What do you subscribe to on youtube?
December 31, 2015 7:45 PM   Subscribe

Youtube has always struck me as kind of a waste land, geared towards 14-year-olds, but I've gotten interested in a particular vlogger and watch the channel as a sort of seven-minute daily dose of reality tv. So now I'm curious--what do you watch on youtube on a recurring basis that is interesting and intelligent?
posted by craniac to Education (53 answers total) 206 users marked this as a favorite
 
Last Week Tonight
Lutheran Satire (but that's theology humor, not general interest.)
posted by Jahaza at 7:51 PM on December 31, 2015 [2 favorites]


I like Every Frame a Painting
posted by pretentious illiterate at 8:07 PM on December 31, 2015 [15 favorites]


Crash Course for their phenomenal 10 min per vid series of World History (and other topics). Well-done, smart and often very funny
Game Maker's Toolkit -- if you have any interest in the design of video games
posted by ellerhodes at 8:17 PM on December 31, 2015 [2 favorites]


Stevecash83.com -- his website has a link to his youtube videos of his pets. Very funny and creative. My favorite is the "no pets allowed".
posted by pushing paper and bottoming chairs at 8:21 PM on December 31, 2015


AvE - canadian guy does mechanical/electrical stuff in his garage. (coarse language)
David richards - guy has a metalworking shop (lathes, mills, etc) run by a steam engine
Keith Rucker - he's associated with the Georgia Museum of Agriculture and he also helped to set up vintagemachinery.org which is a source of documentation and other information for old machines.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 8:25 PM on December 31, 2015 [3 favorites]




Extra Credits is really good intro-level discussion of video game development and game theory in general, and they're mostly short - five minutes or so. It's funny and light but generally informative.
posted by Scattercat at 8:40 PM on December 31, 2015 [2 favorites]


VSauce - not all videos are great, but enough get me thinking to maintain the subscription.

Numberphile - maths nerdery. I don't get a lot of it, but again, there's enough for me to learn neat new things and pique my curiosity

MinuteEarth and MinutePhysics - brief videos on neat processes; often leads to an afternoon of fascinated Googling

In A Nutshell - Kurzgesagt - similar to the above, but longer; also leads to long periods of fascinated follow-up Googling.

Kikopup - dog training videos from an amazing positivity-based trainer. Keyed to my specific interests, of course, but meets your criteria of "interesting and intelligent."

TheGameTheorists - neat theories about video games, characters, players, and the industry
posted by Urban Winter at 8:47 PM on December 31, 2015 [4 favorites]


How about something slightly horrifying? Dr. Sandra Lee is a southern Californian dermatologist who posts the mindblowing things she pops/removes from people. 587,000+ subscribers like me can't look away and can't unsee any of it. And she's so cool about it all, you can tell she loves her job.
posted by cecic at 8:53 PM on December 31, 2015 [5 favorites]


The Nerdwriter
posted by LoveHam at 9:08 PM on December 31, 2015 [3 favorites]


Anglophenia is a fun one if you have any interest in cultural U.S.--British similarities and differences.
posted by weeyin at 9:11 PM on December 31, 2015 [3 favorites]


I love Vice and their related channels, like Motherboard. Smart, liberal documentaries.
posted by liet at 9:30 PM on December 31, 2015 [6 favorites]


I've watched all of Nothing Much To Do and am working my way through Lovely Little Losers right now. They are webisodes based on Much Ado About Nothing and Loves Labour's Lost (though using some of the same characters). They are lots of fun to watch.
posted by Margalo Epps at 9:41 PM on December 31, 2015


Tadashi Mori -- rad origami stuff
posted by klausman at 9:53 PM on December 31, 2015 [4 favorites]




Tabletop.

Unfortunately, I've seen no sign that they're planning to do a fourth season. In a way I can understand that; they're running out of good games. (Some of the games in season 3 were really lousy.)

