I like tech, old and new, so:
https://www.youtube.com/@CathodeRayDude
https://www.youtube.com/@TechTangents
https://www.youtube.com/@ConnectionsMuseum
https://www.youtube.com/@VeronicaExplains
https://www.youtube.com/@UsagiElectric
https://www.youtube.com/@PlatimaTinkers
https://www.youtube.com/@RetroBytesUK
https://www.youtube.com/@harkeofficial
I"d also suggest Jeff Geerling but he’s close to a million subscribers.
About trains, cycling, transit, and urbanism:
https://www.youtube.com/@OhTheUrbanity
https://www.youtube.com/@BenDurham
https://www.youtube.com/@MilesinTransit
https://www.youtube.com/@JagoHazzard
https://www.youtube.com/@TFTSB
And about hiking, camping, outdoors stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/@StephenJReid
Oh and on languages and etymology:
https://www.youtube.com/@WordsUnravelled
https://www.youtube.com/@RobWords
https://www.youtube.com/@Xidnaf
https://www.youtube.com/@kklein
https://www.youtube.com/@Linguisticae (in French)
https://www.youtube.com/@Linguriosa (in Spanish)
I would add in City Nerd for urbanism too.
Which stadium does his current subscriber count fill now?
This is a fairly niche answer, but Noah Caldwell-Gervais.
He does very smart critical analysis of video games as a medium, often in multi-hour long retrospectives of entire franchises. They are all split into chapters, so it’s easy to watch in parts. The visuals and editing are not very flashy, pretty much just footage of the game he’s talking about, but they are so well written and thoughtful I find them extremely compelling. There’s also road trip travelogues, but I’m not as into those.
Love me some Noah
Todd in the Shadows Some More News Folding Ideas Thought Slime Atun-Shei Films The Morbid Zoo
Todd in particular deserves a lot more attention/subscribers/success given how long he’s been around, and just how much content he’s released.
Cara Nicole. She does a good job at explaining finance and budgeting to the layman, I liked her because I found that what she said more or less aligned with what I’ve found to be true, so I think she’s sending out smart ways of managing money to people. Plus she does fun videos about things like giving financial audits to Michael Scott and breaking down people’s wish lists. Idk I always enjoy her videos.
Adam Conover - the guy who shattered my reality back in the days with some college humor videos https://m.youtube.com/@TheAdamConover
Windette - Gaming with insults https://m.youtube.com/@Windette
Adam Millard - game mechanics and fundamentals https://m.youtube.com/@ArchitectofGames
Daryl talks games - games dissected by a psychology guy (I forgot what he did) https://m.youtube.com/@DarylTalksGames
I’m shocked nobody has mentioned Bobby Fingers (266k subscribers at this time). He’s a sassy Irish man with a really deep voice who makes incredibly detailed dioramas of weird moments. My favorite diorama is the one he made about Fabio Lanzoni (the sexy guy on the cover of hundreds of romance novels) getting hit in the face by a goose while riding a roller coaster: https://youtube.com/watch?v=2RIEPKEhE2s
It’s absolutely spectacular. He sculpts the faces out of clay in 1:1 scale, scans them, 3D prints them in miniature, and just goes above and beyond. The videos are funny as all fuck too, with tons of jokes with long setups. I’d highly recommend them.
I like the one when he had a single ass hair transplanted on to the top of his head.
Hakim
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPZoYsfoSekIpLcz9plX1Q
Hakim is an Iraqi Marxist-Leninist YouTuber. He covers a wide variety of topics including socialist history, the negative effects of capitalism, and other-related topics. He also does response videos to various right-wing figures, such as PragerU, Misha Petrov, and Jordan Peterson.
Ghostcharm. Casual video game analysis
Here’s my list, included snippets of their own youtube descriptions.
Angela Collier theoretical physicist.
Andrew Millison is a permaculture teacher and practitioner.
Climate Town Rollie Williams and a ragtag team of climate communicators, creatives and comedians are here to examine climate change in a way that doesn’t make you want to eat a cyanide pill. Get informed about the climate crisis before the weather does it for you.
Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t A Low-Brow, Crass Approach to Plant Ecology & Evolution as muttered by a Misanthropic Chicago Italian. We study plants through the lens of ecology and evolution, rather than what supposed anthropocentric uses they can provide (as if holding up the biosphere wasn’t enough).
