Ask HN: YouTube Channels for the Intellectually Curious | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: YouTube Channels for the Intellectually Curious

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As someone who is intellectually curious and has had great success finding articles on sites like Hacker News and blogs like kottke.org, I haven’t yet figured out where to find the most interesting content on YouTube. Let me know in the comments if you have found certain channels and creators to be particularly rewarding to follow, or if there are other ways you’ve found to consistently track down good content.

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- Technology Connections for general household "how stuff works"

- DIY Perks, which is on the project/creation end of things

- Xyla Foxlin for a variety of projects

- Veritasium for well basically anything and everything science

- Simone Giertz does a lot of projects to solve problems in both ridiculous and entertaining ways

- Element14 Presents, if you're interested in building your own electronics

- Hugh Jeffreys for device repair

- Both Steve Mould and Joe Scott for miscellaneous general science learning

- Major Hardware, all you wanted to know about computer fan design and then some

- Primitive Technology, an almost zen-like demonstration of building things the way our ancestors mostly had to

- The Modern Rogue, for all things shady and interesting

- Electroboom for all things electricity (and loud noises)

- Undecided w/Matt Ferrel, for a look at emerging tech

- The Hook Up for a wide variety of Home Automation and IoT reviews and projects

Nice list I would just add few more:

-Climate Town https://youtube.com/c/ClimateTown

-Advoko makes https://youtube.com/c/Advoko

-AdamSomething https://youtube.com/c/AdamSomething

-AppliedSience https://youtube.com/c/AppliedScience

-Carykh https://youtube.com/user/carykh

-Wendover Production https://youtube.com/c/Wendoverproductions

-StuffMadeHere https://youtube.com/c/StuffMadeHere

-SteveMould https://youtube.com/c/SteveMould

-SmarterEveryDay https://youtube.com/c/smartereveryday

-PhysicGirl https://youtube.com/c/physicsgirl

-NileRed https://youtube.com/c/NileRed

-nighthawkinlight https://youtube.com/c/Nighthawkinlight

StuffMadeHere and DIYPerks are two very different kinds of builder, but both utterly awe inspiring

Tech Ingredients is another one.

I follow PhysicsGirl, Smarter Every Day, Stuff Made Here and Wendover Productions as well already but I will def. check out the rest, thanks for sharing.

It's pretty crazy how out of millions of channels, we end up with just a few specialized that everyone watches. I have watched at least 90% on these lists.

Not crazy, youtube trafic shaping :-)

Familiar to a greater or lesser degree with most, but not all of those. I'd take exception to a couple inclusions.

- Undecided w/Matt Ferrel

This one is probably the most questionable. I was always a bit leery due to the titles being a bit too accepting of anything you might find on r/Futurology, and then happened on a Thunderf00t Busted (not a regular viewer there either) about some of his videos and yeah. I think it's safe to say he's not doing much of a critical evaluation of anything as he is just reading whatever cool sounding press releases he finds. I'm usually fairly allergic to more absolute statements (part of the reason I'm not such a regular viewer of Thunderf00t's), but even with the limited amount I've seen I'm pretty confident in writing off Undecided w/Matt Ferrel. At the very least, it deserves the same kind of credibility as anything you might find on r/Futurology.

- Veritasium

Yeah, I know. But his repeated issues with basically doing ad-spots as videos, and his lack of acknowledging the issue, really soured me on him. If I'm learning about something through somebody like Veritasium, it's not a topic I'm well versed in to begin with and it's unlikely that I'm going to pursue it all that much further independently. That sort of format is also particularly prone to causing me to drop my more rigorous filters. All of that means credibility is particularly important there, and Veritasium completely lost my trust that he wouldn't try to slip advertising by me while pretending it's relatively unbiased information that's been checked in good faith.

Even before that, he seemed to me to tend a little too far towards fully selling high school style explanations, without making it clear that that's what he's doing. By high school style explanations, I mean those that are nearly outright lies, serve to help students work their way to the point that they can make use of the next more nuanced and complex explanation which is closer to the truth.

There's nothing inherently wrong with using those sorts of explanations, but when addressing such a wide audience with no expectation that they will be looking deeper later, I think it's very important to be clear about the limitations of the information provided. With Derek, you get exactly as much nuance as he thinks makes for a good story, and he does his best to leave you with the impression that's all there is.

I want to very much second excluding Veritasium. Whenever he talked about something I was knowledgeable in, he made mistakes. This combined with branding himself as 'the element of truth' and the increasing over-clickbaity titles and thumbs made me stop watching him.

It's an entertainment channel, and if you want light science entertainment, and expect to forget everything within a few hours, it's a good channel. If you want a science/learning/education channel, it isn't.

>the increasing over-clickbaity titles and thumbs

an unfortunate appeal to the recommendation algorithm that is now a must. You are leaving views on the table without employing these clickbait methods. One solution that many channels use including Veritasium is trying out various clickbait packaging for the first 24-48h, then swapping to something more descriptive.

When these videos represent not only one person's livelihood but also the salaries of a team of producers, camera operators, scriptwriters, etc it just makes unfortunate sense to appeal to the algorithm

> the increasing over-clickbaity titles and thumbs made me stop watching him.

He actually talks about that here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2xHZPH5Sng

Apparently an early video of his about a spinning basketball originally had a non-clickbait title; someone else posted it with a clickbait title and got at least an order of magnitude more views. So now, he makes clickbaity titles.

Matt Ferrell's Undecided is great. Yeah he just explains interesting press releases, he isn't shy about that either. Why would he want/need to be critical about them? Unless he's reading press releases of companies that don't actually exist I don't see how this could be a bad thing.

Disliking Veritasium because of some ads is throwing out the baby with the bathwater. If he manages to sneak in an ad without me noticing, all the better, he's getting paid and I wasn't annoyed. I watched all of his video and I don't remember any annoying ads. He also produces some of the greatest and most beautifully produced explanations of interesting maths and physics concepts on YouTube, all for free.

> Disliking Veritasium because of some ads is throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

I don't think we're talking about the same things here. I'm talking about wholesale videos that are effectively a big, undisclosed ad. I don't mean I don't like how he does ad reads. I mean I don't like how he's created entire videos that are basically ads and then passed them off as his own original good-faith attempt to inform.

It's not so much actively annoying as is it actively deceitful.

Matt also has a followup podcast about each episode where questions are answered. It's on youtube as well, https://www.youtube.com/c/StillTBDPodcast.

> This one is probably the most questionable. I was always a bit leery due to the titles being a bit too accepting of anything you might find on r/Futurology, and then happened on a Thunderf00t Busted (not a regular viewer there either) about some of his videos and yeah. I think it's safe to say he's not doing much of a critical evaluation of anything as he is just reading whatever cool sounding press releases he finds. I'm usually fairly allergic to more absolute statements (part of the reason I'm not such a regular viewer of Thunderf00t's), but even with the limited amount I've seen I'm pretty confident in writing off Undecided w/Matt Ferrel. At the very least, it deserves the same kind of credibility as anything you might find on r/Futurology.

I don't know what to tell you if you believe Thunderf00t's "debunking" is more valuable than your own viewing of any given channel. Thunderf00t is someone who is on his own very problematic and misleading.

The question posed was about things for the intellectually curious, not for "who is the most accurate science communicator on YouTube" so I think including people who cover topics in a simple way are useful.

I'd encourage you to look at many of his videos that cover basic things like how geothermal heating and heat pumps work.

Regarding Veritasium, that is an even weaker argument IMO. If we're going to try to pillory everyone trying to make a living off communicating STEM topics I'm not sure who we'll have left in the space. The boring altruistic rich people?

I'd love to see examples of him outright lying or misleading his audience if you have it, because that would certainly change my mind on recommending his channel to people.

So basically Veritasium is selling ads to keep making more videos and sometimes he makes things simple enough that high schoolers can understand it? Ok :)

I think it's best not to conflate entertainment and information sources. "Informative" youtube channels fall on a weird middle ground where their content seems to be edifying you but they are so riddles with inconsistencies and inaccuracies, you have to spend a lot of energy filtering it or you might develop misconceptions. I'd rather just watch silly videos and get my information from reliable publishing house that provide some expectation of curation and fact checking.

About Veritasium. These good stories with dubious claims and with "but I wasn't wrong!" and "at least I made you think" reactions is considered OK by most in the US for example. But in eastern parts of the world it is treated as a pure smartass behavior.

Just Have a Think covers topics similar to Matt Ferrel, with a bit more rigor:

https://www.youtube.com/c/JustHaveaThink/videos

> Undecided w/Matt Ferrel, for a look at emerging tech

Person with soothing voice reads PR releases of mostly fluff and hype. It is like a tabloid of "science-y" things. I don't think he belongs on an otherwise fine list, just an opinion.

This is a misleading characterization. He does a lot of talking about emerging tech, so everything will sound hype-y and fluffy.

He also does a number of videos explaining basic concepts and also covers some first-hand experiences he has doing various things, such as adding solar to his home and what that did for his electrical bill.

I feel this way about Joe Scott too.

Nobody mentioned styropyro yet? Dude is pretty cool https://youtube.com/c/styropyro

EEVBlog: https://www.youtube.com/c/EevblogDave

- Matthias Wandel, who creates woodworking machines to make all kinds of things https://www.youtube.com/c/Matthiaswandel

Matthias does great work! I sub to that channel (and many others mentioned here) as well. I didn't include it on the list because to recommend it to someone I think you'd want to be sure they had any interest in the area at all, though maybe the "intellectually curious" part would cover that.

- Stuff Made Here for absolutely top-notch insane home hardware engineering https://www.youtube.com/c/StuffMadeHere

I really loved technology connections but after a while (and not sure if it was me or him changing, probably me) the pedantic ranti-ness of it started to make it less fun to watch, even though that was a draw at first.

Ha. Whenever I recommend that channel to people I always say "he is riiiiight below the line between 'informative' and 'arrogant pedantic neckbeard' for me. If your line is different you might hate it"

direct links to the channels:

https://www.youtube.com/c/TechnologyConnections

https://www.youtube.com/c/DIYPerks

https://www.youtube.com/c/xylafoxlin

https://www.youtube.com/c/veritasium

https://www.youtube.com/c/simonegiertz

https://www.youtube.com/c/element14presents

https://www.youtube.com/c/HughJeffreys

https://www.youtube.com/c/SteveMould

https://www.youtube.com/c/joescott

https://www.youtube.com/c/MajorHardware

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA (Primitive Technology)

https://www.youtube.com/c/ModernRogue

https://www.youtube.com/c/Electroboom

https://www.youtube.com/c/UndecidedMF

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheHookUp

Posted yesterday, but Vihart is really interesting. She posts very intermittently, but it's a lot of interesting math topics with a creative bent.

I also watch PBS Digital shows like Eons and Be Smart with my kids. They're definitely for a younger audience, but still interesting.

Alphaphoenix - high quality science content that doesn’t feel overly simplified. https://youtube.com/c/AlphaPhoenixChannel

Applied Science - impressive reproductions of existing science https://youtube.com/c/AppliedScience

Stuff made here - impressive maker/engineering projects https://youtube.com/c/StuffMadeHere

Explosions & Fire - (and related channels) Home explosives synthesis. Fun explosions. Notable for it’s honest look at how science works (and doesn’t work). Low production value. https://youtube.com/c/ExplosionsFire2

Math:

   - 3Blue1Brown: https://www.youtube.com/c/3blue1brown

   - Numberphile: https://www.youtube.com/c/numberphile

CS:

   - Computerphile: https://www.youtube.com/user/Computerphile

Physics:

   - PBS Spacetime: https://www.youtube.com/c/pbsspacetime

Philosophy and Pop Culture:

   - Philosophy Tube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thephilosophytube

   - Folding Ideas: https://www.youtube.com/c/FoldingIdeas

   - ContraPoints: https://www.youtube.com/c/ContraPoints

Film:

   - Nerdwriter: https://www.youtube.com/user/Nerdwriter1

   - Patrick H Willems: https://www.youtube.com/c/patrickhwillems

   - Every Frame a Painting: https://www.youtube.com/c/everyframeapainting
   
   - https://www.youtube.com/c/LessonsfromtheScreenplay

Clickable links.

Math: - 3Blue1Brown: https://www.youtube.com/c/3blue1brown

   - Numberphile:

https://www.youtube.com/c/numberphile

CS: - Computerphile: https://www.youtube.com/user/Computerphile

Physics: - PBS Spacetime: https://www.youtube.com/c/pbsspacetime

Philosophy and Pop Culture: - Philosophy Tube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thephilosophytube

   - Folding Ideas:

https://www.youtube.com/c/FoldingIdeas

   - ContraPoints:

https://www.youtube.com/c/ContraPoints

Film: Nerdwriter: https://www.youtube.com/user/Nerdwriter1

Patrick H Willems: https://www.youtube.com/c/patrickhwillems

Every Frame a Painting: https://www.youtube.com/c/everyframeapainting

https://www.youtube.com/c/LessonsfromtheScreenplay

The amusing thing about Computerphile is it makes me wonder how inaccurate or inexact Numberphile is, as I'm very knowledgeable about the former and clueless about the latter. Computerphile is unwatchable to me, they'll just say stuff that is flat out wrong, but I eagerly await each new Numberphile vid.

There's a term for this, I can't remember. You read a newspaper article about a subject you know, and can't believe how much in it is incorrect or misconstrued, then you read another article about a different topic and it seems fine.

It's similar. Two issues with Numberphile videos I can remember:

Their video on 1+2+3+... = -1/12 was so bad that another Math channel (Mathologer, which is highly recommendable btw) did a whole 40min video tearing it apart: https://youtube.com/watch?v=YuIIjLr6vUA

In their video on fluid mechanics, they say that the Navier-Stokes equations describe all fluids on earth, while they only show the incompressible version (without clarifying). The examples shown on screen at that moment also include a Ketchup bottle, and they don't discuss non-Newtonian fluids either (Ketchup is non-Newtonian, that's why you can get a lot of it coming out at once if you shake a bottle too hard). It's a bit nitpicking though, because apart from these missing caveats it's a great video (with a guest lecturer from Tom Rocks Maths, another great math channel).

Gell-Mann Amnesia

Out of curiosity, can you give a recent example of a video from Computerphile that was incorrect?

