Ask Lemmy

JustBackgroundNoise - morrowind challenges
PatricianTV - Extremely long format game reviews (elder scrolls, world of warcraft and more)
RealLifeLore - Geopolitics

Buckin Billy Ray - interesting videos about cutting trees down and servicing chainsaws. A little bit unchained (excuse the pun) in a wholesome way as he seems to randomly intersperse his videos with positive affirmations like 'be kind' 'love your friends' which is kind of wholesome

Way out west - an older English guy living in the West of Ireland making things like a railway for transporting garlic

I did a thing - a hilariously unhinged aussie bloke

James Hoffman - for coffee. And hames joffman also

Karl Rock - travels around India/Pakistan exploring the places

Mike okay - travels to really off the beaten track places like Iraq.

Maximus ironthumper - many videos, the project kermit series is him rebuilding a land rover defender from scratch

Still it - distilling and making spirits

Technology Connections

I like the Why Files, very entertaining even if they have to ruin the fun by "telling the actual story" at the end.

• hbomberguy
• Folding Ideas
• Harvard Math
• MIT OpenCourseWare

• For comedy I love watching Drew Gooden and especially Kurtis Conner.
• DougDoug (Twitch Streamer) has an incredible creativity for stream ideas and his videos on the main channel are edited incredibly well to capture the essence of a stream in ~30 minutes.
• Techmoan is one of my favorite technology YouTubers. He has such a calming voice
• Another Tech YouTuber I really love is CRD - Cathode Ray Dude. He pretty much is the nerdiest nerd for the most incredible niches. Highly recommend
• To get some girls here: I enjoy the essays by Gabi Belle quite a lot, she makes video essays on pop culture with a high focus on music and Gordon Ramsay for some reason

Two video game ones:

• Noah Caldwell-Gervais
• Grim Beard

These are channels I follow or at least like enough to look up once in a while. They're a bit random. I apologize if any are repeats, but they're worth repeating (and I didn't read every reply):

Adam Savage's tested: https://youtube.com/@tested
bigclivedotcom: https://youtube.com/@bigclivedotcom
Intelligence Squared: https://youtube.com/@intelligence-squared
MIT Open CourseWare: https://youtube.com/@mitocw
Townsends: https://youtube.com/@townsends

Entertainment:
Cirque du Soleil: https://youtube.com/@cirquedusoleil

Very other:
SBSK: https://youtube.com/@specialbooksbyspecialkids
the channel features a man who goes around and interacts with/interviews disabled children and adults. I take this one in small doses. It is not long form in the traditional sense of a well researched and thoroughly laid out topic, but I find it very wholesome/heartbreaking at the same time.

Peter Dibble has some great documentaries on historical curiosities around the Pacific Northwest, and beyond.

Technology Connections does deep dives into topics of technology, specific devices and appliances, and generally is very entertaining and informative.

RedLetterMedia for film critiques, so bad it’s good reviews, and comedy.

Defunctland does documentaries around theme parks.

Tasting History with Max Miller is a very educational historical food dishes show. Not super long form.

Matt Baume does great “LGBTQ+ in TV, historically” type of content. And wrote a book about it which is great too.

Stand-up Maths does great math content. Yeah, it’s math, but it’s fun. Bonus is he also wrote a great book relating to his content about engineering and maths mistakes in real life on large scales.

LGR- retro computer tech

Techmoan- retro audio tech

Depends how long is long form for you, if you mean like multi hour videos I have less to give. But for like 25 to 40 minutes videos:

Practical engineering - educational videos about civil engineering.

Dr. Becky - space/astronomy news from an astrophysicist.

Plainly difficult - civil disaster documentaries

Joseph Anderson - gaming essays (multi hour)

Raycevick - gaming essays (around 30min)

The sphere hunter - game essays, mainly classic horror

Jay Foreman - British comedy.

LGR - retro tech deep dives, and tech oddware.

Joe Scott - Did you know, style investigations.

Plus some already mentioned. There is probably more, but keeping this shorter.

Fall of Civilizations

A podcast about the collapse of civilizations throughout history.

Why do civilizations collapse? What happens afterwards? And what did it feel like to watch it happen?

The original podcast episodes have been set to high-quality video of the area being discussed and whatever remains of the civilization are possible to capture on video.

The discussion of what we know about these dead civilizations and what happened to them is really fascinating.

