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Here is a breakdown of the YouTube channels I follow and why:
* Tom Scott - He is a British linguist who had one of the earliest viral youtube videos and he has been experimenting with new media every since. He content ranges from long form content about copyright and online communication to various attempts at creating game shows and trips to strange places. Content, he's got a lot of it. It's just very hard to generalize about what he does because he's done a lot of 'lets try a lot of stuff and see what happens'. His content is always thoughtful and he avoids being clickbaity.
Places with funny names, predictions about social media that are on point, ranting about emoji, short sci fi stories rooted in a broad understanding of computers and social media, this channel has it all.
* Binging with Babish - He's pretty well known these days. He recreates food from TV, Movies and Video Game. He also does some other more generic how to cook videos.
* Rynbonator - His channel about making dice has really taken off recently. I don't cast resin and don't intend to start, but I enjoy his videos.
* Medlife Crisis He is a British cardiologist who has had to deal with 'in there a doctor on board' calls on airplanes a statistically improbably number of times. I found him because I was looking for a video on that and subbed because he has deadpan humor and covers some really interesting topics. He has a great video on uncredited Black surgeons who helped pioneer heart surgery and also some interesting deep dives on the state of healthcare. He also talks about why some popular medical studies are useless.
If there is a hidden YT gem on this list, it's this guy.
* Boyform - He is an FTM youtuber who is just starting out, but has very considered takes on things. His Look Back At Boys Don't Cry is really good. It's worth watching just for general media criticism. All the video have heavy content though, especially that one.
* Captain Disillusion - He debunks viral videos and also talks about how to spot fake videos. A lot of what he addresses can be traced back to ad campaigns or professional VFX artists messing about. He also deubunks and calls out being overly cynical, thinking everything is fake or taking silly online content too seriously.
* Haburu - A cat that likes to chill in the piano while their owner plays. Very relaxing videos.
* Wendover Productions and Half as Interesting - Who loves transportation logistics? Both channels are by the same person. Wendover is the serious channel about the effects of cargo container standardization, planes, trains, and more planes.
Half as Interesting is just little short videos on random weird stuff, mostly pulled from wikipedia articles.
* I am going to give a special shout to to DeviantOllum who has a lot of great talks on youtube about breaking into buildings. His job is literally testing security by breaking into places. So if you want to write heists or robberies, there is a lot of great detail there. He's recently started how own channel, but there isn't much on it yet. I would rec searching for Deviant Ollum and his DefCon talks rather than watching his own channel.
DeviantOllum has also been very vocal on infosec cons being hostile places for minorities and other topics. Come for the talks about breaking into banks with compressed air, stay for the rants on how to run communities.
* I do sub to a few other channels, but if you want Guild Wars 2 patch notes read to you in a British accent then you likely already follow WoodenPotatoes. A lot of my other channels are niche. I also follow some watercolor and photography channels. Feel free to ask for reccs, but this post has gotten long enough!
* Tom Scott - He is a British linguist who had one of the earliest viral youtube videos and he has been experimenting with new media every since. He content ranges from long form content about copyright and online communication to various attempts at creating game shows and trips to strange places. Content, he's got a lot of it. It's just very hard to generalize about what he does because he's done a lot of 'lets try a lot of stuff and see what happens'. His content is always thoughtful and he avoids being clickbaity.
Places with funny names, predictions about social media that are on point, ranting about emoji, short sci fi stories rooted in a broad understanding of computers and social media, this channel has it all.
* Binging with Babish - He's pretty well known these days. He recreates food from TV, Movies and Video Game. He also does some other more generic how to cook videos.
* Rynbonator - His channel about making dice has really taken off recently. I don't cast resin and don't intend to start, but I enjoy his videos.
* Medlife Crisis He is a British cardiologist who has had to deal with 'in there a doctor on board' calls on airplanes a statistically improbably number of times. I found him because I was looking for a video on that and subbed because he has deadpan humor and covers some really interesting topics. He has a great video on uncredited Black surgeons who helped pioneer heart surgery and also some interesting deep dives on the state of healthcare. He also talks about why some popular medical studies are useless.
If there is a hidden YT gem on this list, it's this guy.
* Boyform - He is an FTM youtuber who is just starting out, but has very considered takes on things. His Look Back At Boys Don't Cry is really good. It's worth watching just for general media criticism. All the video have heavy content though, especially that one.
* Captain Disillusion - He debunks viral videos and also talks about how to spot fake videos. A lot of what he addresses can be traced back to ad campaigns or professional VFX artists messing about. He also deubunks and calls out being overly cynical, thinking everything is fake or taking silly online content too seriously.
* Haburu - A cat that likes to chill in the piano while their owner plays. Very relaxing videos.
* Wendover Productions and Half as Interesting - Who loves transportation logistics? Both channels are by the same person. Wendover is the serious channel about the effects of cargo container standardization, planes, trains, and more planes.
Half as Interesting is just little short videos on random weird stuff, mostly pulled from wikipedia articles.
* I am going to give a special shout to to DeviantOllum who has a lot of great talks on youtube about breaking into buildings. His job is literally testing security by breaking into places. So if you want to write heists or robberies, there is a lot of great detail there. He's recently started how own channel, but there isn't much on it yet. I would rec searching for Deviant Ollum and his DefCon talks rather than watching his own channel.
DeviantOllum has also been very vocal on infosec cons being hostile places for minorities and other topics. Come for the talks about breaking into banks with compressed air, stay for the rants on how to run communities.
* I do sub to a few other channels, but if you want Guild Wars 2 patch notes read to you in a British accent then you likely already follow WoodenPotatoes. A lot of my other channels are niche. I also follow some watercolor and photography channels. Feel free to ask for reccs, but this post has gotten long enough!