PBS Spacetime is very well done; dense with info, but concise and well explained.

if you like pbs spacetime, then https://www.youtube.com/c/ArvinAsh is also good

Trying to limit this to channels not mentioned here or in other comments yet:

Math:

Mathologer (university-level math explained with visualisations) https://youtube.com/c/Mathologer

Black Pen Red Pen (calculus problems) https://youtube.com/c/blackpenredpen

Tom Rocks Maths (in the style of a university tutorial, not surprising since the guy is a university lecturer) https://youtube.com/c/TomRocksMaths

Politics:

VisualPolitik EN (they also have a Spanish channel, the original, plus some other languages) https://youtube.com/c/VisualPolitikEN

Matt Parker's Stand Up Math is a gem:

https://www.youtube.com/user/standupmaths

Gotta add Michael Sugrue to Philosophy: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFaYLR_1aryjfB7hLrKGRaQ

Brilliant lectures on Western Philosophy.

For Film Theory, I think Big Joel is a good if weird addition. I don't agree with him on everything, but he certainly has interesting and (usually) well-founded opinions. Most of the videos are on really niche topics that maybe apply more broadly to cultural trends.

I'm personally especially fascinated by the less well known, more underground, and more "organic" creators:

https://www.youtube.com/c/CNLohr - making electronics and software projects while working around amusing constraints

https://www.youtube.com/c/scanlime - hardware electronics hacker, thorough knowledge of transistors to gateware

https://www.youtube.com/c/SladorSoft - small pieces of info on logic design

https://www.youtube.com/c/SammSheperd - drone and UAV design. simply best of the best. unfortunately he passed away. RIP SNRS

https://www.youtube.com/c/PhilS94 - PCB design

https://www.youtube.com/c/RobertBaruch - logic design

https://www.youtube.com/user/0033mer - laid back electronic circuits

https://www.youtube.com/user/MacPuffdog - fully home brew quadcoptor design

Curiosity Show - the channel uploads content from an old (70s and 80s mostly) australian kids show where the hosts perform table top experiments, or simply explain something in a way interesting to kids. The fact that a brazilian guy aproaching his forties can still be kept entertained is a testament to the quality of the show. Presented by a pair of utterly enjoayable guys, both holding phds.

I second Curiosity Show. Obviously aimed at kids and from the seventies, but still excellent

I'd also add:

https://www.youtube.com/c/CarlBugeja - Carl Bujega - Does cool things with circuits, including making robots out of flexible PCBs.

Less techy stuff:

- Kirsten Dirksen, for videos about self-sufficiency and architecture https://www.youtube.com/user/kirstendirksen

- Hainbach, music-making using test equipment and esoteric synthesizers https://www.youtube.com/c/Hainbach

- Linus Boman, graphic design https://www.youtube.com/c/LinusBoman/videos

- Sebastian Lague, game programming 'coding adventures' https://www.youtube.com/c/SebastianLague

- Great Art Explained https://www.youtube.com/c/GreatArtExplained

- Martijn Doolaard, dutch guy is renovating a house on a mountain in Italy https://www.youtube.com/c/MartijnDoolaard

- Afrorack, guy in Africa makes DIY synths https://www.youtube.com/c/Afrorack/videos

- Voices of the Past, first hand accounts from people throughout history https://www.youtube.com/c/VoicesofthePast

- Mr. Chickadee, large scale carpentry using hand tools https://www.youtube.com/c/MrChickadee

- Jorge Rodriguez, game math https://www.youtube.com/c/JorgeVinoRodriguez

Another one for the non-tech pile:

Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't: https://youtube.com/c/CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt

A foulmouthed, self-taught botanist walking through deserts: urban, sub-urban and actual; talking about the origins and habitats of plants he encounters, while slagging off shitty city planning, dying lawns and ocasionally, Wholefoods.

Jaimie Mantzel: A guy in Panama building atypical low tech off grid solutions and small boats https://www.youtube.com/user/JMEMantzel

Great Art Explained!! So good. I've really been loving that channel recently.

Thanks for sharing "Great Art Explained"!

* Not Just Bikes - urban planning and public transit - https://youtube.com/c/NotJustBikes

* Real Engineering - in-depth videos with amazing visuals on all sorts of subjects like how and with what materials were used for supersonic planes, what went wrong with the Concorde design, how did logistics for D-Day work, how does pumped up hydro work, etc. - https://youtube.com/c/RealEngineering

* Real Time History - historical channel, the team behind The Great War channel (highly recommend as well) with long in-depth videos on historical subjects such as the Russo-Japanese war, Napoleon's invasion of Russia, Franco-Prussian war - https://youtube.com/c/realtimehistory and https://youtube.com/c/TheGreatWarSeries

* similarly to The Great War channel/Real Time History, World War 2 and TimeGhost - WW2 week by week, with extra focus in separate videos on crimes against humanity, spying, etc. - https://youtube.com/c/WorldWarTwo and https://youtube.com/c/TimeGhost

Huge fan of:

- PBS Space Time (w/ physicist Matt O’Dowd) [1] for deep space and fundamental astrophysics in an accurate but approachable way

- Kurzgesagt —- In a nutshell [2] for entertaining yet informative, beautifully animated videos on everything from science to politics to philosophy

[1]: https://m.youtube.com/c/pbsspacetime

[2]: https://m.youtube.com/c/inanutshell

Some random suggestions:

Steve Mould - Physics https://www.youtube.com/c/SteveMould

Project Farm - Product Testing https://www.youtube.com/c/ProjectFarm

Lock Picking Lawyer - Lock Picking https://www.youtube.com/c/lockpickinglawyer

Scott Manley - Space Flight https://www.youtube.com/c/szyzyg

The Plain Bagel - Finance https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePlainBagel

Perun - Geopolitics https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC3ehuUksTyQ7bbjGntmx3Q

Almazan Kitchen - Cooking https://www.youtube.com/c/AlmazanKitchen

Practical Engineering - Infrastructure https://www.youtube.com/c/PracticalEngineeringChannel

Mind Your Decisions - Logic Puzzles https://www.youtube.com/c/MindYourDecisions

Another excellent finance channel focusing on evidence based investing, and occasional collaborator with plain bagel, is Ben Felix: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDXTQ8nWmx_EhZ2v-kp7QxA

Seconding Perun, especially with respect to understanding how the war in Ukraine is being waged.

I was looking for the project farm shoutout.

Two Minute Papers - https://www.youtube.com/c/K%C3%A1rolyZsolnai

Dr. Zsolnai has been a great recap for computer graphic and AI research as its released. He presents the authors' research, sometimes shows his own attempts on their models, and often reflects on the authors' previous publications.

America's Test Kitchen - https://www.youtube.com/c/AmericasTestKitchen

Always a nice addition; America's Test Kitchen is consistently referenced on other channels as the reason they do X thing for their recipe.

Disney Research Hub - https://www.youtube.com/user/DisneyResearchHub

Disney doesn't post weekly videos, typically they drop 4-5 videos at once. Similar to Two Minute Papers (and sometimes covered there as well), it gives you a nice look in where we are in state of the art CGI.

Um, Actually - https://www.youtube.com/c/umactually

This is more in case you're a nerd, but still like some general fun. Um, Actually is a game show format from Dropout.tv/CollegeHumor where a statement from geeky franchises you know and love is slightly incorrect, and its the job of the guests to figure out the mistake. They're releasing their COVID-Zoom videos right now, but they're back in the studio now and have stated those videos are coming.

Freya Holmér covers the math and programming behind computer graphics: https://www.youtube.com/c/Acegikmo

Here are some more mathematics channels:

https://www.youtube.com/user/HarveyMuddCollegeEDU

https://www.youtube.com/c/Aleph0

https://www.youtube.com/c/3blue1brown

Here are some channels on physics:

https://www.youtube.com/c/TenMinutePhysics

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPZvrtffxEZ7KZQ9dYCG0xg <- Carver Mead's channel.

Here's something of historical interest: all of the episodes of The Computer Chronicles. https://www.youtube.com/user/ComputerChroniclesYT

Freya is awesome. I didn’t understand the GPU until I watched her videos.

Coding Math: https://www.youtube.com/user/codingmath

+1 for Freya Holmér, I had skimmed through some explanations on shaders in the past and never really sustained much interest until finding her series. It's been a while since watching but I think the contextualization/demos really helped me understand the big picture of video game graphics

- CuriousMarc: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3bosUr3WlKYm4sBaLs-Adw

- Ben Eater: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS0N5baNlQWJCUrhCEo8WlA

- Fran Blanche: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMLgHbpJ8qYqj3CkdbvC0Ww

I can second CuriousMarc and Ben Eater for anyone interested in computer engineering.

CuriousMarc has an amazing series on the Apollo Guidance Computer, as well as great one-off videos like running a linux terminal on a teletype (https://youtu.be/2XLZ4Z8LpEE).

Ben Eater does amazing videos on low level electronics, and has a great series on understanding how a computer really works.

Acorn to Arabella https://youtube.com/c/AcornToArabella: They're building a 38' sailboat from stump to ship, then taking it around the world. Already 223 episodes in and very educational.

Michael Penn https://youtube.com/c/MichaelPennMath: Covering calculus, number theory and more. Classic black board lectures, highly enjoyable.

Andreas Kling https://youtube.com/c/AndreasKling: Livestreaming development on SerenityOS (https://github.com/SerenityOS/serenity)

I have some, let me know which ones you like, I might have more suggestions for you!

In no particular order:

Lex Friedman podcast, lots of scientific interviews: https://youtube.com/c/lexfridman

Crecganford, This one I discovered recently, expert in ancient and prehistoric mythology: https://youtube.com/c/Crecganford

Isaac Arthur, science and futurism, some sci-fi, but very very stimulating: https://youtube.com/channel/UCZFipeZtQM5CKUjx6grh54g

Matt Ferrel, weekly interesting topics, generally about coming soon scientific products (like, it’s is joe possible to do X with grapheme, how does it compare to y): https://youtube.com/c/UndecidedMF

Joe Scott, same format, but more generalist (spaces from climate change solutions to Victorian era to urban legends): https://youtube.com/c/joescott

Sabine Hossenfelder, an actual scientist explaining physics-related topics, her articles usually made it to top HN: https://youtube.com/c/SabineHossenfelder Blog http://backreaction.blogspot.com/?m=1

Climate Town https://youtube.com/c/ClimateTown

-Advoko makes https://youtube.com/c/Advoko

-AdamSomething https://youtube.com/c/AdamSomething

-AppliedSience https://youtube.com/c/AppliedScience

-Carykh https://youtube.com/user/carykh

Not Just Bikes. The Dutch solved a lot of urban problems that most other countries still haven. This is a guy from Canada living in Holland, talking about urbanism, mobility and all the rest.

To give some adjacent channels:

- Adam Something (https://www.youtube.com/c/AdamSomething) - urban planning and eviscerations of transportation grifts with a leftist bent

- Oh The Urbanity! (https://www.youtube.com/c/OhTheUrbanity) - urban planning with a focus on biking in Ottawa, CA

- Alan Fisher (https://www.youtube.com/c/AlanFisher1337) - urban planning with a focus on trains and Philadelphia

- Eco Gecko (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJZV6sai-juDs4zAbAMVhfA) - particularly his "The Suburban Wasteland" series - video essays about the negative impacts of suburbanization (video "essay" as in it's much closer to academic essays read aloud)

- RMTransit (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf4iKXL_SJQ5d0qsKkboRRQ) - Public transportation - primarily Canadian rail

- WorldwideRailfan (https://www.youtube.com/c/WorldwideRailfan) - An incredible repository of information about primarily American trains

And “Oh the Urbanity!”

I'm suprised no one has mentioned "exurb1a", by far my most favorite channel on YouTube.

The videos are always thought-provoking, intelligent and hilarious as well.

I can recommend every single video of him.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCimiUgDLbi6P17BdaCZpVbg

Probably because his current judicial situation is, to say the least, messy. That made a lot of the interest in him vanish for a lot of people. So prob thats why you haven't seen him mentioned.

Huh, I haven't been able to find any good sources that cover everything, but this is certainly news to me:

https://youtube.fandom.com/wiki/Exurb1a#Controversy

Seconded, his videos are mind bending. Why is the milk gone is my personal favorite

Yeaah! I stumbled upon his channel not very long ago and was so hooked I just watched like 15 videos in a row .^.

Like you said, it's a wonderful mix of comic thought provoking rides.

He is a rapist and abuser. I encourage you to look at the journalism investigating his case and the inadequate police response to it.

My favorite list:

Physics/Math:

Physics Girl: https://www.youtube.com/c/physicsgirl

Dr. Becky: https://www.youtube.com/c/DrBecky

3Blue1Brown: https://www.youtube.com/c/3blue1brown

Physics Videos by Eugene Khutoryansky: https://www.youtube.com/user/EugeneKhutoryansky

Electronics:

Usagi Electric: https://www.youtube.com/c/Nakazoto

James Sharman: https://www.youtube.com/c/weirdboyjim

FriendlyWire: https://www.youtube.com/c/FriendlyWire

Dr Becky's coverage of the JWST in particular lately has been really excellent.

She really has a knack for taking what are some really advanced topics and explaining them clearly.

It's a sign of a great communicator when you feel like you've learned and understood something immediately after being told it.

I like "Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell", its good information, easily understandable because its targeted to general population including kids. Perfect watch for tired brain after intense working session.

https://www.youtube.com/c/inanutshell

Physical Sciences

https://www.youtube.com/c/AlphaPhoenixChannel

https://www.youtube.com/c/PracticalEngineeringChannel

https://www.youtube.com/c/TechIngredients

https://www.youtube.com/c/thethoughtemporium

https://www.youtube.com/c/MattRisinger

Humanities:

https://www.youtube.com/c/answerinprogress

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA

Shop:

https://www.youtube.com/c/ThisOldTony

https://www.youtube.com/c/Clickspring/videos

https://www.youtube.com/c/JersWoodshop

Computing:

https://www.youtube.com/c/jdhvideo/videos

+1 for tech ingredients. that guy is awesome. you're missing AvE in the shop category though.

For GeoPolitics -https://www.youtube.com/user/CaspianReport I usually find his perspective unbaised and usefull.Geopolitics will play key in future as world becomes multipolar

For Breakthrough Tech : https://www.youtube.com/c/CleoAbram https://www.youtube.com/c/UndecidedMF

I like to follow the standford blockchain club: https://www.youtube.com/c/StanfordBlockchainClub

Helps me know how the smartest kids and mind are thinking of the new tech.

For Excel Geeks: https://www.youtube.com/c/ExcelTutorials

For Personal Knowledge Management : https://www.youtube.com/c/VisualPKM A underrated channel with brillant insights and tools.

