I love long-form videos that tell information and stories. Documentaries about most any topics, especially ones that last an hour or more, are my bread and butter. But when I’m using YouTube on my TV, I can’t tell from thumbnails what the quality of a channel is. Sometimes I find gold, but other times it’s obvious they’re using an AI voice over or AI imagery and I immediately turn it off. I’m so tired of trudging through the slop, even though it’s just beginning.
So for now, I figure I’ll check with y’all - do you have any preferred/recommended channels that make the sort of video I’m looking for, that are still human-made? I’d love to hear about them.
I like:
Technology Connections. Alec is a refrigeration cycle enthusiast from the American Midwest in a tweed jacket who talks about gadgetry. He’ll change your understanding of dishwashers.
History For Granite. Join him to explore ancient Egypt. A no bullshit no ancient aliens channel focusing on old kingdom Egyptian monuments, particularly the pyramids of Giza and Dahshur. His hot takes include “The ascending passage of the Great Pyramid is built of lower quality limestone, possibly because the higher quality Tura limestone used for most passageways wasn’t available. As the passage ascends, you can see the work getting more consistent and gaining quality, as if the masons were gaining skill working with this inferior material.” And he casts solar eclipse quantities of shade at Zahi Hawass. It’s hilarious.
Cathode Ray Dude. A computer and video hardware enthusiast from the Pacific Northwest. He’ll find some electronics artifact and explore its quirks and features, including a whole series on weird old laptops.
Paul Fellows. Bri’ish astronomer type who delivers short-ish briefings on astronomical objects. “Once Around: The Large Magellanic Cloud.” I’m getting to where I prefer his content to SEA or Astrum.
TierZoo. Animal documentaries in the style of video game commentary. Animals are player characters in a massively multiplayer game called Outside. A typical video will be titled “Are snakes OP?” and he will rank various snakes on a tier list. “Next we have the rattlesnake. Rattlesnakes have spent evolution points on the rattle ability, a mid-level intimidation and area denial attack intended to evade encounters with carnivore mains.” The fact he’s been able to keep up this shtick so long is the most entertaining part.
Technology Connections is the bomb. It’s the kind of content that makes you more knowledgeable in a meaningful way by the time the video is over.
Don’t see “Half As Interesting” listed here. His stuff doesn’t usually go super deep, but I’ve learned a lot from him.
And just recently he was accused of using AI for a thumbnail and this was his response:
allegedly Scary Interesting uses no AI generated content
Love this channel, I discovered it last summer.
If you are interested in (astro)physics, here are two channels which i enjoy and can assure for their correctness on research topics:
Dr. Becky Astrophysicist talking about what’s happening in space from planets currently visible by nakedness eye to new impactfull research papers. She explains everything in an approachable way.
Angela Collier Theoretical physicist, makes long story telling videos about physics and societal topics surrounding research. Most videos are >50 minutes, some are more than three hours. However, they often stray from the original topic.
For some talk about philosophy, I can recommend Philosophy Tube. Most videos are somewhat short of an hour, but explain some philosophical topic in an approachable and interesting manner. Just don’t be detered by her extraordinary costumes for each session. I think she research the philosophical questions quite well.
Universe Today is fantastic space news
John Michael Godier has informative science based space and metaphysics, sci fi writer. Good stuff
PBS SpaceTime is wonderful
Fig Leaf wonderful history, love this woman and style
Dark5 Ancient Mysteries
North 02
+1 PBS SpaceTime!
pbs eons, there are bunch of channels related to this one, some people on reporting on paleontology/new discoveries, or bio, i like how some people in the comments try to accuse the channels of AI without actual evidence. almost all the influencers AI for thier thumbnails, which i find cringey.
i would be careful watch pbs terra though, because there seems to be some sort of misinformation(like the alleged experts are speaking from an misinformed point of view), like how they are trying to save american chestnut species being devestated by blight, but doesnt go into detail(omit) why they are using the chinese hybrid to prevent disease, which makes it not a natural species since it was the chinese one that spread the disease in the first place, same goes with the devil holes pupfish(claims they are saving the species but doesnt really say why its being hybridizing with another species). there is just something off about that channel that doesnt have with the other pbs channels.
LEMMiNO’s production quality on his mystery documentaries is brilliant.
Ahoy mainly focuses on aspects of video game history and video game weapon design. I love his voice.
3Blue1Brown for pure mathematics.
