Bill Wurtz's history of the entire world, i guess and its predecessor history of japan. They both blur the line of "documentary" a little, but are very good, and his music (beyond those videos) is also great.

Most any of Qxir's or Plainly Difficult's videos.

I could probably go on, but my nerd is showing maybe a little too much, and I watch way too much youtube.

Hbomberguy's entire channel is a goldmine. It's hard to pick just one so instead here's three, in decreasing order of silliness

• ROBLOX_OOF.mp3
• Pathologic is Genius, And Here's Why
• Vaccines and Autism: A Measured Response

All of them are about 2 hours long each

Aside from that, Cathode Ray Dude's recent The Unholy Saga of Phoenix Hyperspace is quite good, though it's a really computer nerd-y topic.

And finally, if we're allowing conference talks, literally anything Deviant Ollam has his name attached to tends to be really good, though he does tend to repeat stuff between his talks. Here is four that's different enough from each other:

• From the Pit to the Penthouse
• I'll Let Myself In
• Through the Eyes of a Thief
• This key is your key, this key is my key

Shoutout to Lemmino! I love his video about Jack the Ripper.

I created a playlist of the recommendations here and thought I might as well share: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9W-RMmS6ewK9p8OtJEKXtClpXEibXEIU

I also added this video on the Boeing 737 Max from MegaProjects, and a couple on a subject near and dear to my heart: Boy Bands of the 90s:

When Corden Met Barlow and The Boy Band Con.

Defunctland's Disney's Fastpass: A Complicated History is a fantastic dive into the logistics of managing a giant crowd over several years, from approaching it as an engineering problem all the way to exploiting the system for profit. It's such a fascinating problem to me, and it's presented in an engaging and fun way. The rest of the channel is fantastic too!

I'll also recommend Fascinating Horror - these aren't fictional horror stories, these are real disasters told in an incredibly detailed but highly respectful way. They don't just explain the disaster and why/how it happened, but also the regulations that came afterwards to make sure these would never happen again. They're all high quality, but if you want a starting point the Nutty Butty Caves will give you a good idea what the channel is about.

Not full documentaries, but Tom Scott on YouTube does great little 5-10 minute explainers.

https://youtube.com/@TomScottGo

Edit - added YouTube channel

Hey, I think this can be interesting to some of you

There is a Non-profit organisation based in Swiss, that aims to evaluate the quality of Youtube videos, and generates global recommendations from that: tournesol.app

Currently, there is about 25000 videos included (~50% are in French, ~40% in English, 10% other) at the top of English recommendations we can find Kurzgesagt, Science4All, ~~John Oliver~~ LastWeekTonight

If you like to give your opinion, please come by !

This works like that:

• Paste the link to two youtube videos, one on the left, the other on the right
• Move cursors from left (meaning you prefer the left video) to right (if you prefer the right one instead)
• Confirm to update the global recommendations

Pros: The recommendation algorithm used, 100% Open sourced and developed by universities, said to be mathematically safe against a number of risks (strategic voting, bots attacks...) and "more representative to public opinion than commonly used polling methods"

Cons: The current low number of users (recommendations are pretty biased towards living healthly and reducing carbon footprint, for the moment, not a lot of entertainment yet)

Note that I'm not affiliated not part of the associative, I'm only a user of Tournesol, comparing videos from time to time to improve global rankings

The Polybius documentary by Ahoy. https://youtu.be/_7X6Yeydgyg

Thanks for sharing these! I've only seen 1 and 5, so I've got something to watch this weekend!

Philosophical Analysis of Dark Souls - The Gemsbok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpf3KQBIoCY

I think it might be the best analysis video about a game anywhere on the internet.

Road Guy Rob talks about how highway engineering works in a fun, highly animated way:

Here's one about a bike lane disaster -- where the city screwed up and undid it after a week:

https://youtu.be/zeynqnirofE

Anything by CGPGrey but specifically Humans Need Not Apply

Disney Channel’s Theme: A History Mystery. A documentary by Defunctland about the previously unknown composer of the Disney Channel’s signature theme.

