youtube.com/@mileskdonahue
Levi McClain, music theory (microtonal mostly) : https://www.youtube.com/@LeviMcClain
2swap, 3blue1brown style videos, the topics are maybe a bit esoteric but the production is amazing : https://www.youtube.com/@twoswap/videos
https://m.youtube.com/@OrdinaryThings
Ordinary Things - one of my favs period. Covers a lot of global topics from a perspective outside of the US
https://m.youtube.com/@CamJames
Cam James is a journalist living in Atlanta and often covers topics relevant to the BIPOC community. Very insightful and tries to be fair and non biased.
Not specifically engineering or science but has some overlap.
Most of my faves have already been mentioned, but I haven't seen Atomic Shrimp named yet, so I'll mention that channel. It's excellent, Mike is a kind individual with many interests and wonderful good humor. It's as if (and I mean this in the best possible way) a Hobbit spent years as an IT professional, then decided to spend his retirement making YouTube videos about cooking, nature walks, foraging, baiting Internet scammers, weird canned goods, gardening, and various crafts. I've watched him for years and never heard the slightest hint of a bad take. He just seems so wholesome, and watching him is the most relaxing thing I know of on YouTube. I can't recommend him highly enough.
I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of @TomStantonEngineering
My favorites are his drone and bike builds powered by "unconvential" means. He also does a good job of walking through the engineering process!
Love a lot of the recommendations here and looking forward to checking out some of these that I haven't seen before. Not that machining is the only thing I watch on youtube, but most of the other interesting channels I watch have already been recommended.
First and foremost, I have to recommend Hand Tool Rescue One of many restoration youtubers out there, but his humor is the best. Additionally, he tends to actually restore the antique tools he works on rather than just modifying and changing them to his whims. The standard videos (ex. Why did they stop making these?) tend to fall into the no talking (ASMR-ish) style, but he also does a series of old patent recreations where he talks through the ideas and work (ex. Patent Remake: 1909 Ratchet Wrench).
Similarly, another recommendation for the great jokes and sense of humor, This Old Tony. Though I'm surprised he wasn't recommended already, seems like he's been on youtube a long time. He does a fair amount of teaching machining techniques or showing off tools, but also just having fun most of the time. His older content tends to fall into the no talking ASMR-style, but I'd say a lot of the stuff I've watched released within 6 years leans toward the educational, talking-hands-style.
A channel I recently got into, but am enjoying for the pure information/exposure to new things is Torque Test Channel. Very informative and just well structured content about all things tools (though mostly torque testing those tools).
Check Lemmino.
Cracking The Cryptic got a very brief mention in thread one with very few votes and they're worth another mention. Some of the most wholesome and brilliant content I've ever seen.
Cathode Ray Dude is fun, he's done videos on early PCs, telephones, video cameras and more
Thanks for the recommendations everyone! I have plenty to catch up on, and lots look really decent!