They help me with identifying and knowing which areas can be of focus in the next few years if they progress as planned

Stuff Made Here is super cool: https://www.youtube.com/c/StuffMadeHere

He's like a younger version of Applied Science: https://www.youtube.com/c/AppliedScience

I also consider the likes of

Bismuth https://www.youtube.com/c/Bismuth9 and

SummoningSalt https://www.youtube.com/c/SummoningSalt

to be intellectual in the deep dive historian type of way.

LPL has already been linked: https://www.youtube.com/c/lockpickinglawyer

I used to follow NightHawkInLight but his content has slowed recently: https://www.youtube.com/c/Nighthawkinlight

Matt Parker is awesome (I have his book, too): https://www.youtube.com/user/standupmaths

He appears often on: https://www.youtube.com/c/numberphile

You might also like Retro Game Mechanics Explained https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwRqWnW5ZkVaP_lZF7caZ-g and Modern Vintage Gamer https://m.youtube.com/c/ModernVintageGamer

In no particular order:

FarmCraft101 (repairs/restoration, woodworking and useful tips) - https://www.youtube.com/c/FarmCraft101

KYLE.ENGINEERS (aero and car tech) - https://www.youtube.com/c/KYLEDRIVES/

Machine Thinking (history of machining) - https://www.youtube.com/c/machinethinking/

Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles (historical, technical deep dives) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCynGrIaI5vsJQgHJAIp9oSg/

Huygens Optics (optics history and manufacture) - https://www.youtube.com/c/HuygensOptics/

w2aew (RF electronics and tutorials) - https://www.youtube.com/user/w2aew/

Aaron Lanterman (electronic classes, esp audio) - https://www.youtube.com/c/Lantertronics/

MicroType Engineering (electronics and pcb design) - https://www.youtube.com/c/MicroTypeEngineering/

Project Farm (unbiased tool/hardware reviews) - https://www.youtube.com/c/ProjectFarm/

Tod's Workshop (historical weapons) - https://www.youtube.com/c/TodsWorkshop1

rctestflight (RC stuff) - https://www.youtube.com/c/rctestflight

This thread has been amazing for filling in gaps. Thanks for your list!

If you're a ham or interested in radio, w2aew is great!

+1 Huygens Optics

Biblaridion - "Alien Biospheres" is a great popsci series about speculative evolution. He also does constructed language stuff, but I haven't gotten around to diving into that.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMjTcpv56G_W0FRIdPHBn4A

Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan, formerly All Gas No Brakes (had a falling out with behind-the-scenes business types) - a feet-on-the-ground look into various subcultures and events. If you see beyond what's usually a hilarious and definitely slightly voyeuristic facade of "haha people are weird", at its core it's excellent vox populi journalism. Kind of a left field recommendation for this thread, but genuinely something that broadened my horizons by a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/c/Channel5YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtqxG9IrHFU_ID1khGvx9sA

Most of the folks I follow have already been mentioned, some that seem to be missing:

Transit/city planning:

Jago Hazzard (mostly London focused) - https://www.youtube.com/c/JagoHazzard

Distraction Bucket (also London) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB4CG5PB7DCp4R4sxRqrRGQ

Geoff Marshall (UK) - https://www.youtube.com/user/geofftech2

RMTransit - https://www.youtube.com/c/RMTransit

Jay Foreman - https://www.youtube.com/c/JayForeman

Chemistry:

NurdRage - https://www.youtube.com/c/NurdRage

Other:

MyTechFun (3D printing) - https://www.youtube.com/c/MyTechFun

History Matters - https://www.youtube.com/c/TenMinuteHistory

jan Misali - https://www.youtube.com/c/HBMmaster

You might like City Beautiful https://youtube.com/c/CityBeautiful

The titles can be a bit clickbaity but the videos are pretty good

Computer Graphics:

Justin Solomon (MIT): https://www.youtube.com/c/justinmsolomon Keenan Krane (CMU): https://www.youtube.com/c/keenancrane Cem Yuksel (Utah): https://www.youtube.com/c/cmyuksel Inigo Quilez (ShaderToy): https://www.youtube.com/c/InigoQuilez The Art of Code: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheArtofCodeIsCool

Physics (Besides what others have listed):

ScienceClic: https://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceClicEN Simons Foundation: https://www.youtube.com/user/SimonsFoundation Quanta Magazine: https://www.youtube.com/c/QuantaScienceChannel

Robotics:

Cyrill Stachniss: https://www.youtube.com/c/CyrillStachniss Russ Tedrake's Underactuated Robots: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChfUOAhz7ynELF-s_1LPpWg

Art:

Entagma: https://www.youtube.com/c/Entagma Creators: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCreatorsProject

[Simons Institute] https://www.youtube.com/c/SimonsInstituteTOC - my favorite source for current research on theoretical CS, AI, computational sciences.

[MITCBMM - Center for Minds, Brains and Machines] https://www.youtube.com/c/MITCBMM - great lecture source for AI, cognitive science, neuroscience.

[Steve Brunton] https://www.youtube.com/c/Eigensteve - great lecturer on applied math for engineering and computation science. Like an advanced Khan academy

[The Royal Institution] https://www.youtube.com/c/TheRoyalInstitution - science talks for lay audiences, like Ted Talks but more advanced.

[Mathologer] https://www.youtube.com/c/Mathologer - misc math topics, like 3blue1brown. This guy is quirky and funny and good at explaining some advanced math topics.

[Numberphile] https://www.youtube.com/c/numberphile - topics on mostly math, but also CS adjacent.

I happen to have a list of channels I found fun and/or interesting at hand (<https://defanor.uberspace.net/links.xhtml#Videos>), so here's a rather long one: Cody's Lab, How To Make Everything, Isaac Arthur, Linus Tech Tips, Numberphile, Stand-up Maths, Computerphile, Veritasium, SmarterEveryDay, Adam Savage's Tested, The 8-Bit Guy, Primitive Technology, StanfordUniversity, Geek & Sundry, Viva La Dirt League, Sixty Symbols, The Royal Institution, Harry Rogers, Ben & Lois Orford, 3Blue1Brown, David Butler, PBS Eons (and PBS channels are nice in general), Adam Ruins Everything, OverSimplified, Sean Carroll's The Biggest Ideas in the Universe, Economics Explained, minutephysics, ElectroBOOM, NileRed, Stuff Made Here, GreatScott!, Electrician U, The Honest Carpenter, Fermilab, my mechanics, Hand Tool Rescue, Technology Connections, Practical Engineering (practical.engineering), Machine Thinking, Jeremy Fielding, Wristwatch Revival, StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Matthew Fairbanks, Weird History, Nutty History, Modern History TV, Thoughty2, Ordinary Things, Grandpa Amu, AvE, Townsends, Tom Scott, Applied Science, Wondastic Tech.

"Origins of Precision" Best video from Machine Thinking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNRnrn5DE58

Big Clive for general how electronics works, really good at tearing down, explaining how circuits work etc https://youtube.com/c/Bigclive

Diode Gone Wild is another channel in the same vein (minus the carbonated beverages): https://www.youtube.com/c/DiodeGoneWild

I very much like the approach taken by Big Clive and Diode Gone Wild: taking apart everyday items, explaining what they do, sometimes also showing how they would make something similar themselves from scratch. I assume there are lots of other channels out there that do the same but for other things than just electronics.

One moment please

Sports are not regarded as intellectually fulfilling but these channels would change your perspective on how much Technique and Game Planning is involved at the highest level:

The Modern Martial Artist: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheModernMartialArtist

Adam Ondra (Olympian Climber): https://www.youtube.com/c/AdamOndra

Wylie’s Art and Science of Boxing: https://www.youtube.com/c/LeeWylie1

Also, I see no one mentioning Real Engineering: https://www.youtube.com/c/RealEngineering

Would also like to highlight Terra Mater (animal extinction & habitat): https://www.youtube.com/c/TerraMaterOfficial

As whitebelt who recently started Brazilian jiu-jitsu, I was aware of how strategic it would be but I wasn't fully prepared for how dumb I would actually feel. At the start everyone always seemed two steps ahead of me. So far the journey and the growth I've seen have been incredibly intellectually simulating.

Not so much channels but interesting series:

Playlist of all Susskind Physics lectures: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyX8kQ-JzHI&list=PL6i60qoDQh...

Sanderson Writing class (fantasy but applies to all genres): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cf-qdZ7GbA&list=PLSH_xM-KC3...

Channels:

Andreas Spiess aka Guy With the Swiss Accent for embedded / microcontrollers: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreasSpiess

Hoopers Beta for a scienctific/medical POV about climbing: https://www.youtube.com/c/HoopersBeta

IppSec for HackTheBox to learn security: https://www.youtube.com/c/ippsec

LiveOverflow for security: https://www.youtube.com/c/LiveOverflow

Yannic Kilcher for ML news / overviews: https://www.youtube.com/c/YannicKilcher

French Guy Cooking: https://www.youtube.com/c/FrenchGuyCooking

+1 for LiveOverflow and IppSec. They are great for people interested in cybersecurity.

Along those lines, I would also add John Hammond:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVeW9qkBjo3zosnqUbG7CFw

If you're into aviation you might find these interesting:

1. Mentour Pilot https://www.youtube.com/c/MentourPilotaviation/videos

Petter from Sweden explains aircraft systems, crash investigations, how pilots handle awkward situations in the air. Very thorough.

2. Captain Joe

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC88tlMjiS7kf8uhPWyBTn_A

Joe is from somewhere in Europe, and he explains flight systems, how things work. Lots of overlapping content with Mentour Pilot.

3. 74 Gear

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCovVc-qqwYp8oqwO3Sdzx7w

Kelsey from America has tonnes of incredibly funny anecdotes.

Unlike the other two pilots who do mostly short flights within Europe (though Captain Joe recently changed jobs I think, and so I'm not so sure anymore), Kelsey does long-haul in a 747, and his stories are also diverse.

Usagi Electric and his series about reviving old Centurion minicomputer - https://www.youtube.com/c/Nakazoto/

Plainly Difficult for radioation accidents and and other science/technology gone wrong stuff - https://www.youtube.com/c/PlainlyDifficult

VWestlife for reviews of various old audio equipment and other thrift store finds - https://www.youtube.com/c/vwestlife

Tim Traveller for trip reports from various unusual places (weird country borders and stuff) - https://www.youtube.com/c/TheTimTraveller

Tentacrul for UX explained on DAWs and other music stuff - https://www.youtube.com/c/Tantacrul

Railways Explained for... well explaining the history and future of various world railways systems - https://www.youtube.com/c/RailwaysExplained

NFKRZ for explaining context of living in Russia - https://www.youtube.com/c/MultiNfz

Bald and Bankrupt for unusual travelogs in post-soviet countries and other places - https://www.youtube.com/c/baldandbankrupt

Here are some I enjoy...

https://www.youtube.com/c/ZackFreedman

https://www.youtube.com/c/whatdamath

https://www.youtube.com/c/Bisqwit

Less technical:

https://www.youtube.com/c/PeterDraws1

https://www.youtube.com/user/cmbroad44

https://www.youtube.com/c/JamesGurney

Relevant to current events, interesting Russian channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/NikiProshin

Second Zack, great funny content on practical electronics. It’s not easy to find that cross section any where.

Love JamesGurney for arts too, didn't know the other two. Thanks!

The one which no one has mentioned so far: Big Think - https://www.youtube.com/c/bigthink

I like the no-nonsense, ~5mins video from the authors summarizing core message of their research/book.

Examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovBtoHkeK68

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJL8A6vQyW0

PBS Nova and Frontline often have their latest episodes on Youtube, they go more in depth than commercial documentaries. "Boeing's Fatal Flaw" in a great example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXMO0bhPhCw

Georgia Tech professor Aaron Lanterman has class lectures on music synthesis, electric guitars amps and effects, and general electronics: https://www.youtube.com/c/Lantertronics

Documentaries Particle Fever CERN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lx109jdGCc

Slingshot, Dean Kamen - has the origin of FIRST Robotics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AsJXjK0CSo

To improve your health:

Dr. Sten Ekberg: https://youtube.com/c/drekberg

Diet Doctor: https://youtube.com/c/DietDoctorVideo

What I've Learned: https://youtube.com/c/WhatIveLearned

K Boges: https://youtube.com/user/Kbogea

To improve your understanding of the ongoing culture war:

Academy of Ideas: https://youtube.com/c/academyofideas

Ryan Chapman: https://youtube.com/c/RyanChapmanPolitics

Adding those not mentioned yet.

Animal Logic - https://www.youtube.com/c/animalogic

NHK World - https://www.youtube.com/c/NHKWORLDJAPAN

Asu (Bonsai with water features, if you want to calm yourself down.) - https://www.youtube.com/c/AsuGreen11

Goto Conferences - https://www.youtube.com/c/GotoConferences

Simple History - https://www.youtube.com/c/Simplehistory

TED - https://www.youtube.com/c/TED

TED Ed - https://www.youtube.com/teded

Economist - https://www.youtube.com/c/TheEconomist

The First Take (Japanese Music done in one shot) - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9zY_E8mcAo_Oq772LEZq8Q

Vice Asia - https://www.youtube.com/c/VICEAsia

Wired - https://www.youtube.com/c/WIRED

As much as I enjoy nicely produced content most often mentioned here, lately I tend to prefer less-produced videos made by professionals in a field.

When I got interested in Asian cuisine, I learned a lot from Chef Wang Gang, there is a retired F1 engineer called Malcolm Oastler documenting his project of motorbike-powered race car, a Canadian artist David Bull living in Japan and specializing in Japanese poster art. It takes much longer to find them, but I find the results much more satisfying in the long term.

Chef Wang is excellent.

Also highly recommend Chinese Cooking Demystified: an American + Chinese couple living in Guangdong do deep dives into the complexities of regional Chinese specialties.

And for something much lighter but still informative and fun: Blondie in China. Aussie girl fluent in Mandarin exploring all things China.

While we’re talking food: I have learnt so many great techniques from ThatDudeCanCook: if you do no other thing, you should watch his video on preparing filet mignon I never eat out for steak because it’s never as good as what I can make myself.

* My mechanics: https://www.youtube.com/c/mymechanics

He repairs old worn down items and shows every step of the way in high details. Very satisfying to both learn the elegant mechanisms of old items, as well as to see something broken become beautiful once more.

* Andreas Kling: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreasKling

Continuously posts videos on him+his community developing the operative system SerenetyOS (I know he's been posted here on HN before)

* Economics Explained: https://www.youtube.com/c/EconomicsExplained

Explains... economics..