I saw a lot of tech and science channel in the comments so to balance that out, here are some of my favourite crafting channels:

North of the border: creates a clay sculpture every week. Generally it is something nerdy or something cursed

Enchanterium: repaint dolls, often to popular characters. They also sew their own outfits. A lot of fun even if you're not interested in dolls

Nerdforge: create a lot of crazy projects, mostly related to nerdy stuff. (Last project was a 2m booknook)

Wicked makers: create decorations and animatronics for Halloween

Florian Gadsby: very talented potter with very relaxing voice and videos

Pottery to the people: pottery videos, often trying new experiments

Evan and Katelyn: videos on stuff that they build. Always a lot of fun (last video: how they built an ergonomic laptop)

TL Yarn Crafts: crochet videos

Kaypea Creations: making of art dolls (animals), either out of clay or fake fur.

Studson Studios: creates amazing sculptures out of mostly trash. Amazing channel, one of my favourites

Make strange things: makes strange things. Small channel but greatly appreciated

Boylei hobby time: creates dioramas

Lightning cosplay: creats amazing cosplays

Transcended furniture gallery: restores vintage furniture

Bonus: Half-Asleep Chris: videos with stop motion elements, mostly about cats and/or lego

Adding a few I haven't already seen:

• https://www.youtube.com/@NeverKnowsBest - very long form videos on video games
• https://www.youtube.com/c/SummoningSalt - documentaries on speedrunning in various games
• https://www.youtube.com/@Steve1989MRE - reviews of military rations, spanning from very old to very new
• https://www.youtube.com/@NotJustBikes - videos on urbanism from the perspective of The Netherlands
• https://www.youtube.com/@SkipIntroYT - videos about TV shows

Most of my favourites have been mentioned already, but I wanna add a really niche one:

OSW Review, old school wrestling video podcast. Some Irish blokes who watch old wrestling shows und discuss them in a mostly humorous, yet still informative manner.

I have a few to recommend:

• SEA and Astrum. Almost interchangeable calm and chill space documentary channels. If you're like me and get a spinny mind around bedtime, these are great, they hold my attention to keep my mind from racing and are calm enough to drift to sleep while listening.

• Bedtime Stories. Anything from urban legends to strange disappearances told in a campfire ghost story format accompanied by hand drawn illustrations. Sometimes wanders into hibbidy jibbidy but fun nonetheless. See also Wartime Stories for a similar format focusing on stories from/about the military.

• History For Granite. I read this guy as an armchair archaeologist who is interested primarily in the pyramids and megalithic structures of ancient Egypt almost as much as he is at sniping at Zahi Hawass. Possibly a bit of a crank, though his wild ideas tend to be things like "The pyramid was designed to remain open for worshippers to routinely enter" and he often focuses on the engineering of the structures and layout of the stones.

• Nexpo. Short for Nightmare Expo, purveyor of creepy stories.

• Captain KRB. Video essayist, fond of minecraft, retro media, and occasional odd stories like the Voynich manuscript or the Cicada 3301 mystery.

• Lemmino, started out as a top ten list channel, has pivoted to long form documentaries on a "when it's done" basis. Topics range from the history of the "Cool S" graffiti symbol to the Lost Colony of Roanoke.

• Ahoy. Churns out one, maybe two videos a year on the topic of video games, primarily video game weapons. Typical format will introduce a weapon, say, the M-16 combat rifle, discuss its real world invention and service history, then its depiction in video games and possibly other media. Peppered in are other more general video game topics; his video on Polybius is particularly good.

• This Old Tony. A dude named Tony whose got a hobby machine shop full of dad jokes in his garage.

• Clickspring. Australian dude who makes soul-achingly beautiful videos about clockmaking and machining. Go watch him build a clock out of raw brass and tell me your life hasn't changed.

• Tech Tangents. One of those guys who will hold an 8-bit ISA card in his hands with a look of utter rapture on his face, he repairs, restores and documents old computer and gaming equipment, and operates a capacitor wiki. He once reverse engineered an ISA adapter card to get a very early CD-ROM drive functioning...live on Twitch.

Coffeezilla for crypto exposes

No wonder I feel like such an outsider here. I've been on youtube for almost two decades and there's not a single channel I follow mentioned here in this thread.

EDIT: Well there was one match: Primitive Technology

I don't know why I get suggestions for flat earth and anti-evolution videos but I like watching them because I learn a lot. My guess is that because of my interest in comedy videos I discovered "Patti Reviews Exotic Animals". From there I got" Clint's Reptiles". He is a a theist that accepts and explains evolution. I never doubted it but never took the time to learn what it was all about.

Then I get "Professor Dave Explains". He's fantastic. So many good science videos. So many videos where he puts an end to the dumbest ideas I've never even heard of. Do I need to learn how to argue with a creationist? No, but now I know how.

"Gutsick Gibbon" is awesome. Hers are on the larger side so I haven't seen them all but she's got great science education.