And Jimmy Diresta.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:56 PM on December 31, 2015


Feminist Frequency
Seeker Stories does mini-documentaries
Refinery29 has interesting clips about fashion and culture
Andrew Huang is super creative with music
Amber Galloway Gallego does ASL versions of pop music and she's super animated
Vervegirl TV produces short web-series drama; you might have heard of Carmilla
Out of all the planner decoration video porn I follow I still like Ell Fowler's the best. She's a lot more upbeat and makes pretty good color choices!

I actually subscribe to a bunch of BuzzFeed channels, they are a good timewaster!
posted by divabat at 11:08 PM on December 31, 2015 [2 favorites]


Also Cut Video! They're known for the 100 Years of Beauty stuff but also make really interesting projects.
posted by divabat at 11:10 PM on December 31, 2015


Gardenfork = gardening, DIY, beekeeping, cooking, yellow labs.
Hilah Cooking = easy and unpretentious recipies.
posted by Ostara at 11:25 PM on December 31, 2015 [1 favorite]



Food Wishes
does some good cooking videos, and my wife says after watching a few of his videos I've started talking like Chef John.

No Small Parts goes in-depth about various character actors, I've enjoyed these videos.

Periodic Videos is the gold standard of science channels. The main professor guy even got a knighthood in part because of his involvement with Periodic Videos! Sixty Symbols is the physics equivalent, done by the same filmmaker.

And finally, You Suck at Cooking is pretty funny.
posted by zompus at 11:56 PM on December 31, 2015 [3 favorites]


Minute Physics
Veritasium
Hak5
SMBC Theater
posted by miyabo at 12:04 AM on January 1, 2016


Oh and for cooking: Vegan Black Metal Chef. The recipes are actually really great!
posted by miyabo at 12:13 AM on January 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


PBS Digital Studios delivers some great channels; It's Okay To Be Smart, Idea Channel, Game Show, Brain Craft, the list goes on. They also partner with the VlogBrothers on CrashCourse, SciShow, Healthcare Triage, and the Art Assignment.

The Brain Scoop, spun off from the VlogBrothers family of channels and currently under the aegis of the Field Museum of Chicago.

DNews/TestTube/SeekerDaily. Not to mention the weirdly melancholic, yet uplifting Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.

ASAPScience/ASAPThought

MTV has two programs of note; Braless and Decoded.

I'll be here all day if I list all of the cooking shows that I watch. Umbrella outfits like FoodTube and Tastemade turn out a lot of good ones. SortedFood is great. Bondhi Harvest. French Guy Cooking. ChefSteps.

I may watch too much YouTube.
posted by Eikonaut at 12:41 AM on January 1, 2016 [6 favorites]


Manjula's Indian cooking.
posted by SillyShepherd at 1:12 AM on January 1, 2016 [3 favorites]


I like The Brain Scoop for interesting science videos and Maangchi for Korean cooking videos. I also like vlogger Akilah Hughes; she does videos on lots of different topics (check out On Intersectionality in Feminism and Pizza).
posted by neushoorn at 1:31 AM on January 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


Ditto veritasium and every frame a painting. Adding Tom Scott. If you've an interest in video games: Errant Signal, Satchbag's Goods, Innuendo Studios, and Noah Caldwell-Gervais do good stuff.
posted by juv3nal at 1:44 AM on January 1, 2016


Idea Channel - Philosophy through the lens of geeky pop culture
Mental Floss - Informative Listicle type videos
VSauce - Interesting mix of science and philosophy
CGP Grey - Focuses on historical and geographic oddities - like interesting quirks on borders or how many countries there are in the world depending on how you count
Extra Credits - It's MOSTLY a gaming channel, but they have one subsection of videos devoted to getting into depth on different historical events. I especially love that they focus on non-western, or obscure events.
Its Okay to be Smart - Short science stuff
Brain Craft - Science focusing on psychology
Crash Course - Pretty much geared toward any AP High School/Early College course, from Science to History to Economics.
SciShow - Science

There's a pretty tight knit vlogger community between the stuff that PBS puts out and the stuff created by the Green Brothers and co. So you'll see a lot of guest starring and they have a lot of other channels that I just haven't had time to get into myself. But it's pretty easy to find similar channels through these too.
posted by Caravantea at 2:02 AM on January 1, 2016 [3 favorites]


Metafilter's own David Bull makes such beautiful traditional Japanese woodblock prints. His Youtube channel is fascinating and inspiring.
posted by little eiffel at 2:58 AM on January 1, 2016 [3 favorites]


I like watching wonderful BBC TV programs. News, documentaries, history, comedy: they have it all.