I'd recommend avoiding Economics Explained. A lot of his takes aren't very well researched and don't align with "mainstream" econ (not that I'm an expert on the subject).

https://www.reddit.com/r/badeconomics/search/?q=economics%20...

You mean the mainstream economists who claimed until a few months back that inflation is transitionary?

Did you know that if you laid all the economists in the world on the ground end-to-end, they’d still point in different directions? True fact.

Hand Tool Rescue is another good channel in the vein of My mechanics: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCasG9kJWi1eVxM0QkyqKVJQ

Huygens Optics https://youtube.com/c/HuygensOptics

this is an underrated channel - that guy has true mastery craftsman vibes.

another underrated channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC06HVrkOL33D5lLnCPjr6NQ - Breaking Taps - which is all about making, and using electron microscopes as well as other projects like that.

Anything from Nebula: https://nebula.app/

They all have corresponding YouTube channels (including many already listed in other comments)

Two Minute Papers: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbfYPyITQ-7l4upoX8nvctg A channel with videos about lot of AI papers.

DUST Sci-fi: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7sDT8jZ76VLV1u__krUutA Great free sci-fi movies.

Robert Murray-Smith's maker channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RobertMurraySmith A British maker who builds stuff and shows them step-by-step.

You know about Omeleto, TheCGBros, and ALTER in addition to DUST? Omeleto also has a sci-fi specific side-channel.

Those are the well known ones, but there is also smaller channels like Sci-Fi Central and Screamfest which also put out longer-form (for YouTube) fictional shorts (and some feature length stuff).

Big History Project: https://www.youtube.com/c/OERProject

Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell: https://www.youtube.com/c/inanutshell

Practical Engineering: https://www.youtube.com/c/PracticalEngineeringChannel

StatQuest with Josh Starmer: https://www.youtube.com/c/joshstarmer

Art: Nerdwriter https://youtube.com/user/Nerdwriter1

Engineering: Practical Engineering https://youtube.com/c/PracticalEngineeringChannel

Philosophy: School of Life https://youtube.com/c/theschooloflifetv

Math: 3Blue1Brown https://youtube.com/c/3blue1brown

have you seen this critique video of school of life? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlkJJygIoVU

Looking through it, but isn’t this the channel that critiques other channels for the sake of critique? I mean, I don’t think School of Life or any other channel is perfect, but a YouTuber building strawmen and attacking them for views isn’t really my thing.

OT, but I sorely wish there was a way to whitelist channels or playlists in the youtube app and have it show only this content. better yet, be able to subscribe to a curated list of channels and playlists. Id love to give my kids free reign to watch any of this stuff, but there is far too much other stuff that gets pushed on them too fast.

One solution is to:

(1) make a list of channels;

(2) learn to use YouTube-DL:

https://youtube-dl.org/

(3) have a script that auto-runs the YouTube-DL script

(4) then drop videos watched input a watched folder; generate a spreadsheet and columns to note who has watched watch and filepath; create a basic website; etc.

— easy to do, used to do it when I knew I would have no or bad internet.

Out of curiosity, do creators get a view-count increment from youtube-dl? (or its superior successor, yt-dlp?)

No idea, easy enough to test with a private link though if you really want to know.

It would be quite possible to compile a list of these creators.

I'd also suggest that Nebula has quite a few creators in the STEM space, though not nearly enough to make it the one-stop-shop you're looking for.

SmarterEveryDay - https://www.youtube.com/c/smartereveryday StuffMadeHere - https://www.youtube.com/c/StuffMadeHere

Fireship - https://www.youtube.com/c/Fireship

I find the 'X in 100 seconds' series great for keeping an eye on CS topics outside of my everyday work, like the history of gzip compression or the advantages of a new CSS Post-Processor.

@sthatipamala and I run a channel called The Technium. We cover fringe, retro, or overlooked technologies that have a core idea that has potential to change how we do things. We talk about what the technology is, what it can do today, and what the 2nd order effects would be if it were pervasive.

We've covered Unison, Multi-modal and multi-task models, Zig, Transformers, NFTs, Semantic Web, Local-first software, etc. I think it'd be up your alley.

- Zig: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wie5YuzoUQI&list=PLZ8NrLhP6G...

- TLA+: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1drTz6GYpZU

- Unison: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvJwaGHy768&list=PLZ8NrLhP6G...

- Transformers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb0II5DuDE0&list=PLZ8NrLhP6G...

Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl_rEKDGBw4myn0uOnPxYsg

Three I haven't seen so far:

Ben Eater (low-level digital hardware stuff, builds a computer from gates basically)

Thought Emporium (Molecular Bio)

The Coding Train (Creative Coding)

Also nice to just watch random MITx & similar lectures sometimes

for coding, i think https://www.youtube.com/c/DigiDigger - DigiDigger - has some good videos on how certain games implement their "thing" - like how portals are implemented in the game Portal. Unfortunately, the videos are for entertainment mostly, and a bit lacking on the details, so only good enough to get the idea across.

You already have a lot of great recommendations, so I'll add a few I haven't seen listed yet.

- Neuroscience: Andrew Huberman | https://www.youtube.com/c/AndrewHubermanLab

Absolute Gem and really sparked my curiosity of human biology. He spends a lot of time going over the neuroscience literature, essentially giving a lecture. It's quite dense, but a lot of practical advice you can apply which is backed by science.

- History: Oversimplified | https://www.youtube.com/c/OverSimplified

A comedically narrated hyper summary of historical events. It made me very interested in learning more about events of the French revolutions, the founding of USA and it's civil wars, and more. For more depth, highly recommend the OG podcast hardcore history.

- Construction: B1M | https://www.youtube.com/c/Theb1mGoogle/featured

Lots of interesting videos about the development of unique structures.

- The Diary Of A CEO - https://www.youtube.com/c/TheDiaryOfACEO

- Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal - https://www.youtube.com/c/TheoriesofEverything

- Tech Ingredients - https://www.youtube.com/c/TechIngredients

- Lex Fridman - https://www.youtube.com/c/lexfridman

- Andrew Huberman - https://www.youtube.com/c/AndrewHubermanLab

You listen to Yuval Noah Harari?

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2m77KGMIKZCD0Kw35-4shQ

To the many good suggestions here already I would add Tom Nicholas https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxt2r57cLastdmrReiQJkEg

He talks about philosophy, social trends and politics (I know this can be controversial, but he does quite in depth analysis of current trends based on a philosophical background)

I'll just add my favorite one, Tech Ingredients. https://youtube.com/c/TechIngredients

I have really been enjoying Kurzgesagt and Lex Friedman lately, I think they are both fair and give multiple perspectives, giving you as much room as possible to come to conclusions on your own.

Kurzgesagt is a German channel in English. I think they have a German as well. Subtitles are available in many languages. The videos are illustrated with astounding drawings. The voice is very enjoyable too. The content is really good.

I recently found out Lex Fridman's podcast and I thoroughly enjoy it. Episodes I listened to are Jack Barsky, Stephen Kotkin, and currently the one with Neal Stephenson. He interviews a broad spectrum of people, about a myriad of topics. I skipped the CEOs though some here may find interview with Zuck or Elon interesting.

The interview with Zuck was really disappointing, he got a lot of flack for his mellow interviews of contentious persons and he's been trying to prod a little deeper on them since then. I think he's great at interviewing interesting people, but Zuck is just a PHP developer with good business accumen, there's not much interesting going on there.

Lex Friedman is imo the best podcast out there, but if he's got an interview with someone you dislike, I'd skip it because he'll not press on where you think he needs to press on to get to the heart of it.

The Science Asylum is a good one. https://www.youtube.com/c/Scienceasylum

I second this. Charismatic, humorous, and he takes the time to learn a subject before presenting it.

MIT OpenCourseware: https://www.youtube.com/c/mitocw Yale Courses: https://www.youtube.com/user/YaleCourses

If anyone is a history nerd, there are some folks who put together really professional videos on the two World Wars, and the events surrounding it. The WW2 channel is particularly good, as they do week-by-week for the whole 6 years. They're in 1943 right now. An impressive work.

https://www.youtube.com/c/worldwartwo

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUcyEsEjhPEDf69RRVhRh4A

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLfMmOriSyPbd5JhHpnj4Ng

I absolutely love the Post apocalyptic inventor

https://youtube.com/c/ThePostApocalypticInventor

He's repurposing things found on the scrapyard with a high focus on self-sufficiency.

Clickspring: https://www.youtube.com/c/Clickspring

He does beautiful, calming videos of his meticulous machining work. He recently worked on recreating the Antikythera mechanism.

Engineering Explained does a lot of real math on car related topics while also being interesting. https://youtube.com/user/EngineeringExplained

Michel Van Bizen has hundreds (thousands?6 of university level lectures on many topics science and math: https://youtube.com/c/MichelvanBiez

Discovered that channel trying to understand all modes of heat transfer through windows. Covered under thermodynamics. https://youtu.be/r3tC-ocdVoQ

I personally like going quite in depth into esoteric topics

- car aerodynamics -> https://www.youtube.com/c/KYLEDRIVES

- rockets and space travel -> https://www.youtube.com/c/EverydayAstronaut

- geopolitics -> https://www.youtube.com/c/CaspianReport

- random subjects but always interesting -> https://www.youtube.com/c/PolyMatter

- Engineering: https://www.youtube.com/c/PracticalEngineeringChannel/

- Innovation: https://www.youtube.com/c/ColdFusion/

- Constructions: https://www.youtube.com/c/Theb1mGoogle

- Informational: https://www.youtube.com/c/RealLifeLore/

Try "toldinstone" for well written historical videos, and I love "asianometry" for his informative videos.

Fermilab's channel has the best explanations on the internet for modern physics: https://www.youtube.com/c/fermilab

Captain Disillusion has been mentioned here a few times but I want to expound on it. It's not just about video editing, it's about understanding how your mind works, how things spread on the internet, marketing, and about how most modern illusions aren't even new tricks because they don't have to be. If the story is good, the same old tricks work just like they always have.

https://www.youtube.com/user/captaindisillusion

Primitive Technology, if you're like me and generally hate people talking and begging for likes.

SmarterEveryDay is probably my second favorite. Definitely a lot of talk, but really interesting random experiments and builds.

One maybe missing from the physics category: Sabine Hossenfelder https://youtube.com/user/peppermint78

Sabine Hossenfelder is great.

Also try UpandAtom for Physics

Greg's Airplanes and Automobiles https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCynGrIaI5vsJQgHJAIp9oSg

ParallaxNick https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0QdW-H7_l0zh_CoNhlwoBw

Cool Worlds https://www.youtube.com/c/CoolWorldsLab

Cathode Ray Dude, for fans of channels like Techmoan or Technology Connections

CarlSagan42, watching him play intricate "troll" levels on Mario Maker 2 is hilarious

8-Bit Show and Tell, who does some deep dives into mostly Commodore-related things

Michael MJD, who explores various older Windows and PC-related things

Modern Vintage Gamer, who has documented some of the piracy and emulation scenes (especially watch his "Mistakes Were Made" series on console security)

guitarheroROXS, a top Guitar Hero console player who also does some deep dives into more obscure GH-related sub-topics

I recommend Thunderf00t for (mostly) debunking modern snake oil salespeople:

https://youtube.com/c/Thunderf00t

Thunderf00t covers interesting topics, but last I checked his editing style was extremely obnoxious with large segments - sometimes 80%-90% - of new videos being a retelling of other videos (and too often one about Anita Sarkeesian for no reason).

Did he improve at all?

I've found him pretty consistently unwatchable tbh.

He sometimes covers interesting stuff, but the style/etc rubs me wrong.

I think he's good as long as you can remain critical - he's brings up some good topics but people need to come to their own conclusions. He's pretty anti-SpaceX, but I think some of his criticisms are off there.

I remember one of his arguments was that starship was nothing special because fully-reusable launch vehicles had already been tested - but who cares about that? On the other hand, his criticism of musk's vegas tunnel is fairly spot-on IMO.

Hmmm.. seen this recommended a few posts on this thread, but just browsing through the channel and it seems to be mostly Elon Musk hate videos.

A true hidden gem: www.youtube.com/c/BranchEducation

They explain complex systems with quality 3d animation.

Tested - Adam Savage's tinkering and Q&A channel; Primitive Skills - the only person in the genre who settled a plot of land and developed it for years; Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't - travels the whole world showing wild plants, although he does only do arid regions for some reason - probably to make people see they're not wastelands; Lock Picking Lawyer - bit self-explanatory; mymechanics - legend in mechanical restorations; Rebecca Watson - debunking popular and science myths; Townsend's - demonstrations of 18th century skills; Innuendo Studios - pop culture critique, painstakingly researched; Folding Ideas - pop culture critique; Chocolate Cacao - patisserie; Stumpy Nubs - carpentry; Paul Sellers - carpentry; Practical Engineering - self-explanatory; Cody's Lab - home tinker/chemist; NileRed - best of the home chemists on youtube; Bernadette Banner - fashion design; Pasta Grannies - traditional pasta making; Gaby Melian - chef; Claire Saffitz - pastry chef; DIY Japanese Joinery - self-explanatory; Cocktail Chemistry - self-explanatory; Vihart - playing with math; Ready to Die Fighting - resiliency; Zoe Bee - pop culture critique 808CJK - comparative language learning for Chinese, Korean, and Japanese

https://www.youtube.com/c/PhysicswithElliot He explains advanced physics and quite often I completely get it. I recommend his Noether's theorem exposition. His exposition was clear and to the point, and I just sat there for a couple hours thinking about the theorem itself. It is the most beautiful theorem afaic.

https://youtube.com/c/CaptainDisillusion

Sean Carroll's: Mindscape is a pretty thought-provoking podcast by a bona fide "cosmological philosopher". The topics/guests cover a wide spectrum of specialties in the physical sciences, humanities, technology, psychology and more.

https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/

I follow a few general learning videos, some of them cover seemingly random, but interesting, topics. But I have my favorites, and here they are.

- Technology Connections - Somebody already mentioned his channel, but it's worth it to find out how the stuff we take for granted works. - Today I Found Out - One of Simon Whistlers channels, he covers a wide range of topics, diving in to where you are just almost over your head. - Answers With Joe - Joe Scott covers many topics with a bend towards science appreciation. I would use his videos in late high school lessons if I were a teacher. - Knowing Better - History. Mostly American History, but it's a really deep dive. I like his delivery and his unapologetic way of discussing the really bad parts of history that people tend to sweep under the rug. - Half as Interesting - It's from Wendover, but short and funny. - Kyle Hill - The Internet's knockoff Thor, he explores deep science and physics in an approachable manner, especially when he is in "The Facility".

