What are your favorite educational or informative YouTube channels?
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Historia Civilis—excellent history videos. Primarily their story of the fall of the Roman Republic, which does a shockingly good job of making you feel emotions for a little coloured square with the channel's iconic simple animation style. Good if you're interested in the intricacies of the politics and culture of the time.
Extra History—shorter historical overviews of a much wider range of topics than the above. Quite transparent about their process with their "Lies" episodes at the end of each series, where they explain any errors that slipped through, as well as aspects they left out for the sake of keeping the story focused within the time they had.
ReligionForBreakfast—a scholarly, secular take on religion and religious practice. I think the first thing I saw was their series on American Civil Religion, which is the idea that Americans' attitude towards their country and its processes is similar to religion belief and practice.
UsefulCharts—history and religion, told through charts. The ones that interest me the most are the ones that touch on the creator's PhD in religious studies, such as about the historicity of various aspects of the bible, and on his actual thesis topic on the Psychology of Atheism.
And since you said "informative", I'll add some that I probably wouldn't have included solely under the "educational" category. Not Just Bikes, CityNerd, Radical Planning, Oh the Urbanity!, among others. Urbanist channels across a range of the political spectrum (from Oh the Urbanity which are relatively libertarian, to Radical Planning which is quite marxist). But all of them deal with the problems inherent to the way cities are designed especially in the anglosphere (and among that, especially in America) and how car-centric design creates miserable places while also being economically ruinous.
Religion for breakfast is so much better than I'd expected when I first saw his channel pop up
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Not sure about favourite, but:
Clint's Reptiles (zoology, not just reptiles) is nice! Not sure how I feel about the reaction content, but he does stuff like animals-as-pets reviews, animal phylogeny videos (evolutionary trees) and some other videos that might be more interesting/understandable to watch.
Cleo Abram (various science and tech stuff) is fun, though I mostly see/watch the shorts. Similar with NileRed (chemistry), but his videos can be pretty long, haha
There's also an official animated series of xkcd's "What If?"! The videos aren't long, but they're fun.
I've decided I don't like his pet review videos and these days I just skip them, but I'm a huge fan of Clint's phylogeny videos! And even though he's obviously a Mormon (he's never explicitly said it, but he's open about being a Christian, and he's based in Utah, so…), his videos debunking some of the worst of conservative Christian anti-science bullshit are great too.
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History Time - Pete Kelly
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wrote on last edited by [email protected]These two off the top of my head:
- 3Blue1Brown - Higher mathematics with nice animations.
- EEVblog - Various EE-related stuff.
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Ben Eater - Computer engineering.
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Crash Course is my fave along with their other channels like SciShow
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Engineer Guy
Bill Hammack clearly explains many inventions.
The backlog is fantastic! Great explanations and examples of manufacturing and design choices.
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Ordered randomly.
- RobWords — Lots of trivia about English as well as some other languages, some focusing on etymology, others on alphabet and so on..
- Tapakapa — Quick explainers, recently focusing on country flags (there should be a -logy word for flags knowledge, I don't remember) EDIT: vexillology, as a few people pointed out
- Carefree Wandering — Philosophy; Religion: specifically Daoism and Confucianism; Media theory; Identity "technolgies", specifically the concept of "profilicity"
- Unsolicited Advice — Philosophy explainers; more approachable and less academic than the previous one, I guess
- Ben Eater — 8-bit CPU made on breadboard fame, hands on explainer of computer architecture, networking, electronics and so on
- Patrick Boyle — On finance, mostly for entertainment purposes
- LegalEagle — In-depth analysis and discussion on American law and reporting on recent prominent legal cases
- TechAltar — "Analytical videos about tech companies"
- rewboss — A Brit living in Germany, with some videos on recent events, local history, cultural tidbits from a personal perspective
- PolyMatter — In depth analysis of almost random, yet important matters
- Computerphile — Like Numberphile, but with computer scientists instead
- Artem Kirsanov — Computational neuroscience explainers
- LowSpecGamer — History of (home) computing with focus on gaming; I am most impressed with the story/lore of 6502, 8080, Z80, ARM CPUs, how they came about etc.
- NativLang — Linguistics, going quite in-depth, yet remaining approachable for the rest of us
- Reducible — Computer science explainers with high quality animation, reminiscent of 3blue1brown
- Faultline — "Telling human stories through geography"
- Explaining Computers — Operating systems and computer hardware, SBCs review, explainers
- The Present Past — History
- Lawarch — Deep-dives in politics, history etc.
- fern — "Armchair documentaries, almost weekly"
- Acharya Prashant — Spirituality
(there should be a -logy word for flags knowledge, I don't remember)
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Ordered randomly.
- RobWords — Lots of trivia about English as well as some other languages, some focusing on etymology, others on alphabet and so on..
- Tapakapa — Quick explainers, recently focusing on country flags (there should be a -logy word for flags knowledge, I don't remember) EDIT: vexillology, as a few people pointed out
- Carefree Wandering — Philosophy; Religion: specifically Daoism and Confucianism; Media theory; Identity "technolgies", specifically the concept of "profilicity"
- Unsolicited Advice — Philosophy explainers; more approachable and less academic than the previous one, I guess
- Ben Eater — 8-bit CPU made on breadboard fame, hands on explainer of computer architecture, networking, electronics and so on
- Patrick Boyle — On finance, mostly for entertainment purposes
- LegalEagle — In-depth analysis and discussion on American law and reporting on recent prominent legal cases
- TechAltar — "Analytical videos about tech companies"
- rewboss — A Brit living in Germany, with some videos on recent events, local history, cultural tidbits from a personal perspective
- PolyMatter — In depth analysis of almost random, yet important matters
- Computerphile — Like Numberphile, but with computer scientists instead
- Artem Kirsanov — Computational neuroscience explainers
- LowSpecGamer — History of (home) computing with focus on gaming; I am most impressed with the story/lore of 6502, 8080, Z80, ARM CPUs, how they came about etc.
