Ask Lemmy

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.

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

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

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.

Coffeezilla for crypto exposes

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 booked who watch old wrestling shows und discuss them in a mostly humorous, yet still informative manner.

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

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

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.

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

Jenny Nicholson

HBomberGuy

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.

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

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.

I only really subscribe to two channels that focus on 20-30 minute videos and post on a pretty regular basis:

Technology Connections

Internet Comment Etiquette with Erik

Crime related:

• https://www.youtube.com/@thisisMONSTERS/
• https://www.youtube.com/@redtreestories/
• https://www.youtube.com/@TruRedCRIMEVAULT/
• https://www.youtube.com/@BeyondEvill/
• https://www.youtube.com/@TheVillains./
• https://www.youtube.com/@StrangerStories/
• https://www.youtube.com/@diretrip/videos

Disaster related:

• https://www.youtube.com/@FascinatingHorror/
• https://www.youtube.com/@PlainlyDifficult/
• https://www.youtube.com/@USCSB/
• https://www.youtube.com/@ScaryInteresting/
• https://www.youtube.com/@DarkRecordsDocs/

Weird medical stories: https://www.youtube.com/@chubbyemu

Interesting economic vids: https://www.youtube.com/coldfusion/

Business and economics: https://www.youtube.com/c/Wendoverproductions/

Geopolitics explainer vids: https://www.youtube.com/@CaspianReport/

Theme park history: https://www.youtube.com/@Defunctland/

Interesting historical themed vids: https://www.youtube.com/@YoreHistory/

• Cutting Edge Engineering
• Martijn Doolaard
• AvE (though I’m pretty sure he’s conservative)
• Primitive Technology
• Watcheyes
• Clickspring
• 3Blue1Brown
• The Signal Path
• Democracy Now
• Tech Ingredients
• Applied Science
• Cody’s Lab
• NileRed
• Fireship
• Mental Outlaw
• Behind the Bastards
• Two Minute Papers
• bigclivedotcom
• Hackaday
• The Amp Hour
• Andreas Spiess
• Tsoding
• Tsoding Daily
• No Boilerplate
• CinemaStix
• Pitching Ninja
• Jeff Geerling
• Strange Loop Conference
• Impure Pics
• Psionic Audio
• Computerphile
• The Amp Hour
• Abom79
• Tweag
• Serokell
• NixCon
• IOG Academy
• Mend It Mark
• Man Carrying Thing
• Vimjoyer
• HasanAbi

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.

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.

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

Red letter media

I love Star Trek, but don't want to watch the modern Alex kurtzman garbage, so they take the bullet for me.

I'm also not a movie guy, so watching their reviews/analysis while playing Minecraft is more entertaining than the movies they talk about.

Best of the worst is them watching B and direct to video movies that i wouldn't otherwise know about.

Folding Ideas is a favorite of mine.

who do you recommend I follow?

What I like may not be what you like at all. I mean, depends on your interests.

And I don't "follow" any of these, watch every thing when it comes out. These are just some YouTubers for whom I've had a high proportion of their material wind up being something that I feel is worth watching.

Montemayor

Does military history, mostly naval. Does not put out a lot of videos, but from the ones that I do follow, has really done his research through the written material out there before putting the material out, does a good job of highlighting what's important.

To a lesser degree, Drachinifel and The Operations Room. They're also military history, but I don't feel like they do as much research or highlight the important bits as well. Drachinifel focuses more on surface gun-era naval warfare, and The Operations Room tends to deal with newer stuff.

The Slow Mo Guys. Not exactly deep stuff, but they do one thing: high-quality interesting slow-motion footage. Pretty popular, so you may have heard of them before. I think it might be interesting to have some sort of analogous channel that does videos of microscope stuff, pans around something with a nice microscope.

SmarterEveryDay does, I think, a good job of explaining interesting things in our daily world from an engineering/technical standpoint; guy does a good job of researching his material. You'll probably walk away from this knowing this that you didn't.

CGPGrey does stick-figure illustrated things that also highlight interesting stuff, often relating to legal or political or historical stuff.

Perun does defense economics, and has had interesting and informed material on the Russo-Ukrainian War. Michael Kofman, an analyst who focuses on the Russian military, doesn't have a YouTube channel, but many YouTube channels do interview him, and while he's kind of dry, I also think that his material on Ukraine is pretty worthwhile -- he's consistently avoided alarmist stuff or cheerleading over the course of the war. Can find material with him via searching for his name.

One of the problems I have with YouTube is a side effect of the fact that it pays content creators. I don't have any real problem with that per se -- I mean, sure, you wanna do work and get paid, that's fine. The problem is that there's no real "YouTube of articles". The result is that a lot of content creators out there are putting stuff in video form that really doesn't need to be in video form, just because they want some reasonable way to monetize it. The above videos are from people who generally take advantage of the video format (well, Michael Kofman could really do just fine on a podcast and often does, but aside from that). I've seen too many YouTube videos -- including those being submitted on the Threadiverse -- that would really be better as text and possibly image articles.

EDIT: Oh, right. Someone else mentioned Primitive Technology, which I would definitely second. Has a guy go out in the woods with just his shorts and basically manufacture a lot of basic technology from the ground up. Does have subtitles, but no narration or speech. The practical use of what he does is probably limited, but I found it fascinating. I remember that this was very popular for a while on Reddit.

Vice grip garage.

I like Dime Store Adventures for history trivia and exploration, mostly USA focused.

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

I really enjoy Calum's work on obscure vehicles, shipping containers, and stuff like that: https://www.youtube.com/@CalumRaasay

Mustard has other fun vehicles, often with a focus on aircraft: https://www.youtube.com/@MustardChannel

David Hilowitz does fun stuff with musical instruments (finding them, sampling them, stuff like that): https://www.youtube.com/@DavidHilowitzMusic

I love wargaming miniatures and basically the only channel I watch on the subject is Eric's Hobby Workshop: https://www.youtube.com/@EricsHobbyWorkshop