Scrolling through my subscriptions and posting the ones I haven't seen mentioned yet:

* Epimetheus - Ancient history https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp9ZtilfKJds0iWytR_pnOQ

* Everyday Astronaut - Rocket engineering breakdowns and other space stuff https://www.youtube.com/c/EverydayAstronaut

* Forgotten Weapons - Discussions of interesting and often obscure firearms, usually by disassembling working examples. https://www.youtube.com/c/ForgottenWeapons

* Have History Will Travel - US Civil War history https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbhl9yTKO6685Ssam0hXTCw

* Historia Civilis - In depth history, with ongoing series about Rome, the English Civil War, and the post-Napoleonic era. Uploads infrequently but worth waiting for. https://www.youtube.com/c/HistoriaCivilis

* Illinois EnergyProf - Energy, with some focus on nuclear. Uploads infrequently. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKH_iLhhkTyt8Dk4dmeCQ9w

* NativLang - Linguistics throughout the world https://www.youtube.com/user/NativLang

This question was posted on the math subreddit a few days ago and got a bunch of responses, the most popular of which are already here but a whole bunch that aren't:

https://old.reddit.com/r/math/comments/w1zyn8/favourite_math...

Of those listed there I would like to highlight this one:

https://www.youtube.com/c/Aleph0/videos

A few others that I've found recently also in math/physics:

https://www.youtube.com/c/PhysicsExplainedVideos/videos

https://www.youtube.com/c/SimulatingPhysics/videos

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3L8AcX1xJEhTofnCF2MAaQ/vid...

https://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceClicEN/videos

The French version of the above channel has a lot more videos but unfortunately aren't translated to English yet.

Proper lectures by professors of various math/physics topics unfortunately are scattered around YouTube and I'm surprised no one has gathered a big list of them given that during COVID a lot of stuff has been put online. I've only found the following two channels which gather various lectures given however at a graduate/research level so you're unlikely to learn much unless you have a significant background:

https://www.youtube.com/c/GraduateMathematics/videos

https://www.youtube.com/c/GraduatePhysics/videos

Very underrated channel: Huygens Optics https://www.youtube.com/c/HuygensOptics

Absolute gem, especially for people that are already aware of the plethora of good but well-known channels and are looking for something new and not recycled. Highly recommended!

Agreed. Never seen quite so much detail anywhere.

I find myself totally absorbed in them, then I look at the clock and realise "What the hell am I doing? It's 1AM and I've just watched 3 hours of in-depth information about grinding a solid glass compact telescope for a micro-sat with refraction collimation techniques using equipment I have absolutely no chance of ever even understanding, let alone using?"

Yet, I persist.

Mentour pilot's series on airline crashes - https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiNyr6QSO28P2bKMcv2O_lK83...

Quite good at explaining the whys of a crash without going into the hyperbole of shows like air crash investigations.

Mars Guy, essentially: what happened on Mars this last ~week or so - https://www.youtube.com/c/MarsGuy

BPS.Space: Dude building model rockets & flight controllers. Just landed a model rocket propulsively, video out soon - https://www.youtube.com/c/BPSspace

Brian Oltrogge/Grunblau: Metalworking, often combining 3D printing with sandcasting of metal - https://www.youtube.com/c/Grunblau

BaxEDM: Dude building his own Electrostatic Discharge Machining-machine - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy4kgsAYxcraee8w5SfqXPA

Smarter Everyday - https://www.youtube.com/c/smartereveryday Stuff Made Here - https://www.youtube.com/c/StuffMadeHere

Smarter Everyday has a couple longer series that are superb:

- An interview with a NASA programmer that worked on the Apollo computers (with Linus from LTT)

- An embed on a nuclear sub

- Several videos with the US Coast Guard

- A VERY technical tour of a Kodak film factory.

Don’t sleep on some of the longer extended videos on the secondary channel either, the film chemistry one from just this week is fascinating.

https://www.youtube.com/c/SamoBurja

Samo Burja is a social theorist with a scientist's soul. He manages a political consulting firm by day, and tries to explain how civilizations work by night. He often touches on geopolitics, technology, institutions, epistemology, societal collapse, etc in one stroke. A lot of his claims seem outlandish for three seconds, but are actually very thought out. The guy's really sharp and did many podcasts throughout the pandemic, which was a treat. Don't be put off by the low view-count, the guy's a rising star and I hope to see more of him

Civilization: Institutions, Knowledge, and the Future: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACdYmuFyjWM

The Thought Emporium: By far the most interesting cahnnel to me. Focuses on Genetics, Biology, & materical engineering. Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV5vCi3jPJdURZwAOO_FNfQ

Otherwords is a fun show if you're interested in linguistics. It's really well made, and quite entertaining. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_lsQEz7yLOq07hUI2PPt...

Amongst all the made-for-YouTube content that others have mentioned, it's also worth remembering that many universities will publish entire courses for free. Christof Paar's Introduction to Cryptography lecture series [0] comes to mind for example, as does MIT's Missing Semester [1].

Also, if you're interested in Rust at all, Jon Gjengset is great: https://www.youtube.com/c/JonGjengset

0: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1usFRN4LCMcfIV7UjHNuQg

1: https://www.youtube.com/c/MissingSemester

Asianometry -semis

John Michael Godier/Event Horizon astrophysics interviews with speculative science mixed in

BilliSpeaks cat with word buttons. Loves the mad button.

William Spaniel-geopolitics/game theory

Ian builder complete off the wall “experiments“ but mostly chaos

Quinns ideas-sci-fi/fantasy

The Royal Institution

Yoga with Adrienne the yoga GOAT

Scott Galloway Econ/decent rage interpreter

For Yoga I like https://www.youtube.com/c/MadyMorrison especially the no talk videos. 10 second showing of posture, time to hold posture, on to the next all with audio cues. Perfectly boiled down to the minimum.

Subscribed, thank you!

- Primer (uses 3Blue1Brown-style animations to explain concepts) https://www.youtube.com/c/PrimerLearning

- The Engineering Mindset https://www.youtube.com/c/Theengineeringmindset

- hpp3 (low level software series) https://www.youtube.com/user/hhp3

- Andrew Huberman / Huberman Lab (neuroscience) https://www.youtube.com/c/AndrewHubermanLab

Kurzgesagt was and still is the most eye opening for me personally.

Topics: life, the universe, and everything...

- Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell https://www.youtube.com/c/inanutshell

USCSB - US Chemical Safety Board channel with animated videos reviewing disasters at chemical plant/other industrial facilities

Lesics - engineering/tech videos

Defunctland - history of extinct theme parks, entertainment

Chinese Cooking Demystified - how to cook authentic Chinese food

I only have Human Behavioral Biology (Robert Sapolsky) 25 lectures https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL150326949691B199

I've tried to trim out the most common duplicates before posting.

making stuff/testing/tearing down

https://www.youtube.com/c/frankhowarth https://www.youtube.com/c/MarcoReps https://www.youtube.com/c/FireballTool https://www.youtube.com/c/RoseAnvil https://www.youtube.com/c/arduinoversusevil2025 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA

music

https://www.youtube.com/c/AdamNeely https://www.youtube.com/c/12tonevideos https://www.youtube.com/c/8bitMusicTheory

food and drink

https://www.youtube.com/c/JKenjiLopezAlt https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ https://www.youtube.com/c/TheEducatedBarfly

misc/niche

https://www.youtube.com/c/AGADMATOR https://www.youtube.com/c/NickSibicky https://www.youtube.com/c/Drugslab https://www.youtube.com/c/GreatArtExplained

Health:

- Dr. Ekberg: https://www.youtube.com/c/drekberg (2M subs)

- Dr. Berg: https://www.youtube.com/c/DrEricBergDC (8M subs)

Car repair & detailing:

- Chris Fixx: https://www.youtube.com/c/chrisfix (9M subs)

Piano:

https://www.youtube.com/user/cedarvillemusic

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3vYz1SAtcbRhsatydObGQw

https://www.youtube.com/user/PianistMagazine (Graham Fitch)

https://www.youtube.com/user/SteveMass1101

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr0BMA5yu3AS0alkR7kYwEQ

https://www.youtube.com/user/aw4piano

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLsMRd097KLJMvkNzC4rYAA

https://www.youtube.com/c/DanielBarenboim/videos

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6tpkZhNpJiTnlUgoiUe9QQ

Self-promotion: I run a YouTube channel covering graphics techniques in video games. https://youtube.com/user/DaysAreRare

TOON215 - https://www.youtube.com/c/TOON215

This is really different from all the other suggestions here. An overall nice guy does walkthrough videos of some of the worst hoods in the US. Eye-opening stuff in many ways. Many good stories too.

Hobo Shoestring - https://www.youtube.com/c/TheHoboShoestring

This guy has lived on the rails for decades and knows everything about train hopping and (hobo) life in general. Awesome videos and stories.

For relaxation: Hardcore Sudoku solving with Cracking The Cryptic (https://www.youtube.com/c/CrackingTheCryptic)

A channel with great intellectual content about life, consciousness: https://youtube.com/c/TheoriesofEverything

A channel with great content on nutrition science and latest research: https://youtube.com/c/FoodLies

A young making rocket in his garage: https://youtube.com/c/BPSspace

A channel from the other side of nutrition science: https://www.youtube.com/c/PlantChompers/videos

In English, absent in these comments at this time:

- Tantacrul - Music and software design, he is now involved in Audacity and MuseScore

I follow a number of really good French channels as well, if anyone is interested I can post them.

Please do

Crowds:

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCLXDNUOO3EQ80VmD9nQBHPg - Fouloscopie - he studies crowd behaviors (it's his research). Very funny and interesting.

Linguistics:

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCofQxJWd4qkqc7ZgaLkZfcw - Linguisticae - a fervant defensor of descriptivism, has a really good long video presenting the Academie française and its numerous faults

History (the two unmissable French channel on the topic):

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCKjDY4joMPcoRMmd-G1yz1Q - C'est une autre histoire - she has a PhD

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCP46_MXP_WG_auH88FnfS1A - Nota Bene

Critical thinking, avoiding fake news, reasoning biases:

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCMFcMhePnH4onVHt2-ItPZw - Hygiène Mentale

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCU0FhLr6fr7U9GOn6OiQHpQ - Officiel DEFAKATOR

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCNgudhx2s_ubmiA2L_2NMmg - Defakator Vite Fait - short versions of his long videos

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCAoUBng0Mfu0qn4lPimS6MA - G Milgram - handles stuff like QAnon, witches on TikTok, etc

(if you are really into the subject of critical thinking and zététique (the discipline where you try to check paranormal phenomenon with rigorous scientific method), I guess you can check out Richard Monvoisin's lessons at the Grenoble Alps University - https://skeptikon.fr/c/5f74ed4b-cc3c-4b33-a33d-06f49282ada5/... - quite comprehensive, not everybody likes his tone, Hygiène Mentale will probably sound more balanced to these people. I guess I'll need to check out the whole Peertube skeptikon instance)

Math:

- https://youtube.com/channel/UC0NCbj8CxzeCGIF6sODJ-7A - Science4All

- https://youtube.com/channel/UC4PasDd25MXqlXBogBw9CAg - Mickaël Launay

General science stuff:

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCaNlbnghtwlsGF-KzAFThqA - ScienceEtonnante - He has a PhD in the area of quantuum physics. A bit like Veritasium, but a bit less sensational

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCeR8BYZS7IHYjk_9Mh5JgkA - Scilabus - she also has a PhD, usually on random things of everyday life

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCaZRpfXzlHVchIJMpf-PVFw - Sci+ - her meta channel on vulgarisation

- https://youtube.com/channel/UC4Jrte_YtwWfANKNyzse5iA - Avides de recherche

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCcziTK2NKeWtWQ6kB5tmQ8Q - e-penser 2.0 - general science stuff. His videos from a few years ago are entertaining. He does not like putting his sources though

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCE_LWXcsdp7cWbo4DR4ZA-A - Science de comptoir - fun, with a lot of puns everywhere. I fail to focus on her videos unfortunately, I'll need to try harder.

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCZxLew-WXWm5dhRZBgEFl-Q - Le Vortex - ARTE - a vulgarisation series with many of these people on this list posing as roommates - really good, interesting, fun. You really need to check this out. I've been discovering a lot of those great channels thanks to this series.

Economics:

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCyJDHgrsUKuWLe05GvC2lng - Stupid Economics - economics stuff

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCynBu7PDfJsCXeCSqT1QUQw - Vous Avez Le Droit - legal stuff

Marketing:

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCAiy7bY8nTQCWrkSRh6Wu9w - Un Créatif - about marketing, mostly fun but he stopped recently

Astronomy:

- https://youtube.com/channel/UC5X4e8ScZI2AFd_vkjSoyoQ - AstronoGeek

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCS_7tplUgzJG4DhA16re5Yg - Balade Mentale, mostly philosophical for the few videos I've seen

Computer science:

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCYnvxJ-PKiGXo_tYXpWAC-w - Micode·Enquêtes - nice for people who are not strong in computers but curious. He infiltrated a network of scammers, his videos on this are quite interesting

Philosophy:

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCqA8H22FwgBVcF3GJpp0MQw - Monsieur Phi

Stuff I need to check out but seems promising:

- https://youtube.com/channel/UC9BnGZLT4iPaJtDOXYwQuHQ - Primum Non Nocere

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCV6uM3y-8TeO7JlCtcEN-Bg - ScienceClic

- https://youtube.com/channel/UC1EacOJoqsKaYxaDomTCTEQ - Le Réveilleur - the few videos on climate change I listened to are worth checking out

- https://youtube.com/channel/UCHGMBrXUzClgjEzBMei-Jdw - Le dessous des cartes - famous geography TV (ARTE) program - I've heard it was better in the past so maybe check out older videos first

I'd add the very entertaining "Dirty Biology", attacking scientific explanations for the public with heavy editing "a la meme": https://www.youtube.com/c/dirtybiology

And my favourite, the fantastic TV Show "C Dans L'air" from France 5, is a great daily 1h balanced deep dive into topics of local politics or geopolitics, broadcast into youtube for archival/rewatches with 1 day delay.

https://www.youtube.com/c/Cdanslairofficiel

Be aware people in France will have the last 1 week of C Dans L'Air shows blocked from Youtube (GeoIP) to favour the annoying France TV Pluzz VOD platform, so VPN away if you need, or hop to non-YT.

scienceclic also comes in an english edition. hands down the best visualization of general relativity I've seen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrwgIjBUYVc

A lot of the ones I would have said have already been mentioned so I'm going to throw in atomic shrimp.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSl5Uxu2LyaoAoMMGp6oTJA

He has a variety of content, all things that the creator enjoys, presented clearly no subscribe to me prompts just a chap trying new things and doing his projects in a nice calm way. Theres a great community there as well.