Since proxys no longer work with the BBC Iplayer, YT is now the best way to
experience the Beeb in the US.
posted by james33 at 3:00 AM on January 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


Electric Playground - - the venerable videogame/movie reviews and news show is currently YouTube only.
posted by fairmettle at 3:56 AM on January 1, 2016


Mostly I watch

cooking

Cooking With Dog Japanese cooking (the dog is called Francis) Not to be confused with this from Inose Marine
Manjula's Kitchen Indian cooking
Maangchi Korean cooking

cats

Maru
ShiroNekoShiro Cats that usually sit still (don't judge me)

And...

MEpearlA This is hard to describe, but involves possums and isn't entirely sensible
posted by BinaryApe at 4:48 AM on January 1, 2016 [1 favorite]




+1 for Idea Channel and Mental Floss, as per Caravantea's comment above - you'll only need to watch one or two to know if they're for you or not.

Otherwise the quality of the material out of Cracked.com is impressive, and good for when you might want to learn something and/or relax for a coffee break.
posted by DancingYear at 6:57 AM on January 1, 2016


re: Tabletop

Wil had a blog post up yesterday about season 4. Doing game play tests now and expect to start shooting in the Spring.
posted by COD at 7:27 AM on January 1, 2016


I used to really like Mighty Car Mods, but nowadays they tend to spread their content a little thin (8 part series and the like).
I really like watching the 24 Hours of Lemons wrapups, and Jay Leno's garage can actually be pretty entertaining.
Dave Jones (eevblog) is whiny, but he does interesting things with electronics.
Depending on your interests, lectures and conference talks (Defcon, Black Hat, CCC) can be really interesting.
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 7:52 AM on January 1, 2016


I highly, highly recommend WildEarth's live (!) safari drives held twice per day from the Sabi Sands near Kruger National Park in South Africa. https://www.youtube.com/user/WildEarthMedia or https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCV6HJBZD_hZcIX9JVJ3dCXQ
posted by ReginaHart at 7:55 AM on January 1, 2016


Gah, I missed the editing window. The second link should have been https://www.youtube.com/user/safariLIVE
posted by ReginaHart at 8:02 AM on January 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


Hot Thai Kitchen/Pailin's Kitchen

Londonist, especially for transportation nerdery.

Parole de chat. Cat videos, but better.

And my oft-recommended makeup favorites Lisa Eldridge, Wayne Goss main and secondary, and Vintage or Tacky.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:03 AM on January 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


A recent sampling:

KEXP -- music
BBC1 Radio -- music
theCurrent -- music
Sins of [insert noun] -- it started with Cinema and then proceeded. I take it in small doses because you can only take so much critique before you just want to veg out.
University of California Television -- a wide mix of things including performances, lectures and presentations
Google Tech Talks -- I like to remind myself that I know squat about technology
Google Talks -- history does not repeat but it rhymes

If you are willing to go elsewhere, I really recommend the concerts of the Sackler and Freer galleries which are available for download on their site. I get my fix of musical forms that I never knew from that series.
posted by jadepearl at 11:43 AM on January 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


Although she doesn't update it anymore, Ask a Slave is not only revealing about race in the US, but also hilarious.
posted by holborne at 12:09 PM on January 1, 2016


Eric the Car Guy is a mechanic who makes videos about car repair.
Louis the Beagle is a series of videos about beagles acting adorable.
sootch00 talks about guns. I'm really, really uncomfortable with his politics, but he does do his homework. I'm particularly interested in his talks about historical guns.
Ted Crusty makes distinctly "smart British kid" surreal humour on a minimal budget. Definitely an acquired taste.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 12:22 PM on January 1, 2016


I like BigCatDerek for insight into the running of a large cat sanctuary. It's not always pretty, and often sad (and sometimes he rambles on) but 100% necessary work that isn't as financially compensated as you'd think. Also lions, tigers, cougars, leopards and bobcats!