- NativLang — Linguistics, going quite in-depth, yet remaining approachable for the rest of us
- Reducible — Computer science explainers with high quality animation, reminiscent of 3blue1brown
- Faultline — "Telling human stories through geography"
- Explaining Computers — Operating systems and computer hardware, SBCs review, explainers
- The Present Past — History
- Lawarch — Deep-dives in politics, history etc.
- fern — "Armchair documentaries, almost weekly"
- Acharya Prashant — Spirituality
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Going alphabetically and leaving out ones that I think are a bit too niche.
12tone: Videos about music theory and song analysis https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTUtqcDkzw7bisadh6AOx5w
Atomic Shrimp: Very broad channel with topics as diverse as nature, cookery and scam avoidance. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSl5Uxu2LyaoAoMMGp6oTJA
CGPGrey: Gone downhill in recent years but his old stuff is still there. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2C_jShtL725hvbm1arSV9w
Design Theory: Recently discovered this channel, videos about product design. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdgUN8rX3SEb9L7FDub3I6A
Dr Geoff Lindsey: Linguistics videos focusing on the English language. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtFuCBKQTItHCwfHRP9LIjQ
Driver61: Videos on the technical aspects of motor racing; I'm not a huge motor racing fan but I find it interesting. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtbLA0YM6EpwUQhFUyPQU9Q
Geoff Marshall: Videos on UK railways and public transport, OK a bit niche but I like Geoff and his enthusiasm. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCd18OhMfRmjMjzSHP7Zrzmw
Jay Foreman: Comedy education videos on a variety of topics, largely UK-centric but not always. Uploads rarely but it's always worth the wait. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbbQalJ4OaC0oQ0AqRaOJ9g
Kurzgesagt: I think needs no introduction. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsXVk37bltHxD1rDPwtNM8Q
Langfocus: Linguistics videos. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNhX3WQEkraW3VHPyup8jkQ
Numberphile: Videos on mathematics that I think strikes the right balance of being accessible without dumbing down. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoxcjq-8xIDTYp3uz647V5A
Simon Roper: Mostly videos on the history of the English language. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChnRk6mxWsSOGElm8phdSxw
Tasting History with Max Miller: History told through recreating historic dishes. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsaGKqPZnGp_7N80hcHySGQ
The Aesthetic City: Ideas and opinions on archetecture and city planning. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX4ppwcUldlxpuiRGoT1INQ
The Tim Traveller: Quirky travel videos about interesting places around Europe, quite nerdy, off-the-beaten-path type stuff. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2LVhJH_9cT2XKp0VAfsKOQ
Tom Scott: One of my most enduring favourite YouTubers, no longer active but there's plenty there. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBa659QWEk1AI4Tg--mrJ2A
Veritasium: Very good long-form science videos. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHnyfMqiRRG1u-2MsSQLbXA
Wendover Productions (and sister channel Half as Interesting): I guess mainly videos about infrastructure and logistics and stuff. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9RM-iSvTu1uPJb8X5yp3EQ
Geoff Lindsay is great
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Religion for breakfast is so much better than I'd expected when I first saw his channel pop up
Yeah, I'm always rather sceptical and have my guard way up when I come across a creator talking about religion. If it hadn't been for the greater trust I automatically have in a creator being added to Nebula (which is where I first came across this channel), I don't know if I would have started watching it. But I certainly don't regret it.
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Folding ideas is pretty cool
https://youtube.com/@foldingideas -
I’m a big fan of Practical Engineering — https://youtube.com/@practicalengineeringchannel
I'm Grady, and you just read this in my voice.
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sage the bad naturalist
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I have many faves, but for this list I offer Science Fiction With Damien Walter and Merlin.
Damien is an English writer living in Bali and talking to himself and us about scifi writers and philosophies. He has.....a delivery style.
Merlin is relatively new; a mesmerizing voice and afro discussing literature and philosophy.
https://youtube.com/@damienwalter
https://youtube.com/@merlinmeek
SEIDS is awesome if you're a Logic Pro user. She knows ALL the tips and tricks
Tale Foundry is great commentary on literature and culture given by a robot with a very milquetoast delivery
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PBS Space Time
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Renaissance Periodization - working out, dieting, bodybuilding and steroids.
Dr Mike Isratel is a Dr of exercise science and doesnt chat shit. They make their money pretty transparently, and give honest to god research backed information. Lots of information that can be extracted from Beginners to Advanced and he loves a good dick joke enough for all of his content to feel fun.
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If you're into an academic study of the occult or comparative religion, I like Esoterica by Doctor Justin Sledge (he's the guy from the tumblr alchemy meme about making a Paracellcian era anti-depressant)
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Crash Course! They have series on history, politics, games, psychology, philosophy, folk tales, and almost every host is very good.
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I’m a big fan of Practical Engineering — https://youtube.com/@practicalengineeringchannel
I second this. His teaching style is perfect.
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FYI, if you love long-format videos, be sure to share on c/mealtimevideos