Technology Connections (https://www.youtube.com/c/TechnologyConnections) is great at general analysis of how physical tech works.

Knowing Better (https://www.youtube.com/c/KnowingBetter) is a master of the "talking head babbling about stuff" genre, if that's your cup of tea.

Everything's really great so far in here, but there's Applied Science. He makes, and very clearly explains, what I can best describe as advanced materials in his shed.

https://youtube.com/c/AppliedScience

Absolutely! It's too bad he's not on the top of everyone's list!

He doesn't make a bad video in my opinion.

Usually what I do is search for interesting topics + "lecture". I have found that a good speaker that knows his subject trumps documentary-style videos. Also very pleasant to listen to while doing other things, there is no assumption that you need to see something at the same time (although sometimes there are slide decks too). And usually I make a bookmark or a note of the channels I end up enjoying this way, they use to have more content of the same kind.

I tend to like channels that focus on ancient history:

https://www.youtube.com/c/toldinstone

https://www.youtube.com/c/InvictaHistory

https://www.youtube.com/c/FallofCivilizationsPodcast

You might also add:

The Western Tradition: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1U_8A7q8La1VfEa-HJif...

Two more than weren't posted so far:

Ivan Miranda - 3D printing, machining, "making", all of interesting, fun projects. https://youtube.com/c/IvanMirandaCom

The Action Lab - fascinating and unusual science experiments demonstrated, many shorts https://youtube.com/c/TheActionLab

- [Necroware](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKU5nwSWYXa3xfXGBlKyvdw/vid...) Old computer hardware repair (motherboards, graphic card)

- [Cathode Ray Dude](https://www.youtube.com/c/CathodeRayDude) Electronics review, mostly from 1960 to 2000

- [Asianometry](https://www.youtube.com/c/Asianometry) Semiconductor and mostly Asia related

- [CuriousMarc](https://www.youtube.com/c/CuriousMarc) Apollo electronics repair and other things from same era

- [Econoboi](https://www.youtube.com/c/Econoboi/) Discussions about economics

- [That Chemist](https://www.youtube.com/c/ThatChemist2) Monthly organic important papers etc.

- [EEVblog](https://www.youtube.com/c/EevblogDave) Electronics teardown, education etc

- [Marco Reps](https://www.youtube.com/c/MarcoReps) Mostly testing equipment

- [CVP](https://www.youtube.com/c/CVPTV) Film camera and equipment reviews

- [TechTechPotato](https://www.youtube.com/c/TechTechPotato) PC news and reviews

- [Steve Brunton](https://www.youtube.com/c/Eigensteve) Maths Lectures, prof at UW

- [The Signal Path](https://www.youtube.com/c/Thesignalpath) Testing equipment teardowns and repair

- [bigclivedotcom](https://www.youtube.com/c/Bigclive) Random electronics teardown and design overview

- [Sampson Boat Co](https://www.youtube.com/c/SampsonBoatCo) Tally Ho: Rebuilding A 1910 Gaff Cutter Ship

- [Jeff Geerling](https://www.youtube.com/c/JeffGeerling) Raspberry Pi guy

- [Timbah.On.Toast](https://www.youtube.com/c/TimbahOnToast) Video Essays on Music (Dubstep)

- [Mathologer](https://www.youtube.com/c/Mathologer) Accessible explanations for maths

- [Look Mum No Computer](https://www.youtube.com/c/LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER) Music from electronics

- [Zack Freedman](https://www.youtube.com/c/ZackFreedman) 3D printing and electronics

- [SuperfastMatt](https://www.youtube.com/c/SuperfastMatt) Rebuilding cars, recently building a straight line race car

- [NightHawkInLight](https://www.youtube.com/c/Nighthawkinlight) Making stuff from research papers

- [Breaking Taps](https://www.youtube.com/c/BreakingTap) Material science and machining in a garage shop

- [Tech Ingredients](https://www.youtube.com/c/TechIngredients) Building random things and science behind it

- [AgentJayZ](https://www.youtube.com/c/AgentJayZ) Repairing and rebuilding jet engines

- [Michael Rechtin](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHS55yDvORmCpbM_3vNQQsQ) 3D printing usable stuff

- [Curtis Judd](https://www.youtube.com/c/curtisjudd) Lighting and sound equipment reviews

- [econimate](https://www.youtube.com/c/econimate) Explaining economics papers with animation

- [bitluni](https://www.youtube.com/c/bitlunislab) Building Electronics

- [Integza](https://www.youtube.com/c/Integza) 3D printing jet engines

- [Thoisoi2 - Chemical Experiments!](https://www.youtube.com/c/Thoisoi2/videos) Chemistry and reactions

- [2STROKE STUFFING](https://www.youtube.com/c/2STROKESTUFFING) Trying to build a 2-stroke engine in garage

- [Jordan Edmunds](https://www.youtube.com/c/JordanEdmundsEECS) Maths and Physics explainers

- [Ghost Town Living](https://www.youtube.com/c/GhostTownLiving) Living in an abandoned mining town

- [Pezza's Work](https://www.youtube.com/c/PezzzasWork) simulations and graphics

- [Carl Bugeja](https://www.youtube.com/c/CarlBugeja) Electronics

- [Gearknob](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfKNHSWLE3CSs9PXK5RdQCA) Everything TopGear

- [Andreas Spiess](https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreasSpiess) Electronics tutorials and reviews

- [FortNine](https://www.youtube.com/c/FortNine) Motorcycle content and gear reviews

- [James Sharman](https://www.youtube.com/c/weirdboyjim) Computers from scratch

- [Brief](https://www.youtube.com/c/BriefVid) CS tutorials

- [jdh](https://www.youtube.com/c/jdhvideo) making games

- [mitexela](https://www.youtube.com/c/mitxela/) Building random electronics

- [Stewart Hicks](https://www.youtube.com/user/stewarthicks) Architecture

- [Keenan Crane](https://www.youtube.com/c/keenancrane) Graphics, geometry and topology prof CMU

- [Practical Programming with Dr. Xu](https://www.youtube.com/c/PracticalProgrammingwithDrXu/) Graphics, webgpu, wgpu etc

- [Wesley Kagan](https://www.youtube.com/c/WesleyKagan) DIY car stuff, engine swap etc.

- [Mental Checkpoint](https://www.youtube.com/c/MentalCheckpoint) Game design

- [Brandon Foltz](https://www.youtube.com/c/BrandonFoltz) Introductory Statistics, Finite Mathematics, Management Science, Operations Management and Basic Accounting.

- [WashingtonDeceit](https://www.youtube.com/user/WashingtonDeceit/) Histology and Pathology

- [CNLohr](https://www.youtube.com/c/CNLohr/) Electronics and graphics

- [The Science Elf](https://www.youtube.com/c/TheScienceElf) Electronics and programming like (Ray tracing on graphing calc)

- [Marginal Revolution University](https://www.youtube.com/c/MarginalRevolutionUniversity) Economics

- [EconJohn](https://www.youtube.com/c/EconJohnTutor) Teaching intermediate and advanced economic theory

- [Folding Ideas](https://www.youtube.com/c/FoldingIdeas) narrative theory: the mechanisms of storytelling

- [Potential History](https://www.youtube.com/c/PotentialHistory/) War History

- [TimeGhost History](https://www.youtube.com/c/TimeGhost) History mostly 1900+

- [Applied Science](https://www.youtube.com/c/AppliedScience) Building stuff from research papers

- [Alex Dainis](https://www.youtube.com/c/bitescized/) Genetics and stuff

- [Sixty Symbols](https://www.youtube.com/user/sixtysymbols) Physics and Astronomy Filmed by Brady Numberphile guy

- [Simplifying Synthesis](https://www.youtube.com/c/SimplifyingSynthesis) Total synthesis, pharmacology and organic chemistry education

- [Dr. NEMO](https://www.youtube.com/c/DrNEMO) Science content

- [Sam Zeloof](https://www.youtube.com/c/SamZeloof) Homemade? Computer chips

- [Moritz Klein](https://www.youtube.com/c/MoritzKlein0) DIY euro rack modules

- [Zoe Baker](https://www.youtube.com/c/anarchopac/) History of anarchist thought

- [loopop](https://www.youtube.com/c/loopop) electronic synth reviews

- [Erindale](https://www.youtube.com/c/Erindale) Blender and proceduralism

- [World of Antiquity](https://www.youtube.com/c/WorldofAntiquity) History of ancient civilizations

- [Dr. Trefor Bazett](https://www.youtube.com/c/DrTreforBazett) Maths video Aprof at University of Toronto

- [Source Meets Sink](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB0KsBKlEcEUaNfd5ylQvCQ/) Writing exploits

- [Al Muqaddimah](https://www.youtube.com/c/AlMuqaddimah) History of Islam

- [Reducible](https://www.youtube.com/c/Reducible/) CS explainers with animation

- [Let's Talk Religion](https://www.youtube.com/c/LetsTalkReligion) Education about various religions

- [MaxBrix](https://www.youtube.com/c/MaxBrix) Building things from Lego technic

- [Professor Leonard](https://www.youtube.com/c/ProfessorLeonard) Math lectures

- [Fredrik Knudsen](https://www.youtube.com/c/FredrikKnudsen) Down the Rabbit Hole on random topics

- [Mr Carlson's Lab](https://www.youtube.com/c/MrCarlsonsLab) Electronics repair, mostly radio

- [Anton Petrov](https://www.youtube.com/c/whatdamath) Daily science news explainers, mostly space

- [Mitch Davis](https://www.youtube.com/c/MitchDavis2/) Microcontrollers

- [This Old Tony](https://www.youtube.com/c/ThisOldTony) Machining

- [The Thought Emporium](https://www.youtube.com/c/thethoughtemporium) Science like growing spider silk from yeast

- [javidx9](https://www.youtube.com/c/javidx9) making games and c++

- [Brian Douglas](https://www.youtube.com/user/ControlLectures) Control System lectures

- [Phil’s Lab](https://www.youtube.com/c/PhilS94) Analogue and digital electronics design, PCB design, control systems, digital signal processing, etc

- [Ian Davis](https://www.youtube.com/c/IanDavisFpd) Making himself a prosthetic hand

- [Amy Makes Stuff](https://www.youtube.com/c/AmyMakesStuff/) DIY stuff and explainers

- [Tim Hunkin](https://www.youtube.com/c/timhunkin1) Arcade machines and public clocks

- [Kimberly Brehm](https://www.youtube.com/c/KimberlyBrehm) Math lectures AP at Bellevue

Its good to watch youtube tech channels. But nothing replaces books in my experience. Get in to the habbit of reading books and watch videos only occasionally.

- Plainly difficult: he mostly covers disasters (mostly human made), how they came to be, played out, and the historical/societal consequences. Also recently started covering ethically questionable events, generally well researched and narrated.

- Kyle Hill: Covers a lot of scientific, mathematical, and phylosphical topics while trying to stay reasonable accessible to a broader audience. Solid presentation and exciting to watch.

AVE

This old Tony

These guys are machinists, but both know a whole lot about how things work.

Medlife Crisis for medicine and jokes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0duLUAc9Pc

Lindy Beige for quintessential British conjecture - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0duLUAc9Pc

No especially rigorous but incredibly entertaining.

I'm surprised that 2 days in no-one mentioned Physics Explained, by far more in depth and hands-on maths than PBS Space Time (which, itself, is nothing but great): https://m.youtube.com/c/PhysicsExplainedVideos/videos

Rapid chess championships (live and recordings) https://www.youtube.com/c/chesscomlive (Games are short (10+2 > 3+2 > 1+1 ), so a lot of fun to watch and try to guess the moves). p.s. I 'am in no way affiliated with the organizations behind this events.

I've been asked this before, so I have a spreadsheet ready https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1uPTCKmSBy69A7lHHZmok...

Physics: History of the Universe: https://www.youtube.com/c/HistoryoftheUniverse

Plus: History of the Earth: https://www.youtube.com/c/HistoryoftheEarth

Playlist with videos from 525 channel recommendations on this thread: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHWXZyfhQas&list=PL9U8pt6pIx...

I didn't see it here so I'm going to add one more!

- Baumgartner Restoration: https://www.youtube.com/c/BaumgartnerRestoration

About painting conservation and restoration, he goes into details about the process in each video.

StyroPyro: https://youtube.com/c/styropyro

Academy of Idea (Philosophy, Psychology): https://youtube.com/c/academyofideas

Drachinifel and The Chieftain go into amazing depth on naval and tank (/other armor) history, respectively.

Road Guy Rob - Covers transportation topics, mainly the engineering behind roads.

Mentour Pilot - Aviation related but I think lessons that can be applied to any field

Peter Dibble - Covers a wide range of historical engineering projects

Bobby Broccoli - A Jon Bois expect instead of sports for academia (this guy makes really high quality videos)

two i didnt see mentioned:

https://www.youtube.com/c/AlphaPhoenixChannel

https://www.youtube.com/c/braintruffle

Mises Media - economics, history, political philosophy - https://www.youtube.com/c/misesmedia

Mises University, an annual seminar for young scholars is live now.

Tree talk series by Forests of the Bay is a great source for learning about different American tree species: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcO0QnNhmtEpkLXgYPjaxug

EngineeringExplained (https://www.youtube.com/user/EngineeringExplained) is a great addition to this list for anything automotive and whiteboarding the concepts behind it

For more in-depth automotive (and bike) related engineering topics, I can highly recommend Driving4Answers https://www.youtube.com/c/mr2mk1hero

Sorted by subscribers:

Branch education. They don’t upload very often but their 3d renderings of various tech is the best I’ve seen:

https://m.youtube.com/c/BranchEducation/videos

Lots of great content mentioned already, but one less known channel I really like is Classics In Color. She makes videos about ancient Greece and Rome, but the subjects are often things that aren't talked about much in the mainstream, like sexuality.

https://www.youtube.com/c/KathyLovesPhysicsHistory - History of physics, or at least of electricity and magnetism.