Fusion for younger voices on current news issues.
posted by saturnine at 1:32 PM on January 1, 2016


Frontline & The PBS News Hour both put all of their content onto Youtube.
posted by Going To Maine at 2:37 PM on January 1, 2016


RegularCars for RegularCarReviews, which is somewhat really crude sometimes but (IMHO) provides some pretty decent commentary on car culture and such. (Plus, most of the car reviews are really just regular cars.)

Blame Society for Beer & Board Games (where 4-ish comedians drink beer and play board games, some good some bad, to hilarious result) and Welcome to the Basement (where two guys watch and review movies that one's not seen before).

Colin Furze for an Englishman that very excitedly crafts ridiculous things, like (recently) a bunch of for-real items out of Assassin's Creed.

Crimson Guitars for a bunch of videos about building and maintaining guitars and all that comes with it. (Bonus: Dave's World of Fun Stuff, which is more watch him do things rather than actually being taught things, but I find entertaining.)

RedGreenTV because somehow I ended up growing up watching the Red Green Show (despite never actually living anywhere near Canada) and they've put everything, including 20 odd years of full shows, up on YouTube.

Blame Society and Crimson Guitars both update very frequently - I know there's a new B&BG on Thursday and a new Welcome to the Basement every other Friday, unless they've said otherwise, and Crimson Guitars posts just about every day. The rest don't post quite so frequently or with such a defined schedule.
posted by mrg at 4:45 PM on January 1, 2016


TokyoCooney had some really fascinating videos about being an expat in Tokyo, but he hasn't posted much lately.
posted by Aanidaani at 7:37 PM on January 1, 2016


On Crackle, not YouTube, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with Jerry Seinfeld.
posted by SemiSalt at 8:52 AM on January 2, 2016 [1 favorite]


SuperGreatFriend: Lper who has a great sense of humor and is calm about video games. He has quite a few LPs of completed games that vary from indie to just really strange.
posted by chrono_rabbit at 10:18 AM on January 2, 2016


Most of my subscriptions are already lsited, but two that are not:
Smarter Every Day - A rocket engineer who makes educational videos on his own time - half space-related, half general interest science.
Casey Neistat - A New York based filmmaker, who does some of the most unique visual masterpieces as a daily vlog.
posted by yuwtze at 4:11 PM on January 2, 2016


Food:

Helen's Recipes - Vietnamese
Laura in the Kitchen - Italian American
Mangchii - Korean (She's very cute and funny)
Mark Wiens - Travel Eater, mostly Thai - he gets REALLY EXCITED when eating good food. Lot's of street food.
Titlis Busy Kitchen - Assorted Very goofy and funny, large archives.
Day of Gluttony 24 restaurants in 24 hours.
Chefs Night Out Chefs from a restaurant start an evening at their place talking about their food then they go out on their town to a few of their favorite places and eat and drink. Hilarity can ensue.

General:

Eat Your Kimchi - Simon and Martina Canadian Ex-Pats that moved to Korea. Kpop, food, wonderful treasure finds. Probably my favorite channel on YT - lots of archives. Very funny.

I watch other mainstream channels listed above, but these are less well known and some of my favorites.
posted by jopreacher at 10:44 AM on January 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


Abroad In Japan is another great Western-expat-in-Japan channel.
posted by forallmankind at 9:49 PM on January 3, 2016


Response by poster: I should add that Adrian Bliss's Vlogvember is a brilliant parody of vloggers on Youtube that won't seem nearly as funny if you don't watch vloggers on youtube.
posted by craniac at 2:47 PM on January 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


I was a lit major and Thug Notes (CliffsNotes for mah homies) makes me laugh, then ponder.
posted by pimli at 6:27 PM on January 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


Drunk History
My Drunk Kitchen
Anything joe rogan
posted by jitterbug perfume at 12:56 PM on March 12, 2016


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