- Asianometry = "Science, Technology, History, Asia, mostly" great on semiconductors and the economics/business levers behind it https://www.youtube.com/@Asianometry
https://www.youtube.com/@WardCarroll | Veteran F-14 Tomcat radar intercept officer covers air power, episodes with Justin Bronk are the best open intel on Russia and Ukraine available
From his about page: "You'll see how an electron microscope was built in a home shop, how an X-ray backscatter system works, how to make aerogel, and many other hi-tech projects. Topics usually include electromechanical systems, chemistry, and electronics."
I like South Main Auto's (Auto Repair) channel. The way he troubleshoots and diagnoses problems is very informative and you will learn something new about fixing cars in every video.
I say, If you can turn a wrench then you can fix a car. You just need to know which bolt to turn.
I started playing around with the youtube api to find just that. They only give you so many free search credits so you have to be careful with which calls you make. And in what order. I found the best way is to search for keywords like:
Obviously, the answer to this question about "most interesting" is gonna heavily depend on your specific interests, but if you're interested in 3D graphics (and creating them yourself), Blender 3D is excellent (and Free[dom]; and free[of cost]), and https://www.youtube.com/user/AndrewPPrice (Blender Guru) has excellent tutorials to help you in your journey from "noob" to "guru". ;~)
You can only get good at mathematics by doing, but if there is a channel that helps you get better at math passively it is probably Michael Penns': https://www.youtube.com/@MichaelPennMath
Adam Duff (LucidPixul). He does Art talks - talks about stuff while drawing, but something in the way he speaks and presents his stories clicks with me.
- Jacob Geller (video essays, usually about video games, literature and film)
- Baumgartner Restoration (narrated professional art restoration)
- Itchy Boots (woman traveling continents by solo motorcycle)
- Mustard (aviation and naval history)
- Posy (hard to explain, just watch a popular video)
- Ronald Finger (DIY auto restoration)
- Technology Connections (essays on technology in the general sense- not just computers)
I'm not a petrolhead, not but a longshot, but his optimization process has very similar qualities to good software optimization. Oh, and there's also lots of great premature optimization.
https://www.youtube.com/@getoffmylawn6692 is an upcoming channel which covers many obscure DOS games. It's cool to see old games which are usually made by one or two people.
It's also one guy who posts 5 times a week and has ~2000 subscribers, which IMO makes it deserve views on its own
I really like fasterthanlime, especially with the depth of knowledge. He was the first video creator that explained register usage in assembly in a way that wasn't so dry that I lost attention.
This guy is doing a public service. He admittedly loves public infrastructure and civil engineering and does an amazing job of balancing the technical details and gist of the underlying physics and engineering constraints with the context of the real world applications.
Sometimes the topics are almost comically mundane, but I jumped into them and found it thoroughly interesting. One example is his 10-minute explainer "What is a Culvert"[1]. It's the perfect debunking of something seeming "trivial" to the casual observer. In another video he comments on why on construction sites you see so many folks "just standing around".
He has videos you can watch with your kids about things you might ordinarily just wave your hands about, like "How Water Towers Work"[2]. And then bigger more much involved explanations on topics you certainly have heard of but never bothered to look into, like "What Really Happened During the 2003 Blackout?"[3].
lol I feel like I sound like a advertisement but I really just love his work and thoroughly recommend having this channel in your repertoire. He's also just earnest, not unnecessarily dire or animated, and often gives what feel like fair and balanced perspectives on some of the social issues surrounding these topics.
I watch reasonably long content typically in the philosophy/sociology space, though not exclusively. Here are some of my favorites:
Philosophy Tube has pretty good rundowns of different areas in philosophy. A year or so ago she came out as trans and that has really elevated the show to a new level, but perhaps also narrowed the focus somewhat.
Alice Cappelle makes down-to-earth video essays about structural and social issues we all encounter. I enjoy hearing her European perspective.
We're In Hell is your pot smoking neighbors lefttube video essay channel that frequently sidetracks about reality TV. I don't know what else to say about that. His takes tend to be well thought out.
jonasceikaCCK makes really good videos about philosophical concepts, their origins, and their counterparts. I would say the same about Then & Now
Unlearning Economics is the left-tube economics channel. There are others that will touch on economics, but this guy is much better informed and presents more thorough analysis than the rest.
Maggie Mae Fish is an excellent media critique video essayist. Her videos tend to reveal the social pressures which shape media into what they are, whether that be patriarchy and bigotry or something more specific to the creator. She also provides different perspectives on (or different readings of) the text that tend to differ pretty wildly from what you'd get on other similar channels.
Noah Samsen, Tara Mooknee, and Tiffany Ferg all make content showing different subcultures on the internet and usually how they're harmful. I like watching channels like these because it helps me understand at least a little of what's going on in the side of the world that participates in that form of social media.
CGPGrey produces high quality, informative and quirky videos about all sorts of things (why runways have the numbers they do, the history of the name Tiffany). Always well written with a pleasing use of language: https://www.youtube.com/user/CGPGrey
ConnectionsMuseum is a must watch if you're into early telephone exchanges (or want to understand where half the terminology and timers come from in SIP). They have a handful of different vintange telephone switches and go quite in depth explaining how they work: https://www.youtube.com/user/museumofcomm
Hbomberguy is... something else, especially in presentation style (personally I love it). His "Vaccines and Autism, a Measured Response" video is stunningly informative and presents more information into the Andrew Wakefield scandal than any other documentary on the topic. https://www.youtube.com/user/hbomberguy
Ian Hubert has created a couple of short but absolutely unbelievably amazing videos in Blender. A must watch if you're interested in 3D, green-screen or scifi. https://www.youtube.com/user/mrdodobird
- StuffMadeHere = A lot of people have already recommended this, I also would too https://www.youtube.com/@StuffMadeHere
- Asianometry = "Science, Technology, History, Asia, mostly" great on semiconductors and the economics/business levers behind it https://www.youtube.com/@Asianometry
- Project Farm = thorough testing of hardware https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectFarm
- TwoMinutePapers = Latest breakthrough in AI https://www.youtube.com/@TwoMinutePapers
- Marius Hornberger = a very talented machinist/maker who makes good videos https://www.youtube.com/@MariusHornberger