Since we have a youtube all star thread for singular videos I thought we might start one for the best youtube channels we follow. Certainly have found some wildy entertaining or informative channels from various threads. Steve Stine, I haven't even picked my guitar back up but this guy's lessons are awesome and super detailed. Scott Rhea Project, field to fork game cooking. He mostly does British dishes but they are good and his butchery lessons are fantastic. Redletter Media, the gold is all in the Plinket movie reviews. The Science Guy is good too, their regular reviews are just average. Focus: Favorite Youtube channels. Nettdata edit: Changed thread topic to be, well, on topic.
I've found that as I get older, I want to learn how to do things more than just be entertained, so most of my YouTube subscriptions are around people who actually make/build stuff. In no particular order, here are my top subscriptions, along with what I consider to be a representative video from them. The Wood Whisperer: Great woodworking content. The guy moved from being a Chemist to setting up as a very serious online woodworking instructor. Dude has some serious gear in his shop, and is pretty open about being sponsored by some manufacturers, but doesn't sell out. He runs a private guild website and sells memberships and plans, but the guy uses YouTube as a great marketing gig. He set up his shop(s) specifically for excellent video production (lighting, etc), and he's quite knowledgeable. Every Friday he has a live episode where he does a big Q&A (which is quite interesting), and other videos come about once every couple of weeks or so at best. The Samurai Carpenter: Another woodworking channel, but this guy is more of a contractor that has a love/obsession for chisels and Japanese joinery. He's based on Vancouver Island, and does some amazing one-off projects. He also has a very cool tool vest that I'm looking at making for myself. Here's a montage he did a couple weeks ago. I found that once I found the channel I binge-watched every video he had. Talented, passionate dude with some interesting things to learn. Tips From A Shipwright: This guy is addicting as hell. He builds a boat from the raw planks, and is one of the most interesting teachers I've ever seen online or in real life. Once again, when I found the channel, I binge-watched every video... he shares some amazing tips and tricks that he's spent a lifetime learning. SV Seeker: The guy is an older IT pro (Oracle DBA) who is building a big fucking boat in his front yard... he calls it "the boat the internet built". Some very, very interesting common-sense DIY for some very complicated stuff... from building his own ROV submersible, to casting his own parts, to bigger-scale fabrication, to CNC milling and routing... fun to watch things come along. Really fun to see him shit on so-called "internet experts". I really relate to the guy.
Continuing on thanks to Spoiler Alec Steele: He's a young, driven, very energetic blacksmith who puts out some incredibly well-produced content EVERY DAY. Seriously. It's to the point that he's hired a full-time editor that works with him now. He's done a great job of marketing himself and has just moved into a nice, new shop, and is expanding his operation. It's kind of fun seeing this "kid" grow and expand due to his hard work and love for what he does. Very inspirational, to say the least... and he makes me want to buy a power hammer. Here, for example, is the video that he released today, just a few minutes ago:
In addition to The Wood Whisperer, The Samurai Carpenter, and Tips from a Shipwright listed above, I'm also subscribed to: Primitive Technology Cody's Lab ESL CounterStrike The Katering Show SovietWomble History Buffs
And some more... SpaceX: You know them, and I quite enjoy their live launch broadcasts. Like the one from today: Smarter Every Day: Very common, and odds are you've heard about it. Not too regular with the content, but I love his curiosity and the way he tackles questions. And he's got some really fucking cool super-slow-motion cameras that are like $200k each. Marques Brownlee: Also has millions of subscribers, and for a good reason. If you're into gadgets, he does a great job of reviewing and discussing them. Everything from phones to the latest Tesla, and he does it with a fantastic production quality. Welding Tips and Tricks: Jody, the host, is an insanely talented and humble welder. He set up and ran the welding program at Boeing for years, so the guy has some serious chops. He's got some of the best welding camerawork I've seen online, and really does a great job of explaining and teaching welding. He covers everything from basic stuff to insanely technical and complicated stuff. This Old Tony: This guy is basically a DIY machinist with amazing video production chops. His "homebrew" machine shop he's turned his garage into would put a lot of professional shops to shame. Watching him buy and then rebuild machines, or just build machines from scratch, is mesmerizing. He does a great job of educating the lay-machinist on milling and other stuff. Very, very entertaining, and makes you really wonder how this guy is this good as a hobby.