Jaws vs the Lyon 25 - The biggest stairset ever attempted by a skateboarder!

I keep watching this little short every once in a while: The Missile Knows Where It Is... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZe5J8SVCYQ

I really enjoyed this video by Freya Holmér talking about Splines. Awesome resource for game devs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvPPXbo87ds

Jacob Gellars work is all gold
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ntLc4hHWqHs

This classic: https://youtu.be/wKbU8B-QVZk

Every time I come across it I have to watch at least 10 times in a row.

If you can get past the weird framing device, the Plinkett reviews of the Star Wars prequels are an excellent deep dive into the issues with those films: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI&list=PL5919C8DE6F720A2D

Jenny Nicholson's videos are great, but her documentary on "The Last Bronycon" is special, as the realization dawns on you while watching that she has more connection to Brony culture than you might have guessed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fVOF2PiHnc

Anything from Oversimplified channel. History made funny and fun. I never learnt about the Aussie vs emu war growing up here. https://youtu.be/BXpu6tbFCsI

Jon Bois' documentary on Lonnie Smith. Probably one of the greatest documentaries of all time https://youtu.be/wTM_eN8AZeQ

Fighting in the Age of Loneliness: Supercut edition

Summoning Salt's The Quest to Beat Matt Turk. https://youtu.be/TBR9ypSOTGQ

It is one of Salt's greatest videos, and showcases some of the best editing and storytelling I've ever seen on YouTube. Probably the best part is that you can go in with no knowledge of the game, like I did, and come out fully understanding everything about the game.

Open Dialogue: an alternative Finnish approach to healing psychosis https://youtu.be/HDVhZHJagfQ

Psychiatry - An Industry of Death https://youtu.be/N0LsYY7WNP4

Scientist re-reads the Diamond Age after 25 years https://youtu.be/FmvLbhWSPuY

12 Best Episodes of The Outer Limits 1995 – Sci-fi at its best https://youtu.be/yzj_CvMEtjE

I'm a huge fan of "The Alt Right Playbook", which breaks down the dirty tactics the alt right uses to recruit people.

Also a huge fan of "In search of a flat Earth", which looks at conspiracy theories, how they evolve, why people believe in them, and why "the shape of the Earth might actually be the least relevant part of the flat Earth conspiracy".

The Mennonites - A trip back in time | DW
Documentary https://youtu.be/Pt_XU4W4DBA

It just fascinates me.

Agree with 1 and 3. I haven't seen the other ones, they seem interesting.
The only one I can think of right now, because I've seen it like 3 times, is The Internet's Own Boy.

Facts in Motion vids about flood basalt volcanoes and extinction events:

https://youtu.be/st_2C_Wrw4A

https://youtu.be/NrbdYcNTo7Y

I really wish he were still making videos.

Similarly, Nick Zentner's lecture on the Flood Basalts of the Pacific Northwest. I can't tell you how many times I've watched this exact lecture (although all of Zentner's stuff is great):

https://youtu.be/VQhjkemEyUo

Vsauce's Which Way Is Down. Of all his videos, this is the one I keep going back to:

https://youtu.be/Xc4xYacTu-E

This quaint documentary about the pigeon and dove species of Australia. I find it to be incredibly comforting.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXjmxyGLReA

Anything from Oversimplified channel. History made funny and fun. I never learnt about the Aussie vs emu war growing up here. https://youtu.be/BXpu6tbFCsI

Anything by Richard Feldman. I'm binging all of the talks he has given for a third time now

A time lapse of the history of the universe:

Very minimalistic, but I like the sound and visuals. Just try to tune in and enjoy an existential crisis at the end!

Voyager - Journey To The Stars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seXbrauRTY4

MGS4 was a mistake

I must have watched it like 10 times throughout the years lol

It's a cool bike review AND a sendup to Wes Anderson, Ural Motorcycle Review - Our Best Sidecar

Internet Story - Adam Butcher If you like mystery and weird early internet stuff

So this isn't on YouTube but the Ken Burns Vietnam War Series is absolutely phenomenal and hands down the best documentary I have ever seen, not even close. If you can find somewhere to watch it I recommend it endlessly.