The last one I'll mention is "Lindsay Nikole" because she's my second favorite. If you want to know about the history of life on Earth then she's the best. Why isn't she my first favorite? It's because I don't have a favorite and I want her name to stick in you mind when you go to search youtube for things to watch. You'll notice she has guitars on her wall and I someday I hope to get her on a music project. I write songs about bugs and need her to get on at least one of them in some way. That would be cool as fuck.

I haven't seen it mentioned but I enjoy channels like Solo Solo Travel - slow-TV style videos about public transportation. What food can you get on a first class flight from Tokyo to Australia? All the videos have zero commentary unless you turn on the subtitles.

I enjoy them a lot because they're very relaxing and make me feel very cozy.

For long form,

Bobby Broccoli, ~1hr videos on science scandals https://youtube.com/@bobbybroccoli

Defunctland, 30m to 1h45m videos on defunct theme parks and rides https://youtube.com/@defunctland

Your dinosaurs are wrong, 15m to 1h45m videos on comparing toy dinosaurs to the most up to date research https://youtube.com/@yourdinosaursarewrong

2nd on Drachinifel, 7m to 1h45m videos on naval History https://youtube.com/@drachinifel

Perun, 1h videos on defense economics https://youtube.com/@perunau

Diplo Strats, 2h to 6h videos on diplomacy the board game, like risk on massive steroids https://youtube.com/@diplostrats

Vice grip garage.

Abstract - break down of disasters and crimes with excellent narration and very interesting topics

Rare Earth - highlights uncommon locations (speaking as a Westerner) and the often horrific histories that framed their civilization/cities/people

Micerah Tewers - super talented maker that sews copies of red carpet looks and other fun custumes with some home decor. Not instructional at all, just fast paced and entertainingly wholesome

Ask a Mortician - really fascinating deep dives into what happened to the bodies of famous people, or people who died in extreme circumstances. She has recently highlighted a few infamous shipwrecks...which brings me to

Oceanliner designs and Part Time Explorer - both nautical history buffs that articulate the grandeur and sometimes horror of ship travel

Miniminuteman - archeology videos featuring a lot of lesser known sites that are fascinating. Articulate dismantling of psuedo-archeology bullshit and refreshingly modern understanding of science communication

LadyKnightthebrave - discussing the emotions that film and tv can make you feel. Honestly just cathartic if she talks about a movie you feel strongly about, like the articulate friend you wish you had to decompress with after an emotional movie

Contrapoints - incredible everything from set design to arguments. Long form, in depth explanations about a lot of topics some people would consider taboo, or that people are close minded about.

Atun Shei Films - known primarily for Check Mate Lincolnites which is a comedic sketch that dismantles lost cause myths from the civil war. Lots of interesting historical and film stuff.

Lindybeige - every video feels like an eccentric history professor's impassioned tangent on a subject he deeply cares about, so it entirely derails the original subject of the lecture.

There are two YouTubers who make videos 4+ hours long that you have to watch every minute of:

Jenny Nicholson

HBomberGuy

I'm hooked on Corridor Crew. They review and explain good and bad cgi/vfx in shows and movies.

I watch a few different channels regularly. Here are a few of my favorites

Cecilia Blomdahl lives in the Arctic Circle/northern Norway and has lots of adventures and videos her day to day life in a really interesting way.

Also some Brits who have been renovating abandoned chateaus in France called Escape the Dream and a new one called Mucky Mansion are great escapism

Brain Pilot makes some good videos recapping a few shows i enjoy

I have a few classic youtubers I still watch from back in the day Safiya Nygard and Grace Helbig, for some beauty/crazy fashion/cooking stuff

If you want a sane political/comedy channel, Trae Crowder, the Liberal Redneck is fantastic. In that same vein, Some More News does fantastic deep dives in lots of political and social issues focused mostly on the US

Living big in a tiny house is really interesting seeing cool tiny homes around the world

Takis shelter is a channel from an amazing man who runs a sanctuary for animals in Crete and is a literal saint

Hakim, Mental Outlaw, Second Though , Alice Capelle, The Hated One

For history, I really like Premodernist. It's just a history professor telling you history. It's great because he's a good storyteller and he actually knows the subject.

Angela Collier for commentary on physics. She has a lot of good commentary on the field itself (see her recent Feynman video), but also good science videos... that I usually lose track of about 3/4 of the way through, but I enjoy nonetheless.

I enjoy efap which is probably the longest form, especially Mauler, the others are generally better in a mixed crowd. It's movies and Internet drama for the most part.

My #1 go to is probably Cathode Ray Dude. He makes videos mostly on old tech which is what I'm very interested in.

If you're more looking for exposing scandals there's always Coffeezilla/Voidzill.