I’ve enjoyed DW Documentaries since I found them on a now defunct community TV channel back in the early 2000s. The format is the same now as it was then, so if they’ve worked in some AI slop, I haven’t noticed. Topics are varied - science, history, politics, the environment, how local traditions of varying places cope with change - as are the run times.
Some examples:
Zanzibar - Island Paradise in Flux
Father Unknown? Life as a Sperm Donor’s Child
Organic Farming as a Career Choice - Italy’s Young Farmers
Neutrios: Do They Reveal the Secrets of the Universe?
The Swiss Bar Fire Disaster - Life After the Nightmare
Toxic Colonialism: Secret Chemical Warfare in Algeria
Strong Women: The Fight for Self-Determination
Muscles - More Than Power and Pumping Iron
Final Days Full of Life - Hospice Stories
While not exactly what you are asking, check out Nebula as it has a lot of long form content that is not slop because they actively monitor it.
I’m on a Nebula guest pass this week someone generously gave me when I talked about having a hard time finding AI things.
It’s a very stark contrast scrolling through the 2 feeds next to each other!
Nebula has a more Fediverse feel. I don’t believe it has any kind of real recommendation algorithm, it just has a few suggested categories, like this is Women’s Month, so they highlight female creators. Less people contributing, but every video looks watchable even if it’s not something I have interest in. The main issue I’ve had is getting used to a more Netflix looking system to find videos, and just the fact since everything looks interesting, I haven’t actually watched much since it’s stuff I want to watch when I can actually pay attention instead of it just being moreso background noise. For the $60 a year or whatever it is, it is looking quite tempting.
Scrolling YouTube next to it feels much more like looking at Facebook. Clear algorithm based feed. Lots of mental junk food type recommendations. Real content looks the same as AI. I’m on premium and still have to hear the in-video ad reads. Much more variety (almost no electronic music production or synth type stuff I could find on Nebula, not much on animation, for example) but you have to wade through a lot of crud to find the good stuff.
More perfect union, according to Nicole, Zac rios
3 of my favorites in last few months.
Darknet diaries is the shit for podcasts. Also on YouTube.
I’m a big fan of the b1m.
https://youtu.be/EruSZNI4th4 <- tunnel under the Faroe islands & world’s only undersea roundabout
There’s a million great recommendations in this thread already so I don’t feel the need to add, but I wanted to chime in that the type of channel that would just use AI slides/“footage” today was always around but were just doing lazy work instead. Also a rule of thumb that seems to kinda work so far is if it’s also on Nebula then it’s usually pretty well made and researched.
Even if you can’t afford Nebula, I recommend browsing its explore section, because many of its high quality creators and videos are also on YouTube. The following are some of my favourite creators on YouTube.
30 minute animated documentary-style videos: LEMMiNO, melodysheep, fern, Hoog, neo, PolyMatter, Imperial, Cipher, Real Engineering, Mustard
Shorter explainer videos: Posy, Kurzgesagt, PBS Space Time, Sciencephile the AI, minutephysics, Steve Mould, Half as Interesting
Sad to see no love for one of the coolest dudes in Nebula, Grady from Practical Engineering.
If you like seeing how civil engineering projects happen, there’s no better channel. It reminds me of PBS shows I watched as a kid
I watch him on youtube, love his videos. Very straightforward and informative.
I love that he’s established enough in the niche that he gets access to film civil construction projects, too. Great stuff
I’d be a little wary with Kurzgesagt. Tldw their funding can be traced to Bill Gates’ many companies.
LEMMiNO is my favorite bi-annual creator.
Nexpo does some really good stuff too, but I think recently he’s just been doing like Reddit deep dives, and that is only so interesting.
It’s pretty funny that Sciencephile the AI can be recommended as a good non-AI source of info now that more capable AI is real and not just scifi.
There’s slop, slop, slop, information and slop. It hasn’t got much slop in it…
I don’t want ANY slop!
What do you mean, you don’t like slop?
PBS and Nova are good. Science Channel as well. Most vids are short but they put out some banger full length documentaries every so often.
History Time is also really good. The length of the vids can be hella long.
The History Channel has some cool stuff too.
For video games:
https://youtube.com/@neverknowsbest
Several hours-long dives into either a specific game, a series of games, or even the entire history of video games. His voice somehow locks you in. You won’t even feel the time go by and you will feel richer for the experience.
For interviews, Lex Fridman.