Dr Fatima i went to grad school and all i got was this lousy understanding of systemic problems in science.
Meditations for the anxious mind
Noah Daniel interior & spatial design
Stewart Hicks Takes on Buildings and Cities.
Luetin09 apparently only has 901k subscribers.
SomeMoreNews is at 884k.
DoshDoshington is at an unacceptably low 309k.
Atrioc is up near 706k.
And everyone should be subscribed to YoungScrolls but sadly only 269k people are.
Alexander the Ok - 101k subscribers, does some great hour long engineering / computer science videos. F-14 central air data computer (first microprocessor), Minuteman missile (led to the first desktop computers), B-29 turret system (networked mechanical computers), and Buran (not really computers, but a really good video anyways).
For music fans, I highly recommend Trash Theory. Very thorough deep dives into songs and bands that leave you with a much better understanding of music history.
For commentary on modern popular music I recommend Todd in the Shadows and Mic the Snare.
These are mostly science and technology related.
Just Have a Think: Energy, electricity, fuels, batteries, renewables
Engineering with Rosie: electricity production, transmission, storage etc.
xkcd’s What If?: physics, silly questions, silly answers
Applied Science: Science, technology, DIY lab stuff
Elina Charatsidou: Nuclear physics
Future Proof Health: anything health related
AlphaPhoenix: Material science, physics, technical stuff
Design Theory: In-depth explanations on why items are designed to look a particular way.
If you like applied Science I highly recommend breaking taps
Hmm… Let’s take a look Yeah, that looks like a pretty cool channel. Oh wait, I’ve seen many of these videos already. Maybe I should subscribe. Hold on, I’m also subscribed already? Looks like I totally forgot this channel even existed!
Yeah, totally can recommend. Awesome electron microscopy, detailed explanations and all that.
If you want to watch an Irish dude play and talk about a variety of obscure PS1 games, everyone should definitely check out Sean Seanson (currently at 44k subs). He has 2 ongoing series where a game is picked at random and he checks it out, one for western releases and another for japan exclusive PS1 games.
Majuular (166k subs) also does videos on mostly obscure or forgotten games. I really enjoyed watching his “I played every RPG on the <console>” videos, the one for the Saturn showed up some real gems.
Moon Channel (182k subs) is one of the “slow content creators”, which makes nearly every video he posts a great watch. He has great stuff like “Why do Japanese games love Brazil?” and “Gacha Games and the Korean Gender Wars” - the latter an incredible look into how and why Korean culture is the way it is today.
NeverKnowsBest (329k subs) is yet another gaming channel, focusing on very long videos. One that I do recommend to any Bethesda fan is “Lies, Hate and the story of Emil Pagliarulo” (it’s an eye opener and I am guilty of having joined the “it’s all Emil’s fault” bandwagon due in no small part to the videos he references). If you want to keep it to genres, his 2 most recent videos are “The Entire History of Japanese RPGs” and “An in-depth look at Romance in video games” - the latter shows up a number of famous dating sim games.
Basement Brothers (33k subs) is a channel devoted almost entirely to 80s and 90s Japanese computer games. So, if you were ever curious about PC-88 and PC-98 games, or the origins of franchises like Ys or Legend of Heroes, this is the place to find that.
As a bonus, SAMA Study of Antiquity and Middle Ages for history stuff. It’s very well researched stuff, often citing studies that follow DNA heritage among human groups to get an idea of when they migrated from one place to another.
Lost in the Movies - fewer than 10k subscribers, but he deserves so many more.
His work is generally on movies and TV, usually with a more art house feel.
His major piece of work though is his 30-40 part video series (and also podcast/blog) on Twin Peaks.
None of your, “Here’s the explanation of EVERYTHING,” nonsense here though.
Instead he looks at the show, its characters and its arcs with a contemplative eye, picking out interesting visual and narrative parallels, examining the show and film as a piece of art rather than as a puzzle to be ‘solved’.
It’s exceptional and it mystifies me that it’s not more well known. He’s been doing it for about ten years now I think. If you’re a Peaks fan, it’s an absolute must IMO.