TubalCain: The guy is basically the Shop Teacher for the internet... he's got hundreds of instructional videos about how to do machining (lathes, mills, etc). Jimmy DiResta: Probably the original online famous Maker. I really love his quick and to the point style of video production where he whips through projects in 5-10 minutes without (usually) long, drawn-out explanations. Very creative guy and someone you can learn a ton of technique/tricks from, just by watching. IMSA Official: The main channel for United Sports Car (the amalgamation of Grand Am and American Le Mans series). They put up full, commercial-free races a couple of days after the event, and are a great way to watch some seriously good road racing from North America:
This is a channel I watch while having a drink or two, as it's pretty entertaining most of the time (if you garner entertainment by watching people fuck up)... Pure Living for Life: This is a smart but naive and inexperienced couple in Oregon(?) that is building their own house... from raw wood lot to house. They saw their own wood, bought a back ho, did their own concrete, etc. It's entertaining to watch because they have next to no experience building anything but are trying to build the house of their dreams by reading the manual and running Google searches and figuring out stuff as they go... without any real experience doing what they're trying to do... so that means that a running theme of their videos is... "well, this is what we did yesterday, and we were idiots." The comment section that is heavily populated by professional builders is fucking GOLD. Case in point, today's video:
I cannot echo primitive technology enough. No opinion. No banter. Just a perfect how-to on how to be the lord of the apocalypse. I feel like I honestly should pay to watch it, because it's like a magician showing how to do his greatest tricks.
What can I say? I'm fat and I like to cook so this is one of the channels I check out for ideas. There are many of these but I've tried some of this guy's recipes (pork belly burnt ends, soooooo good!!) and they've worked pretty well.
Toy Freaks: A weird-looking family with receding hairlines (yes, including the kids) makes fetish videos with their children, for other children. 600M views/video can't be wrong! Justin Bieber VEVO: Official videos from one of the great musical geniuses of all time. Foureyes Woodworking and Design: Do you like woodworking? Are you a professional hipster? Imagine if your favorite woodworking channel were painstakingly produced and edited by all the experts at NPR. You haven't lived until you've seen slow motion sanding with tiny bits of sandpaper rubbed achingly in 60-fps slow-mo along the grain of the wood, all set to acoustic music that would make Elliott Smith weep with its beauty. A heartbreaking work of staggering genius. Practically pornographic (well, for the high-IQ set - if you can't appreciate it you must not be a member). Not pretentious in the least. The Sidemen: There are six of them. They are British. They fuck around and play video games and then they record it and post it on the Internet. This makes them so interesting they not just need your attention, they deserve it. If you can't name them all off the top of your head, you're likely to lose the YouTube trivia challenge video you're about to make. h3h3 Productions: What can be said about the Hollywood-good-looks couple that just saved the entire Internet from copyright law? You basically owe them your freedom. Act like it.
YOU CAN'T JUDGE MY TASTE! ART IS COMPLETELY SUBJECTIVE! ~ ~ ~ I can't decide if Nett is what you'd get if you tripled the average Trump voter's IQ or if you crossed John Houseman with one of the guys from Duck Dynasty.
Gordon Ramsay's channel used to be great, but then it looks like they hired the epileptic director of the Bourne movies and it's nearly unwatchable with the absurd zooms and cuts. Compare: Three years ago Seven months ago
This past year I tried in vain to find truly authentic german bratwurst/sausage recipes. Mostly the language barrier searching with google translate frustrated things. I came across this guy, who has the look and sound of what I expect to be insanely good german dishes. Im getting the itch to find one of those industrial meat emulsifiers to try this out. He's also big into using venison. Eckkehard the German Butcher
A lot of the good ones have been mentioned. In the past 6 months or so I've found myself watching more youtube though and less tv. Once you get your subscriptions right, it's really cool and insanely easy to get ton of unique content available whenever. First We Feast is just awesome. Journalism combined with food, specifically hot sauce. And the questions get more probing the hotter the sauce gets (and thus the more likely they are to answer). I love hot sauce, journalists who do their research, and good food and people who love to discuss it. Enjoy. The Sea Lad. My family has a history in the Navy and I grew up on sailboats. Thus, I love videos of boats doing cool and sometimes disastrous shit. My dream is to one day row across the Atlantic solo. The Backyard Scientist. I like watching this guy do cool shit. Fail Army. I like laughing at people who do stupid shit. People Are Awesome. I like watching people who do insane shit. Salt Strong. I also like fishing.