My Favorite YouTube Channels

When I was a kid, my parents never wanted to buy or rent movies. They just didn’t think it was worth it, I guess. I also have ADHD, which means getting to TV shows on time was hard, and I’d often miss new episodes of my favorite shows. But when I was around 9 (which is probably too young), I found YouTube. It fixed both of those problems: it was free, and it worked on my schedule, I never missed anything because it was always there when I was ready for it. Because of these two things, I ended up watching a lot of YouTube, and it’s still my primary form of (video) entertainment.

The problem, though, is that as YouTube grew and became a real “business” with real money involved, the quality declined drastically. Then the algorithm shifted more and more, and like nearly every other large site on the internet today, it rewards things that get attention, regardless of quality. So this list is some channels that I think actually deserve your attention, and I’m going to focus on channels that you may not have heard of, because I assume anyone who's on this site knows about Hbomberguy or ContraPoints or SciShow.

The 8-Bit Guy

Vintage tech, mostly from the 80s, from someone who is clearly deeply passionate about it. So passionate, in fact, that he’s leading the development of a dream computer that’s a combination of all the best features in 80s computers.

Baseball Doesn’t Exist

A tour of all the weird shit that goes on in America’s pastime.

Big Joel

One of the most consistently great video essayists around. Always insightful, never pretentious, usually a little bit silly, especially on his second channel.

Books Are Sick

Just a guy being excited about books, sometimes with his wife.

Cathode Ray Dude

Long-form videos about incredibly obscure technology and the weird features companies have tried while figuring out what people actually want from their electronics.

Chris Spargo

I feel bad calling him just comparing him to Tom Scott, but truly, this guy is doing everything you loved about classic Tom Scott videos.

Colorless Wonderland

Another channel where a guy just talks passionately about books, this time with a bit more of a literary bend.

DankPods

Have you ever wondered what happened to those shitty MP3 players that were everywhere before smartphones came out? This Australian guy is blowing them up.

dante

Another book-focused channel, with a unique angle: Dante wasn’t a reader for most of his life, and just started reading for pleasure recently. He talks about books with a level of joy that’s absolutely infectious.

David Hilowitz Music

Making music out of weird, old, obscure gear, and sharing samples from them, with an incredibly calm and relaxing presentation style.

deep cuts

Music videos for people who love music, or want to start digging deeper.

duke of the bump

Pleasant, relaxed videos about old games. Currently doing a ranking of every Atari 2600 game!

elliotisacoolguy

Graphic design as comedy medium.

Eoin Reardon

A kind Irish man does traditional, manual woodworking projects.

f4mi

Weird technology documentaries and projects.

Foolish Baseball

16-bit video essays about baseball statistics.

Gaming Historian

High-quality, longform documentaries about video game history.

Garbaj

A bunch of short, insightful videos game design and development

halim alrah

Halim hasn’t uploaded in years, but he still has some of the best introductions to socialist theory on YouTube.

HGModernism

This might be my favorite channel on the list. Hendry's videos generally talk about interesting, weird, novel, and fun bits of science, but always feel incredibly comfy and inviting. It’s like sitting around with a friend, rambling about your latest Wikipedia rabbit holes.

James Channel

James is like if Wade from DankPods talked about old videogames, and was like, a little less chaotic.

jan Misali

Videos about language and linguistics, and some great tutorials about Toki Pona, a language I’m fascinated by but terrible at.

Jeffiot

Deep dives into weird and interesting things, whether it’s the SCP Wiki, fingerboarding, or that one gif of a 3D skull with a trumpet

Jen Bianca

Jen has basically retired from internet video, but she made some of the coziest weekly vlogs while she was doing it, talking about cooking, books, crafting, and whatever else she was up to.

Joe Van Cleave

Videos about typewriters, mostly, but also notebooks, film photography, and other forms of analog creativity.

josh (with parentheses)

Video essays about all kinds of stuff, but everyone should watch his video about how you (yes, you) are a better writer than AI.

Kofie

Video essays about sports from unique angles that I don’t think you need to be a sports fan to appreciate, talking about things like the devolution of NBA logos. A former employee of another channel on this list.

let’s talk about stuff

Another one of my favorite channels on this list, Sarah Zedig makes video essays mostly about movies and TV, and she's just so good at it. Her video about transitioning is one of the most important videos on YouTube to me.

LGR

You know LGR. He’s the ur-vintage tech and gaming YouTuber in my brain. His Computers Across the Decades and LGR Thrifts series are videos I rewatch all the time.

Macintosh Librarian

A retro tech YouTuber who focuses on my favorite subject: vintage Apple.

ModernGurlz

Video essays about fashion and pop culture from, for lack of a better term, a “girly girl” perspective, which is shockingly under-represented in my YouTube experience.

Ok so...

Video essays and documentaries about lost media and other obscure topics.

Patricia Taxxon

I don’t know how to explain Patricia Taxxon to you. You just have to experience her videos and listen to her music to understand how brilliant she is. Her second channel is also consistently great.

Posy

Vintage tech and stuff, but I especially like his focus on the design of old-schol displays.

Religion for Breakfast

Videos about the study of religion from an academic perspective, which is one of my favorite subjects.

Secret Base

Honestly? I only watch this video for the stuff by Jon Bois, who is one of the funniest and most interesting people on the internet. These are videos that are ostensibly about sports (the documentary about the history of the Seattle Mariners is particularly good), but are also about things like the guy who flew over LA in a lawn chair with balloons tied to it or the dumbest forum thread in the history of the internet. Just watch all of it. Here’s a playlist of all his videos.

seejanedrill

DIY home improvement tips from a woman who seems incredibly kind and knowledgable.

shitty kickflips

Watch a loud and chaotic trans woman in a school girl outfit scream about art and culture and copyright law and media literacy while her camera operator throws rocks at her. Legitimately one of the weirdest and most unique channels on YouTube, and I love it so much.

Sound Field

A music education show from PBS Digital Studios.

Sounds Good

More music education! This one focuses mostly on electronic music.

Stephen D. Morrison

Really great videos about Christian theology from a progressive perspective.

Summoning Salt

Documentaries about speedrunning history.

Techmoan

A relaxed tour of all kinds of technology.

Technology Connections

Videos about technology that I often would’ve never even thought about if he hadn’t made a video about it.

Thinking Football

American football is an incredibly complex game, and this channel is really good at breaking it down.

Trash Theory

Music documentaries with a focus on alt rock, post punk, and popular British music.

UnusualVideos

Every week, a collection of the weirdest and silliest videos that have gona around TikTok, Instagram Reels, etc.

urnotregistered

I’m obsessed with this guy. Just a dude making ukulele covers, regardless of genre. His cover of Tyler the Creator’s Dogtooth gets stuck in my head constantly.

Veronica Explains

Friendly videos about Linux and, occasionally, vintage tech.