Vsauce has been mentioned before, but Vsauce2 also has some nice little math fun stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/c/QOVESStudio

About research on anthropology and cognitive psychology and how it affects perception of human faces

driving4answers is where I learned most of what I know about combustion engines https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82rxavW0A3c

Short tech news. - HeyCreatorHub: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZeeauIH98kSm8wQtAcr8Dg

-Rational Reminder (Personal Finance backed by research) https://www.youtube.com/c/RATIONALREMINDER

https://www.youtube.com/c/THUNKShow

ThunderboltsProject - Various topics/authors in Electric Universe thinking

https://www.youtube.com/user/ThunderboltsProject

Master Ivo - Modern day Tesla radiant energy research

https://www.youtube.com/c/MasterIvo

Einzelgänger - Philosophy

https://www.youtube.com/c/Einzelg%C3%A4nger

Robert Murray-Smith - Electricity, motors, generators, physics, building devices, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/c/RobertMurraySmith

Kathy Loves Physics & History - Various topics in the history of physics / electricity

https://www.youtube.com/c/KathyLovesPhysicsHistory

Plasma Channel - High-voltage coils and other devices -- anything and everything relating to the production of plasma

https://www.youtube.com/c/PlasmaChannel

MrAnguswangus - Various electromagnetic devices & experiments

https://www.youtube.com/user/MrAnguswangus

Ludic Science - Topics in Tesla Coils, motors, electronics, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM014DFZ7peFVrSaxnh4-Mw

See the Pattern - Videos related to evidence for a Universe comprised of Electric Force

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu9UCrn5171lksANzqvXthA

Machine Thinking - Machine tools, machining, the origins of precision in machine tools, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/c/machinethinking

My favorite by far:

https://www.youtube.com/c/StefanMilo – Human Evolution, Archeology, Prehistory.

Finance / Economy - https://www.youtube.com/c/BlockWorksGroup

I love numberphile and see it mentioned by a few people.

Very surprised that (admittedly only skimming through the responses) I didn’t see the lock picking lawyer. Love that channel…. “Little click on one…”

Great Art Explained https://www.youtube.com/c/greatartexplained

I’m astounded to see that only two people have mentioned VSauce, but beyond just the channel itself is the (now free) YT Red series “Mind Field”, which is an excellent watch.

Science Stuff:

- NileRed/NileBlue

- EEVBlog

- Fran Blanche (aka FranLab)

- Mr Carlson's Lab

- Technology Connections

Philosophy/Geopolitics:

- VisualPolitik EN

- Irami Osei-Frimpong (aka The Funky Academic)

- JrEg

Physics (Quantum, relativity, etc) Arvin Ash : https://youtube.com/c/ArvinAsh

One of the channels I check frequently is Closer to Truth. ~10min interviews with scientists about physics, neurobiology and religion. Quite stimulating if you ask me...

Philosophy/Psychology:

Academy of Ideas - https://youtube.com/c/academyofideas

Not Youtube, but I've found Thinking About Things (www.thinking-about-things.com) another great place to find reading material for the intellectually curious.

I’m of the belief that social media use ravages the attention span and imposes a high passive opportunity cost on your time (consider how often you absentmindedly open your phone to scroll a feed without looking for anything in particular only to suddenly realize 20 minutes has passed with nothing to show for it). While there is a great deal of informative content on YouTube, personally I find the cognitive trade offs of being a YouTube user far too great for it to be a tool of intellectual development. I’m just a random asshole on the internet though, so credit my opinion accordingly.

You don't have to involve yourself with the social-media side of YT at all, though. It is optional. I curate my subscription list and don't browse any discover-type feeds or anything and only see content from channels to which I am subscribed. I block comments sections using a browser extension. I don't watch "shorts". As far as the social media aspect of the site goes, if one ignores the comments and algorithmic content (which isn't always horrible anyway but is certainly optional) you can easily curate a good experience for yourself.

- Big Think

- Economics Explained

- kurzgesagt

- Zeihan on Geopolitics

I am sure there are plenty of others. I do a lot of tech at work and so I spend a lot of my time reading or watchings things to understand how the world works

B1M, Neo, Wendover Productions, Johnny Harris

DW (German state broadbaster) and Bloomberg Quicktake: Originals also sometimes have interesting content

essential craftsman for "videos related to blacksmithing, general construction, safety & productivity, and various other trades" https://www.youtube.com/c/essentialcraftsman he's like a youtube version of larry haun

There have been many great suggestions, but I am surprised at the lack of:

- Tom7 / Suckerpinch - it feels like hackernews catnip to me

I think podcasts would be a better source. Audio only is great because you can be doing something else while listening.

Anyone have good poetry channel suggestions?

PBS Spacetime (physics) PBS Eons (paleontology) Cody's Lab and Nile Red (chemistry) 3blue1brown (mathematics)

I see many of my favourites already mentioned by others but something not listed yet: https://www.youtube.com/c/InstituteofHumanAnatomy videos with real cadavers explaining how human body works

And already mentioned by others but just to give it another thumbs up:

https://www.youtube.com/c/inanutshell Very nice animations explaining various topics from science, philosophy and politics. The only channel I literally seen all the videos. They sometimes make videos with fun ideas like what would happen if we nuked the moon a bit in the spirit of https://what-if.xkcd.com/ but most videos are on more serious subjects in a very easy to understand format.

https://www.youtube.com/c/PracticalEngineeringChannel mostly covers civil engineering. How we handle sewage in big cities, how roads are built, how power grid works and many more.

https://www.youtube.com/c/EconomicsExplained As the name suggests, explains economics. Makes videos per country about their economy and created his own ranking of countries.

These are my top just to keep it short :)

https://youtube.com/c/potholer54

has a somewhat niche target audience. He's someone with conservative political beliefs explaining to other people with conservative political views why all the stuff they believe about climate change is nonsense.

Anything from the vlog Brothers, crash course, etc.

The secret life of components

The connections series is on YouTube.

Tech ingredients

Technology connections

Can someone reply with a script, to subscribe to all YouTube URLs found on this page.

If you get the channel ID, you can subscribe via RSS:

    https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=<ID>

Thanks, that one is new to me.

Overall:

Applied Science

Chemistry:

Explosions and Fire

Nile Red

Electronics:

Dave at EEVBLOG

Phil’s Lab

As well as the main Explosions and Fire channel there is also Extractions and Ire - run by the same person but less focused on energetics and often goes into more depth on the chemistry.

Yea, I appreciate his really clever naming of that.

Is there a home chemist channel annoying knows about?

NileRed!

thanks!

Curious Droid isn’t on these lists. Worth a look.

Asianometry.

This one is pure gold.

Backreaction by Sabine Hossefelder.

3Blue1Brown

Stand-up Maths by Math Parker.

COFFEE

James Hoffman: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMb0O2CdPBNi-QqPk5T3gsQ

Deep dives into coffee machines, grinders, techniques, beans, roasting, etcetera with a healthy dose of scientific discipline to each.

Lance Hendrick: https://www.youtube.com/c/LanceHedrick

As above, only WAY more detail. Sometimes more than you need. I found his reviews of low-priced (yet high quality) coffee grinders to have almost too much detail, but when I slogged through it I eventually worked out the perfect grinder for my needs and only ended up spending around $300-400, which frankly is amazing.

FOOD

ThatDudeCanCook: https://www.youtube.com/c/CookingwithSonny

High end chef techniques that are explained in impressively accessible detail. My only problem with this channel is I now am always disappointed when I order steak out anywhere because I know I can cook it SO MUCH BETTER MYSELF. If you take nothing else from this list, watch his video on cooking filet mignon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDrkI9_EEe8 If you follow the technique your mind will be blown.

How to Cook That: https://www.youtube.com/c/HowToCookThat

Food scientist esoteric cooking techniques, ingredients, weird stuff, and quite mind-blowing investigations into the Russian content factories that pump out fake "5 minute life-hack" media.

Chinese Cooking Demystified: https://www.youtube.com/c/ChineseCookingDemystified

American + Chinese couple living in Guangdong exploring authentic Chinese regional specialties. They do a great job of explaining the techniques and testing realistic alternatives for the more obscure ingredients that are simply unavailable outside of China.

Blondie in China: https://www.youtube.com/c/BlondieinChina

Aussie girl fluent in Mandarin, living in and exploring China's regions, cuisines and discovering all the things about day-to-day life that we just don't see from outside. Always entertaining, informative and interesting.

Tasting History: https://www.youtube.com/c/TastingHistory

Recreating famous dishes from history and taste-testing them, with detailed backgrounds of the why, where, how, when and who for each.

Xiao Ying Cuisine: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJJDD-Hy76jvUMRG-dpFkcw/fea...

New recipes almost every day. Dunno who she is, but they're always interesting dishes and mostly stuff I've never seen elsewhere.

SCIENCE/NERDY STUFF

Up and Atom: https://www.youtube.com/c/UpandAtom

Physics, Quantum theory, Maths.

Tom Scott: https://www.youtube.com/c/TomScottGo

Really hard to categorise, but he does a great job exploring all manner of obscure things in detail.

Julian O'Shea: https://www.youtube.com/c/JulianOShea

Industrial design, architecture, city planning, Melbourne, obscure stuff.

HARDWARE

Jeff Geerling: https://www.youtube.com/c/JeffGeerling

Great projects in and around the Raspberry Pi, Arduino, maker electronics spaces.

MUSIC

Dub Monitor: https://www.youtube.com/c/DubMonitor

Far too much detail about Dub Techno, minimalist techno.

VISUAL

Max Cooper: https://www.youtube.com/c/MaxCoopermax

Thought-provoking and mind-bending visuals and excellent music.

Max Hattler: https://www.youtube.com/user/maxhattler

Not that active any more, regrettably. But similar to above. What is it with people called Max and visuals?

"Two minutes paper"

Here's a curated collection of youtube channels that try sciency things, where I'm reasonably certain they aren't faking results.

NileRed

Sample video: making a superconductor from scratch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS7gyZJg5nc&t=93s

ExplosionsAndFire:

Sample video: concentrating hydrogen peroxide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhEYaovWxl4

Primitive Technology:

Sample video: making cast iron using nothing but gathered natural materials (seriously)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhW4XFGQB4o&t=606s

Игорь Негода

Sample video: making and flying an extremely elegant turbine engine in the garage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYFYZ-g7fzA

Bobby McBoost

Sample video: making and exploding an extremely half-assed turbine engine in a field.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2jHC_91ge8&t=52s

Brick experiment channel

Sample video: measuring the thrust to weight ratio of a bunch of combinations of lego motors, gearings, and propellors. In the next video he is able to achieve flight by overvolting lego motors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTui3shLRPk

Styropyro

Sample video: huge homemade ruby laser

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwYuHqCwXFI

Robert Cowan

Sample video: improving the drive system of his 250 lb battlebot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcl7WYLccIs

How Not to Highline

Sample video: Testing if climbing equipment that has been left in a cave for years is still safe by breaking it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AE69L7wwm64

- https://www.youtube.com/c/SimonsInstituteTOC simons institute (UC Berkeley): advanced academic math, cs, and other interdisciplinary seminars, streamed live

- https://www.youtube.com/user/IPAMUCLA (UC LA): institute for pure and applied mathematics: more advanced academic math and cs seminars

- https://www.youtube.com/user/NaSESYNC national socio-environmental synthesis center: interdisciplinary science seminars

- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcr5vuAH5TPlYox-QLj4ySw alan turing institute: variety of advanced cs

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENpdhwYoF5g Schwartz Reisman Institute: inter-agent friendliness/game theory

- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCcrR0XBH0aWbdffktUBEdw mutual information: visual explanation of ML fundamentals

- https://www.youtube.com/user/JimBobJenkins game theory and international relations

- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLB7AzTwc6VFZrBsO2ucBMg robert miles: "ai safety"-crowd ai safety videos. don't let this be your only perspective on ai safety, the ai safety people are great but their whole community has a shared anxiety disorder. heed their warnings but don't have the meltdowns they accidentally encourage; just imagine yourself petting the ai safety researchers on the head and going "there there, the ais will be friendly because of your work, thanks for getting me up to speed" and listen thoughtfully. emotional tone warning aside, I do like this channel. just not as much as the simons institute's videos on ai bias, alignment, safety, objectives, etc etc etc.

- https://www.youtube.com/user/PaulHBeckwith large scale climate science dude who I think isn't crazy but I'm not sure

- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFXBh2WNhGDXFNafOrOwZEQ/vid... oxford vgg continues to be an impressive vision group

- https://www.youtube.com/c/NormalizedNerd/featured same kind of stuff as mutual information

- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbg3ZX2pWlgKV8K6bFJr5... art of the problem makes very good visual explanations of middling to advanced cs topics

- https://www.youtube.com/user/TheRoyalInstitution popsci talks that typically get fairly advanced. better ted talks, in a sense.

- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8aRaZ6_0weiS50pvCmo0pw institute for advanced study is not messing around with their name

- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwG9512Wm7jSS6Iqshz4Dpg ACM SIGPLAN: formal methods, formal verification, formal languages, etc

- https://www.youtube.com/c/Cirm-mathFr another advanced math channel I watch too little to remember details about. browse it yourself if you want

- https://www.youtube.com/c/RationalAnimations animations about the future and stuff

- https://www.youtube.com/c/Sevish exceptionally weird music

- https://www.youtube.com/c/JordanHarrod ai and ml stuff

- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX3XfA9qjWjymue2I_hcW1A formal verification and stuff

- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUBpU4mSYdIn-QzhORFHcHQ more formal verification stuff

- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9infsKo33_2LUoiqXGgQWg society analysis and stuff

- https://www.youtube.com/c/DanWorrall really good audio dude

- https://www.youtube.com/c/12voltvids small electronics channel I don't see mentioned here yet

- https://www.youtube.com/c/THUNKShow STEM video essays and explainers

- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrCTC5_t-HaVJ025DbYITiw alice cappelle: video essays I guess idk

- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCecF2icZlEIJ__9XS6woPGw zoe bee: how to talk to angry strangers on the internet and stuff like that

- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4V_jMdRbbTrmBVJB6FDzgw unlearning economics: a dissenting perspective on economics; don't skip the other economics channels just because you watch this one, but it combines well with the others imo

- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_7FDEMkBBWWcol7QPzToaw one dude's commentary on native history; don't skip other commentaries on native history just cuz you watch this one, but again, combines well imo

there, some channels. there are a ton of channels already mentioned here; it's great having an index of them, but remember to browse them yourself and skim some videos.

Andreas Spiess https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu7_D0o48KbfhpEohoP7YSQ Small electronic projects, tutorials, and reviews for sensors, ESP8266, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and ESP32

Adafruit - new stuff they sell, and tutorials that are fun.

TheCrafsman - a puppet learning how to craft, 3d print, mold, etc.

Bitluni's Lab - https://www.youtube.com/user/bitlunislab elaborate and funny tutorial videos about building gadgets.

Branchus Creations - board level repair for older PC's and gadgets https://www.youtube.com/c/BranchusCreations/featured

Choll W. Kim - Laser spine surgery and info https://www.youtube.com/c/ChollKimMDPhDSanDiego/about

David Bull - https://www.youtube.com/user/seseragistudio/ Tokyo-based woodblock printmaker, video presentations of his work, including a number of videos showing the complete process of making his prints.

Devoxx - developer tech events, talks, presentations https://www.youtube.com/c/Devoxx2015

Electronics Repair School - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCooKQlg-HZ0PFAPc4Ymg3RA

Evil Ted - visual effects, prop., modelmaking from a pro.. https://www.youtube.com/user/evilted40

HomoFaciens - maker, elecronics https://www.youtube.com/c/HomoFaciens/videos

Jeremy Fielding - home engineering, learning, motors, robotics, making https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_SLthyNX_ivd-dmsFgmJVg

Just A Printer - behind the scenes, explantation, at a small printing business https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSuSPbvmwLZv9CMdeSsWkFA

Just have a think - Climate and Sustainable Energy, Technology discussion, education https://www.youtube.com/c/JustHaveaThink/videos

Kens Karpentry - garage builder, explains process, business https://www.youtube.com/user/ken311953

NorthRidgeFix - electronics repair. Often fixes without schematics, explains diagnosing and tracing faults. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLaXgfNlVxY149shiA1pykQ

SixtySymbols - cool videos about physics and astronomy https://www.youtube.com/user/sixtysymbols

Stock Markets With Bruce

The Signal Path - electronics tear down, analysis, and repair. https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSignalPathBlog

Two Minute Papers - video summary of interesting or exciting CompSci papers https://www.youtube.com/user/keeroyz

Everyone has all the top-tier channels listed already, but here are a few good ones that I haven't seen mentioned yet:

Electronics:

Great Scott! (Electronics projects and components), https://youtube.com/c/greatscottlab

Modern Vintage Gamer (Gaming electronics, gaming history, firmware, and reverse engineering topics), https://youtube.com/c/ModernVintageGamer

Mr. Carson's Lab (Electronics restoration, especially old radios, he has an insane lab), https://youtube.com/c/MrCarlsonsLab

Astronomy:

Cool Worlds (Similar to PBSSpace time, but very good at statistical analysis and modeling, narrator is very calming), https://youtube.com/c/CoolWorldsLab

DeepSkyVideos (Catalog of videos explaining different objects of note in astronomy), https://youtube.com/user/DeepSkyVideos

SciShowSpace (Bite-sized space videos), https://youtube.com/c/scishowspace

General Science and Engineering:

Undecided with Matt Ferrell (Covers topics that are bleeding edge), https://youtube.com/c/UndecidedMF

Engineer Guy (Random engineering topics with a few much longer detailed lectures and audio book reads), https://youtube.com/c/engineerguyvideo

Casual Navigation (Maritime explanation videos), https://youtube.com/c/CasualNavigation

Microcosmos (Huge selection of microbial life videos) https://youtube.com/c/microcosmos

Curious Droid (General science and engineering explanations), https://youtube.com/c/CuriousDroid

Braniac75 (Amateur science experiments, lasers, and random science topics), https://youtube.com/c/brainiac75

Cody's Lab (Mostly backyard chemistry, but often times has other science experiments), https://youtube.com/user/theCodyReeder

Seeker (Well produced mini science documentaries and science news), https://youtube.com/c/Seeker

Quanta Magazine (similar to Seeker), https://youtube.com/c/QuantaScienceChannel

New Mind (Similar to Seeker and Quanta Magazine), https://youtube.com/c/NewMind

Periodic Videos (Chemistry and elements), https://youtube.com/user/periodicvideos

Fermilab (Easily digestible particle physics), https://youtube.com/c/fermilab

Nils Berglund (Library of particle and wave simulations), https://youtube.com/c/NilsBerglund

Royal Institution (Huge catolog of science speeches at the Royal Institution), https://youtube.com/c/TheRoyalInstitution

Ordanance Lab (Explosives science and explosives testing videos), https://youtube.com/c/OrdnanceLab

Domain of Science (Quantum physics, and he also makes knowldge maps in different science and math disciplines), https://youtube.com/c/DomainofScience

Alpha Phoenix (Science experiments and materials science), https://youtube.com/c/AlphaPhoenixChannel

Breaking Taps (DIY materials science) https://youtube.com/c/BreakingTaps

Mentour Pilot (Aircraft Accident Investigations), https://youtube.com/c/MentourPilotaviation

Music Theory, Music Electronics, and Synthesizers:

Benn Jordan (General music topics, he has a good scientific mind and electronics skills that he shows off sometimes), https://youtube.com/c/BennandGear

Adam Neely (Advanced music theory and random music topics), https://youtube.com/c/AdamNeely

Look Mum No Computer (Music experiments with analog electronics), https://youtube.com/c/LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER

Andrew Huang (Random music tech reviews, basic theory, and music production), https://youtube.com/c/andrewhuang

loopop (The most thorough and comprehensive music electronics feature overviews), https://youtube.com/c/loopop

Rick Beato (Music production and music industry analysis), https://youtube.com/c/RickBeato

Tantacrul (Music Software design, he works on Audacity), https://youtube.com/c/Tantacrul

Math and Computer Science:

Zach Starr (Math and computer science topics), https://youtube.com/c/zachstar

Numberphile (General math concepts), https://youtube.com/c/numberphile

Stand-up Maths (General math topics, but goes into more detail than Numberphile), https://youtube.com/user/standupmaths

Mathologer (General math concepts), https://youtube.com/c/Mathologer

Steve Yegge (Computer science and software industry), https://youtube.com/user/SteveYegge

Low Level Learning (Computer science, but the lower levels), https://youtube.com/c/LowLevelLearning

DEFCONConference (Huge selection of hacking-related talks), https://youtube.com/user/DEFCONConference

Strange Loop Conference (Software conference videos), https://youtube.com/c/StrangeLoopConf

Two-mimute papers (Very fast and exuberant machine learning research summaries, hold on to your papers fellow scholars!), https://youtube.com/c/K%C3%A1rolyZsolnai

Video Editing and Special Effects:

Captain Disillusion (Debunks fake videos with image analysis, and creates walkthroughs of how it's done), https://youtube.com/c/CaptainDisillusion

Edit, I almost forgot Adam Ragusea, he does excellent science-based cooking videos, https://youtube.com/user/aragusea

Apart from many good and very well known channels already shared:

- math videos https://www.youtube.com/c/TheMathSorcerer

- math videos https://www.youtube.com/c/brightsideofmaths

- math videos https://www.youtube.com/user/standupmaths

- mainly physics, plus chemistry, astronomy, math, and mechanical engineering videos https://www.youtube.com/c/MichelvanBiezen

- chemistry & physics https://www.youtube.com/c/AdvancedTinkering

- machine learning papers https://www.youtube.com/c/K%C3%A1rolyZsolnai

- painting & composition https://www.youtube.com/c/IanRobertsMasteringComposition

- medicine https://www.youtube.com/c/NinjaNerdScience

- medicine https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFPvnkCZbHfBvV8ApBBE0vA

- therapy https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbWvYupGqq3aMJ6LsG4q-Yg

- perspectives on physics and cosmology https://www.youtube.com/c/SeethePattern

- analysis of materials impacted by high energy phenomena https://www.youtube.com/c/MartinFleischmannMemorialProject

- perspectives on physics https://www.youtube.com/user/TheMachian/

- anatomy https://www.youtube.com/c/InstituteofHumanAnatomy

- signal processing https://www.youtube.com/user/allsignalprocessing

- solving complex sudoku-derived puzzles https://www.youtube.com/c/CrackingTheCryptic

- the art of listening: music albums gems https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7shUDSkHjuQNegPhGdANQQ

Conversations and lectures: * https://www.youtube.com/c/lexfridman * https://www.youtube.com/c/mitocw * https://www.youtube.com/c/TheKnowledgeProject * https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzIaA-ufKJk9Ha-bK5jx0Lg/vid... * https://www.youtube.com/c/samharrisorg/videos

Any channels related to Nottingham University are just amazing, they have some really great professors producing quality content. Computerphile, Numberphile, nottingham science.

PBS SpaceTime

Just spent 5 minutes making a script to find all the links in this thread and then 'score' them on the number of votes. Here's all the channels with 2 or more:

interesting stuff:

Astrophysics/space/Physics

- https://www.youtube.com/c/DrBecky

- https://www.youtube.com/c/whatdamath

- https://www.youtube.com/c/universetodayvids

- https://www.youtube.com/c/astrumspace

- https://www.youtube.com/c/CuriousDroid

- https://www.youtube.com/c/minutephysics

CompSci/tech interviewing/tech news/security

- Martin Kleppman https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClB4KPy5LkJj1t3SgYVtMOQ

- https://www.youtube.com/c/ArxivInsights

- https://www.youtube.com/c/CSDojo

- https://www.youtube.com/c/SuccessinTech

- https://www.youtube.com/c/VivekHaldar

- https://www.youtube.com/c/TechTechPotato

- https://www.youtube.com/c/BlackHatOfficialYT

- https://www.youtube.com/c/numberphile

- https://www.youtube.com/user/ComputerHistory

Linguistics

- https://www.youtube.com/c/JuLingo

- https://www.youtube.com/c/LinguisticsMarburg

History/History of technology

- https://www.youtube.com/c/TheHistocrat

- Art History with Travis Lee Clark https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD0yYUsx9vpuhu2dkk8_a9w

- https://www.youtube.com/c/FallofCivilizationsPodcast

- https://www.youtube.com/extracredits

- https://www.youtube.com/c/DavidIanHowe

- https://www.youtube.com/c/ArchaiaIstoria

- https://www.youtube.com/c/engineerguyvideo

- https://www.youtube.com/c/StefanMilo

- https://www.youtube.com/c/TheOrientalInstitute

- https://www.youtube.com/c/StefanMilo

General

- https://www.youtube.com/c/MNMillennialFarmer

- https://www.youtube.com/c/PracticalEngineeringChannel

- https://www.youtube.com/c/RealEngineering

- https://www.youtube.com/c/Wendoverproductions

Hey, it's my time to shine! I love these kinds of channels and am always on the look out for more.

- 4K Urban Life (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ-JKqNo_T0yoeDZff1y7Kw) is slow walks around different cities in the world. It helped me make it through not being able to travel during COVID. I think that seeing different places and people helps enrich your worldview.

- AlphaPheonix (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCWeRTgd79JL0ilH0ZywSJA) reminds me a bit of Vertiasium, but is not quite as (over)produced. Atomic Frontier (https://www.youtube.com/c/AtomicFrontier) is kind of similar.

- Ant Lab (https://www.youtube.com/c/AntLab) has slow motion videos and information about insects.

- Ben Eater (https://www.youtube.com/c/beneater) hasn't made any videos in a bit, but his playlists will teach you about how electronics become computers.

- Chessnetwork (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCDOQrpqLqKVcTCKzqarxLg) has great entertaining chess games and I learn a lot watching them.

- Driving 4 Answers (https://www.youtube.com/c/mr2mk1hero/videos) has a lot of great videos talking about mostly car-related engineering.

- Exurb1a (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCimiUgDLbi6P17BdaCZpVbg) is a channel about philosophy basically.

- Great Art Explained (https://www.youtube.com/c/greatartexplained) goes into the stories and thinking behind a lot of great art.

- Historic Italian Cooking (https://www.youtube.com/c/HistoricalItalianCooking) shows and prepares ancient Roman recipes. Very relaxing. Tasting History (https://www.youtube.com/c/tastinghistory) is kind of similar, but includes all of history and is more lively in comparison.

- Hochelaga (https://www.youtube.com/c/hochelaga) is kind of biblical philosophy and adjacent areas. Really interesting offbeat channel.

- Journey to the Microcosmos (https://www.youtube.com/c/microcosmos) shows video of microscopic creatures with mellow explanations over the top.

- Lindybeige (https://www.youtube.com/user/lindybeige) has interesting diatribes (for lack of a better word) on English history, and assorted other offbeat topics.

- Mustard (https://www.youtube.com/c/MustardChannel/featured) has videos on the history of engineering and science.

- Neo (https://www.youtube.com/c/neoyoutube) is a kind of modern history channel.

- Ninja Nerd Science (https://www.youtube.com/c/ninjanerdscience) is an amazing channel where you can watch medical lectures presented in a really engaging way. You can learn a lot even if you aren't actually in med school.

- Not Exactly Normal (https://www.youtube.com/c/NotExactlyNormal) has social/cultural mini-documentaries. Paragraphic (https://www.youtube.com/c/PARAGRAPHIC) is kind of similar.

- Real Science (https://www.youtube.com/c/realscience) has mostly information about animals.

- Told in Stone (https://www.youtube.com/c/toldinstone) has great videos about Roman history.

- Wristwatch Revival (https://www.youtube.com/c/wristwatchrevival) takes apart and repairs mechanical watches, which is really interesting.

- The Ulengovs (https://www.youtube.com/c/onedayincountryside) is not strictly educational but they show how people live in rural (very, very rural) parts of Russia and it's super interesting.

- Strange Parts (https://www.youtube.com/c/StrangeParts/featured) hasn't been making videos recently due to an injury, but they spent a lot of time in Shenzhen and there are amazing videos about electronics in the back catalog.

- PBS also has a whole collection of channels that are pretty good. Space Time (https://www.youtube.com/c/pbsspacetime) and Eons (https://www.youtube.com/c/eons) are probably the highlights for me. Moth Light Media (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOh5Ht3eB4914hMUfJkKa9g) is another channel that's kind of like Eons.

FWIW Lindybeige is very entertaining but not particularly credible. One sign of this is probably his back-and-forth with Military History Visualized on the debate between the Bren and MG34/MG42 machine guns.

I’d definitely agree with that. I get more of an amateur interested in history (and from a quite strong English bias, at that) vibe than someone trying to present historical research, but it’s good to call that out.

There are actually several (maybe even most/all?) channels above that I would describe as “interesting voices” rather than “credible, non-biased experts” so take them with a grain of salt.

I mean, nothing on Youtube is particularly credible. But at least with Lindybeige you never get the impression he is a definitive source.

History in particular is a field where even trained historians can't help but nitpick each other to death. So I think people should just enjoy pop-history for what it is.

TPAI

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